‘Breakout’, 1987 A Top 10 hit in the UK, and the group’s only US Top 10 hit, ‘Breakout’ also went so far as to earn the group two Grammy Awards – for Best New Artist and Best New Pop Vocal Performance By A Group Or Duo. Subsequent album and single releases were acclaimed hits in some circles, though ...
The South Asian region is centred on India and includes the neighbouring modern nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The region now called Pakistan saw the rise and fall of the Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world. Scarce archeological objects showing drums and an arched harp give a ...
The vast Southeast Asian region includes the island republics of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the mainland states of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The mainland countries, particularly Vietnam, have been greatly influenced by Chinese culture and Buddhism. Indonesia has been influenced by Hinduism and Islam, and the Philippines ...
(Zhan Moo-tôn’) c. 1459–1522 French composer Having held various church jobs in France, Mouton joined the French royal court in 1502 and remained there for the rest of his life. Many of his motets are occasional works – written for a particular personage or special event that was taking place at court. He was probably among the musicians present at the ...
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 ...
Britain’s first home-grown guitar hero, Hank Marvin was born Brian Rankin in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1941. His first instruments were piano and banjo, but he switched to guitar upon discovering Buddy Holly. Marvin formed a skiffle band, The Railroaders, with school friend Bruce Welch, and they travelled to London in 1958 to compete, unsuccessfully, in ...
Joe Walsh (b. 1947) was born in Kansas and spent his childhood in Ohio and his high-school years in New Jersey before returning to Ohio to attend college at Kent State. He played bass in various bands before adopting guitar for a stint in the local group The Measles from 1965 to 1969. That led to a spot with Cleveland-based trio ...
Alternative experimental guitarist Thurston Moore (b. 1958) was born in Coral Gables, Florida. Inspired by New York’s punk and new-wave scene, Moore moved to the city in 1977. While playing in a band called The Coachmen, he met Lee Ranaldo, an art student and member of Glenn Branca’s avant-garde guitar orchestra. Moore assembled a band with bassist ...
Taking its lead from the loud blues rock of late-1960s bands such as Cream and The Grateful Dead, southern rock materialized with the release of The Allman Brothers Band’s eponymous 1969 debut album, which embellished a fusion of rock’n’roll, blues, country and jazz with a distinct good ol’ boy edge from directly below the Mason-Dixon Line. Natives ...
The popularity of jazz hit a peak after the Depression years of 1929–33. By the end of 1934, huge numbers were tuning in to the NBC Radio series Let’s Dance, which broadcast performances by The Xavier Cugat, Kel Murray and Benny Goodman Orchestras. Goodman’s orchestra in particular caught on with the public and created a demand for live ...
Western swing is an innovative, free-wheeling yet complex instrumental amalgam drawn from blues, jazz and Dixieland syncopations and harmonies. Central to the style is an emphasis on instrumental solos, often involving the transposition of jazz-style horn parts to fiddle, guitar and steel guitar. It is indicative of western swing’s sophistication that Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, the ...
By the late-1960s, the Nashville music industry had grown slick, complacent and predictable, even as the greater national culture, in the shadow of the Vietnam War, was entering an era of tumult and rebellion. Largely as a result of this, the outlaw movement arose. It began as a rudimentary grassroots uprising, instigated by a ...
Southeast Asian music owes much to its neighbours. Travellers, moving south from China, mixed with traders from India and Arabia. Later arrivals added to the mix; the Philippines are Spanish-American, Vietnam is French-Chinese, and Malaysia is Arabic-Chinese-Indian-Portuguese-British. Add the latest economic invasion and it’s a wonder that any unadulterated music survives. But it does. In Indonesia, Javanese ...
Latin America is particularly rich and varied in its musical traditions, with each country boasting a broad and very distinct collection of genres whose development has been shaped by indigenous rhythms, migration patterns from Europe and the influx of slavery. At the uppermost tip of Latin America is Mexico, a country whose musical sub-genres are too many to ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1915–73) Born in Arkansas, Rosetta Nubin was the daughter of a missionary. She had learned to play guitar by the age of six and accompanied her mother at church functions. The family moved to Chicago and Tharpe signed with Decca in 1938. She was essentially a gospel performer, but with Lucky Millinder’s Orchestra (1941–43) she ...
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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
his life, music, art and movies, with a
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