Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex, England, taking inspiration from minimalist painting. During his time on the art course at the Institute, he also gained experience in playing and making music through teaching sessions held in the adjacent music school.

He joined the band Roxy Music as their keyboards and synthesizers player in the early 1970s. Roxy Music's success in the glam rock scene came quickly, but Eno soon tired of conflicts with lead singer Bryan Ferry, and of touring, and he left the group after the release of ''For Your Pleasure'' (1973), beginning his solo career with the art rock records ''Here Come the Warm Jets'' (1974) and ''Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)'' (1974).

Eno extended his reach into more experimental musical styles with ''(No Pussyfooting)'' (1973) and ''Evening Star'' (1975), both collaborations with Robert Fripp, ''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' (1974) by Genesis where his work is credited as "Enossification", and his influential solo records ''Another Green World'' (1975) and ''Discreet Music'' (1975). His pioneering ambient efforts at "sonic landscapes" began to consume more of his time beginning with ''Ambient 1/Music for Airports'' (1978) and later ''Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks'' (1983) which was composed for the documentary film ''For All Mankind''. Eno nevertheless continued to sing on some of his records, ranging from ''Before and After Science'' (1977) to ''Wrong Way Up'' (1990) with John Cale to most recently ''Another Day on Earth'' (2005) and ''Drums Between the Bells'' (2011).

Eno's solo work has been extremely influential, pioneering ambient and generative music, innovating production techniques, and emphasizing "theory over practice". He also introduced the concept of chance music to popular audiences partly through collaborations with other musicians. By the end of the 1970s, Eno had worked with David Bowie on the seminal "Berlin Trilogy," helped popularise the American punk rock band Devo and the punk-influenced "No Wave" genre, and worked frequently with Harold Budd, John Cale, Cluster, Robert Fripp and David Byrne, with whom he produced the influential ''My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'' (1981). He produced and performed on three albums by Talking Heads, including ''Remain in Light'' (1980); produced seven albums for U2, including ''The Joshua Tree'' (1987); and worked on records by James, Laurie Anderson, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, Grace Jones and Slowdive, among others.

Eno pursues multimedia ventures in parallel to his music career, including art installations, a newspaper column in ''The Observer'' and a regular column on society and innovation in ''Prospect'' magazine, and "Oblique Strategies" (written with Peter Schmidt), a deck of cards in which each card has a cryptic remark or random insight meant to resolve a dilemma. He continues to collaborate with other musicians, produce records, release his own music, and write.

Education and early musical career

Roxy Music

Brian Eno's professional music career began in London, as a member (1971–1973) of the glam/art rock band Roxy Music, initially not appearing on stage with them at live shows, but operating the mixing desk, processing the band's sound with a VCS3 synthesizer and tape recorders, and singing backing vocals. He then progressed to appearing on stage as a performing member of the group, usually flamboyantly costumed. He quit the band on completing the promotion tour for the band's second album, ''For Your Pleasure'' because of disagreements with lead singer Bryan Ferry and boredom with the rock star life.

In 1992, he described his Roxy Music tenure as important to his career: "As a result of going into a subway station and meeting Andy [saxophonist Andy Mackay], I joined Roxy Music, and, as a result of that, I have a career in music. If I'd walked ten yards further on the platform, or missed that train, or been in the next carriage, I probably would have been an art teacher now". During his period with Roxy Music, and for his first three solo albums, he was credited on these records only as 'Eno'.

Solo work

These four albums were remastered and reissued in 2004 by Virgin's Astralwerks label. Due to Eno's decision not to add any extra tracks of the original material, a handful of tracks originally issued as singles have not been reissued ("Seven Deadly Finns" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" were included on the deleted Eno Vocal Box set and the single mix of "King's Lead Hat" [which is an anagram of "Talking Heads"] has never been reissued).

During this period, Eno also played three dates with Phil Manzanera in the band 801, a "supergroup" that performed more or less mutated selections from albums by Eno, Manzanera, and Quiet Sun, as well as covers of songs by The Beatles and The Kinks.

In 1972, Eno developed a tape-delay system first utilized by Eno and Robert Fripp (from King Crimson), described as 'Frippertronics', and the pair released an album in 1973 called ''(No Pussyfooting).'' It is said the technique was borrowed from minimalist composer Terry Riley, whose tape delay feedback system with a pair of Revox tape recorders (a setup Riley used to call the "Time Lag Accumulator") was first used on Riley's album ''Music for The Gift'' in 1963. In 1975, Fripp and Eno released a second album, ''Evening Star'', and played several live shows in Europe.

