1.
Musical ensemble
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A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instruments, such as the jazz quartet or the orchestra, some music ensembles consist solely of singers, such as choirs and doo wop groups. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the instrument family. In jazz ensembles, the instruments typically include wind instruments, one or two chordal comping instruments, an instrument, and a drummer or percussionist. Jazz ensembles may be instrumental, or they may consist of a group of instruments accompanying one or more singers. In rock and pop ensembles, usually called rock bands or pop bands, there are usually guitars and keyboards, one or more singers, Music ensembles typically have a leader. In jazz bands, rock and pop groups and similar ensembles, in classical music, orchestras, concert bands and choirs are led by a conductor. In orchestra, the concertmaster is the instrumentalist leader of the orchestra, in orchestras, the individual sections also have leaders, typically called the principal of the section. Conductors are also used in big bands and in some very large rock or pop ensembles. In Western classical music, smaller ensembles are called chamber music ensembles, the terms duet, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, nonet and dectet describe groups of two up to ten musicians, respectively. A group of musicians, such as found in The Carnival of the Animals, is called either a hendectet or an undectet. A soloist playing unaccompanied is not an ensemble because it contains one musician. A string quartet consists of two violins, a viola and a cello, there is a vast body of music written for string quartets, as it is seen as an important genre in classical music. A woodwind quartet usually features a flute, an oboe, a clarinet, a brass quartet features two trumpets, a trombone and a tuba. A saxophone quartet consists of a saxophone, an alto saxophone, a tenor saxophone. The string quintet is a type of group. It is similar to the quartet, but with an additional viola, cello, or more rarely. Terms such as piano quintet or clarinet quintet frequently refer to a string quartet plus a fifth instrument
2.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
3.
Popular music
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Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training and it stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or folk music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of music, although since the beginning of the recording industry. Traditional music forms such as blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller. The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States, although popular music sometimes is known as pop music, the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily singable melodies, in the 2000s, with songs and pieces available as digital sound files, it has become easier for music to spread from one country or region to another. Some popular music forms have become global, while others have an appeal within the culture of their origin. Through the mixture of genres, new popular music forms are created to reflect the ideals of a global culture. The examples of Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East show how Western pop music styles can blend with local traditions to create new hybrid styles. Sales of recordings or sheet music are one measure, middleton and Manuel note that this definition has problems because multiple listens or plays of the same song or piece are not counted. Manuel states that one criticism of music is that it is produced by large media conglomerates and passively consumed by the public. He claims that the listeners in the scenario would not have been able to make the choice of their favorite music, moreover, understandings of popular music have changed with time. A societys popular music reflects the ideals that are prevalent at the time it is performed or published, david Riesman states that the youth audiences of popular music fit into either a majority group or a subculture. The majority group listens to the commercially produced styles while the subcultures find a minority style to transmit their own values and this allows youth to choose what music they identify with, which gives them power as consumers to control the market of popular music. Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, chorus form *, and twelve-bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of the lyrics, the verse and chorus are considered the primary elements. Each verse usually has the melody, but the lyrics change for most verses. The chorus usually has a phrase and a key lyrical line which is repeated
4.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
5.
Eric Clapton
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Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important, Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazines list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and fourth in Gibsons Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. He was also named number five in Time magazines list of The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players in 2009, in the mid-1960s Clapton left the Yardbirds to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Furthermore, he formed rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood. For most of the 1970s Claptons output bore the influence of the style of J. J. Cale. His version of Marleys I Shot the Sheriff helped reggae reach a mass market, two of his most popular recordings were Layla, recorded with Derek and the Dominos, and Robert Johnsons Crossroads, recorded with Cream. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Claptons grief was expressed in the song Tears in Heaven, Clapton has been the recipient of 18 Grammy Awards, and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music, in 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers. Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, Fryer shipped off to war prior to Claptons birth and then returned to Canada. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the belief that Claptons real surname is Clapp. Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently, Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practised long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records. He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder and his guitar playing was so advanced that, by the age of 16, he was getting noticed. Around this time, Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, in 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey. When he was seventeen years old, Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B group and he stayed with this band from January until August 1963. In October of that year, Clapton did a stint with Casey Jones & the Engineers. In October 1963, Clapton joined the Yardbirds, a rock and roll band
6.
