11-28: Steppenwolf Fillmore West 1968 - Lennie Tristano Toronto 1952 - Havergal Brian Symphony 1 Gothic / Lenard 1989 - Haydn Symphony 93 94 Surprise 95 / Bernstein 1971-1972

1585 – Hernando Franco (Spanish composer, active in Guatemala & Mexico)
1695 – Giovanni Paolo Colonna (Italian organist & composer)
1815 – Johann Peter Salomon (German violinist, impresario, composer & conductor, active in London, associate of Haydn)
1860 – Ludwig Rellstab (German poet & music critic)
1861 – Robert Führer (Czech composer)
1878 – Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti (Italian guitarist & composer)
1907 – Ricardo Castro Herrera (Mexican pianist & composer)
1918 – Alexis Contant (Canadian composer, organist, pianist & teacher)
1935 – Erich von Hornbostel (Austrian ethnomusicologist, musical psychologist & co-author of Sachs-Hornbostel system)
1966 – Vittorio Giannini (American composer & violinist)
1972 – Havergal Brian (English composer of 32 symphonies, including the largest-scale ever performed)
1972 – Gustave Frederic Soderlund (Swedish composer, music theorist, author & teacher)
1976 – Robert Fleming (Canadian composer, pianist, organist, choirmaster & teacher)
1987 – Paul Arma [Amrusz Pál] (Hungarian-born French pianist, composer & ethnomusicologist)
1989 – Jo Vincent (Dutch soprano)
1993 – Jerry Edmonton (Canadian rock drummer, Steppenwolf)
1994 – Al Levitt (American jazz drummer, active also in France & the Canary Islands)
1996 – Anna Pollak (Austrian-born British mezzo-soprano)
2002 – Dave "Snaker" Ray (American blues singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2007 – Gudrun Wagner (German co-director of Bayreuth Festival along with husband Wolfgang, grandson of Richard)

Today, we get two very different looks at that most elevated instrumental genre of them all - the symphony!

First, thanks to Johann Peter Salomon, the impresario who brought Franz Joseph Haydn to London between 1791 and 1795 to regale the English public with what would turn out to be his last twelve symphonic statements - we have works which represent, along with the last few of Mozart, the ones that are definitive of the genre during the Classical period (at least until Beethoven got to it and transformed what it meant for all time). These symphonies of Haydn (nos. 93 thru 104), usually called his "London Symphonies," are sometimes instead called the "Salomon Symphonies" in honor of the man without whom they likely would never have been written.

Then, we have a very different product - what the symphony had grown into by a century or more later. No longer is it merely the vehicle for the composer's loftiest philosophical ideas. After Berlioz, and Liszt, and Bruckner, it's become something of a monstrosity, a paean to the cult of the gigantic, at least among late-Romantic composers with "progressive" or "modernist" tendencies. And in Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1, "The Gothic" (completed in 1927), we find the sine qua non of this development, a work that surpasses even Gustav Mahler's largest creations (his 2nd, 3rd, and 8th symphonies) in its length (close to 2 hours) and in the performing forces it requires (nearly 200 instrumentalists, plus several hundred singers).

Brian's "Gothic" has even won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "largest-scale symphony" ever written. However, some claim that the Symphony No. 3 by Kaikhosru Sorabji is even longer - a believable claim, if you know anything about Sorabji. However, that symphony (like many of Sorabji's more humungous creations) has yet to be performed by anyone, so it's difficult to say. 

Oh, symphony... how far you've come, since the early 18th century when you were just a multi-sectional overture to an opera or oratorio! Baby symphony done all growed up and ever'thang.

11-27c: Our Labels Runneth Over

If you clicked on one of The Dead and Dying, and now you're reading this post, don't worry. Just go to the previous post.

11-27b: Lee Morgan Delightfulee 1966 - Weill / Brecht Three Penny Opera (in English) : Lotte Lenya 1954 - Dufay Music For St Anthony Of Padua / Binchois Consort 1996 - Honegger : Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher / Zorina | Ormandy 1952

1474 – Guillaume Dufay (Flemish composer)
1749 – Balthasar Schmid (German composer & music publisher, friend of J.S. Bach)
1749 – Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (German composer)
1890 – Emanuele Muzio (Italian conductor & composer, friend & assistant to Verdi)
1899 – Felipe Gutiérrez y Espinosa (Puerto Rican composer)
1915 – Sigismund Zaremba [Сигизмунд Заремба] (Ukrainian composer & conductor of Polish ancestry)
1916 – James Cutler Dunn Parker (American composer, organist & pianist)
1932 – Evelyn Preer (American actress & blues singer)
1955 – Luís de Freitas Branco (Portuguese composer & teacher)
1955 – Arthur Honegger (French-born Swiss composer & violinist)
1958 – Artur Rodziński (Polish-born American conductor)
1965 – Carl Parrish (American musicologist & author)
1967 – Héctor [Ettore] Panizza (Argentine conductor & composer)
1968 – Hans Redlich (Austrian composer, conductor, musicologist & author)
1968 – Gino Roncaglia (Italian musicologist & author)
1973 – Frank Christian (American jazz trumpeter)
1981 – Lotte Lenya (Austrian singer, monologist & actress, spouse of Kurt Weill)
1982 – Filip Kutev [Филип Кутев] (Bulgarian composer & choirmaster, Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir)
1988 – Karel Horký (Czech composer & bassoonist)
1994 – Fernando Lopes-Graça (Portuguese composer & musicologist)
1998 – Barbara Acklin (American soul singer & songwriter)
2005 – Joe Jones (American R&B singer, songwriter & arranger)
2006 – Don Butterfield (American jazz & classical tuba player)
2006 – Alan Freeman (English disc jockey)

Sorry... been busy. I hope this will make it up to you. One of hard-bop trumpet great Lee Morgan's very best albums, one of the best recordings available of the beautiful sacred music of early Renaissance master Guillaume Dufay, a landmark recording of Arthur Honneger's scintillating masterpiece Joan of Arc at the Stake...

... and Lotte Lenya (who's remembered best by most people for her portrayal of the sadistic Rosa Klebb in the James Bond film From Russia With Love) reprising the role of Jenny, which she'd created in 1928 for her husband Kurt Weill's Dreigroschenoper. This Broadway cast recording from 1954 is of Marc Blitzstein's adaptation in English, and the cast also includes a young Bea Arthur - surely that's got to sweeten the deal for you!

Another thing thing I should mention, just in case it causes confusion. The drummer in the big band on the Lee Morgan date is Philly Joe Jones - not the Joe Jones who's on our list, who was a singer! Those Joe Joneses have always got to be causing trouble this way, don't they? Anyway, it's all for the sake of tuba genius Don Butterfield, who also plays in that big band. Of course, all of them... Lee, both Joe Joneses, Don... have long since pooped. So I guess it's all the same...

11-27a: RODZINSKI / REEDER ROUNDUP! Mussorgsky | Tchaikovsky | Sibelius | Richard Strauss | Shostakovich AND MORE...

The main post for 11-27 will follow, but first here are a bunch of transfers of Columbia 78s featuring the work of Artur Rodziński (d. Nov. 27, 1958), all made by the trusty F. Reeder over at the Internet Archive. A few of these I believe we've seen already, but at least a couple dozen we haven't, and I found it too difficult to choose from them... so I'll leave that up to you!

