The authoritative voice of Bob Porter is familiar to radio listeners across the country from his syndicated broadcasts of Portraits in Blue, the in-depth series he launched at WBGO in Newark, New Jersey, in 1981. [...]

John Henry Hammond Jr. qualifies for any number of Halls of Fame in the music business for his many accomplishments as an A&R man, producer, critic, and promoter. In his role at Columbia Records in [...]

For decades after the publication of his first book on the blues, Paul Oliver remained the blues world's foremost author, still writing and lecturing on the blues in his eighties. Oliver's works have been based [...]

Arthur N. 'Art' Rupe has left an indelible mark on American music thanks to his recordings of Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Percy Mayfield, Guitar Slim, Roy Milton, Joe Liggins, the Soul Stirrers, and many other [...]

Ahmet Ertegun, a Turkish immigrant with a love for African-American music, co-founded one of America's premier record companies, Atlantic Records, in 1948. Atlantic's earliest success was with Blues and R&B artists such as Ruth Brown, [...]

As the founders of Modern Records, the Bihari Brothers, Jules, Joe, and Saul, formed the base of one of the most influential R&B labels in Pop history. John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Hadda Brooks, Lightnin' [...]

Bobby Robinson is a prominent African-American independent record producer in New York, most active from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. He established several highly successful record labels and produced records that sold in the millions. [...]

Jerry Wexler has been dubbed the Godfather of Soul Music in America. As a music reporter in the late 1940s, he coined the term 'Rhythm and Blues' to define a new style of music. As [...]

Jim O’Neal, a cofounder of Living Blues magazine and Rooster Blues Records, worked on the committees that launched the Chicago Blues Festival, the King Biscuit Blues Festival, the Sunflower River Blues Festival, the W.C. Handy [...]

Henry C. Speir, a music store owner in Jackson, Mississippi, was responsible for launching the recording careers of most of the greatest Mississippi bluesmen in the 1920s and '30s. In the job he referred to [...]