(Vocals, 1924–63) Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and raised in Chicago. She joined Lionel Hampton’s band in 1943 and made her first recordings that year. Included were the hits ‘Salty Papa Blues’ and ‘Evil Gal Blues’. She left Hampton in 1945 and signed with Mercury records in 1946. Her recorded output included all kinds of material ...
(Vocals, 1924–63) Dinah Washington influenced countless R&B and jazz singers, including Nancy Wilson and Esther Phillips. Born Ruth Lee Jones, the young singer moved quickly from her gospel roots to become a pro pianist, big band singer with Lionel Hampton and jazz and blues solo artist. After Washington’s ‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’ became a major ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1943) This New Orleans guitarist started out accompanying R&B singers, but as a leader in the 1970s he developed a strong local following and gradually crossed over to wider audiences through appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He debuted on Rounder Records in 1986 with the funky Wolf Tracks, following up ...
Bessie Smith was one of the greatest vocalists of the twentieth century; her emotional delivery and exquisite phrasing has been an influence on instrumentalists as well as innumerable singers, both male and female. Many of her records, including ‘Gimmie a Pigfoot’, ‘Woman’s Trouble Blues’, ‘St. Louis Blues’ and the song that became an anthem of the Great Depression, ...
(Piano, electronic keyboards, b. 1932) Born in Vienna, Josef Zawinul was 27 when he arrived in the US on a music scholarship, but this relatively late start did not prevent him from becoming an enormously influential composer and bandleader. Following brief stints with Dinah Washington and Maynard Ferguson, Zawinul joined Cannonball Adderley’s band as musical director ...
(Vibraphone, 1930–90) Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton’s long career included roles as sideman, bandleader, and cultural force that extended beyond the jazz world. Beginning as a drummer, he switched to vibes at the suggestion of Louis Armstrong, and then broke the colour barrier as a member of Benny Goodman’s legendary big band. Hampton’s own groups melded swing with ...
Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born in Linden, Texas on 28 May 1910, the only child of Rance and Movelia Walker. The family moved to Dallas in 1912 and as a pre-teen Walker would lead Blind Lemon Jefferson around the Dallas streets. He taught himself guitar and worked streets and functions until he toured with various travelling shows in the ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1910–75) Dallas-bred Aaron Walker was soloing on electric guitar as early as 1940, setting a trend that would eventually be the most commonplace image in rock music. B.B. King marvelled at Walker’s ability to play while holding the guitar away from his body. Walker left Texas in the 1930s and alternated between sessions and performances ...
Rhythm & blues (R&B) music evolved out of jump blues rhythms during the late-1940s, but it also had riffs and lyrics that were beginning to point more towards the emergence of rock’n’roll. Using sparser instrumentation than jump blues, R&B was based upon traditional blues chord changes played over a steady backbeat. R&B placed more emphasis on the singer ...
The 1940s encompassed a wide range of musical art, reflecting extremes of economic hardship and recovery, global war and rebuilding. Empowered by necessarily full-tilt production, US industry recovered from the Depression, though the cream of its youth was siphoned off to fight on distant fronts, and returned to a strange new world. Great Britain suffered air ...
The cultural momentum of the 1950s spilled directly into the 1960s – arguably, the change of the decade (and century) in jazz was 1959, when Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Sun ...
The Enlightenment was a natural, if late, consequence of the sixteenth-century Renaissance and Reformation. Also known as the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment advanced to be recognized in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and brought with it new, controversial beliefs that upended the absolutisms on which European society had long been based. Absolute monarchy, ...
Contemporary music whose ancestry lies in the Western classical tradition finds itself in a curious position. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that we are not entirely sure what to call it. The label ‘classical’ seems anachronistic, especially when applied to composers who have challenged some of the fundamental assumptions of the classical tradition. ‘Concert music’ is similarly problematic ...
Although the art of the classical singer has traditionally been perceived as the pursuit of technical perfection and tonal beauty, the twentieth century enabled a re-evaluation of what that art should be. Due in part to the technological advances and harrowing events of the times, much of the music was innovative, challenging, moving, powerful and, ...
The saxophone occupies an unusual position in that it is a bespoke instrument that has barely changed since its creation. Although it does not occupy the position in the orchestra its creator had envisaged, Adolphe Sax’s invention has played a central part in music ever since it burst on to the scene in the 1840s. Sax’s father, Charles, ...
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.