Although they existed for just over two years and released only two albums, The Sex Pistols had more impact on the British music scene than any band since the 1960s. To the public they represented the face of punk. The Sex Pistols came together in London in 1975 under the aegis of Malcolm McLaren (born 22 January 1946) who was ...
Massenet delighted in the nineteenth-century penchant for the oriental more than any other operatic composer. Following Meyerbeer in L’africaine, Berlioz in Les Troyens and the little-known Ferdinand David, who plundered Eastern techniques and themes in several of his works, Massenet first began to use pastiches of oriental musical techniques by imitating the inflections of North African and Arabic ...
Few would deny that the blues has played a more important role in the history of popular culture than any other musical genre. As well as being a complete art form in itself, it is a direct ancestor to the different types of current popular music we know and love today. Without the blues there would have been no Beatles ...
During the mid-1960s, America’s military action in Vietnam was escalating out of control; students around the world were becoming more politically involved, civil rights and feminism were hot issues and the burgeoning youth movement was turning onto the effects of mind-bending drugs. Accordingly, certain strains of popular music melded attitude, experimentation and a social conscience, and ...
Composed in 1787 and triumphantly premiered in Prague on 29 October that year, Don Giovanni reworks the old legend of the serial seducer, drawing on the Spanish play by Tirso de Molina (1630) and Molière’s Don Juan (1665). The opera revolves around the tensions of class and sex that were so central to Figaro. Ensembles and propulsive ‘chain’ finales ...
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 ...
1916–83, Argentinian One of the most important South American composers of the twentieth century, Ginastera combined energetic Argentine rhythms with enchanting lyricism and an almost hallucinatory ambiance to forge his unique style. He lived in New York on a Guggenheim Fellowship from 1945–48 before returning to Argentina. Here, he experimented with advanced composition techniques, yet his three ...
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 ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1944) The smooth, sophisticated pop of the enormously successful 1976 album Silk Degrees remains William ‘Boz’ Scaggs’ best-known work. Previously a member of The Steve Miller Band, Scaggs first recorded solo in 1965, but it was his seventh album which brought him widespread acclaim and spawned three hit singles, plus a cover ...
One of the founding fathers of rock’n’roll, Charles Edward (Chuck) Berry was born in 1926 in St Louis, Missouri, to a middle-class family. His interest in the blues began in high school, where he gave his first public performance. In 1944, he was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to three years in an Intermediate Reformatory ...
(Vocals, b. 1938) New Jersey-born Concetta Franconero appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s TV talent show, and while still at university, signed to MGM Records. 1958’s UK chart topper, ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ was the first of eight mainly sentimental million-selling US hits, including 1959’s ‘Among My Souvenirs’, and 1960’s ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’, the first of three US No. ...
It’s easy to mock rock stars who pursue parallel careers as thespians. Firstly, because said parallel career has usually only been opened to them by their ‘proper’ job and, secondly, because the presumption of thinking they can excel at something for which others often study for years is mildly contemptible. Perhaps it’s something to do with his early ...
1892–1957, Italian Pinza’s bass voice was notable for its beauty of tone. Following the First World War, he sang at La Scala under Toscanini. His debut at the Met in 1926 began a run of 22 consecutive seasons as a leading bass. He sang all the bass roles, Don Giovanni and Figaro being among his most memorable portrayals ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1989–2002) Hole formed in LA with Eric Erlandson (guitar), Jill Emery (bass) and Caroline Rue (drums). As lead singer, Courtney Love was an arresting presence delivering lyrics whose concerns raged from sleaze to sex. Early singles and debut album Pretty On The Inside (1991) won UK and US followings. By Live Through This (1994) Love’s husband, ...
In March 2011 the New Musical Express published a list of the Top 100 gigs that music fans ‘should have been at’. Green Day were at No. 68 and the gig in question was their famed performance at The Den in Wigan on 21 December 1991 where they not only performed tracks from their debut LP 39/Smooth and upcoming album Kerplunk ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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...
CURATED
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.