Eno was a prominent member of the performance art-classical orchestra the Portsmouth Sinfonia – having started playing with them in 1972. In 1973 he produced the orchestra's first album ''The Portsmouth Sinfonia Plays the Popular Classics'' (released in March 1974) and in 1974 he produced the live album ''Hallellujah! The Portsmouth Sinfonia Live At The Royal Albert Hall'' of their infamous May 1974 concert (released in October 1974.) In addition to producing both albums, Eno performed in the orchestra on both recordings – playing the clarinet. Eno also deployed the orchestra's famously dissonant string section on his second solo album ''Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)''. The orchestra at this time included other musicians whose solo work he would subsequently release on his Obscure label including Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman. That year he also composed music for the album ''Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy'', with Kevin Ayers, to accompany the poet June Campbell Cramer.

Eno continued his career by producing a larger number of highly eclectic and increasingly ambient electronic and acoustic albums. He is widely credited with coining the term "ambient music", low-volume music designed to modify one's perception of a surrounding environment.

His first such work, 1975's ''Discreet Music'' (again created via an elaborate tape-delay methodology, which Eno diagrammed on the back cover of the LP ), is considered the landmark album of the genre. This was followed by his ''Ambient'' series (''Music for Airports (Ambient 1)'', ''The Plateaux of Mirror (Ambient 2)'', ''Day of Radiance (Ambient 3)'' and ''On Land (Ambient 4)''). Eno was the primary musician on these releases with the exception of ''Ambient 2'' which featured Harold Budd on keyboard, and ''Ambient 3'' where the American composer Laraaji was the sole musician playing the zither and hammered dulcimer with Eno producing.

In 1980 Eno provided a film score for Herbert Vesely's Egon Schiele Exzess und Bestrafung, also known as ''Egon Schiele Excess and Punishment''. The ambient-style score was an unusual choice for a historical piece, but it worked effectively with the film's themes of sexual obsession and death.

In 1981, having returned from Ghana and before ''On Land'', he discovered Miles Davis' 1974 track "He Loved Him Madly", a melancholy tribute to Duke Ellington influenced by both African music and Karlheinz Stockhausen: as Eno stated in the liner notes for ''On Land'', "Teo Macero's revolutionary production on that piece seemed to me to have the "spacious" quality I was after, and like Federico Fellini's 1973 film ''Amarcord'', it too became a touchstone to which I returned frequently."

Eno describes himself as a "non-musician" and coined the term "treatments" to describe his modification of the sound of musical instruments, and to separate his role from that of the traditional instrumentalist. His skill at using "The Studio as a Compositional Tool" (the title of an essay by Eno) led in part to his career as a producer. His methods were recognized at the time (mid-1970s) as unique, so much so that on Genesis's ''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'', he is credited with 'Enossification'; on Robert Wyatt's Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard with a ''Direct inject anti-jazz raygun'' and on John Cale's Island albums as simply being "Eno".

Obscure Records label

Eno started the Obscure Records label in Britain in 1975 to release works by lesser-known composers. The first group of three releases included his own composition, ''Discreet Music'', and the now-famous ''The Sinking of the Titanic'' (1969) and ''Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet'' (1971) by Gavin Bryars. The second side of ''Discreet Music'' consisted of several versions of Pachelbel's Canon, the composition which Eno had previously chosen to precede Roxy Music's appearances on stage, to which various algorithmic transformations have been applied, rendering it almost unrecognizable. Side 1 consisted of a tape loop system for generating music from relatively sparse input. These tapes had previously been used as backgrounds in some of his collaborations with Fripp, most notably on ''Evening Star''. Only 10 albums were released on Obscure, including works by John Adams, Michael Nyman, and John Cage. At this time he was also affiliating with artists in the Fluxus movement.

Collaboration

In 1980–1981, Eno collaborated with David Byrne of Talking Heads (which he had already anagrammatized as 'King's Lead Hat') on ''My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'', which was built around radio broadcasts Eno collected while living in the United States, along with sampling recordings from around the world transposed over music predominately inspired by African and Middle Eastern rhythms.

