(Piano, 1905–64) Born in Chicago and inspired by Jimmy Yancey, Meade Anderson ‘Lux’ Lewis recorded an early boogie-woogie masterpiece, ‘Honky Tonk Train Blues’, for Paramount in 1927 (the song was also recorded for Parlophone, 1935 and Victor, 1937). He recorded for Decca in 1936 (‘Yancey Special’) and Vocalion, Blue Note and Solo Art throughout 1941, ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1893–1981) Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, Walter ‘Furry’ Lewis played medicine shows as a young man. After moving to Memphis, he recorded 23 sides for Vocalion and Victor between 1927 and 1929. Despite a somewhat chaotic guitar technique, he was an indefatigable entertainer and he became a beloved figure among younger-generation aficionados throughout his ...
(Clarinet, alto saxophone, 1900–68) Lewis (born George Louis Francis Zeno) led bands in New Orleans in the 1920s, but he remained in the Crescent City while many of his colleagues headed north to Chicago, where the Jazz Age was being forged on the city’s South Side. Lewis did not record until the 1940s (in sessions that teamed ...
(Piano, 1920–2001) John Lewis was an important pianist, composer and educator, but was best known as the musical director of the most successful jazz group of the era, the Modern Jazz Quartet. Over five decades, Lewis was the architect of the group’s characteristic fusion of jazz and classical music. The MJQ’s light, spacious, swinging ...
(Guitar, bass, bandleader, 1909–90) Texas Jim Lewis is a largely unheralded figure in western swing, but his varied activities deserve far more attention. His career encompassed 1930s stints on New York radio and in vaudeville, and a 1940s run in Hollywood making movies and recording. His Lone Star Cowboys were one of the best bands of ...
If Jerry Lee Lewis had never existed, it seems unlikely that anyone would have had a sufficiently vivid imagination to have invented him. Through a 50-year career, this massively talented, yet infuriatingly self-destructive genius has scaled the heights and plumbed the depths, never for one moment compromising his music or his life. Most people mellow with age. ...
(Piano, vocals, b. 1935) After signing to Sun Records in 1957, Louisiana-born rock’n’roller Lewis, noted for his percussive piano style, opened his account with two million-selling US Top 3 hits, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’ and ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ (both 1957), but caused major media controversy during a 1958 UK tour when it was ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1979–present) Huey Lewis (b. Hugh Cregg III, vocals, guitar) and Sean Hopper (vocals, guitar) were refugees from country rock band Clover. They found global success with the pop-inflected blue-collar rock of their next incarnation. Their third album Sports (1983) became an American No. 1, and bore three Top 10 US tracks including ‘Heart And ...
(Vocals, b. 1985) Lewis was the third and most successful to date of Simon Cowell’s X-Factor reality TV show winners. She triumphed in 2006, her single ‘A Moment Like This’ an inevitable UK No. 1. After an 11-month recording break Lewis returned in 2007 with debut album Spirit, an international success that hit No. 1 in 10 countries ...
Albert Clifton Ammons was born in Chicago, Illinois in March 1907. As a young man he learned from Jimmy Yancey, who cast a long shadow over Chicago blues pianists through his work at rent parties, social functions and after-hours jobs. Ammons came to know other pianists and the blues specialists gathered together in Chicago to create a coterie ...
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 ...
Antoine Domino Jr. was born on 26 February 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children. His father played violin and worked at the Fair Grounds Race Track in New Orleans. Young Antoine studied piano and credits Harrison Varrett, a former member of Papa Celestin’s band, with giving him the advice and encouragement to keep ...
(Piano, 1904–67) Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Kermit Holden Johnson teamed up with Big Joe Turner at the Sunset Café in the early 1930s and went to New York for the Spirituals To Swing concert in 1938. He recorded with Turner for Vocalion (the famous ‘Roll ’Em Pete’), as well as alone and with Albert Ammons and Meade ...
(Piano, vocals, 1904–29) A seminal figure in the development of boogie-woogie piano, self-taught Clarence ‘Pine Top’ Smith was raised in Birmingham, Alabama and worked the southern club and vaudeville circuit during the early 1920s. In 1928 he relocated to Chicago, where he roomed with fellow boogie-woogie piano pioneers Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis and Albert Ammons. Smith recorded ...
A rollicking, fast piano style characterized by repetitive eighth-note bass figures in the left hand, meshed with sharp, bluesy single-note runs in the right hand, boogie-woogie was an infectious form that had an immediate appeal to dancers. While the left hand remained tied to the task of covering driving bass lines in a kind of ‘automatic pilot’ ...
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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
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sweep of incredible photographs.