Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone (/ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist as a child. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied entry by the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of "I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.

Her musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic low tenor. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical. Her intuitive grasp on the audience-performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years.
After 20 years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone's music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the US.
Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. The sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at age three; the first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the instrument, she performed at her local church, but her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was twelve. Simone later claimed that during this performance her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. Simone said she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front, and that the incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.

Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a strict Methodist minister and a housemaid. Simone's father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who at one time owned a dry cleaning business, but who also suffered bouts of ill health. Mary Kate's employer, hearing of her daughter's talent, provided funds for piano lessons. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Simone's continued education. With the assistance of this scholarship money she attended high school.
After finishing high school, she had studied for an interview with the help of a private tutor to study piano further at the Curtis Institute, but she was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was related directly to her race. Simone then moved to New York City, where she studied at the Juilliard School of Music.
To fund her private lessons, Simone performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano. In 1954 she adopted the stage name Nina Simone. "Nina" (from niña, meaning 'little girl' in Spanish) was a nickname a boyfriend had given to her, and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the movie Casque d'or. Simone's mixture of jazz, blues, and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small, but loyal, fan base.

In 1958, she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker, but quickly regretted their marriage. After playing in small clubs, in 1958 she recorded a rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 40 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue soon followed on Bethlehem Records. Simone missed out on more than $1 million in royalties (mainly because of the successful re-release of My Baby Just Cares for Me during the 1980s) and never benefited financially from the album, because she had sold her rights to it for $3,000.
After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with Colpix Records, and recorded a string of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control to her, including the choice of material that would be recorded, in exchange for her signing the contract with them. At this point, Simone only performed pop music to make money to continue her classical music studies, and was indifferent about having a recording contract. She kept this attitude toward the record industry for most of her career.

Simone married a New York police detective, Andrew Stroud, in 1961; Stroud later became her manager.
In 1964, she changed record distributors, from the American Colpix to the Dutch Philips, which also meant a change in the contents of her recordings. Simone had always included songs in her repertoire that drew upon her African-American origins (such as "Brown Baby" and "Zungo" on Nina at the Village Gate in 1962). On her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone In Concert (live recording, 1964), however, Simone for the first time openly addressed the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States with the song "Mississippi Goddam", her response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four black children. The song was released as a single, and it was boycotted in certain southern states. "Old Jim Crow", on the same album, addressed the Jim Crow Laws.
From then on, a civil rights message was standard in Simone's recording repertoire, becoming a part of her live performances. Simone performed and spoke at many civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches. Simone advocated violent revolution during the civil rights period, rather than Martin Luther King's non-violent approach, and she hoped that African Americans could, by armed combat, form a separate state. Nevertheless, she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal.

She covered Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", a song about the lynching of black men in the South, on Pastel Blues (1965). She also sang the W. Cuney poem "Images" on Let It All Out (1966), about the absence of pride she saw among African-American women. Simone wrote "Four Women", a song about four different stereotypes of African-American women, and included the recording on her 1966 album Wild Is the Wind.
Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor during 1967. She sang "Backlash Blues", written by her friend Langston Hughes on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967), she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The album Nuff Said (1968) contains live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair, April 7, 1968, three days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. She dedicated the whole performance to him and sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor, directly after the news of King's death had reached them. In the summer of 1969 she performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park.

Together with Weldon Irvine, Simone turned the late Lorraine Hansberry's unfinished play To Be Young, Gifted, and Black into a civil rights song. Hansberry had been a personal friend whom Simone credited with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and renditions of the song have been recorded by Aretha Franklin (on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black) and by Donny Hathaway.
Simone left the United States in September 1970, flying to Barbados and expecting Stroud to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring, as an indication of a desire for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was in charge of Simone's income.
When Simone returned to the United States she learned that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for unpaid taxes (as a protest against her country's involvement with the Vietnam War), causing her to return to Barbados again to evade the authorities and prosecution. Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time and she had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow. A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, then persuaded her to go to Liberia. After that she lived in Switzerland and the Netherlands, before settling in France during 1992.

