(Frank Mär-tan’) 1890–1974 Swiss composer Martin was an eclectic, but with his own voice. His best-known composition, the Petite symphonie concertante (1945) for harp, harpsichord, piano and strings, adopts systematic discipline from Schoenberg and rhythmic vigour from Stravinsky and jazz, but its combination of brooding solemnity and Gallic wit is Martin’s own. His concertos and ...
Juan Cristóbal Martín (b. 1948) was born in Málaga, Spain, and started learning the guitar at the age of six. In his early twenties he moved to Madrid to study under Nino Ricardo and Paco de Lucía. Martín was influenced by classic flamenco and the Spanish classical guitar tradition. His major influences included de Lucía, Tomatito and Andrés ...
Renowned as the leader of avant-garde satirical group the Mothers Of Invention in the 1960s, Frank Zappa developed a singular guitar prowess that emerged in the 1970s as his band became increasingly adventurous, drawing on a wide variety of classical, jazz and rock forms while maintaining their razor-sharp wit. Zappa’s approach to playing influenced many guitarists, including ...
Martin Pugh grew up in England during the 1960s and 1970s. As a young musician influenced by rock’n’roll, Pugh developed his progressive, blues-and-folk-influenced style with his first band, known as The Package Deal, who performed in Devon and Cornwall in the early 1960s. Martin soon moved to London and joined Carl Douglas (‘Kung Fu Fighting’) and The ...
(Jo-van’-ne Bat-tes’-ta Mär-te’-ne) 1706–84 Italian theorist and composer Padre Martini, as he was always known, was the most influential theorist and musical thinker of his time. He was born in Bologna, traditionally a centre of learning, where he studied with his father and leading musicians before entering a monastery. He returned to Bologna as organist and then as ...
(Fi’-then-ti Mar’-ti-ni So-le) 1754–1806 Spanish composer Martín y Soler had moved to Naples by 1777, when his Ifigenia in Aulide was staged there. By the early 1780s, his operas were being given in north Italy and he moved to Venice; from this time on he wrote only comic operas. Three years later he was in Vienna, where he had ...
(Vocals, 1884–1955) Martin, an early classic blues singer, was signed by Clarence Williams for OKeh Records in 1922, at the beginning of the blues craze. While she was a pop-style singer, she was also able to pitch the blues in a rough-and-ready way. She recorded with Williams-led jazz groups, with such illustrious accompanists as King ...
(C-melody and alto saxophone, 1901–56) Known as ‘Tram’ by his colleagues, Trumbauer was a player of impeccable technique who had a major influence on many saxophonists in the 1920s (notably Benny Carter and Lester Young). He first recorded in 1923 with the popular Benson Orchestra of Chicago and by 1926 was playing alongside cornettist and kindred spirit Bix Beiderbecke ...
(Vocals, 1915–98) Frank Sinatra was best known as a popular singer and film actor but established his jazz credentials early in his career. He combined the smooth, Italian bel canto style with a sure sense of swing, toured with Harry James and learned about breath control from Tommy Dorsey (1940–42). He worked with arrangers Billy May, Gordon ...
(Instrumental group, 1991–present) In the 1990s John Medeski (keyboards, b. 1965), Billy Martin (drums, b. 1963) and Chris Wood (bass, b. c. 1969) established an energized form of lengthy improvisations over powerful grooves, playing student venues and festivals. All three members have impressive résumés, including conservatory training and experience with experimental jazz leaders. Their recordings ...
(Guitar, vocals, harmonica, 1897–1945) Hutchison, a singer, slide-guitarist and harmonica player from West Virginia, was one of the more striking exponents of ‘hillbilly blues’ – music learned from, or influenced by, African-American sources, which in his case was acquired from railroad workers and miners. His ragtime picking piece ‘Coney Isle’, retitled ‘Alabam’’, ...
Even when he was sober, Jimmy Martin (vocals, guitar, 1927–2005) was willing to tell anyone who would listen why he was the ‘king of bluegrass’. After all, didn’t Bill Monroe’s sound change dramatically when Martin joined The Blue Grass Boys in 1949 ? Didn’t Martin create a brand new honky-tonk/bluegrass hybrid on his great Decca recordings of ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1940) Born in Sutherlin, Virginia, Janis Martin toured extensively but was too raunchy for mass acceptance, despite a series of outstanding rockabilly recordings. She retired in 1959 to raise her family but re-emerged in the 1980s. Since then she has made numerous live appearances, mainly in Europe, where she has established ...
1754–1806, Spanish The Spanish composer Martín y Soler wrote his first opera, entitled La Madrilena (‘The Girl from Madrid’, 1776), which was probably a zarzuela. Afterwards, Martín went to Italy, where he gained a reputation for writing both serious and comic operas that were performed in Lucca, Parma, Turin, Venice and Naples. Soon his ...
1768–1837, French The French baritone Jean-Blaise Martin gave his name to the voice type termed baryton-Martin, through his ability to extend his voice range into falsetto mode by an extra octave. This sort of voice, in which the baritone’s normal top notes shade into the falsetto, is classed as a ‘high baritone’ and enables singers to take ...
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