In the News

Jack Miller Audio Tour

Remembering Jack Miller Jack Miller was born on Christmas Eve, 1932 into a musical family. His father Bernard played banjo, his mother Dorothy sang; music was part of the Miller family's everyday life in Chicago. Like his parents, Jack loved music, playing the coronet and piano. But performing was not the relationship Jack would develop with music; recording it became the passion of his life. His father recognized Jack's interest when he was very young and purchased a disc recorder for him. At the age of eight, Jack began recording everything around him on acetate discs. When Jack was 10, his brother Bill was born; two years later his sister Lynn [...]

Jack Miller Audio Tour2017-07-07T22:09:03+00:00

Happy Birthday to Me!

To purchase any of the red carpet photos: www.joshuamatic.com/p615016890 Password: AZMusic

Happy Birthday to Me!2017-07-07T22:17:29+00:00

Stacks Of Wax: Still Lovin’ The Vinyl by Lee Allen

Every day is vinyl-record day for advocates of this form of pop culture who collect the pressed memories of the past. However, at least in the county of San Luis Obispo, Calif., Vinyl Record Day is officially August 12—the date most often identified as the day Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and the date the non-profit Vinyl Record Day organization set aside to “preserve the cultural influence, the recordings and the cover art of the vinyl record.” For those of us who grooved to the recorded sounds augmented by the platter chatter of disc jockeys who spun virgin vinyl, those years represented a golden era that Cds and iPods just can’t [...]

Stacks Of Wax: Still Lovin’ The Vinyl by Lee Allen2017-06-19T17:31:38+00:00

Plugging into Phoenix music: Sha-Boom Bang

I know from this overdeveloped vantage point, it's hard for you to imagine a time when most of Phoenix looked like a stretch of unexplored highway. Equally inconceivable is that Phoenix could be an epicenter for much-sought-after doo-wop, R&B, soul and funk. That's where this new compilation culled by local music historian and archivist John P. Dixon comes in. "Sha-Boom Bang: Vintage Arizona Doo Wop, R&B, Soul, & Funk: 1956-71" brings together 30 largely unavailable sides on the Liberty Bell, Rev and Ramco labels , recorded at Phoenix's famed Audio Recorders on Seventh Street. At 6 p.m. Saturday, May 31, Dixon will put on his "Johnny D" DJ hat and join [...]

Plugging into Phoenix music: Sha-Boom Bang2017-07-07T22:26:05+00:00

MAY 31 Sha-Boom Bang! Phoenix Soul Party

"Sha-Boom Bang: Vintage Arizona Doo Wop, R&B, Soul, & Funk: 1956-71" celebrates Phoenix, Arizona's golden age of soul. On Saturday, May 31, John "Johnny D" Dixon, producer of the compilation, will join DJ Smite at Zia Records (1850 W. Camelback) for a special all-vinyl DJ set featuring classic 45s featured on the new collection. Music starts at 6 PM. Visit www.ziarecords.com and www.azmusicdude.com for more information.

MAY 31 Sha-Boom Bang! Phoenix Soul Party2017-07-07T22:25:12+00:00

Sunset Library to Host Recap

The Valley music scene that served
as an incubator for the successful
 careers of a number of singers,
songwriters, musicians and producers
in the 1950s and ‘60s is the topic of
the next Our Stories guest-speaker 
presentation Saturday, April 12, at west
 Chandler’s Sunset branch library.
The free event will feature
 Arizona’s unofficial music historian 
and radio deejay John P. Dixon, also
 known as Johnny D., who will present
 the little-known history of the Audio
 Recorders Studio in Phoenix.
The multimedia presentation will
 spotlight many of the musicians and
 producers who recorded at this popular
 studio, including Lee Hazlewood,
 Sanford Clark, Skip and Flip, Dyke
and the Blazers, Wayne Newton and
 Waylon Jennings. 
Located at 7th Street and [...]

Sunset Library to Host Recap2017-06-19T17:31:39+00:00

Waylon Jennings/Sanford Clark Vintage Arizona Single

Zia Records To Release Waylon Jennings/Sanford Clark Vintage Arizona Single for Records Store Day Sun Studios in Memphis. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. Sound City in Van Nuys. Audio Recorders of Arizona. One look at the client ledger and it’s impossible to deny the impact Floyd Ramsey’s compact downtown Phoenix studio had on the music of the Southwest in the 50s and 60s: Lee Hazlewood, Duane Eddy, Al Casey, Skip & Flip, Dyke and the Blazers, Goose Creek Symphony…and Waylon Jennings and Sanford Clark. Zia Records, Arizona’s oldest and largest independent record store chain, has teamed with Arizona historian and archivist John P. Dixon to launch the Audio Recorders Archive [...]

Waylon Jennings/Sanford Clark Vintage Arizona Single2017-07-07T22:33:48+00:00

Vintage Phoenix Q&A: Arizona’s Unofficial Music Historian John Dixon

You know him as Johnny D., as in Mostly Vinyl with Johnny D., the radio program on KWSS that celebrates rare and obscure soul and funk. But John Dixon is also an obsessive collector of recorded music — mostly on vinyl — as well as a record producer, a former A&R man, and a musician. Besides infusing the often bland local airwaves with a lot of soul, Dixon has made a career of archiving, documenting, and reissuing Arizona music by local artists like Floyd Ramsey, Loy Clingman, Eddie and Ernie, and Dyke and the Blazers — artists lucky enough to own their recorded tape masters. The longtime Tempe resident took some [...]

Vintage Phoenix Q&A: Arizona’s Unofficial Music Historian John Dixon2020-01-15T20:21:00+00:00
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