JETHRO TULL

daca sunt niste legende necontestate ale muzicii rock si nu numai de ce aleg sa cante in tot felul de posturi imbecile?  

Pentru Arun.

parca-i un tintar in pozitie de atac

Exact, in atac! Dar ce atac....

pare a fi un vircolac care fumeaza pipa pacii

"Jethro Tull formed in February 1968 from the ashes of two unsuccessful blues/rock bands of the era.

Ian Anderson brought his unique and innovative style of flute playing to a public raised on the guitar based British bands who courted acceptance at London's famous Marquee Club.

After their first tentative blues oriented album, titled "This Was", the group moved through successive records towards a more progressive sound, and with "Aqualung" in 1971 achieved their first real international level of success. A few hit singles, notably "Living in the Past", livened up their early career although it was as an album band with songs of real substance, that the group really took off, both on record and as a major live concert act.

So-called concept albums followed in the early 70's (Thick as a Brick" and "A Passion Play") with the attendant platinum No. 1 album chart sales. Tull survived the critical backlash of the return-to-basics later 70's to produce some of their finest creative efforts which, although not quite matching the commercial success of the previous works, established the band as one of the truly creative exponents of progressive music throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's.They have continued to constantly reinvent themselves, albeit with several personnel changes along the way.

Ian Anderson (flute and vocals) and Martin Barre (guitar) provide to this day the musical and historical backbone of the group, joined by Doane Perry on drums, Andrew Giddings on keyboards, and Jonathan Noyce on bass.

With sales of around 60 million albums and more than 2500 concerts in 40 countries, the band continue to tour and record, typically performing 100 concerts per year. In early 2002, Jethro Tull completed their first DVD of live concert and performance material. Also released is the new associated live CD. Both are entitled, "LIVING WITH THE PAST".

In 2003, Ian A. released his fourth solo album, RUPI'S DANCE, Martin Barre launched his guitar towards STAGE LEFT and Tull did the almost unthinkable: THE JETHRO TULL CHRISTMAS ALBUM was released to celebrate the "other" Christmas. With its fair quotient of "cynicism and grumpiness" as Ian puts it, this record will delight old fans and new fans alike with the alternative and conventional Christmas spirit combined.

Re-masters of the entire Tull catalogue are being released, dusted down and spruced up. Hear that tambourine again.... the breath behind the flute.... the pick on string and the stick on skin."

"Ian Anderson, known throughout the world of rock music as the flute and voice behind the legendary Jethro Tull, celebrates his 41st year as a recording and concert musician in 2004.

Ian was born in 1947 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. After attending primary school in Edinburgh, his family relocated to Blackpool in the north of England in 1959. Following a traditional Grammar school education, he moved on to Art college to study fine art before deciding on an attempt at a musical career.

Tull formed in 1968 out of the amalgamation of the John Evan Band and McGregor's Engine, two blues-based local UK groups.

Still enjoying a lengthy and ongoing career, Jethro Tull has released 30 albums, selling more than 60 million copies since the band first performed at London's famous Marquee club.

After undertaking more than 2500 concerts in 40 countries throughout three decades, Tull plays typically 100 concerts each year to longstanding, as well as new fans worldwide.

Widely recognized as the man who introduced the flute to rock music, Ian Anderson remains the crowned exponent of the popular and rock genres of flute playing. So far, no pretender to the throne has stepped forward. Ian also plays ethnic flutes and whistles together with acoustic guitar and the mandolin family of instruments, providing the acoustic textures which are an integral part of most of the Tull repertoire.

Anderson has recorded three diverse solo albums in his career: 1983's eclectic-electric "Walk Into Light"; the flute instrumental "Divinities" album for EMI's Classical Music Division in 1995 which reached number one in the relevant Billboard chart, and the more recently recorded acoustic collection of songs, "The Secret Language of Birds", released in 2000.

In 2003, Ian A. released his fourth solo album, RUPI'S DANCE, Martin Barre launched his guitar towards STAGE LEFT and Tull did the almost unthinkable: THE JETHRO TULL CHRISTMAS ALBUM was released to celebrate the "other" Christmas. With its fair quotient of "cynicism and grumpiness" as Ian puts it, this record will delight old fans and new fans alike with the alternative and conventional Christmas spirit combined.

