(Vocal group, 1973–78) Led by singer Steve Harley, Cockney Rebel’s first line-up was Jean-Paul Crocker (violin), Paul Jeffreys (bass), Milton Reame-James (keyboards) and Stuart Elliot (drums). Debut album The Human Menagerie (1973) was unusual for the absence of lead guitar. Harley sacked all except Elliot after The Psychomodo (1974). Rebel mark II emerged with the 1975 UK No. 1 ...
Rock’n’roll guitarist Duane Eddy was born in Corning, New York in 1938. His interest in the guitar began when he was five, inspired by singing film-cowboy Gene Autry. In 1951, the family moved to Arizona. While playing guitar in a country duo, Duane met songwriter, producer and disc jockey Lee Hazelwood. The pair embarked on a ...
(Zhan Fa-re’ Re-bel’) 1666–1747 French composer Rebel belonged to a family of court musicians. At the age of eight, his violin playing attracted the attention of Lully. From then onwards he occupied posts both at the Académie Royale de Musique and at court. Rebel’s Sonates à II et III parties, written towards the end of the seventeenth century, but ...
(Vocal group, 1961–69) If admired as a bandleader, Bennett was also one of few white UK singers able to take on black pop without losing the overriding passion. After six flop singles, covers of The Drifters’ ‘One Way Love’ and ‘I’ll Take You Home’ reached Nos. 9 and 42 respectively, but it was to be nearly two ...
(Vocals, b. 1941) Born in North Carolina and raised in New Jersey, Clinton became a funk legend but his first musical venture was the five-man doo-wop group The Parliaments, formed in the late 1950s. After recording for various small labels, and following a spell in which Clinton worked for Motown, the first flowering of his later ...
Following the social and political upheaval of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe enjoyed a short period of relative stability with Napoleon’s exile, the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France and the establishment of the Vienna Peace Settlement in 1815. However, in the early 1820s a number of minor revolts broke out in Naples and ...
The first African slaves arrived in America in 1619 and brought their music with them. From then until the Civil War of 1861–65, the music both fascinated and frightened the white slave owners who would flock to see the black people celebrating their weekly ‘day off’ in New Orleans’s Congo Square. At the same time, slave owners suppressed the ...
Like so many of black America’s most enduring musical genres, hip hop was born out of invention. When, as the 1970s came to a close, a combination of disco and big record company involvement had diluted funk and soul to the extent that it had become boring to go out to a club on a Saturday night, something rumbled out of New ...
Rock, jazz, soul; each of these genres, while containing a multiplicity of various offshoots, is defined by some kind of unifying theme. But this miscellaneous section, as any record collector will know, is where everything else ends up. Most of the styles within this ‘genre’ have little in common save the fact that they do ...
‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ Composed: 1858; rev. 1874 Premiered: 1874, Paris Libretto by Crémieux and Halévy Act I Eurydice cannot abide her violin virtuoso husband Orphée. She would rather die than be bored to death. Jealous that she is seeing too much of the beekeeper Aristée, he tells her about the snakes in Aristée’s cornfield. She goes to warn ...
In 2009, London-born soul sensation Adele said that to be nominated for a Grammy Award was ‘a dream come true’ and to win two ‘blew my mind.’ Fast-forward to the 54th Grammy Awards in February 2012 and the singer was practically staggering as she posed for pictures with six further gongs. She won Record of the Year, Album ...
Despite initial comparisons to her fellow Londoner, the late Amy Winehouse, and other female soul acts – Adele has been likened to everyone from the late Whitney Houston to a combination of Joni Mitchell and Carole King – there’s no denying she is now widely thought of as a unique talent. ‘I keep getting called “the new Amy Winehouse” and ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1989–2003, 2009–present) Formed at London’s Goldsmiths College, Damon Albarn (vocals), Graham Coxon (guitar), Alex James (bass) and Dave Rowntree (drums) tuned into the vibe generated by The Stone Roses with baggy anthems ‘She’s So High’ and ‘There’s No Other Way’. Although Leisure (1991) showed a band adept at updating 1960s pop, Modern Life Is Rubbish ...
A pivotal figure in the transition from blues to rock’n’roll, Bo Diddley was born Elias Bates in McComb, Mississippi in 1928. When he was seven, the family relocated to Chicago, where he took violin lessons before switching to guitar, inspired by John Lee Hooker. He began by playing on street corners, then in the Hipsters. ...
Trailblazing Kinks lead guitarist Dave Davies was born in Muswell Hill, London in 1947. The Davies were a close-knit, musical family and Dave acquired his first guitar, a Harmony Meteor, at the age of 11. He taught himself to play, citing blues pioneer Big Bill Broonzy as his earliest influence. Other inspirations were James Burton, ...
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.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.