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(Arranger, composer, piano, 1912–88) Gil Evans (born Ian Green) achieved fame through his work with Miles Davis on the seminal recordings Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy And Bess (1959) and Sketches Of Spain (1960). His own output was relatively small, but his influence was much larger. His greatest gift lay in arranging – or more accurately, re-composing ...

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

(Zhel Bansh-wa’) c. 1400–60 Franco-Flemish composer Binchois spent his formative years in Mons (now Belgium) and appears to have led a remarkably static life. In the late 1420s he joined the itinerant Burgundian court chapel, and served there with distinction until his retirement in the early 1450s, continuing to draw a pension until his death. Although he left a substantial ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

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 ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

As the guitarist in Pink Floyd, David Gilmour’s place in the pantheon of guitar heroes is guaranteed. But it’s not simply his playing on albums like The Dark Side Of The Moon that has assured his status. His meticulous attention to the sound and tone of his guitar in the studio and in concert has earned the universal admiration of ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Too often, the music created by so-called ‘shred’ guitarists comes across as too cerebral and serious to elicit enjoyment from any but the most die-hard shred fan. Fortunately for all other fans of instrumental guitar, Paul Gilbert (b. 1966) prefers to dish out his hungry-man portions of notes with humour and irreverence matched only by his technical ferocity. Gilbert ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie shares the credit for creating bebop with Charlie Parker, but his place in the history of twentieth-century music rests on a considerably wider achievement. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina in 1917 and acquired his nickname in the 1930s. He moved to New York and worked in big bands with Teddy Hill, Lionel ...

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

Bill Evans was one of the most lyrical and romantic of all jazz pianists. His distinctive lightness of touch and singing tone on the piano shone most brightly in his favoured trio settings with compatible bass players and drummers, including famous line-ups that featured Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, and later Eddie Gomez and Marty Morrell. Evans was born ...

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

(Vocals, guitar, b. 1931) João Gilberto came to the notice of the wider jazz public in the wake of saxophonist’s Stan Getz’s successful Jazz Samba (1962). Gilberto had earlier been working with composer Antonio Carlos Jobim on a development of the samba known as ‘bossa nova’, and Getz translated that form into a popular success. The subsequent Getz/Gilberto (1963) ...

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

(Alto saxophone, flute, composer, b. 1944) One of the most prolific and original composers of his generation, Chicago native Threadgill was a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the mid-1960s. During the 1970s he collaborated with several AACM colleagues and also worked with Air, his trio with drummer Steve ...

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

(Vocals, b. 1971) Evans moved to Nashville in 1991, where she met her husband, Craig Schelske. In 1995, her demo of the 1965 Buck Owens hit ‘I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail’, attracted the attention of the song’s writer, Harlan Howard, and led to her signing with RCA Records and her much-hailed traditional country ...

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

(Vocals, guitar, songwriter, b. 1957) Oklahoman Vince Gill paid his dues, first in high-school band Mountain Smoke, then with Sam Bush in Bluegrass Alliance around 1975, and was a member of Pure Prairie League from 1978–80. Gill joined The Cherry Bombs in 1981, backing Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash, and befriended musician/producer/label executive ...

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

(Vocals, guitar, b. 1967) Gillian Welch met David Rawlings at Boston’s Berklee School of Music, where most of their classmates were studying jazz and classical music. Welch and Rawlings were drawn instead to lyric-heavy songwriting and concluded that Appalachian string-band music would be the best vehicle for those songs. It was a foreign tradition for them, but ...

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

1806–96, French Gilbert Duprez, the French tenor, made his debut aged 19 as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. He went to Italy in 1829 to further his operatic studies, and remained there for six years. During this time, Duprez created the role of Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He had arrived as ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1836–1911, English It was Gilbert’s dry, satirical wit that first gained him literary attention when, in the early 1860s, he began contributing to the comic journal Fun. Thereafter he acquired a name for himself through a succession of caustic plays before being introduced to Arthur Sullivan. The combination of Gilbert’s acerbic verse and Sullivan’s felicitous music made ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1896–1989, American A composer of both originality and substance, Thomson produced what was arguably America’s first major opera, Four Saints in Three Acts (composed 1927–28). Hailing from a Southern Baptist background where church music, marching bands and popular American tunes were a large part of his cultural heritage, Thomson attended Harvard and studied under Nadia Boulanger ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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