Although his band of high-school buddies achieved international fame under the name Toto, Steve Lukather (b. 1957), session guitarist extraordinaire, has had to struggle under the same suspicion under which his bandmates have toiled: that the whole may add up to less than the sum of its parts. For Toto, despite achieving worldwide fame with singles like ‘Rosanna’ ...
The guitarist in Genesis from 1970–77, Steve Hackett developed a technical skill and tone control that was a vital factor in shaping the band’s music. He also helped to steer the post-Peter Gabriel Genesis towards a new style before leaving to pursue a solo career. An undemonstrative performer, Hackett has been a major influence on guitarists looking beyond the ...
As the guitarist in Yes throughout their heyday in the 1970s, Steve Howe’s tasteful, eclectic playing helped to define a new style of rock music. Despite occasional absences during Yes’s convoluted history during the 1980s and 1990s, Howe remained a pivotal member of the group and has been a permanent member since 1996. He was also a founding ...
A consummate guitarist in an extraordinary variety of styles, including jazz, classical, country, rock and heavy metal, Steve Morse also has the compositional skills and the improvising genius to match. He has played with, among others, Dixie Dregs, Kansas and Deep Purple, while also maintaining his own band. Morse was born in ...
Schooled by Joe Satriani, trained by Frank Zappa and turned into a guitar hero by David Lee Roth, Steve Vai (b. 1960) has combined an energetic technique with a distinctive and often unusual sense of tone. Born and raised in North Hempstead, New York, Vai began taking guitar lessons from his schoolmate Satriani when he was 14. ...
Steve ‘The Colonel’ Cropper is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer and soul musician, best known for his work creating the trailblazing soul records produced by Memphis’s Stax label as a member of its studio band, which became Booker T. & The M.G.s, in the mid-1960s. Stephen Lee Cropper was born on a farm outside ...
Brooklyn’s Steve Stevens (b. 1959) grew up as a fan of progressive rock and honed his chops by studying guitar at Manhattan’s LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. He worked the Long Island and Manhattan club scenes with bands and eventually was hired for session work, including tracks for ex-Kiss drummer Peter Criss. But Stevens’ star really began to shine ...
(Soprano saxophone, 1934–2004) Steve Lacy began his career in Dixieland jazz, sitting in with Henry ‘Red’ Allen, Rex Stewart and Herbie Nichols, among others, at New York’s Café Metronome. However, he quickly shifted tack and became one of the leading figures in the jazz avant-garde. Soprano saxophone is now widely played, but Lacy concentrated ...
(Soprano saxophone, 1934–2004) Born Steven Lackritz in New York City, Lacy began his career playing Dixieland music with veterans Henry ‘Red’ Allen and Rex Stewart, but became best known as a highly lyrical and adventurous champion of the soprano saxophone. His adoption of the straight horn, neglected since the heyday of Sidney Bechet, inspired John Coltrane ...
(Electric bass, b. 1940) One of a handful of electric-jazz bassists who have shaped the sound of the instrument, Swallow was a student at Yale University when he became attracted to music. An early apprenticeship with pianist Paul Bley grew into a long-term association and the two recorded frequently. Vibist Gary Burton provided another ongoing musical relationship. After a ...
(Alto saxophone, b. 1956) Chicago native Coleman worked in funk and R&B bands before switching to jazz and learning under tenor sax great Von Freeman. He moved to New York in 1978 and worked with the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra and Sam Rivers. He had a key tenure in the early to mid-1980s with Dave Holland before forming his own ...
(Trumpet, composer, arranger, b. 1961) A member of several populist-experimental-fun jazz bands since the late 1980s (including Hieroglyphics Ensemble, Kamakazi Ground Crew, Lounge Lizards, Spanish Fly, Sex Mob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra), Bernstein continues to perform on slide trumpet (or soprano trombone), cornet and other standard brass instruments, and to compose and ...
(Producer, record executive, 1911–68) Washington, D.C.-born Steve Sholes was a central figure in country music’s rise from regional to national popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow and Pee Wee King are a few of the numerous artists that Sholes signed, produced and cultivated into stars. Styles & ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1942) Young grew up listening to country music in his native Georgia, played folk music in Greenwich Village and recorded early country-rock with Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman in California. He wove these disparate experiences into vivid story songs that were recorded by the Eagles, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr. and Dolly Parton. ...
(Vocals, songwriter, guitar, b. 1955) Born in Virginia and raised in Texas, Earle’s first tracks in 1983 were ignored. A change of label saw Guitar Town (1986) being hailed as pivotal in the new-traditionalist movement, spawning Top 10 singles in the title track and ‘Goodbye’s All We’ve Got Left’. His songs ‘My Old Friend The Blues’, ...
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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.