and was written by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith. Two more US Top 10 hits, 1964’s ‘Walk Don’t Run ‘64’ and 1969’s ‘Hawaii Five-O’, were almost irrelevant, as The Ventures were superstars in Japan, where they have reputedly released over 100 original albums. The current line-up is McGee (lead guitar), Wilson (guitar), Bogle (bass) and Leon Taylor. Styles & ...
skiffle band – comprising guitar, double bass and washboard – was popular at the same time. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American groups such as The Ventures and British outfits such as The Shadows established an instrumental lineup known as the ‘beat combo’, comprising a drum kit, electric bass guitar and two electric guitars (lead and ...
Run (1973). McCartney pays much attention to detail in his songwriting. He is acutely aware of the nuances of his lyrics and forms clear structures to articulate them. His two ventures into classical genres (Liverpool Oratorio, 1991, written with Carl Davis; Standing Stone, 1997, written with Richard Rodney Bennett and others) have gained much public attention. He ...
most famous opera, Lucia di Lammermoor, based on the novel The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott. Lucia was followed in 1837 by one of Donizetti’s many ventures into English history, for another sinister tale of betrayal, despair and death in high, royal places with Roberto Devereux, ossia Il conte d’Essex (‘Robert Devereux, ...
(Alto and soprano saxophones, 1907–70) Saxophonist Johnny Hodges was fortunate enough to forge an early relationship with Sidney Bechet; while playing at Club Bechet in New York he won the attention of Duke Ellington, who signed him in 1928. Hodges’ sweeping tone and scooping glissandos remained a vital part of Ellington’s orchestra for around 40 years, with only ...
– were particularly big sellers before a jazzier approach in the later 1970s was received less enthusiastically. Since then, artistic and commercial progress have been patchy and have involved ventures into other cultural areas – most conspicuously exhibitions of her paintings in the mid-1990s – and increasingly longer periods of vanishing from the public eye. Styles & Forms | Sixties ...
of songwriter Mel Tillis started performing at the age of eight, learning to play various instruments at Nashville’s Blair Academy. In the late 1970s, she tried various musical ventures, before singing back-up in her father’s road show in the 1980s and releasing five minor chart singles. Emerging country label Arista signed her and the spirited ‘Don’t Tell Me ...
US chart with their revival of ‘La Bamba’, the title tune of the feature film of the life of Valens. Styles & Forms | Fifties | Rock Personalities | The Ventures | Fifties | Rock ...
music. Beginning as a trumpeter, he was already a virtuoso guitarist in his teens. His earliest role model was Scotty Moore, and he was later influenced by The Ventures and Chet Atkins. Landreth’s first professional appearance was with Zydeco accordionist Clifton Chenier, in whose Red Hot Louisiana Band Landreth was the only white. He recorded two albums for ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1983–98) This irascible, much-lauded Scottish crew featured the Reid brothers, William and Jim (both vocals, guitar) and, for a while, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream (drums). They took The Velvet Underground’s art rock and overlaid surprisingly poppy melodies. Their early gigs turned into riots, but 1985’s Psychocandy was a very good debut ...
Hell To Paradise (1992), gave little hint of the success ahead, as CMA Vocal Group Of The Year in both 1995 and 1996. All have moved on to further ventures, but will be forever linked with the audience-pleasing band whose albums include What A Crying Shame (1994), Music For All Seasons (1995) and Trampoline (1998), which featured ‘Dance The ...
Hans Zimmer entered the synth arena with The Power Of One and went on to strike gold with his Oscar-winning score for Disney’s The Lion King. He also founded Media Ventures, a collection of composers who, typically, produce brash, percussion-heavy scores for action movies such as The Rock and Con Air. With Crimson Tide, Gladiator and ...
included ‘Witch Queen Of New Orleans’. A style of Native American music that seems determined to stay resolutely outside the mainstream, however, is chicken scratch, which rarely ventures far from its home on the Arizona/Mexico border. The proximity with Spanish influences flavours its unique brand of polkas, waltzes and mazurkas, played on acoustic guitars, fiddles ...
of singers such as Roy Orbison endured into the 1960s, and the trend for pop instrumentals grew, courtesy of groups such as The Shadows in Britain and The Ventures in America, where Dick Dale & His Del-Tones were purveyors of the ‘surf guitar’. The remains of white doo-wop could be heard in recordings by The Four Seasons and ...
of escapism and innocent fun and was to have a profound and lasting influence on the sound of the rock guitar. Whereas chart-friendly instrumental recordings by bands such as The Ventures in the US and The Shadows in the UK helped to sustain the guitar’s popularity in the period between the demise of rock’n’roll and The British Invasion, surf rock ...
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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.