She recorded her last album for RCA Records, It Is Finished, during 1974. Simone did not make another record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the recording studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor. The result was the album Baltimore, which, while not a commercial success, did get good reviews and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output. Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later Simone recorded Fodder On My Wings on a French label. During the 1980s Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, where she recorded the album Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her audiences sometimes by recounting humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and by soliciting requests. In 1987, the original 1958 recording of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in the United Kingdom. This led to a re-release of the recording, which stormed to number 4 on the UK's NME singles chart, giving her a brief surge in popularity in the UK. Her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, was published in 1992. She recorded her last album, A Single Woman, in 1993.

In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She had suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône on April 21, 2003. (In addition, Simone received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the late 1980s.) Her funeral service was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti Labelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis, and hundreds of others. Elton John sent a floral tribute with the message "You were the greatest and I love you". Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She left behind a daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud, an actress and singer, who took the stage name Simone, and has appeared on Broadway in Aida.



Eunice Kathleen Waymon (Tryon, Estados Unidos, 21 de febrero de 1933 - Carry-le-Rouet, Francia, 21 de abril de 2003), conocida como Nina Simone, fue una cantante, compositora y pianista estadounidense de jazz, blues, rhythm and blues y soul. Se la conoce con el sobrenombre de «High Priestess of Soul».

Estilísticamente, la palabra que mejor caracteriza a Nina Simone es eclecticismo. Su voz, con rango propio de una alto,1 se caracterizaba por su pasión, su breathiness (voz jadeante, sofocada, sin aliento) y su trémolo.
La influencia de Duke Ellington es patente en toda la obra de Nina, pero muy especialmente en cierto tipo de composiciones rebosantes de improvisación y de cercanía espiritual. Nina logra la complicidad del oyente con un empleo intencional de los silencios y minimizando el acompañamiento. Cuando cantaba, efectuaba en ocasiones llamativas transiciones entre el susurro, el grito y el lamento, para intentar subrayar los estados de ánimo enunciados en las canciones.
Gran luchadora por los derechos civiles de las personas de ascendencia africana, lucha ésta expresada en muchas ocasiones a través de sus canciones, Simone dejó Estados Unidos en 1969, tras el asesinato de Martin Luther King, hastiada de la segregación racial contra los afroamericanos.
De personalidad complicada, llegaba a ser altanera y vulnerable, y fuertemente apasionada. En la industria musical tenía fama de temperamental, una caracterización que Simone se tomó muy en serio. Aunque su personalidad era arrogante y distante, en sus últimas décadas parecía disfrutar con el acercamiento a sus audiencias, contando anécdotas y cumpliendo peticiones.

Como otros cantantes afroamericanos, encontró en Marian Anderson una fuente de inspiración, y empezó cantando en su iglesia local, mostrando al mismo tiempo un gran talento con el piano, que empezó a tocar ya con cuatro años. Cuando debutó públicamente en un recital de piano a los diez años, sus padres, que se habían sentado en la primera fila, fueron obligados a moverse para que otros asistentes blancos ocuparan sus lugares. Este tipo de condiciones de vida la motivarían más adelante a involucrarse en el Movimiento por los Derechos Civiles.

