10-09: Marilyn Manson Florida 1992 - Bags & Trane : Milt Jackson / John Coltrane 1959 - Jacques Brel : Olympia 64 | Infinitement (Best Of)

1769 – Marianus Königsperger (German organist & composer)
1781 – Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie (Scottish violinist, composer & Masonic Grand Master, "Fiddler Tam")
1821 – Georg Friedrich Fuchs (German composer & conductor, pupil of Haydn)
1900 – Heinrich von Herzogenberg (Austrian composer & conductor, associate of Brahms)
1907 – Romualdo Marenco (Italian composer, violinist & conductor, noted for his ballet scores)
1937 – August de Boeck (Belgian composer, organist & teacher)
1941 – Helen Morgan (American singer & actress, "Julie LaVerne" in original 1927 Broadway production of Showboat)
1949 – Viktor Uspensky [Виктор Успе́нский](Russian composer & ethnomusicologist, specialist in Uzbek & Turkmen music)
1963 – Thurlow Lieurance (American composer, associated with 'Indianist' movement, "By the Waters of Minnetonka")
1978 – Jacques Brel (Belgian singer, actor & film director)
1994 – Joan Dickson (Scottish cellist & prominent cello teacher, pupil of Enrico Mainardi)
1997 – Arthur Tracy [Abba Avrom Tracovutsky] (Moldovan-born American vaudeville & radio singer ["The Street Singer"] & actor)
1999 – Milt Jackson (American jazz vibraphonist & composer)
2007 – Enrico Banducci (American impresario, violinist & nightclub owner, the hungry i, San Francisco)
2008 – Gidget Gein [Bradley Stewart] (American alt-metal bass guitarist & artist, Marilyn Manson)

I believe I've left enough links up there for you to start learning whatever you'd like to know about some of the particularly colorful figures and pursuits represented on today's list - such as Scotland's aristocratic, talented, hard-drinking and rakish "Fiddler Tam"; Heinrich von Herzogenberg, a mostly-forgotten composer who's been assumed to be a Brahms clone, but whose music is actually quite fresh and original in sound (I linked to clips from his string trios in the list - other clips are linked to on this page); two composers who spent much time studying the traditional music of ancient cultures - Viktor Uspensky those in Central Asia, and Thurlow Lieurance those in North America; Jacques Brel, Belgian chansonnier and star throughout the French-speaking world; Arthur Tracy, the Moldavian emigré to America who, due to an exclusive vaudeville contract he was under, identified himself merely as "The Street Singer" when he first appeared on radio; Milt Jackson, known best for his work with the Modern Jazz Quartet, who remains truly the central figure in the world of jazz vibraphone; San Francisco's Enrico Banducci, owner of the hungry i club (but also a good violinist and lover of classical music and jazz), where the careers of many of the "edgy" comedians and folk musicians of the 1950s and 60s got their start (along with that of a 20-year-old singer who had a voice like buttuh); and finally Gidget Gein, who played bass in The Spooky Kids before the band hit it big and started going just by their lead singer's name.

See, now... that was a nice, easy day. If I had more days like this one, maybe I wouldn't be three weeks behind. :/

Oh, there was something else I wanted to mention. It has nothing to do with either music or death. It has to do with comedy, and while I do know a lot about certain kinds of music, I know almost nothing about comedy (which should hardly be news to any of you who've been reading this blog), and so this information is something I hadn't been aware of before. You know how when you see someone doing a standup routine, on television, or at the Laugh Factory, or wherever, and they're standing in front of a brick wall? That's something that comes directly from the interior decor of the hungry i:

The above appears to be an art installation featuring one of Phyllis Diller's getups. Anyway, I thought that was kind of interesting, and demonstrates the importance of this particular venue, in having had such a subtle but unmistakeable influence on the very conventions of standup comedy. And come to think, this observation isn't entirely unrelated to the subject of death. It's when someone has just such a wall behind them that they're heard to whisper "Come on! I'm dyin' up here!" to someone in the wings...

And here's Helen Morgan reprising the role of Julie LaVerne in Showboat, from a Campbell Playhouse Radio Broadcast on Mercury Theatre on the Air, broadcast on March 31st, 1939. Orson Welles is your host.

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