BEST DOWNLOADS YET!!

Okay, I lied. Look, I am really sorry. How many weeks has it been? It's not just that I'm busy, either. I'm not going to shit you... I have lost a lot of interest in doing this blog. It's a pain in the ass to do the research and hunt for the images and downloads, and I've become weary of it. Plus I have some music projects I'm starting right now, and they've been occupying a lot of my attention. If you're new around here, there are more than 200 posts for you to look at. Many of the downloads are no longer available, thanks to the infamous host purgings, and the usual deletions that would occur anyway. You regulars out there can rest assured that this blog will continue into perpetuity, such as it is. However, I'm not going to post unless I really feel like it. 

Oh, and I almost forgot... we finally surpassed 20,000 page views! Many thanks to all of you.

01-21: Peggy Lee & Nelson Riddle : Jump For Joy 1958 - Best Of Charles Brown 1945-1956 - Champion Jack Dupree : Blues for Everyone 1969 - Wolf-Ferrari Violin Concerto | Serenade for Strings / Hoelscher | Francis 1994

Not shown: Domenico Mazzocchi, John Vincent, John Gibbs & Peter Stadlen

1638 – Ignazio Donati (Italian composer)
1665 – Domenico Mazzocchi (Italian composer)
1851 – Albert Lortzing (German composer, actor & singer)
1876 – Therese [Müller] Grünbaum (Austrian soprano, creator of Eglantine in Weber’s Euryanthe)
1882 – Anton Emil Titl (Austrian composer & conductor)
1883 – Jacopo Tomadini (Italian priest, composer & organist)
1884 – Auguste Franchomme (French cellist & composer, friend of Mendelssohn & dedicatee of Chopin's Cello Sonata, Op. 65)
1888 – Stephan Hale Alonzo Marsh (English-born Australian composer & harpist, active also in the United States & Japan)
1891 – Calixa Lavallée (Canadian composer, pianist & teacher, active also in the United States, "O Canada")
1894 – Guillaume Lekeu (Belgian composer, pupil of Franck & D'Indy)
1931 – Felix Blumenfeld [Фе́ликс Блуменфе́льд] (Russian composer, conductor & pianist, pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, teacher of Horowitz)
1942 – Henryk Opieński (Polish composer, violinist, teacher & musicologist, early Chopin scholar & friend of Paderewski)
1948 – Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (Italian composer, conductor & teacher)
1959 – Lamar Stringfield (American composer, flutist, conductor & anthologist of American folk songs)
1961 – John Joseph Becker (American composer, one of the American Five)
1977 – John Vincent (American composer, conductor, teacher & author)
1977 – Zoltán Vásárhelyi (Hungarian choral conductor, composer, violinist & teacher)
1984 – Jackie Wilson (American R&B singer & songwriter, "Mr. Excitement", Billy Ward and His Dominoes)
1985 – Barbara Cowsill (American pop singer, The Cowsills)
1989 – Billy [Dorothy Lucille] Tipton (American jazz pianist, saxophonist & bandleader)
1992 – Champion Jack Dupree (American blues pianist & boxer)
1996 – John Gibbs (English baritone)
1996 – Peter Stadlen (Austrian-born British composer, pianist & musicologist, specialist in Beethoven)
1997 – Colonel Tom Parker [Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk] (Dutch-born American impresario, manager of Elvis Presley)
1999 – Charles Brown (American blues singer & pianist)
2002 – Peggy Lee [Norma Deloris Egstrom] (American jazz & pop singer, songwriter, composer & actress)
2007 – U;Nee [Heo Yoon] (Korean pop singer, rapper, dancer & actress)
2010 – Paul Quarrington (Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician & teacher)

Billy Tipton was a female pianist who began dressing as a man in the 1930s so it would be easier for her to find work playing in jazz clubs. But even long after the jazz world had become more receptive to female instrumentalists, she continued to dress and self-identify as a man. Billy Tipton was in fact a lesbian. And unbelievably enough, she somehow managed over the course of her life to fool five husbands, and several government agencies, into believing she was a man. It was only upon her death that the truth about her gender was revealed. One of the most astonishing stories in jazz history.

01-20: Etta James Rocks the House 1963 - Gerry Mulligan Quartet : Pleyel Concert 1954 - Lonnie Smith : Think! 1968 - Franz Andre 78s & LPs 1941-1958 - Czech New Music : Pinos | Blatny | Istvan / Jilek 1988

Not shown: Christian de Placker, Michal Bogdanowicz, Edward Francis Fitzwilliam, Giacomo Benvenuti & Beverley Johnson

1691 – Christian de Placker (Flemish poet & composer)
1774 – Florian Leopold Gassmann (Czech composer of German descent)
1789 – Johann Christoph Oley (German organist & composer)
1798 – Christian Cannabich (German violinist, composer & director of the Mannheim orchestra)
1830 – Michal Bogdanowicz (Austrian composer & violinist of Polish descent)
1838 – Pierre-Louis Hus-Desforges (French cellist, conductor & composer)
1857 – Edward Francis Fitzwilliam (English composer & director of Lyceum Theatre)
1859 – Bettina Brentano von Arnim (German writer, composer, singer, artist & social activist, friend of Goethe & Beethoven)
1890 – Franz Lachner (German composer & conductor)
1905 – Stanislaw Pilinski (Polish-born French pianist, organist, conductor & composer)
1909 – Zulma Bouffar (French actress & soprano, mistress of Offenbach & creator of several roles in his opéras bouffes)
1914 – Henry Southwick Perkins (American choral & glee composer, teacher & music critic)
1914 – Emil Liebling (German-born American pianist & composer)
1943 – Giacomo Benvenuti (Italian composer, musicologist & organist)
1952 – Arthur Farwell (American composer, conductor, teacher, lithographer & music publisher)
1964 – Jan Rychlík (Czech composer, music theorist, jazz percussionist & author)
1965 – Alan Freed (American disk jockey, pioneer of rock radio)
1975 – Franz André (Belgian conductor & violinist)
1979 – Gustav Winckler (Danish pop singer, composer & music publisher)
1985 – Jo Juda (Dutch violinist, concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra)
1990 – Miloslav Ištvan (Czech composer)
1990 – Hayedeh [هایده‎] (Iranian-born American classical & pop singer)
1993 – Marko Rothmuller (Croatian-born American operatic baritone, teacher & composer of Sephardic songs)
1996 – Gerry Mulligan (American jazz baritone saxophonist, clarinetist, composer & arranger,"Jeru")
2000 – Irra Petina (Russian-born Broadway actress & contralto at the Metropolitan Opera)
2001 – Beverley Johnson (American singing coach, Juilliard School, teacher of Renée Fleming)
2002 – Carrie Hamilton (American actress, singer & playwright, daughter of Carol Burnett)
2006 – Dave Lepard (Swedish glam metal singer & guitarist, Crashdïet)
2009 – David "Fathead" Newman (American jazz & R&B saxophonist & flutist, Ray Charles)
2012 – Etta James (American R&B, soul, gospel & jazz singer)

01-19: Carl Perkins Palo Alto 1977 - The Exciting Wilson Pickett 1966 | The Wicked Pickett 1966 - Janáček : The Makropulos Case / Söderström | Mackerras 1978

