b. 1982 Chinese pianist Lang Lang entered the Beijing Central Conservatory at the age of 10, later continuing his studies in the US. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2001, and went on to become the first Chinese pianist to appear with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. By the time of his appearance at the opening ...
(Guitar, 1902–33) Philadelphia native Salvatore Massaro joined the Mound City Blue Blowers in 1924 and by the mid-1920s had become jazz’s first in-demand session guitarist, backing various blues and popular singers. A single-note virtuoso, he was also jazz’s first guitar hero. In 1926, Lang teamed up with high-school pal Joe Venuti for some classic guitar-violin duet sessions ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1961) Canadian lang’s first international album, the Dave Edmunds-produced Angel With A Lariat (1987), was critically acclaimed. A duet with Roy Orbison on a remake of his 1961 hit, ‘Crying’, for the movie Hiding Out, was her first country hit. She then teamed up with veteran producer Owen Bradley for Shadowlands (1988), which ...
(Le-le’ Boo-lan-zha’) 1893–1918 French composer Despite being an invalid for most of her short life, Lili Boulanger composed some outstanding works, in particular her gripping setting of Psalm 130, Du fond de l’abïme (‘Out of the Depths’, 1910–17) for soloists, choir and orchestra. Her talent was widely acknowledged, especially when, in 1913, she became ...
Western classical music since the seventeenth century, because it placed great emphasis on harmonic subtlety and tensions between keys, had been less interested in melodic flexibility (a maximum of 12 notes to the octave, while Indian music uses 22) and in rhythm (regular division into bars, normally of two, three, four or six beats; Indian ...
b. 1971 Russian pianist A child prodigy, he gave his first solo recital at the age of 10 and as a teenager worked with Karajan, later collaborating with Solti, Giulini, Abbado, Maazel and Ashkenazy among conductors, and with Martha Argerich, Isaac Stern and Joshua Bell in chamber music. But it is for solo performances ...
Though art music since the war tended more often to define itself in opposition to rock and commercial pop music, signs of mutual regard were already emerging in the 1960s. While it is Stockhausen’s face that stands out from the crowd on the front cover of the Beatles’ 1967 album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it was Berio ...
Country music has been euphemistically called ‘white man’s blues’ or ‘the poetry of the common man’. While both descriptions have elements of truth, neither is quite accurate. It is, in fact, a broad, nebulous, over-reaching category with no exact boundaries or parameters. Over the decades country music has grown to encompass a greatly varied assortment of ...
‘The Trojans’ Composed: 1856–58 Premiered: 1890, Karlsruhe Libretto by the composer, after the Aeneid by Virgil Act I The Trojans celebrate peace and admire the wooden horse left by the Greeks after the siege. Cassandre (Cassandra), King Priam’s daughter, forsees the fall of Troy. Her husband Chorèbe (Coroebus) urges her to join the celebrations, but she begs ...
1867–1944 American composer Beach (née Cheney) made her debut as a pianist in 1883, the year in which her first composition was published. In 1885 she married, and retired from a professional performing career. She did, however, continue to compose, writing large-scale works such as the ‘Gaelic’ Symphony in E minor op. 32 (1896) and the ...
Charlie Christian (1916–42) pushed guitar to the forefront of the big-band era, furthering the instrument’s evolution from a provider of acoustic accompaniment to an electrified foreground instrument that could pound out rhythm like a drum set or solo out front like a horn. His playing, in fact, was likened to jazz horn players who were leading the evolution ...
Django Reinhardt (1910–53) overcame physical disabilities to create a unique playing style and one of the most highly influential sounds in jazz. He was born in Belgium to gypsy parents. At the age of eight his mother’s tribe settled near Paris. The French Gypsies, or Manouches, were medieval in their beliefs, and distrustful of modern science. But Django ...
(Guitar, 1910–53) One of the reasons that Django Reinhardt dominated conversations about the guitar so completely in the 1930s was his fortunate timing. He arrived on the world jazz scene through the Quintet of the Hot Club of France in 1934 – a year after the death of Eddie Lang and five years before the arrival of Charlie Christian. Belgian ...
Defying categorization with his blend of rock, blues, country and melodic pop styles, Eric Johnson is highly revered by guitarists of all genres for his skill and perfectionism on stage and in the studio, and for his uniquely rich, overdriven tone. Born in 1954, Johnson grew up in Austin, Texas. Encouraged by his parents ...
(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 ...
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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
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sweep of incredible photographs.