Etta James

In 2003 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. See also: Krautrock. Drug-related and romantic problems interfered with her career, but James managed to maintain a career throughout the latter half of the 20th century and was inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Blues Halls of Fame. In 2002 Q magazine named Kraftwerk as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die". The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and Foghat have also recorded the song but it is Etta's version that is best known. The new album, Tour de France Soundtracks, was finally released in August 2003, making it the first album of new Kraftwerk material since 1986's Electric Cafe. To a younger generation, Etta is known for the Muddy Waters song "I Just Wanna Make Love To You", used in television commercials for Coca-Cola and for John Smith's bitter. An announcement by their record company of a July 22, 2003 release also fell through, with the perfectionists delaying again for several weeks.

In 2003 she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The single Expo 2000, their first new song in 13 years, was released in December 1999, and was subsequently remixed by contemporary electronic musicians such as Orbital. She won the Grammy for best jazz vocal in 1994 for her CD Mystery Lady, a collection of songs associated with Billie Holliday, and in 2004 won the Grammy for best contemporary blues album with Let's Roll. The growing time between recordings, the rarity of live performances and the increasingly exacting and protracted nature of the recording process were major reasons behind the departure of Flür and especially Bartos, whose improvisations were an essential part of the earlier Kraftwerk recordings . Her singing is characterized by accomplished vocal technique and strong jazz influences. Like a number of other recording artists, Hütter and Schneider appear to have become increasingly perfectionist in their attitude towards recording and releasing their music. In 1967, James recorded "Tell Mama" and "I'd Rather Go Blind", with "At Last" perhaps her most enduring songs, in Muscle Shoals. After years of withdrawal from live performance, Kraftwerk began to tour again more regularly in the late 1990s and in 2004, and stated that they were working on new material -- though speculation about release dates fell through several times.

James released several duets with Harvey Fuqua (of The Moonglows) that became major R&B hits, as well as her classic "At Last." However, her mainstream success was limited. They do however state that a reasonable fraction of the instrumentation is actually played live, and that they do improvise somewhat from show to show. The song was later a hit in the white market for Georgia Gibbs, re-written as "Dance with Me, Henry." She briefly recorded as Etta James & the Peaches, releasing several hits before signing to Chess Records in 1960. At times, mannequins built to look like the band members replace or accompany the live musicians, known simply as "the robots". Otis reversed the syllables of her first name to give her her stage name and began recording her. Her first record, and her first R & B hit, was her own composition, "The Wallflower," an answer song to Hank Ballard's "Work with Me, Annie." She recorded it in 1954 with the Otis band and Richard Berry, who sang the second vocal. Their stage act involves the members standing behind minimalistic desks, controlling the various sequencers that drive the show. Her family moved to San Francisco, California in 1950, and in 1952 the trio (the Creolettes) she had formed with two of her friends came to the attention of Johnny Otis. Kraftwerk also pioneered the use of computer graphics as a backdrop for their shows.

Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Kraftwerk have impinged on mainstream popular culture to the extent that they have been referenced in The Simpsons and Father Ted. Born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California, she received her first professional vocal training at the age of 5, from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir at St. The tracks were cleverly reworked in a Latin American music style. Etta James (born January 25, 1938) is an American R&B and gospel singer. In 2000, electronic musician Uwe Schmidt, recording as Señor Coconut, released an album of Kraftwerk covers called El Baile Alemán. Kraftwerk have also been extensively sampled by some influential musicians and bands including Afrika Bambaataa, Beck, The Orb, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu/KLF, Madonna, Depeche Mode, De La Soul, R.E.M., Meat Beat Manifesto, Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, the Bloodhound Gang, and many more.

Five songs were arranged for strings for their album Possessed. Their music has been recorded by the classical ensemble the Balanescu Quartet. The single "Tour de France" featured lyrics in French. Notably, all of their albums from Trans-Europe Express onwards have been recorded in two separate versions -- one with German vocals for sale in Germany, and one with English vocals for international sale.

