Exodus　

Once the kings of the Bay Area metal scene -- the birthplace of thrash -- Exodus were unceremoniously demoted from their post with the arrival of Los Angeles’ Metallica in 1982. And while they p ..more

Dexter Gordon　

Dexter Gordon had such a colorful and eventful life (with three separate comebacks) that his story would make a great Hollywood movie. The top tenor saxophonist to emerge during the bop era and ..more

Chevon　

Takeo Moriyama　

Lou Reed　

The career of Lou Reed defied capsule summarization. Like David Bowie (whom Reed directly inspired in many ways), he made over his image many times, mutating from theatrical glam rocker to st ..more

Yukihiro Takahashi　

John Scofield / Dave Holland　

Charles Mingus (Charlie Mingus)　

Irascible, demanding, bullying, and probably a genius, Charles Mingus cut himself a uniquely iconoclastic path through jazz in the middle of the 20th century, creating a legacy that became unive ..more

Vince Guaraldi　

Vince Guaraldi, the widely acclaimed jazz pianist best known for his cheerful, uplifting work with Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang, got his start in the music biz with a record entitled ..more

The Charlatans (UK)　

For many years, the Charlatans UK were perceived as the also-rans of Madchester, the group that didn’t capture the Zeitgeist like the Stone Roses, or that failed to match the mad genre-bending o ..more

Lucy (Buck-tick)　

KID FRESINO　

Keith Emerson　

Throughout his career with the Nice, Emerson, Lake ＆ Palmer, and as a solo artist, Keith Emerson has proven himself perhaps the greatest, most technically accomplished keyboardist in rock ..more

SUEDE　

Suede kick-started the Brit pop revolution of the ’90s, bringing English indie pop/rock music away from the swirling layers of shoegazing and dance-pop fusions of Madchester, and reinstating such c ..more

EXILE ATSUSHI　

Tangerine Dream　

Without doubt, the recordings of Tangerine Dream made the greatest impact on the widest variety of instrumental music during the 1980s and ’90s, ranging from the most atmospheric new age and space ..more

Stryper　

Heavy metal has been associated with ol’ Beelzebub ever since its inception, but a few acts took the opposite route and put their Christian beliefs in hard-rocking songs, such as Stryper. Formed in ..more

Nanase Aikawa　

Soft Cell　

Art students Marc Almond and Dave Ball formed Soft Cell, a synth pop duo famed for its uniquely sleazy electronic sound, in Leeds, England in 1980. Originally, vocalist Almond and synth pl ..more

Frankie Goes To Hollywood　

On the back of an enormous publicity campaign, Frankie Goes to Hollywood dominated British music in 1984. Frankie’s dance-pop borrowed heavily from the then-current Hi-NRG movement, adding ..more