12-15: Beethoven 3 Eroica : Munch 1957 | Wand 1990 - Stan Getz & Bob Brookmeyer Recorded Fall 1961 - Fats Waller 1922-1926

Not shown: Manuel Jerónimo Romero de Ávila, Gordon Frederic Norton, Orest Alexandrovich Evlahkov & Hans de Jong

1779 – Manuel Jerónimo Romero de Ávila (Spanish composer)
1792 – Joseph Martin Kraus (German composer, active in Sweden, "the Swedish Mozart")
1816 – Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian von Lobkowitz [Lobkowicz] (Czech nobleman, musician & patron of Haydn & Beethoven)
1861 – Gualtiero Sanelli (Italian composer)
1892 – Charles Balmer (German-born American composer, organist & music publisher)
1901 – Elias Álvares Lobo (Brazilian composer, first Brazilian to write an opera in Portuguese, A Noite de São João)
1909 – Francisco Tárrega y Eixea (Spanish composer & guitarist)
1937 – Vilhelm Herold (Danish operatic tenor, teacher & theatrical director)
1940 – Blanche Marchesi (French mezzo-soprano & teacher of Italian & German descent)
1943 – Fats Waller (American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer & comedian)
1944 – Glenn Miller (American jazz trombonist, arranger, composer & bandleader)
1945 – Tobias Matthay (British pianist, teacher & composer)
1946 – Gordon Frederic Norton (composer)
1949 – Ludwig Ermold (German bass)
1950 – Robert Müller-Hartmann (German composer, teacher, music critic & author)
1953 – Kishio Hirao (Japanese composer)
1967 – Valeria Barsova [Валерия Барсова] (Russian soprano)
1972 – Herbert Eimert (German music theorist, musicologist, music critic, editor, radio producer & composer)
1973 – Orest Alexandrovich Evlahkov (composer)
1974 – Karin Branzell (Swedish mezzo-soprano)
1974 – Erich Walter Sternberg (German-born Israeli composer, co-founder of Israel Philharmonic)
1975 – Muxtor Ashrafiy [Мухтар Ашрафи] (Uzbek composer & conductor)
1984 – Jan Peerce (American tenor)
1994 – Hans de Jong (Dutch choral conductor, Amsterdams Vrouwenkoor)
1996 – Tristan Keuris (Dutch composer)
2004 – Sidonie Goossens (British harpist, sister of Sir Eugene)
2001 – Rufus Thomas (American R&B, funk & soul singer, comedian, TV host & DJ)
2011 – Bob Brookmeyer (American jazz valve trombonist, slide trombonist, pianist, composer & arranger)

I'm thinking I might go back and start trying to fix some of these links that are no longer any good, because I'm sure you've all been having trouble with a lot of them. I'd fix 'em a few posts at a time, starting with the most recent ones and working backwards. Then I'd put up a new post with the new links for you, so you'll know when I've fixed what. We'll see.

I found a link for something by Herbert Eimert, but it's at Filesonic, and as some of you may have discovered, you have to actually try to start the download over there for them to tell you that the file isn't available. Which the Eimert isn't any more. Sneaky bastards.

So anyway, you get two Eroica Symphonies, which isn't much of a substitute for Eimert, but whatever. The Eroica was premiered at the home of Prince Lobkowitz, who's on our list. The prince also became the dedicatee of the symphony after Beethoven changed his mind about dedicating it to Napoleon. Everybody's heard that story, right? Napoleon puts the crown on his own head, the Bee hears about it, gets mad and scratches his name off the title page, bla bla bla. Well, anyway... whatever.

10-28b: Oliver Nelson & Eric Dolphy Straight Ahead 1961 - Carlos Guastavino Las Puertas de la Mañana : Espaillat / Zinger 1994 - Porter Wagoner et al : Shit Happens!

1970 – Eduardo López-Chávarri (Spanish composer, writer & musicologist)
1971 – Yves de la Casinière (French pianist, organist, composer & teacher)
1975 – Oliver Nelson (American jazz composer, arranger, conductor & saxophonist)
1991 – Sylvia Fine Kaye (American popular songwriter & pianist, spouse of Danny Kaye)
1999 – Antonis Katinaris [Αντώνιος Κατινάρης] (Greek rebetiko songwriter & bazouki player of Turkish ancestry)
2000 – Carlos Guastavino (Argentine composer & pianist, "the Schubert of the Pampas" )
2001 – Gerard Hengeveld (Dutch pianist, composer & teacher)
2005 – Fernando Quejas (Cape Verdean morna singer, songwriter & guitarist, active in Portugal)
2006 – Marijohn Wilkin (American country & gospel songwriter & guitarist)
2007 – Jimmy (Dimitrios) Makulis [Τζίμης Μακούλης] (Greek popular singer)
2007 – Porter Wagoner (American country singer, guitarist & songwriter)

Well, you might be surprised that I was unable to locate very much in the way of supplemental reading about Porter Wagoner, either with or without his singing partner of many years, Dolly Parton. So, I put a couple videos up on our YouTube page to make up for it, and in particular the one of Porter & Dolly together is just super and delightful.

But I'm sure it will not surprise any of you that it's Oliver Nelson who really interests me today, given the regular attention I lavish on jazz musicians of the no-longer-with-us sort. Nelson died much too young and thus had a short career, but he lived long enough to record an album that's consistently on everyone's list of one of the all-time great jazz albums, Blues and the Abstract Truth from 1961, an all-star large-combo masterpiece featuring Nelson's wonderful compositions (most notably "Stolen Moments") and expert arrangements, and some mighty soloing from the assembled crowd of geniuses. Of course, if you have any jazz collection to speak of, Blues and the Abstract Truth is already a part of it, so why not dip into some of Nelson's other less-heard works for a change of pace?