MANFRED MANN
Johannesburg-born jazz pianist Manfred Lubowitz called himself Manfred Mann, which also wound up being the name of the band he fronted, a notion he vetoed to no avail. Turns out the dual-purpose I.D. wasn't such an annoyance for Lubowitz, as the act racked up a string of hit records spanning more than a decade, establishing an agreeable semi-name-change along the way. Still, the question lingers: Is Manfred Mann a man, or a band...or a brand name? By 1961, when he turned 21, Lubowitz left South Africa, its racially-segregated apartheid system that had been in effect since the late '40s unbearable to many of the country's residents. He'd previously studied classical music at Witwatersrand University and played jazz in local clubs, at one time ... MORE ››
