1940–93 American composer, rock musician Zappa, the anti-establishment rock musician and founder of The Mothers of Invention, was inspired as a teenager by the music of Varèse, Stravinsky and Webern, and wrote fully notated avant-garde-style pieces while still at school. In 1970 he performed material from his forthcoming film 200 Motels with the Los Angeles Philharmonic ...
Renowned as the leader of avant-garde satirical group the Mothers Of Invention in the 1960s, Frank Zappa developed a singular guitar prowess that emerged in the 1970s as his band became increasingly adventurous, drawing on a wide variety of classical, jazz and rock forms while maintaining their razor-sharp wit. Zappa’s approach to playing influenced many guitarists, including ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1940–93) In 1964, Zappa formed The Mothers Of Invention, whose albums resembled pop-Dada aural junk-sculptures made from an eclectic heap that, laced with outright craziness, included 1950s pop, jazz, schmaltz and the pioneering tonalities of Stravinsky, Varèse and Webern. However, Zappa’s intense concern over social issues was never so ...
(C-melody and alto saxophone, 1901–56) Known as ‘Tram’ by his colleagues, Trumbauer was a player of impeccable technique who had a major influence on many saxophonists in the 1920s (notably Benny Carter and Lester Young). He first recorded in 1923 with the popular Benson Orchestra of Chicago and by 1926 was playing alongside cornettist and kindred spirit Bix Beiderbecke ...
(Vocals, 1915–98) Frank Sinatra was best known as a popular singer and film actor but established his jazz credentials early in his career. He combined the smooth, Italian bel canto style with a sure sense of swing, toured with Harry James and learned about breath control from Tommy Dorsey (1940–42). He worked with arrangers Billy May, Gordon ...
(Guitar, vocals, harmonica, 1897–1945) Hutchison, a singer, slide-guitarist and harmonica player from West Virginia, was one of the more striking exponents of ‘hillbilly blues’ – music learned from, or influenced by, African-American sources, which in his case was acquired from railroad workers and miners. His ragtime picking piece ‘Coney Isle’, retitled ‘Alabam’’, ...
(Frank Mär-tan’) 1890–1974 Swiss composer Martin was an eclectic, but with his own voice. His best-known composition, the Petite symphonie concertante (1945) for harp, harpsichord, piano and strings, adopts systematic discipline from Schoenberg and rhythmic vigour from Stravinsky and jazz, but its combination of brooding solemnity and Gallic wit is Martin’s own. His concertos and ...
(Trumpet, vocals, b. 1939) As rock’n’roll lost its way in the late 1950s, good looks replaced musical ability and Philadelphia-born Francis Avalon became a teen idol via a series of forgettable pop hits like 1959’s million-selling US No. 1, ‘Venus’. Frequent exposure on the American Bandstand TV show produced two dozen US hits by 1962, and ...
(Vocal group, 1955–65) New Yorker Lymon (1942–68) was invited to join a school vocal group with Sherman Gaines (1940–78), Jimmy Merchant, Joe Negroni and Herman Santiago. Before finding Lymon, the others, who were known as The Premiers, were working on a song they had written, but needed a soprano lead voice, a vacancy Lymon ...
The undisputed Queen of Soul since the title was first applied to her in the late 1960s, Aretha Franklin has been hailed as the greatest soul diva of all time. Possessing a voice of power and passion (and an underrated talent on the piano) she has turned her attention to everything from pop through jazz to classical; but with a ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1980–87) Fronted by the charismatic Holly Johnson, FGTH – Paul Rutherford (vocals), Peter Gill (drums), Mark O’Toole (bass) and Brian Nash (guitar) – hit Britain with three consecutive No. 1s: the exciting, synthesized funk pop of 1983’s ‘Relax’ (banned by the BBC) and ‘Two Tribes’ – both precursors of house music – and the huge ballad ...
Few would deny that the blues has played a more important role in the history of popular culture than any other musical genre. As well as being a complete art form in itself, it is a direct ancestor to the different types of current popular music we know and love today. Without the blues there would have been no Beatles ...
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 ...
(Vocals, b. 1948) Although over time the name Alice Cooper came to attach itself to singer Vincent Furnier, it originally applied to the rock band that he fronted, the classic line-up of which comprised Cooper, Glen Buxton (guitar), Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums). After recording two albums for Frank Zappa’s Straight label ...
(Yan’-nis Ze-na’-kis) 1922–2001 French/Greek composer Xenakis took up the formal study of music late, having lessons with Honegger, Milhaud and Messiaen in Paris in the early 1950s. He developed a technique in which masses of sound were manipulated according to laws of mathematical probability. This can be clearly heard in the accumulation of overlapping string glissandos in Metastasis (1954), ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.