(Trumpet, vocals, 1905–97) Adolphus Cheatham played in countless bands and small groups in the 1920s, before settling in the Cab Calloway orchestra in 1931. He remained with Calloway until 1939, after which he resumed work with a variety of bands. He didn’t emerge as a soloist until the 1960s, working with George Wein, Benny Goodman ...
(Vocals, banjo, 1898–1971) Boggs grew up in south-western Virginia at a time when mountain people were reluctantly quitting the backwoods for the hell of the coalmines. His music, too, reflects adaptation – ‘Country Blues’, ‘Pretty Polly’ and ‘Down South Blues’ making an eerie connection between the dispassionate narrative of the hillbilly ballad and the personal testimony of ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1923) Arthel ‘Doc’ Watson was a blind, 37-year farm worker who was playing old-time country and rockabilly on weekends when folklorist Ralph Rinzler came across him in the North Carolina mountains in 1960. Recognizing Watson as one of the most dazzling guitar virtuosos of his generation, Rinzler soon convinced him to perform and record ...
(Vocal duo, 1930s–60s) For years, husband and wife vocal team Andrew John Smik (b. 1914) and Jesse Wanda Crupe (b. 1919) sang on WWVA Jamboree, in Wheeling, West Virginia, and earned regional popularity within that radio show’s wide broadcast area. The Williamses were champions of old-time country music and their band The Border Riders created a ...
The ‘doctrine of the affections’ was the main theory for the design of opera in the eighteenth century. Its name was not coined until the twentieth century, but the ideas behind it were discussed in the writings of theorists such as Johann Mattheson (1681–1764). These ideas were put into practice on stage by the famous librettists Zeno and, in ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1988–present) This American band formed in New York, comprising Chris Barron (vocals), Eric Schenkman (guitar), Mark White (bass) and Aaron Comess (drums). Their good-time blend of blues rock in Phish/Blues Traveler vein was pleasant without appearing to threaten the charts. Debut album Pocket Full Of Kryptonite (1991) sold steadily due to hard touring, although when MTV ...
(Alto saxophone, arranger, trumpet, vocals, 1907–2003) One of the great arrangers and soloists in jazz history, Bennett Lester Carter wrote some of the first big-band music to fully realize the flowing, legato ensemble of the coming swing movement. His saxophone ensembles were smooth projections of his solo style. ‘Lonesome Nights’ and ‘Symphony In Riffs’ were ...
(Piano, arranger, bandleader, 1895–1985) Wooding led his Society Syncopators in the early 1920s before travelling to Berlin in 1925 with the Chocolate Kiddies revue. One of the first wave of expatriate American jazz musicians to live abroad, he spent the remainder of the 1920s in Europe playing with bands that featured star soloists such as Doc Cheatham ...
By the end of the 1930s, the Swing era was in full force, ushered in by big bands led by Benny Goodman, Chick Webb, the Dorsey brothers (Jimmy and Tommy) and Glenn Miller. New Orleans jazz and its stylistic off-shoot, Dixieland, had both largely faded from popularity. New Orleans pioneers King Oliver and Jelly Roll ...
The 1950s was a big decade for blues and jazz – arguably, the biggest. In the wake of international triumph and the stirrings of empire, the US enjoyed a boom of babies, cars, television, and urban and suburban development, that trickled down to embolden a stronger movement for civil rights for black people, inspired ...
As the end of the twentieth century approached, the United States – its culture included – entered a rare period of recapitulation, retrieval and, ultimately, renewal. The election as President of ageing Ronald Reagan, ex-movie star and California governor, introduced unexpected neo-conservatism, an ideology that looked back to a rosy, though mythical, ...
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 ...
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band started out in 1966 as a student jug band in Los Angeles, and in an early incarnation it included a teenage Jackson Browne. Among the group’s founder members was singer and guitarist Jeff Hanna. Both Hanna and multi-instrumentalist Jimmie Fadden are still Dirt Band members 40 years on. The extremely ambitious Will The Circle Be ...
The opera house and, more specifically, opera audiences, were among the last to be receptive to the new musical language that developed during the twentieth century. Slow, as well as reluctant to vary their traditional musical tastes, perceptions and expectations, many viewed the opera house with nostalgia; as a symbol of the establishment, holding ...
One of modern country music’s most remarkable figures, Chester Burton Atkins born in Luttrell, Tennessee, rose from rural obscurity to become one of the world’s most celebrated guitarists and one of Nashville’s most influential record producers. Atkins’ musical vision did much to shape country music during the 1950s and 1960s. Early Years Atkins was born on 20 June ...
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.