One-man band

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see One Man Band (disambiguation).
One-man band; photo by Knox of Athol, Massachusetts, in 1865
Jeff Masin, a one-man band in New York City

A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform.

The simplest type of "one-man band" is a singer

buskers and folk music singer-guitarists. More complicated setups may include wind instruments strapped around the neck, a large bass drum mounted on the musician's back with a beater which is connected to a foot pedal, cymbals strapped between the knees or triggered by a pedal mechanism, tambourines and maracas tied to the limbs, and a stringed instrument strapped over the shoulders (e.g., a banjo, ukulele or guitar
).

Since the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in the 1980s, musicians have also incorporated chest-mounted MIDI drum pads, foot-mounted electronic drum triggers, and electronic pedal keyboards into their set-ups. In the 2000s and 2010s, the availability of affordable digital looping pedals has enabled singer-musicians to record a riff or chord progression and then solo or sing over it.

History and meanings

Live instruments

Pipe and taborers, from the 13th-century illuminated manuscript, Cantigas de Santa Maria

The earliest known records of multiple musical instruments being played at the same time date from the 13th century, and were the pipe and

Elizabethan-era woodcut shows a clown playing the pipe and tabor. An 1820s watercolour painting shows a one-man band with a rhythm-making stick, panpipes around his neck and a bass drum and tambourine beside him. Henry Mayhew's history of London street life in the 1840s and 1850s described a blind street performer who played bells, the violin and accordions.[2]

Guitarist Jim Garner played guitar with his hands and triangle with his feet, and Will Blankenship of the Blankenship family of North Carolina played harmonica, autoharp and triangle in shows during the 1930s. In the 1940s, entertainer and clown Benny Dougal used a crude "stump fiddle" (a single string stretched on a stick) with a footpedal-operated pair of cymbals. Blues singers such as "Daddy Stovepipe" (Johnny Watson) would sing, play guitar, and stomp their feet for rhythm, or used a foot pedal to play bass drum or cymbal.[3]

One of the earliest modern exponents of multiple instruments was

bass fiddle, fiddle, autoharp and mouth harp.[4]

Joe Barrick, who was born in Oklahoma in 1922, wanted a way of accompanying himself on fiddle, so he built a contraption with a guitar neck on a board with footpedals to operate the notes. Subsequent versions of this "piatar" also had bass guitar and banjo necks and a snare drum which are played by foot-operated hammers. To change notes on the guitar-family instruments, a foot treadle operates a mechanical fretting device. Two notable one-man

high-hat.[5]

Musician in London performs on electric guitar and a small drum kit

The simple

Sterling Magee, better known as "Mister Satan," from Satan and Adam.[citation needed
]

Vic Ellis of Sussex
"The one-man band exists, in all its uniqueness and independence, as a most elusive yet persistent musical tradition. As a category of musicianship it transcends cultural and geographic boundaries, spans stylistic limits, and defies conventional notions of technique and instrumentation. Defined simply as a single musician playing more than one instrument at the same time, it is an ensemble limited only by the mechanical capabilities and imaginative inventiveness of its creator, and despite its generally accepted status as an isolated novelty, it is a phenomenon with some identifiable historical continuity."[6]

Studio recording

The term "one-man band" is also colloquially used to describe a performer who plays every instrument on a recorded song one at a time, and then mixes them together in a multitrack studio. While this approach to recording is more common in electronica genres such as techno and acid house than R&B and rock music, some R&B and rock performers such as Joe Hill Louis, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Paul McCartney, Elliott Smith, Kevin Parker, Kabir Suman,[7] Dave Edmunds, John Fogerty, Emitt Rhodes, Todd Rundgren, Pete Townshend, Steve Winwood, Roy Wood, Nik Kershaw, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), and Les Fradkin have made records in which they play every instrument (one after the other). Mike Oldfield was noted for using this recording technique during the recording of his 1973 album Tubular Bells. Other examples of a one-man band in the recording studio are Dave Grohl for the first studio album by the Foo Fighters, Trent Reznor for Nine Inch Nails, jazz piano player Keith Jarrett for his album No End, Peter Tägtgren for Pain (musical project), Chris Carrabba for the first two albums released by Dashboard Confessional, Varg Vikernes for Burzum and Billy Corgan for The Smashing Pumpkins since 2009.