He worked with David Bowie as a writer and musician on Bowie's influential 1977–79 'Berlin Trilogy' of albums, ''Low, "Heroes"'' and ''Lodger'', on Bowie's later album ''Outside'', and on the song "I'm Afraid of Americans". In 1980 Eno developed an interest in altered guitar tunings, which led to Guitarchitecture discussions with Chuck Hammer, former Lou Reed guitarist. Following on from his No-Wave involvement which brought him in contact with the "renegade" artist Greg Belcastro, who introduced him to the guitar techniques of a fledgling Sonic Youth, Eno has also collaborated with John Cale, former member of Velvet Underground, on his trilogy ''Fear'', ''Slow Dazzle'' and ''Helen of Troy'', Robert Wyatt on his ''Shleep'' CD, with Jon Hassell, with the German duo Cluster, with composers Harold Budd, Philip Glass and Roberto Carnevale. A new collaboration between David Byrne and Brian Eno titled ''Everything That Happens Will Happen Today'' was released digitally on 18 August 2008, with the enhanced CD released in October.

1990s

During the 1990s, Eno became increasingly interested in self-generating musical systems, the results of which he called generative music. The basic premise of generative music is the blending of several independent musical tracks, of varying sounds, length, and in some cases, silence. When each individual track concludes, it starts again mixing with the other tracks allowing the listener to hear an almost infinite combination. In one instance of generative music, Eno calculated that it would take almost 10,000 years to hear the entire possibilities of one individual piece. Eno has presented this music in his own, and other artists', art and sound installations, most notably "I Dormienti (The Sleepers)", Lightness: Music for the Marble Palace, Music for Civic Recovery Centre, The Quiet Room and "Music for Prague".

2000s

Eno returned in June 2005 with ''Another Day on Earth'', his first major album since ''Wrong Way Up'' (with John Cale) to prominently feature vocals (a trend continued with ''Everything That Happens Will Happen Today''). The album differs from his 70s solo work as musical production has changed since then, evident in its semi-electronic production.

In early 2006, Eno collaborated with David Byrne, again, for the reissue of ''My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'' in celebration of the influential album's 25th anniversary. Eight previously unreleased tracks, recorded during the initial sessions in 1980/81, were added to the album, while one track, "Qu'ran", was removed due to requests from Muslims. An unusual interactive marketing strategy coincided with its re-release, the album’s promotional website features the ability for anyone to officially and legally download the multi-tracks of two songs from the album, "A Secret Life" and "Help Me Somebody". Individuals can then remix and upload new mixes of these tracks to the website so others can listen to and rate them.

In late 2006, Eno released ''77 Million Paintings'', a program of generative video and music specifically for the PC. As its title suggests, there is a possible combination of 77 million paintings where the viewer will see different combinations of video slides prepared by Eno each time the program is launched. Likewise, the accompanying music is generated by the program so that it's almost certain the listener will never quite hear the same arrangement twice. The second edition of "77 Million Paintings" featuring improved morphing and a further two layers of sound was released on 14 January 2008.

In 2007, Eno's music was featured in a movie adaption of Irvine Welsh's best-selling collection ''Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance''. He also appeared playing keyboards in ''Voila'', Belinda Carlisle's solo album sung entirely in French.

Also in 2007, Eno contributed a composition titled "Grafton Street" to Dido's third album, ''Safe Trip Home'', released in November 2008.

In 2008, he released ''Everything That Happens Will Happen Today'' with David Byrne, designed the sound for the video game ''Spore'' and wrote a chapter to ''Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture'', edited by Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky).

Eno revealed on radio in May 2009 that a skin graft he received as treatment for a severe burn on his arm was part human skin, part carbon fibre. He explained that as human skin is based on carbon, the experimental treatment was likely going to work out well for him, in spite of the fact that he feels a lightness in the affected arm.

In June 2009, Eno curated the Luminous Festival at Sydney Opera House, culminating in his first live appearance in many years. "Pure Scenius" consisted of three live improvised performances on the same day, featuring Eno, Australian improv trio The Necks, Karl Hyde from Underworld, electronic artist Jon Hopkins and guitarist Leo Abrahams.

Eno scored the music for Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of ''The Lovely Bones'', released in December 2009.

2010s

Eno released a new solo album on Warp Records in late 2010. ''Small Craft on a Milk Sea'', made in association with long-time collaborator Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins, was released on 2 November in the United States and 15 November in the UK. In April 2011, Eno announced that ''Drums Between The Bells'', a collaboration with poet Rick Holland, would be released in July 2011.

