Guitar legend T-Bone Walker, top, pioneered the jump blues style of the 1940s, and BB King, above, headed the blues revival in the 1960s Chattanooga-born Bessie Smith, nicknamed the Empress of the ...

Eventually Peer earned the directorship of General Phonograph's lackluster recording division and its Okeh record label. Changing musical tastes and the round-the-clock availability of music on ...