1991
Best known for the loungey single "My Definition of Boombastic Jazz style," Dream Warriors' 1991 debut And Now, The Legacy Begins, introduced the Canadian rap duo's astute, cheeky style. Released during the first wave of '90s jazz-influenced hip-hop, the album found rappers King Lou and Capital Q building groovy tracks out of samples culled from albums by Quincy Jones, Count Basie, the Meters, and others. Their lyrics were just as richly attenuated, touching upon the multiverse ("Voyage Through the Multiverse") and police racism ("U Could Get Arrested") years before Marvel movies and the Black Lives Matter movement.
1960
Among the first wave of British rock stars of the late '50s and early '60s, no one sounded stronger or more convincing than Billy Fury. His voice had a strength and unforced cool his peers lacked, and he could not only write his own songs, most of them were actually good. 1960's The Sound of Fury, his first album, is a classic in U.K. rock, simple, passionate, and satisfying.
