Sade was born in Ibadan, Nigeria and was brought up in England from the age of four. She studied at Saint Martin's School of Art in London and gained modest recognition as a fashion designer and part-time model before joining the band Pride in the early 1980s.
The New Yorker described Sade's voice as a "grainy contralto full of air that betrays a slight ache but no agony, and values even
imperfect dignity over a show of pain", a "deeply English" quality that
makes categorizing the artist's voice difficult.
Count Basie The best student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by touring carnivals which came to town. He finished junior high school, but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies.
