Rock’n’roll pioneer Ike Turner was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in November 1931. He displayed an early interest in music while working for a local radio station. He was taught to play boogie-woogie piano by one of his idols, blues musician Pinetop Perkins. Inspired by other bluesmen like Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Muddy Waters and Elmore ...
Mike Stern (b. 1953), the American jazz guitarist, emerged as a major force in the jazz guitar scene through his work with Miles Davis’ band in the early Eighties, Stern has played with stars such as Stan Getz, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Martino and David Sanborn. Stern was also a guitarist in Steps Ahead and the Brecker Brothers ...
For 35 years Mike Oldfield (b. 1953) has created work that melds progressive rock, folk, world music, classical music, electronic music, new age and dance. He is best known for his hit 1973 album Tubular Bells, which provided a theme for the movie The Exorcist, broke new ground as an instrumental concept album, ...
Blues-rock guitarist Mike Bloomfield was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1943, to an affluent Jewish family. He possessed an innate ability on guitar, which he began playing at the age of 13, initially influenced by Scotty Moore. Despite his background, Bloomfield quickly became a devotee of Chicago’s indigenous blues scene, frequently visiting clubs on the ...
Alternative-rock guitarist Mike McCready (b. 1966) was born in Pensacola, Florida. His family moved to Seattle soon afterwards. He was 11 when he bought his first guitar and began to take lessons. In high school, McCready formed a band that disintegrated after they were unsuccessful in obtaining a record contract in Los Angeles. Disillusioned, he did not pick ...
Adele has cheeky, natural charm. She comes across as a lovely young woman, yet she is also known for cussing like a sailor continually. When at home, she’s a bit of a clean freak and can’t go to bed until everything’s tidied up, describing the habit as ‘really anal’. She also says that she loves cooking, ...
(Bass, bandleader, critic, 1908–87) As editor for Melody Maker and producer at British Decca, Spike Hughes recorded many dance and novelty sides during 1930–32 but had ambitions in jazz. During a New York visit in 1933 he augmented Benny Carter’s band with Coleman Hawkins and recorded 14 of his own arrangements as Spike Hughes & His Negro ...
Joseph Vernon Turner was born on 18 May 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. He dropped out of school after sixth grade and worked with blind singers on the streets. The blues was in the air in Kansas City and when Turner joined in with the street singers he would make up blues lyrics. Turner was functionally illiterate and never learned ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1943–81) Bloomfield apprenticed in Chicago with legends such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, as well as among his peers Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop. He played on classics with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1966’s East-West), Bob Dylan (1965’s Highway 61 Revisited) and organist Al Kooper (1968’s Super Session). He helped to ...
(Radio emcee, 1912–91) The Texas-born ‘Voice of the Grand Ole Opry’ served as an announcer on the famed Nashville radio show for nearly 50 years – an accomplishment that led to his becoming the first radio personality to be inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame (in 1981). Styles & Forms | War Years | Country Personalities | T. ...
1892–1990 English soprano Turner’s early career was spent with the Carl Rosa company, with which she appeared at Covent Garden in 1920. As Madam Butterfly she was spotted by Toscanini’s assistant at La Scala; her subsequent Italian career included her first Turandot, at Brescia in 1926. At Covent Garden, 1928–39 and 1947–48, she sang not only Turandot ...
(Vocals, 1911–85) Big Joe Turner’s tenure as ‘Boss of the Blues’ is dominated by one song, ‘Shake, Rattle And Roll’, which became an early rock’n’roll anthem as recorded by white artists Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. But Turner’s long career and legacy of R&B hits includes boogies like ‘Roll ‘Em Pete’, the seminal blues of ‘Cherry Red’, and ...
(Guitar, 1943–81) Once a mainstay of Chicago’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the shorter-lived Electric Flag, Bloomfield was a prime mover in an apparent shift towards recognition for individual players rather than groups in the late 1960s. Joined by guitarist Stephen Stills and organist Al Kooper, his modestly titled Super Session was the best-selling CBS album of 1968. ...
(Vocal group, 1973–84) This hard-driving Canadian rock band were assembled by former Guess Who members Randy Bachman (guitar, vocals) and Chad Allen (keyboards) with Robbie Bachman (drums) and Fred Turner (bass). Third brother Tim Bachman soon replaced Allan and the band’s commercial breakthrough came with Bachman-Turner Overdrive II (1974) and the US hit ‘Takin’ Care Of Business’. In Britain ...
(Multi-instrumentalist, b. 1953) A prodigiously talented musician, Oldfield played all the instruments on 1973’s Tubular Bells. This symphonic work was a transatlantic best-seller, helped by the use of its main theme in the movie The Exorcist (1973). Hergest Ridge (1974) was a British No. 1 whilst Ommadawn (1975) and Incantations (1978) displayed African and folk influences. Platinum (1979) ...
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.