Z.Z. Hill

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风格: #灵魂布鲁斯
地区: 欧美

艺人介绍

by Bill DahlTexas-born singer Z.Z. Hill managed to resuscitate both his own semi-flagging career and the entire genre at large when he signed on at Jackson, Mississippis Malaco Records in 1980 and began growling his way through some of the most uncompromising blues to be unleashed on black radio stations in many a moon.His impressive 1982 Malaco album Down Home Blues remained on Billboards soul album charts for nearly two years, an extraordinary run for such a blatantly bluesy LP. His songs Down Home Blues and Somebody Else Is Steppin In have graduated into the ranks of legitimate blues standards (and there havent been many of those come along over the last couple of decades).Arzell Hill started out singing gospel with a quintet called the Spiritual Five, but the output of B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and especially Sam Cooke made a more indelible mark on his approach. He began gigging around Dallas, fashioning his distinctive initials after those of B.B. King. When his older brother Matt Hill (a budding record producer with his own label, M.H.) invited Z.Z. to go west to southern California, the young singer did.His debut single on M.H., the gutsy shuffle You Were Wrong (recorded in an L.A. garage studio), showed up on the pop chart for a week in 1964. With such a relatively successful showing his first time out, Hills fine subsequent singles for the Bihari brothers Kent logo should have been even bigger. But I Need Someone (To Love Me), Happiness Is All I Need, and a raft of other deserving Kent 45s (many produced and arranged by Maxwell Davis) went nowhere commercially for the singer. Excellent singles for Atlantic, Mankind, and Hill (another imprint operated by brother Matt, who served as Z.Z.s producer for much of his career) preceded a 1972 hookup with United Artists that resulted in three albums and six R&B chart singles over the next couple of years. From there, Z.Z. moved on to Columbia, where his 1977 single Love Is So Good When Youre Stealing It became his biggest-selling hit of all.Hills vocal grit was never more effective than on his blues-soaked Malaco output. From 1980 until 1984, when he died suddenly of a heart attack, Z.Z. bravely led a personal back-to-the-blues campaign that doubtless helped to fuel the current contemporary blues boom. Its a shame he couldnt stick around to see it blossom.

Z.Z. Hill

艺人介绍

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