Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. As a guitarist for the progressive rock band King Crimson, Fripp has been the only member to have played in all of King Crimson's line-ups from their inception in the late 1960s to the present. He has also worked extensively as a studio musician, notably with singer David Bowie on the albums "Heroes" and Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), Brian Eno, David Sylvian and contributed sounds to the Windows Vista operating system. His complete discography lists more than seven hundred releases over four decades.

The son of an estate agent from a working-class background, Robert Fripp was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. On Christmas Day 1957, aged 11, he got a "very cheap" guitar from his parents, saying "almost immediately I knew that this guitar was going to be my life". Fripp took guitar lessons with teachers Kathleen Gartell and Don Strike, which quickly advanced his skills: at 11 years of age, he was playing rock, moving on to traditional jazz at 13 and modern jazz at 15. At this time he was influenced by such modern jazz players and composers as Charlie Parker and Charlie Mingus. Despite his jazz inclinations, Fripp's first band was a rock band called The Ravens, formed in 1961 when he was 15 and also featuring schoolmates Graham Wale (drums, subsequently replaced by Chris 'Fergy' Ferguson), Gordon Haskell (bass guitar), and Tino Licinio (vocals/guitar). In 1962 The Ravens split as Fripp concentrated on his O-level studies and joined his father's firm as a junior negotiator, at this point planning to study estate management in a South Kensington university and eventually take over his father's business. By 1964, aged 17, Fripp made the decision to become a professional musician. For a while, Fripp played guitar in the Chewton Glen Hotel with a jazz band called The Douglas Ward Trio. Soon afterwards, he formed a rock and roll band called The League of Gentlemen (a name he would resurrect in 1980 for an entirely different band). In addition to Fripp on guitar, the lineup of the 1964 League of Gentlemen included his former Ravens bandmates Gordon Haskell and Tino Licinio, plus Stan Levy (drums) and Reg Matthews (vocals). Still keeping his options open, Fripp left The League of Gentlemen in 1965 in order to study for A-levels at Bournemouth College, where he studied economics, economic history and political history, writing a special paper on social conditions of the mid-to-late 19th century; it was there where he met future musical colleagues John Wetton, Richard Palmer-James and Greg Lake. He subsequently spent three further years playing light jazz in the Majestic Dance Orchestra at the Bournemouth Majestic Hotel (replacing future The Police guitarist Andy Summers, who had gone off to London with Zoot Money). At age 21, going back home from college late at night, Fripp tuned on to Radio Luxemburg where he heard the last moments of "A Day in the Life". "Galvanized" by the experience, he went on to listen to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Bela Bartok's string quartets, Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony, Are You Experienced and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Many years later, Fripp would recall that "although all the dialects are different, the voice was the same... I knew I couldn't say no". CANNOTANSWER

Is he still alive?

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