(Vocal/instrumental group, 1971–77, 2004–present) A trailblazing quintet whose energetic, shambolic style has been an enduring influence, the New York Dolls were formed in 1971 by David Johansen (vocals) and Johnny Thunders (guitar, died 1991), adding Sylvain Sylvain (guitar), Arthur Kane (bass, died 2004) and Billy Murcia (drums, died 1972 and replaced by Jerry Nolan ...
New-wave guitarist Bernard Sumner (b. 1956) was born in Salford, Manchester. Seeing the Sex Pistols in Manchester in June 1976 inspired Sumner and Peter Hook to acquire their first instruments, guitar and bass respectively. Originally called Warsaw, later Joy Division, they recruited drummer Stephen Morris and singer Ian Curtis for their band, making some self-produced records ...
For many veterans of the punk era, new wave is not a genre at all. The term was coined by the music press to encompass acts who were influenced by punk, but less overtly rebellious and with more traditionally crafted pop skills. New wave acts traded largely on a back-to-basics desire to revive the short, sharp thrill of ...
Born out of a reaction to both punk and 2-Tone’s politics and anti-star stance, the British synth-pop wave of the early 1980s brought almost instant change to the UK pop scene. Moreover, the US success of the principal protagonists signalled the biggest ‘British Invasion’ since The Beatles and The Rolling Stones transformed American pop in the 1960s. Mixing a ...
New age music has become the most popular form of contemporary electronic music. Unlike the other variants, new age has become popular with a global mainstream audience, even more so than the most commercial strains of contemporary chill out. Although similarities do exist between new age and ambient music – both styles were influenced by the same pioneers, ...
Conditions were ripe for jazz to evolve in New Orleans at the turn of the twentieth century. A thriving port of immigration, where Africans and Creoles lived side by side with Italians, Germans, Irish, French, Mexicans and Cubans, New Orleans’ unprecedented ethnic diversity allowed for a free and easy mingling of musical ideas between cultures. ...
In 1859, at a conference of musicians in Leipzig, the representatives of a musical ‘party of progress’ under the leadership of Liszt gave itself the name New German School in conscious opposition to Brahms and his followers, who were still committed to composing in the spirit of the classical style. During his sojourn in Weimar (1848–61), Liszt had ...
(Instrumental group, 1922–25) The New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) were one of the major white groups in early New Orleans jazz; after a run at Chicago’s Friar’s Club in 1922, they recorded with Paul Mares (trumpet), George Brunis (trombone), Leon Roppolo (clarinet), Jack Pettis (alto sax), Elmer Schoebel (piano), Lew Black (banjo), Steve Brown (bass) and Frank Snyder (drums). ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1899–1947) A resident of Brownsville, Tennessee, Willie Newbern had only one recording session, for OKeh in Atlanta in 1929. Although he was not widely known outside his area, he influenced quite a few musicians: he recorded the first known version of ‘Roll And Tumble Blues’ and is said to have taught it to ...
(Piano, bandleader 1899–1981) Roy Newman And His Boys was one of the most distinctive pre-war western-swing bands. Based out of Dallas radio station WRR, pianist Newman was even more heavily pop, jazz and blues-influenced than most contemporaries. The band owed its instantly recognizable sound largely to idiosyncratic clarinetist Holly Horton. Other key band members included fiddlers Cecil Brower ...
(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 ...
(Songwriter, vocals, 1940–2002) Houston, Texas-born Milton Sim Newbury Jr. was a contemporary of Kris Kristofferson; and, like Kristofferson, he greatly expanded the thematic and emotional parameters of country songwriting in the late 1960s and the 1970s with his intensely introspective songs. ‘Sweet Memories’ (recorded by Willie Nelson, among others) and ‘American Trilogy’ (popularized by Elvis ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1940) Born in High Point, Louisiana, Newman was one of the first Cajun artists to succeed in country music’s mainstream – though his earliest recordings bore few traces of the Cajun influence. In the early 1950s, Newman became a popular performer on the Louisiana Hayride before moving on to Nashville and the Grand ...
(Vocals, b. 1948) English by birth, but raised in Australia, Olivia Newton-John enjoyed a brief career in country music. Much to the dismay of traditionalist Jean Shepard and her contemporaries among the country music fraternity, Newton-John was voted CMA Female Vocalist Of The Year in 1974, although only a handful of her singles made the US ...
After the 1960s heyday of the cultured Nashville sound, country music was all but swept aside. It had survived the lasting effect of 1950s rock – rock’n’roll and traditional old-timey music and bluegrass, especially – but it was now the turn of a musical hybrid, country rock, to lead the way for almost a decade. Country rock ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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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
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.