Not shown: Erhard Buttner, Johann Gottlieb Karl Spazier & Ferdinand Pour

1576 – Hans Sachs (German Meistersinger, poet, playwright & shoemaker)
1625 – Erhard Buttner (German composer)
1795 – Maria Teresa Agnesi (Italian composer, harpsichordist & singer)
1805 – Johann Gottlieb Karl Spazier (German singer, teacher, composer & music journalist)
1830 – Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (Czech-born Austrian composer, guitarist, pianist & teacher)
1833 – Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold (French composer & pianist)
1839 – Georg Abraham Schneider (German hornist, woodwind player, composer & conductor)
1893 – Julius Eichberg (German composer, conductor, teacher & violinist, active in the United States)
1934 – Armand Parent (French violinist, composer & teacher)
1939 – Ferdinand Pour (French bass-baritone, created roles of Harašta & Dr Kolenatý in Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen & Makropulos Affair)
1944 – Harold Fraser-Simson (English composer of light music)
1951 – Constantin C. Nottara (Romanian composer, son of actor Constantin I. Nottara)
1971 – Harry Shields (American jazz clarinetist & baritone saxophonist, younger brother of Larry Shields)
1972 – Michael Rabin (American violinist)
1980 – Richard Franko Goldman (American conductor, teacher, author, music critic & composer)
1981 – Iva Pacetti (Italian operatic soprano & teacher)
1982 – Elis Regina (Brazilian pop, samba, bossa nova, jazz & rock singer, known also as "Pimentinha" or "Furacão")
1990 – Semprini (English pianist, composer, conductor, cellist & radio personality of Italian descent)
1995 – Gene MacLellan (Canadian country singer & songwriter, "Snowbird", "Put Your Hand in the Hand")
1998 – Carl Perkins (American rockabilly & country guitarist, songwriter & singer)
2006 – Wilson Pickett (American R&B, soul & rock singer & songwriter)
2007 – Denny Doherty (Canadian folk & pop singer & songwriter, The Mamas & the Papas, The Halifax III)
2007 – Murat Nasyrov [Мурат Насыров] (Russian pop singer & songwriter of Uyghur ethnicity)
2008 – John Stewart (American folk & pop songwriter, singer, guitarist & banjoist, The Kingston Trio)

Well, that was kind of interesting. The Carl Perkins concert was in Palo Alto. The Kingston Trio was formed in Palo Alto. But I couldn't find any of them... not with John Stewart, anyway. Ah well, Semprini it all... oh dear, pardon my French...

 

01-18: Agent Orange : Real Live Sound 1990 - Handel : Teseo / James | Jones | Minkowski 1992 - Wagner : Tannhäuser Bayreuth 1930 / Pilinszky | Elmendorff

Not shown: Rudolf Wittelsbach & Burnet Corwin Tuthill

1580 – Antonio Scandello (Italian composer)
1659 – Benedikt Lechler (German priest, lutenist & composer)
1746 – Valeriano Pellegrini (Italian soprano castrato, creator of roles in several Handel operas)
1760 – Claudio Casciolini (Italian composer, singer & choirmaster)
1875 – Joseph Philbrick Webster (American song & hymn composer, singer & pianist)
1886 – Josef Tichatschek [Tichaček] (Czech Heldentenor, creator of title roles in Wagner's Rienzi & Tannhäuser)
1902 – Filippo Marchetti (Italian opera composer & teacher)
1912 – Hermann Winkelmann (German Heldentenor, creator of title role in Wagner's Parsifal)
1918 – Amalie Materna (Austrian soprano, creator of Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal & Brünnhilde in first complete performance of his Ring cycle)
1962 – Raymond Moulaert (Belgian composer, pianist & teacher)
1972 – Rudolf Wittelsbach (Turkish-born Swiss composer, pianist & teacher)
1977 – Paul Nordoff (American composer & music therapist)
1978 – Ivan Dzerzhinsky [Иван Дзержинский] (Russian composer & pianist)
1979 – Cyril Mockridge (English film & television composer)
1982 – Burnet Corwin Tuthill (American composer, son of Carnegie Hall architect William Burnet Tuthill)
1984 – Vassilis Tsitsanis [Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης] (Greek singer, songwriter & bouzouki player)
1990 – Melanie Appleby (British dance, pop & R&B singer, Mel & Kim)
1994 – Arthur Altman (American popular songwriter, "All Or Nothing At All")
1995 – Charles Baskerville (American doo wop, R&B & soul singer, The Limelites, The Drifters)
1996 – Jos Kunst (Dutch composer & musicologist)
2007 – Brent Liles (American punk rock bass guitarist & singer, Social Distortion, Agent Orange)
2008 – Frank Lewin (American composer, music theorist & teacher)

01-17b: Junior Kimbrough : Most Things Haven't Worked Out 1997 - Czesław Niemen : Enigmatic 1970 | Strange Is This World 1972 - Philip Jones Brass Ensemble : BBC Archive Recordings 1970-1979

1994 – Noël Chiboust (French jazz trumpeter, saxophonist, clarinetist & bandleader)
1996 – Robert Covington (American blues drummer & singer)
1996 – Mostafa Sid Ahmed [مصطفى سيد احمد] (Sudanese singer, songwriter, oud player & teacher, active also in Russia, Egypt & Qatar)
1998 – Junior Kimbrough (American blues singer & guitarist)
2000 – Philip Jones (English trumpeter & leader of Philip Jones Brass Ensemble)
2002 – Eddie Meduza [Errol Leonard Norstedt] (Swedish rockabilly & Dansband composer, singer & guitarist)
2003 – Balint Vazsonyi (Hungarian pianist & political journalist)
2004 – Czesław Niemen (Polish rock & folk singer, songwriter & keyboardist)
2011 – Don Kirshner (American pop & rock songwriter, music publisher & manager, The Monkees, The Archies, Kansas)

01-17a: Blind Alfred Reed Complete Recordings 1927-1929 - Charlie Ventura 1945-1951 - Albinoni Oboe Concerti / Holliger | Elhorst 1979 - Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga String Quartets / Guilet Quartet

Not shown: Santino Garsi da Parma, Nicolo Rubini, Carl Baermann & Gottfried Rüdinger

1604 – Santino Garsi da Parma (Italian lutenist & composer)
1625 – Nicolo Rubini (Italian composer)
1738 – Jean-François Dandrieu (French composer, harpsichordist & organist)
1751 – Tomaso Albinoni (Italian composer, violinist & singer)
1788 – Alessio Prati (Italian composer, harpsichordist & singer)
1826 – Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga y Balzola (Spanish composer & violinist, "the Spanish Mozart")
1856 – Thomas Attwood Walmisley (English composer & organist, godson of Mozart's pupil Thomas Attwood)
1869 – Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky [Александр Даргомыжский] (Russian composer)
1890 – Salomon Sulzer [סלומון זולצר] (Austrian hazzan & composer)
1891 – Johannes Verhulst (Dutch composer, conductor & violinist)
1892 – Alexandre Levy (Brazilian composer, pianist & conductor)
1913 – Carl Baermann, Jr (German pianist, teacher & composer)
1942 – Frederick Jerome Work (American folksong collector & arranger)
1946 – Gottfried Rüdinger (German composer)
1956 – Blind Alfred Reed (American folk, country & old-time fiddler, singer & songwriter)
1969 – Grażyna Bacewicz (Polish composer & violinist)
1970 – Simon Kovar (Lithuanian-born American bassoonist)
1970 – Billy Stewart (American R&B & soul singer, pianist & drummer)
1992 – Charlie Ventura (American jazz tenor saxophonist & bandleader)

01-16b: Ike Quebec : Blue & Sentimental 1961 - Ponchielli : La Gioconda / Caballé | Pavarotti | Milnes | Bartoletti 1980 - Bach English Suites / Leonhardt 1984 - Delibes : Coppelia | Sylvia Suites / Fournet 1953

Not shown: Antonín Josef Alois Volanek & Annie Patterson

 

