Rock’s most famous and celebrated hippie band, known more for its anything-goes, drug-hazed concerts and legions of ‘Deadhead’ fans than for its body of studio work, The Grateful Dead grew out of a union between singer-songwriter/lead guitarist Jerry Garcia (1942–95), songwriter/rhythm guitarist Bob Weir (born 16 October 1947) and keyboardist/singer Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan (1946–73). They were to become ...
A leading figure on America’s West Coast music scene, Jerry Garcia was born in San Francisco in 1942. His father was a retired professional musician, his mother a pianist. The musically inclined Jerry began taking piano lessons as a child. The emergence of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran inspired him to learn guitar at 15, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1978–86) This controversial bunch of San Franciscans were one of the truly great punk bands. Debut 1979 single ‘California Uber Alles’ set the template, with Jello Biafra (Eric Boucher) trashing the American dream, voice quavering with menace; East Bay Ray Glasser’s guitar, Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall)’s bass and Bruce Slesinger’s drums in thunderous support. Debut ...
During the mid-1960s, America’s military action in Vietnam was escalating out of control; students around the world were becoming more politically involved, civil rights and feminism were hot issues and the burgeoning youth movement was turning onto the effects of mind-bending drugs. Accordingly, certain strains of popular music melded attitude, experimentation and a social conscience, and ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1988–present) This New York jam band initially favoured the extended blues rock format made popular by The Grateful Dead. John Popper (vocals, harmonium), Chan Kinchla (guitar), Bobby Sheehan (bass) and Brendan Hills (drums) built a solid following that was vastly amplified when aptly named fourth album – Four (1995) – sold four million copies on the back ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1970–present) Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen (guitar, vocals) and Jack Casady (bass) – together with drummer Bob Steeler – formed Hot Tuna in San Francisco in order to satisfy their interest in acoustic blues. After an eponymous debut album, the group went electric, added fiddler Papa John Creach and expanded its range to become a staple ...
Back in June 2003 I had the rare pleasure of interviewing Nick Mason face-to-face for what proved to be an abortive feature for the Financial Times. The interview was conducted at his Ten Tenths offices in Kings Cross, London, and as I waited to be ushered into his presence, I took time to admire one of his original ...
I’m having lunch in a Chelsea restaurant with a sprightly gent of 60-plus. His wits are quick and he’s a fabulous source of softly spoken gossip. He reflects a moment on one especially key evening in his life, early in 1963. ‘If you’re not sure who rock’n’roll belongs to,’ says Andrew Loog Oldham, ‘then it surely isn’t you ...
Since his emergence in the mid-1950s, alto saxophonist and creative composer Ornette Coleman has risen above controversy to become a respected elder statesman of jazz. Born in 1930 in Fort Worth, Texas, Coleman taught himself the saxophone through trial and error. By avoiding chord structures and set rhythms in favour of melodic experimentation, he developed the new ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1983–present) Formed in New England, Phish are a jam band comprising Trey Anastasio (vocals, guitar), Page McConnell (keyboards, vocals), Mike Gordon (bass) and Jon Fishman (drums, vocals). Musically an eclectic mix of rock, jazz, blues, folk and whatever took their improvizational fancy, they became a word-of-mouth touring phenomenon, building ...
(Vocal/instrumental group 1963–68) Though Dick Heckstall-Smith (saxophone), Jack Bruce (vocals, bass) and John McLaughlin (guitar) became respective mainstays of Colosseum, Cream and The Mahavishnu Orchestra, it is too sweeping to say that this group was most notable for those members who went on to greater success. The late Bond (vocals, keyboards, saxophone) was one of the ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1940–2002) Rose was omnipresent in the clubs of New York’s vibrantly bohemian Greenwich Village when his arrangement of the murder ballad ‘Hey Joe’ was covered in 1966 as The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut single. ‘Morning Dew’ proved the hardiest of his own compositions via retreads by such as The Jeff Beck Group, The Grateful Dead and ...
Princeton, New Jersey native Trey Anastasio (b. 1964) became the star of the jam-band resurgence through his prolific work both with his band Phish and a multitude of side projects. Phish’s initial touring and recording life spanned from 1983 to 2000, experienced a hiatus from 2000 to 2003 and dissolved in 2004, before regrouping in 2009. Inheriting the ...
Warren Haynes was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1960. He began to play the guitar at age 12. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter were early influences. ‘I would read interviews with all these people and find out who they listened to,’ Haynes has said. ‘And they all listened to B.B. King and Freddie King ...
From Port of Spain on Trinidad to Nassau in the Bahamas, from Miami through to Port-au-Prince: you are never far from a great rhythm in the Caribbean. While Jamaican reggae and Cuba’s son, mambo and salsa have been exported to the world, there is a wealth of great music on the other islands, from calypso and zouk ...
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...
CURATED
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.