Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Charlie parker

Parker, with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career,[3] and the shortened form "Bird" remained Parker's sobriquet for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology" and "Bird of Paradise."

Parker played a leading role in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuoso technique, and improvisation based on harmonic structure. Parker's innovative approaches to melody, rhythm, and harmony exercised enormous influence on his contemporaries. Several of Parker's songs have become standards, including "Billie's Bounce", "Anthropology", "Ornithology", and "Confirmation". He introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including a tonal vocabulary employing 9ths, 11ths and 13ths of chords, rapidly implied passing chords, and new variants of altered chords and chord substitutions. His tone was clean and penetrating, but sweet and plaintive on ballads. Although many Parker recordings demonstrate dazzling virtuosic technique and complex melodic lines – such as "Ko-Ko", "Kim", and "Leap Frog" – he was also one of the great blues players. His themeless blues improvisation "Parker's Mood" represents one of the most deeply affecting recordings in jazz. At various times, Parker fused jazz with other musical styles, from classical to Latin music, blazing paths followed later by others.

Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat generation, personifying the conception of the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual, rather than just a popular entertainer. His style – from a rhythmic, harmonic and soloing perspective – influenced countless peers on every instrument.

Kenneth Bruce Gorelick

Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (born June 5, 1956), better known by his stage name Kenny G, is a Grammy winning American, adult contemporary and smooth jazz saxophonist. His fourth album, Duotones, brought him breakthrough success in 1986.[1] Kenny G is the biggest-selling instrumental musician of the modern era, with global sales totaling more than 75 million albums.[2]

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican American rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Rolling Stone named Santana number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003.[1] He has won 10 Grammy Awards and 3 Latin Grammy Awards.

slash hudson

Saul Hudson (born 23 July 1965), better known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician.[2] He is the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he performed and recorded between 1985 and 1996. He later formed Slash's Snakepit and co-founded Velvet Revolver with his former bandmates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and his debut solo album, Slash, was released in April 2010.

Slash has received critical recognition as a guitarist. In August 2009, Time Magazine ranked him #2 on its list of the "10 Best Electric Guitar Players of All-Time".[3] He was also ranked #21 on Gigwise's list of the "50 Greatest Guitarists Ever".[4]