A los diecisiete años, Simone se mudó a Filadelfia, en el estado de Pensilvania, donde dio clases de piano y acompañó a varios cantantes. Gracias al apoyo de varios patrocinadores, entre ellos su antiguo profesor de música, pudo estudiar piano en la prestigiosa Escuela de Música Juilliard en la ciudad de Nueva York, pero la falta de recursos le impidió alcanzar su sueño de convertirse en el primer pianista negro de concierto de los Estados Unidos. Más tarde se presentó a una prueba para estudiar piano en el Instituto Curtis, pero fue rechazada. Simone estaba convencida de que se la rechazó por ser negra. De Nueva York su familia se trasladó a Filadelfia, donde intentó conseguir una beca, pero fue rechazada también por el color de su piel.
Entonces, Simone se acercó al blues y al jazz, tras empezar a trabajar en un club nocturno de Atlantic City para ayudar económicamente a su familia.
El nombre artístico de Nina Simone lo adoptó en 1954 ; Nina (procedente en español de la palabra niña) era el alias que le había dado un novio y Simone lo tomó de la actriz francesa Simone Signoret a la que había visto en la película Casque d'or.
Se dio a conocer a un público más amplio gracias a su interpretación de la canción I Love You Porgy de George Gershwin, que se convertiría en su único éxito del Top 40 de Estados Unidos. Después vendría el sencillo My Baby Just Cares for Me (que sería un éxito en los 80 en Inglaterra al ser usado en un anuncio comercial del perfume Chanel No. 5).

Durante los 60, Simone estuvo involucrada en el Movimiento por los Derechos Civiles y grabó algunas canciones políticas, incluyendo To Be Young, Gifted and Black (interpretada después por Aretha Franklin y Donny Hathaway), Blacklash Blues, Mississippi Goddam (en respuesta al asesinato de Medgar Evers y al ataque terrorista a la iglesia de Birmingham, Alabama, en 1963, por parte de supremacistas blancos y que se saldó con la muerte de cuatro niñas negras), I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free y Pirate Jenny, de Kurt Weill, situada en un hotel del sur.
En 1961, Simone grabó una versión de la canción tradicional House of the Rising Sun, que también grabarían después Bob Dylan y The Animals. Otras canciones que la hicieron famosa fueron I Put a Spell on You, Here Comes the Sun de Los Beatles, Four Women, I shall be released, y Aint got no (I got life). La versatilidad de Nina como artista es evidente en toda su música, que frecuentemente tenía una simpleza equivalente a la trova. En un mismo concierto, iba de los temas tipo religioso (gospel) al blues y al jazz, de temas como For All We Know, números de estilo europeo clásico y figuras de contrapunto. En 1968 el tema Sinnerman de Simone apareció en la película de Norman Jewison The Thomas Crown Affair, lo que llevó su música a audiencias mayores. La nueva versión de la película rodada en 1999 con Pierce Brosnan y Rene Russo volvió a incluir a Simone. Otras películas han utilizado Sinnerman en su banda sonora, como Inland Empire de David Lynch y Cellular de David R. Ellis en 2004.

En septiembre de 1970, Simone abandonó Estados Unidos en dirección a Barbados, tras desacuerdos con agentes, compañías discográficas y con la Agencia de impuestos norteamericana (Internal Revenue Service), que ella atribuía al racismo de la sociedad estadounidense. Regresó en 1978, cuando era buscada por evasión de impuestos (se había negado a pagarlos durante varios años como protesta a la Guerra de Vietnam), por lo que volvió a Barbados, donde mantuvo una relación sentimental con el primer ministro Errol Barrow. En los 80 cantaba regularmente en el club de jazz Ronnie Scott de Londres. La cantante y amiga de Nina, Miriam Makeba, la convenció para ir a vivir a Liberia. Posteriormente residió en Suiza y Holanda antes de establecerse en Aix-en-Provence en el sur de Francia en el año 1992.
En 1992 apareció la autobiografía de Nina Simone titulada I Put a Spell on You (ISBN 0-306-80525-1). En 1995, Simone supuestamente le disparó al hijo de su vecino con una pistola de aire comprimido pues sus risas no la dejaban concentrarse.
Sus acompañantes habituales durante esta época fueron Lepoldo Fleming (percusión), Tony Jones (bajo), Paul Robinson (batería), Xavier Collados (teclado) y su director musical Al Schackman (guitarra).
Nina fue una de las estrellas de festivales como el Nice Jazz Festival de 1997 y el Thessalonica Jazz Festival en 1998.
En el Guinness Blues Festival en Dublín en 1999 su hija, Lisa Celeste, actuó como "Simone", cantando a dúo con su madre algunos temas.
Simone cantó con el cantante español Raphael y participó en dos obras de teatro de Disney, cantando los temas principales de Aida y Nala en El rey león.
El 24 de julio de 1998 Nina Simone fue la invitada especial en la fiesta del 80 cumpleaños de Nelson Mandela. El 7 de octubre de 1999 recibió un premio a sus logros artísticos de toda una vida en Dublín.
En 2000 recibió el título de Honorary Citizenship de Atlanta, el Diamond Award for Excellence in Music de la Association of African American Music de Filadelfia y el Honorable Musketeer Award de la Compagnie des Mousquetaires d'Armagnac de Francia.