Record producer and other projects

Record production

Despite being a self-professed "non-musician", Eno has contributed to recordings by artists as varied as Nico, Robert Calvert, Genesis, David Bowie, and Zvuki Mu, in various capacities such as use of his studio/synthesizer/electronic treatments, vocals, guitar, bass guitar, and as just being 'Eno'. In 1984, he (along with several other authors) composed and performed the "Prophecy Theme" for the David Lynch film ''Dune''; the rest of the soundtrack was composed and performed by the group Toto. Eno produced performance artist Laurie Anderson's ''Bright Red'' album, and also composed for it. The work is avant-garde spoken word with haunting and magnifying sounds. Eno played on David Byrne's musical score for ''The Catherine Wheel'', a project commissioned by Twyla Tharp to accompany her Broadway dance project of the same name.

Eno co-produced ''The Unforgettable Fire'' (1984), ''The Joshua Tree'' (1987), ''Achtung Baby'' (1991), and ''All That You Can't Leave Behind'' (2000) for U2 with his frequent collaborator Daniel Lanois, and produced 1993's ''Zooropa'' for the band alone. In 1995, U2 and Eno joined forces to create the album ''Original Soundtracks 1'' under the group name Passengers; songs from ''OST1'' included "Your Blue Room" and "Miss Sarajevo". He also produced ''Laid'' (1993), ''Wah Wah'' (1994) and ''Pleased to Meet You'' (2001) for James.

Eno played on the 1986 album ''Measure for Measure'' by Australian band Icehouse. He remixed two tracks for Depeche Mode, "I Feel You" and "In Your Room", both single releases from the album ''Songs of Faith and Devotion'' in 1993. In 1995, Eno provided one of several remixes of "Protection" by Massive Attack (originally from their ''Protection'' album) for release as a single. The single also included more remixes by DJs J-Swift, Tom D, and Underdog.

In 2007, he produced the fourth studio album by Coldplay entitled ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'', which was released in 2008. Also in 2008, he worked with Grace Jones on her album ''Hurricane'', credited for "production consultation" and as a member of the band, playing keyboards, treatments and background vocals. With frequent collaborator Daniel Lanois, he worked on the twelfth studio album by U2, titled ''No Line on the Horizon''. It was recorded in Morocco, South France and Dublin and released in Europe on 27 February 2009.

The Microsoft Sound

As a guest on ''The Museum of Curiosity'' radio show, Eno stated that the list of adjectives, which included "sexy", comprised "about one-hundred and fifty adjectives" and that the music was to be no more than "3.8 seconds" long.

Generative music

As C.S.J. Bofop, in 1996, he said:

Other work

Eno appeared as Father Brian Eno at the "It's Great Being a Priest!" convention, in "Going to America", the final episode of the television sitcom ''Father Ted'', which originally aired on 1 May 1998 on Channel 4.

In March 2008 Eno collaborated with the Italian artist Mimmo Paladino on a show of the latter's works with Eno's soundscapes at Ara Pacis in Rome.

In 2008, Eno designed the procedurally-generated music for the video game ''Spore''.

In October 2008, Eno collaborated with Peter Chilvers to create an application titled Bloom, Trope, and Air for the iOS platform.

Eno will be the guest curator of the 2010 Brighton Festival.

Lizard Point from ''On Land'' is featured in the 2010 film ''Shutter Island''.

Influence

While not the only inventor of ambient music, Eno is seen as a major contributor to the genre. The Ambient Music Guide argues that he has brought from "relative obscurity into the popular consciousness" fundamental ideas about ambient music, including "the idea of modern music as subtle atmosphere, as chill-out, as impressionistic, as something that creates space for quiet reflection or relaxation." His groundbreaking work in electronic music has been said to have brought widespread attention to and innovations in the role of electronic technology in recording.

In 2001 Half Man Half Biscuit released an EP entitled "Eno Collaboration", which contains a track of the same name. MGMT wrote a song about Eno, called "Brian Eno", in their 2010 album Congratulations.

In 2011, Belgian academics from the Royal Museum for Central Africa named a species of Afrotropical spider ''Pseudocorinna brianeno'' in his honour.

Politics

In 1996, Eno and others started the Long Now Foundation to educate the public about the very long term future of society. He is also a columnist for the British newspaper ''The Observer''.

In 2003, he appeared on a UK Channel 4 discussion about the Iraq war with a top military spokesman; Eno was highly critical of the war. In 2005, he spoke at an anti-war demonstration in Hyde Park, London. In March 2006, he spoke at an anti-war demonstration at Trafalgar Square; he noted that 2 billion people on this planet do not have clean drinking water, and that water could have been supplied to them for about one-fifth of the cost of the Iraq war.