Nash the Slash (1948–2014) played all instruments on his recordings. He also played solo concerts from 1975 to 2012, using synchronized drum machines and synthesizers as he plays either an electric violin or electric mandolin.[citation needed] Some artists record and mixed their music in a multitrack studio and synchronize it with video multitrack video playing on all instruments, creating a one-man band illusion.

One-man bands in this context have become more common in extreme metal, especially black metal, where a number of bands apart from Burzum consist of only one member. Such artists include Nargaroth, Xasthur, Falkenbach, Arckanum, Nortt, Horde, and others. While most of these bands do not play live, some such as Nargaroth hire additional musicians for live performances.

"One-woman band" is not used very often in the vernacular, but women have increasingly had a presence as musicians in most forms of music. Edith Crash[8] who creates "dark and haunting, drawn-out melodies".[9]

Live looping

Chris Lejeune 2007
Main article: Live looping

In the 2000s, as digital looping pedals became widely available, performers have been able to use a mixture of previously recorded music, delay effects, and looping devices in live performances of everything from beatboxing to classical violin. Live looping performers create layered looped accompaniment for musical solos that are sung or played later in the song. Using this technology, a simultaneous combination of various instruments and vocals, or one instrument played in different ways, can be created over the course of one musical piece which rivals the sounds of studio recording. Notable artists who incorporate this technique live include Ed Sheeran, Keller Williams, That 1 Guy, Zach Deputy, and KT Tunstall. Rick Walker[10] is another looper and multi-instrumentalist who has organized looping festivals, including a long-running annual one in Santa Cruz, California, and others in various countries.[11] Live looping can be sung along prerecorded sounds.

Developments

Hasil Adkins performing at Seidel Lanes as part of the "Rock n' Bowl" concert series presented by the Roots Cafe in Baltimore, Maryland

Since the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (

promotion?
]

Non-musical meanings

The term is also used in a general sense to refer to a person who runs a small business alone (a sole-proprietorship business), particularly if the operation requires that person to assume multiple different roles, in a manner akin to the way a musical "one-man band" performer plays different instruments and sings at the same time. In some small businesses, the owner also produces the product or service, markets it and delivers it to clients. In TV news, the phrase refers to a reporter who also functions as their own cameraperson via the use of a tripod.

In 2011, professional wrestler Heath Slater climbed to fame with the nickname "The One-Man Rock Band", which was later changed to "The One-Man Southern Rock Band" in reference to his being billed from West Virginia.

References

  1. ^ "Pipe and Tabor – The home of The Taborers Society". Pipeandtabor.org. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  2. ^ Henry Mayhew, London Labor and the London Poor, (Dover Publications, New York, 1968), vol. 3, p. 161. Reprint of 1861-62 edition published by Griffin, Bohn and Company.
  3. ISBN 978-1-000-36065-3
    .
  4. ISBN 978-1-000-36065-3
    .
  5. ^ "The Long Lineage of One-Man Bands". reverb.com. 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  6. ^ Hal Rammel (1990). "Joe Barrick's one-man band". Mustrad.org.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  7. Orissa Post
    . Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  8. Coachella Valley Weekly
    . 18 May 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  9. laist.com, August 18, 2016 Archived 2017-11-05 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "Loop.pooL: Rick Walker's musical biography". Looppool.info. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  11. ^ "1st Y2K16 MEXICO INTERNATIONAL LIVE LOOPING FESTIVAL – livelooping". 2016-02-12. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  12. YouTube
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