Here are ten fun music facts for the week of June 22:
After graduating from college, Jimmy Buffett worked as a reporter for Billboard in Nashville and broke the news of the separation of Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt. I guess that was right before he started looking for that lost shaker of salt.
“Take Five,” the most famous song by The Dave Brubeck Quartet and one of the most recognizable jazz pieces ever, actually was written by saxophonist Paul Desmond, not Brubeck.
Norah Jones is Ravi Shankar’s daughter. I can’t get over that one.
BB King was given his first guitar by his cousin Bukka White, a famous blues guitarist.
Joan Armatrading is in the midst of an 18 month semi-retirement tour. That’s longer than some people’s careers.
Three guitarists played with The Yardbirds: Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Not a little pressure on the next guy.
John Coltrane’s first professional gig was in a “cocktail lounge”—a bar—with a piano and guitar. It was in 1945.
Mahalia Jackson grew up in a three-room house in New Orleans that was home to 13 people.
When he was six years old, string instrumentalist Ricky Scaggs performed on stage with the legendary Bill Monroe. The audience at a concert demanded that Scaggs be brought up.
The evolution of the name of The Wailers: The Teenagers, the Wailing Rudeboys, The Wailing Wailers and, finally, The Wailers. The original members of The Teenagers were Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith.
Here are last week’s Fun Facts.
Wikipedia was used to write this post. Harmonica player image: Helkathon