The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition mobile phone features exclusive music composed by Eno. Between 8 January 2007 and 12 February 2007, ten units of Nokia 8800 Sirocco Brian Eno Signature Edition mobile phones, individually numbered and engraved with Eno's signature were auctioned off. All proceeds went to two charities chosen by Eno: the Keiskamma Aids Treatment program and The World Land Trust.

In 2006, Eno was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter calling for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions.

In December 2007, the newly-elected Leader of Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, appointed Eno as his youth affairs adviser.

In January 2009, Eno spoke out against Israel's military action on the Gaza Strip by writing an opinion for ''CounterPunch'' and participating in a large-scale protest in London.

Discography

Bibliography

References

External links

Category:1948 births Category:Ambient musicians Category:Aphorists Category:Astralwerks artists Category:Virgin Records artists Category:BRIT Award winners Category:British anti–Iraq War activists Category:English electronic musicians Category:English experimental musicians Category:English painters Category:English record producers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:New Age musicians Category:People from Woodbridge, Suffolk Category:Roxy Music members Category:Warp Records artists Category:People educated at St Joseph's College, Ipswich Category:English atheists

, born , is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period (1868–1912). He is best known for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'' and his unfinished work ''Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1000 yen note.

Early years

Natsume attended the First Tokyo Middle School (now Hibiya High School), where he became enamored with Chinese literature, and fancied that he might someday become a writer. His desire to become an author arose when he was about fifteen when he told his older brother about his interest in literature. However, his family disapproved strongly of this course of action, and when Natsume entered the Tokyo Imperial University in September 1884, it was with the intention of becoming an architect. Although he preferred Chinese classics, he began studying English at that time, feeling that it might prove useful to him in his future career, as English was a necessity in Japanese college.

In 1887, Natsume met Masaoka Shiki, a friend who would give him encouragement on the path to becoming a writer, which would ultimately be his career. Shiki tutored him in the art of composing haiku. From this point on, he began signing his poems with the name Sōseki, which is a Chinese idiom meaning "stubborn". In 1890, he entered the English Literature department, and quickly mastered the English language. Natsume graduated in 1893, and enrolled for some time as a graduate student and part-time teacher at the Tokyo Normal School.

In 1895, Natsume began teaching at Matsuyama Middle School in Shikoku, which became the setting of his novel ''Botchan''. Along with fulfilling his teaching duties, Natsume published haiku and Chinese poetry in a number of newspapers and periodicals. He resigned his post in 1896, and began teaching at the Fifth High School in Kumamoto. On June 10 of that year, he married Nakane Kyoko.

In the United Kingdom, 1901–1903

He lived in four different lodgings, only the last of which, lodging with Priscilla and her sister Elizabeth Leale in Clapham (see the photograph), proved satisfactory. Five years later, in his preface to ''Bungakuron'' (''The Criticism of Literature''), he wrote about the period: :The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant years in my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that had strayed among a pack of wolves.

He got along well with the Leale sisters, who shared his love of literature (notably Shakespeare—his tutor at UCL was the Shakespeare scholar W. J. Craig—and Milton) and spoke fluent French, much to his admiration. The Leales were a Channel Island family, and Priscilla had been born in France. The sisters worried about Natsume's incipient paranoia and successfully urged him to get out more and take up cycling.

Despite his poverty, loneliness, and mental problems, he solidified his knowledge of English literature during this period and returned to Japan in 1903.

After his return to the Empire of Japan, he replaced Koizumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) at the First Higher School, and subsequently became a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, where he taught literary theory and literary criticism.

Literary career

He followed on this success with short stories, such as ''Rondon tō'' ("Tower of London") in 1905 and the novels ''Botchan'' ("Little Master"), and ''Kusamakura'' ("Grass Pillow") in 1906, which established his reputation, and which enabled him to leave his post at the university for a position with ''Asahi Shimbun'' in 1907, and to begin writing full-time. Much of his work deals with the relation between Japanese culture and Western culture. Especially his early works are influenced by his studies in London; his novel ''Kairo-kō'' was the earliest and only major prose treatment of the Arthurian legend in Japanese. He began writing one novel a year until his death from a stomach ulcer in 1916.

