Michael Franks (musician)

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Michael Franks (born September 18, 1944 in San Diego ) is an American jazz singer and songwriter.

Life

Franks was born in the La Jolla neighborhood , north of downtown San Diego . He sang folk and rock songs to guitar during high school . He studied contemporary literature at UCLA and received his PhD from the University of Oregon . After teaching music classes at UCLA and Berkeley , he composed the film scores for Count Your Bullets and Zandy's Bride .

His literature studies had a strong influence on his songs, and his lyrical concept gave his music the nickname “Thinking Man's Rock”. He moved to Canada in the late 1960s, where he opened for Gordon Lightfoot . He worked there briefly with the group Carnival (later Lighthouse ).

In 1973 he published his first album, which was followed by numerous others, mainly for Warner Brothers . Franks worked with the blues legends Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee , with Flora Purim , Kenny Rankin , Ron Carter , The Crusaders , David Sanborn , Toots Thielemans and Eric Gale and wrote songs for The Manhattan Transfer , Patti LaBelle , Carmen McRae and The Carpenters .

Discography

  • Michael Franks (as CD Previously Unavailable ), 1973
  • "The Art Of Tea", 1975
  • Sleeping Gypsy , 1977
  • Burchfield Nines , 1979
  • Tiger in the Rain 1979
  • One Bad Habit , 1980
  • Objects of Desire , 1982
  • Passionfruit , 1983
  • Skin Dive , 1985
  • The Camera Never Lies , 1987
  • Blue Pacific , 1990
  • Dragonfly Summer , 1993
  • Abandoned Garden , 1995
  • Barefoot on the Beach , 1999
  • Live 2003
  • Watching the Snow , 2004
  • Rendezvous in Rio , 2006
  • Time Together , 2011
  • Dream 1973-2011, 2012
  • The Music In My Head, 2018

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Franks, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH San Diego