Musicians employed to play on ceremonial occasions.

(1949-) US singer, songwriter, musician, and actor, with a characteristic gravelly voice. His songs typically deal with urban street life and have jazz-tinged arrangements, as on Rain Dogs 1985. He has written music for and acted in several films, including Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law 1986. /> Waits developed a beatnik hobo persona on his early albums (Closing Time 1973, Nighthawks at the Diner 1976, Small Change 1977) with songs like ‘The Piano Has Been Drinking’ and ‘Tom Traubert’s Blues’. His later work has a spare, twisted jazz feel and suggests the influence of German songwriter Kurt Weill; for example, Swordfishtrombones 1983 and Bone Machine 1992. As an actor, his films include Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart 1982 and Ironweed 1987.
He collaborated with writer William Burroughs and composer Robert Wilson on the opera Black Ride 1992.