(Piano, vocals, 1916–2006) James Columbus McShann was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma and moved to Kansas City in 1936. He formed a big band in 1940 and recorded for Decca in 1941–43. The band featured vocalist Walter Brown and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, and had a big hit with ‘Confessin’ The Blues’. McShann had a hit record on ...
The Bobo Ashanti is Rasta for the twenty-first century: more militant and less tolerant. With their ideological attacks on Rome, social demotion of women and condemnation of homosexuality, deejays like Capleton and Anthony B may seem world’s apart from the hippy-ish notions of dreadlocks that was Bob Marley’s legacy. There’s actually not much difference. Unlike roots reggae, which ...
If there was one thing that summed up Jamaican music – its uniqueness, its ability to adapt from elsewhere, its inventiveness, its influence abroad, its sound system roots and its continuing closeness to its audience – it would be the deejay. Born on the sound systems in the 1950s, the deejay’s job was to vibe up ...
(Tenor saxophone, b. 1927) Cecil James McNeely was born and raised in Los Angeles. Inspired by Illinois Jacquet, McNeely played in high school with future jazz stars Sonny Criss and Hampton Hawes. He was discovered by Johnny Otis and made his recording debut in 1948 with a number-one hit, ‘Deacon’s Hop’. He had another hit in 1959 with ...
(Piano, composer, b. 1971) Raised in Rochester, New York, Vijay Iyer started Suzuki violin lessons at the age of three and taught himself to play piano. He performed professionally while pursuing advanced studies at Yale and the University of California, Berkeley and moved to New York in 1998, having released two albums and toured with ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1985–present) The Jayhawks grew out of the same Minneapolis scene that produced Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, but the rock band led by Gary Louris (vocals, guitar, b. 1959) and Mark Olson (vocals, guitar, b. 1961) turned in a folkier, more country direction in reaction to their neighbours. After two small-label albums ...
(Vocals, 1929–2000) Ohio-born ex-Golden Gloves champion boxer Jalacy Hawkins evolved a stage show in which his props included a coffin and a skull, and although he never actually achieved any hit records, his larger-than-life stage show brought him great popularity. He also co-wrote ‘I Put A Spell On You’, a song which was a UK hit for Nina ...
(Vocal group, 1963–present) A long-standing soul harmony group formed by Eddie Levert and Walter Williams, later adding William Powell, Bill Isles and Bobby Massey. The O’Jays first charted in 1963 but were considering quitting music when they came under the aegis of Philadelphia soul producers Gamble and Huff, immediately scoring a hit with ‘Back Stabbers’ in 1972. ...
(Vocals, b. 1969) King of hip hop Jay-Z (real name Shawn Corey Carter) holds the record for the most US No. 1 albums by a solo artist, nine of his 11 coming in the Noughties. He has collaborated with artists in many different genres, most successfully with rock band Linkin Park on album Collision Course in 2004. Songs ...
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 ...
Charlie Parker, also known as ‘Yardbird’ or ‘Bird’, was a largely self-taught musical genius with acute self-destructive tendencies. His career exemplified both the creative power and the destructive social ethos of bebop. His music burned as brightly as any in jazz, but his lifestyle sent out the wrong message to too many young musicians, despite his frequent warnings ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1948) Robillard’s grasp of blues and jazz has kept him in demand since he founded Roomful of Blues in 1967. He was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island and was influenced by Bill Doggett, T-Bone Walker and many others, absorbing the fine details of playing and arranging. He left Roomful in 1979 for a ...
(Vocals, 1922–97) Jimmy John Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He joined the Jay McShann group in California in 1945. He recorded his own records in late 1947 and among them was ‘Ain’t Nobody’s Business Parts 1 & 2’, a huge Race Records hit. Witherspoon toured with his own group until 1952 and had another big hit with ‘No ...
Though it was often referred to as a musical revolution, bebop was actually a natural evolution of jazz, involving innovative approaches to harmony and rhythm that advanced the music forward to a modern era. Traces of bebop began to emerge during the early 1940s, in orchestras led by Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine. Those adventurous impulses were further ...
Like so many of black America’s most enduring musical genres, hip hop was born out of invention. When, as the 1970s came to a close, a combination of disco and big record company involvement had diluted funk and soul to the extent that it had become boring to go out to a club on a Saturday night, something rumbled out of New ...
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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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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.