Not shown: Henryk Klejne & Charlie Galbraith

1703 – Matteo Coferati (Italian priest, composer & music theorist)
1817 – Antonín Josef Alois Volanek (Czech composer)
1864 – Anton Schindler (Austrian associate, secretary & biographer of Beethoven)
1886 – Amilcare Ponchielli (Italian composer)
1891 – Léo Delibes (French ballet & opera composer)
1911 – Wilhelm Berger (German composer, pianist & conductor)
1919 – Jaroslav Jeremiáš (Czech composer, conductor & pianist, son of Bohuslav, brother of Otakar)
1920 – Reginald De Koven (American music critic, operetta composer & conductor)
1934 – Annie Patterson (Irish organist, teacher, writer & composer)
1935 – Richard Wetz (German composer)
1957 – Arturo Toscanini (Italian conductor)
1961 – János Viski (Hungarian composer & violinist, pupil of Kodály)
1963 – Gilardo Gilardi (Argentine composer, pianist & conductor)
1963 – Ike Quebec (American jazz tenor saxophonist)
1969 – Vernon Duke [Vladimir Dukelsky, Владимир Дукельский] (Russian-born American musical theater & classical composer & songwriter)
1972 – David Seville [Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.] (American pianist, singer, songwriter, actor & record producer, Alvin and the Chipmunks)
1974 – Roy Bargy (American pop composer, conductor, arranger & pianist, first to record Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F)
1976 – Henryk Klejne (Polish composer, conductor & pianist)
1995 – Bill Dillard (American jazz trumpeter, singer & actor)
1996 – Marcia Davenport (American novelist, music critic & radio commentator)
1997 – Charlie Galbraith (English jazz trombonist)
2000 – Will "Dub" Jones (American R&B bass singer, The Coasters, The Cadets)
2000 – John Morris Rankin (Canadian country & folk fiddler & pianist, The Rankin Family)
2012 – Gustav Leonhardt (Dutch harpsichordist, organist, clavichordist, claviorganist, fortepianist, conductor, musicologist & music editor)

01-16a: Toscanini Wax Windfall !! : Beethoven Bizet Brahms Dukas Dvorak Gershwin Mozart Prokofiev Schubert Schumann Tchaikovsky & Wagner !!

1957 – Arturo Toscanini (Italian conductor)

That wasn't too clever of me, was it? Twelve albums by the greatest Italian conductor of the 20th century, and I somehow managed to not include a single Italian composer.

01-15a: Elton John Christmas in London 1974 - Jack Teagarden 1944-1947 - G.B. Sammartini : Complete Early Symphonies / Ferrari 1994

Not shown: Charles-Hubert Gervais & Johannes Herbst

Not shown: Viktor Patrik Vretblad, Francesco Maria Saraceni & Euphemia Giannini-Gregory

1744 – Charles-Hubert Gervais (French composer)
1755 – Azzolino Bernardino Della Ciaja (Italian organist, harpsichordist, composer & organ builder)
1765 – Carlmann Kolb (German priest, organist & composer)
1775 – Giovanni Battista Sammartini (Italian composer, organist, choirmaster & teacher)
1788 – Gaetano Latilla (Italian opera composer & harpsichordist, uncle of Niccolò Piccinni)
1812 – Johannes Herbst (German composer, active also in the United States)
1816 – Dr. Henry Harington (English physician, composer, poet, mathematician & classical scholar)
1844 – Joseph [Giuseppe] Mazzinghi (Italian-born English composer, active in Australia)
1864 – Isaac Nathan (English-born Australian composer, musicologist & journalist)
1904 – Eduard Lassen (Danish-born Belgian composer & pianist, active also in Germany & Italy)
1907 – Karl August Franz Sales Freiherr von Perfall (German composer & opera house director)
1909 – Ernest Reyer (French opera composer & music critic)
1915 – Guillaume Couture (Canadian teacher, conductor, choirmaster, composer, organist, baritone & music critic)
1924 – Géza Zichy (Hungarian composer & world's first professional one-armed pianist)
1926 – Enrico Toselli (Italian pianist & composer)
1935 – Lucien Fugère (French baritone)
1953 – Viktor Patrik Vretblad (Swedish composer)
1961 – Francesco Maria Saraceni (Italian composer)
1964 – Jack Teagarden (American jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer & singer, "Father of Jazz Trombone")
1967 – Albert Szirmai (Hungarian operetta composer & pianist, active also in the United States)
1973 – Jef Alpaerts (Belgian pianist & conductor)
1974 – Karel Salmon [Karl Salomon] (German-born Israeli composer, conductor, pianist & baritone)
1979 – Euphemia Giannini-Gregory (American soprano & vocal coach, Curtis Institute of Music)
1987 – Ray Bolger (American actor, singer & dancer)
1987 – Dolores Hawkins (American R&B singer)
1989 – Günter Reich (German-born Israeli baritone)
1992 – Dee Murray (English rock bass guitarist & singer, Elton John, Spencer Davis Group)
1993 – Sammy Cahn (American pop songwriter, pianist & violinist)

Sorry, it's been more than a week, hasn't it? I'll try to post more often. And as my therapist was wont to say "I'll "try" means I "won't. " When was the last time I said "I'll try" and actually did something?"

01-15b: Harry Nilsson : Pandemonium Shadow Show 1967 - Junior Wells : Come On In This House 1996 - Rossini : Barber of Seville / Bruscantini | de los Angeles | Gui 1962 - Liszt Piano Concertos / Cziffra | Vandernoot 1958 1961 - Les Baxter : Ritual of the Savage 1951

1994 – Philippe Brun (French jazz trumpeter & violinist, active also in Switzerland)
1994 – Georges Cziffra [Cziffra György)] (Hungarian-born French pianist)
1994 – Harry Nilsson (American rock & pop singer, songwriter, keyboardist, guitarist & harmonica player)
1995 – Sollie McElroy (American R&B singer, The Flamingos)
1996 – Les Baxter (American film & exotica pianist, percussionist & composer)
1998 – Junior Wells (American blues singer, songwriter & harmonica player)
2003 – Doris Fisher (American jazz & pop singer & songwriter)
2005 – Victoria de los Ángeles (Spanish soprano)

01-14b: New York Dolls Kansas City 1974 - Muslimgauze : Lo-Fi India Abuse 1999 - Broadcast : Haha Sound 2003 - Windir : Arntor 1998 - Handel : Water Music / Gibson 1985

1991 – Jerry Nolan (American rock drummer, New York Dolls)
1995 – Sir Alexander Gibson (Scottish conductor)
1996 – Pamelo Mounk'a (Congolese soukous & reggae musician)
1999 – Bryn Jones (British electronic & experimental musician, Muslimgauze)
2000 – Lina Aimaro (Italian soprano)
2004 – Joaquín Nin-Culmell (German-born composer, pianist & conductor of Spanish & Cuban descent, active in the U.S.)
2004 – Valfar [Terje Bakken] (Norwegian black metal singer & songwriter, Windir)
2011 – Trish Keenan (English alternative & electronica singer & guitarist, Broadcast)

01-14a: Joaquin Turina Orchestral Music / Batiz 1983 - Jeanette MacDonald 1929-1934 - Francesco Cavalli : Artemisia / La Venexiana 2011 - Stephen Heller Late Piano Works / Meyer-Hermann 1998

