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 ...
(Guitar, 1932–2005) The British guitarist was uncompromisingly, spontaneously cerebral, exploring atonal, anti-melodic, arhythmic yet associative ‘sound’, abjuring musical conventions. Yet his solos and collaborations with master improvisers of jazz and beyond were compelling. The author of Improvisation: Its Nature And Practice In Music (1993), Bailey considers traditions from Africa and India as well as the West. ...
Mark Tremonti (b. 1974) rose to fame as the lead guitarist of Creed, enjoying enormous success at the turn of the twenty-first century with metal-influenced songs that crossed over to the pop charts. Tremonti’s tasteful power has garnered him many fans. His instructional DVD The Sound And The Story adds tips from several guitarists, including Michael Angelo Batio, ...
Warren Haynes was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1960. He began to play the guitar at age 12. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter were early influences. ‘I would read interviews with all these people and find out who they listened to,’ Haynes has said. ‘And they all listened to B.B. King and Freddie King ...
It was in the rich cotton–producing Delta stretching from Mississippi to Tennessee that black labourers working the plantations gave ferment to an earthy style of music born out of African songs, chants, spirituals and gospel tunes that had been handed down for generations. They called it the blues. The man usually recognized as the first star of Delta country ...
‘Julius Cesar in Egypt’ Handel’s operas usually revolve around the voices and particular gifts of the singers that were available to him. Giulio Cesare in Egitto was created in 1724 as a vehicle for Senesino and Cuzzoni, although the characteristic trademark of Handel’s best operas is that the emotions and experience of the characters are not sacrificed to the virtuosity ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1977–82) The charismatic Adam Ant (b. Stuart Goddard) was a prominent figure in the boutiques and clubs of the punk scene, appearing in Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee, and releasing Dirk Wears White Sox in 1979. After his backing band became Bow Wow Wow, he started from scratch, gaining huge fame with his follow-up – ...
Southern-rock guitarist Duane Allman was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1946. Allman was inspired to take up the guitar by his brother Gregg. At first, they played country music, their initiation into the blues coming when the brothers saw B.B. King performing in Nashville. The pair began playing professionally in 1961, first in The Allman Joys ...
The most famous living guitarist in the world, Eric Clapton’s career has passed through an extraordinary series of highs and lows during his long reign as a guitar hero. He has also experimented with numerous stylistic changes, but has always returned to his first love, the blues. A love child born in 1945, Clapton was brought up ...
(Tenor saxophone, b. 1929) Admired by post-1960s Chicago improvisers as a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson’s reputation spread after his first trip to Europe in 1977, but he was very sparsely recorded until the 1990s. Since then his huge tone and gutsy, freely associative statements have been ...
Freddie (sometimes spelled Freddy) King (1934–76) revitalized the Chicago blues scene in the 1960s. His aggressive playing and piercing solos helped to set up the blues-rock movement, and he was a major influence on 1960s British guitarists like Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. King’s mother taught him to play guitar as a child in Gilmer, Texas ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1934–76) Few bluesmen have possessed the bristling intensity of Freddie King, whose stinging vibrato and energetic, soaring vocal style influenced Eric Clapton. King was born in Gilmer, Texas and learned guitar from his mother at age six. He moved to Chicago in 1950, earning a reputation among peers like Buddy Guy and Otis ...
There are so many books stuffed with learned theories about The Beatles, that we can easily overlook the point that really matters. Simply, The Beatles were the greatest device that was ever invented for causing enjoyment on a global scale. There used to be a record label whose half-ironical slogan was ‘Happy to be Part of the Industry of ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1978–present) Fish (b. Derek Dick) was the band’s charismatic vocalist until 1988, writing the lyrics to their complicated but engaging neo-prog rock: Script For A Jester’s Tear (1983) and Fugazi (1984). They also landed UK hits with ‘Kayleigh’, ‘Lavender’ and ‘Incommunicado’. Since Steve Hogarth took over they have kept the unfashionable banner of prog flying with aplomb ...
Rock and jazz guitarist Neal Schon, son of a jazz saxophonist and composer, was born in Oklahoma in 1954. A precocious talent, he learned guitar at the age of 10 and joined Santana at 15, turning down an invitation to join Eric Clapton in Derek and the Dominos. Schon made two albums with the band, Santana ...
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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
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sweep of incredible photographs.