Playing The Fool
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Playing The Fool
''Playing the Fool - The Official Live'' is a live album by British progressive rock band Gentle Giant which was released in 1977. The album contains versions of songs from all of the band's studio albums to that point except for '' Acquiring the Taste'' (although a section from the title track of that album is featured in "Excerpts from Octopus"). The original UK LP came with a 12-page booklet that has not been reproduced in any of the CD editions. Track listing 35th anniversary re-release edition The track listing and times differ depending on the specific release. Personnel ;Gentle Giant * Gary Green – electric and acoustic 6- and 12-string guitars, backing vocals, alto and soprano recorders, percussion * Kerry Minnear – electric piano, backing vocals, clavinet, Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, cello, vibes, tenor recorder, percussion * Derek Shulman – lead vocals, alto saxophone, soprano recorder, bass, percussion * Ray Shulman – bass, backing ...
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Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-instrumentalists. Although not commercially successful, they did achieve a cult following. The band stated that their aim was to "expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular", although this stance was to alter significantly with time. Gentle Giant's music was considered complex even by progressive rock standards, drawing on a broad swathe of music including folk, soul, jazz, and classical music. Unlike many of their progressive rock contemporaries, their "classical" influences ranged beyond the Romantic and incorporated medieval, baroque, and modernist chamber music elements. The band also had a taste for broad themes for their lyrics, drawing inspiration not only from personal experiences but fr ...
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Phil Shulman
Philip Arthur Shulman (born 27 August 1937, The Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland), is a Scottish musician who was a member of the progressive rock group Gentle Giant from 1970 to 1973 and performed on their albums ''Gentle Giant'', ''Acquiring the Taste'', '' Three Friends'', and '' Octopus''. He is the eldest brother of Derek Shulman and Ray Shulman. All three were members of the sixties psychedelic group Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, and then formed the seminal progressive rock group Gentle Giant. A multi-instrumentalist, he has played alto and tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, trumpet, cello, mellophone, piano, plus occasional percussion and vocals. Previously he had played with Simon Dupree and the Big Sound Simon Dupree and the Big Sound were a British psychedelic band formed in 1966 by brothers Derek (vocals), Phil (vocals, saxophone, trumpet), and Ray Shulman (guitar, violin, trumpet, vocals); also known for their later prog rock band, Gentle Gian .... References { ...
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Clavinet
The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tensioned string, and was designed to resemble the Renaissance-era clavichord. Although originally intended for home use, the Clavinet became popular on stage, and could be used to create electric guitar sounds on a keyboard. It is strongly associated with Stevie Wonder, who used the instrument extensively, particularly on his 1972 hit "Superstition", and was regularly featured in rock, funk and reggae music throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Modern digital keyboards can emulate the Clavinet sound, but there is also a grass-roots industry of repairers who continue to maintain the instrument. Description The Clavinet is an electromechanical instrument that is usually used in conjunction with a keyboard amplifier. Most models have 60 keys ranging ...
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Electric Piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations which are converted into electrical signals by magnetic pickups, which are then connected to an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to make a sound loud enough for the performer and audience to hear. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument. Instead, it is an electro-mechanical instrument. Some early electric pianos used lengths of wire to produce the tone, like a traditional piano. Smaller electric pianos used short slivers of steel to produce the tone (a lamellophone with a keyboard & pickups). The earliest electric pianos were invented in the late 1920s; the 1929 ''Neo- Bechstein'' electric grand piano was among the first. Probably the earliest stringless model was Lloyd Loar's Vivi-Tone Clavier. A few ...
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Alto Recorder
The alto recorder in F, also known as a treble (and, historically, as consort flute and common flute) is a member of the recorder family. Up until the 17th century the alto instrument was normally in G4 instead of F4. The alto is between the soprano and tenor in size, and is correspondingly intermediate in pitch. It has the same general shape as a soprano, but is larger in all dimensions, resulting in a lower pitch for a given fingering. The F alto is a non-transposing instrument, though its basic scale is in F, that is, a fifth lower than the soprano recorder and a fourth higher than the tenor (both with a basic scale in C). So-called F fingerings are therefore used, as with the bassoon or the low register of the clarinet, in contrast to the C fingerings used for most other woodwinds. Its notation is usually at sounding pitch, but sometimes is written an octave lower than it sounds. History Recorders are known to have been made in different sizes since at least the 15th c ...
