Personalities

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Legendary ‘lost’ psychedelic genius Syd Barrett was born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge in 1946. He learned to play guitar at the age of 14 and formed his first band in 1965. While attending art college in London, he joined the embryonic Pink Floyd. Floyd began by playing blues and rhythm and blues covers, but soon developed the improvisational style that made them the premier band of London’s underground scene. In ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
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(Trombone, b. 1930) Chris Barber has been a key figure on the British traditional jazz scene since he broke away from Ken Colyer’s band to lead his own group in 1954. The band was one of the leading names in the so-called ‘trad boom’ of the late 1950s. It became the Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band – with the addition of electric guitar – in 1968, and brought fresh arrangements ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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(Guitar, vocals, b. 1955) Born in East Orange, New Jersey, Mooney grew up in Rochester, New York, where he joined Joe Beard’s group at 15 and studied slide with Delta giant Son House. In 1976 he moved to New Orleans, where he began to concoct an electric style that blended Crescent City funk rhythms with traditional blues, gelling on his 2000 album Gone To Hell. Today Mooney performs and records both ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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Born on 12 September 1931, near Saratoga, Texas, in a remote region of East Texas known as The Big Thicket, George Glenn Jones is widely considered to be country music’s quintessential honky-tonk singer and probably the most influential artist to come along since Hank Williams’ death in 1953. Throughout his 50 years of record-making, Jones has remained steadfastly faithful to the unadorned 1950s honky-tonk vocal approach pioneered by early 1950s ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen
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1911–2007, Italian One of the most important opera composers during the 1950s, Menotti had already written two operas by the time he entered the Milan Conservatory aged 13, and he would go on to write 23 more. He later moved to America and studied at the Curtis Institute, where he met his lifelong companion and inspiration, Samuel Barber. Menotti’s music is derived from the Puccini school of verismo, and his theatricality often ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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1888–1976 English soprano Teyte started in Paris, where she appeared at the Opéra-Comique. In 1908 she was chosen by Debussy to succeed Mary Garden 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 ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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(Piano, 1918–80) A New Orleans native, Roy Byrd brought an irresistible Caribbean feel to his piano-playing. The shaggy-haired Byrd got the nickname Professor Longhair from a club owner in 1948. Longhair first recorded his signature ‘Mardi Gras In New Orleans’ in 1949, the national R&B hit ‘Bald Head’ in 1950, and ‘Tipitina’ in 1953. Longhair endured tough times in the 1960s but enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970s. His work influenced ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley
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(Vocal group, 1969–73, 1980–83) A British progressive rock band founded by ex-Crazy World Of Arthur Brown members Vincent Crane (organ) and Carl Palmer (drums), plus bassist Nick Graham. After one self-titled album in 1970, Palmer and Graham left and were replaced by John Cann (guitar, vocals) and Paul Hammond (drums), scoring two UK hit singles ‘Tomorrow Night’ and ‘Devil’s Answer’ but fragmenting after two albums, Atomic Rooster finally folded after one ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley
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(Vocals, b. 1970) By making music that incorporates eclectic influences from folk, hip hop, rock, electronica and studio prowess, Beck Hansen has become one of the most influential American solo artists. Early EPs, albums and singles like the classic ‘Loser’ were released on a variety of labels. When Beck signed to Geffen he retained the unheard-of right to release material on other labels. Odelay (1996) delivered every promise. Mutations (1998) was ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley
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(Vocal group, 1998–present) Fourteen UK No. 1s and albums sales of over 45 million perhaps say more about the obsessive (and young) nature of Westlife’s fan base than their actual music. A clean-cut Irish boy band – Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and (originally) Brian McFadden – formed in the image of Boyzone and Take That before them, they produce radio-friendly, often ballad-driven pop that does little to ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley
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Southern blues-rock guitarist Dickey Betts was born in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1943. Betts was leading a group called The Second Coming when he met and jammed with the other members of what soon became The Allman Brothers Band. His role as second lead guitarist and his partnership with Duane Allman gave the band their trademark dual-lead sound, which was captured at its most potent on The Allmans’ seminal double ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
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(Trumpet, producer, composer, b. 1918) Davis Louis Bartholomew was born in Edgard, Louisiana. He was one of the most prominent bandleaders in New Orleans in the mid-1940s. He recorded for DeLuxe, King and Imperial during the 1940s and 1950s, but is best known as the producer, bandleader and songwriting partner of Fats Domino, whom he produced at Imperial from 1949 into the 1960s. He also produced Smiley Lewis, the Spiders, Snooks ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
99 Words Read More

(Vocal/instrumental group, 1977–present) The Neville Brothers – Art (keyboards, vocals), Aaron (percussion, vocals), Charles (saxophone, vocals) and Cyril (percussion, vocals) – have been one of New Orleans’ foremost musical families since 1954. Art led Allen Toussaint’s house band (the Meters) from the late 1960s, before convening his brothers into a unit in 1976. They released the successful Fiyo On The Bayou in 1981 and since then have made consistently good albums ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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James Travis Reeves, born in Galloway, Texas, on 20 August 1924, was one of the most talented singers to find his voice and define his musical style during the late 1950s’ emergence of the Nashville sound. Like Eddy Arnold and Ray Price (in his post-honky-tonk years), Reeves possessed a warm, reflective baritone that conveyed warmth and earnestness when framed by understated, easy-listening style arrangements of pianos and subdued background vocals. Early ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen
764 Words Read More

c. 1586–1639, Italian Stefano Landi, who was born and gained his musical training in Rome, became maestro di cappella to the bishop of Padua in around 1618. The next year, Landi’s La morte d’Orfeo (‘The Death of Orpheus’, 1619) was performed in Rome, where the composer returned in 1620. Four years later, Landi was appointed maestro di cappella at Santa Maria dei Monti, and he joined the papal choir in 1629. ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
235 Words Read More
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