En el 2009 incorporaron la canción "Pirate Jenny (Live)", para el soundtrack de la película Watchmen.
Murió mientras dormía en Carry-le-Rouet en 2003.

Gary Moore

Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 1952 – 6 February 2011), better known simply as Gary Moore, was an Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer.
In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey during his teens, leading him to memberships with the Irish bands Skid Row and Thin Lizzy on three separate occasions. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, George Harrison and Greg Lake, as well as having a successful solo career. He guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on "She's My Baby" from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.

Moore died of a heart attack in his hotel room while on holiday in Estepona, Spain, in February 2011.
Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight. He got his first quality guitar at the age of 14, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. He moved to Dublin in 1968 at the age of 16. His early musical influences were artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Shadows and The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would be the dominant form of his career in music.
Moore's greatest influence in the early days was guitarist Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who was a mentor to Moore when performing in Dublin. Green's continued influence on Moore was later repaid as a tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Green compositions. On this tribute album, Moore played Green's 1959 Les Paul Standard guitar which Green had lent to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. Moore ultimately purchased the guitar, at Green's request, so that "it would have a good home".

While less popular in the US, Moore's work "brought substantial acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world – especially in Europe". Throughout his career, Moore was recognised as an influence by many notable guitarists including Vivian Campbell, Patrick Rondat, John Norum, Paul Gilbert, Gus G, Slash, Orianthi, Joe Bonamassa, Adrian Smith, Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoads, John Sykes and Kirk Hammett
He collaborated with a broad range of artists including Phil Lynott, George Harrison, Trilok Gurtu, Dr. Strangely Strange, Colosseum II, Travelling Wilburys, Albert Collins, Jimmy Nail, Mo Foster, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Jim Capaldi, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Vicki Brown, Cozy Powell, Rod Argent, the Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Rodgers, Keith Emerson, Roger Daltrey, Albert King and together with Colosseum II with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the composer's Variations album in 1978. He experimented with many musical genres, including rock, jazz, blues, country, electric blues, hard rock and heavy metal.
In 1968, aged 16, Moore moved to Dublin to join the group Skid Row with Noel Bridgeman and Brendan "Brush" Shiels. It was with this group that he earned a reputation in the music industry, and his association with Phil Lynott began.

Moore released his first solo album in 1973, Grinding Stone (billed as "the Gary Moore Band"). 'Grinding Stone' was issued in North America on Neil Kempfer-Stocker's fledgling record label imprint Cosmos. It received 'Album of the Year' accolades on KTAC-FM/Seattle-Tacoma, Washington in 1974. In 1978 his solo career continued with help from Phil Lynott. The combination of Moore's blues-based guitar and Lynott's voice produced "Parisienne Walkways", which reached the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart in April 1979 and the Thin Lizzy album Black Rose: A Rock Legend which reached number two in the UK album chart. Moore appears in the videos for Waiting for an Alibi and Do Anything You Want To.
In 1987, he collaborated on the UK charity record "Let It Be", a cover of the Beatles track. He performed a guitar solo for inclusion on the recording, which was released under the group-name of 'Ferry Aid'. The record raised substantial funds for the survivors of the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.
In 1993, he was included on a cassette called Rock Classics Vol. 1 with "Run to Your Mama", and "Dark Side of the Moog".
After a series of rock records, Moore returned to blues music with Still Got the Blues, with contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The album was well received by fans. He stayed with the blues format until 1997, when he decided to experiment with modern dance beats on Dark Days in Paradise; this left many fans, as well as the music press, confused. He also contributed guitar sections to Richard Blackwood's 2000 album, You'll Love to Hate This.