They also pioneered the use of backing tracks that were generated by the electronic sequencing of purely synthetic sounds. Many of the vocals in Kraftwerk songs are processed through a Vocoder, or generated using speech synthesis software -- a Speak & Spell was used on their 1981 album Computer World. Kraftwerk were certainly one of the first, if not the first "pop" act to record using pure electronic (or electronically processed) instruments and sounds exclusively. This was followed by a trio of albums that were to exert a huge influence on popular music -- Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977) and their masterpiece, The Man Machine (1978).

After several early experimental albums their breakthrough came in 1974 (1974 in music) with the Autobahn album and the 22-minute title track (see "Autobahn" SAMPLE (252 kilobytes)), which was a worldwide hit and demonstrated their increasing reliance on synthesizers and electronics. Many of Kraftwerk's songs express the paradoxical nature of modern urban life -- a strong sense of alienation existing side by side with a celebration of the joys of modern technology. The lyrics are usually very minimal, but reveal both an innocent celebration of, and a knowing caution about the modern world, as well as playing an integral role in the rhythmic structure of the songs. Kraftwerk's lyrics dealt with postwar European urban life and technology—travelling by car on the Autobahn, travelling by train, using home computers and the like.

Plank produced the first four Kraftwerk albums, but ceased working with them after the commerical success of Autobahn, apparently over a dispute about contracts. Plank worked with many other leading German acts (including members of Can, Neu!, Cluster, Harmonia) and largely as a result of his work with Kraftwerk, Plank's studio in Cologne (Köln) became one of the most sought-after studios in Europe in the late Seventies. The input, expertise and influence of producer/engineer Conny Plank was also significant. Following the departure of Flür and Bartos, various Kling Klang studio personnel such as Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz have appeared in the Kraftwerk live line-up.

Painter Emil Schult has been a regular collaborator with the band since 1973 (originally playing bass guitar and electric violin, then designing artwork and additional lyrics, and accompanying them on tour). This show saw the public debut of the group's striking self-built electronic percussion pads, played by Flür.). (Flür had joined the band in 1973 as a drummer, in prepartion for a television appearance to promote their third album. This quartet would be the band's public persona for their classic output of the 1970s and 1980s.

This saw the band presented as a electronic quartet, with Hütter & Schneider joined by Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos as electronic percussionists. What is generally regarded as the classic Kraftwerk line-up formed in 1975, for the Autobahn tour. The early Kraftwerk line-ups (1970-1974) fluctuated, Hütter & Schneider working with around half a dozen other musicians over the course of recording four albums and sporadic live appearances - most notably guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger, who left to form the revered band Neu!. The two had met as students in the late 1960s, and had already released one album (Tone Float) playing in a five-piece improvisation group called Organisation.

Kraftwerk was founded in 1970 by Florian Schneider-Esleben (flute) and Ralf Hütter (keyboards), the pair setting up their Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf. Today many popular Techno DJs refer to them as one of their most important influences. The techniques that they introduced and the equipment that they developed are now commonplace in modern music. Kraftwerk (German for "power plant") is a German avant-garde electro-pop group from Düsseldorf that contributed much to the development of, and interest in, electronic music.

Tour de France Soundtracks - 2003. The Mix - 1991 (new recordings of older songs). Electric Cafe - 1986 (Originally scheduled by EMI for release in 1983 under the title Techno Pop, the material was re-worked into this album.). Computerwelt 1981 - (English title: Computer World).

Die Mensch-Maschine - 1978 (English title: The Man-Machine). Trans-Europa Express - 1977 (English title: Trans-Europe Express). Radio-Aktivität - 1975 (English title: Radio-Activity). Autobahn - 1974.

Ralf und Florian - 1973. Kraftwerk 2 - 1972. Kraftwerk - 1971. Tone Float - 1970 (as Organisation).