Re-masters of the entire Tull catalogue are being released, dusted down and spruced up. Hear that tambourine again.... the breath behind the flute.... the pick on string and the stick on skin.

Doubtless, hundreds of thousand of fans of all ages will continue to thrill to the trill of flute, and twirl to the twang of string over humbucker. Critics will gripe and grumble, and contemporary radio will say, "Who? Thought they quit years ago to go fish-farming."

Ian Anderson lives on a farm in the southwest of England where he has a recording studio and office. He has been married for 27 years to Shona who is also an active director of the companies. They have two children - James and Gael - who work in the music and television industries respectively.

His hobbies include the growing of many varieties of hot chile peppers, the study and conservation of the 26 species of small wildcats of the world and collecting and using vintage Leica and other cameras. He reluctantly admits to owning digital cameras and scanners for his work on the photographic promotional images related to Tull as well as his solo career.

Ian owns no fast car, never having taken a driving test, and has a wardrobe of singularly uninspiring and drab leisurewear. He still keeps a couple of off-road competition motorcycles, a few sporting guns and a saxophone which he promises never to play again.

He declares a lifelong commitment to music as a profession, being far too young to hang up his hat or his flute, although the tights and codpiece have long since been consigned to some forgotten bottom drawer."

Bulgarian FM Enjoys Jethro Tull with Novinite.com

Lifestyle: 30 May 2004, Sunday.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Solomon Passy was among the 50 guests invited by Novinite.com and leading PR company M3 Communications Group, Inc. that enjoyed the music of the legendary Jethro Tull.

Friends and clients of Novinite.com and M3 Communications Group, Inc. together with another 4,300 Bulgarian fans of the UK band were taken to a different music dimension by the unique music performed in the fully packed Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture.

The UK band that is acknowledged to be one of the unique phenomena in the world music staged an amazing performance for its Bulgarian fans. With sales of around 60 million albums and more than 2500 concerts in 40 countries, Jethro Tull continue to tour and record, typically performing 100 concerts per year.

(Bulgaria’s FM Solomon Passy and Novinite.com Publisher Maxim Behar  were among the many Bulgarian fans that enjoyed Jethro Tull’s unique music.)

The man with the flute

"There's a clear image to Jethro Tull - the one-legged flute player. That's the first thing that jumps out, but musically it stands on two feet." Rock band Jethro Tull's frontman, Ian Anderson, talks to Leslie Wilson Jr

In the shuffling madness, of the locomotive breath, runs the all-time loser, headlong to his death." As any AOR aficionado, or anybody who grew up in the Seventies will tell you, this is the opening line of one of the staple pieces of the genre, a tune that helped forge the sound of Jethro Tull, one of the greatest rock bands of our time.

Jethro Tull started out as a modest rock outfit in the late Sixties, but powered by the genius and indomitable spirit of flautist-singer-songwriter Ian Anderson, and inspired by the artistic individuality of its band members, it ascended into the forefront of the musical revolution that had taken Great Britain by storm in the Seventies.

Since the British blues boom in the late sixties, no band had made such an impact on the industry as Jethro Tull, which reeled off a series of dramatic concept albums that combined heavy rock and English folk music with blues and jazz.

As the lead singer and songwriter of Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson should require no introduction. In this exclusive interview with

Gulf News, he talks about his incredible journey and it's no cautionary tale...

What do you enjoy most about being a musician?
Not having to get a proper job (laughs). There are certain lifestyles that would appear to be very attractive and being a musician is one of them. In some ways I have to think of it as not being a proper job, not like digging holes, or being a doctor, or a jet pilot.

Because it's a creative pursuit it may seem a little fanciful and frivolous. But it's still a responsibility, you still have to abide by a certain set of standards and rules. And so it's a job, but it's not a job.

How much have you evolved musically since the 'Stand Up' and 'This Was' days?
By the time we made Stand Up my musical influences were pretty broad. As a teenager, I was never interested in chart toppers but in blues, jazz and world music. While things may have evolved, the biggest evolution is still the first rush of interesting and influential music you hear in life.