Not shown: Michael Arne & Francesco D'Arcais

1676 – Francesco Cavalli (Italian composer & organist))
1761 – Denis-François Tribou (French haute-contre (tenor) who sang in premieres of several Rameau operas)
1786 – Michael Arne (English composer, harpsichordist, organist, singer & actor, son of Thomas Arne & Cecilia Young)
1817 – Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (French opera composer & violinist)
1888 – Stephen Heller [Heller István] (Hungarian composer & pianist)
1889 – Ilma de Murska [Ema Pukšec] (Croatian coloratura soprano)
1890 – Francesco D'Arcais (Italian composer & music critic)
1935 – Heinrich Schenker (Ukrainian-born Austrian music theorist & musicologist, inventor of Schenkerian analysis)
1943 – Adolf Sandberger (German musicologist & composer, 16th-century specialist)
1945 – Vándor Sándor (Hungarian composer & conductor, perished at Sopron)
1949 – Joaquín Turina (Spanish composer, teacher & music critic)
1952 – Artur Kapp (Estonian composer & organist)
1961 – Henry Geehl (English pianist, composer & conductor)
1965 – Jeanette MacDonald (American actress & singer)
1967 – Renato Lunelli (Italian organist, composer, musicologist & organ builder)
1971 – Ethel Glenn Hier (American composer & pianist)
1978 – Robert Heger (German conductor & composer)
1984 – Paul Ben-Haim [פאול בן חיים] (German-born Israeli composer & conductor)
1986 – Daniel Balavoine (French pop & world music singer, songwriter, guitarist & keyboardist)

Heinrich Schenker is probably the most misunderstood music theorist who ever lived. An example of the analytical technique which he developed (although I don't believe this analysis is actually by him) is shown below. In the example, the bottom system shows the first 16 measures of the aria "Leise, Leise, fromme Weise" from Weber's opera Der Freischütz. In Schenkerian terms, this is what would be called the "foreground" in the musical analysis. Just above that is what would be called a "shallow middleground" analysis of this music, and finally at the top is a "deep middleground" analytical sketch:

It would take many pages for me to explain all that is going on here. I'll just say that the misunderstandings about what Schenker was up to probably stem largely from the fact that he uses many of the symbols of familiar musical notation in his analyses (along with other symbols of his own invention). It has led many to incorrectly believe that Schenker's technique is about showing you which notes are "more important" than others. That it's about "getting rid of notes." That it's saying that a piece of music is "really" something much simpler than what it appears to be on the surface. Schenkerian analysis isn't any of those things.

What it is is a theory of organic form and of a longer-range way of listening. It shows how foreground structures can be construed as elaborations of simpler and simpler structures as one proceeds through various stages of middleground, until one finally reaches the simplest and least adorned structure in the background. This background structure in no way "replaces" the piece. It merely shows how the large-scale form of the piece is unified, in its harmony and voice-leading. It is elaborations upon elaborations of these simplest of harmonic and voice-leading structures that finally result in the foreground structures of the piece itself.

It's okay if none of that made any sense to you. Aside from professional music theorists, almost nobody gets it very well. The first time he ever saw a Schenkerian sketch, as brilliant a mind as Arnold Schoenberg said "All my favorite parts are missing."

01-13a: Donny Hathaway : Everything Is Everything 1970 - Tchaikovsky 4 / Szell 1962 - Andre Kostelanetz : Lure of Paradise 1959 - Ferdinand Ries Septet & Octet / Linos-Ensemble 2005 - Henri Tomasi : Wind Quintet / Rampal et al 1952

Not shown: Leonhard Trautsch, François-Joseph Krafft & Valentín de Zubiaurre y Unionbarrenechea

1762 – Leonhard Trautsch (German composer)
1795 – François-Joseph Krafft (Belgian organist, conductor & composer)
1828 – Alexandre-Auguste Robineau (French abbot & composer)
1838 – Ferdinand Ries (German composer & pianist, friend & pupil of Beethoven)
1864 – Stephen Foster (American popular songwriter, "The Father of American Music")
1892 – Charles Albert White (American composer & co-founder of music publishing firm White, Smith & Company)
1893 – Melitta Otto-Alvsleben (German operatic soprano)
1894 – Nadezhda von Meck [Надежда фон Мекк] (Russian businesswoman & patroness of Tchaikovsky)
1901 – Carlo Angeloni (Italian composer, organist & teacher whose pupils included Puccini)
1914 – Valentín de Zubiaurre y Unionbarrenechea (Spanish composer)
1917 – Albert Niemann (German operatic tenor)
1954 – Roland Diggle (English organist & composer, active in the U.S.)
1971 – Robert Still (English composer, teacher, conductor & amateur tennis player)
1971 – Henri Tomasi (French composer, conductor & pianist of Corsican descent)
1974 – Raoul Jobin (Canadian operatic tenor)
1979 – Donny Hathaway (American soul singer, songwriter & keyboardist)
1979 – Marjorie Lawrence (Australian operatic soprano)
1980 – André Kostelanetz [Андрей Костеланец] (Russian-born American pop & easy listening conductor & arranger)

Tchaikovsky dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to his wealthy patroness, Nadezhda Filaretnova von Meck. Von Meck also financially supported other composers, including the young Claude Debussy. But the relationship between her and Tchaikovsky is one of the most intriguing stories in music history, one worth reading about. So do! 

Just before Tchaikovsky died, he was actually cursing Nadezhda von Meck's name. Tchaikovsky's death is usually thought of as a suicide, but there are a few lingering doubts. When he drank that unboiled water at the height of a cholera epidemic, was it mere carelessness, or did he wish to make it appear like carelessness so that he could kill himself honorably? Or is the truth even stranger, that what appeared to be carelessness was his possession by some sort of death wish that compelled him to engage in such risky behavior unconsciously? We'll never know.

Even more mystery surrounds the suicide death of Donny Hathaway. At his final recording session, he appeared to have had a psychotic break, saying that white people were out to kill him and steal his musical ideas via a machine they'd connected to his brain. Hathaway was later found to have fallen from the window of his 15th-floor hotel room. Since there were no signs of struggle in the room, and the glass of the window had been removed neatly, investigators ruled his death a suicide. So, was he paranoid, or were they really out to get him? I mean, if whitey can read your mind through a machine, how much trouble is it for him to remove signs of struggle?

Boy, did I pick the wrong week to get let out of the looney bin.

01-13b: Lost Sounds : Black Wave 2001 - Teddy Pendergrass 1977 - Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost 1975 - Mccoy Tyner & Michael Brecker : Infinity 1995 - Fairuz : Ma'akoum (Avec Vous) Live 1999

1993 – Camargo Guarnieri (Brazilian composer & conductor)
1994 – Frederick William Sternfeld (American musicologist & author)
1995 – Ruby Starr (American rock singer, Black Oak Arkansas, Grey Ghost, Grey-Star)
2001 – Michael Cuccione (Canadian actor, singer, dancer, author & cancer research activist)
2005 – Nell Rankin (American mezzo-soprano)
2007 – Michael Brecker (American jazz saxophonist, EWI player & composer)
2008 – Sergej Larin [Sergejus Larinas, Сергей Ларин] (Lithuanian tenor)
2009 – Mansour Rahbani [منصور الرحباني] (Lebanese composer, musician, poet  & producer)
2010 – Teddy Pendergrass (American R&B, soul & gospel singer, songwriter, pianist, guitarist & drummer)
2010 – Jay Reatard (American punk & alt-rock singer, songwriter, guitarist & keyboardist)The Reatards, Lost Sounds)

It's been a few days since I last posted, and you should expect posts to be less frequent from now on. That's because the doctors have just declared me cured and released me from the Funny Farm. That means I'm able to do things other than sitting around and blogging, which honestly isn't so much fun now that readership is significantly down, what with the most recent Great Purging killing many of the older links. Pretty soon I hope to be gainfully employed, which means posts will be even less frequent. But rest assured that when posts do show up they'll be the same low quality you've come to expect from YiDM. Many thanks to the 17 of you out there who are continuing to read and, of course, post your wordy and witty comments!

