(Tenor and soprano saxophones, b. 1933) Wayne Shorter’s most significant early position was in Maynard Ferguson’s orchestra in 1958, where he met pianist Joe Zawinul. In 1959 Shorter joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and soon thereafter made his debut as a leader. He gained prominence as a member of Miles Davis’s ambitious groups from 1964–70, in which his ...
(Vocal group, 1963–68) This Manchester group’s fifth single, ‘Um Um Um Um Um Um’, in the domestic Top 10 was harbinger of a US breakthrough with 1965’s million-selling ‘Game Of Love’. With the comparative failure of subsequent releases came a rancorous parting of singer and backing combo. The Mindbenders (with future 10cc mainstay Eric Stewart on lead vocal) made ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1995–present) Chris Collingwood (guitar), Adam Schlesinger (bass), Jody Porter (guitar) and Brian Young (drums) formed their band in New Jersey. The early single ‘That Thing You Do’ (1996), used in the film of the same name, broke the band to mainstream audiences (and brought an Oscar nomination), but even that could not stop a four-year hiatus. 2001 ...
(Vocals, b. 1982) Lil Wayne, real name Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., earned the title of one of the hardest-working stars in the US during the Noughties. He collaborated with a who’s-who of hip hop artists from Eminem to Usher, while still releasing five studio albums during the decade. The New Orleans native secured a US No. 1 ...
(Tenor and soprano saxophones, b. 1937) Acid-toned saxophonist Archie Shepp was a principal figure in the second wave of free-jazz artists. Also recognized as a playwright and poet, Shepp was an articulate spokesman for Black Power. He emerged in 1960 as a member of Cecil Taylor’s group, then collaborated with trumpeter Bill Dixon, Don Cherry and John ...
(Drums, 1919–90) Art Blakey (also later known as Buhaina or simply Bu after he converted to Islam) led the quintessential hard bop group the Jazz Messengers across four decades from the late 1940s, and was a fervent advocate of the music he loved. He formed his first band in his native Pittsburgh, but moved to New York and ...
Derek Trucks was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1979. Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy, playing his first paid performance at age 11. Trucks began playing the guitar using a ‘slide’ bar because it allowed him to play the guitar with his small hands. By his ...
In the 1960s and early 1970s, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard was the primary alternative to Miles Davis’s domination of the field. Hubbard came up in the hard-bop era, blew free jazz with Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, and established a body of exemplary compositions, recordings and improvisations with the best of the 1960s Blue Note artists: Art Blakey ...
(Piano, electronic keyboards, b. 1932) Born in Vienna, Josef Zawinul was 27 when he arrived in the US on a music scholarship, but this relatively late start did not prevent him from becoming an enormously influential composer and bandleader. Following brief stints with Dinah Washington and Maynard Ferguson, Zawinul joined Cannonball Adderley’s band as musical director ...
Juan Cristóbal Martín (b. 1948) was born in Málaga, Spain, and started learning the guitar at the age of six. In his early twenties he moved to Madrid to study under Nino Ricardo and Paco de Lucía. Martín was influenced by classic flamenco and the Spanish classical guitar tradition. His major influences included de Lucía, Tomatito and Andrés ...
The history of post-war jazz tracked the musical development of Miles Dewey Davis III so closely that it is tempting to see the trumpeter as the orchestrator of each of the most significant stylistic shifts of the era. With the notable exception of free jazz, Miles seemed to trigger a new seismic shift in the music with each passing decade. ...
Guitarist Pat Metheny emerged in the mid-1970s with a fully realized approach to his instrument that was wholly unique for its time, offering a refreshing alternative to both bop and fusion styles. His sweeping, warm-toned, reverb-soaked lines and liquid phrasing, once described by Down Beat magazine as ‘the sound of wind through the trees’, had a huge ...
‘Fusion’ can be applied to any music that blends two or more different styles, though it is normally used to describe the electronic jazz rock movement that emerged in the late 1960s. Some of the musicians expanded the boundaries of both jazz and rock, while others focused on producing sophisticated, but shallow, ‘background’ music. Although fusion records ...
Soul jazz stood out from other previous jazz forms. Its melodies were simpler and more rhythmic compared to hard bop, and influences from gospel and R&B were evident. In more traditional jazz forms, soloists would follow walking basslines or metric cymbal rhythms. In soul jazz, they followed a whole groove, which encouraged a different style of phrasing. ...
The cultural momentum of the 1950s spilled directly into the 1960s – arguably, the change of the decade (and century) in jazz was 1959, when Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Sun ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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...
CURATED
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.