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(Piano, 1912–86) Although the physical brilliance of Art Tatum may have eluded most pianists in the 1930s, the more practical possibilities offered by Teddy Wilson made him the most influential pianist of the decade. Softening Earl Hines’ emphasis on the beat still further, Wilson’s style was centred almost wholly in his right hand, which spun smooth, ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Vocals, composer, b. 1955) Raised in Mississippi, smoky contralto Wilson sang R&B and folk music, but emerged in New York in the early 1980s as a member of the M-Base Collective and with Henry Threadgill’s band. Her breakout album Blue Skies (1988) reprised jazz standards and she starred in Wynton Marsalis’ oratorio Blood on the Fields, ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1973) Raised in rural Pocahontas, Illinois, Gretchen Wilson was one of the biggest acts to emerge on the country scene in some years. She moved to Nashville in 1996, where she eventually met John Rich, of singer-songwriters Big And Rich, and gave him a demo. This led to a deal with ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

(Singer-songwriter 1934–84) Detroit-born Jackie Wilson, an ex-amateur boxer, sang with gospel groups before replacing Clyde McPhatter in Billy Ward and The Dominoes in 1953. His first solo success came with 1957’s UK and US hit, Reet Petite’, co-written by Berry Gordy Jr., who went on to found Motown Records. His first US Top 40 hit was 1958’s ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

(Vocals, 1941–2006) After an early career with the seminal R&B group The Falcons (he replaced Eddie Floyd as lead singer), Pickett signed with Atlantic in 1965, recording with Booker T. And The M.G.s at Stax in Memphis, and scored an early hit with ‘In The Midnight Hour’, first of many successes characterized by mighty horn stabs ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

(Vocals, 1934–84) With his powerful high vocal range, Jackie Wilson was among the earliest singers to make the transition from R&B to soul. His first single, 1957’s ‘Reet Petite’, was the start of a winning partnership with its writer, young Berry Gordy (although Wilson never recorded for Gordy’s Motown label). ‘Reet Petite’ was actually more successful in ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

Benny Goodman was the first of the great bandleader virtuosos of the 1930s to achieve global success. Through a combination of personal connections, nerve, enormous talent and sheer luck, he parlayed a sequence of opportunities in 1934–35 into a payoff that changed American music. After forming his first band in New York in 1934, he won a ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

Billie Holiday was entirely untrained as a singer, but drew on the example of popular recording artists such as Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong in developing her musical approach. She was able to make much of poor songs as well as great ones. Her phrasing, intonation, attention to the weight and nuance of lyrics, and her lightly ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

Charlie Christian (1916–42) pushed guitar to the forefront of the big-band era, furthering the instrument’s evolution from a provider of acoustic accompaniment to an electrified foreground instrument that could pound out rhythm like a drum set or solo out front like a horn. His playing, in fact, was likened to jazz horn players who were leading the evolution ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

(Clarinet, 1901–67) Raised in a musical family (his father Edward also played clarinet), Hall played around New Orleans during the early 1920s before departing to New York in 1928 to work with Alonzo Ross. He worked with Claude Hopkins, Lucky Millinder, Joe Sullivan and Zutty Singleton in the 1930s; with Teddy Wilson and Eddie Condon through the 1940s; ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Drums, 1911–85) Few players have defined a big band from the drum chair as strongly as Jonathon ‘Jo’ Jones did with Count Basie. When the first Basie records came out in 1937, their rhythm section was both a revelation and a revolution – and brought jazz drumming into a new, more sleek modernity. A master of the steely ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Trumpet, vocals, 1909–2000) By the time Jonah Jones came to prominence on New York’s 52nd Street, he had developed a fierce, intense attack that suggested Roy Eldridge without the high notes. He played and recorded with Stuff Smith from 1936–40 and on sessions with Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday and Lionel Hampton. He worked with Cab Calloway ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

Of all the great solo architects of the 1930s, none personified the smooth, penetrating sweep through space and time more ideally or organically than tenor saxophonist Lester Young. His fluid, unforced phrasing and undulating attack were matched to a cool, satin skin of sound that seemed to dispel all friction by decompressing the emotional density of the ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Vibraphone, drums, piano, 1908–2002) Before jazz became highbrow, musicians were cheered, not censured, for being entertainers; Lionel Hampton embraced that model. The more one did, he believed, the more one made. So Hampton was always doing more. During his early years he worked as a drummer. He began experimenting with the vibraphone around ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

While Louis Armstrong remained a pre-eminent jazz symbol in the public mind through the 1930s, and inspired many imitators (Taft Jordan, Hot Lips Page, Wingy Manone), younger and better-schooled musicians were coming up who could navigate the trumpet with great agility and dexterity. They would break through the perimeters that Armstrong had established in the 1920s and take ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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