The Yardbirds
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The Yardbirds are an English rock band formed in London in 1963 that had a string of hits during the mid-1960s, including For Your Love, Heart Full of Soul and Over Under Sideways Down. The group launched the careers of guitarists Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, the band reformed in the 1990s, featuring McCarty, Dreja and new members. The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and they were included in Rolling Stones list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and ranked No.37 on VH1s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. The group formed in the south-west London suburbs in 1963, Relf and Samwell-Smith were originally in a band named the Metropolitan Blues Quartet. After being joined by Dreja, McCarty and Top Topham in late May, the quintet achieved notice on the burgeoning British rhythm and blues scene that month when they took over as the house band at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, succeeding the Rolling Stones. Original lead guitarist Topham left and was replaced by Eric Clapton in October 1963, Crawdaddy Club impresario Giorgio Gomelsky became the Yardbirds manager and first record producer. Under Gomelskys guidance the Yardbirds signed to EMIs Columbia label in February 1964 and their first album was the live, Five Live Yardbirds, recorded at the legendary Marquee Club in London. Blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II invited the group to tour Britain and Germany with him, a union that later engendered another live album. The Clapton line-up cut two singles, I Wish You Would and Good Morning, School Girl, before the band scored its first major hit with the next, For Your Love and it sold over one million copies and went gold. But Clapton was a blues purist whose vision extended far beyond three-minute singles, frustrated by the commercial approach, he abruptly left the group on 25 March 1965, the day that For Your Love was released to the public. Soon Clapton joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, but not before he recommended Jimmy Page, unwilling to give up his lucrative gig and worried about his health, Page in turn recommended his friend Jeff Beck. Beck played his first gig with the Yardbirds only two days after Claptons departure, Beck was voted No.1 lead guitarist of 1966 in the British music magazine Beat Instrumental. The band embarked on their first U. S. tour in late August 1965, a pair of albums were put together for the U. S. market, For Your Love, and Having a Rave Up, half of which came from Five Live Yardbirds. There were three more U. S. tours during Becks time with the group, a brief European tour took place in April 1966. In June 1966, shortly after the sessions that produced Yardbirds, Samwell-Smith decided to leave the group, Jimmy Page agreed to play bass until rhythm guitarist Dreja could rehearse on it. A Beck–Page lead guitar tandem, however, is heard on the psychedelic rock highlight Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. It was backed in the U. K. with Psycho Daisies, with Beck on lead and Page on bass, stroll On features a twin lead-guitar break by Beck and Page. Their appearance in Blowup came after the Who declined and the In-Crowd were unable to attend the filming, the Velvet Underground were also considered for the part but were unable to acquire UK work permits
7.
Ginger Baker
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Peter Edward Ginger Baker is an English drummer, best known as the founder of the rock band Cream. Bakers work in the 1960s earned him praise as rocks first superstar drummer, Baker is credited as a pioneer of drumming in genres like jazz fusion, heavy metal and world music. Baker began playing drums at age 15 around 1954, and later took lessons from Phil Seamen, in the 1960s, he joined Blues Incorporated, where he met bassist Jack Bruce. The two clashed often, but would be rhythm section partners again in the Graham Bond Organisation and Cream, Cream achieved worldwide success but only lasted until 1968, in part due to Bakers and Bruces volatile relationship. Bakers drumming attracted attention for his style, showmanship, and use of two bass drums instead of the conventional one, in his early days, he performed lengthy drum solos, most notably in the Cream song Toad, one of the earliest recorded examples in rock music. Baker was born in Lewisham, south London, an athletic child, Baker began playing drums at about 15 years old. In the early 1960s he took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of the leading British jazz drummers of the post-war era and he gained early fame as a member of the Graham Bond Organisation with future Cream bandmate Jack Bruce. The Graham Bond Organisation was an R&B/blues group with jazz leanings. Baker founded the rock band Cream in 1966 with Bruce and guitarist Eric Clapton, a fusion of blues, psychedelic rock and hard rock, the band released four albums in a little over two years before breaking up in 1968. Baker then joined the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith, composed of Clapton, bassist Ric Grech, and Steve Winwood and they only released one album before fading. In 1970 Baker formed, toured and recorded with rock group Ginger Bakers Air Force. Baker lived in Nigeria from 1970 until 1976 and he sat in for Fela Kuti during recording sessions in 1971 