Rodziński is most famous for his legendary decade with the Cleveland Orchestra, from 1933 to 1943. Much of the credit usually given to the tyrannical George Szell for transforming that orchestra into the world-class organization it is today should really be reserved for Rodziński; for without the prior groundwork he laid the Clevelanders would not have been up to Szell's exacting demands. Rodziński also had four great seasons in New York with the Philharmonic, and as guest conductor for Toscanini's NBC Symphony, which Rodziński had helped to organize in 1936–37.

Rodziński's later years, first in New York, and then in an abortive stint at the Chicago Symphony in 1947–48, were characterized by a lot of personal wrangling with orchestra management. His reputation as a conductor was such that his resignation from the New York Philharmonic was actually a cover story for Time magazine in February 1947:

After Chicago, Rodziński had no further long-term positions in his career; he did do quite a bit of freelance work, especially in the opera pit, both in the United States and in Europe. And it's perhaps because of this somewhat sour end to his professional life that he isn't remembered as well as some of his contemporaries, even though he was certainly at least their equal as a musician.

He was tall; he used a big baton; he preferred brisk tempi; he was renowned wherever he mounted the podium for his muscular yet refined interpretations. Enjoy these recordings by this too-little-lauded master of the orchestra!

11-26: Soulja Slim The Streets Made Me 2001 - Grieg Complete Lyric Pieces / Goldenweiser 1952-1954 - Pierre Vachon | Nicholas d'Alayrac / Loewenguth String Quartet 1959

Not shown above: Friedrich Heine, Edward Julius Biedermann

1717 – Daniel Purcell (English composer & organist, younger brother of Henry)
1778 – Jean-Noël Hamal (Belgian composer)
1809 – Nicolas-Marie d'Alayrac (French composer)
1810 – Nicolas Étienne Framéry (French writer, poet, dramaturge & composer)
1821 – Friedrich Heine (German composer)
1822 – Johann Baptist Henneberg (German composer)
1866 – Adrien-François Servais (Belgian cellist & composer)
1880 – Guilherme António Cossoul (Portuguese cellist & composer)
1925 – Johannes Haarklou (Norwegian composer)
1933 – Edward Julius Biedermann (American organist, teacher & composer)
1956 – Tommy Dorsey (American jazz trombonist & bandleader)
1959 – Albert Ketèlbey (English composer, conductor & pianist)
1961 – Alexander Goldenweiser [Александр Гольденвейзер] (Russian pianist, teacher & composer)
1963 – Amelita Galli-Curci (Italian coloratura soprano)
1966 – Harold Burrage (American blues, R&B & soul singer & pianist)
1982 – Juhan Aavik (Estonian composer, conductor, trumpeter & teacher)
1987 – Emmanuel Bondeville (French composer, organist & radio & opera company administrator)
1994 – Nimrod Workman (American folksinger, coal miner & trade unionist)
1996 – Dame Joan Hammond (Australian soprano & champion golfer)
1997 – Francis Paudras (French artist, author, amateur pianist & jazz patron)
2002 – Polo Montañez (Cuban folk & pop singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2003 – Soulja Slim (American rapper & songwriter)
2005 – Mark Craney (American rock & jazz drummer, Jethro Tull, Tommy Bolin, Jean-Luc Ponty)

Welcome to YiDM, the only place in the blogosphere where you can find 18th-century French string quartets and Southern gangsta rap in the same post.

11-25: Nick Drake Pink Moon 1971 - Throbbing Gristle 20 Jazz Funk Greats 1979 - Fenton Robinson Somebody Loan Me A Dime 1974 - US Festival 1983 Metal Day : Quiet Riot | Motley Crue | Ozzy | Judas Priest | Triumph | Scorpions | Van Halen

Not shown above: Francesco Feroci, Julien-Fernand Vaubourgoin

1640 – Giles Farnaby (English composer & virginalist)
1748 – Isaac Watts (English hymnwriter, theologian & philosopher)
1750 – Francesco Feroci (Italian priest, organist & composer)
1755 – Johann Georg Pisendel (German violinist, composer & conductor)
1830 – Pierre Rode (French violinist, composer & teacher)
1883 – Ludwig Erk (German music teacher & composer)
1881 – Theobald Boehm (German flutist, flute maker & inventor of Boehm system of keywork for woodwinds)
1895 – Edmond van der Straeten (Belgian musicologist, music critic, lawyer & composer)
1899 – Robert Lowry (American minister, hymn composer, hymnbook editor & teacher)
1901 – Josef Rheinberger (German organist, composer, teacher & music theorist)
1914 – Davorin Jenko (Slovenian composer, Serbian & former Slovenian national anthems)
1952 – Antonio Guarnieri (Italian conductor & cellist)
1952 – Julien-Fernand Vaubourgoin (French organist, composer & teacher)
1965 – Dame Myra Hess (English pianist)
1968 – Marcel Labey (French conductor & composer)
1974 – Nick Drake (English folk & rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist, clarinetist & saxophonist)
1997 – Fenton Robinson (American blues singer & guitarist, "Somebody Loan Me A Dime")
2006 – Valentín Elizalde (Mexican banda & norteño singer, "El Gallo de Oro")
2007 – Kevin DuBrow (American rock singer, Quiet Riot)
2010 – Peter Christopherson (English industrial & electronic musician & video director, Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Psychic TV)

Two luminaries from the fascinating world of musical instruments are on our list: Pierre Rode, whose caprices for the violin are considered to be preparatory for the virtuoso-level caprices by Paganini; and Theobald Boehm, whose keywork and fingering system for the flute have become standard for that instrument, and have been applied successfully to other members of the woodwind group as well.

However, your supplemental reading does not concern these two, but rather a British folk-rock genius taken from us much too young, a master of Chicago electric blues who penned a much-covered standard, one of the most important pioneers of the industrial music genre, and a pretty darned good hard rock singer... along with a bunch of others he shared the stage with one rockin' Sunday back in '83! 

I hope you all have had a Wonderful Winter Solstice, a Merry Christmas, or a Very Good Whatever Holiday You Happen To Be Celebrating At This Time Of Year! Enjoy!

