Ali Farka Toure has been called the "John Lee Hooker of Africa": if it's often said that the blues are a reworking of African tribal rhythms to fit the African-American experience, then Toure has aligned the blues back to African life. Since he was born into nobility, a musical career was strongly d

Ebullient, Modern pop/dance, Rhythmic, Spiritual, Tranquil

"To me, the television is sex, the bed is sex, the sky is sex, you're sex, I'm sex, everything is sex." Annie Sprinkle flies bare-breasted and smiling in the face of art-world pretension. Her work, a marriage of performance, pornography, spirituality, and science, is the undiluted product of 25 y

Bad girl art, Ebullient, Feminist theater, In-your-face, Joyful, Opulent, Repetitive, Sexy, Technology

He earned his name from the frenzied, high-pitched solos that make so many heads spin. By climbing into the trumpet's two highest registers and belting out syncopated feats of harmonic daring, Dizzy Gillespie developed an indubitably revolutionary sound. Bebop, that high-speed, rhythmically and tonal

Bebop, Ebullient, Ecstatic, Improvised, Intense, Pioneering, Swing/big band

Ebullient, Fleeting, Modernist literature, Quirky, Smart, The lost generation, Witty, Women's literature