released by Regal Zonophone as Live. Fela also appeared with Ginger Baker on Stratavarious alongside Bobby Gass, Stratavarious was later re-issued as part of the compilation Do What You Like. Baker formed Baker Gurvitz Army in 1974 and recorded three albums with them before the band broke up in 1976, in 1992 Baker played with the hard-rock group Masters of Reality with bassist Googe and singer/guitarist Chris Goss on the album Sunrise on the Sufferbus. The album received critical acclaim but sold fewer than 10,000 copies, Baker lived in Parker, Colorado, a rural commuter town at the southeastern corner of the Denver Metropolitan Area, between 1993 and 1999, in part due to his passion for polo. Baker not only participated in events at the Salisbury Equestrian Park. In 1994, he formed The Ginger Baker Trio with bassist Charlie Haden and he also joined BBM, a short-lived power trio with the line-up of Baker, Jack Bruce and Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore. On 3 May 2005, Baker reunited with Eric Clapton and Bruce for a series of Cream concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, nowadays, were happily co-existing in different continents
8.
Steve Winwood
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Stephen Lawrence Steve Winwood is an English musician whose genres include rock, blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, pop rock, and jazz. Though primarily a vocalist and keyboardist, Winwood also plays guitar, drums, acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, violin. Winwood was a key member of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith and Go. He also had a solo career with hits including While You See a Chance, Valerie, Back in the High Life Again. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Traffic in 2004, in 2005, Winwood was honoured as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI London Awards for his enduring influence on generations of music makers. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Winwood #33 in its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, Winwood has won two Grammy Awards. He was nominated twice for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist,1988 and 1989, like Eric Clapton, he has been part of many bands, including Traffic, The Spencer Davis Group, and Blind Faith. Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born in Handsworth, Birmingham and his father, Lawrence, a foundryman by trade, was a semi-professional musician, playing mainly the saxophone and clarinet. Young Winwood became interested in swing and Dixieland jazz as a boy, began playing piano at age four and he first performed with his father and older brother, Muff, in the Ron Atkinson Band at the age of eight. Winwood was a choirboy at St Johns Church of England, Perry Barr and he later admitted to having sneaked a few plays of the organ there. While he was young the family moved from Handsworth to the semi-rural suburb of Great Barr at the northern edge of the city. Winwood attended the Great Barr School which was one of the first comprehensive schools and he also attended the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music to develop his skills as a pianist, but did not complete his course. B. At this time, Winwood was living on Atlantic Road in Great Barr, Winwood modelled his singing after Ray Charles. Winwood joined the Spencer Davis Group at age 14, along with his brother, Muff. Steves distinctive high tenor singing voice and vocal style drew comparisons to Ray Charles, at the end of 1965 the group had their first number one single with Keep On Running and the money from this success allowed Winwood to buy his own Hammond B-3 organ. During this time Winwood joined forces with guitarist Eric Clapton as part of the one-off group Eric Clapton, songs were recorded for the Elektra label, but only three tracks made the compilation album, Whats Shakin. Winwood co-wrote and recorded the hits Gimme Some Lovin and Im a Man before leaving the Spencer Davis Group, Winwood met drummer Jim Capaldi, guitarist Dave Mason, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood when they jammed together at The Elbow Room, a club in Aston, Birmingham. After Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group in April 1967, the quartet formed Traffic, soon thereafter, they rented a cottage near the rural village of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire to write and rehearse new music
9.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
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Crosby, Stills & Nash were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English American singer-songwriter Graham Nash. They were known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young and they were noted for their intricate vocal harmonies, often tumultuous interpersonal relationships, political activism, and lasting influence on US music and culture. Crosby, Stills & Nash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Neil Young has also been inducted as a solo artist and as a member of Buffalo Springfield. Prior to the formation of CSN, each member of the band had belonged to another prominent group, due to internal friction, Crosby was dismissed from the Byrds in late 1967. By early 1968, Buffalo Springfield had disintegrated, and after aiding in putting together the final album. He and Crosby began meeting informally and jamming, the