11-24b: KISS Auckland 1980 - Albert Collins Ice Pickin' 1978 - Edison Denisov : Chant d'automne | Concertos / Mikhailov 1993 - Hawthorne Heights : Midwesterners The Hits 2010

1991 – Eric Carr [Paul Caravello] (American rock drummer, Kiss, "The Fox")
1993 – Albert Collins (American blues guitarist, singer & harmonica player, "The Ice Man", "Master of the Telecaster")
1996 – Edison Denisov [Эдисо́н Дени́сов] (Russian composer & teacher, one of Khrennikov's Seven)
1997 – Barbara [Monique Andrée Serf] (French pop singer, songwriter, pianist & actress)
2001 – Melanie Thornton (American dance & pop singer, active in Germany)
2004 – Wong Jim [黄沾] (Hong Kong Cantopop songwriter, writer, actor, director & talk show host)
2006 – Juice Leskinen (Finnish Manserock singer-songwriter)
2007 – Casey Calvert (American rock guitarist & singer, Hawthorne Heights)
2008 – Kenny MacLean (Scottish-born Canadian rock bass guitarist, guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter & singer, Platinum Blonde)

11-24a: Queen Buenos Aires 1981 - Big Joe Turner All the Classic Hits 1938-1952 - Tchaikovsky 5 Cantelli 1950 - Bülent Arel Electronic Works

1615 – Sethus Calvisius (German music theorist, composer, chronologer, astronomer & teacher)
1650 – Manuel Cardoso (Portuguese composer & organist)
1722 – Johann Adam Reincken (Dutch organist & composer, active in Germany)
1842 – Pehr Frigel (Swedish composer)
1944 – Václav Štěpán (Czech pianist, composer, music critic, musicologist & teacher)
1946 – Alfonso Broqua (Uruguayan composer)
1948 – Raoul [von] Koczalski (Polish pianist & composer)
1956 – Guido Cantelli (Italian conductor)
1970 – Evgeny Tikotsky [Яўген Цікоцкі ; Евге́ний Тико́цкий] (Belarusian composer & pianist)
1972 – Hall Overton (American composer, jazz pianist & teacher)
1985 – Big Joe Turner (American blues singer, "Boss of the Blues")
1990 – Bülent Arel (Turkish composer, teacher, painter & sculptor)
1991 – Freddie Mercury [Farrokh Bulsara] (Zanzibar-born British rock singer, songwriter & pianist of Parsi ancestry, Queen)

In this post we remember two awe-inspiring singers, Big Joe Turner and Freddie Mercury, as well as Guido Cantelli, the promising young conductor who might well have become music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958 (rather than Leonard Bernstein) had he not been killed in a plane crash in 1956. It's said that the elderly and ailing Arturo Toscanini, who himself passed away only two months later, was somehow sheltered from the news of Cantelli's tragic demise in order to spare him the grief, in his last days, that this artist in whom Toscanini had placed so many hopes for the future had been taken away at such an early age.

Perhaps you'll remember that we already remembered Portuguese composer Manuel Cardoso, back when we were remembering a fellow pupil of Manuel Mendes, Duarte Lôbo, and Manuel Mendes himself, as well as Tomás Luis de Victoria, whom we've been remembering all year this year since it marks the 400th anniversary of his death.

Well, here's a strange coincidence: In that same previous post, we also remembered the great Turkish singer Zeki Müren, and via Zeki we touched on another Turkish singer with androgynous qualities, Bülent Ersoy. Well, in today's post, we remember another Turk by the name of Bülent, electronic composer Bülent Arel! I don't know how common a given name Bülent is in Turkey, but it's all making sense today here at YiDM...

11-23: Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah / Hilliard Ensemble 1987 - Roy Acuff King of Country Music 1953-1958 - Judee Sill Live in London 1972-1973 - Don Byron Do the Boomerang The Music of Junior Walker 2006

1585 – Thomas Tallis (English composer)
1750 – Giuseppe Sammartini (Italian composer & oboist, older brother of Giovanni Battista)
1787 – Anton Schweitzer (German composer)
1853 – Francisco Andrevi y Castellar (Spanish priest, composer & organist)
1853 – Friedrich Schneider (German composer & conductor)
1916 – Eduard Francevič Nápravník [Эдуард Францевич Направник] (Czech conductor & composer, active in Russia)
1931 – Evert Cornelis (Dutch conductor & organist)
1932 – Percy Pitt (English organist, conductor, choirmaster & composer)
1937 – Louis Victor Saar (Dutch composer, pianist & teacher)
1940 – Catharina van Rennes (Dutch composer)
1948 – Uzeyir Hajibeyov [Üzeyir Hacıbəyov] (Azerbaijani composer, conductor, publicist, playwright, teacher & translator)
1952 – Albert van Raalte (Dutch conductor)
1974 – Páll Isólfsson (Icelandic composer)
1979 – Judee Sill (American folk & pop singer, songwriter, guitarist & pianist)
1992 – Roy Acuff (American country & gospel singer, songwriter, fiddler & promoter, "King of Country Music")
1993 – Tatiana Nikolayeva [Татьяна Николаева] (Russian pianist, composer & teacher)
1994 – Tommy Boyce (American songwriter, Boyce & Hart, wrote for The Monkees)
1995 – Junior Walker (American R&B, soul & disco singer & saxophonist)
1996 – Art Porter, Jr. (American jazz saxophonist & composer)
2001 – O.C. Smith (American R&B & jazz singer & pastor)
2006 – Anita O'Day (American jazz singer)
2010 – James Tyler (American lutenist, banjoist, guitarist, composer, musicologist & author)

There is in fact no authentic portrait extant of the great 16th-century English master Thomas Tallis. The one I've used here was made about 150 years after Tallis's death. Whether it was based on a now-lost portrait contemporary to Tallis is unknown. Today, Tallis is known as much for the sublime Vaughan Williams fantasia based on one of his melodies as he is for his own superb and distinctive sacred choral music.

And the composer who pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva was addressing above would be Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Nikolayeva was most famed for her interpretations of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 were inspired not only by the 48 preludes and fugues of Bach's mammoth Well-Tempered Clavier, but also by Nikolayeva's playing of them.

The story goes that in 1950, Shostakovich was allowed by the Soviet government to travel to Leipzig to sit as a judge for the first-ever International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, part of a festival held to mark the bicentennial of Bach's death, in that city in which Bach spent the last 27 years of his life, and composed many of his greatest works.

Although the rules of the competition did not require it, Tatiana Nikolayeva came to it prepared to play any one of Bach's 48 preludes and fugues from the WTC upon request. As it happened, Nikolayeva won the gold medal in the competition. Shostakovich began composing his Op. 87 several weeks later, after his return to the Soviet Union, and finished the work in February of the following year. He dedicated it to Nikolayeva, and she gave its premiere in Leningrad exactly 59 years ago to the day, on December 23rd, 1952.

See, sometimes it pays to be a month behind!

11-22b: GILBERT & SULLIVAN BLOWOUT! D'Oyly Carte / Godfrey 1949-1955 : Gondoliers | H.M.S. Pinafore | Iolanthe | Mikado | Patience | Pirates of Penzance | Princess Ida | Ruddigore | Sorcerer | Trial by Jury | Yeomen of the Guard

Tip: To sound ultra-smart and cultured at all the right parties, use the term "Savoy opera" when you mean "Gilbert & Sullivan." For instance, when arriving in an unfamiliar city while on vacation, ask locals "Do you have a company in town that specializes in Savoy opera?" Then if they stare at you blankly, say, "Oh, you know... Gilbert & Sullivan and the like." Then if they keep staring at you blankly, say, "Oh, never mind..."

The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house the Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, and later, those by other composer–librettist teams. The great bulk of the non-G&S Savoy Operas either failed to achieve a foothold in the standard repertory, or have faded over the years, leaving the term "Savoy Opera" as practically synonymous with Gilbert and Sullivan. The Savoy operas (in both senses) were seminal influences on the creation of the modern musical.

