(Guitar, vocals, 1915–73) Born in Arkansas, Rosetta Nubin was the daughter of a missionary. She had learned to play guitar by the age of six and accompanied her mother at church functions. The family moved to Chicago and Tharpe signed with Decca in 1938. She was essentially a gospel performer, but with Lucky Millinder’s Orchestra (1941–43) she ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 2003–present) Another example of a band who have gained exposure in the UK (their Scissor Sisters debut was the highest-selling album there in 2004), the glam of Scissor Sisters – Jake Shears (Jason Sellards, vocals), Babbydaddy (Scott Hoffman, keyboards), Ana Matronic (Ana Lynch, vocals), Del Marquis (Derek Gruen, guitar) and Paddy Boom (Patrick Secord ...
‘Breakout’, 1987 A Top 10 hit in the UK, and the group’s only US Top 10 hit, ‘Breakout’ also went so far as to earn the group two Grammy Awards – for Best New Artist and Best New Pop Vocal Performance By A Group Or Duo. Subsequent album and single releases were acclaimed hits in some circles, though ...
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 ...
(Trombone, vocals, 1905–64) Arguably the greatest trombonist in jazz history, Jack Teagarden might have been the dominant player of the 1930s. He made his reputation in the late 1920s with Ben Pollack and Red Nichols, but a lack of ambition and desire for security led him to decline the invitation of an obscure clarinetist launching a new ...
(Piano, 1908–92) Samuel Blythe Price was born in Honey Grove, Texas. His recording debut came in 1929. In 1938 he moved to New York and became the pianist for Decca Records blues sessions. In this capacity – in addition to making his own recordings – he accompanied Blue Lu Barker, Johnny Temple and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, among ...
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’ ...
The spiritual tradition gave rise to many gospel staples, though many of the early ‘university’ singers who performed them had received a formal European musical schooling. The tradition reached a peak with the solo concert performances of the great singer Paul Robeson and the famous contralto Marian Anderson – the ambassadors for black America. The links between blues and gospel ...
As if at the convenience of history, the stock market crash in the final weeks of 1929 severed the 1920s from the 1930s. The breach was economic but its consequences were pervasive, sweeping away economic values and social illusions, and affecting all aspects of life for Americans and Europeans alike. America’s compliant 1920s middle class became the 1930s ...
The legend of Sun Records seems to expand and shine brighter with every passing year, as successive generations discover the almost unbelievable array of musical gems that were created at that modest little studio at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis. Sun was the brainchild of one man and it is no exaggeration to say that without his contribution, not ...
‘Alceste, or the Triumph of Alcide’ Composed in 1674, Lully’s Alceste, ou le triomphe d’Alcide, a tragédie lyrique with a prologue and five acts, had a double link with ancient Greek culture. The libretto, by Philippe Quinault, was based on Alcestis, a tragedy by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides that in turn derived ...
Alcina (composed in 1735) is the most celebrated of Handel’s ‘magic’ operas. Its dynamic situations are compelling and poignant: Handel’s portrayal of an enchanted hero, his brave true love and their evil enemy inspired him to create a particularly fine score that examines intense emotional experiences such as loss, guilt, lust, nostalgia and the restoration of memory. ...
Boris Godunov, the only project out of nine that Mussorgsky completed himself, has been cited as the great masterpiece of nineteenth-century Russian opera – with its thrilling crowd scenes, historic panorama and the chilling power of its principal character. Boris was unusual in having its chief male role written for a bass voice and for the ‘sung prose’ ...
Composed: 1958–64 Premiered: 1965, Cologne Libretto by the composer after Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz’s play Act I Marie Wesener, the daughter of a Lille merchant, and Stolzius, a draper in Armentières, are in love, but his mother disapproves. Marie rejects the advances of Desportes, a nobleman. The officers at Armentières discuss seduction. Desportes sends ...
Donizetti’s three-act comic opera, Don Pasquale, full of fun and infectious humour, was first performed at the Théâtre Italien in Paris on 3 January 1843. There was no hint here of Donizetti’s failing health, but as time proved, Don Pasquale was among the last of his remarkable total of 67 operas. The first performance was a ...
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