With Back to the Blues, Moore return to his tried and tested blues format in 2001: he continued with this style on Power of the Blues (2004), Old New Ballads Blues (2006), Close As You Get (2007) and Bad For You Baby (2008).
In January 2005, Moore joined the One World Project, which recorded a song for the 2004 Asian Tsunami relief effort. The group featured Russell Watson, Boy George, Steve Winwood, Barry Gibb, Brian Wilson, Cliff Richard, Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Robin Gibb on vocals (in their order of appearance), and featured a guitar solo by Moore. The song, entitled "Grief Never Grows Old", was released in February 2005, reaching #4 on the UK Singles Chart.
In what has been described as "a brave and principled stand", Gary declared his support for the cultural boycott of Israel. At a press conference in Russia he announced that he would not visit the ‘criminal state’ of Israel ‘because of its racist policies against the Palestinian people’.[citation needed]
He also took part in a comedy skit entitled "The Easy Guitar Book Sketch" with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow musicians Mark Knopfler, Lemmy from Motorhead, Mark King from Level 42, and David Gilmour.

Gary Moore died of a suspected heart attack, at the age of 58 during the early hours of 6 February 2011. At the time, he was on holiday at the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, Spain, with his girlfriend, who raised the alarm at 4:00 am. His death was confirmed by Thin Lizzy's manager Adam Parsons.



Gary Moore (Belfast, Irlanda del Norte, Reino Unido, 4 de abril de 1952 – Estepona, Málaga, España, 6 de febrero de 2011) fue un guitarrista Norirlandés que empezó a mostrar sus dotes en la banda Thin Lizzy.
Comenzó tocando en una banda llamada The Boys, pero al poco tiempo, con dieciséis años de edad, se incorporó a Skid Row (no confundir con Skid Row, banda de heavy metal), acompañado por Brendan Shields (bajo), Noel Bridgeman (batería) y Phil Lynott (voz). Éste último abandonaría pronto la banda para formar Thin Lizzy, mientras Moore proseguía con Skid Row; dicho grupo entró en contacto con Peter Green, guitarrista de Fleetwood Mac, actuando como teloneros suyos en varios conciertos. El genial Green quedaría tan impresionado con su sonido que les consiguió un contrato con su propia discográfica, CBS. Por su parte, la duradera admiración de Moore por Green, que recorre toda su carrera, quedará plasmada en el álbum "Blues for Greeny" (1995), que reinterpreta once temas compuestos o interpretados por Green.

Antes de comenzar su carrera solista, aún pasaría un periodo de participación en diversas formaciones. Pero, tras abandonar Skid Row en 1972, graba "Grinding Stone" (1973) con la Gary Moore Band; este ha sido considerado como su primer disco solista. Casi sin transición, pasará a reemplazar a Eric Bell en Thin Lizzy, banda en la que formó un corto espacio de tiempo antes de pasar, en 1975, a Colosseum II, y a la que volvería de forma intermitente hasta 1979. fecha de grabación de "Black Rose". En medio de una gira por EE.UU., las diferencias con la banda de Lynott, su amigo, hacen que Moore abandone de nuevo la banda y forme G-Force. El tema Parisienne Walkways del disco "Back on the Streets" 1978 (segundo en solitario de Moore), llega a la lista top ten en Reino Unido.