For today, it's some legendary personages from soul, rock, jazz, and world music, including one-half each of two different famous pairs of musical brothers. The Rahbani Brothers - Ziad and Mansour - were writers of popular songs and operettas whose work is most associated with that of the lovely and prolific singer Fairuz. The Brecker Brothers - saxophonist Michael and trumpeter Randy - have figured prominently in the recent decades of jazz history. Michael is considered in some quarters to have been the most influential tenor sax player since John Coltrane. His life was cut short by myelodysplastic syndrome, an early form of leukemia which also claimed the life of fellow jazzer Paul Motian. Other famous MDS patients have included Susan Sontag, Roald Dahl, and Carl Sagan.

MDS and Hodgkin's lymphoma are both diseases whose sufferers often require bone marrow transplants. Michael Cuccione passed away just after his 16th birthday, due to respiratory problems caused in part by the radiation treatments he'd received for Hodgkin's lymphoma when he was just 9 years old. In 1997, he founded the Michael Cuccione Foundation For Cancer Research, which raises funds for childhood cancer research and awareness. Give generously!

01-12b: Traffic Vienna 1973 - Bee Gees Bern 1968 - Alice Coltrane : Universal Consciousness 1971 | Lord Of Lords 1972 - Luiz Bonfa : Solo in Rio 1959

1983 – Reebop Kwaku Baah (Ghanaian rock & jazz percussionist, Can, Traffic, et al.)
1988 – Marcel Poot (Belgian composer, organist & teacher)
1990 – Paul Pisk (Austrian-born American composer & musicologist, student of G. Adler, F. Schreker & A. Schoenberg)
2001 – Luiz Bonfá (Brazilian jazz & bossa nova guitarist & composer, Black Orpheus)
2001 – Kyra Vayne (Russian-born British soprano)
2003 – Maurice Gibb (British-born Australian singer, songwriter, keyboardist, bass guitarist, guitarist & producer,  Bee Gees)
2004 – Randy VanWarmer (American rock, pop & country songwriter, singer & guitarist)
2007 – Alice Coltrane (American jazz harpist, pianist, organist & composer, spouse of John)

01-12a: Szymanowski Violin Concertos : Zehetmair / Rattle 1996 - Wagner Parsifal : Windgassen / Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1951 - Stravinsky Chamber Works - Carissimi Oratorios / Roland Wilson 2003

Not shown: John Eccles, Michael Gottard Fischer, Koos van de Griend & Hervey Alan

1674 – Giacomo Carissimi (Italian composer & priest)
1735 – John Eccles (English composer)
1765 – Johann Melchior Molter (German composer & violinist)
1829 – Michael Gottard Fischer (German organist & composer)
1893 – Karl Hill (German baritone, creator of Alberich in the Ring cycle & Klingsor in Parsifal)
1921 – Gervase Elwes (English tenor)
1933 – Václav Suk [Вячеслав Сук] (Czech violinist, conductor & composer, active in Poland, Ukraine & Russia)
1934 – Paul Kochanski [Paweł Kochański] (Russian-born Polish violinist, composer & arranger, active also in the U.K. & U.S.)
1950 – Koos van de Griend (Dutch composer)
1953 – Simeón Roncal (Bolivian composer)
1958 – Arthur Shepherd (American composer & conductor)
1962 – Richard de Guide (Belgian composer)
1982 – Hervey Alan (English bass-baritone, creator of Mr. Redburn in Britten's Billy Budd)

The presence of the Szymanowski disc is thanks to his close friend Paweł Kochański, who performed the composer's works for violin and piano with him many times, collaborated with him on the violin parts of both his concertos, and was the dedicatee of those works and several others Szymanowski wrote for him.

The link above will take you to a scholarly article detailing Kochański's various collaborative efforts with composers. These efforts also produced works such as Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, and violin sonatas by Arnold Bax and Ernest Bloch. Works dedicated to Kochański also include the violin/piano version of Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, which consists of material from Pulcinella, Stravinsky's 1920 ballet based on music (at the time thought to have been written) by Giovanni Pergolesi.

When Kochański was helping Szymanowski with his Second Concerto, he was already sick with the cancer that would cut his life short at the age of 47. Still, he forged ahead and gave the premiere of the work. Szymanowski's score, published after his friend's death, contained a moving dedication to him. The pall-bearers at Kochański's funeral, held at the Juilliard School, included Arturo Toscanini, Frank and Walter Damrosch, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, Serge Koussevitzky, Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., and Leopold Stokowski.

No less affecting was the passing of the great concert and recital tenor Gervase Elwes, who perished hours after a horrific accident at a railway station in Boston when he leaned over too far as he attempted to return to the conductor an overcoat which had fallen off a train. His death was mourned all over Britain, and concerts in his memory took place across the nation. Edward Elgar wrote "my personal loss is greater than I can bear to think upon, but this is nothing - or I must call it so - compared to the general artistic loss - a gap impossible to fill - in the musical world."

01-11b: Mahler 7 / Tennstedt 1980 - T Rex Chicago 1972 | Vienna 1973 - Fabrizio De Andre : La buona novella 1970 - Jefferson Airplane Amsterdam 1968

1995 – Josef Gingold [Джозеф Гингольд] (Belarusian-born American violinist, pupil of Eugène Ysaÿe, teacher of  Jaime Laredo & Joshua Bell)
1998 – Klaus Tennstedt (German conductor, violinist & pianist)
1999 – Fabrizio De André (Italian folk & rock singer, songwriter, guitarist & anarchist)
2003 – Mickey Finn (English rock & folk drummer, singer & bass guitarist, T.Rex)
2005 – Spencer Dryden (American rock & jazz drummer, Jefferson Airplane, New Riders of the Purple Sage)
2005 – Jimmy Griffin (American rock & folk singer, guitarist, keyboardist, percussionist & songwriter, Bread)
2005 – Miriam Hyde (Australian composer, pianist, poet & teacher)
2007 – Puchi Balseiro (Puerto Rican pop & bolero composer, guitarist, singer & television host, producer & script writer)
2010 – Mick Green (English guitarist, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, Van Morrison)

We already had that T.Rex Chicago show a while back, but that link is now, like most of the band, dead. So here it is again, with a new link, plus another T.Rex show to boot! Get it? Boot?

Well, anyway... just in case you're wondering, Fabrizio De André was Italy's answer to Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen... might not mean as much to you if you don't understand Italian, but definitely worth a listen anyway...

01-11a: Kalinnikov : Symphonies 1 & 2 / Kuchar 1994 - Cimarosa : Requiem in G minor / Varoli 2000 - Max Lorenz in Recital 1927-1930 - Oscar Straus : The Chocolate Soldier / Stevens | Eddy 1941

Not shown: Rose Sutro

1791 – William Williams Pantycelyn (Welsh Calvinist hymnist, poet & author)
1801 – Domenico Cimarosa (Italian composer)
1901 – Vasily Kalinnikov [Василий Калинников] (Russian composer, bassoonist, timpanist & violinist)
1947 – Eva Tanguay (Canadian singer & entertainer, "the girl who made vaudeville famous")
1952 – Aureliano Pertile (Italian lyric-dramatic tenor)
1954 – Oscar Straus (Austrian composer, The Chocolate Soldier)
1957 – Rose Sutro (American duo-pianist with her sister Ottilie)
1958 – Alec Rowley (English composer, pianist, organist & author)
1961 – Elena Gerhardt (German mezzo-soprano, most associated with Lieder repertoire)
1975 – Max Lorenz (German heldentenor, associated with Wagner roles)
1987 – Albert Ferber (Swiss pianist & teacher, active in England)

Max Lorenz was very blessed to have that voice. Living in Germany at the height of the Nazi regime, and considering that his wife was Jewish, and that his marriage to her was intended to hide the not-so-well-kept secret that he was gay, one would think they'd have been whisked away to a concentration camp without much fuss. But in fact Lorenz was so prized as the leading Wagnerian Heldentenor of his day, his family was under the protection of Hermann Göring himself, who gave strict instructions to the S.S. that they were not to be bothered. I guess when it came to their hatred of minorities, their love of Wagner was one of the few things that could make the Nazis look the other way.

