Classic R&B

Classic R&B is one of the most educationally important shows in the curriculum, as this music laid the foundation for virtually all of the Rock and Roll and Pop music that came after. While R&B has been used to refer to many different styles of music, the time period covered in this show is the 1950s and 1960s, when black artists blended blues and jazz traditions with Afro-Cuban rhythms and began achieving mainstream success. Artists such as Fats Domino, Ike and Tina Turner, Little Richard, and Etta James became international stars and paved the way for legends like Motown’s Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and The Supremes, and Stax’s Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. This show features a lot of spotlight vocal parts, and presents opportunities for all instruments to develop their sense of groove.