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.

01-08b: 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)

12-11: M.S. Subbulakshmi : Concert Album 1970 - Mahler 7 live / Kondrashin 1979 - Brahms 4 / De Sabata 1939 - Victor De Sabata Orchestral Works / Ceccato 2001

1831 – George Schetky (Scottish-born American cellist, composer, conductor, teacher & publisher)
1857 – Castil-Blaze [François-Henri-Joseph Blaze] (French musicologist, music critic, composer & music editor)
1911 – Thomas Ball (American sculptor, painter, violinist & singer, active also in Italy)
1955 – Franz Syberg (Danish composer & organist)
1964 – Sam Cooke (American soul, R&B & gospel singer & songwriter)
1964 – Alma Mahler (Austrian socialite & composer, spouse of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius & Franz Werfel)
1967 – Richard Stöhr (Austrian composer, author & teacher)
1967 – Victor De Sabata (Italian conductor & composer)
1975 – Lee Wiley (American jazz singer)
1983 – Simon [Szymon] Laks (Polish composer, violinist, pianist & author, head of prisoners' orchestra at Birkenau-Auschwitz from 1942–44)
1998 – Lynn Strait (American rock singer & songwriter, Snot)
2004 – M.S. Subbulakshmi [மதுரை சண்முகவடிவு சுப்புலட்சுமி] (Indian Carnatic vocalist)
2007 – Christie Hennessy (Irish folk singer, songwriter & guitarist)

Alma mater? I thought you said Alma Mahler!

I'm disappointed that I was unable to find you a recording of some of the dozen-and-a-half-or-so songs composed by Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel. I really did have my heart set on it. But instead, here is the one symphony we haven't yet had from Hubby #1, in this our year-long remembrance of the 100th anniversary of his death. And the live performance here is a particularly exciting and relatively light-hearted one of this weirdest of all Mahler's works.

So, bummer on the Alma front, but good news in the way of Indian music. I've been bemoaning that I have so little information on death dates for many Asian musicians, but here we've lucked out. M.S. Subbulakshmi was one of the most lauded and highly awarded singers of Carnatic music, and I have not only her date of death, but also some excellent sources for transfers of a number of her old LP recordings. The 3-disc set offered here should do you nicely.

I'm also pleased to offer you a first here at YiDM: someone on our list, in separate roles as conductor and composer. (Of course, this doesn't include persons like Stravinsky and Copland whom we've had in both roles simultaneously.) Victor de Sabata was a fiery conductor of both the opera pit and concert stage. He hated the process of making recordings and thus left behind only a few, which are treasured by collectors. I've heard some of them, including this great Brahms 4th, but I've never heard any of the music de Sabata composed. So, I'll be listening to that along with the rest of you!

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)

11-05a: 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.

10-25a: Gregory Isaacs Slum In Dub 1989 - Rockin' Rollin' Roger Miller - Franck Symphony in D minor / Désormière 1951 - Brahms Chorale Preludes / Virgil Fox 1953

1633 – Jean Titelouze (French composer, poet & organist, Rouen cathedral)
1878 – Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer (German composer, conductor & violinist)
1895 – Sir Charles Hallé (German-British pianist & conductor)
1904 – Teresa Milanollo (Italian violinist & composer)
1907 – Edmund Hart Turpin (English organist & composer)
1926 – Frederick Zech, Jr. (American pianist & composer)
1952 – Sergei Bortkiewicz [Сергі́й Бортке́вич] (Ukrainian composer & pianist)
1960 – José Padilla Sánchez (Spanish composer & pianist)
1963 – Roger Désormière (French conductor)
1963 – Abu Bakr Khairat [بو بكر خيرت‎] (Egyptian composer)
1980 – Virgil Fox (American organist)
1983 – Hermann Ambrosius (German composer & teacher)
1985 – Morton Downey, Sr. (American popular singer, pianist & TV personality, "The Irish Nightingale")
1991 – Bill Graham (American rock promoter & music venue owner)
1992 – Roger Miller (American country singer, songwriter, musician & actor)
1993 – Danny Chan Bak-keung [陳百強] (Hong Kong cantopop singer, songwriter & actor)
1998 – Warren Wiebe (American adult contemporary singer & session bass guitarist)
2003 – Robert Strassburg (American conductor, composer, musicologist & teacher)
2004 – John Peel (English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer & journalist, BBC Radio 1)
2010 – Gregory Isaacs (Jamaican reggae singer & songwriter)

Welcome to Yestermonth in Dead Musicians.