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Backing Vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used in a broad range of popular music, traditional music, and world music styles. Solo artists may employ professional backing vocalists in studio recording sessions as well as during concerts. In many rock and metal bands (e.g., the power trio), the musicians doing backing vocals also play instruments, such as guitar, electric bass, drums or keyboards. In Latin or Afro-Cuban groups, backing singers may play percussion instruments or shakers while singing. In some pop and hip hop groups and in musical theater, they may be required to perform dance routines while singing through headset microphones. Styles of background vocals vary according to the type of song and genre of music. In pop and country songs, backing vocalists may sing harmo ...
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12 String Guitar
A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in octaves, with those of the upper two courses tuned in unison. The gap between the strings within each dual-string course is narrow, and the strings of each course are fretted and plucked as a single unit. The neck is wider, to accommodate the extra strings, and is similar to the width of a classical guitar neck. The sound, particularly on acoustic instruments, is fuller and more harmonically resonant than six-string instruments. The 12-string guitar can be played like a 6-string guitar as players still use the same notes, chords and guitar techniques like a standard 6-string guitar, but advanced techniques might be tough as players need to play or pluck two strings simultaneously. Structurally, 12-string guitars, especially those built befo ...
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6-string Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A plectrum or individual finger picks may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant chamber on the instrument, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier. The guitar is classified as a chordophone – meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood with its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the nineteenth century in the United States; nylon strings came in the 1940s. The guitar's ancestors include the gittern, the vihuela, the four- course Renaissance guitar, and the fi ...
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Acoustic Guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, resonating through the air in the body, and producing sound from the sound hole. The original, general term for this stringed instrument is ''guitar'', and the retronym 'acoustic guitar' distinguishes it from an electric guitar, which relies on electronic amplification. Typically, a guitar's body is a sound box, of which the top side serves as a sound board that enhances the vibration sounds of the strings. In standard tuning the guitar's six strings are tuned (low to high) E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. Guitar strings may be plucked individually with a pick (plectrum) or fingertip, or strummed to play chords. Plucking a string causes it to vibrate at a fundamental pitch determined by the string's length, mass, and tension. (Overtones are also pres ...
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Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic guitar exist). It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities on the amplifier settings or the knobs on the guitar from that of an acoustic guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz and rock guitar playing. Invented in 1932, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitar players, who wanted to play single-note guitar solos in large big band ensembles. Early proponents of the electric guitar on ...
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Gary Green (musician)
Gary William Green (20 November 1950 in Stroud Green, North London, England) is an English musician. During the 1970s, he was the guitarist for the progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Green was with the band from the debut album ''Gentle Giant'' all the way to the last album ''Civilian''. Green's style was different from most of his peers, being a more blues-based guitarist. Like his fellow band members, Green was also adept at other instruments, including mandolin and recorder. According to a 2008 interview, founding member Phil Shulman said that, despite Green's blues influences, he fit in well with the band's progressive style since Green was "quick on the up-take." Later on, he was a member of the band Mother Tongue, and also recorded on '' The Green Album (Eddie Jobson album), The Green Album'' with Eddie Jobson and Zinc, splitting guitar duties with Zinc guitarist Michael Cuneo on two tracks. Green has worked with Billy Sherwood on a number of projects, including ''Back A ...
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Maceo Pinkard
Maceo Pinkard (June 27, 1897 – July 21, 1962) was an American composer, lyricist, and music publisher. Among his compositions is "Sweet Georgia Brown", a popular standard for decades after its composition and famous as the theme of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. Pinkard was inducted in the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984. Biography Pinkard was born in Bluefield, West Virginia to Mary Ellen Jimerson, educator, and G. Pinkard, a coal miner. He was educated at the Bluefield Colored Institute, class of 1913, and wrote his first major song ("I'm Goin' Back Home") one year later. He was one of the greatest composers of the Harlem Renaissance. In his early career he formed his own orchestra and toured throughout the US as the conductor. In 1914, at age 17, Pinkard founded the theatrical agency in Omaha, Nebraska and eventually founded Pinkard Publications, a music publishing firm in New York City. In 1917, he formed his own publishing ...
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