- published: 27 May 2011
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The Blues Brothers (or, more formally, The Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live. Belushi and Aykroyd, respectively in character as lead vocalist "Joliet" Jake Blues and harmonica player/backing vocalist Elwood Blues, fronted the band, which was composed of well-known and respected musicians. The band made its debut as the musical guest on the April 22, 1978, episode of Saturday Night Live.
The band began to take on a life beyond the confines of the television screen, releasing an album, Briefcase Full of Blues, in 1978, and then having a Hollywood film, The Blues Brothers, created around its characters in 1980.
After the death of Belushi in 1982, the Blues Brothers have continued to perform with a rotation of guest singers and other band members. The band reformed in 1988 for a world tour and again in 1998 for a sequel to the film, Blues Brothers 2000. They make regular appearances at musical festivals worldwide.
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer.
Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.
Cab Calloway was born in a middle-class family in Rochester, New York, on Christmas Day in 1907. He lived there until moving to Baltimore, Maryland in 1918. His father, Cabell Calloway II, was a lawyer and his mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a teacher and church organist. When Cab was young, he enjoyed singing in church. His parents recognized their son's musical talent and he began private voice lessons in 1922. He continued to study music and voice throughout his formal schooling. Despite his parents' and vocal teachers' disapproval of jazz, Calloway began frequenting and eventually performing in many of Baltimore's jazz clubs, where he was mentored by drummer Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones.
I was born in Chicago in 1941
I was born in Chicago in 1941
Well, my father told me
"Son, you had better get a gun"
Well, my first friend went down when I was seventeen years old
Well, my first friend went down when I was seventeen years old
Well, there's one thing I can say 'bout that boy, he got bold
Well, my second friend went down when I was twenty-one years of age
Well, my second friend went down when I was twenty-one years of age
Well, there is one thing I can say about that boy, he got dead
Well, my rules are alright if there's someone left to play the game
Well, my rules are alright if there's someone left to play the game
All my friends are going and things just don't seem the same