Guitar Heroes

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Alternative-metal guitarist Adam Jones (b. 1965) was born in Park Ridge, Illinois. He learned violin in elementary school, continuing with the instrument in high school, before playing acoustic bass for three years in an orchestra and later teaching himself guitar by ear. Jones studied art and sculpture in Los Angeles before working in a Hollywood character shop sculpting models. His work appeared in several movies, including Ghostbusters 2 and Predator 2. ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
390 Words Read More

Master of guitar-generated sound effects, Adrian Belew (b. 1949) makes his Parker Deluxe guitar not only sing but also scream, squawk, roar, tweet and talk in elephant tongue. Best known for his time in King Crimson during the early Eighties as comic foil to Robert Fripp’s relatively nerdy straight man, Belew is one of the most underrated six-stringers in the world today. Adrian was born Robert Steven Belew in Covington, Kentucky. ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
399 Words Read More

Fingerstyle master Adrian Legg (b. 1948) defies categorization. But though his music combines British folk, Celtic, rock, classical, blues, jazz and country sounds, Legg’s warm, soulful playing is the thread that unites the styles. Born in Hackney, London, England, Legg took the first steps of his musical journey playing the oboe as a lad. As many teenage boys are wont to do, however, he eventually became interested in the guitar. His ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
389 Words Read More

With the exception of Judas Priest, no metal band has been more influential than Iron Maiden. And it is no coincidence that Maiden first took flight when guitarist Adrian Smith joined the band one month into recording their second album, Killers, in 1981. Adrian Frederik ‘H’ Smith was born in Hackney, East London, in February 1957. At school, he was drawn to the rock-guitar sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Ritchie Blackmore, ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
422 Words Read More

Al Di Meola (b. 1954) rose to the top tier of contemporary jazz guitarists through his work with Chick Corea’s Return To Forever in the Seventies. In addition to a prolific solo career, he has collaborated on projects with bassist Stanley Clarke, keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and guitarists John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. Al Laurence Dimeola was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
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Few blues guitarists had more style and presence than Albert King (1923–92). At 6ft 4in (1.93m) and 250lbs (113kg), he cut an imposing figure onstage. Equally distinctive was his Gibson Flying V guitar, a right-handed instrument that King played left-handed and upside down. This gave him an unusual, tormented sound when he bent the strings on his fretboard. He also used his thumb rather than a pick. The master of the ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
411 Words Read More

Rock guitarist Albert Lee was born in Leominster, Herefordshire in 1943. The son of a musician, Lee started his musical career on piano, but like many of his generation, took up the guitar upon the arrival of rock’n’roll, inspired in particular by Buddy Holly. He played in various bands after leaving school at the age of 16, before becoming lead guitarist with Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds. Preferring country to the ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
387 Words Read More

For over 30 years, guitarist Alex Lifeson has quietly served as the cohesive key to success for progressive rockers Rush – arguably the most enduring and successful hard-rock band of all time. A guitarist always more interested in finding the right chord voicing or textural effect to make a chorus work than in shredding the frets off his axe du jour, it’s no wonder every one of his power trio’s ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
426 Words Read More

Alex Skolnick (b. 1968) is best known as a metal guitarist with thrash pioneers Testament, but metal is just one facet of the talented guitarist’s abilities. Skolnick was born in Berkeley, California. At the age of nine, he discovered Kiss and subsequently decided to learn guitar. He was later inspired by the highly technical work of Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. At the age of 16, he joined a ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
424 Words Read More

Sometimes called ‘the African John Lee Hooker’, Ali ‘Farka’ Touré (1939–2006) was a Malian singer and guitarist, and one of Africa’s most renowned musicians. Many consider his music to be a bridge between traditional Malian music and its presumed descendant, the blues. The interplay of rhythm and sound in Touré’s music was similar to John Lee Hooker’s hypnotic blues style. Both singers combined a deep-voice delivery with mid-tempo, foot-stomping rhythms, often ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
370 Words Read More

Of all the guitar players of the last 40 years, none produce music as confounding yet beautiful as Allan Holdsworth (b. 1946). His blinding speed, fluid legato, impossible intervallic leaps, perplexing chord voicings and unpredictable melodies have made his style one of the most mystifying to guitarists everywhere. Allan Holdsworth was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. His father was a pianist, and thus taught young Allan, who picked up the ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
373 Words Read More

Blues-rock guitarist Alvin Lee was born Graham Barnes in Nottingham in 1944. Inspired by rock’n’roll guitarists Chuck Berry and Scotty Moore, Lee began to play at the age of 13, and formed his first band, Ivan Jay & The Jaymen, in 1960. Lee became lead vocalist in 1962 when the band changed their name to The Jaybirds and played Hamburg’s Star Club. They moved to London in 1966, eventually settling on ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
418 Words Read More

Classical-guitar legend Andrés Segovia (1894–1987) was born in the city of Linares, Spain and reared in Granada. He received musical instruction at an early age and was tutored in piano and violin but warmed to neither. When he heard the guitar in the home of a friend, however, he was hooked. Disregarding the objections of his family and his teachers at the Granada Musical Institute, Segovia persisted in learning to ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
711 Words Read More

One of the greatest achievements any guitar player can attain is an immediately recognizable signature tone and style. And though many guitarists have realized this goal, few have done it as emphatically as Police guitarist Andy Summers (b. 1942). From the chord stabs of ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ to the arpeggios of ‘Message In A Bottle’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’, Summers’s chiming, shimmering Telecaster tones are ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
741 Words Read More

AC/DC guitarist Angus Young – all five feet two inches of him – is a larger-than-life figure. Rising up from working-class Scottish roots to become the heart and soul of one of the greatest rock’n’roll bands of all time, Young, with his schoolboy outfit and Gibson SG in hand, has become the definitive rock-guitar icon. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in March 1955, Young moved to Australia with his family in the ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
397 Words Read More
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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...

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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.

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