Yes, I've resigned myself to the fact that it would be impossible for us to get even close to getting caught up at this point. But I guess that's okay. These stiffs aren't going anywhere; they'll be just as dead a month later as they are a day later.

Today, a notable female violinist and composer of the 19th century; the conductor for whom one of Britain's major orchestras is named; and a couple of great musicians who were named Roger, although those respective Rogers aren't pronounced the same. Roger Désormière was one of the greatest French conductors of the mid-20th century, an artist with a remarkably wide repertoire, and with a strong dedication to the music of contemporary composers. Roger Miller was known best for the 'novelty' songs he contributed to country and early rock 'n' roll, songs like "Dang Me," "Chug-A-Lug," "You Can't Roller-skate in a Buffalo Herd," and of course, the classic "King of the Road." He was a very talented singer and guitarist, and a very clever songwriter. Roger that, Houston.

In the non-Roger category, we have Virgil Fox, who started out as brilliant but fairly non-descript pipe organist, but hit it big in the 70s with his "Heavy Organ" concerts and recordings, in which he donned duds of almost Liberace-ish flamboyancy, and attempted to turn young people on to the music of J. S. Bach. I've favorited a couple of videos of him up there on our YouTube channel, if you'd like to check out his schtick.

The really exciting people on our list today, however, aren't discussed in this post. I'm speaking of Bill Graham and John Peel, two guys who proved to be of incalculable importance to the careers of countless rock and pop musicians. They'll be discussed in the next post, later tonight, which will see... yes, you guessed it... THE RETURN OF WAEX, THE LOST ONE !!

10-10a: Brahms | Schubert | Mendelssohn : Istomin / Stern / Rose - Beethoven Symphony 6 Pastoral / Paray 1934 - Catherine Collard : Haydn Piano Sonatas | Franck Violin Sonata

1676 – Sebastian Knüpfer (German composer, cantor & music director, Leipzig)
1727 – Alphonse d' Eve (Flemish composer & choirmaster)
1745 – Jacobus Nozeman (Dutch composer & organist)
1789 – Pierre-Louis Couperin (French organist, Église Saint-Gervais, Paris, great-grandnephew of Louis, 1st cousin twice removed of François)
1806 – Prince Louis Ferdinand (Prussian monarch, soldier, pianist & composer)
1836 – Jacob-Joseph-Balthasar Martinn (French composer, violist & teacher)
1843 – Karl Theodor Toeschi (German court composer & violinist, Mannheim)
1856 – Michał Wielhorski (Polish composer)
1867 – Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (Polish pianist & composer)
1889 – Adolf von Henselt (German composer & pianist)
1964 – Eddie Cantor (American singer, comedian, dancer, actor, songwriter & humanitarian)
1964 – Russ Case (American studio trumpeter & pop, jazz & soundtrack composer, arranger & conductor)
1964 – Heinrich Neuhaus (Soviet pianist & teacher of German ancestry, teacher of Sviatoslav Richter & Emil Gilels)
1964 – František Pícha (Czech composer)
1965 – Georgy Mikhaylovich Rimsky-Korsakov [Георгий Михайлович Римский-Корсаков] (Russian composer, nephew of Nikolai)
1967 – Ervin Major (Hungarian musicologist & composer)
1976 – Silvana Armenulić (Yugoslavian folk & sevdalinka singer & actress)
1976 – Connee Boswell (American pop & jazz singer, the Boswell Sisters)
1978 – Ralph Marterie (Italian-born American jazz trumpeter & bandleader)
1979 – Paul Paray (French conductor, organist & composer)
1993 – Catherine Collard (French pianist)
1994 – Nikolai Karetnikov [Николáй Карéтников] (Soviet underground composer & pianist)
2002 – Teresa Graves (American actress & pop singer, Laugh-In, Vampira, Get Christie Love!)
2003 – Eugene Istomin (American pianist)

