Double Six

Double Six, double six, or double sixes may refer to:

Vybz Kartel

Adidja Azim Palmer (born 7 January 1976) better known as Vybz Kartel, is a Jamaican reggae dancehall recording artist and entrepreneur. Some of his singles include "Clarks", "Ramping Shop", "Dancehall Hero" and the Major Lazer collaboration "Pon De Floor".

Kartel was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams, an associate. He is not eligible for parole for 35 years.

Biography

Kartel started his career as a teenager in 1993 with his first recording "Love Fat Woman", released on Alvin Reid's label "One Heart", using the moniker "Adi Banton", an homage to Buju Banton. Palmer was later part of the three-member group "Vybez Kartel", keeping the slightly altered name after the group split up, and became a protege of Bounty Killer, for whom he claims to have written nearly 30 songs, including "Gal Clown".

Vybz Kartel rose to prominence in 2003 after a string of hits in Jamaica. The year culminated in a pre-planned on-stage clash with Ninjaman at the annual dancehall festival Sting in Kartel's hometown of Portmore. The clash turned violent when Kartel's crewmembers, as well as Kartel himself, threw punches and assaulted Ninjaman onstage. While Kartel's manager initially blamed Ninjaman for the fracas, Kartel himself quickly apologised to Ninjaman and Sting organizers for the fracas. Four days after the incident, the two artists appeared before the press to announce a settlement of their differences and to end any animosity.

Mimi Perrin

Jeannine "Mimi" Perrin (February 2, 1926 – November 16, 2010) was a French jazz pianist and singer, and translator.

Perrin received private musical instruction, including piano as a child and pursued English studies at Sorbonne. In 1949, she contracted tuberculosis and was treated at a sanatorium. She recovered and hit the French jazz scene in the cabarets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, coming to prominence in jazz clubs as a pianist in her own trio. She met her husband, an amateur guitar and bass player. Between 1956 and 1958, she was a member of Blossom Dearie's vocal group Blue Stars of France, but worked mostly in studios as a background singer to yé-yé singers and bands.

In 1959, she formed the vocal sextet Les Double Six, which included, among others, Louis and Monique Aldebert, Monique and Roger Guérin, Christiane Legrand, Ward Swingle, Eddy Louiss and Bernard Lubat. The band name alluded to the fact that the group used overdubbing in the studio to sing twelve-part songs. The group oriented itself to the vocalese of King Pleasure on one side, and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross on the other, and was quite successful in the early 1960s. Les Double Six completed several European tours and also traveled to North America, recording with Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ray Charles. Perrin was the leader and principal soloist in the group and established herself solo with John Coltrane's song "Naima" "as one of the great jazz singers." From her ensemble eventually emerged the Swingle Singers led by Ward Swingle after he left the Double Six. A later group, founded in 1966 by Perrin, did not achieve her previous success, and she abandoned music after another bout of tuberculosis.

Les Double Six

Les Double Six (also known as the Double Six of Paris) was a French vocal jazz group established in 1959 by Mimi Perrin. The group established an international reputation in the early 1960s. The name of the group was an allusion to the fact that the sextet used double-tracking techniques to enhance and 'fatten' the sound, very much like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys did in the recording studio. The membership of the group varied from recording to recording. The six members would all sing once to a recording track, then sing the exact duplicate performance again to a second track, "doubling" each individual vocal part.

Singing in French, they performed jazz standards, particularly themes by Quincy Jones and Dizzy Gillespie, adding the poetic or humorous lyrics written by the imaginative Perrin.

Inspired by several American groups, the singers vocalized in the manner of instruments, reconstructing brilliant improvisations of saxophone, trumpets or trombones.

The group was not long-lasting. Because of Perrin's health problems (she had contracted tuberculosis in 1949), Les Double Six dissolved in 1966. They recorded four albums between 1959 and 1964. Many members of the group went on to join the Swingle Singers, which notably reproduced the works of Bach in the jazz vocal style.