01-10: Howlin' Wolf : Smokestack Lightning Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 - Anton Karas : The Third Man Original Soundtrack 1949 - Margaret Whiting Sings Rogers & Hart 1947

Not shown: Johan Wikmanson, António da Silva-Leite, Friedrich Karl Kuhmstedt, Josué Teófilo Wilkes & Sverre Jordan

1780 – Francesco Antonio Vallotti (Italian priest, composer, organist & music theorist, developed a well-tempered tuning system)
1792 – Jean-Louis Laruette (French composer & tenor)
1800 – Johan Wikmanson (Swedish organist & composer)
1833 – António da Silva-Leite (Portuguese composer)
1858 – Friedrich Karl Kuhmstedt (German composer, music theorist & teacher)
1876 – Edmond de Coussemaker (Belgian musicologist)
1889 – Martin Andreas Udbye (Norwegian composer & organist)
1892 – Heinrich Dorn (German conductor, composer & music critic)
1895 – Benjamin Godard (French composer, violinist & violist)
1905 – Baumaņu Kārlis [Kārlis Baumanis] (Latvian composer, the Latvian National Anthem, "Dievs, svētī Latviju!")
1939 – Hariclea Darclée (Romanian operatic soprano, creator of title roles in Tosca and La Wally)
1939 – Julius Bittner (Austrian composer)
1941 – Frank Bridge (English composer, violinist, violist, conductor & teacher)
1951 – Athos Palma (Argentine composer)
1953 – Theo Mackeben (German pianist, conductor & composer of film & theatrical music)
1954 – Fred Raymond [Raimund Friedrich Vesely] (Austrian film, theatrical & Schlager composer of Czech descent)
1963 – Tadeusz Szeligowski (Polish composer, teacher, pianist, writer & lawyer)
1967 – Vilém Petrželka (Czech composer & conductor, pupil of Janáček)
1968 – Josué Teófilo Wilkes (Argentine composer & writer)
1969 – John Brownlee (Australian operatic baritone)
1972 – Al Goodman (Ukrainian-born American radio, television, film & musical theater conductor, arranger, composer & pianist)
1972 – Sverre Jordan (Norwegian composer, conductor & music critic)
1976 – Howlin' Wolf [Chester Arthur Burnett] (American blues singer, songwriter, guitarist & harmonica player)
1978 – Don Gillis (American composer, conductor, trombonist & teacher)
1985 – Anton Karas (Austrian zither player & composer of Czech & Hungarian descent, soundtrack for The Third Man)
1997 – Alvinio Misciano (Italian lyric tenor, teacher of Luciano Pavarotti)
2005 – Margherita Carosio (Italian lyric soprano)
2011 – Margaret Whiting (American jazz, pop & country singer)

Can't really think of anything much to say. Howlin' Wolf... Vallotti, a very important name if you're into tuning theory... Coussemaker, one of the heroes of musicology... Howlin' Wolf... Margaret Whiting, great singer... Frank Bridge, whose most famous pupil was Benjamin Britten... Howlin' Wolf... Pavarotti's mentor, Alvinio Misciano, who fell out of a 4th-story window when he was 81... aaaand Howlin' Wolf! Follow the links, there's some good stuff up there... and down there...

01-09: Handel : Giustino HWV 37 / McGegan 1994 - Cozy Cole Hits! 1958 - Songs of Lutoslawski | Serocki | Bloch : Lukomska / Markovsky 1960s

Not shown: Francesca Bertolli, Filippo Traetta & Alexey Kozlovsky

1679 – Werner Fabricius (German composer)
1767 – Francesca Bertolli (Italian contralto, creator of roles in several of Handel's operas)
1854 – Filippo Traetta [Philip Trajetta] (Italian-born American composer & teacher)
1863 – Ferdinand Huber (Swiss composer & collector of Alpine folk music)
1886 – Jakob Eduard Schmölzer (Austrian composer, flutist & collector of Styrian folksongs)
1911 – Edwin Arthur Jones (American composer & violinist)
1911 – William Hall Sherwood (American composer, pianist & teacher, pupil of Liszt)
1939 – Johann Strauss III (Austrian composer & conductor, nephew of Johann Strauss II)
1949 – Amilcare Zanella (Italian composer, pianist & conductor)
1957 – Mary Carr Moore (American composer, conductor, singer & teacher)
1959 – Paul de Maleingreau (Belgian composer & organist)
1962 – Roy Shield (American composer, conductor & music director at NBC)
1966 – Haro Levoni Stepanian [Аро Левонович Степанян] (Azerbaijani composer)
1968 – Louis Aubert (French composer, pianist & singer)
1969 – Ladislav Vycpálek (Czech composer & violist)
1970 – Jani Christou [Γιάννης Χρήστου] (Greek composer & pianist)
1977 – Alexey Kozlovsky [Алексей Козловский] (Ukrainian composer)
1979 – Avery Claflin (American composer & banker, pupil of Erik Satie, business associate of Charles Ives)
1981 – Kazimierz Serocki (Polish composer & pianist, co-founder of Warsaw Autumn music festival)
1981 – Cozy Cole (American jazz drummer)
1987 – Marion Hutton (American jazz & pop singer & actress, sister of Betty Hutton)
1994 – Silas Hogan (American blues singer, guitarist & songwriter, the Rhythm Ramblers)

I'm disappointed at not being able to offer you any Silas Hogan, one of the greats of Louisiana swamp blues. Every day it seems that more things become unavailable. Locating links used to be the easy part of this job.

To clear things up about the Handel: Francesca Bertolli (known more for her beauty than for her voice - which makes it strange that I couldn't locate a likeness of her) sang in about 15 or 20 of Handel's operas during her career, creating roles in some of them. In Giustino (1737) the role she created was that of Leocasta, which is sung here by Jennifer Lane.

01-08a: Carter Family 1927-1929 - Corelli 12 Concerti Grossi Op 6 / Sardelli 1999 - Puccini : Tosca / Tebaldi | Tucker | Warren | Mitropoulos 1956 - Bohemian Wind Music : Smetana | Krommer | Triebensee / Deutschen Kammerphilharmonie 2001

Not shown: Jacobus Vaet, Giovanni Battista Gagliano, Michaël de Ronghe & Christian Gottlob Saupe

1567 – Jacobus Vaet (Franco-Flemish composer)
1651 – Giovanni Battista Gagliano (Italian composer)
1696 – Michaël de Ronghe (Flemish composer)
1713 – Arcangelo Corelli (Italian composer & violinist)
1819 – Christian Gottlob Saupe (German composer)
1831 – Franz Krommer [František Kramář] (Czech composer, violinist & organist)
1864 – Victor-Charles-Paul Dourlen (French composer & teacher, winner of 1805 Prix de Rome)
1890 – Giorgio Ronconi (Italian operatic baritone, created roles in seven Donizetti operas)
1891 – Fredrik Pacius (German composer & conductor, active in Finland)
1921 – Luis Villalba Muñoz ["Mauricio"] (Spanish Augustian friar, composer & author)
1926 – Émile Paladilhe (French composer & pianist, winner of 1860 Prix de Rome)
1928 – Dumitru Kiriac-Georgescu (Romanian composer, conductor & teacher)
1937 – Felix Körling (Swedish composer, organist, choirmaster & teacher)
1942 – Catharinus Elling (Norwegian organist, folk music collector, composer & teacher)
1942 – Arvo Hannikainen (Finnish violinist & composer)
1948 – Richard Tauber (Austrian tenor)
1953 – Heinrich Kaspar Schmid (German composer)
1965 – Aloÿs Fornerod (Swiss composer, pupil of Vincent d'Indy)
1970 – Georges Guibourg [Georgius, Theodore Crapulet] (French singer, songwriter, novelist, playwright & actor)
1971 – Adriano Lualdi (Italian composer & conductor)
1975 – Richard Tucker (American tenor)
1979 – Sara Carter (American country, folk & gospel singer & autoharpist, the Carter Family)

I should have had Émile Paladilhe on January the 6th, but here he is anyway. Paladilhe, at 16 (which looks to be how old he was when the above portrait was made), was the youngest composer ever to win the Prix de Rome, and he was for a time the lover of mezzo Célestine Galli-Marié (creator of the title role in Carmen), so it seemed unthinkable to omit him.

