An incomparable figure in the history of jazz, Armstrong played with an unprecedented virtuosity and bravura, while retaining an individual tone and a deceptively laid-back style. In the early 1920s, he shifted the emphasis of jazz from ensemble playing to a soloist’s art form, while setting new standards for trumpeters worldwide. The sheer brilliance of his playing ...
A blues guitarist best known for his slide-guitar work, Sonny Landreth (b. 1951) was born in Canton, Mississippi. The family relocated to Lafayette, Louisiana, where Sonny was immersed in the area’s swamp-pop and Zydeco music. Beginning as a trumpeter, he was already a virtuoso guitarist in his teens. His earliest role model was Scotty Moore, ...
New Orleans is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of jazz, but it also produced its own indigenous brand of blues, which borrowed from Texas and Kansas City while also making use of Cajun and Afro-Caribbean rhythm patterns. A mix of croaking and yodeling, floating over the top of the music in an independent time scheme, Professor Longhair’s ...
(Loo-e’ Ek-tôr’ Ber-lyoz’) 1803–69 French composer and critic Berlioz was the leading French musician of his age. His greatest achievements, and those for which he is best remembered, were with large-scale orchestral and vocal works, although he also wrote in other genres. He was rooted in classical traditions – his earliest influences included Gluck and the music of the ...
(Loo’-es Shpôr) 1784–1859 German composer, violinist and conductor Spohr was a prolific composer of instrumental music and also wrote operas that foreshadow Wagner’s leitmotif technique. He first studied in his native Brunswick, and Mozart soon became his idol. He was a virtuoso violinist and between 1807 and 1821 went on many tours to the major European cities with his wife ...
(Loo-e’ Mo-ro’ Got’shôk) 1829–69 American composer Gottschalk was a charismatic piano virtuoso distinguished by his New Orleans upbringing and French-Creole ancestry. He dazzled the salons and saloons of New Orleans as a child prodigy, and at the age of only 13 went to study in Paris, where his skill was admired by Chopin and Berlioz. He toured as pianist and ...
(Piano, vocals, arranger, 1898–1971) Memphis-born pianist Lillian Hardin joined King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago during the summer of 1921 and married fellow band member Louis Armstrong in 1924. She played on Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings and also received some composer credits. The couple separated in 1931 and were divorced in 1938. Lil subsequently ...
(Alto saxophone, vocals, bandleader, 1908–75) Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five were major stars in the 1940s, providing energized recordings and exciting live shows. The alto saxophonist began by playing in swing bands, including Chick Webb’s, but in 1938 he gambled on the success of his own personality, fronting a small group playing in ...
(Vocals, harmonica, guitar, b. 1936) Iverson Minter, a.k.a. Louisiana Red, rose from childhood tragedy to build an impressive career. His mother had died and his father had been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan by the time Red was five years old. He first recorded for Chess in 1949, prior to his military ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1949) A passionate, gospel-influenced singer, Walker came up in the 1960s on the San Francisco blues scene. In 1975 he began singing with the Spiritual Corinthians, remaining on the gospel circuit until 1985 when he formed his own band, the Boss Talkers. He recorded some strong albums during the 1980s for the ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1930s–40s) Louise Massey And The Westerners are largely forgotten today, but in their heyday, this was one of the most successful western acts in the USA. Polished, versatile and influential, they boasted a smooth sound that obscured their origins as rural musicians under their fiddling father Henry’s tutelage in New Mexico. The band included ...
1803–69, French The French composer Louis-Hector Berlioz, who once wrote that the opera houses of his time were too large, did a splendid job of filling their auditoria with the mighty sound of epic opera. His opera output was small, consisting of only five completed works, but their impact transcended mere numbers. Berlioz’s first surviving opera ...
Composed: 1834–37 Premiered: 1838, Paris Libretto by Léon de Wailly and Auguste Barbier, after Cellini Act I The Pope has commissioned Cellini to make a statue of Perseus. Balducci, the treasurer, is annoyed; he wants the commission to go to Fieramosca, who he also wants to marry his daughter Teresa; she is in love with Cellini. ...
‘The Trojans’ Composed: 1856–58 Premiered: 1890, Karlsruhe Libretto by the composer, after the Aeneid by Virgil Act I The Trojans celebrate peace and admire the wooden horse left by the Greeks after the siege. Cassandre (Cassandra), King Priam’s daughter, forsees the fall of Troy. Her husband Chorèbe (Coroebus) urges her to join the celebrations, but she begs ...
Composed: 1889–96 Premiered: 1900, Paris Libretto by the composer or Saint-Pol-Roux Act I From the balcony of her parents’ house in Montmartre, Louise can see Julien, a poet. He has written two letters to her father, asking to marry her, although she says she loves her parents too much to elope. Her mother drags her away ...
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