Peter King
There are at least four musicians called Peter King:
1. A Nigerian Afro-beat tenor saxophonist.
2. An English jazz alto saxophonist
3. An American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
4. An English church-organist.
1. Peter King Adeyoyin Osubu (born 1938), known as Peter King, is a Nigerian musician who played several instruments, but was best known as an alto saxophonist playing a combination of Afrobeat and Jazz. Peter King is perhaps better known in Europe and America than in Nigeria for his "Miliki Sound" on the record A Soulful Peter King, where he played popular classics such as "Sincerely", "We Belong Together" and "Just Because".
Peter King was born in 1938 in Enugu in the Southeastern region of Nigeria and grew up in Lokoja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. In 1957 he joined the Roy Chicago band in Ibadan, playing the maracas and then the conga drum. He moved to other bands in Ibadan and then Lagos, playing the double bass, drums and then the alto sax. In 1961 he went to London where he studied at various schools of music, including the Trinity College of Music.
While in London, Peter King joined with drummer Bayo Martins and trumpeter Mike Falana to form the African Messengers group. The group performed at festivals and clubs, and served as backup band for acts like The Four Tops, The Temptations and Diana Ross. The African Messengers recorded many 45rpm records. "Highlife Piccadilly", a fusion of Highlife and Jazz was a hit. Peter King formed another band The Blues Builders with which he toured Europe and Northern Africa.
Peter King returned to Nigeria in 1969, and with his group The Voice of Africa performed on the war front during the Nigerian Civil War. Returning to London in 1971 he toured Europe, America and Japan with his group Shango. He assembled and arranged a big band to back the singing group Boney M on their first live concert tour across Europe in 1977. He recorded nine studio albums between 1975 and 1978, and wrote music for several plays and television shows. In 1979 King returned to Nigeria and formed the P.K band. He composed music for soap operas and recorded three further albums. In the early 1980s Peter King and his P.K. Band played on the NTA and at the National Museum, Lagos for three years.
Peter King plays in the Sonny Rollins-Gene Ammons-John Coltrane tradition. He has a unique tone, flawless articulation and a fresh turn of mind in improvisations, and is the leading tenor saxophone voice to have come from the Nigerian highlife and afrobeat traditions. Talking of his hit "Highlife Piccadilly", Peter King said "Our philosophy was to play modern jazz with highlife as the basis ... Afrojazz is my musical direction and a mission". Peter King combined afrobeat with a funk style similar to James Brown. His album Shango was acclaimed by critics. Opening with a simple flute melody, tambourines enter followed by complex duets between horns and looping guitar riffs.
Peter King founded his School of Music in 1982, in a three-room apartment in Maza Maza. At first it had about 30 students. Since then the College has expanded greatly, and is now located in Badagry. It has lecture halls, rehearsal rooms, an assembly-concert hall and hostel facilities. The school has been assisted by Canadian musicians Oliver Jones and Archie Allen and greatly assisted by the French government. Almost two thousand students have graduated from the school since 1982. The school provides practical tuition and grants certificates and diplomas. It prepares students for the professional examinations of Associate, Licentiate and Fellowship of the Trinity, Royal and London Schools of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In January 2007 the French Ambassador in Nigeria inaugurated the new facilities of the Peter king school of music at Badagry, Lagos State.
Discography
Mikki Sounds (Orbitone 1975)
Omo Lewa (Orbitone 1976)
A Soulful Peter King (Orbitone 1977)
Moods (Tyrone Records 1978)
African Dialects (Grandstand 1979)
Omolewa
Palm Wine Vendor (2002)
2. Peter King (b. 1940) is an English jazz saxophonist, composer, and clarinettist.
King was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey on 11th August 1940, and taught himself to play the clarinet at the age of fifteen, quickly switching to alto saxophone. In 1959, at the age of nineteen, he was booked by Ronnie Scott to perform at the opening of Scott's club in Gerrard Street, London. In the same year he received the "Melody Maker New Star" award. He worked with John Dankworth's orchestra from 1960 to 1961, and went on to work with the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Tubby Hayes, Harry South, and Stan Tracey, the Brussels Big Band, and the Ray Charles band on a European tour. He has also played in small groups with musicians such as Philly Joe Jones, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Red Rodney, Hampton Hawes, Nat Adderley, Al Haig, Bill Watrous, and Dick Morrissey, and singers such as Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks, and Anita O'Day. He is a member of Charlie Watts' Tentet (see Charlie Watts And The Tentet). He has recorded with the Peter King Quartet (for which there is a Last.fm streamable track: "In a Monochrome") the Peter King Quintet, and with the Al Haig Trio and Art Themen as the University College School All Stars.
King's composing has moved beyond individual numbers for performance and recording, and includes an opera, Zyklon, in collaboration with Julian Barry.
His autobiography, Flying High: A Jazz Life and Beyond, has been published by Northway Books.
3. Peter King (b.1954) is a U.S. singer-singwriter.
King was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1954. His early influences were blues and singer-songwriters including James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. King studied classical music at Penn State University. He studied jazz and Brazilian guitar with Marty Ashby in Pittsburgh and earned an M.A. in guitar performance from Duquesne University in 1994.
4. Peter King is organist at Bath Abbey in England. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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