Durante la década de 1980 vive una época más tranquila, pasándose al rock melódico, momento en el que consigue su mayor popularidad en Reino Unido con su LP "Victims of the future" (1983). También colabora con él Phil Lynott en "Out in the Fields". En el álbum "Wild Frontier", de 1986, pueden apreciarse ciertas influencias de la música celta. Y en "After the War" (1989) vuelve a sus raíces hard con colaboraciones de Ozzy Osbourne y con el difunto Cozy Powell en la batería.
El álbum "Still Got the Blues" le devolvió a las listas de éxitos en 1990 de la mano de temas como el que da título al disco. Dejando de lado el hard rock, se vuelve más intimista y da un pronunciado giro hacia el blues que, aunque descubierto tardíamente, parece causar una impresión importante y duradera en la carrera del guitarrista, en ese mismo año 1990 que junto con Albert King y Albert Collins dará una serie de conciertos. En 1992 aparece "After Hours", disco que sigue la línea del anterior y que cuenta con la colaboración de B.B. King y Albert Collins, grandes figuras del blues estadounidense. Este disco será la confirmación del giro musical de Moore y le dará un nombre entre los intérpretes de blues británicos.

La década de 1990 transcurre a la sombra de estas grabaciones iniciales y no aparece marcada por nuevos éxitos importantes excepto, tal vez, la aparición en 1997 de "Dark Days in Paradise", una exploración musical tan alejada del blues que venía practicando como del hard rock anterior. También resulta reseñable un nuevo intento de tocar dentro de una formación: BBM. En esta ocasión se unirá a Jack Bruce (bajo) y Ginger Baker (batería), base rítmica del mítico grupo Cream. La colaboración se tradujo en un disco, "Around the Next Dream" (1994), y una gira.
La década del 2000 arranca musicalmente con la publicación en 2001 de "Back to the Blues": toda una declaración de intenciones. En 2007 lanza el que podría ser disco más notable de este periodo, "Close As You Get", que prosigue su acercamiento al blues con temas propios y versiones de clásicos como Chuck Berry, Sonny Boy Williamson II, John Mayall o Son House (de este último es el tema acústico 'Sundown', que cierra el disco).
En el 2002 se embarca en nuevo proyecto, Scars, Formando una banda con la que publica un álbum homónimo Scars, que fue lanzado el 10 de septiembre de 2002. El power trío contó con Moore (voz / guitarra), Cass Lewis de Skunk Anansie (bajo / coros) y Darrin Mooney de Primal Scream (batería).
El disco fue presentado en una estupenda gira por el Reino Unido, que tuvo su culminacion en el Live At The Monster Of Rock, del 2003.

A los 58 años Gary Moore falleció mientras dormía en una de las habitaciones del "Kempinski Hotel Bahía" de Estepona, Málaga, en la madrugada del 6 de febrero de 2011. Según informó la policía española, el cuerpo del músico no presentaba signos de violencia, por lo que no se abriría ningún tipo de investigación. La autopsia practicada al cadáver del guitarrista de rock irlandés reveló que su muerte fue causada por un ataque al corazón.
Su inesperada muerte causó una gran conmoción entre sus seguidores.

Paolo Conte

Paolo Conte (born January 6, 1937) is an Italian singer, pianist, composer, and lawyer notable for his grainy, resonant voice, his colourful and dreamy compositions (evocative of Italian and Mediterranean sounds, as well as of jazz music, South American atmospheres, and of French-language singers like Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens) and his wistful, sometimes
Paolo Conte was born in Asti, Piedmont.

His performing career began as a vibraphone player in local and touring bands (Saint Vincent Jazz Festival). He began songwriting with his brother Giorgio Conte early on and eventually began writing songs of his own. As a poet, painter and lawyer as well as a musician, he first earned attention during the late '60s and early '70s as the creative force behind hits from Adriano Celentano and Patty Pravo. Conte began his solo career with a 1974 self-titled LP, with subsequent efforts like 1987's Aguaplano and 1990's Parole D'Amore Scritte a Macchina enjoying considerable success throughout Europe. 1998's Paolo Conte, a greatest-hits collection, was his first U.S. release. His compilation album is titled The Best of Paolo Conte.