Major themes in Natsume's works include ordinary people fighting against economic hardship, the conflict between duty and desire (a traditional Japanese theme; see giri), loyalty and group mentality versus freedom and individuality, personal isolation and estrangement, the rapid industrialization of Japan and its social consequences, contempt of Japan's aping of Western culture, and a pessimistic view of human nature. Natsume took a strong interest in the writers of the ''Shirakaba'' (White Birch) literary group. In his final years, authors such as Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Kume Masao became close followers of his literary style.

Major works

See also

Sources

References

External links

Category:1867 births Category:1916 deaths Category:Writers from Tokyo Category:People in Meiji period Japan Category:Japanese novelists Category:Japanese poets Category:Japanese short story writers Category:Japanese expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:University of Tokyo alumni Category:Pseudonymous writers

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze (1974-1980 & 1985-1990) and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour, Magazine and Bono.

Holland is a published author and appears on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B; music. He currently hosts ''Later... with Jools Holland'', a music-based show aired on BBC2, on which his annual show the Hootenanny, is based.

Life and career

Holland played as a session musician before finding fame, and his first studio session was with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs in 1976 on their track "F*ck Off."

Holland was a founding member of the British pop band Squeeze, formed in March 1974, in which he played keyboards until 1981 and helped the band to achieve millions of record sales, before pursuing his solo career.

Holland began issuing solo records in 1978, his first EP being ''Boogie Woogie '78''. He continued his solo career through the early 1980s, releasing an album and several singles between 1981 and 1984. He branched out into TV, co-presenting the Newcastle-based TV music show ''The Tube'' with Paula Yates. Holland achieved notoriety by inadvertently using the phrase "groovy fuckers" in a live, early evening TV trailer for the show, causing it to be suspended for six weeks. He referred to this in his sitcom "The Groovy Fellers" with Rowland Rivron.

thumb|right|Holland at the Tsunami Relief concert in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, 22 January 2005In 1983 Holland played an extended piano solo on The The's re-recording of "Uncertain Smile" for the album ''Soul Mining''. In 1985, Squeeze (which had continued in Holland's absence through to 1982) unexpectedly regrouped including Jools Holland as their keyboard player. Holland remained in the band until 1990, at which point, he again departed Squeeze on amicable terms to resume his solo career as a musician and a TV host.

In 1987, Holland formed The ''Jools Holland Big Band'' which consisted of himself and Gilson Lavis from Squeeze. This gradually became his 18-piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.

Between 1988 and 1990 he performed and co-hosted along with David Sanborn during the two seasons of the music performance program Sunday Night on NBC late-night television. Since 1992 he has presented the eclectic music program ''Later... with Jools Holland'', plus an annual New Year's Eve "Hootenanny".

In 1996 Holland signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records and his records are now marketed through Rhino Records.

Holland has a touring band, The Rhythm And Blues Orchestra, which often includes singers Sam Brown and Ruby Turner. In January 2005 Holland and his band performed with Eric Clapton as the headline act of the Tsunami Relief Cardiff. He also headlined the Skegness SO Festival in July 2010.

Personal

Holland was an interviewer for The Beatles Anthology TV project, and appeared in the 1997 film ''Spiceworld'' as a musical director.

He received an OBE in 2003 in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, for services to the British music industry as a television presenter and musician. In September 2006 Holland was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent. He is also known for his charity work: in June 2006 he performed in Southend for HIV/AIDS charity Mildmay, and in early 2007 he performed at Wells and Rochester Cathedrals to raise money for maintaining cathedral buildings. He is also patron of the Drake Music Project and has raised many thousands of pounds for the charity.

Jools Holland was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral on 30 January 2009.

On 29 August 2005 Holland married Christabel McEwen, his girlfriend of 15 years (between 1983 and 1995 she had been married to Edward Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham, but they divorced). The wedding, at St James's Church, Cooling near Rochester, was attended by many celebrities, including Ringo Starr, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Noel Gallagher, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

Holland is also a patron for The Milton Rooms, a new Arts centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, along with Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Kathy Burke.

Writing

Discography

Albums that have charted and gained Certifications

Releases

Film and television

Current television programmes

Books

References

External links

Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Boogie-woogie pianists Category:English rock pianists Category:English television presenters Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Bandleaders Category:Squeeze (band) members Category:I.R.S. Records artists Category:People from Blackheath, London Category:BBC Radio 2 presenters Category:Deputy Lieutenants of Kent Category:British people of Irish descent Category:English people of Irish descent