That is probably always going to be with you. My musical performance and my sophistication might have changed since the early days but the influences remain the same and they have the same impact on me as they did when I was in my 20s.

Has it been difficult to sustain the artistic individuality that has been the hallmark of your music?
I don't think it's difficult to sustain an interest in what you like doing. Individuality is what other people place above what we do. I didn't set out to be different from everybody else - I followed my nose. It comes out sounding different because I'm one of the few people to use the flute in popular or rock music.

I assume that most people agree I am the best-known flute player internationally in terms of rock music - because there aren't many of us. This is probably the reason why I took it up in the first place, because I knew I was never going to be top of the tree as a guitar player.

But I had it on fairly good authority that Eric Clapton couldn't play the flute, so I took a chance there. I use conventional instruments as well, to play and to write songs with. There's a clear image to Jethro Tull - the one-legged flute player. That's the first thing that jumps out, but musically it stands on two feet.

What do you think discouraged other rock bands, with the exception of Focus, from incorporating the flute into rock music? This is despite the fact there was a lot of musical experimentation at the time by bands like Yes, The Velvet Underground, Procul Harum and Traffic.

The flute is a difficult instrument to integrate into rock music. It's a small voice when compared with the loud electric guitar, drums and keyboards - the amplified instruments in rock music.

That probably put a lot of people off and also perhaps that they would be compared to me in a rock music context. Which is why I didn't become a guitar player because I would have been compared to Eric Clapton, and unfavourably so.

Most bands or artistes tend to be identified by one song. Clapton with 'Layla', Led Zepplin with 'Stairway to Heaven', Procul Harum with 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. What song best defines the Jethro Tull philosophy?
For me probably a song from the mid Eighties, Budapest. It brings together elements of all the different musical styles of Jethro Tull. I suppose Aqualung is the most successful individual song of Jethro Tull, but curiously it doesn't have a flute in it.

Locomotive Breath is obviously an important one. And they're the two songs that always appear in a Jethro Tull concert. Pieces like Living in the Past, Thick as a Brick, Heavy Horses, Songs from the Wood are all songs that are a strong part of that jigsaw puzzle that is Jethro Tull.

When you recorded the epic albums 'Thick as a Brick' and 'Passion Play' back to back, what were you attempting at that stage in the band's career?
Basically having little fun with the concept album genre, because the album Aqualung was greeted as if it was a concept album of great meaning or merit. I tried to point out that it wasn't a concept album, but a popular myth grew around it that led me to follow it up with a spoof of the concept album genre.

I wrote Thick as a Brick, a lengthy piece of music, transparently pretended it was the work of a 12-year-old boy and dressed it up as the mother of all concept albums with a 16-page newspaper. It was done a bit tongue-in-cheek. Those were the years of Monty Python and the maturing of British humour, which was slightly surreal.

I think it was very much in the keeping of that time that we did the record. The follow up to it Passion Play was probably not a good move to make, we should have quit while we were ahead. While it also had elements of humour, it was perhaps too dense musically and intellectually.

Do you think fame is a tiresome by-product of what you actually do or are famous for?
Not really for me. I'm not famous in the way that leads people to camp outside my door. I like to stay outside the public eye, except when I'm on stage or doing commercials. I haven't been involved with any film star. I've never been involved in drugs mainly because I haven't got around to trying them. I don't have the crazed rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

Tell us about the myths surrounding the Jethro Tull lifestyle?
There are foibles and oddities that creep into your way of doing things that makes you look odd. But Jethro Tull will be odd to other people because it's in stark contrast to the usual idea of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. We don't do what most rock bands do after a concert - going to clubs and staying up all night. We'd much prefer to go to bed and read a good book even if we appear unadventurous and boring.

Can you tell us anything bizarre that happened to Jethro Tull?
In years gone by we've had to endure the scary intentions of people who are popularly termed 'stalkers'. It's quite an unpleasant thing. But we survived all of them.