result of one encounter in Florida on Crosbys schooner was the song Wooden Ships, composed in collaboration with another guest, Jefferson Airplanes Paul Kantner. Graham Nash had been introduced to Crosby when the Byrds had toured the United Kingdom in 1966, and when the Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with him. At a party in July 1968 at Joni Mitchells house, Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, You Dont Have To Cry, the vocals gelled, and the three realized that they had a unique vocal chemistry. Creatively frustrated with the Hollies, Nash decided to quit the band and work with Crosby, from the outset, given their previous experiences, the trio decided not to be locked into a group structure. They used their surnames as identification to ensure independence and a guarantee that the band could not continue without one of them, unlike both the Byrds and the Hollies. They picked up a management team in Elliot Roberts and David Geffen, Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen handled the business deals, since, in Crosbys words, they needed a shark and Geffen was it. Stills was already signed to Atlantic Records through his Buffalo Springfield contract, Crosby had been released from his Byrds deal with Columbia, as he was considered to be unimportant and too difficult to work with. Nash, however, was signed to Epic Records through The Hollies. Ertegun worked out a deal with Clive Davis to essentially trade Nash to Atlantic in exchange for Richie Furay and Poco, the trios first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash, was released in May 1969. The eponymously-titled album was a hit in the United States. The album ultimately earned a RIAA triple platinum certification in 1999, retaining Taylor, the band tried initially to hire a keyboard player. Stills initially approached virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, who was occupied with the newly formed group Blind Faith. Stills and Nash initially held reservations, Stills because of his acrimoniously fraternal history with Young in Buffalo Springfield, but after several meetings, the trio expanded to a quartet with Young a full partner
10.
Neil Young
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Neil Percival Young, OC OM, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, producer, director and screenwriter. Young began performing in a group covering Shadows instrumentals in Canada in 1960, in 1966, after a brief stint with the Rick James-fronted Mynah Birds, he moved to Los Angeles, where he formed Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and others. Young had released two albums by the time he joined Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969, in addition to two as a member of Buffalo Springfield. From his early albums and those with his backing band Crazy Horse, Young has recorded a steady stream of studio and live albums. Youngs often-distorted electric guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature tenor singing voice transcend his long career, Young also plays piano and harmonica on many albums which frequently combine folk, rock, blues and other musical styles. Known to rip up live set lists, Young often plays acoustic versions of songs in one show and his gritty guitar work, especially with Crazy Horse, earned him the nickname Godfather of Grunge and led to his 1995 album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam. More recently Young has been backed by Promise of the Real, Young directed films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past, Rust Never Sleeps, Human Highway, Greendale, and CSNY/Déjà Vu. He also contributed to the soundtracks of the films Philadelphia and Dead Man, Young has received several Grammy and Juno awards. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted him twice, as a solo artist in 1995, in 2000, Rolling Stone named Young the 34th greatest rock n roll artist. He has lived in California since the 1960s but retains Canadian citizenship and he was awarded the Order of Manitoba on July 14,2006, and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 30,2009. Young was born on November 12,1945, in Toronto and his father, Scott Alexander Young, was a journalist and sportswriter who also wrote fiction. His mother, Edna Blow Ragland Rassy Young was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, although Canadian, his mother had American and French ancestry. Youngs parents married in 1940 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and their first son, shortly after Youngs birth in 1945, his family moved to rural Omemee, Ontario, which Young later described fondly as a sleepy little place. Young suffered from polio in 1951 during the last major outbreak of the disease in Ontario, after his recovery, the Young family vacationed in Florida. During that period, Young briefly attended Chisolm Elementary School in New Smyrna Beach, in 1952, upon returning to Canada, Young moved from Omemee to Winnipeg for a year, before relocating to Toronto and Pickering. Young became interested in music he heard on the radio. When Young was twelve, his father, who had several extramarital affairs and his mother asked for a divorce which was granted in 1960. Young went to live with his mother, who moved back to Winnipeg, during the mid-fifties, Young listened to rock n roll, rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B, country, and western pop
11.
