Joan Baez – a singer, activist and pacificist committed to the struggle against all segregation – recorded her first album in 1959 at the age of eighteen. The titles on these four sides are taken from the first four records she made, and they all reflected the position she took in the folk movement that was then emerging, together with her militant support of minority groups. It would be sixty years before she said farewell to the stage, in July 2019 at the Montreux jazz Festival, after a sixty-year career of unrivalled quality that actively showed her sincere commitment to social and political causes. The grace in her exceptional voice, her kindness and admirable personality – and her determination – earned her an exceptional place in the history of popular music, as well as in the hearts of an ever-increasing audience.
It is the fusion of Gospel, Blues and Jazz that gives birth to new rhythms during the 50’s in the United States. Black artists are the first ones to associate upbeat tempo with jazz and blues. But it is a revolution of the minds that gives to the 50’s its frenetic momentum that rocks the old world into the modern world. Every single area is touched by the revolution : music and painting, obviously, but also and maybe mainly society at large, ways of consuming, the new industrial era, urban life, advertising, marketing and design. The movement develops in every dimension. Rock’n’Roll is the permanent mark left by the youth of that time, embracing the new world and giving it the rhythm that fits.
The Masters of Rock collection traces back the history of these great Rock’n’Roll figures without whom Rock and music in general would not be what they are today. And just like a natural phenomenon, Rock was born at the same time as the LP, absolute revolution in the music world which marked every generation since 1950 and until today. The world could not go round without the collection that pays homage to Vinyl Records and Rock’nRoll : Masters of Rock