(Vocals, b. 1942) Aged 17, Thomas recorded ‘Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)’, the 1960 track that put Stax Records on the national map with its first Top 10 hit. She went on to become the Queen of Memphis Soul, backed by the talents of producer Isaac Hayes, house band Booker T. And The M.G.s ...
1567–1620 English poet and composer Campion first distinguished himself as a poet and poetic theorist. His treatise, Observations in the Art of English Poesie (1602), included controversial opinions regarding metre and rhyme, revealing the musical basis of his poetry. He published four books of lute-songs. Some are humanist experiments in setting classically accentuated poetry, but the best are ...
c. 1557–1602 English composer and theorist Morley was the most important composer involved in developing the English Elizabethan madrigal from its Italian counterpart. In the 1580s and 1590s he published some English translations of Italian madrigals with newly composed English works of his own, which imitated the Italian style. His most famous works are the ‘fa la la’ madrigals: pieces ...
1505–85 English composer Athough undoubtedly a fine composer, Tallis is also worth mentioning for his amazing ability to sustain a successful career spanning the religious upheavals of the reigns of Henry VIII and his three children. Beginning as a good Catholic, he composed Latin Masses and motets. When change came, he changed too and turned out to be ...
1576–1623 English composer Weelkes was one of the leading composers of the English madrigal. The unusual text of ‘Thule the Period of Cosmographie’ (1660) is a list of marvels, each of which he matches with appropriately descriptive music. Also famous is ‘As Vesta Was, from Latmos hill descending’ (1601), his contribution to The Triumphs of Oriana, a book ...
(Al-es-san’-dro Skär-lat’-te) 1660–1725 Italian composer Scarlatti was born in Sicily but spent most of his working life in Rome, where he studied, and in Naples. He made important and prolific contributions to the genres of opera, oratorio, serenata and cantata forms, composing a much smaller quantity of instrumental and keyboard music. His musical talent attracted the attention ...
(Do-man’-e-ko Skär-lat’-te) 1685–1757 Italian composer and harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti was the son of Alessandro Scarlatti. He was born in Naples and lived there until 1704, when he joined his father in Rome. The following year he travelled to the cities of Florence and Venice; during his time in the latter he met the great composer of the era, Handel. Scarlatti ...
1710–78 English composer Arne was the son of an upholsterer in Covent Garden. As a Roman Catholic in a largely Protestant country, he had no access to the usual opportunities for advancement as a musician through a church appointment. In the 1730s, he became involved with putting on English-language opera performances in London, earning a reputation as a ...
(Am-brwaz’ To-mas’) 1811–96 French composer Thomas studied with Le Sueur at the Paris Conservatoire, where he became Director in 1871. After winning the 1832 Prix de Rome, he composed the first of his 20 operas, La double échelle (‘The Double Ladder’, 1837). His first successes, Le Caïd (‘The Cadi’, 1849) and Songe d’une nuit d’été (‘A Midsummer Night’s ...
(Vocals, quills, guitar, 1874–1930) A son of former slaves, Henry ‘Ragtime’ Thomas specialized in the quills, a panpipe-like instrument made from hollow reeds. He was itinerant for most of his life, a fact reflected in songs such as ‘Railroadin’, in which Thomas names train stops from Fort Worth to Chicago. His ‘Bull Doze Blues’, renamed ‘Goin’ ...
(Vocals, 1917–2001) Rufus Thomas Jr. was born in Cayce, Mississippi and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. He worked with tent and minstrel shows throughout the 1930s. He recorded for Sun Records in the early 1950s and had the label’s first hit with ‘Bear Cat’ in 1953; he also worked as a disc jockey at WDIA, Memphis. He began ...
(Piano, organ, arranger, b. 1938) Self-taught, Carla Bley is as respected for her compositions and arrangements as for her excellent piano and organ playing. In the 1950s she was briefly married to pianist Paul Bley, who championed her works. In 1965, with her second husband, trumpeter Michael Mantler, Bley co-founded the Jazz Composers ...
(Guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, vocals, b. 1964) Multi-talented King began in the footsteps of his father – Baton Rouge, Louisiana juke bluesman Tabby Thomas. King has mastered traditional electric and acoustic blues. He also performs and records rock- and rap-blues hybrids. In 2000 he appeared as Tommy Johnson in O Brother, Where Art Thou ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1941) Conley’s first big break came in 1975, when Mel Street recorded his song ‘Smokey Mountain Memories’. Conway Twitty took his song ‘This Time I Have Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me’ to the top of the US country chart in 1976. On moving to Nashville, his first No. 1 hit, ‘Fire ...
1660–1725, Italian Sicilian-born Alessandro Scarlatti came to the attention of the Italian opera world with his first opera, Gli equivoci nel sembiante (‘Mistaken Identities’, 1679), which he wrote when he was only 19. The work was soon being staged by opera houses outside Rome, but this was not the limit of Scarlatti’s new renown. At around the same ...
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