(Instrumental group, 1958–65) Bassist Black helped create the rockabilly sound on Elvis Presley’s Sun recordings and in the singer’s live performances from 1954–58 with guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana. Ironically, Black became better known commercially through a string of instrumental hits with The Bill Black Combo, a group he formed after leaving Presley in a ...
Bill Frisell (b. 1951) is a North American guitarist and composer who built an eclectic career creating guitar music in several disciplines and genres. He was born William Richard ‘Bill’ Frisell in Baltimore, Maryland, but spent most of his youth in the Denver area. He went to the University of Northern Colorado, where he studied guitar with Johnny ...
Billy F. Gibbons (b. 1949), also known as the Reverend Willie G, led his Texas boogie band, ZZ Top, to international superstardom in the early days of MTV, combining a unique image with driving Southern rock and a series of eye-catching videos. At the music’s core was Gibbons’ tasteful blend of rhythmic crunch and fiery soloing, ...
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, ...
Frank Anthony Iommi (b. 1948) was born in Birmingham, England. Like so many other teenage boys in 1960s Britain, he was inspired to pick up the guitar upon hearing Hank Marvin and The Shadows. In 1967, after playing in various local acts, Iommi hooked up with three former school mates – Bill Ward (drums), Terry ‘Geezer’ Butler ...
Brooklyn’s Steve Stevens (b. 1959) grew up as a fan of progressive rock and honed his chops by studying guitar at Manhattan’s LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. He worked the Long Island and Manhattan club scenes with bands and eventually was hired for session work, including tracks for ex-Kiss drummer Peter Criss. But Stevens’ star really began to shine ...
Alternative-rock guitarist Billy Corgan (b. 1967) was born in Chicago, Illinois. Shortly after starting high school, Corgan began to learn guitar on an imitation Gibson Les Paul. His father, a musician, suggested that Billy listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix but refused to teach him to play; consequently, Corgan was self-taught. His early influences were ...
A slapped upright bass, twanging lead guitar and acoustic rhythm guitar; a blues structure with country and blues inflections; a strong beat and moderate-to-fast tempo; a wild, yelping, often stuttering vocal style, together with plenty of echo on the recordings are the main ingredients of rockabilly. The rockabilly style was an eclectic hybrid of R&B, hillbilly ...
By the end of the 1980s, thrash metal was on its last legs. Metallica and Slayer were on the path towards acceptance by the mainstream and it seemed as though heavy metal was in danger of losing not only the extremity upon which it had been founded, but also its shock value. How ill-founded those assumptions turned out to ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1903–62) Francis ‘Scrapper’ Blackwell is best known as Leroy Carr’s musical partner, but he was also a gifted artist in his own right. In 1928 he recorded ‘Kokomo Blues’, which Kokomo Arnold covered as ‘Original Old Kokomo Blues’, before Robert Johnson retooled it as ‘Sweet Home Chicago’. After Carr died in 1935, Blackwell retired from ...
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 ...
(Vocals, 1908–67) A crooner and scat singer, Billy Banks was a protégé of agency impresario Irving Mills. He headlined a handful of legendary records in 1932 by the Rhythmakers – less interesting for his vocals than for the punchy, eccentric work of the all-star band, which included Henry ‘Red’ Allen, Pee Wee Russell, Fats Waller ...
Billie Holiday was entirely untrained as a singer, but drew on the example of popular recording artists such as Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong in developing her musical approach. She was able to make much of poor songs as well as great ones. Her phrasing, intonation, attention to the weight and nuance of lyrics, and her lightly ...
(Vocals, 1914–93) Billy Eckstine’s smooth baritone voice and suave manner brought his music to a wide audience. He joined pianist Earl Hines in Chicago in 1939 and then led a big band from 1944–47 that many see as the cradle of bebop, although few recordings survive. He was one of the few black singers to be featured on national ...
Bill Evans was one of the most lyrical and romantic of all jazz pianists. His distinctive lightness of touch and singing tone on the piano shone most brightly in his favoured trio settings with compatible bass players and drummers, including famous line-ups that featured Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, and later Eddie Gomez and Marty Morrell. Evans was born ...
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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.