b. 1933 English guitarist and lutenist Bream made his London debut on the guitar in 1950, and his US debut in 1958. Having begun to study the lute in 1950, he later formed a partnership with Britten’s life-partner Pears, with whom he performed and recorded Elizabethan lute songs. He formed the Julian Bream Consort in 1959. Among composers ...
In the Renaissance, both four- and five-course (eight- or 10-stringed) guitars were played, both of them notably smaller than the modern instrument and with only a shallow waist. In the Baroque period, players seem to have switched over to an instrument with six courses (six or 12 strings), which remains the standard guitar configuration. The instrument at this ...
The guitar is a plucked stringed instrument played resting on the lap. Although it has a long history – thought by many to reach as far back as the ancient Greek lyre known as the kithara – it is best-known today in the design of the Spanish guitar-maker Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817–92). The modern or classical guitar developed from the ...
1901–99 English percussionist Blades played as a drummer in the band of a travelling circus, and in orchestras for silent films. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1940, and later worked with the Melos Ensemble and the English Opera Group. It was Blades who was actually heard (though not seen) when the Roman gladiator struck the gong at ...
1842–1900, English Sullivan’s name is synonymous with that of librettist W. S. Gilbert in England. It is their association with Richard D’Oyly Carte and the succession of operettas written for the Savoy Theatre that continue to ensure that Gilbert and Sullivan remain household names. Sullivan’s aim, however, after education at the Royal Academy of Music in London and ...
(Alto saxophone, 1928–75) Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley and his brother, trumpeter Nat, presided over one of the 1960s’ hippest hard-bop outfits with pianist Joe Zawinul; ‘Mercy, Mercy, Mercy’ was one of their crossover hits. Adderley had been employed as a Florida school band director when he was overheard at a New York gig and was encouraged by ...
b. 1933, English Known for her rich, expressive and intensely personal performances, Baker’s voice is equally at home with Handel, Mozart, Donizetti, Berlioz and Walton. Britten wrote the role of Kate Julian for her in Owen Wingrave, while William Walton (1902–83) adjusted the part of Cressida in Troilus and Cressida to suit her voice. ...
(Vocals, guitar, harmonica, 1910–68) Clyde Julian ‘Red’ Foley was born in Blue Lick, Kentucky, and was central to the surge in country music’s popularity in the 1940s and early 1950s with hits like ‘Smoke On The Water’ (1944), ‘Tennessee Saturday Night’ (1948), ‘Chattanoogie Shoeshine Boy’ (1950) and ‘Birmingham Bounce’ (1950). For three decades, Foley headlined ...
From the 1950s through to the 1990s there was rarely a stranger experience for jazz audiences than witnessing the stage shows of Sun Ra and his Solar-Myth Arkestra. The mysterious, robed keyboardist and his exotic big band blended theatrics with pure jazz and free exploration, crafting a unique brand of ‘space jazz’ that reflected the mid-century’s curiosity about exploring ...
(Vocal group, 1979–82) Led by singer/bassist Julian Cope, Teardrop Explodes formed in Liverpool in 1979. Paul Simpson (keyboards), Mick Finkler (guitar) and Gary Dwyer (drums) were the first of many musicians to pass through the band’s ranks. Their brassy psychedelia gained three hits, but the albums Kilimanjaro (1980) and Wilder (1981) inexplicably failed to register. Teardrop Explodes imploded ...
January ‘Please Please Me’ ‘Gentlemen, you have just recorded your first number one,’ producer George Martin told The Beatles after they’d completed ‘Please Please Me’. He was right … just. It was released on 11 January, the same day that The Beatles appeared on the influential Thank Your Lucky Stars networked ITV show. The single made the Top ...
February Trip to Rishikesh The Beatles resumed their acquaintance with the Maharishi in mid-February when they, their wives, girlfriends and business managers flew out to his ashram at Rishikesh where they attended his initiator training course. Among the other initiators were actress Mia Farrow, Beach Boy Mike Love and Donovan. Ringo returned to Britain after 10 days; McCartney ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1998–present) Formed after a complicated network of Swiss schooling and gigging frenzy in New York’s Lower East Side, The Strokes – Julian Casablancas (vocals), Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr. (both guitar), Nikolai Fraiture (bass) and Fabrizio Moretti (drums) – have come to signify the mass appeal that revivalist bands from the US can achieve. After a ...
Hard bop evolved out of bebop during the early 1950s but its rhythms were more driving and syncopated. Hard bop also tended to have a more full-bodied sound, a bluesy feel with darker textures and shorter improvised lines, and its chord progressions were usually composed rather than borrowed from popular tunes. Although Miles Davis made an early foray into ...
Krautrock, which emanated from West Germany during the late-1960s, fused The Velvet Underground’s white noise experiments and Pink Floyd’s psychedelic rock with the free-form jazz aesthetic and funk-based rhythms. Avoiding the dull virtuosity of progressive rock and the sanitised R&B pop of the late-1960s, Krautrock’s grand vision of reinventing the rock guitar as well as exploring the untapped possibilities ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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