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A sideman is a professional musician
Musician

A musician is a person who plays or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument....
 who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he is not a regular member. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles
Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
 of music, and so able to fit smoothly into the group in which they are currently playing. Many sidemen are famous in their own right, however, and may be highly sought-after by bands. Often sidemen go on to form their own groups and/or solo careers; for instance, John Lennon
John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon, Order of the British Empire was an English Rock music musician, singer, songwriter, artist, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles....
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney Member of the Order of the British Empire is a multiple Grammy Award-winning England singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record producer, film producer, Painting, and Animal rights....
, George Harrison
George Harrison

George Harrison Order of the British Empire was an English Rock music guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer. He achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles, and is listed number 21 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time"....
, and Pete Best
Pete Best

Pete Best is a United Kingdom musician, best known as the original drummer for The Beatles.After moving from India to Liverpool in 1945, Best's mother, Mona Best started The Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar of the Best's house in Liverpool, which became very popular—the membership list grew to over a thousand—and where The Bea...
 acted as sidemen to Tony Sheridan
Tony Sheridan

Tony Sheridan , is an England rock and roll singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as an early collaborator of The Beatles, and one of two non-Beatles to receive label performance credit on a record with the group....
 before becoming famous as The Beatles
The Beatles

The Beatles were a rock music and pop music band from Liverpool, England that formed in 1960. During their career, the group primarily consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr ....
.






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A sideman is a professional musician
Musician

A musician is a person who plays or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument....
 who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he is not a regular member. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles
Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
 of music, and so able to fit smoothly into the group in which they are currently playing. Many sidemen are famous in their own right, however, and may be highly sought-after by bands. Often sidemen go on to form their own groups and/or solo careers; for instance, John Lennon
John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon, Order of the British Empire was an English Rock music musician, singer, songwriter, artist, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles....
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney Member of the Order of the British Empire is a multiple Grammy Award-winning England singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record producer, film producer, Painting, and Animal rights....
, George Harrison
George Harrison

George Harrison Order of the British Empire was an English Rock music guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer. He achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles, and is listed number 21 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time"....
, and Pete Best
Pete Best

Pete Best is a United Kingdom musician, best known as the original drummer for The Beatles.After moving from India to Liverpool in 1945, Best's mother, Mona Best started The Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar of the Best's house in Liverpool, which became very popular—the membership list grew to over a thousand—and where The Bea...
 acted as sidemen to Tony Sheridan
Tony Sheridan

Tony Sheridan , is an England rock and roll singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as an early collaborator of The Beatles, and one of two non-Beatles to receive label performance credit on a record with the group....
 before becoming famous as The Beatles
The Beatles

The Beatles were a rock music and pop music band from Liverpool, England that formed in 1960. During their career, the group primarily consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr ....
. Other musicians may take time from their own bands to tour or record as a sideman for another artist, such as Mike Watt
Mike Watt

Michael David Watt is an American bass guitarist, singer and songwriter.He is best-known for co-founding the rock bands The Minutemen and fIREHOSE; , he is also the bassist for the reunited The Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/Punk rock/improvisation group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen projects....
 with J Mascis and the Fog
J Mascis and the Fog

J Mascis and The Fog is the post-Dinosaur Jr musical project embarked by Dinosaur Jr's founding member, musician J Mascis.After fulfilling his contractual obligations to Blanco y Negro Records in the UK and Sire Records/Reprise Records in the US, Mascis holed up in his home studio in Amherst, Massachusetts, which he named Bob's Place after...
 or Iggy and the Stooges.

Some notable sidemen include
  • Eric Clapton
    Eric Clapton

    Eric Patrick Clapton Order of the British Empire is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. He is "probably most famous for his mastery of the Stratocaster guitar." Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, of Cream , and as a solo performer, being the only person to...
    , blues
    Blues

    Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
    /rock
    Rock and roll

    Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
     guitarist, for Delaney & Bonnie and Friends
  • Rodney Crowell
    Rodney Crowell

    Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music.Crowell was born in Houston, Texas to James Walter Crowell and Addie Cauzette Willoughby....
    , guitarist
    Guitarist

    A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres....
  • Sonny Clark
    Sonny Clark

    Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an United States hard bop pianist. An underappreciated jazz artist during his time, Clark's work has become much more widely known after his death....
    , hard bop
    Hard bop

    Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Hard bop incorporates influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing....
    , pianist
    Pianist

    A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an musical ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
  • Jesse Ed Davis
    Jesse Ed Davis

    Jesse Edwin Davis was an United States guitarist....
    , guitarist
    Guitarist

    A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres....
  • Johnny Dodds
    Johnny Dodds

    Johnny Dodds was a New Orleans based jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist, best known for his recordings under his own name and with bands such as those of Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Lovie Austin and Louis Armstrong....
    , jazz
    Jazz

    Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
     clarinetist
  • Bill Evans
    Bill Evans

    William John Evans was one of the most famous and influential American jazz pianists of the 20th century. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists, including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Denny...
    , jazz
    Jazz

    Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
     pianist
    Pianist

    A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an musical ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
  • Robin Finck
    Robin Finck

    Robin Finck is an American guitarist, currently the lead guitarist for Nine Inch Nails and former lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses. In April 2008, it was announced via that Finck would be rejoining Nine Inch Nails....
    , guitar player for Guns & Roses and Nine Inch Nails
  • Roger Ingram
    Roger Ingram

    Roger Ingram is a world renowned jazz and popular music lead trumpet player, educator, and author. He is best known for being the lead trumpet player on the Harry Connick, Jr., Maynard Ferguson, Ray Charles, and Woody Herman big bands, and his 2008 trumpet textbook, Clinical Notes on Trumpet Playing....
    , trumpeter, educator, author
    Author

    An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
  • Bradley Joseph
    Bradley Joseph

    Bradley Joseph is an American composer, music arranger, and Record producer of contemporary music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet, and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth"....
    , keyboardist
    Keyboardist

    A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either piano or organ ....
  • Chuck Leavell
    Chuck Leavell

    Chuck Leavell is an United States pianist and keyboardist, who was a member of The Allman Brothers Band during the height of their popularity, a founding member of the jazz-rock combo Sea Level , a frequently-employed session musician, and later, the keyboardist for Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones....
    , keyboardist
    Keyboardist

    A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either piano or organ ....
  • James Burton
    James Burton

    James Burton is an United States guitarist.A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 , Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame....
    , guitarist
    Guitarist

    A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres....
     for Elvis Presley
    Elvis Presley

    Elvis Aaron Presley was an United Statesn singer, actor, and musician. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as "Elvis", and is also sometimes referred to as "List of honorific titles in popular music" or "The King"....
     and Emmylou Harris
    Emmylou Harris

    Emmylou Harris is an United States Country music singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other highly successful, well-known artists....
  • Stan Munsey, keyboardist
    Keyboardist

    A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either piano or organ ....
  • Jack Petersen (guitarist)
    Jack Petersen (guitarist)

    ack Petersenr>Jack Leroy Petersen is a US jazz guitarist, pianist, composer, arranger, music publisher, music clinician, and renowned pioneer in jazz education who revolutionized guitar education....
  • Fred Wesley
    Fred Wesley

    Fred Wesley is an United States jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s.Wesley was born in Columbus, Georgia, the son of a high school teacher and big band leader....
    , jazz
    Jazz

    Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
     and funk
    Funk

    Funk is an United States Music genre that originated in the mid- to late-1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music....
     trombonist and author of the book Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman ISBN 0-8223-2909-3
  • Jason White
    Jason White (musician)

    Jason White is a U.S. guitarist who has played in many punk rock bands. He is most notable for being a touring guitarist for Green Day and guitarist for Californian punk quartet Pinhead Gunpowder....
    , punk rock
    Punk rock

    Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock....
     guitarist, sideman of Green Day
    Green Day

    Green Day is an American Rock music trio formed in 1987. The band has consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong , Mike Dirnt , and Tr? Cool for the majority of its existence....
  • Phil Woods
    Phil Woods

    Philip Wells Woods is an United States jazz bebop Alto saxophone, clarinetist, bandleader and composer....
    , jazz
    Jazz

    Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
     alto saxophonist and clarinet
    Clarinet

    The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
    ist


See also

  • Session musician
    Session musician

    Session musicians are instrumental performers or vocalists who are available for hire for live performances or recording sessions, as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical ensemble or who have acquired fame in their own right as bandleaders....