Okay, this edition is turning out to be a real ball-buster. I employed the progressive aspect there because I'm not even done yet! The edition will be in TWO parts, thanks to the passing on October 10 of last year of a very famous opera singer. And thus we will be having another opera a little later! Haven't had one in a while. As you might imagine, operas eat up a lot in terms of the labels, because of the names of all the damned singers. There will be some other offerings for Part Deux as well, so if you're not fond of opera there may be some other items that will be of interest to you.

As far as this post goes, even it is not quite be finished, because I'm planning on doing something special for Eddie Cantor and Connee Boswell, but it will take some more time for me to complete that task. When I do, they'll be added to the post for "10-10b," even though Connee & Eddie's images appear in this post's collage. Does that make sense? I know it probably doesn't, but just humor me. I'm a crazy person, remember.

Sorry I can't say any more right now. I'll try to add a little more to this write-up later. I know, you've heard that one before...

09-22: Mahler 5 Abravanel 1974 - Schleiermacher Music at the Bauhaus 1999 - Brahms Stern Rose Ormandy 1964 - Eddie Fisher Sings Irving Berlin 1954

1905 – Célestine Galli-Marié (French operatic mezzo-soprano, creator of title role in Carmen)
1927 – Giannotto Bastianelli (Italian musicologist & author)
1935 – Karl Schröder II (German cellist, composer & conductor)
1959 – Josef Matthias Hauer (Austrian composer & music theorist)
1975 – Franz Salmhofer (Austrian composer, clarinetist, conductor & poet)
1981 – Harry Warren [Salvatore Antonio Guaragna] (American composer & lyricist of stage & screen)
1987 – Louis Kentner (Hungarian-born British pianist & composer)
1989 – Irving Berlin [Israel Isidore Baline] (Russian-born American composer & lyricist of stage & screen)
1993 – Maurice Abravanel (Greek-born Swiss-American conductor & pianist of Sephardic ancestry)
1994 – Teddy Buckner (American jazz trumpeter)
1994 – Leonard Feather (British-born American jazz music critic, pianist, composer & producer)
1994 – Mattie Moss Clark (American gospel choir director & mother of The Clark Sisters)
1995 – Dolly Collins (English folk keyboardist, arranger & composer, sister of Shirley)
2001 – Isaac Stern [Исаак Стерн] (Ukrainian-born American violinist)
2010 – Eddie Fisher (American pop singer & actor)

Ugh. These lists are going to have to be pared down brutally if I ever hope to get caught up. But do you like the color scheme I used today? I went with off-blah.

Yesterday we had two great electric bassists, one who outshone the other. Today it's the same deal, except with Tin Pan Alley songwriters: the great Harry Warren (42nd Street, etc.), being overshadowed by Irving Berlin, who was probably the greatest of them all.

We also have the creator of the title role in Bizet's Carmen, Célestine Galli-Marié, who was a high mezzo-soprano. For many years, such a mezzo was referred to as a "Galli-Marié."

There's also Josef Matthias Hauer, who came up with a system of composing with 12 tones just a year or two before Arnold Schoenberg did, although Hauer's methods were quite different. Central to the Hauer approach was the classification of any 12-tone succession into one of 44 tropes, or pairs of complementary unordered hexachords. You don't get it? That's okay, you don't have to understand everything. If you did, you'd be God, and just think how boring that would be. Seriously, doesn't God get bored, knowing there's nothing for Him to discover, nothing that will ever be mysterious to Him? Don't ponder that question. You'd be better off to stick with learning more about Hauer's tropes.

