10-03: Skip James 1930 Complete - 2Pac All Eyez On Me 2004 Remaster - Nielsen 4 + 5 : Ole Schmidt 1974 - Woody Guthrie Asch Recordings 4 CDs - Seán Ó Riada : Pléaráca an Riadaigh - Beethoven Concerto 2 + 3 : Schnabel / Sargent - Bax Tintagel etc / Boult

Oh, no... don't think you're getting off that easy. There's also:

1646 – Virgilio Mazzocchi (Italian composer of sacred works for papal chapels)
1685 – Fidel Molitor (German church composer & music director)
1750 – Georg Matthias Monn (Austrian composer, organist & teacher)
1820 – Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith (Bohemian hornist, composer & infamous adaptor of Mozart operas, active in France)
1828 – Josephus Andreas Fodor (Dutch violinist & composer)
1853 – Georges Onslow (Anglo-French composer & pianist)
1889 – Karel Miry (Belgian composer of operas & the national anthem of Flanders, "De Vlaamse Leeuw")
1903 – Benedetto Junck (Alsatian-Italian composer)
1907 – Alfred Reisenauer (German pianist, composer & teacher)
1912 – Guido Papini (Italian violinist, teacher & composer)
1919 – Daniel Brink Towner (American hymn composer)
1931 – Carl Nielsen (Danish composer, conductor & violinist)
1941 – Wilhelm Kienzl (Austria composer, conductor, pianist & violinist)
1953 – Sir Arnold Bax (English composer, pianist & poet ["Dermot O’Byrne"])
1967 – Walter Müller von Kulm (Swiss composer, conductor & teacher)
1967 – Sir Malcolm Sargent (English conductor, organist & composer)
1967 – Woody Guthrie (American folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, mandolinist, harmonic player, fiddler & writer)
1969 – Skip James (American blues singer, guitarist, pianist, songwriter & preacher)
1971 – Seán Ó Riada (Irish composer & folk musician, Ceoltóirí Chualann)
1990 – Eleanor Steber (American operatic soprano)
2000 – Benjamin Orr (American rock bass guitarist & singer, The Cars)
2008 – Johnny "J" (Mexican-born American hip hop & R&B record producer & songwriter)

Well, I lied. I'm feeling a little too overwhelmed to say anything of substance about Carl Nielsen, Arnold Bax, Malcolm Sargent, Woody Guthrie, Skip James, Seán Ó Riada, Eleanor Steber, Ben Orr, or Johnny "J". Maybe you're better off wondering what I would have said about them. Like: "Would he have drawn attention to both Woody Guthrie and Skip James as major icons of American 'roots' music?" Or: "Would he have used Arnold Bax's affinity for both Celtic and Nordic themes to segue into Seán Ó Riada's pivotal role in the revival of ancient Irish performance practice, and Carl Nielsen's status as the greatest composer the nation of Denmark has yet produced?" Or yet again: "Who's gonna drive you home tonight?" Good questions, all. I guess you'll never know for sure what the answers would have been...

08-15: Marin Marais Gamba - Brahms Szigeti Ormandy Schnabel Szell - Big Bill Broonzy One Beer One Blues - Dusty Springfield in Memphis

Ordered chronologically. Trouble identifying them? Click here for a tagged image.

1576 – Bálint Bakfark (Hungarian composer & lutenist)
1728 – Marin Marais (French composer & gambist)
1798 – Felice Alessandri (Italian composer & harpsichordist)
1848 – Timothy Olmstead (American composer, psalmodist & Revolutionary War fifer)
1853 – Giovanni Battista Polledro (Italian violinist & composer)
1907 – Joseph Joachim (Austro-Hungarian violinist, conductor & composer)
1918 – Peter Gast (German writer & composer, friend & colleague of Nietzsche)
1935 – Gerard von Brucken Fock (Dutch composer & painter)
1936 – Stanisław Niewiadomski (Polish composer, conductor & music critic)
1951 – Artur Schnabel (Austrian pianist & composer)
1958 – Big Bill Broonzy (American blues singer, songwriter & guitarist)
1968 – Edward Kilenyi, Sr. (Hungarian-born American film composer & violinist, teacher of Gershwin)
1972 – Alf Thorbald Hurum (Norwegian composer)
1978 – Harrison Kerr (American composer & music editor, co-founder of American Music Center)
1985 – Richard Yardumian (American composer)
1995 – Erbie Bowser (American blues pianist)
1995 – Jesse "Babyface" Thomas (American blues guitarist & singer)
2003 – Gösta Sundqvist (Finnish rock singer, songwriter & guitarist & radio personality)
2004 – Semiha Berksoy (Turkish soprano & painter, early Turkish opera singer)
2007 – Richard Bradshaw (English opera conductor, active in Canada)
2008 – Jerry Wexler (American studio producer & journalist, coined term "rhythm and blues")

Gerard von Brucken Fock and Bálint Bakfark. Gerard von Brucken Fock and Bálint Bakfark. I have nothing to say about these guys, I just think saying their names is fun.

Well, it was a blue day (not a Blue Monday, though - it was a Tuesday) in Texas on August 15th, 1995 when Dallas guitarist Jesse "Babyface" Thomas and Austin pianist Erbie Bowser passed away within hours of one another. Hm, maybe I got that wrong. They were bluesmen, right? So if they died, maybe Texas got less blue that day. The complementary color of blue is orange. Maybe that day was really an orange day in Texas. That's it. It was an Orange Tuesday in Texas. Hook 'em Horns, or whatever. However, August 15th is really a lot more orange than that, because Babyface & Erbie in fact passed away on the 37th anniversary of the day one of the true all-time legends of blues pooped. That was Big Bill Broonzy. But that didn't happen on a Tuesday. August 15th fell on a Friday in 1958, so I guess that day was an Orange Friday in Chicago. I think Babyface & Ernie would both have been pleased to know they went to the Lord on the same day Big Bill did. Unfortunately, they didn't live to see it. More about Big Bill after the jump across the open grave...