MUSIC: CONTEMPORARY ROCK AND JAZZ FLUTE PLAYING AND IT’S ORIGIN IN AFRICAN TRADITIONAL MUSIC by GJS

When we think about flute playing in modern popular music unfortunately not many names come to our minds. In the rock field the only name that appears is Ian Anderson. A very big name though, as he is world famous for heading the band Jethro Tull from it´s founding in 1967 to this very day , leading towards it´s 50th anniversary in December 2017 and still doing concert tours worldwide.

Ian Anderson´s flute style is very unique compared to the mainly classical performance that we were accustomed to on that instrument. What Ian is doing which is different from his classical colleagues is the extensive use of his voice to support the sound that the flute gives. This is in many times not clearly to perceive, as the flute tone and the singing tone melt together perfectly because they are always the same pitch. So Ian must anticipate in his…