The Byrds
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The Byrds /ˈbɜːrdz/ were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member. Initially, they pioneered the genre of folk rock, melding the influence of the Beatles and other British Invasion bands with contemporary. As the 1960s progressed, the band was influential in originating psychedelic rock, raga rock. The bands signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinns jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar has continued to be influential on popular music up to the present day, among the bands most enduring songs are their cover versions of Bob Dylans Mr. Tambourine Man and Pete Seegers Turn. Turn. along with the originals, Ill Feel a Whole Lot Better, Eight Miles High, So You Want to Be a Rock n Roll Star, Ballad of Easy Rider. The original five-piece lineup of the Byrds consisted of Jim McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke. However, this version of the band was relatively short-lived and by early 1966, Clark had left due to associated with anxiety. The Byrds continued as a quartet until late 1967, when Crosby, McGuinn and Hillman decided to recruit new members, including country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, but by late 1968, Hillman and Parsons had also exited the band. McGuinn disbanded the current lineup in early 1973, to make way for a reunion of the original quintet. The Byrds final album was released in March 1973, with the group disbanding soon afterwards. In the late 1980s, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke both began touring as the Byrds, prompting a legal challenge from McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman over the rights to the bands name. As a result of this, McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman performed a series of concerts as the Byrds in 1989 and 1990. In January 1991, the Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman still remain active but Gene Clark died of a heart attack in May 1991, and Michael Clarke died of liver failure in December 1993. The nucleus of the Byrds formed in early 1964, when Jim McGuinn, Gene Clark, All three musicians had a background rooted in folk music, with each one having worked as a folk singer on the acoustic coffeehouse circuit during the early 1960s. McGuinn had also spent time as a songwriter at the Brill Building in New York City. By early 1964, McGuinn had become enamored with the music of the Beatles, soon after, David Crosby introduced himself to the duo at The Troubadour and began harmonizing with them on some of their songs. Impressed by the blend of their voices, the three formed a trio and named themselves the Jet Set, a moniker inspired by McGuinns love of aeronautics
12.
Stephen Stills
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Stephen Arthur Stills is an American singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Beginning his professional career with Buffalo Springfield, he composed their only hit For What Its Worth, other notable songs he contributed to the band were Sit Down, I Think I Love You, Bluebird and Rock & Roll Woman. According to Richie Furay, he was the heart and soul of Buffalo Springfield, after Buffalo Springfield broke up, Stills began working with David Crosby and Graham Nash on their debut album. Stills, in addition to writing much of the album, played bass, guitar, the album sold over four million copies and at that point, had outsold anything from the three members prior bands, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies. The album won the trio a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Neil Young, formerly of Buffalo Springfield, joined CSN months later for their second concert at Woodstock and subsequent album Déjà Vu. The album found Stills again as a leader of the group, living up to his nickname Captain Many Hands he played bass, guitar and keyboard on the title track, and electric guitar and piano on Helpless. The album became a success and sold over eight million copies. In its wake all four members of CSNY released solo albums that reached the top 20, Stills first solo album Stephen Stills went gold and is the only album to feature both Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Its hit single, Love The One Youre With became his biggest solo hit peaking at No.14 in the Billboard Hot 100, a string of solo albums, and a band with Chris Hillman called Manassas followed in 1972. In the summer of 1974 Young reunited with CSN after a hiatus for a concert tour which was recorded and released in 2014 as CSNY1974. It was one of the first ever tours, and the largest tour the band has done to date. CSN reunited in 1977 for their album CSN which became the trios best selling record, CSN continued to have platinum albums through the 1980s. Stills solo career and bands have combined sales of over 35 million albums to date, Stills was ranked #28 in Rolling Stones 2003 list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and #47 in the 2011 list. Stills became the first person to be inducted twice on the night into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with CSN. According to Neil Young, Stephen is a genius, Stills was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Talitha Quintilla and William Arthur Stills. Raised in a family, he moved around as a child. He also attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida and Saint Leo College Preparatory School in Saint Leo, Stills is also an avid sailor. Stills dropped out of University of Florida a week after enrolling to pursue a career in the early 1960s