11-22a: MC Breed Best Of 1995 - Andreas Scholl / Arcadia 2003 : Corelli | Gasparini | Pasquini | Alessandro Scarlatti - INXS St. Gallen 1986

1710 – Bernardo Pasquini (Italian composer)
1813 – Johann Gottfried Vierling (German organist & composer)
1826 – Pavel Lambert Mašek (Czech composer)
1852 – August Alexander Klengel (German composer & pianist)
1896 – Leon Leopold Lewandowski (Polish violinist, composer & conductor)
1900 – Sir Arthur Sullivan (English composer of Irish & Italian ancestry, collaborator with librettist W.S. Gilbert)
1902 – Septimus Winner (American song composer)
1926 – Darvish Khan [درویش‌خان] (Persian tar master)
1967 – Edvin Kallstenius (Swedish composer & librarian)
1969 – Acario Cotapos (Chilean composer)
1980 – Malando [Arie Maasland] (Dutch accordionist, composer & bandleader)
1982 – Max Deutsch (Austrian-born French composer, conductor & teacher, pupil of Schoenberg, teacher of Kurtág & Bussotti)
1994 – Forrest White (American musical instruments industry executive, Fender, Music Man)
1997 – Michael Hutchence (Australian rock singer & songwriter, INXS)
2001 – Norman Granz (American jazz impresario, producer & record company executive, Verve, Clef, Norgran, Pablo)
2008 – MC Breed (American rapper)

The Gilbert & Sullivan will be in post 11-22b!

11-21: Yardbirds feat Jimmy Page New York 1968 - Henry Purcell : Bowman / Leonhardt / Brüggen 1970 - Robert Lockwood Jr Trix Recordings 1973-75 - Hadda Brooks Femme Fatale 1956 - Frank Martin / Fischer-Dieskau 1964

1695 – Henry Purcell (English composer & organist)
1863 – Joseph Mayseder (Austrian violinist & composer)
1907 – Gaetano Braga (Italian composer & cellist)
1920 – William James Robjohn [Caryl Florio] (English actor, composer, singer, organist & critic, active in the United States)
1938 – Leopold Godowsky (Polish pianist, composer & teacher, active in the United States)
1953 – Larry Shields (American jazz clarinetist, Original Dixieland Jazz Band)
1954 – Karol Rathaus (Polish-born American composer & teacher)
1972 – Karel Hába (Czech violinist & composer, brother of Alois)
1974 – Frank Martin (Swiss composer, active in the Netherlands)
1988 – Pál Kalmár (Hungarian singer, first artist to record "Vége a világnak" ("Gloomy Sunday"))
1995 – Peter Grant (English rock manager & record executive, Led Zeppelin, Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, Bad Company, Stone the Crows)
2002 – Hadda Brooks (American jazz, blues & R&B singer, pianist & composer, "Queen of the Boogie")
2006 – Robert Lockwood, Jr. (American blues guitarist & singer, student of Robert Johnson)

Well, we've seen this sort of thing happen before, haven't we? Weren't we just remembering Czech microtonalist Alois Hába two or three days ago? Turns out he passed away just two or three days shy of the one-year anniversary of his brother Karel's death. Somehow, the memorialization of the day a relative or close associate passed puts us in the mood to poop. It's a fascinating phenomenon.

Today's videos on our YouTube page feature Robert Lockwood, Jr., Hadda Brooks, and Peter Grant, the original Ian Faith. Check 'em out.

11-20: Section 25 : From the Hip 1984 - Chris Whitley Boulder 2001 - Pierre de la Rue : Requiem / Clemencic 1990 - Mahler Das Lied : Baker / King / Haitink 1975 - Anton Rubinstein Solo Piano Music / Howard 1997

1518 – Pierre de la Rue (Flemish composer)
1758 – Johan Helmich Roman (Swedish composer, "Father of Swedish Music")
1827 – Alexey Titov [Алексей Титов] (Russian composer, violinist & cavalry officer)
1851 – Wenzel Sedlak (Czech clarinettist & composer)
1882 – Béla Kéler (Hungarian bandmaster & composer)
1894 – Anton Rubinstein [Анто́н Рубинште́йн] (Russian pianist, composer & conductor)
1908 – Albert Hermann Dietrich (German composer & conductor, friend of Brahms)
1927 – Wilhelm Stenhammar (Swedish composer, conductor & pianist)
1939 – Désiré Pâque (Belgian organist, teacher & composer)
1950 – Francesco Cilea (Italian composer)
1951 – Thomas Quinlan (English opera impresario)
1957 – Weldon Hart (American composer & violinist)
1964 – John Tasker Howard (American musicologist, radio host, writer, lecturer, composer & curator of NY Public Library)
1984 – Alexander Moyzes (Slovak composer)
2004 – Jenny Ross (English post-punk singer & keyboardist, Section 25)
2005 – Chris Whitley (American blues, rock & alt-country singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2005 – James King (American tenor)
2010 – Roxana Briban (Romanian operatic soprano)

I know, we already had one excellent Das Lied von der Erde for our commemoration of this year's Mahler death centenary. But this Das Lied is really, really good too! And since we'd yet to feature any of the fabulous Janet Baker or Bernard Haitink (much less James King), this is an opportunity I could hardly pass up.

11-19: Badfinger Vancouver 1974 - Schubert Symphonies : 5 Wand 2001 | 6 Suitner 1986 | 8 Beecham 1937 | 9 Stock 1940 - Shirley Bergeron : French Rocking Boogie 1957-1969

1630 – Johann Hermann Schein (German composer & singer)
1785 – Bernard de Bury (French court composer & harpsichordist)
1804 – Pietro Guglielmi (Italian opera composer)
1825 – Jan Václav Voříšek (Czech composer, pianist & organist)
1828 – Franz Peter Schubert (Austrian composer & pianist)
1854 – Alberich Zwyssig (Swiss Cistercian monk, choirmaster & composer, Swiss National Anthem)
1928 – Achille Simonetti (Italian violinist & composer, active in England & Ireland)
1929 – Arthur H. Mann (English organist, choirmaster, composer & editor of Church of England Hymnal)
1931 – Frederic Cliffe (English composer)
1974 – George Brunies (American jazz trombonist)
1983 – Tom Evans (English bass guitarist, singer & songwriter, Badfinger)
1995 – Shirley Bergeron (American Cajun singer & steel guitarist)
1995 – Bruce Trent (British pop singer, songwriter & actor)
2004 – George Canseco (Filipino songwriter)
2004 – Terry Melcher (American record producer; son of Doris Day)

Schubert! Lionheart of the Lied, King of Kammermusik, Schubert! None of those for you today, however... I hope you'll be satisfied with a healthy swath of his symphonies, which, while not quite Beethovenian in stature, contain their own unique glories. Speaking of Beethoven, Schubert was quite in awe of him, such that - even though they both resided for years at the same time in Vienna - the shy, generation-younger composer only rarely approached the older master. Beethoven apparently held quite a high opinion of Schubert's music, however.

Imagine, if you will, that Schubert had not died so very young... that he had lived to as old an age as Beethoven did, into his 50s, instead of expiring from syphilis at the age of 31, with his death coming just the very year after Beethoven's. Imagine a Schubert who passed away, say, in 1852 instead of 1828. We would certainly not think of Schubert as a Classical-period composer in that case, or even as a composer who was transitional between the Classical and Romantic periods. I believe we would think of him as a bona fide Romantic composer. We'd tend to mention him less often in the same breath as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and group him more often along with Schumann, Chopin, and Mendelssohn.