Some of his hits were used in many movies, for example "Come Di" in I Am David (2003), and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), "Via con me" in French Kiss (1995) , Mostly Martha (2001), Welcome to Collinwood (2002), and the "Fritz" Coca Cola commercial that was widely shown in US movie theaters in early 2006. As well as in No Reservations (2007), "Sparring Partner" in 5x2 (2004) (French humourist Pierre Desproges used both in his Chroniques de la haine ordinaire.) One of Conte's greatest hits, Azzurro (1968, performed by A. Celentano and later many other artists) was "appropriated" by the fans of the Italian national football team—affectionately called "gli azzurri" ("The blue ones")—as a sort of unofficial "anthem" during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.



Paolo Conte (Asti, 6 de enero de 1937) es un músico y compositor italiano, reconocido cantautor de música de variedades y cuya obra está influenciada por la música jazz y blues.
Entre sus éxitos se encuentran canciones como Azzurro y Un gelato al limon. Sus canciones más emblemáticas son: "Genova per noi", "Lo erno", "Come di", "La riconstruzione del Mocambo", "Dancing", "Via con me", "Diavolo rosso", "Una giornata al mare "," Sotto le stelle del jazz "," Parole d'amore scritte a macchina ".

Paolo Conte nació en Asti, el 6 de enero de 1937 en una familia burguesa. El padre Gigi fue un abogado con pasión por la música, tocando el piano música jazz y su madre Tina viene de una familia de terratenientes. Empezó a tomar lecciones de piano cuando era niño, con su hermano Giorgio, más joven en cuatro años.
Licenciado en Derecho (motivo por el que se ganó el sobrenombre de Avvocato, abogado) siguió la carrera notarial ( trabajó durante muchos años como un abogado), acercándose al mundo del jazz como aficionado al vibráfono en algunos grupos de Asti y es con uno de estos grupos, Paul Cuarteto Conte (en el que Giorgio tocaba la batería), que hace su debut discográfico en 1962, grabando un EP en el sello RCA italiana, pero no recoge ninguna éxito y es seguida de otras grabaciones del sello de jazz. Al mismo tiempo, empieza a escribir sus primeras canciones en colaboración con su hermano Giorgio.
A mediados de los años sesenta se da a conocer como autor, con canciones como "La coppia più bella del mondo" y "Azzurro", ambas cantadas por Adriano Celentano, o "Insieme a te non ci sto più" (Caterina Caselli), "Tripoli '69" (Patty Pravo) y "Genova per noi" (Bruno Lauzi).

En 1974, debuta no sólo como autor, sino también como cantante repitiendo al año siguiente la experiencia con un nuevo disco. Tanto este como el del año 1974 llevan como título sólo su nombre: Paolo Conte.1 En 1979, la canción Un gelato al limón le vale el reconocimiento del público, encontrando especialmente éxito en Francia.
En los años ochenta, publicará diversos álbumes de temas inéditos y, mientras tanto estará ocupado por las muchas giras por Europa, donde, como en Italia, conseguirá el lleno en sus selectas presentaciones. Como resultado de estas giras fueron editados los discos Concerti (1985) y Paolo Conte Live (1988).
Ha hecho una incursión en el mundo del musical con la obra "Razmataz", de la que ha escrito la música y los textos, sino que también es suyo el diseño de la escenografía y del vestuario. Se ha publicado un DVD y un libro con sus bocetos.
También escribió la música para la película de animación "La Freccia Azzurra" (La Flecha Azul) de Enzo De Alò, estrenada en catalán en Cataluña.

El mundo reflejado en las canciones de Paolo Conte tiene muchas influencias de las estéticas urbanas surgidas del cine, la música de jazz, el circo o el cabaret.
Las letras, irónicas y sensuales, están inspiradas en un imaginario onírico de signo surrealista. El texto se sustenta en una ornamentación instrumental brillante que va del blues al jazz, del tango rioplatense a la música de cabaret, del experimentalismo más audaz a la música de banda de los pueblos mediterráneos, los apuntes vanguardistas a las músicas africanas o sudamericanas, como la Rumba, o la Salsa.
Ha sido uno de los músicos y cantantes europeos más influyentes de las últimas décadas.