With its tribal masks, arcane percussion instruments and grand sense of theatre, the Art Ensemble of Chicago always seemed to be more than just a jazz band. Indeed, the group grew from the communal activities of the Chicago-based AACM, which quickly became a magnet and laboratory for freedom-seeking African-American musicians in the city, including saxophonists Roscoe ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1967–present) Starting life as politically savvy jazz-rockers Chicago Transit Authority, the horn-backed septet fronted by bassist-vocalist Peter Cetera and keyboardist-vocalist Robert Lamm morphed into soft-rock balladeers in the mid-1970s, thanks to the transatlantic chart-topping ‘If You Leave Me Now’ (1976). Many buyers would not have connected them with brash, brassy early hits like ‘25 Or ...
Muddy Waters (1915–83) is the vital link between the pre-war Delta blues and the post-war Chicago blues. Born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, he grew up on Stovall’s Plantation near Clarksdale and became steeped in the slide-guitar blues of Son House and Robert Johnson. In 1941, he was recorded by archivist Alan Lomax, playing ‘Country Blues’ and ‘I’s ...
Terry Kath (1946–78) was the guitarist and a founding member of the jazz-rock ensemble Chicago Transit Authority (soon shortened to Chicago), which, like their contemporaries Blood, Sweat & Tears, brought a jazzy, horn-based sound to hard rock with their early albums, before settling into a superstardom built around anthemic pop ballads. Early on, however, ...
Chicago blues is a raw, rough-and-tumble music, defined by slashing, Delta-rooted electric slide guitars, raunchy-toned harmonicas overblown into handheld microphones to the point of distortion, uptempo shuffled rummers, insistently walking bass players and declamatory, soulful vocalists who imbued the tunes with Southern gospel fervour. It became a universally recognized sound by the 1960s, ...
along with some of its greatest practitioners, moved north by 1917. That year Storyville, the red-light district, was forced to close and jazz musicians headed north to Chicago, where jazz matured into a fine art form. Chicago held the promise of a new life for the Southern black population, which migrated from the fields of the ...
and passages. By the end of the decade, jump blues developed into rhythm and blues (R&B), in which more emphasis was placed on the singers than the instrumentalists. In Chicago, electric blues began to develop, as local bluesmen took Mississippi Delta ideas, amplified them and put them into a small-band context. The harmonica also became a more ...
, The Human League and Soft Cell stormed the charts. This was also the first time electronic music had entered the mainstream. Electronic music also found a home in Detroit and Chicago in the mid-1980s and in Europe as the decade ended. Inspired by Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles’ DJing in Chicago’s Music Box club, producers, including Larry Heard and ...
, you can’t buy it and no critic can put it into any words. It speaks in the music. It speaks for itself.’ Miles Davis Styles Ragtime New Orleans Chicago Swing Bebop Dixieland Revival Cool Jazz Hard Bop Free Jazz Soul Jazz Fusion & Jazz Rock Acid Jazz Smooth Jazz Latin Jazz Brazilian Jazz Styles & Forms | Ragtime | ...
Composed: 1919 Premiered: 1921, Chicago Libretto by the composer, after Carlo Gozzi’s L’amore delle tre melarance Background Factions in the audience demand Tragedy, Romance, Comedy and Farce. The Cranks take control. Act I The prince is ill. If he dies, the heir to the King of Clubs would be Clarice. This must be avoided. It has ...
as Mélisande, a part she sang in England and, though not until 1948, in New York. She sang with the Beecham Opera Company as well as in Chicago and Boston. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | (Dame) Eva Turner | Modern Era | Classical ...
was music director at the Bavarian State Opera 1946–52, in Frankfurt 1952–61, and at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden 1961–71. He was also music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra 1969–90, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra 1977–83. He made many recordings, including the first studio version of Wagner’s Ring. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | ...
1922–92 Welsh baritone Evans joined the Covent Garden company in 1948, singing Mozart’s Figaro in his second season. He sang at Glyndebourne 1950–61, and made his debut at La Scala in 1960. Appearances in America included Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger (Chicago, 1959) and Verdi’s Falstaff (Metropolitan Opera, 1964). Renowned for many years in Mozart roles, in ...
Alternative-metal guitarist Adam Jones (b. 1965) was born in Park Ridge, Illinois. He learned violin in elementary school, continuing with the instrument in high school, before playing acoustic bass for three years in an orchestra and later teaching himself guitar by ear. Jones studied art and sculpture in Los Angeles before working in a Hollywood character shop sculpting ...
Albert Clifton Ammons was born in Chicago, Illinois in March 1907. As a young man he learned from Jimmy Yancey, who cast a long shadow over Chicago blues pianists through his work at rent parties, social functions and after-hours jobs. Ammons came to know other pianists and the blues specialists gathered together in Chicago to create a coterie ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.