I think critics sometimes perceive Jethro Tull as being Ian Anderson plus some backing musicians. Was there ever a definitive Jethro Tull line-up?
There are two football teams worth of people who have been a part of Jethro Tull. There have been a lot of line-ups, but I suppose the classic line-up of the Seventies would have to be with John Evans, Barry Barlow and Jeffrey Hamond.

All these people are still friends. Some of the musicians who are currently with us have been around for years. David Perry our drummer, Andrew Giddings the keyboard player, and Jonathan Noyce who is the new guy so to speak; but he's been with us for almost 10 years.

What has been your most memorable concert?
The memorable ones unfortunately aren't always so for the good experiences. People have died at few concerts where there were riots. The most famous one was at Red Rocks Arena in Denver, Colorado in the Seventies, which caused the Denver authorities to ban concerts there for about 10 years after.

I suppose we were the catalysts - we brought so many people together and there weren't enough tickets to go around, so that caused the trouble. But these things happened in the Seventies, it wasn't unusual to have a riot. It happened famously with the Stones (Altamont, 1969) because a stabbing took place in front of the stage.

I think Jethro Tull holds the record of the most stabbings at a concert - 19 people at a gig in Boston. I've even had to go on stage in a bulletproof vest, as there were death threats against me, again in Denver.

Would you say that pop music is dead? Did it die at the end of the Seventies?
I don't think that Seventies music works in the context of today for a number of reasons. Attention spans are pretty short for younger people growing up today. They want to get to the meat and potatoes quickly. I don't think the detailed and complex rock music that falls into the term 'progressive rock' has much of a chance economically today.

Times have changed. But that is not a problem because we have Beethoven and Mozart. There's not much contemporary blues being made, but that's not a problem because we still have the works of Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson to listen to.

What's the most important thing to happen in music since you formed Jethro Tull in the Sixties?
There are only two things that have happened in the last 40-50 years - the rise to dominance of the electric guitar, which is the most significant aspect of development in contemporary music, and the use of computers in music to generate musical sounds. This extends the music-making possibilities of people who don't have necessary conventional music talents and perhaps don't want to take the time to learn to play an instrument.

You can make music very quickly with a computer. I'm in favour of computers in music and of people making hit singles in their bedroom with their 1,000 pound computer and 100 pound software. It's better to make music than to make no music at all.

At what stage in your life are you?
A very interesting stage. I'd like to turn into a hippie in my late middle age, but then maybe not. I might take up golf and fishing, but probably not. I'm not ruling things out in my life at this stage. I'll never say no categorically to anything. I reserve the right to change my mind, change my habits. But probably not.

Noroc ca nu se apuca fiecare sa faca un topic cu trupa care il obsedeaza. Eu, spre exemplu, as putea sa deschid unul cu Pink Floyd sau cu Led Zeppelin. Dar are vreun sens?
Cred ca asta ar fi un topic interesant: "Cum poate fi facut un fan Jethro Tull sa devina fan Usher si reciproc"

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Am realizat ca auzit Bouree pana acum doar  in unul din concertele lor. Nu stiam bucata pana acum insa am ascultat-o de cateva ori inainte. Vad ca este din perioada veche a lor. Eu am ascultat in special de la ei Catfish rising , atunci cand a aparut, la timpul lui. M-a reapucat acum si nu am gasit decat pe youtube dar nu suna bine calitatea. Din pacate am auzit ca adevaratii fani nu inghit acest album, probabil ca acesta este si motivul pentru care nici nu prea este raspandit. Daca nu ma insel am citit undeva ca si-au cerut scuze fanilor si s-au reapucat sa compuna in stilul lor clasic. Insa mie imi place, sper sa il gasesc pe undeva, desi il caut de o saptamana fara rezultate. Tot ascultand acum pe youtube care ruleaza in shufle, mai arunc cate un ochi si vad niste videoclipuri de studio destul de austere cu Ian Anderson strambandu-se la mine in diverse ipostaze si costumatii. Facea cate un personaj pe care il joaca , are talent de actor. Stau sa ma gandesc ce avea in cap, vroia sa starneasca rasul, asta e clar dar la cat de pasionat il vad in chestia asta cu video, nu ma mir daca as afla ca a scris multa muzica concomitent cu scenariile pentru videoclipuri.