(Tenor and soprano saxophones, b. 1965) Ravi Coltrane, the son of Alice and John Coltrane, faces problematic expectations to which he has responded with modesty and genuine accomplishment. Raised by his spiritually devout mother, Ravi joined Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones’s band in his early 20s. The loosely organized Brooklyn M-Base Collective supported his individuality and, while touched ...
Producer-performer Lenny Kravitz (b. 1964) has explored multiple genres during his 25-year career as a music star, but has often been thought of as married to retro styles. Born in New York, Kravitz was raised in Los Angeles. His parents, a television producer and an actress, were well connected in show business. Kravitz decided to pursue rock’n’roll ...
By the time John Coltrane died in 1967 at the age of 40, he had experienced one of the most remarkable careers in music. ‘Trane’ was a compelling voice who contributed to some of jazz’s greatest innovations, from bebop to free jazz, resulting in both controversy and enduring success through critical and popular acclaim. Revered during his lifetime ...
Merle Travis was both a vital cog in the development of the West Coast country scene and a major influence on a whole generation of guitarists. Highly innovative, he had a style of three-finger playing named after him – ‘Travis picking’ – and the equally skilled Chet Atkins well acknowledged the Travis influence, although the latter modestly shrugged off ...
Born Randy Bruce Traywick on 4 May 1959 in North Carolina, Randy Travis won a talent show at the age of 16, but found his music career progressed painfully slow. Hankering after a more exciting lifestyle, he dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. Music eventually came to his aid, but not without a great ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1963) James Travis Tritt burst on to the country-music scene in 1989 with a Top 10 single, ‘Country Club’. Utilizing strains of southern rock and expressing emotions of everyday people, he gained an audience with such singles as 1991’s ‘Here’s A Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)’, his second chart-topper, ‘Anymore’, and ‘The Whiskey ...
‘The Fallen Woman’ La dame aux camélias (‘The Lady of the Camellias’) by Alexandre Dumas had barely been staged in 1852 before Verdi took it up for La traviata, one of the great operas from his middle period. It premiered at Teatro La Fenice, Venice on 6 March 1853, and the first performance was disastrous. Verdi blamed the ...
When Stravinsky attended a Hogarth exhibition at the Art Institute in Chicago, he was so captivated by the natural narrative of certain images that he wanted to use them as the basis for an English-language opera. At the recommendation of his friend Aldous Huxley, Stravinsky contacted the poet W. H. Auden, and the two of them subsequently set ...
1882–1971, Russian Stravinsky, who was born in Oranienbaum, Russia, and died in New York, is one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. A master of style, he could create sound palettes as extreme and varied as any written during his lifetime, even if these extremes stemmed from his refusal to associate ...
Based on a series of eight Hogarth paintings, this opera was first performed on 11 September 1951 at Il Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky’s neo-classical style maintains a clear delineation of musical numbers separated by recitatives (accompanied by harpsichord), and as such it has often been considered a stylistic companion to the works of ...
(E’-gor Strvin’-ske) 1882–1971 Russian composer Stravinsky was a Russian composer, naturalized to French citizenship, then ultimately became American. He was one of the most formative influences on twentieth-century music. He came from a musical background (his father was principal bass singer at the Imperial Opera in St Petersburg) and studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, from whom he acquired a mastery ...
1906–87 Russian conductor After studying at the Leningrad Conservatory, Mravinsky was conductor of the Leningrad Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre – now the Mariinsky Theatre, housing the Kirov companies – between 1932 and 1938. From 1938 he was chief conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, which he built up into a world-class ensemble. He excelled in the music ...
(Multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter, b. 1964) Accused of being ‘retro’ when first emerging in 1989, Lenny Kravitz proved a trendsetter. Inspired by 1960s and 1970s icons like Led Zeppelin, The Who and Jimi Hendrix, Kravitz developed a similarly warm, guitar-led sound that became hugely popular. Mama Said (1991) and Are You Gonna Go My Way ...
(Piano, b. 1966) The son of Broadway composer Moose Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart, Bill Charlap was inducted into professional jazz by Gerry Mulligan and has been critically acclaimed for his deft playing, superb taste and unfailing swing feel. In 2004 he succeeded pianist Dick Hyman as director of the long-established, prestigious jazz series at New York’s ...
The saxophone occupies an unusual position in that it is a bespoke instrument that has barely changed since its creation. Although it does not occupy the position in the orchestra its creator had envisaged, Adolphe Sax’s invention has played a central part in music ever since it burst on to the scene in the 1840s. Sax’s father, Charles, ...
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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.