(Vocals, guitar, b. 1925) Mac Wiseman was a featured singer for Flatt And Scruggs in 1948 and for Bill Monroe in 1949, and when he headed up his own group, The Country Boys (featuring Eddie Adcock and Scotty Stoneman), he kept his warm, friendly tenor and his taste for Carter Family-like songs at the forefront. Wiseman ...
(Ge-yom’ da Ma-sho’) c. 1300–77 French Composer and Poet Machaut was the most important poet-composer of fourteenth-century France and had a wide and enduring influence. He was in constant demand by the greatest noble patrons of his day, and his music reflects this patronage. He was unusual, although probably not unique, among medieval writers in that he made an ...
Blues-rock guitarist Peter Green was born Peter Greenbaum in Bethnal Green, London in 1946. He began playing guitar at the age of 10. Among his early influences were Hank Marvin, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. After Green played bass in several semi-pro outfits, keyboardist Peter Bardens invited him to play lead in his band. Three months later ...
1861–1908 American composer Although his training and early career were European, with studies in Paris and Frankfurt and posts in Darmstadt, MacDowell was a pioneer of American music, which he felt reflected ‘the youthful optimistic vitality and the undaunted tenacity of spirit that characterize the American man’. His strong European influences, with echoes of Grieg and Liszt ...
A drum machine is an instrument that uses synthesized or sampled sound to emulate drums or other percussion, and allows the user to programme rhythmic patterns that can be chained together into songs. Rhythm Machines The history of the drum machine dates back as far as the 1930s, when Leon Theremin (1896–1993) was commissioned by composer Henry Cowell (1897–1965) ...
(Piano, vocals, 1905–53) Major Merriweather was born in Georgia and taught himself to play piano. He moved to Detroit in 1924 and worked at the Ford Motor Company, also playing jobs, mostly as a soloist, before moving to Chicago. There he developed a friendship with Tampa Red and they recorded for Bluebird in 1941. His ‘Worried ...
(Vocals, maracas, c. 1912–84) Frank Raul Grillo was born in Florida of Cuban extraction and took the name Machito in 1940 when his brother-in-law, trumpet player Mario Bauzá, reorganized his year-old band the Afro-Cubans. Their arrangements clothed Cuban melodies and rhythms in jazz harmonies and instrumental voicings. They were highly influential in the emergence of Afro-Cuban jazz (sometimes ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1968–present) Many fans who love Fleetwood Mac’s string of 1970s hits are unaware of their earlier blues explorations. The band came into being when guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie broke away from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. In 1968, with Jeremy Spencer on second guitar, Fleetwood Mac debuted on Blue Horizon. A ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1941) Mack’s 1964 debut album, The Wham Of That Memphis Man – chock-full of lightning-fast licks, vibrato-drenched lines and whammy-bar techniques on his Flying V guitar – captured the imagination of a young Stevie Ray Vaughan growing up in Dallas. Two decades later, Vaughan would produce Mack’s 1985 comeback album on Alligator Records ...
Uncle Dave Macon (1870–1952) was the first star of country music. Other artists got on disc first: men like Eck Robertson, Henry Whitter, Fiddlin’ John Carson, Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett. Uncle Dave didn’t enter a recording studio until July 1924 – whereupon he proved to be quite productive – but he had another route to the affections ...
(Vocals, songwriter, actor, b. 1942) Also a television host, composer and one-time representative for Vee-Jay records, Texas-born Davis is responsible for several bestselling songs, including ‘In The Ghetto’ and ‘Don’t Cry Daddy’, both 1969 US Top 10 hits for Elvis Presley. Davis himself topped the US pop chart in 1972 with the million-selling ‘Baby Don’t ...
(Vocals, b. 1966) From a traditional/bluegrass background, Womack’s self-titled debut album, rich in traditional sounds, was released in 1997, and included such hit singles as ‘The Fool’. I Hope You Dance (2000) sold over three million copies and brought her CMA’s 2001 Female Vocalist Of The Year Award, and more awards followed. After a change ...
Verdi was an enthusiastic admirer of Shakespeare and Macbeth was the first opera based on his work. It premiered at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on 14 March 1847, with Verdi himself conducting. Performances followed throughout Europe, including Madrid (1848), Vienna (1849), and New York (1858). For the premiere in Paris, at the Théâtre Lyrique on 21 ...
Composed: 1972–76 Premiered: 1978, Stockholm Libretto by the composer and Michael Meschke after Michel de Ghelderode’s play La ballade du Grand Macabre Act I Piet the Pot, drunk as ever, watches Amando and Amanda making love. Nekrotzar, the Grand Macabre, rises from his tomb and prophesies doom for Breughelland at midnight. He rides off on Piet ...
Composed: 1930–32 Premiered: 1934, Leningrad Libretto by the composer and Alexander Preys, after the short story by Nikolay Leskov Act I Katerina is married to Zinovy Ismailov. Despite his great wealth, she is bored. She has no children and Boris, her father-in-law, accuses her of being frigid. Zinovy has to go away on business. Boris makes ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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