(Disc jockey, 1922–65) Freed, the DJ who gave rock’n’roll its name, fronted Moondog’s Rock’n’Roll Party at Cleveland’s WJW radio station, where he programmed mainly black R&B plus some early white rock’n’roll records. His vocal jive delighted his audience, and he also appeared in several early rock’n’roll exploitation movies, including Rock Around The Clock, Rock ...
(Vocals, songwriter, guitar, b. 1958) Georgia-born Jackson moved to Nashville in 1985. His rise to fame came after a chance meeting between his wife, Denise, and Glen Campbell, and before long, he was a staff songwriter at Campbell’s music-publishing company. A traditionalist blue-collar act, he was the first signing to Arista’s Nashville branch ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1977–90) Studio engineer Parsons (b. 1948) had been involved with the engineering of The Beatles’ Abbey Road (1969) and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) before he became a producer and, briefly, artist in conjunction with songwriter Eric Woolfson. A string of immaculately played and produced concept albums featuring guest singers and musicians ...
(Folklorists, John Avery Lomax 1867–1948; Alan Lomax 1915–2002) John Lomax was born in Goodman, Mississippi and raised near Fort Worth, Texas. Although his initial interest lay in cowboy songs, a pre-teen friendship with a servant named Nat Blythe sparked an interest in black music. With the 1910 publication of Cowboy Songs And Other Frontier Ballads, his ...
Almost no Texan musicians have ever herded cattle, but most like to think of themselves as cowboys nonetheless. They imagine themselves pulling out an acoustic guitar after dinner and singing a song about the adventures and frustrations they have known. And not just any old song – it has to be one they wrote and it has to be more ...
There can be few environments as challenging and exciting to the musician as the recording studio. Since the post-war introduction of the magnetic tape recorder, the technology used to capture musical performance has become an increasingly important part of our culture. The studio has long been more than simply an acoustically pleasing environment in which to capture and document a ...
As the worldwide success of artists such as Shakira, Björk and Baha Men proves, world music is not antithetical to pop music, or to dance music, or to any other music form. For artists like India’s Ravi Shankar, the music of their world is classical music; for many Latin musicians, it is jazz; for others ...
First performed at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden on 1 December 1951, this adaptation of Herman Melville’s short story saw E. M. Forster writing large portions of prose while Eric Crozier focused on the dramatic execution. Accordingly, Billy Budd was one of the most meticulously researched and well-written librettos of any Benjamin Britten opera. Typically for ...
1907–82 English pianist Curzon studied in Berlin and Paris. He toured Europe from 1932 and America from 1939. He gave the first performance of works by Lennox Berkeley and Alan Rawsthorne, but was associated mainly with the Classical repertory, especially Mozart. His recordings include the First Piano Concerto by Brahms, conducted by Szell. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1972–82, 1989–present) The blue-eyed soul of Scots Alan Gorrie (vocals, bass), Malcolm Duncan (saxophone), Owen McIntyre (vocals, guitar), Hamish Stuart (vocals, guitar), Roger Ball (keyboards) and Robbie McIntosh (drums) topped the US charts in 1975 with the album AWB and single ‘Pick Up The Pieces’. After dabbling in disco with ‘Let’s Go Round Again’, ...
Although Bakersfield had already played host to a number of country-music artists, it was Buck Owens (1929–2006) who not only put it on the map, but also spread its name around the world. So great was his impact, some even called it ‘Buckersfield’. The Road To Bakersfield Hailing from Sherman, Texas, and born Alvis Edgar Owens ...
Charles Edward Anderson Berry, known to all as Chuck, was born in St Louis, Missouri, on 18 October 1926, at the family’s home in Goode Avenue. The local gospel choir used it for their rehearsals and there was a well-employed piano in situ. Berry began learning the guitar in his mid-teens. At 17 he was involved ...
(Vocals, b. 1938) New Jersey-born Concetta Franconero appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s TV talent show, and while still at university, signed to MGM Records. 1958’s UK chart topper, ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ was the first of eight mainly sentimental million-selling US hits, including 1959’s ‘Among My Souvenirs’, and 1960’s ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’, the first of three US No. ...
(Vocal group, 1977–90) This arty new wave outfit from Akron, Ohio, comprised Mark Mothersbaugh (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar, vocals), Bob Casale (guitar, vocals), Gerald Casale (bass, vocals) and Alan Myers (drums). Devo’s influential electronic music embraced robotic and mechanical elements and is heard at its most potent on the debut album ...
(Vocals, b. 1967) Born Audrey Faith Perry, Hill moved to Nashville in 1986, where she was discovered singing back-up to singer-songwriter Gary Burr at the Bluebird Café. Hill made an instant and huge impact when in 1994 her debut single, ‘Wild One’, topped the country chart for four weeks. Effortlessly crossing over to pop, her Take ...
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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.