(Guitar, vocals, 1905–74) Arthur William Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi and did not learn to play the guitar until his 30s. He worked functions in the Clarksdale area before moving to Chicago in 1940, signing with Bluebird in 1941 and finding considerable popularity on record. He returned to Mississippi after the Second World War and worked ...
(Vocals, piano, 1940–2005) One of the few black rockabilly performers, Downing – from Lenapah, Oklahoma – was in fact a musical chameleon who tried just about every style of popular music during his long career. While a member of The Poe-Kats he played piano on several Wanda Jackson rockabilly recordings, as well as cut rockers himself ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1984–95) Mick Jones followed his stint as a founder member of The Clash with the genre-hopping BAD. He enlisted filmmaker Don Letts on ‘effects’ and adventurously married punk, hip hop and electronica on 1985’s This Is BAD. The album’s single, ‘E=MC2’ scored highly in the UK. Jones recruited old chum Joe Strummer for the similar No. ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1893–1958) A powerful guitarist and prolific composer, Big Bill Broonzy linked the Mississippi delta blues of Robert Johnson with the electrified Chicago sound of Muddy Waters and others. Broonzy was recognized early on by the nascent folk music movement in the 1940s. Underappreciated in America, he gained a wide following in Europe through live performances ...
The parents of William Lee Conley Broonzy were born into slavery. He was born in June 1893 in Scott, Mississippi, one of 17 children. Raised on a farm in Arkansas, Broonzy’s first musical instrument was a home-made violin, which he played at church and social functions. In the early teens he was an itinerant preacher, while ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1981–2001) Stuart Adamson began with Scottish punk band The Skids. His Caledonian heritage came to the fore with Big Country, as he employed guitar gizmos to create a choral ‘bagpipe’ sound. The epic, yearning songs of debut album The Crossing (1983) played well in America. The follow-up, the more political Steeltown (1984), was a UK ...
(Tenor saxophone, b. 1927) Cecil James McNeely was born and raised in Los Angeles. Inspired by Illinois Jacquet, McNeely played in high school with future jazz stars Sonny Criss and Hampton Hawes. He was discovered by Johnny Otis and made his recording debut in 1948 with a number-one hit, ‘Deacon’s Hop’. He had another hit in 1959 with ...
Joseph Vernon Turner was born on 18 May 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. He dropped out of school after sixth grade and worked with blind singers on the streets. The blues was in the air in Kansas City and when Turner joined in with the street singers he would make up blues lyrics. Turner was functionally illiterate and never learned ...
(Vocals, 1911–85) Big Joe Turner’s tenure as ‘Boss of the Blues’ is dominated by one song, ‘Shake, Rattle And Roll’, which became an early rock’n’roll anthem as recorded by white artists Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. But Turner’s long career and legacy of R&B hits includes boogies like ‘Roll ‘Em Pete’, the seminal blues of ‘Cherry Red’, and ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1903–82) Joe Lee Williams was born in Crawford, Mississippi to tenant farmer parents and by the age of five he was playing a homemade guitar. He left home in 1915 to hobo through the South. Williams worked tent shows and medicine shows with a jug band and as a soloist from 1918–24. Often accompanied by Little ...
(Piano, vocals, 1905–53) Major Merriweather was born in Georgia and taught himself to play piano. He moved to Detroit in 1924 and worked at the Ford Motor Company, also playing jobs, mostly as a soloist, before moving to Chicago. There he developed a friendship with Tampa Red and they recorded for Bluebird in 1941. His ‘Worried ...
(Harmonica, vocals, 1926–84) Willie Mae Thornton was born in Montgomery, Alabama. She settled in Houston, Texas in 1948 and began recording for the Peacock label in 1951. She toured with Johnny Otis in 1952–53 and recorded her number-one R&B hit, ‘Hound Dog’, with his band. The record, famously covered by Elvis Presley, enabled her ...
(Vocals, 1926–84) Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton had a big, no-nonsense voice perfect for the blues, yet she was able to manage only one big R&B hit with a song that soon became associated with Elvis Presley, leaving her original version in the dust. Thornton’s recording of ‘Hound Dog’ topped Billboard’s R&B chart for seven weeks in ...
(Drums, 1910–51) Catlett was one of the most well-respected and versatile jazz drummers of the 1930s and 1940s. He played in a variety of ensembles under such luminaries as Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, before going on to join Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars. Catlett’s remarkable adaptability enabled him to play in a wide range ...
(Harmonica, vocals, 1918–61) Walter Horton was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi. He taught himself harmonica at the age of five and was working the streets shortly thereafter. He moved to Chicago in 1940 but it wasn’t until later in the decade that he began to be more active professionally. Horton replaced Junior Wells in the Muddy Waters Band ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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...
CURATED
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.