12-03: William Grant Still Symphonies 4 & 5 / Jeter 2009 - Original Dixieland Jazz Band 1917-1936 - Vocalion Piano Blues 1928-1930 - Schumann | Kalliwoda | Pixis Oboe Works : Dombrecht 1984

Not pictured above: Roque Ceruti, Carl August Thielo, Joseph Pouteau, Gustav Hölzel & Richard Henry Warren.

1706 – Æmilie Juliane von Barby-Mühlingen (German countess & writer of about 600 hymns)
1760 – Roque Ceruti (Italian composer, active in Peru)
1763 – Carl August Thielo (Danish composer & theatrical director)
1823 – Joseph Pouteau (French composer)
1826 – Elizaveta Sandunova [Елизавета Сандунова] (Russian actress & mezzo-soprano)
1866 – Jan Václav Kalivoda [Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda] (Czech composer, conductor & violinist, active in Germany)
1876 – Hermann Goetz (German composer & organist)
1883 – Gustav Hölzel (Austro-Hungarian bass-baritone & composer)
1889 – Baltasar Saldoni i Remendo (Spanish composer)
1933 – Richard Henry Warren (American composer, conductor & organist)
1941 – Christian Sinding (Norwegian composer & violinist)
1942 – Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (Swedish composer & music critic)
1948 – Alexander Kirchner (Austrian tenor)
1954 – Enrique Soro Barriga (Chilean pianist, composer & teacher)
1955 – Cow Cow Davenport (American blues pianist, organist & singer)
1960 – Hermann Stephani (German musicologist & composer)
1961 – Jēkabs Graubiņš (Latvian composer)
1970 – Hedwig von Debicka (Polish soprano, active in Germany, Italy & Austria)
1972 – Bill Johnson (American jazz bassist & banjoist, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band)
1973 – Emile Christian (American jazz trombonist, cornetist, bassist & composer, Original Dixieland Jazz Band)
1975 – Hedwig Fichtmüller (Czech mezzo-soprano & teacher)
1978 – William Grant Still (American composer, conductor & pianist)
1988 – Sonia Sharnova (American contralto & teacher)
1998 – Pierre Hétu (Canadian conductor & pianist)
1999 – Scatman John (American pop & jazz singer, rapper & pianist)
2000 – Hoyt Curtin (American composer & musical director, Hanna-Barbera Productions)
2006 – Logan Whitehurst (American graphic designer & alt-rock multi-instrumentalist, The Velvet Teen, Junior Science Club)

I could go on and on about how I've been slacking off, how I feel like crap, how I'm getting farther behind, how I really need an entire team of researchers to do this blog like it should be done, how I've neglected many musicians who died in 2011 because I don't keep up enough with the news (Bob Brookmeyer is another one I just found out about), how bla bla bla... have you died of boredom yet? Don't worry... if you're a prominent musician, it will be years before I get around to recognizing you...

But today we soldier on. And we have William Grant Still, who has the distinction of having had his works performed by major symphony orchestras, and who himself conducted a major symphony orchestra, earlier than any other African-American composer.

We also have some important European composers whose works have fallen into neglect, in particular Christian Sinding, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Hermann Goetz, and Johann Kalliwoda (Jan Kalivoda), a Czech composer who is seen as an important link between Beethoven and early Romantics like Schumann and Mendelssohn.

And some important figures from the early years of jazz and blues: Emile Christian, trombonist for the very first jazz band to ever appear on record (although he didn't join them until the year after they played those first 1917 sessions); King Oliver's bassist and banjoist Bill Johnson, who it's said invented the "slap bass" style; and Cow Cow Davenport, a pioneer of boogie woogie.

All in all, kind of a big day... but we have some much bigger days coming up very soon... wish me luck!

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