Some famous opera singers are on the list too, including two of the greatest tenors of the 20th century. And there's a famous singer from the early history of country music, Sara Carter, whose style influenced a whole slew of artists from Kitty Wells to Loretta Lynn. But the big-wig for the day is Arcangelo Corelli, whose unbelievably tidy corpus of 72 works (48 trio sonatas, 12 sonatas for violin and continuo, and 12 concerti grossi, all falling into 6 opus numbers of 12 works each) had a greater influence on the instrumental music of the late Baroque than that of any other composer. Throw in a few Nordic notables, and it's another full half-day around here! How soon do you think it will be before we're three months behind?

01-08b: Def Leppard Seattle 1983 - Michael Tippett Choral Works / St John's College Cambridge 2005 - Rachmaninov Piano Sonatas 1 & 2 / Weissenberg 1989 - Brahms Double Concerto / Francescatti | Fournier | Walter 1959

1986 – Pierre Fournier (French cellist)
1989 – Johnny Jordaan [Johannes van Musscher] (Dutch folk singer)
1991 – Steve Clark (English guitarist, songwriter & singer, Def Leppard)
1993 – Theo Bruins (Dutch pianist & composer)
1996 – Howard Taubman (American music & theater critic, New York Times)
1997 – George Handy (American jazz arranger, composer & pianist, pupil of Aaron Copland)
1997 – Carole Carr (English pop singer & actress, Down Among the Z Men)
1998 – Sir Michael Tippett (English composer & conductor)
2003 – Ron Goodwin (English film composer, arranger & conductor, Force 10 from Navarone)
2008 – Clyde Otis (American jazz & R&B songwriter, producer & A&R executive, Mercury Records)
2012 – Alexis Weissenberg (Bulgarian-born French pianist)

01-07: Bruckner 7 / Schuricht 1964 - Feeder : Echo Park 2001 - Tesla Louisville 1989 - Bartok Complete String Quartets / Vegh Quartet 1972

Not shown: Jacobus de Kerle, Gallus Zeiler, Antonio Corbisiero, Josef Lipavský, Ramón Félix Cuéllar y Altarriba, Bobby Pratt & Arthur Leavins

1591 – Jacobus de Kerle (Flemish composer & organist)
1625 – Ruggiero Giovannelli (Italian composer & singer)
1678 – Johannes Flittner (German composer & poet, active in Sweden)
1736 – Ceslav Vanura (Czech composer)
1755 – Gallus Zeiler (German Benedictine abbot & composer)
1783 – William Tans'ur (English hymnist, teacher, music theorist  & composer of West Gallery music)
1790 – Antonio Corbisiero, composer, dies at 69
1810 – Josef Lipavský (Czech pianist & composer)
1833 – Ramón Félix Cuéllar y Altarriba (Spanish composer & organist)
1843 – Franz Schoberlechner (Austrian composer)
1868 – William Batchelder Bradbury (American organist & hymn composer, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know")
1890 – Hans Matthison-Hansen (Danish organist, composer & painter)
1891 – Wilhelm Taubert (German pianist, composer & conductor)
1922 – Antonio Scontrino (Italian composer & bassist)
1936 – Guy d'Hardelot [Helen Guy Rhodes] (French composer, pianist & teacher, "Because")
1943 – Nikola Tesla [Никола Тесла] (Serbian-born American inventor, electrical engineer & pioneer of wireless transmission)
1946 – Adamo Didur (Polish operatic bass)
1960 – Luiz António Ferreira da Costa (Portuguese composer & pianist)
1964 – Colin McPhee (Canadian composer & ethnomusicologist, specialist in the music of Bali)
1964 – Cyril Davies (English blues harmonica player & singer)
1967 – Carl Schuricht (German conductor)
1979 – Zbigniew Turski (Polish composer)
1980 – Carl White (American R&B singer, The Rivingtons)
1980 – Larry Williams (American R&B & rock singer, songwriter, producer & pianist)
1981 – José Ardévol (Spanish-born Cuban composer & conductor)
1983 – Dame Edith Coates (English operatic mezzo-soprano)
1985 – Johnny Guarnieri (American jazz pianist)
1994 – Bobby Pratt (American jazz trombonist & pianist)
1994 – Jay Blackton (American music theater conductor & arranger)
1995 – Arthur Leavins (English violinist)
1997 – Sándor Végh (Hungarian violinist, conductor & teacher)
1998 – Owen Bradley (American country & rock record producer)
2001 – James Carr (American R&B & soul singer)
2002 – Jon Lee (Welsh rock drummer & guitarist, Feeder)
2009 – Maria Dimitriadi [Μαρία Δημητριάδη] (Greek singer & leftist political activist)
2010 – Willie Mitchell (American R&B, soul, rock & funk singer, trumpeter, record producer & arranger)

Today it's hard rock, and Bartók, and Bruckner. And rest assured the humor is not lost on me at how the presence of Tesla the band here is a bit of a stretch in more ways than one. But if you've been reading this blog for a while, you realize that it's entirely appropriate for us to be remembering Nikola Tesla on his deathday; for Tesla can claim as much right as Guglielmo Marconi to being called the "Father of Radio," and of course the effect of radio on the dissemination of music in the 20th century was incalculable.

And the pathway from Tesla the man to Tesla the band is shorter than it may seem, at least in this case. The live show presented here (in .wma format - I hope that isn't terribly inconvenient for most of you) is from 1989, when the band were touring in support of their second album, The Great Radio Controversy, whose liner notes indeed posit the notion that Tesla deserves more credit than Marconi for the earth-shaking invention. So, as you would expect, five out of the nine songs that make up this short but sizzling set are from that album.

Not only that, but it's also extremely likely that AC power (which, as used today, hinges largely on the work of Nikola Tesla) will come into play at one or more points when you're downloading, unpacking, importing, synching up, and listening to this Tesla show... so you see, it's all making sense here at YiDM!

