|
Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville sound". He was known for his "slip note" piano style, where an out-of-key note slides into the correct note. ==Biography== Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Cramer grew up in the small town of Huttig, Arkansas, teaching himself to play the piano. After finishing high school, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the ''Louisiana Hayride'' radio show. In 1953, he cut his first single, "Dancin' Diane", backed with "Little Brown Jug", for the local Abbott label. During 1955 he played dates with an emerging talent who would later figure significantly in his career, Elvis Presley.〔Wadey P., "Obituary: Floyd Cramer", ''Independent Monthly'' (UK), Independent News and Media Limited, January , 1998.〕〔April 01 Friday, 02 Saturday; August 14 Sunday; September 05 Monday beginning of a five-day tour; source: Peter Guralnic and Ernst Jorgensen, (''Elvis Day By Day'' ), Random House; retrieved 2.2014.〕 Cramer moved to Nashville in 1955 where the use of piano accompanists in country music was growing in popularity. By the next year he was, in his words, "in day and night doing session".〔("Floyd Cramer" ), Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved September 17, 2014.〕 Before long, he was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing piano for stars such as Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, the Browns, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, and the Everly Brothers, among others. It was Cramer's piano playing, for instance, on Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel". However, Cramer remained strictly a session player, a virtual unknown to anyone outside the music industry. Cramer had released records under his own name since the early 1950s, and became well known following the release of "Last Date", a 45 rpm single, released by RCA Victor in 1960.〔"Last Date" is also featured as the closing theme for Ray Hadley's radio show on Sydney's radio station 2GB.〕 The instrumental piece exhibited a relatively new concept for piano playing known as the "slip note" style. The record went to number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop music chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song was kept out of the No. 1 position by Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight". In 1961, Cramer had a hit with "On the Rebound", which went to No. 4, and No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. ("On the Rebound" was later featured during the opening credits of the 2009 Oscar-nominated film ''An Education,'' which was set in England in 1961.) That same year Cramer also had a hit with "San Antonio Rose" (No. 8). By the mid-1960s, Cramer had become a respected performer, making numerous albums and touring with guitar maestro Chet Atkins and saxophonist Boots Randolph, sometimes headlining, and sometimes as the opening act for Eddy Arnold. Cramer also performed with them as a member of the Million Dollar Band. Over the years, he continued to balance session work with his own albums. Many of these featured standards or popular hits of the era and from 1965 to 1974 he annually recorded a disc of the year's biggest hits prefaced "Class of . . ." Other long-players included ''I Remember Hank Williams'' (1962), ''Floyd Cramer Plays the Monkees'' (1967), ''Sounds of Sunday'' (1971) and ''Looking For Mr Goodbar'' (1978). In 1977 ''Floyd Cramer and the Keyboard Kick Band'' was released, on which he played eight different keyboard instruments.〔 Floyd Cramer died of lung cancer in 1997 at the age of 64 and was interred in the Spring Hill Cemetery in the Nashville suburb of Madison, Tennessee. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Floyd Cramer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|