(Vocals, piano, b. 1964) From western Canada, Diana Krall attended Berklee School of Music, was encouraged to sing by Los Angeles-based pianist-singer Jimmy Rowles and was mentored by bassist Ray Brown. Her first trios, co-led by guitarist Russell Malone, emulated Nat ‘King’ Cole’s. Her accessible stylings led to international festival tours, bestselling recordings and ...
(Vocal group, 1961–77) The jewels in the crown of Motown’s golden years, The Supremes’ sophisticated act and sound were the TV-friendly face of soul music, winning them 12 No. 1s including a 1964–65 run of five in a row from hitmakers Holland-Dozier-Holland. Many, like: ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’, became pop classics. ...
(Guitar, singer-songwriter, b. 1954) One of new wave’s most celebrated songwriters, Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus) initially portrayed himself as an angry, revenge-obsessed young man before steadily maturing into a genre-straddling elder statesman. His cheeky appropriation of the name ‘Elvis’ was in tune with the iconoclastic mood of 1977, when his debut album My Aim Is ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1984–present) Gary, Indiana’s Kinsey brothers formed the Kinsey Report to support their father, Lester ‘Big Daddy’ Kinsey. In 1985 they recorded Bad Situation as Big Daddy Kinsey & the Kinsey Report. Led by Donald (guitar, vocals), who had been a sideman for Albert King and Bob Marley, the brothers signed with Alligator Records and ...
Vince Gill (b. 1957) broke out of a respected but static 10-year career as a bandmember and solo act and into country stardom with the 1990 hit ‘When I Call Your Name’. Gill was in the forefront of the neo-traditional country movement and became one of the biggest crossover singing stars in Nashville. It helped that he was an excellent country ...
By definition, a contemporary era defies summary. No one living in it has the conclusive perspective to discern the prevailing character of our times, even though we all know what we’re going through, and can hear what we hear. The reductive view is: Americans, after a burst stock-market bubble and terrorist attacks, live in uncertainty, ...
A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who have come together to play music. In theory, an ensemble could contain any number of instruments in any combination, but in practice, certain combinations just don’t work very well, either for musical reasons or because of the sheer practicality of getting particular instruments and players ...
‘Iphigenia in Tauris’ Gluck’s final tragédie for Paris, Iphigénie en Tauride, was his greatest success and is arguably his supreme achievement. With a tautly constructed libretto (by Nicolas-François Guillard, drawing on the play by Euripides), it represents the climax of Gluck’s efforts to ‘purify’ opera of dramatically superfluous decoration and display. The action moves forward swiftly and remorselessly. ...
‘Fidelity Rewarded’ Composed: 1780 Premiered: 1781, Eszterháza Libretto by Giambattista Lorenzi Act I Amaranta reads an inscription in the Temple of Diana describing how two lovers are to be offered to a sea monster every year until a hero sacrifices himself. Melibeo, the High Priest, chooses the victims and everyone has to be careful not to cross him. ...
1944–2013 English composer Tavener first had his music performed while studying at the Royal Academy of Music, but came to wider attention with the premiere of his dramatic cantata The Whale at the London Sinfonietta’s inaugural concert in 1968. The Beatles’ Apple label recorded both it and Tavener’s next work, the Celtic Requiem – an often unsettling blend of ...
1567–1643, Italian Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi was born in Cremona and began his illustrious career as a choirboy in the town’s cathedral. By the time he was 20, he had already published the first of his eventual nine books of secular madrigals. He was also a skilled composer of motets. Monteverdi’s horizons expanded in 1591 when he joined the ...
From a shy piano player, Elton John became one of the most extrovert performers of the 1970s. He has sold over 250 million records worldwide and is now almost a national institution. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947, he won a part-time piano scholarship to London’s Royal Academy Of Music at the age of 11. By the ...
(Vocal group, 1955–65) New Yorker Lymon (1942–68) was invited to join a school vocal group with Sherman Gaines (1940–78), Jimmy Merchant, Joe Negroni and Herman Santiago. Before finding Lymon, the others, who were known as The Premiers, were working on a song they had written, but needed a soprano lead voice, a vacancy Lymon ...
It makes sense that Australia would be the one country outside North America to develop an important country-music scene of its own. Like the USA and Canada, Australia had a large, under-populated frontier that was settled by English, Irish and Scotch immigrants who brought their folk songs with them. Roughened and toughened by frontier life, those songs ...
(Vocals, b. 1949) Alabama-born Richie was in several R&B bands before he signed to Motown with The Commodores. He penned and sang most of their biggest hits like ‘Easy’, ‘Three Times A Lady’ and ‘Still’, all massive smashes during the 1970s. He branched out with Diana Ross on 1981’s ‘Endless Love’. He then went solo and his skill as a ...
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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.