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BESSIE JONES
(& GROUP)
Spiritual singer Bessie Jones was
born in Georgia in 1902. Early music
memories began with the songs of
her grandfather, a former slave. As a
young adult, Jones relocated to the
Georgia Sea Islands, where slaves
from both the Bahamas and the Deep
South once took refuge. During the
Great Depression, Jones fused her
American folk roots with Bahamian
sounds and founded the Georgia
Sea Island Singers. By the late ’50s,
music historian Alan Lomax brought
Jones to the fore. She went on to
record several sides over the years
and also published a children’s book
based on her girlhood. In 1982, Jones
was honored with the National Heritage Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Arts. The songbird passed away in 1984. Remember Bessie Jones with “Union,” from
The Alan Lomax Collection: Southern
Journey, Vol. 13–Earliest Times.
BUY: iTunes
GENRE: Christian & Gospel
ARTIST: Bessie Jones (& Group)
SONG: Union
ALBUM: The Alan Lomax
Collection: Southern Journey,
Vol. 13–Earliest Times
MUSIC
HUFFINGTON
02.23.14
RICHARD SKELTON
RACHEL PORTMAN
Lancaster, England-born avantexperimental multi-instrumentalist/
composer and artist Richard Skelton (aka Heidika, A Broken Consort,
Harlassen, Carousell, Riftmusic,
and Clouwbeck) makes a purposeful connect between the visual and
the sonic. During the mid-aughts,
Skelton founded his Sustain-Release
label after the passing of his photographer wife, celebrating her legacy in
collaboration with his music—complemented by exquisite cover art.
Earth, sky and land have been key instruments to Skelton’s hand. In soul
and heart, he planted the recordings
and poetry back into the earth. At
aughts’ end, he partnered with poet/
musician Autumn Richards on Corbel
Stone Press, establishing a porthole
for their “landscape-based art and
recordings,” and most recently released SKURA, a 20-disc retrospective. The two are now married and
live on Ireland’s west coast. Credits
include films Loneliest Planet and
Daas plus recordings with Agitated
Radio Pilot and Saddleback. Move
through Skelton’s collective of everevolving ambience with “Noon Hill
Wood,” from his 2010 Landings.
Composer/pianist Rachel Portman
was born at the dawn of Generation
X in Haslemere, England. By her preteens, she started composing, then
furthered her formal training at Oxford.
At the close of the ’80s, Portman took
home the British Film Institute Award
for Young Composer of the Year, the
Carlton Television Award, and several
nominations by the British Academy of
Film and Television. Portman’s career
took on epic proportions in the mid’90s: She became the first woman to
win an Oscar for Best Original Score
(Emma), earned Oscar nominations for
The Cider House Rules and Chocolat,
and scooped up BMI’s Richard Kirk
Award in 2010. Credits include The
Duchess, The Manchurian Candidate,
The Human Stain, Benny & Joon, The
Joy Luck Club, Never Let Me Go, Still
Life and Belle. Catch “Little Edie on
Chair,” from HBO’s Emmy-winning
Grey Gardens, and move your way back
through this Officer of the Order of the
British Empire’s vast score of works.
BUY: iTunes
GENRE: Alternative/Experimental
ARTIST: Richard Skelton
SONG: Noon Hill Wood
ALBUM: Landings
BUY: iTunes
GENRE: Scores
ARTIST: Rachel Portman
SONG: Little Edie on Chair
ALBUM: Grey Gardens