Joe Bonamassa　

Guitar mastermind Joe Bonamassa, a young player with the childhood dream of playing music similar to legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix, was 22 when he inked a ..more

Jimmy Smith　

Jimmy Smith wasn’t the first organ player in jazz, but no one had a greater influence with the instrument than he did; Smith coaxed a rich, grooving tone from the Hammond B-3, and his sound and ..more

Jaco Pastorius　

Jaco Pastorius was a meteor who blazed on to the scene in the 1970s, only to flame out tragically in the 1980s. With a brilliantly fleet technique and fertile melodic imagination, Pastorius made ..more

John Lennon / Yoko Ono　

Joel Ross　

Joe Jackson　

In his 1999 memoir, A Cure for Gravity： A Musical Pilgrimage, Joe Jackson writes approvingly of George Gershwin as a musician who kept one foot in the popular and one in the classical rea ..more

Juliana Hatfield　

After Juliana Hatfield disbanded the jangle pop trio the Blake Babies in 1990, she launched a solo career, performing similarly melodic indie guitar pop. Singing in an endearingly thin voice, ..more

Jon Anderson　

Born John Roy Anderson on October 25, 1944, in Lancashire, England, Jon Anderson would grow up to become one of the most recognizable voices in progressive rock. He began his musical career by j ..more

Jesus And Mary Chain　

Like the Velvet Underground, their most obvious influence, the chart success of the Jesus and Mary Chain was virtually nonexistent, but their artistic impact was incalculable; quite simply, the ..more

Jazz Sabbath　

Joao Gilberto　

Without Gilberto, Bossa nova would not have been what it is like now. Combined with Antonio Carlos Jobim’s brilliant compositions, Gilberto’s original approach with softly whispering singing and Batid ..more

Jack Bruce　

Although some may be tempted to call multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer Jack Bruce a rock ＆ roll musician, blues and jazz were what this innovative musician really loved. As a result, ..more

The Jam　

The Jam were the most popular band to emerge from the initial wave of British punk rock in 1977; along with the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Buzzcocks, the Jam had the most impact ..more

Janis Joplin　

The greatest white female rock singer of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her own with her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First ris ..more

Jill Scott　

A mature R＆B vocalist who excelled most with slower, sensual material (Slowly, Surely, I’m Not Afraid, My Love) and was versatile enough to pack plenty of punch with anthems of pride an ..more

Jack Johnson　

Before Jack Johnson became the 21st century kingpin of beachside pop/rock, he was a champion surfer on the professional circuit. The sport was second nature to the Hawaiian native, who began chasin ..more

JADE　

Tonya Kelly grew up in Chicago listening to jazz vocalists such as Sarah Vaughan and Nat Cole. Joi Marshall is also from the Windy City, but her parents raised her on Motown, especia ..more

John Mellencamp　

Throughout his career, John Mellencamp has had to fight, whether it was for the right to record under his own name or for respect as an artist. Of course, he never made it easy on himself. Mellen ..more

Jan Garbarek　

Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek’s icy tone and liberal use of space and long tones has long been perfect for the ECM sound and, as a result, he is on many recordings for that label, both as a ..more

Jake Bugg　

Raised on a steady diet of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and the brothers Gallagher, English singer/songwriter Jake Bugg blends the melodious, working-class swagger of the La’ ..more