Artists
Marvin Gaye
Gaye's legacy resonated over the decades — he was a touchstone for soul and pop music that was either sensual or political — but his early death leaves hanging the question of what he could've achieved if he were alive. During his two decades as a recording artist, he already accomplished more than most artists do in a lifetime.
Massive Attack
The pioneering force behind the rise of trip-hop, Massive Attack were among the most innovative and influential groups of their generation; their hypnotic sound — a darkly sensual and cinematic fusion of hip-hop rhythms, soulful melodies, dub grooves, and choice samples — set the pace for much of the dance music to emerge throughout the 1990s, paving the way for such acclaimed artists as Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Beth Orton, and Tricky, himself a Massive Attack alumnus.
Maysa Leak
Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, jazz-soul singer/songwriter Maysa Leak embarked on a singing career at an early age. By the age of six, she had already determined that she was going to be a singer, and she spent her elementary and high school days performing in choir and musical theater productions.
Medeski, Martin & Wood
The trio’s amalgam of jazz, funk, “avant-noise” and a million other musical currents and impulses is nearly impossible to classify, which is just how they like it. Medeski’s keyboard excursions, Chris Wood’s hard-charging bass lines and Billy Martin’s supple, danceable beats have come to resemble a single organism, moving gracefully between genre-defying compositions and expansive improvisation atop a relentless groove.
Mezzoforte
Until the arrival of the Sugarcubes, jazz fusion band Mezzoforte was Iceland’s best-known musical export. The group was formed in 1977 at a Reykjavik high school by Fridrik Karlsson (b. 24 April 1960; guitar), Eythór Gunnarsson (b. 9 September 1961; keyboards), Jóhann Ásmundsson (b. 30 March 1961; bass), and Gunnlaugur Briem (b. 8 September 1962; drums).
Miles Davis
Miles Davis is more than a jazz musician: he is a cultural icon, known even to people who can't tell bebop from fusion. That may seem strange considering that Davis made a career of defying the expectations of critics and audience alike, but it is just one more paradox associated with this mercurial artist.
Mo' Horizons
Blending together funk, jazz, bossa nova, soul, and boogaloo with downbeat and drum'n'bass tendencies, German acid jazz duo Mo' Horizons came together in the late '90s.
Monday Michiru
Monday Michiru stands as one of Japan's finest soul and R&B singers of the 1990s and whose cosmopolitan sensibility and mixed nationality have made her stand out among her contemporaries. Regarded as one of the pioneers of Japanese club music, she was born in 1963 in Tokyo to pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and alto sax jazzman Charlie Mariano but raised in the United States.