(Guitar, vocals, b. 1941) Paul Simon (1972) was an eclectic affair followed a year later by the more straightforward There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. His third solo album Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) featured a reunion with Art Garfunkel on the duet ‘My Little Town’. The singer’s most popular and influential work was Graceland (1986), which utilized African ...
Blues and hard-rock guitarist Paul Kossoff, son of British actor David Kossoff, was born in Hampstead, London in 1950. He studied classical guitar as a child, but had given it up by his early teens. Inspired by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, featuring Eric Clapton, he resumed playing and teamed up with drummer Simon Kirke in the ...
Too often, the music created by so-called ‘shred’ guitarists comes across as too cerebral and serious to elicit enjoyment from any but the most die-hard shred fan. Fortunately for all other fans of instrumental guitar, Paul Gilbert (b. 1966) prefers to dish out his hungry-man portions of notes with humour and irreverence matched only by his technical ferocity. Gilbert ...
The enduring and iconic guitarist and songwriter Paul Weller (b. 1958) was born John William Weller in Woking, Surrey. He was a boyhood Beatles fanatic before discovering The Who and, through them, the mod movement. His father, who managed him for the majority of his career, bought his 12-year-old son an electric guitar for Christmas; at ...
Les Paul (1915–2009) developed a reputation in modern music beyond his status as a successful performer and guitar innovator through his pioneering work with multitrack recording. Born Lester Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the nine-year-old Paul first picked up the harmonica from a street musician. Soon, he was playing for money in the streets. He was attracted to electronics ...
(Se’-mon Mi’-er) 1763–1845 German composer Mayr grew up in Bavaria and taught himself to play most string and wind instruments, before moving to Venice, where he studied composition with Ferdinando Bertoni. Mayr composed numerous operas, many for La Scala, Milan. Although his works exhibit diverse stylistic elements, his melodic and harmonic expression was rooted in late Neapolitan ...
(Violin, bandleader, 1890–1967) Erroneously dubbed ‘The King Of Jazz’ by press agents, Whiteman led his first dance band in San Francisco in 1918. Arriving in New York in 1920, he assembled some of the city’s top musicians and gained popularity with hits such as ‘Japanese Sandman’ and ‘Whispering’. In 1924 his orchestra premiered George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In ...
(Piano, synthesizer, b. 1932) Paul Bley came from Montreal to New York in the early 1950s and worked with Jackie McLean. Later, in Los Angeles, he pioneered free jazz with Ornette Coleman. Throughout his career Bley has performed the compositions of his ex-wives – keyboardist Carla Bley and singer/pianist Annette Peacock – and his own pieces, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1963–67) Harmonica player and singer Butterfield conditioned his band – Jerome Arnold (bass), Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield (guitars), Sam Lay (drums, vocals) and Mark Naftalin (keyboards) – in black Chicago clubs. They backed Dylan’s electric debut at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and helped to usher blues into the psychedelic era, with the groundbreaking East-West ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1989–present) English harmonica virtuoso Lamb (b. 1955) initially learned to play from recordings, but was mentored by Sonny Terry after they met at the World Harmonica Championships when Lamb was 15. He performed with other blues legends, including Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, before forming the five-piece Paul Lamb & The King Snakes. They released ...
(Vocal duo, 1993–present) This Cambridge, Massachusetts-based duo embrace vintage music styles with absolute authenticity. Brooklyn-born Rishell (b. 1950, vocals, guitar) discovered traditional blues in the 1960s and played with Son House and Johnny Shines. He began leading bands and performing solo in 1975, releasing his debut Blues On Holiday in 1990. He then met Raines (b. ...
(Bandleaders, 1940s) Curley Williams (1914–70) and Paul Howard (1908–84) were – outside of Pee Wee King – the chief exponents of western swing east of the Mississippi during the music’s 1940s heyday. Both led excellent, hot bands on the Grand Ole Opry and both found it necessary to leave the Opry in order to play the music they wanted ...
1663–1745, French Simon-Joseph Pellegrin was a monk who sailed twice with the French fleet to the Orient, and who put into verse Biblical texts that were sung to music by Lully and Campra at the royal convent at St Cyr. Pellegrin provided libretti for many composers, including Campra and Desmarets, but his best-known works are Jephté, set ...
1710–92, French Charles Favart became director of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris in 1758. His 11-year term as director was evidently important in the theatre’s history, for in 1871 it was renamed Salle Favart. As a librettist, Favart’s output was prodigious: he wrote 150 libretti for composers such as Gluck, Philidor and Grétry. Favart’s forte was the comic ...
1763–1845, German The German-born composer Simon Mayr was studying in Italy when the patron who supported him died and he faced an uncertain future. Piccinni encouraged him to write opera and Mayr took his advice. Mayr’s first opera, Saffo (1794), attracted several commissions, but his great breakthrough came when Ginevra di Scozia (‘Ginevra of Scotland’, 1801) was performed ...
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.