In the early 1980s, as the new wave of British heavy metal was taking the US by storm, an American music revolution called ‘thrash metal’ was brewing, combining the heavy sounds of metal with the unabashed aggression and speed of punk. At the centre of this sonic storm was a young quartet called Megadeth, which featured the ...
Charlie Christian (1916–42) pushed guitar to the forefront of the big-band era, furthering the instrument’s evolution from a provider of acoustic accompaniment to an electrified foreground instrument that could pound out rhythm like a drum set or solo out front like a horn. His playing, in fact, was likened to jazz horn players who were leading the evolution ...
(Yo’-han Krest’-yan Bakh) 1735–82 German composer J. S. Bach’s youngest son was known as the London Bach. Earlier he was the Milan Bach: after studying with his father and his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin, he had gone to Italy, studying in Bologna, embracing Roman Catholicism and becoming organist at Milan Cathedral, and composing operas for theatres ...
(Khres’-tof Vil’-le-balt fun Glook) 1714–87 Bohemian composer Gluck was born in Erasbach, by the Czech-German border; his native language may well have been Czech. His father, a forester, was opposed to a musical career, but the boy left home at 13 to study in Prague, where he took musical posts and went briefly to the university. At ...
A product of the spiritual searching of the 1960s, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) has always been controversial. Combining rock’n’roll with a Bible-based message has seemed profane to some and artistically invalid to others. Despite such criticisms, CCM has attracted millions of loyal fans and given rise to a host of gold- and platinum-selling artists. There’s ambiguity as to what ...
Being perched at the top of the charts on 25 December has represented a prestigious achievement for musicians since the dawn of the pop era, while the shopping frenzy of the festive period makes it one of the most potentially profitable times to release a record. It wasn’t always that way: the original Yuletide songs were church carols that endure ...
(Ga’-ôrg Kres’-tof Va’-gen-zil) 1715–77 Austrian composer A Viennese, and a pupil of Johann Joseph Fux (1660–1741), Wagenseil obtained a post as court composer in 1739 and held it all his life. His early compositions are largely sacred music, including richly scored, elaborately written Masses, and in 1745–50 he wrote several operas. He is principally important for his instrumental ...
Charlie Christian was the last great figure to emerge from the jazz scene of the 1930s. He not only brought a perfectly formed approach to his music, but also an entirely new musical platform – the electric guitar. His career in the big time was brief, but Christian was a lighthouse whose beam still illuminates anyone with serious intentions ...
(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 ...
(Guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, vocals, b. 1964) Multi-talented King began in the footsteps of his father – Baton Rouge, Louisiana juke bluesman Tabby Thomas. King has mastered traditional electric and acoustic blues. He also performs and records rock- and rap-blues hybrids. In 2000 he appeared as Tommy Johnson in O Brother, Where Art Thou ...
(Various saxophones, b. 1971) A Chicago native, Chris Potter emerged professionally in bebop trumpeter Red Rodney’s combo, before moving on to featured roles in the Mingus Big Band and bassist Dave Holland’s quintet and big band. Potter became the youngest musician to win Denmark’s prestigious and financially valuable Jazzpar Prize in 2000. Personally self-effacing, Potter is a ...
(Vocals, guitar, songwriter, 1948–2005) Chris LeDoux lived out many people’s fantasies of being a genuine cowboy and touring rodeo shows as a musician. Garth Brooks paid tribute to him in the song ‘Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)’, and was backing vocalist on LeDoux’s Top 10 single, ‘Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy’ (1992), LeDoux ...
1735–82, German Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of J. S. Bach (1685–1750), acquired a more thorough training in opera than most contemporary composers, studying first in Germany and afterwards in Italy. Consequently, his operas combined both styles. As a composer, Johann Christian concentrated initially on church music, but he soon transferred his talents to ...
1714–87, German Famous above all as the composer of Orfeo ed Euridice, Christoph Willibald von Gluck was, more than anyone, responsible for purging opera of what he dubbed the ‘abuses’ of opera seria in favour of ‘beautiful simplicity’, emotional directness and dramatic truth. From Bohemia to Vienna Born in the small town of Erasbach in the Upper ...
‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ When the Emperor Franz I and his retinue attended the premiere of Orfeo ed Euridice at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762, they were doubtless expecting a lightweight pastoral entertainment. The occasion – the emperor’s name day – and the opera’s billing as an azione teatrale (literally ‘theatrical action’) promised as much. What they got ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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