01-06: The Stooges : Azkena Rock Festival 2006 - Dizzy in Greece 1956 - Don Cherry : Art Deco 1988 - Lou Rawls : Live! 1966 - Michel Petrucciani : Power of Three 1986

Not shown: Malachias Siebenhaar, Carlo Mannelli & Johann Georg Reinhardt

1685 – Malachias Siebenhaar (Czech-born German composer)
1697 – Carlo Mannelli (Italian violinist, castrato singer & composer)
1738 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser (German composer, music theorist, organist & singer)
1742 – Johann Georg Reinhardt (Austrian composer & organist)
1831 – Rodolphe Kreutzer (French violinist, teacher, composer & conductor)
1847 – Tyāgarāja [Thyagaraja, త్యాగరాజు] (Indian Carnatic composer, singer & saint)
1866 – Louis Antoine Ponchard (French tenor & singing teacher)
1906 – Gabrielle Krauss (Austrian soprano, aunt of conductor Clemens Krauss)
1933 – Vladimir de Pachmann (Ukrainian-born pianist of Russian & German ancestry)
1942 – Emma Calvé (French soprano & friend of Swami Vivekananda)
1959 – José Enrique Pedreira (Puerto Rican composer & pianist, noted for his danzas)
1987 – Domingo Santa-Cruz-Wilson (Chilean composer)
1993 – Dizzy Gillespie (American jazz trumpeter, composer & bandleader)
1995 – James Clay (American jazz tenor saxophonist & flutist)
1996 – Chubby Wise (American bluegrass fiddler)
1999 – Michel Petrucciani (French jazz pianist & composer)
2001 – Victor Braun (Canadian baritone)
2003 – Hirini Melbourne (New Zealand Māori musician, university lecturer, poet & author)
2006 – Lou Rawls (American soul, R&B & jazz singer & actor)
2007 – Sneaky Pete Kleinow (American pedal steel guitarist & songwriter, Flying Burrito Brothers et al.)
2009 – Ron Asheton (American rock guitarist, bass guitarist & songwriter, The Stooges)

If you thought yesterday was a big jazz day, with Mingus, it was only an appetizer for this huge jazz day we have today. Among our huge figures is the little pianist with the big technique, Michel Petrucciani, who was born with the condition osteogenesis imperfecta, which stunted his height but left him with average-sized hands. Petrucciani was a living testament to one's ability to overcome limitations, and his only special requirements were that the pedals of his piano be raised so he could reach them with his feet. Sometimes his small size even had its advantages - early in his career, Petrucciani's manager would often smuggle him into hotels in a suitcase in order to save money.

Aside from James Clay and Lou Rawls (who some people don't realize was a jazz singer long before he was doing the smooth soul which brought him hits during the 70s), of course there's Diz, about whose importance in the history of jazz too much cannot be said. One of the most unique and dazzling trumpeters who ever was, one of the inventors of bebop, a powerhouse who with his very physical appearance personified the coolness of jazz in the 40s and 50s. I'll not go any further, except to add that I got the chance once to see Gillespie in rehearsal a couple years before he passed, and it's a memory I know I'll always treasure.

As if that were not enough, we also remember Ron Asheton, one of the great guitarists of proto-punk; Vladimir de Pachmann and Emma Calvé, two of the most famous stars of the classical music world in the early 20th century; and Tyāgarāja, one of the very greatest composers in the history of South Indian music. I regret not being able to bring you any of Tyāgarāja's compositions today. I located what looked to be a very good record that consists largely of improvisations upon them, but as fate would have it the link directs one to the now-unreachable multiupload. Quite disappointing. But if I find something suitable later, I'll be sure to update this post and let you know about it.

01-05: Mingus At Monterey 1964 - The Doors Isle of Wight 1970 - Love : Forever Changes 1967 - Alan Rawsthorne Symphony No. 3 | Roberto Gerhard Concerto for Orchestra / Del Mar 1967 - Cher and Sonny & Cher Greatest Hits

Not shown: Johann Schneider, Ferdinando Orlandi, Leonce Gras & Victor van Os

1740 – Antonio Lotti (Italian composer, organist & singer)
1788 – Johann Schneider (German organist, violinist & composer, pupil of Bach)
1848 – Ferdinando Orlandi (Italian composer, organist & singing teacher)
1862 – Franz Joseph Fröhlich (German teacher & musicologist)
1888 – Henri Herz (Austrian-born French pianist & composer)
1891 – Emma Abbott (American soprano, impresario, pianist, guitarist & violinist)
1919 – Sumako Matsui [松井 須磨子] (Japanese actress & singer)
1946 – Kitty Cheatham (American singer, monologist & actress)
1956 – Mistinguett [Jeanne Bourgeois] (French actress, singer & dancer)
1970 – Roberto Gerhard [i Ottenwaelder] (Spanish composer & writer)
1974 – Lev Oborin [Лев Оборин] (Russian pianist)
1976 – Georges Migot (French composer, poet & painter)
1976 – Mal Evans (English road manager and assistant to The Beatles)
1979 – Charles Mingus (American jazz bassist, composer, pianist, cellist, trombonist & civil rights activist)
1992 – Hans Federico Neuman (Colombian composer & pianist)
1993 – Leonce Gras (Belgian conductor, singer & teacher)
1994 – Victor van Os (Dutch jazz guitarist)
1995 – Francis Lopez (French dentist & operetta composer)
1996 – Danny White (American R&B singer, Huey Smith & the Clowns)
1997 – Burton Lane (American theatrical composer & lyricist, Finian's Rainbow, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever)
1998 – Georgy Sviridov [Гео́ргий Свири́дов] (Russian composer, pianist & balalaika player)
1998 – Ken Forssi (American rock bass guitarist, Love, The Surfaris)
1998 – Sonny Bono (American pop singer, songwriter, record producer, entertainer & politician)
2003 – Doreen Carwithen (English composer, pianist & violinist, spouse of William Alwyn)
2005 – Danny Sugerman (American rock manager & author, The Doors, Iggy Pop)

A lot of great Chers, er, shares here, this time all from the 60s and 70s. There's something for just about everybody here!

01-04: Thin Lizzy : Boston 1978 + Phil Lynott Last Studio Recordings 1985 - Grand Slam : BBC 1984 - Stealers Wheel 1972

Not shown: Carl-Olof Anderberg

1885 – Iosif Kotek [Иосиф Котек] (Russian violinist & composer, close friend of Tchaikovsky)
1898 – František Pivoda (Czech composer, singing teacher & music critic, nemesis of Smetana)
1924 – Alfred Grünfeld (Austrian pianist & composer)
1942 – Leon Jessel (German composer, "Parade of the Tin Soldiers")
1955 – François Rasse (Belgian composer & violinist, winner of 1900 Prix de Rome)
1969 – Montague Phillips (English composer)
1972 – Carl-Olof Anderberg (Swedish pianist, composer & arranger)
1981 – Ruth Lowe (Canadian pianist & popular songwriter, Sinatra's first big hit "I'll Never Smile Again")
1985 – Lovro von Matačić (Croatian conductor & composer)
1986 – Phil Lynott (Irish rock singer, bass guitarist & songwriter, Thin Lizzy, Grand Slam)
1988 – Lily Laskine (French harpist)
1994 – Rahul Dev Burman (Indian film composer & playback singer, son of Sacha Dev Burman)
1995 – Eduardo Mata (Mexican conductor & composer)
1996 – Ramón Vinay (Chilean dramatic tenor & baritone)
1998 – John Gary (American pop singer & songwriter)
2001 – Les Brown (American jazz bandleader, reed player & composer, Les Brown and His Band of Renown)
2003 – Yfrah Neaman [يفراح نيعمان‎] (Lebanese-born British violinist & teacher)
2004 – Jake Hess (American southern gospel singer)
2010 – Sandro de América [Roberto Sánchez] (Argentine rock & pop singer & actor)
2011 – Mick Karn [Andonis Michaelides] (Cypriot-born British rock multi-instrumentalist & songwriter, Japan)
2011 – Gerry Rafferty (Scottish rock & folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist & saxophonist, The Humblebums, Stealers Wheel)
2012 – Kerry McGregor (Scottish singer-songwriter, actress & contestant, The X Factor)

For Lovro von Matačić, go here.

For Eduardo Mata, go here.

For Ramón Vinay, go here.

And for Thin Lizzy & Grand Slam, featuring Phil Lynott, and Stealers Wheel, featuring Gerry Rafferty... well, you know what to do...