Blues-rock guitarist Mike Bloomfield was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1943, to an affluent Jewish family. He possessed an innate ability on guitar, which he began playing at the age of 13, initially influenced by Scotty Moore. Despite his background, Bloomfield quickly became a devotee of Chicago’s indigenous blues scene, frequently visiting clubs on the ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1943–81) Bloomfield apprenticed in Chicago with legends such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, as well as among his peers Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop. He played on classics with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1966’s East-West), Bob Dylan (1965’s Highway 61 Revisited) and organist Al Kooper (1968’s Super Session). He helped to ...
(Guitar, 1943–81) Once a mainstay of Chicago’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the shorter-lived Electric Flag, Bloomfield was a prime mover in an apparent shift towards recognition for individual players rather than groups in the late 1960s. Joined by guitarist Stephen Stills and organist Al Kooper, his modestly titled Super Session was the best-selling CBS album of 1968. ...
Mike Stern (b. 1953), the American jazz guitarist, emerged as a major force in the jazz guitar scene through his work with Miles Davis’ band in the early Eighties, Stern has played with stars such as Stan Getz, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Martino and David Sanborn. Stern was also a guitarist in Steps Ahead and the Brecker Brothers ...
For 35 years Mike Oldfield (b. 1953) has created work that melds progressive rock, folk, world music, classical music, electronic music, new age and dance. He is best known for his hit 1973 album Tubular Bells, which provided a theme for the movie The Exorcist, broke new ground as an instrumental concept album, ...
Alternative-rock guitarist Mike McCready (b. 1966) was born in Pensacola, Florida. His family moved to Seattle soon afterwards. He was 11 when he bought his first guitar and began to take lessons. In high school, McCready formed a band that disintegrated after they were unsuccessful in obtaining a record contract in Los Angeles. Disillusioned, he did not pick ...
(Multi-instrumentalist, b. 1953) A prodigiously talented musician, Oldfield played all the instruments on 1973’s Tubular Bells. This symphonic work was a transatlantic best-seller, helped by the use of its main theme in the movie The Exorcist (1973). Hergest Ridge (1974) was a British No. 1 whilst Ommadawn (1975) and Incantations (1978) displayed African and folk influences. Platinum (1979) ...
When the great Mississippi musician Riley King left the cotton fields to seek his fortune in Memphis in 1946, he had $2.50 in his pocket and a battered guitar in his hand. Today, his name is synonymous with blues music itself, yet his ascendance to the zenith of the blues world never altered his friendly, downhome ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1967–present) They were the most famous rock equivalent of a ‘brass band’ – founder member Al Kooper’s own description. With a sensational horn section always high in the mix, 1968’s Child Is Father To The Man established them a musicianly act that was to serve as role model for Colosseum and The Average White Band and the ...
Multitalented guitarist Carlos Santana was born the son of a mariachi musician in the Mexican town of Autlan de Navarro in 1947. The family moved to Tijuana when he was nine, and Carlos, who first played violin before changing to guitar, became interested in rock’n’roll and blues. At 13, he was earning money playing in cantinas and ...
Malcolm John ‘Mac’ Rebennack Jr., a.k.a. ‘Dr. John the Night Tripper’, was born in New Orleans in November 1940. The singer and pianist began his professional career while he was still a teenager. He backed local favourites including Joe Tex and Professor Longhair on guitar and keyboards, produced and arranged sessions at Cosmio Studio, also frequented ...
(Guitar, harmonica, vocals, b. 1942) The son of A&R genius John Hammond, this New York City native left home at the age of 19 to perform professionally. He remains primarily an acoustic player, in the tradition of the classic Delta musicians. Hammond cut a fine series of LPs during 1964–76, encapsulated on 2000’s Best Of ...
(Piano, synthesizer, b. 1932) Paul Bley came from Montreal to New York in the early 1950s and worked with Jackie McLean. Later, in Los Angeles, he pioneered free jazz with Ornette Coleman. Throughout his career Bley has performed the compositions of his ex-wives – keyboardist Carla Bley and singer/pianist Annette Peacock – and his own pieces, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1963–67) Harmonica player and singer Butterfield conditioned his band – Jerome Arnold (bass), Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield (guitars), Sam Lay (drums, vocals) and Mark Naftalin (keyboards) – in black Chicago clubs. They backed Dylan’s electric debut at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and helped to usher blues into the psychedelic era, with the groundbreaking East-West ...
His contemporaries Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck might receive more time in the spotlight, but guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (b. 1945) has been similarly influential and innovative during his 40-plus-year career. Born in Weston-Super-Mare, England, in April 1945, Blackmore was given his first guitar at the age of 11 and began taking classical lessons, ...
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