And now, just think of the music composed by the middle-aged Schubert. The titanic symphonies and masses, the increasingly weird and sublime song cycles and chamber works. Maybe some operas and oratorios! It's one of the great "what ifs" of music history, and of course it's a totally pointless hypothetical. For Franz Schubert, short-lived as he was, is already among the ten or so greatest composers who ever lived. And that's enough!

11-18: Sir Douglas Quintet Mendocino 1969 - Neil Young & Crazy Horse Cincinnati 1970 - Alois Hába Mother / Jirouš 1994 - Junior Parker Love Ain't Nothin But A Business Goin On 1971

1678 – Giovanni Maria Bononcini (Italian violinist, composer, music theorist & patriarch of musical dynasty)
1844 – August Ferdinand Häser (German conductor, choirmaster, teacher & composer)
1887 – Heinrich Panofka (German violinist, composer & singing teacher, active in London)
1951 – Václav Kalík (Czech composer & conductor)
1966 – Béla Tardos (Hungarian composer)
1969 – Ted Heath (English jazz trombonist, bandleader & composer)
1971 – Junior Parker (American blues & gospel singer & harmonica player)
1972 – Danny Whitten (American rock guitarist, singer & songwriter, Crazy Horse)
1973 – Alois Hába (Czech composer, music theorist & teacher, known for microtonal works)
1992 – Dorothy Kirsten (American operatic soprano)
1994 – Cab Calloway (American jazz singer & bandleader)
1999 – Doug Sahm (American rock & country multi-instrumentalist, Sir Douglas Quintet, Texas Tornadoes)
2003 – Michael Kamen (American film composer, songwriter, arranger, conductor, oboist & pianist)
2004 – Cy Coleman (American composer, songwriter & jazz pianist)

Well, what a day. Cab Calloway, that great nattily-dressed showman of the swing era (and very handsome as a young man, as you can see)... Doug Sahm, a legend of South Texas music (and of course I just had put his Sir Douglas Quintet as our headliners, since that's the region I'm blogging from)... Crazy Horse's guitarist Danny Whitten (another rock great taken from us much too young)... fine film composer Michael Kamen (a real talent, he was)...

... and radical Czech composer Alois Hába... yes, it's MORE icky microtonal opera for you tonight... muahahaha!! But you're lucky. This opera is only in quarter tones... some of Hába's works are in fifth tones, sixth tones... even eighth and twelfth tones! Can you imagine? It's difficult enough just playing in semitones, isn't it? For that matter, it's difficult enough composing in them, just organizing the pitch material into some kind of coherent whole. Even merely the notation of microtonal music poses a problem that has resulted in various solutions. Here's how a chromatic scale in quarter tones is usually notated today:

And of course the complications compound when even smaller intervals are used. It leaves one in awe not just of composers like Hába, and those who can perform their music well, but of any person who can just sing a simple melody and have it sound in tune!

And that's because musical pitch-space (as we nasty little theoreticians call it) does not really consist of 12 discreet objects within however many octaves. It's an infinite continuum; between any two pitches - no matter how close together they are - there are an endless multitude of intervening pitches! This is the Hubble Deep Field of music we're talking about here. Heavy stuff!

11-17b: Can : Tago Mago 1971 40th Anniversary Remaster - Leonid Kogan : Shostakovich Concerto 1960 | Vainberg Concerto 1961 - A Proper Introduction to Ruth Brown 2004

1982 – Leonid Kogan [Леонід Коган] (Ukrainian violinist)
1990 – Peter Schilperoort (Dutch jazz multi-instrumentalist, Dutch Swing College Band)
1995 – Alan Hull (English folk-rock singer, songwriter & guitarist, Lindisfarne)
2001 – Michael Karoli (German avant-garde rock guitarist, violinist & composer, Can)
2003 – Arthur Conley (American soul singer)
2003 – Don Gibson (American country singer & guitarist)
2006 – Ruth Brown (American blues & R&B singer)
2006 – Flo Sandon's (Italian pop singer)

We hit 5,000 page views sometime in the evening yesterday. Way to go, YiDM readers! Many thanks to all of you who've taken an interest in this blog. Keep clicking those mouses... tell your friends about us, put us in your blogroll if you have a blog of your own (I'll return the favor, of course), and let's see how fast we can get to 10,000!

11-17a: Jethro Tull Pasadena 1977 - James P. Johnson King of Stride Piano 1918-1944 - Villa-Lobos : Symphony 2 / Villa-Lobos 1944 - Concertos for Guitar Saxophone & Bassoon / Bessler 1992

1648 – Thomas Ford (English composer, lutenist, gambist & poet)
1770 – Gian Francesco de Majo (Italian composer)
1862 – Alexey Verstovsky [Алексéй Верстóвский] (Russian composer, musical bureaucrat & rival of Mikhail Glinka)
1936 – Ernestine Schumann-Heink (Austrian operatic contralto)
1955 – James P. Johnson (American jazz pianist & composer)
1959 – Heitor Villa-Lobos (Brazilian composer)
1979 – John Glascock (English bass guitarist & singer, Jethro Tull, Carmen)
1981 – Bob Eberly (American jazz singer, Jimmy Dorsey Band)
1982 – Eduard Tubin (Estonian composer & conductor)

11-16: DJ Screw Chapter 70 : Endonesia 1997 - Quicksilver Messenger Service Fillmore West 1971 - Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus 1956 - Richard Strauss Vier letzte Lieder : Popp / Tilson Thomas 1993

1628 – Paolo Quagliati (Italian composer & organist)
1667 – Nathaniel Schnittelbach (German composer & violinist)
1775 – Marian Paradeiser (Austrian composer)
1924 – Alexander Arkhangelsky [Алекса́ндр Арха́нгельский] (Russian composer & conductor)
1935 – Kurt Schindler (German-born American composer & conductor)
1984 – Vic Dickenson (American jazz trombonist)
1987 – Zubir Said (Indonesian-born Singaporean composer)
1993 – Lucia Popp (Slovakian soprano)
1994 – Dino Valente [Chet Powers] (American rock singer, songwriter & guitarist, Quicksilver Messenger Service)
2000 – Ahmet Kaya (Kurdish singer, Bağlama player, composer & poet)
2000 – DJ Screw (American hiphop DJ, "The Originator" of Chopped and Screwed technique)
2000 – Joe C. [Joseph Calleja] (American rapper, associate of Kid Rock)
2001 – Tommy Flanagan (American jazz pianist)
2007 – Grethe Kausland (Norwegian actress & singer)

11-15: Brahms 3 & 4 : Reiner 1958 / 1962 - Strauss Don Quixote : Reiner / Piatigorsky 1941 - Gluck Orfeo & Euridice : Jacobs 2001

1634 – Johann Staden (German organist & composer)
1787 – Christoph Willibald Gluck (German opera composer, active in Vienna & Paris)
1788 – Peregrinus Pögl (German priest & composer)
1815 – Johann Lukas Schubaur (German doctor & composer)
1831 – Vincenc Mašek (Czech composer)
1842 – Joseph Rastrelli (German composer of Italian ancestry)
1907 – Horatio Richmond Palmer (American composer, hymnbook editor & music theorist)
1963 – Fritz Reiner (Hungarian-born American conductor)
1986 – Alexandre Tansman (Polish-born French composer & pianist)
1997 – Saul Chaplin (American composer, arranger & musical director for stage & screen)
2003 – Speedy West (American country pedal steel guitarist & record producer)

