Jimmy Page

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed as the New Yardbirds in 1968, the band consisted of... guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. They are widely considered to be one of the most successful, innovative and influential rock groups in the history of music. After changing their name, the band signed a favourable deal with Atlantic Records that allowed them considerable artistic freedom. Led Zeppelin disliked the releasing of tracks as singles, preferring their albums to be viewed as indivisible, whole listening experiences, helping to promote the concept of album-orientated rock. Their first two albums, with their heavy, guitar-driven blues rock sound, led to Led Zeppelin being regularly cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal and hard rock, even though the band's individualistic style drew from varied sources and transcends any single music genre.
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The Firm were a British rock supergroup comprising former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, ex-Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, ex-Uriah... Heep and Manfred Mann's Earth Band drummer Chris Slade and bass player Tony Franklin. Page and Rodgers originally wanted former Yes drummer Bill Bruford and fretless bassist Pino Palladino in the group; however, Bruford was contracted to another label and Palladino had tour commitments with singer Paul Young. Both Page and Rodgers refused to play any material from their former bands and instead opted for a selection of Firm songs plus tracks from both their solo albums. The new songs were heavily infused with a soulful and more commercially-accessible sound, courtesy of Franklin's fretless bass guitar underpinning an understated song structure. Despite refusing to play old material, the last track from The Firm, "Midnight Moonlight", was originally an unreleased Led Zeppelin song entitled "The Swan Song". This caused some critics to believe that Page had begun to run out of ideas. In subsequent press interviews, Page had indicated that the band were never meant to last more than two albums.
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Coverdale/Page was a musical collaboration featuring Whitesnake and former Deep Purple lead vocalist David Coverdale, and former Led Zeppelin... guitarist Jimmy Page. The project between the two artists commenced in 1991 at the suggestion of American A&R executive John Kalodner, as both artists were signed to Geffen Records at the time. Their debut album, Coverdale/Page was released on March 15, 1993, reaching #4 in the UK and #5 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Five singles were released to promote the album: "Pride and Joy", "Shake My Tree", "Take Me for a Little While", "Take a Look at Yourself" and "Over Now". The album certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of the LP, CD & Cassette in excess of 500,000 copies and eventually going Platinum. The album also received the official Japanese Sony Music in-house award for sales in excess of 150,000 copies in Japan as well as the EMI in-house sales award for sales in excess of 60,000 copies in the UK. It has been suggested that Page collaborated with Coverdale in order to irk Page's former Led Zeppelin bandmate Robert Plant, who up to that point had been reluctant to re-unite with Page.
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Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the The Island Def Jam Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal Music... Australia. In the United States, Universal Music Group Nashville administers the Mercury Records Nashville label. Mercury Record Corporation was founded in the American city of Chicago in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. They were a major force in jazz and blues, classical music, rock and roll, and country music recordings. Early in the label's history, Mercury opened two pressing plants, one in Chicago and the other in St. Louis, Missouri. With the use of automatic presses and providing 24-hour turnaround, they went into direct competition with major recording labels such as Columbia, Decca, and RCA Victor. By hiring two promoters, Tiny Hill and Jimmy Hilliard, they penetrated the pop market with names such as Frankie Laine, Vic Damone, Tony Fontane and Patti Page. Rather than rely on radio airplay, Mercury initially relied to jukeboxes to promote their music.
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Swan Song Records was a record label launched by the English rock band Led Zeppelin on 10 May 1974. It was overseen by Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant and was a vehicle for the band to promote its own products as well as sign artists who found it difficult to win contracts with other major... labels. The decision to launch the label came after Led Zeppelin's five year contract with Atlantic Records expired at the end of 1973. Atlantic Records ultimately distributed the label's product. Artists that released material on the Swan Song label during its existence included Led Zeppelin itself ; Bad Company; The Pretty Things; Dave Edmunds; Mirabai; Maggie Bell ; Detective; and Sad Café. In addition to these artists, two other noted recording acts were credited artists on Swan Song singles, both of which were UK hits in 1981: B. A. Robertson duetted on with Maggie Bell on the single "Hold Me", and The Stray Cats backed Dave Edmunds on his 1981 single "The Race Is On".
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Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz. Over its first 20 years of operation Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American independent recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul... recordings by African-American artists, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records. In 1967 Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music, signing Cream, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Foreigner. In 2004 Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group. Craig Kallman is currently Chairman of Atlantic Records. Label co-founder Ahmet Ertegün served as Founding Chairman until his death on December 14, 2006 at age 83. The label also has a number of deals with previously independent labels such as Must Destroy and VP Records in Jamaica, home to reggae artists such as Sean Paul.
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Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in black communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a... mix of African and European music traditions. Its black African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note. From its early development until the present day jazz has also incorporated music from American popular music. As the music has developed and spread around the world it has drawn on many different national, regional and local musical cultures giving rise, since its early 20th century American beginnings, to many distinctive styles: New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s and on down through West Coast jazz, cool jazz, avant-garde jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz in various forms, soul jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, smooth jazz, jazz-funk, punk jazz, acid jazz, ethno jazz, jazz rap, cyber jazz, Indo jazz, M-Base, nu jazz, urban jazz and other ways of playing the music. In a 1988 interview, trombonist J.J. Johnson said, "Jazz is restless.
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