SEARCH RESULTS FOR: Eric Dolphy
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(Alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, 1928–64) In the six years before his untimely death, Eric Dolphy became one of the most beloved and influential musicians in jazz. Brilliant on alto saxophone, he also helped to legitimize the flute and bass clarinet as viable jazz horns. Dolphy worked in relative obscurity until 1958, when he was ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

The ancestors of the indigenous peoples of North and South America migrated from Asia across the frozen Bering Strait over 20,000 years ago. Even after millennia, some characteristics are shared between Oriental and Amerindian music: monophonic forms, large intervals, a tense vocal style, rattles and frame drums, and the importance of music in healing rituals. ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

The most famous living guitarist in the world, Eric Clapton’s career has passed through an extraordinary series of highs and lows during his long reign as a guitar hero. He has also experimented with numerous stylistic changes, but has always returned to his first love, the blues. A love child born in 1945, Clapton was brought up ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Defying categorization with his blend of rock, blues, country and melodic pop styles, Eric Johnson is highly revered by guitarists of all genres for his skill and perfectionism on stage and in the studio, and for his uniquely rich, overdriven tone. Born in 1954, Johnson grew up in Austin, Texas. Encouraged by his parents ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

1685–1759 English composer George Frideric Handel is one of the best known of all Baroque composers. His gift for melody, his instinctive sense of drama and vivid scene-painting, and the extraordinary range of human emotions explored in his vocal compositions make his music instantly accessible. Works such as Messiah (1741), Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Like the majority of their British counterparts, the original American punks had been making music for years before they began to receive acknowledgement in late-1975. In common with the Brits once again, the biggest problem was that nobody had a clue what to call it. Drawing their wild, high-energy style from such Detroit-based rock acts of the late-1960s ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

The music of the indigenous peoples of North America is tightly bound to their struggle for self-determination, human rights and land, as well as the traditional ceremonies that were created to develop spiritual ties with nature, to provide strength for battle and to relate great victories. The arrival of Europeans altered the details, but not the essence. ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Latin America is particularly rich and varied in its musical traditions, with each country boasting a broad and very distinct collection of genres whose development has been shaped by indigenous rhythms, migration patterns from Europe and the influx of slavery. At the uppermost tip of Latin America is Mexico, a country whose musical sub-genres are too many to ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

(Fri-drikh Fran’-zhek [Fra-da-rek’ Fran-swa’] Sho-pan) 1810–49 Polish composer Chopin was unique among composers of the highest achievement and influence in that he wrote all his works, with the merest handful of exceptions, for the solo piano. Leaving Warsaw, which at the time offered only restricted musical possibilities, and living most of his adult life in Paris, ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

The music of Latin America combines influences from the traditional music of the African slaves transported between 1450 and the end of the nineteenth century, music from the Spanish and Portuguese colonial powers, and latterly, pop and jazz from North America. Samba is an umbrella term describing an energetic style of dancing and drumming performed at the annual ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

(Guitar, vocals, b. 1951) Folk-bluesman Bibb blends deep roots with pop influences, occasionally incorporating African and Afro-Cuban sounds. He resides in Sweden but was born in New York City, where his father, Leon, performed in musical theatre and on the folk scene. His uncle was John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, while Odetta ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Vocal/instrumental group, 1992–98) The Mavericks released their debut album independently, and their major-label debut, From Hell To Paradise (1992), gave little hint of the success ahead, as CMA Vocal Group Of The Year in both 1995 and 1996. All have moved on to further ventures, but will be forever linked with the audience-pleasing band whose albums ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

1685–1759, German Handel composed 42 operas between 1704 and 1740, but most of these were neglected and seldom performed after his lifetime. In the twentieth century, Handel’s music dramas and in particular his operas underwent a renaissance that has established him as the definitive theatre composer of the late Baroque period. Handel was a maverick composer who pursued ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

A small number of Handel’s dramatic works are known as the ‘magic operas’, including Rinaldo, Teseo (1712), Amadigi (1715), Orlando (1733) and Alcina. These operas feature protagonists who use sorcery to manipulate love, usually for evil ends. Most common among these operas is the prima-donna sorceress figure, who attempts to compel a castrato hero away from his true ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

While composing for the Earl of Carnarvon at Cannons, Handel was the musical contributor to a distinguished literary circle including the poets John Gay, Alexander Pope (1688–1744) and John Hughes (1677–1720). It is believed that all three authors contributed to the libretto of Acis and Galatea, which was given a private staged performance that probably required only a ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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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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