11-14: Mingus Changes One & Two 1975 - Falla : El sombrero de tres picos | El Amor brujo / Dutoit 1981 - Joseph Allard 78s 1920s-30s

1692 – Christoph Bernhard (German composer & music theorist)
1831 – Ignaz Pleyel (Austrian-born French composer, music publisher & piano manufacturer)
1915 – Theodor Leschetizky (Polish pianist, teacher & composer)
1922 – Carl Michael Ziehrer (Austrian composer)
1925 – Agnes Zimmermann (German pianist & composer, active in England)
1944 – Carl Flesch (Hungarian violinist & teacher)
1946 – Manuel de Falla (Spanish composer)
1947 – Joseph Allard (Canadian folk fiddler & composer)
1977 – Richard Addinsell (English film composer, Warsaw Concerto from Dangerous Moonlight)
1982 – Joachim Stutschewsky [יהויכין סטוצ'בסקי‎] (Ukrainian-born Israeli cellist, composer & musicologist)
1992 – George Adams (American jazz tenor saxophonist, flutist, bass clarinettist & singer)
2002 – Elena Nikolaidi (Turkish-born American operatic mezzo-soprano & teacher of Greek ancestry)
2004 – Michel Colombier (French film composer, songwriter, arranger & conductor)

I'm going to assume that you all know plenty about Manuel de Falla, the great Andalusian master of Spanish music; and that the name of Ignaz Pleyel may ring a bell, if not for his fame as a piano manufacturer, then for the name of the Parisian concert hall named after him, the Salle Pleyel, which serves as the residence for the Orchestre de Paris.

Christoph Bernhard was a figure whose figures we learned about in my graduate studies in music theory. These are contained in the Tractatus compositionis augmentatus (c. 1660), one of a few treatises Bernhard wrote, which were unpublished but circulated widely through manuscripts during his lifetime. These figures illustrate, in a clear and concise form, the differences in the concurrent compositional styles of the 17th century in terms of how it was acceptable to treat dissonances in these styles, which Bernhard labeled stylus gravis, stylus luxurians communis, and stylus theatralis.

The conservative stylus gravis is the 16th-century polyphonic vocal style, represented most iconically by the sacred music of Palestrina - the style which Monteverdi referred to as the prima pratica. In this strict style, the only dissonances allowed are passing and neighboring tones, both unaccented and accented, as well as certain very specific kinds of suspensions, both tied and rearticulated. Of course, by Bernhard's time, the stylus gravis was considered old-fashioned and had largely fallen out of use, but it remained at the very least as a standard against which the more modern styles could be compared.

The stylus luxurians communis is a more progressive style, one which covers a wide variety of both sacred and secular composition, and represents the most common style in Bernhard's day for general compositional use, both vocal and instrumental. In this style, a greater variety of types of suspensions is allowed, and the style accommodates devices such as large melodic leaps, and dissonances such as anticipations and incomplete neighbor tones.

Stylus theatralis is the term Bernhard uses for what Monteverdi had called the seconda pratica. It's the style in which the music becomes subservient to the text, a reversal of the roles assumed in the stylus gravis. For the purpose of illustrating the emotional content of a word or phrase, many more compositional devices are allowed, including extreme chromaticism, the prolongation of a dissonance, the alteration or even omission of a dissonance's resolution, and the use of normally-avoided melodic intervals such as the augmented 2nd.

Well, I realize some of the above might as well have been in Taushiro for those of you not conversant in musictheoryese. Let me just make this point: In the past, there were rules even for how one broke the rules. That's not a familiar concept to us children of the 20th century. We've come to assume that an artist can do pretty much whatever he or she wants, and that the sky's the limit as far as creativity is concerned. Really, that's only been the case for about 100 years, if that long. And it's only been in the most recent decades that advances in technology have made such a concept of artistic freedom truly possible in a practical sense. File under "things we take for granted"!

11-13b: Psychic TV : N.Y. Scum 1984 - Orff : Carmina Burana / Dorati 1976 - Bill Doggett Honky Tonk Organ 1967 - Maurice Ohana : Trois Contes de L'Honorable Fleur 1979

1988 – Antal Doráti (Hungarian-born American conductor & composer)
1992 – Maurice Ohana (Morrocan-born Anglo-French composer & pianist of Sephardic ancestry)
1992 – Bobby McClure (American soul singer)
1996 – Bill Doggett (American jazz & R&B pianist & organist)
1997 – André Boucourechliev (Bulgarian-born French composer)
1999 – Donald Mills (American jazz & pop singer & guitarist, Mills Brothers)
2004 – John Balance (English experimental musician & artist, Coil, Psychic TV)
2004 – Ol' Dirty Bastard (American rapper & producer, Wu-Tang Clan)

More weird, avant-garde opera... this time with microtonality! Also, some weird, avant-garde, experimental rock. And for those of you who don't quite appreciate all this weirdness, there's also some good soul jazz, and a very fine Carmina Burana.

11-13a: Bruno Maderna : Satyricon / Gorli 1992 - Rossini Stabat Mater : Pavarotti / Kertész 1971 - Medtner Piano Concerto 1 & Piano Quintet / Alexeev 1994

1868 – Gioachino Rossini (Italian composer)
1951 – Nikolai Medtner [Никола́й Ме́тнер] (Russian composer & pianist)
1951 – Hugo Leichtentritt (German musicologist & composer, active in United States)
1967 – Harriet Cohen (English pianist)
1973 – Bruno Maderna (Italian conductor & composer)
1985 – G. Robert Vincent (American sound recording & archiving pioneer)
1986 – Rudolf Schock (German tenor)
1988 – Jaromír Vejvoda (Czech composer, "Beer Barrel Polka")

Well... we have Rossini; but we do not have Rossini opera! However, we do have opera! Dissonant, atonal, horrifying, avant-garde opera... mmmmmm...

11-12: Chic : Risqué 1979 - Jimi Hendrix Experience Copenhagen 1968-1970 - Górecki : Kleines Requiem & Lerchenmusik / de Leeuw 1993

1948 – Umberto Giordano (Italian opera composer, Andrea Chénier)
1966 – Quincy Porter (American composer)
1972 – Rudolf Friml (Czech operetta & song composer & pianist)
1987 – Cornelis Vreeswijk (Dutch folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, poet & actor, active in Sweden)
1996 – Gwen Catley (English coloratura soprano)
1997 – Carlos Surinach (Spanish-born American composer & conductor)
2000 – Franck Pourcel (French easy listening conductor & violinist)
2001 – Albert Hague (German-born American actor, songwriter & composer, Fame, How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
2003 – Tony Thompson (American R&B, disco & rock drummer, Chic, Power Station)
2008 – Mitch Mitchell (English rock drummer, Jimi Hendrix Experience)
2010 – Henryk Górecki, Polish composer (b. 1933)

Pretty exciting to have two of the finest drummers in rock and pop music in the past few decades on the list today, with the bands they were most known for playing in, Chic and the Experience, representing the cream of the crop of their respective genres - 70s-era funk/disco, and the late-60s hard-rock power-trio-with-guitar-god.

