(Drums, bandleader, 1909–39) Associated with the Savoy Ballroom from 1927, the Chick Webb band built a large audience in Harlem. In the 1930s arranger Edgar Sampson became the chief architect of its swinging style, which was propelled by Webb’s dynamic drumming and flashy solos, crackling with rim shots. He inspired Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and ...
When Vassar Clements formed a band called Hillbilly Jazz in 1975, Bill Monroe’s former fiddler pulled the cover off the hidden connection between country music and jazz. The two genres had more in common than most people thought. After all, Jimmie Rodgers recorded with Louis Armstrong early in their careers; jazz legend Charlie Christian debuted on Bob Wills’ radio ...
Al Di Meola (b. 1954) rose to the top tier of contemporary jazz guitarists through his work with Chick Corea’s Return To Forever in the Seventies. In addition to a prolific solo career, he has collaborated on projects with bassist Stanley Clarke, keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and guitarists John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. Al Laurence ...
Benny Goodman was the first of the great bandleader virtuosos of the 1930s to achieve global success. Through a combination of personal connections, nerve, enormous talent and sheer luck, he parlayed a sequence of opportunities in 1934–35 into a payoff that changed American music. After forming his first band in New York in 1934, he won a ...
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 ...
(Vocals, b. 1950) A vocal gymnast and daring improviser, McFerrin is one of the most distinctive and uncategorizable singers in contemporary music. His remarkable range (he makes uncanny leaps from deep bass tones to the highest falsetto zone), elastic delivery and incredibly open-minded nature allow him to convincingly cover everything from pop, R&B, jazz and rock to ...
(Vocals, 1917–96) Sixteen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald joined Chick Webb’s band in 1934 and became its biggest attraction. After Webb’s death in 1939 she became titular leader of the orchestra, which continued until 1942; she then worked as a solo artist. After the war Fitzgerald revealed an uncanny talent for bebop scat singing; it drew the attention of Norman Granz, ...
(Clarinet, bassoon, 1902–91) Jazz’s first double-reed specialist on bassoon, Bushell played with Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds before a two-year stint with Sam Wooding’s Orchestra (1925–27). In 1928 he formed the Louisiana Sugar Babies with Fats Waller and Jabbo Smith, and he later worked with Otto Hardwick (1931), Fess Williams (1933), Fletcher Henderson (1935–36), Cab Calloway (1936–37) and ...
(Vibraphone, b. 1943) Gary Burton is one of the most impressive vibists in jazz, at times using four mallets in order to harmonize with himself. He began his career in country music with guitarist Hank Garland, played jazz with George Shearing and Stan Getz, and then helped to instigate the jazz-rock fusion movement through his group with ...
John McLaughlin (b. 1942) led the Mahavishnu Orchestra and a series of other bands that stretched the boundaries of jazz-rock fusion and world music, as he inspired guitarists worldwide with his inventiveness and devotion to exotic sounds and spirituality. McLaughlin started on guitar when he was 11 and was initially inspired by blues and swing players. McLaughlin worked with Alexis ...
Larry Coryell (b. 1943), a father of jazz-rock fusion, has recorded more than 70 albums over the past 35 years. Born in Galveston, Texas, Coryell tried his hand at a number of instruments before settling on the guitar. Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry and Wes Montgomery were major influences. As a child Coryell studied piano, switching to ...
(Vocals, b. 1982) Country singer Rimes scored her first hit single ‘Blue’ (1995) – originally written for Patsy Cline – at the tender age of 13. Her subsequent album Blue (1996) – amazingly, her second – sold vastly. Her career gained momentum via Sittin’ On Top Of The World (1998), which spawned the international hit ‘How Do I Live’. ...
(Alto saxophone, vocals, bandleader, 1908–75) Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five were major stars in the 1940s, providing energized recordings and exciting live shows. The alto saxophonist began by playing in swing bands, including Chick Webb’s, but in 1938 he gambled on the success of his own personality, fronting a small group playing in ...
(Trumpet, 1911–93) Mario Bauzá takes a large amount of credit for bringing music from his native Cuba into jazz. He worked with Noble Sissle and Chick Webb in New York in the 1930s before teaming up with Machito. While with Cab Calloway in 1939–40 he sparked Dizzy Gillespie’s interest in Cuban music, which eventually led to ‘Cubop’. He was ...
The history of post-war jazz tracked the musical development of Miles Dewey Davis III so closely that it is tempting to see the trumpeter as the orchestrator of each of the most significant stylistic shifts of the era. With the notable exception of free jazz, Miles seemed to trigger a new seismic shift in the music with each passing decade. ...
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...
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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.