(Guitar, vocals, b. 1951) Tony Rice is one of the most inventive, elegant guitarists to emerge from the bluegrass community. As a teenager he was part of the California bluegrass scene with his brothers Larry and Wyatt, his hero Clarence White and his future collaborator Chris Hillman. Rice’s virtuosity soon won him jobs with The Bluegrass Alliance ...
Frank Anthony Iommi (b. 1948) was born in Birmingham, England. Like so many other teenage boys in 1960s Britain, he was inspired to pick up the guitar upon hearing Hank Marvin and The Shadows. In 1967, after playing in various local acts, Iommi hooked up with three former school mates – Bill Ward (drums), Terry ‘Geezer’ Butler ...
(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 ...
(Harmonica, vocals, c. 1912–65) Alex Ford ‘Rice’ Miller was born in Glendora, Mississippi. He taught himself the harmonica at the age of five and by his early teens had left home to sing and play as ‘Little Boy Blue’. He worked streets, clubs and functions through Mississippi and Arkansas during the 1930s, often playing with Robert ...
(Drums, 1945–97) Aged 14, Boston-born drum prodigy Tony Williams worked professionally with tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers. In 1962 he went to New York, played with Jackie McLean, then became part of one of Miles Davis’s greatest bands. A dazzling colourist and dynamic rhythm-maker, Williams recorded two albums for Blue Note and played with many of the ...
(Vocals, bandleader, b. 1926) One of the most important singers and innovators of the 1950s and 1960s, Perryville, Texas-born Ray Price introduced a more rhythmic and modernized variation of honky-tonk in the 1950s. In the early 1960s Price alienated some honky-tonk fans when he embraced the pop influences of the Nashville sound, with easy-listening hits like ...
1862–1949, Belgian Maeterlinck is best known for his play Pelléas et Mélisande set verbatim but with cuts by Debussy. It has become one of the pinnacles of French opera. Maeterlinck was one of the main founders of symbolist theatre. Thoroughly Belgian in his dark mysticism, he took Paris by storm in the early 1890s and was suddenly proclaimed the ...
b. 1927, American From the Mississippi to the concert stages of Europe, Price helped to pave the way for black American singers. Assisted by Paul Robeson and an affluent white family in her hometown, she gained entry to Juilliard, where she appeared in George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts. When ...
1875–1937, French A meticulous craftsman whose constant reworking and rewriting may have accounted for his relatively small body of work, Ravel composed music that consciously moved away from the influence of Richard Wagner. Along with Claude Debussy, he invented a highly personalized French style. Ravel also imbued his music with his love for Spanish culture (perhaps because his ...
Composed: 1907–09 Premiered: 1911, Paris Libretto by Franc-Nohain, after his own play Ramiro, a muleteer, brings a watch for repair to Torquemada’s workshop in Toledo. Concepcion reminds her husband that it is Thursday, when he has to wind all the municipal clocks. He asks Ramiro to wait until he gets back. Concepcion, however, is ...
Composed: 1920–25 Premiered: 1925, Monte Carlo Libretto by Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) The child has been naughty. His mother does not think he deserves more than tea without sugar and dry bread. He must think about how sad he has made her. He shouts after her, ‘I don’t love anybody! I’m naughty!’ He starts smashing and ill-treating everything ...
(Mo-res’ Ra-vel’) 1875–1937 French composer Ravel is often described (like Debussy, but still more misleadingly) as an ‘Impressionist’, but Ravel’s music is in fact precisely and delicately crafted, subtly perfect in its artifice (in the best sense of the word). Influenced by Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–94), Satie and his close friend Stravinsky, attracted to Spain temperamentally (he never visited ...
(Vocals, b. 1933) Growing up outside New Orleans, Lloyd Price was exposed to music through the jukebox in his mother’s fish-fry joint. At 18, the crossover-ready performer recorded a version of ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’ that became a runaway hit and spawned a slew of successful follow-ups. Price’s ‘Stagger Lee’ topped both the R&B and pop lists in 1958. ...
(Vocal group, 2000–present) New Yorker Antony Hegarty (vocals) and his fluid supporting cast are an act that affect everyone who hears them. Lou Reed liked them so much he recruited Hegarty to his band, and provided vocals, along with Boy George, on the Mercury Award-winning I Am A Bird Now (2005). What captivates fans is undoubtedly Hegarty’s ...
(Singer-songwriter, b. 1973) Irish singer-songwriter Rice finally broke into the mainstream in 2002 after years of busking around Europe. His debut album O charted at UK No. 8; the mellow, Irish folk-inspired tracks proved a hit with the public. His second effort, the equally obscurely titled 9, fared better, making No. 4 in the UK while ...
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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.