There's another person on our list who I was intrigued to learn something about. You will probably recognize Albert Hague by how he's depicted in our collage, as the demanding but avuncular music teacher Mr. Shorofsky from the 80s motion picture and television series Fame. What you may not know is that Hague really was a very talented musician, and composed a fair amount of music for television and film. His most recognizable contribution in this area was the music for the original Dr. Seuss cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966). You're a versatile one, Mr. Hague! Well, you were. Until you pooped.

11-11: Rev. Gary Davis Harlem Street Singer 1960 - Allman Brothers Idlewild South 1970 - Schoenberg Piano Music Steuermann 1957 - Ella Fitzgerald Jerome Kern Songbook 1963

1895 – Julius Tausch (German pianist, composer & conductor)
1901 – Antonio Zamara (Italian harpist & composer, active in Vienna)
1912 – Józef Wieniawski (Polish pianist, composer & conductor, younger brother of Henryk)
1929 – Mieczysław Soltys (Polish composer)
1936 – Edward German (English theatrical composer of Welsh descent)
1945 – Jerome Kern (American musical theater composer)
1964 – Edward Steuermann (Austrian-born American pianist & composer)
1967 – Harry Seymour (American actor & soundtrack composer)
1968 – Jeanne Demessieux (French organist, pianist, composer & teacher)
1972 – Berry Oakley (American rock bass guitarist, Allman Brothers Band)
1974 – Alfonso Leng (Chilean composer & dentist)
1977 – Greta Keller (Austrian cabaret singer & actress)
1979 – Dimitri Tiomkin [Дмитро Тьомкін] (Ukrainian-born American film composer, conductor & pianist)
1988 – William Ifor Jones (Welsh conductor & organist)
1993 – Erskine Hawkins (American jazz trumpeter & big band leader)
1994 – Dame Elizabeth Maconchy (English composer)
1995 – Kenneth S. Goldstein (American folklorist, record producer, ethnomusicologist & teacher)

11-10: Miriam Makeba in Tokyo 1968 - Carmen McRae Sings Great American Songwriters 1955-1959 - Show Boat Selections / Victor Young 1932

1665 – Samuel Friedrich Capricornus (Czech composer)
1821 – Andreas Romberg (German violinist & composer)
1909 – Ludvig Schytte (Danish composer, pianist & teacher)
1956 – Victor Young (American composer, arranger, violinist & conductor, "When I Fall in Love")
1960 – Isadore Freed (Belarusian composer, music theorist & author)
1973 – Stringbean [David Akeman] (American country & bluesgrass banjoist & comedian)
1990 – Lisa Kirk (American musical theater singer)
1990 – Ronnie Dyson (American R&B & soul singer & musical theater actor, Hair)
1994 – Carmen McRae (American jazz singer)
1997 – Tommy Tedesco (American jazz, rock & session guitarist)
2004 – Katy de la Cruz (Filipino jazz singer)
2006 – Gerald Levert (American R&B singer)
2008 – Miriam Makeba (South African folk, pop & jazz singer & anti-apartheid activist)
2008 – Wannes Van de Velde (Belgian singer, poet & artist)

11-09: Maserati : Inventions for the New Season 2007 - Jan Johansson Jazz på Svenska 1964 - Stamitz Clarinet Concertos / Meyer 1992 - Early Operetta Recordings 1907-1925

1766 – Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (Dutch diplomat & composer)
1801 – Carl Stamitz [Karel Stamic] (German-Czech composer, violinist & violist)
1829 – Jean Xavier Lefèvre (Swiss-born French clarinettist & composer)
1897 – Moritz Heuzenroeder (German-born Australian composer, teacher & conductor)
1911 – Edmund Schuecker (German harpist & composer)
1927 – Ole Olsen (Norwegian composer, conductor & music critic)
1951 – Sigmund Romberg (Hungarian-born American theatrical composer)
1951 – Resurrección María de Azkue (Basque priest, musician, poet, writer, sailor & teacher)
1959 – Frederick Preston Search (American cellist, conductor & composer)
1968 – Jan Johansson (Swedish jazz pianist, organist, guitarist & accordionist)
1974 – Egon Wellesz (Austrian-born British composer, teacher & musicologist, specialist in Byzantine music)
1978 – Otto Siegl (Austrian composer, teacher, music theorist & conductor)
1993 – Stanley Myers (English film composer, The Deer Hunter)
2009 – Jerry Fuchs (American indie rock drummer, writer & artist, Turing Machine, !!!, Maserati, LCD Soundsystem)

Jerry Fuchs did not meet a typical end for a died-too-young rock drummer. He fell down an elevator shaft when trying to jump from a broken elevator while he was in New York to play a benefit for starving children in India. Seems like he was one heck of a guy. He was sure one heck of a drummer.

11-08: Art Ensemble Of Chicago : Les Stances A Sophie 1970 - Riot : Fire Down Under 1981 | Restless Breed 1982 - James Booker : Junco Partner 1976 - Franck Piano Quintet : Eymar / Loewenguth 1955 - Ivory Joe Hunter : Blues at Midnight 1968

1599 – Francisco Guerrero (Spanish composer)
1890 – César Franck (Belgian composer & organist)
1974 – Ivory Joe Hunter (American R&B singer, pianist & songwriter)
1983 – James Booker (American jazz singer & pianist)
1992 – Larry Levan (American DJ, Paradise Garage, NYC)
1992 – Red Mitchell (American jazz bassist, active largely in Sweden)
1999 – Lester Bowie (American jazz trumpeter, Art Ensemble Of Chicago)
2001 – Aristidis Moschos [Αριστείδης Μόσχος] (Greek santouri player)
2003 – Guy Speranza (American metal singer, Riot)
2006 – Basil Poledouris (American film & television composer & conductor)
2011 – Heavy D (American hip-hop artist)

11-07: The Birthday Party : Mutiny / Bad Seed 1983 | Peel Session 1981 - Shorty Rogers : Chances Are It Swings 1958

1956 – Una Mae Carlisle (American jazz pianist, singer & songwriter)
1965 – Friedrich Wildgans (Austrian composer & clarinetist)
1983 – David Toradze [დავით თორაძე] (Georgian composer)
1983 – Germaine Tailleferre (French composer, member of Les Six)
1986 – Tracy Pew (Australian bass guitarist, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds)
1991 – Carter Cornelius (American R&B musician, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose)
1993 – Adelaide Hall (American jazz & blues singer)
1994 – Shorty Rogers (American jazz trumpeter & flugelhornist)
1995 – Jerry Daniels (American R&B singer & guitarist)
2007 – George W. George (American theater, Broadway & film producer)

11-06b: Varèse Déserts etc Simonovitch 1971 - Hank Thompson Dance Ranch 1958 - Berlioz Harold in Italy : Primrose / Munch 1958

1965 – Edgard Varèse (French composer, active largely in the United States)
1965 – Clarence Williams (American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, singer, theater producer & publisher)
1968 – Charles Munch (Alsatian conductor & violinist)
1970 – Agustín Lara (Mexican composer, pianist & poet)
1986 – Elisabeth Grümmer (Alsatian lyric soprano)
1987 – Zohar Argov [זוהר ארגוב] (Israeli Mizrahi singer)
1989 – Dickie Goodman (American entertainer & record producer, "Mr. Jaws")
2005 – Minako Honda [本田 美奈子] (Japanese pop singer & stage actress)
2005 – Miguel Aceves Mejía (Mexican actor, composer & singer)
2007 – George Osmond (American patriarch of the Osmond family)
2007 – Hank Thompson (American country singer, songwriter & guitarist)

One of these days I shall have to recount to you a quite hilarious online encounter which took place between myself and a grand-niece of the great Charles Munch, who conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra during that wonderful heyday of the early stereo LP period. But it won't be today...

