The self-proclaimed ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson (1958–2009) was the biggest star of the 1980s following the success of Thriller (1982), which remains the world’s best-selling album with sales of more than 110 million. The King Of Pop The youngest member of The Jackson Five, Jackson signed a solo deal in 1971 with Motown Records, aged 13. Within a ...
(Mekh’-a-el Pri-tô’-re-oos) c. 1571–1621 German composer and theorist Born into a strict Lutheran household, Praetorius became one of the greatest and most prolific early composers in the Protestant tradition. He composed over 1,000 sacred works – mostly hymns based on Lutheran chorales, but also German psalm settings and some Latin-texted works. Today, however, Praetorius is best known ...
Though he has been cited by countless rock guitarists as a major influence, and despite the fact that he cofounded legendary metal band Scorpions, guitarist Michael Schenker (b. 1955) remains one of the most underrated and underappreciated guitarists of all time. Born in Sarstedt, Germany, Schenker was first turned on to the guitar when his older brother ...
1808–70 Irish composer Balfe was the most successful composer of English operas of the nineteenth century. The Irish-born Balfe made his name as a singer with a fine baritone voice, and sang in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in Paris, as well as taking leading roles in Italy until 1833. His reputation as a composer began in London with ...
(Vocals, banjo, c. 1890–1938) New Orleans-born Charlie Jackson brought a jazzman’s sophistication to an instrument still too often overlooked by blues historians. He alternated single-string solos with percussive chording and dexterous fingerpicking, allowing him to bridge styles and genres with rare facility. He released more than 60 sides of his own, and he also recorded with Freddie ...
(Tenor saxophone, vocals, 1919–89) Benjamin Joseph Jackson was born in Cleveland, Ohio and replaced Wynonie Harris as male vocalist with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra in 1945. From 1947 until the late 1950s he toured with his own group, the Buffalo Bearcats. He recorded for Queen/King from 1945; among his biggest hits were ‘I Love You, Yes ...
(Vibraphone, 1923–99) Milt Jackson diverged from his two great predecessors on vibes, Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo, by developing a linear, rhythmically inflected approach rooted in bebop rather than swing. He preferred the slightly larger vibraharp to the more familiar vibraphone, and adjusted the oscillator to give a trademark rich, warm sound. He recorded as ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1952) Michael Hill’s Blues Mob earned an international cult following with a gritty, aggressive, expansive style well-tailored to Hill’s lyrics, which often focus on urban social issues. Born in the south Bronx into a family with roots in North Carolina and Georgia, Hill began playing blues after hearing Jimi Hendrix and Cream. ...
(Vocals, b. 1937) Born in Maud, Oklahoma, Jackson was discovered by Hank Thompson and first recorded country for Decca in 1954. After appearing on shows with Elvis Presley and a label switch to Capitol, she cut several rockabilly classics. Jackson introduced much-needed glamour to the largely male world of rockabilly, and her rasping vocal style is ...
(Vocals, b. 1932) Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (named after the revered Civil War general) was born in Emerson, North Carolina. He grew up in poverty and suffered physical abuse at the hands of a cruel stepfather. After running away from home at 15 and serving a four-year stint in the US Navy, Jackson worked as a sharecropper in Georgia ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1942) Former member of The Monkees, Nesmith wrote key hits for Linda Ronstadt (‘Different Drum’) and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (‘Some Of Shelly’s Blues’) and formed the First National Band, whose albums demonstrated how country-rock might marry the Americana mythology of the former and the conceptual ambition of the latter. The TV-savvy Nesmith ...
(Vocals, songwriter, guitar, b. 1958) Georgia-born Jackson moved to Nashville in 1985. His rise to fame came after a chance meeting between his wife, Denise, and Glen Campbell, and before long, he was a staff songwriter at Campbell’s music-publishing company. A traditionalist blue-collar act, he was the first signing to Arista’s Nashville branch ...
1808–70, Irish Michael Balfe was an Irish-born composer, singer and violinist and wrote some 29 operas. His debut as a violinist took place when he was only 15. Balfe went on to sing Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in Paris in 1827. Subsequently, he was principle baritone in Palermo, where he made his debut as ...
1905–98, English Tippett began his musical studies at the age of 18, wrote his first significant work aged 30, and was 41 when he embarked on his first opera, The Midsummer Marriage (composed 1946–52, premiered 1955). Despite his relatively late development in the operatic genre, he soon became a composer of international recognition. Referencing Mozart’s ...
Composed: 1946–52 Premiered: 1955, London Libretto by the composer Act I Mark asks the Ancients of the sanctuary for a new dance for his wedding to Jenifer. They warn him of the danger in meddling with tradition. Jenifer has run away from her father, King Fisher. She claims to want truth, not love, and disappears up a ...
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David Bowie
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