Jethro Tull (Jethro Tall) - an English rock band from the city of Blackpool, was created in 1967. The music of this group goes beyond the scope of one genre: blues rock and jazz, hard rock and folk. The band’s songs often feature an acoustic guitar, and, of course, the flute of the inimitable vocalist Ian Anderson. Over more than forty years of their career, Jethro Tull has sold over 60 million albums.
early years
In 1963, Ian Anderson and his friends Jeffrey Hammond and John Ivan, then students at Blackpool High School, organized a musical project called The Blades. The following year, new musicians joined the group, and the name of the band changed to "John Evan Band".
In 1967, the group moved to London, but here the guys had problems with concerts due to the large number of bands similar to them. The team often changed its name, speaking under the names of agents, organizers of concerts. One day, the group called itself by the name of Jethro Tull. This name has taken root.
At the end of 1968, the new guitarist Martin Barre joined the band and the following year, 1969, the first Jethro Tull album, entitled "Stand Up", was released. This record was the only one that reached the first position in the British charts. All the tracks on this album, except "Bourée", were written by Ian Anderson. After that, the group releases several successful singles: "Living in the Past", "Sweet Dream", "The Witch's Promise", "Life Is a Long Song".
In 1970, the band recorded the album Benefit, after which the bass player Kornik left the band. In his place came Jeffrey Hammond (Jeffrey Hammond), which is dedicated to such compositions as "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey, and Me", "A Song For Jeffrey" and "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square".
Creation
In an updated lineup in 1971, Jethro Tull released their most famous album, "Aqualung". Despite the various compositions of this disc, it is perceived holistically, which allowed critics to call the album conceptual. In addition, this work was distinguished by a deep poetic component of Anderson's texts. The most popular song on the album "Aqualung" was "Locomotive Breath", which still sounds on the air of radio stations, and on performances by Jethro Tull.
In the early seventies, Jethro Tull toured a lot. The performances of the collective were distinguished by the presence of short instrumental preludes and various song arrangements. Gradually, their own stage image developed, in which each musician had a recognizable style. The group also began to actively use the scenery, adding even more theatricality to their performances.
In 1975, the band released the album "Minstrel in the Gallery", which generally resembled "Aqualung". He combined gentle acoustic compositions with tougher ones based on Martin Barr's electric guitar parts. Subsequently, this work was recognized as one of the best for the entire career of Jethro Tull, although it is clearly inferior in popularity to the album "Aqualung".
From 1977 to 1979, Jethro Tull released three folk rock albums: Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses, and Stormwatch. This period is considered the end of the classic Jethro Tull era, as bass player John Glaskock died as a result of postoperative complications. His place was taken by Dave Pegg.
In 1983, Ian Anderson released his first solo album, entitled "Walk Into the Light", which was electronically saturated and talked about the alienation of man in modern society.
The culmination of electronics enthusiasm was Jethro Tull's "Under the Wraps", which plays a drum machine instead of a live drummer. This creation was greeted rather coolly by both critics and fans.
Soon, Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson showed serious voice problems, and the group took a break of three years, during which Anderson was treated and worked on his salmon farm, which he bought in 1978.
In 1987, the group successfully returned to the scene. The music of the new album "Crest Of A Knave" sounded closer to the classic albums of the 70s. The new release received rave reviews in the press. Jethro Tull musicians won the Grammy Music Award for Best Rock and Metal Performance. The most popular songs on Farm on the Freeway and Steel Monkey were often played on radio stations.
In 1988, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the group, the compilation "20 Years of Jethro Tull" was released, which included mostly previously unreleased recordings, as well as reworked compositions and concert numbers. At this time, the multi-instrumentalist Martin Allcock, who plays mostly keyboard parts at concerts, came to the collective.
The band’s next studio work was a disc called “Rock Island”, released in 1989, which lost its sound to the previous album, but was generally liked by fans.
After 1992, the manner of playing Ian Anderson on the flute has changed a bit. The albums of the second half of the 90s "Roots to Branches" (1995) and "J-Tull Dot Com" (1999) sounded less harsh than the previous ones.
In the first decade of the new, 21st, century, Jethro Tull releases great collections and continues to tour a lot. So, in 2007 a collection of the best acoustic tracks of the group consisting of 24 works was published. 2008 was marked by a tour dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the group, and 2011 - by a tour in honor of the 40th anniversary of the album "Aqualung".
In 2013, Jethro Tull gave concerts in Minsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar. The following year, Ian Anderson announced the termination of the group. However, in 2017, the band announced a reunion, celebrating 50 years of "This Was".