11-06a: Tchaikovsky 6 Furtwängler 1938 - Busnois Missa O Crux Lignum / Orlando Consort 2005 - Schütz Geistliche Chormusik / Herreweghe 1987 - Чайко́вский Nutcracker Suite Stokowski 1934

1492 – Antoine Busnois (French composer)
1672 – Heinrich Schütz  (German composer)
1795 – Jiří Antonín Benda [Georg Anton Benda] (Czech violinist & composer)
1865 – Thérèse Wartel (French pianist, teacher, composer & music critic)
1893 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky [Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский] (Russian composer)
1897 – Edouard Deldevez (French violinist, conductor, composer & teacher)
1912 – Mykola Lysenko [Микола Лисенко] (Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor & ethnomusicologist)
1946 – Zygmunt Stojowski (Polish pianist & composer)

11-05b: Swell Maps : A Trip to Marineville | Jane from Occupied Europe - Les McCann & Eddie Harris : Compared To What 1969 - Donizetti Anna Bolena : Sills | Verrett | Plishka 1974

1996 – Eddie Harris (American jazz tenor saxophonist, keyboardist & composer)
1997 – Epic Soundtracks (English alt-rock multi-instrumentalist, Swell Maps, Crime and the City Solution, These Immortal Souls)
2000 – Jimmie Davis (American country singer & politician)
2002 – Billy Guy, American R&B singer, The Coasters)
2003 – Bobby Hatfield (American R&B & soul singer, the Righteous Brothers)
2005 – Virginia MacWatters (American lyric soprano)
2005 – Link Wray (American rockabilly guitarist, songwriter & singer)
2010 – Shirley Verrett (American operatic mezzo-soprano)
2011 – Bhupen Hazarik (Indian singer, composer, lyricist, music director & filmmaker)

I love the lie and lie the love
A-Hangin’ on, with push and shove
Possession is the motivation
that is hangin’ up the God-damn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut (everybody now!)
Tryin’ to make it real — compared to what? C’mon baby!

Slaughterhouse is killin’ hogs
Twisted children killin’ frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin’ logs
Tired old lady kissin’ dogs
I hate the human love of that stinking mutt (I can’t use it!)
Try to make it real — compared to what? C’mon baby now!

The President, he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We’re chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God damn it!
Tryin’ to make it real — compared to what? (Sock it to me)

Church on Sunday, sleep and nod
Tryin’ to duck the wrath of God
Preacher’s fillin’ us with fright
They all tryin’ to teach us what they think is right
They really got to be some kind of nut (I can’t use it!)
Tryin’ to make it real — compared to what?

Where’s that bee and where’s that honey?
Where’s my God and where’s my money?
Unreal values, crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kind of brings to mind ol’ young King Tut (He did it now)
Tryin’ to make it real — compared to what?

[written by Gene McDaniels]

11-05a: Art Tatum 1932-1934 | Tatum / Hampton / Rich Trio 1955 - Vladimir Horowitz : Brahms Concerto 2 Toscanini 1940 | Pictures at an Exhibition 1947 | Tchaikovsky Concerto 1 Szell 1952

1933 – Texas Guinan (American saloon keeper, actress & musician)
1942 – George M. Cohan (American entertainer, songwriter & author)
1956 – Art Tatum (American jazz pianist & composer)
1960 – Johnny Horton (American country singer & songwriter)
1964 – Buddy Cole (American jazz pianist & orchestra leader)
1977 – Guy Lombardo (Canadian jazz orchestra leader)
1986 – Bobby Nunn (American R&B singer, The Coasters)
1989 – Vladimir Horowitz [Владимир Горови] (Russian-born American pianist)

See, now... this is what we like to see here at Yestermonth. The greatest pianist in jazz history, and the greatest classical pianist of the 20th century, both pooping on the same day, 33 years apart. Yes, it's all Tatum & Horowitz today on YiDM, Pianists Pooping Properly edition.

11-04: Sprague Coolidge Cornucopia! Copland Appalachian Spring | Stravinsky Apollo etc | Respighi Trittico Botticelliano etc | Poulenc Flute Sonata : Synth Guitar Arr.

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (l) with Ethel & Frank Bridge

Works commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Plus others that happen to be on the same discs! Oh, and I forgot to mention in the supplemental reading... the performer on the Respighi is the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. They play without a conductor, you know. Don't worry, they stay together just fine!

11-04: MC5 Saginaw 1970 - Fauré Requiem / Equilbey 2008 - Mendelssohn Scottish & Italian Symphonies / Boult 195? - Canteloube Songs of the Auvergne / Grey 1930

1847 – Felix Mendelssohn (German composer)
1924 – Gabriel Fauré (French composer)
1930 – Buddy Bolden (American jazz cornetist)
1935 – Miklós Radnai (Hungarian composer, music critic & author)
1937 – Rogelio del Villar (Spanish composer)
1953 – Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (American pianist & patron of classical music)
1957 – Joseph Canteloube (French composer, musicologist & author)
1965 – Krsto Odak (Croatian composer)
1994 – Fred "Sonic" Smith (American rock guitar player, MC5 & spouse of Patti Smith)
1995 – Marti Caine (English actress, dancer, presenter, singer, writer & comedienne)
2005 – Sheree North (American actress & singer)
2010 – Michelle Nicastro (American actress & singer)

11-03: Clara Rockmore's Lost Theremin Album - Eddie Lockjaw Davis w/ Shirley Scott 1960 - Bachman-Turner Overdrive Halifax 1984 - Charles Tournemire

1911 – Salvador Giner y Vidal (Spanish composer & teacher)
1939 – Charles Tournemire (French composer & organist)
1945 – Alessandro Longo (Italian composer & musicologist, creator of a D. Scarlatti catalogue)
1964 – John Henry Barbee (American blues guitarist & singer)
1986 – Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (American jazz tenor saxophonist)
1993 – Léon Theremin [Ле́в Терме́н] (Russian inventor)
2006 – Paul Mauriat (French pop musician, "Love Is Blue")
2010 – Jerry Bock (American musical theatre composer, Fiddler on the Roof)
2010 – Jim Clench (Canadian rock bass guitarist, April Wine & Bachman-Turner Overdrive)

Okay look, here's how this thing's gonna go. From now on, lists will be brutally paired down. This one's half as long as it would have been. It's not because I imagine we'll ever get caught up, but because we'd like to spend more time not working on this blog... I hope we'll still be able to hold your interest, and that this little blogspot will continue increasing in readership. And of course by "we" I mean "I."