If you've got more than half a dozen jazz albums in your collection, at least one of them probably has liner notes written by Leonard Feather. Also along jazz lines, there's trumpeter Teddy Buckner, an old-time Dixielander, who not only sounded but also looked very much like Louis Armstrong.

Eddie Fisher passed away just last year. Most of you out there would probably know him better as Princess Leia's dad than for his singing.

Mattie Moss Clark was a pioneering figure in the world of gospel choir singing. The standard disposition of three-part harmony for such choirs was of her devising.

And from the world of classical performance, there's Maurice Abravanel, music director of the Utah Symphony between the late 40s & late 70s. He was another Mahlerian, and so we get another chance to remember Gustav Mahler during this, his death centenary. We'll have several more chances before the year is up, so don't worry that we've only addressed Mahler's 5th & 8th symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde so far.

And Issac Stern, one of the great violinists of the past century. My old violin teacher from high school was not fond of his sound. Her comment on him was "Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!" Yeah, he did crunch a bit with the bow. It was an assertive sound - not for everybody, I guess. I attended a master class Stern gave in the early 90s. He asked those assembled to raise their hands if they played the violin. Then he did the same for the cello. And the piano. And that was it. As a violist, I felt a bit left out. On the other hand, I was spared the embarrassment of anybody knowing I played the viola...

STOKOWSKI SPECIAL !! | 36 tracks, 222 minutes! | Acoustic, Electric & Stereo recordings 1917-1975



"Leo-pold !!"

 I'm really only posting this because I'm hoping it will keep me from running out of label space for the next post! But I hope you enjoy this sampler of the remarkable and sometimes controversial but never boring and very creative Leopold Stokowski. It is the work of... many hands, shall we say? It's going up now...! In it, you'll hear him conducting:

The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra
The RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
The Hollywood Bowl* Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra
The New Philharmonia Orchestra
The Symphony of the Air
and The All-American Symphony Orchestra

* the venue in which he's depicted above, in Warner Bros.' Long-Haired Hare (1948):

playing works by... those among The Dead and Dying... including Emmanuel Chabrier (who is also on the list with Leopold), and

~~~~~~~  ROMÂN  ~~~~~~~

compozitor George Enescu! And others I still didn't have room for in just this post's labels... such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Camille Saint-Saëns, and Alexander Glazunov, and Antonín Dvořák, and and Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov.  Crap, that last guy's practically your whole label limit right there.

08-24: Don Byas & Mary Lou Williams 1953 - Mozart Abduction from the Seraglio Beecham Simoneau 1956 - Antonio Paoli 1909 Verdi - Albert Sammons 1916 Vieuxtemps - Leo Blech 1931 Brahms

Pretty darned close to chronological. Tagged image here.

1712 – Thomas Bullis (Scottish composer & organist)
1724 – Andreas Kneller (German composer & organist)
1804 – Valentin Adamberger [Adamonti] (German operatic tenor)
1817 – Nancy Storace (English operatic soprano)
1829 – Benjamin Jacob (English organist, conductor & composer)
1840 – Joseph Waast Aubert Nonot (French harpsichordist, organist & composer)
1841 – Karl Friedrich Curschmann (German composer & singer)
1932 – Gheorghe Cucu (Romanian composer, conductor & folklorist)
1946 – Antonio Paoli (Puerto Rican operatic tenor & boxer)
1949 – Hermann Devriès (French operatic baritone)
1957 – Albert Sammons (English violinist & composer)
1958 – Leo Blech (German composer & conductor)
1962 – Henry Ley (English organist, composer & teacher)
1964 – Maurice Schoemaker (Belgian composer)
1972 – Don Byas (American jazz tenor saxophonist, settled in France & Holland)
1973 – Sláva Vorlová [Mira Kord] (Czech composer & pianist)
1976 – Michael Head (English composer, pianist, organist & singer)
1978 – Louis Prima (American jazz & pop singer, trumpeter & bandleader)
1979 – Ernst Gruber (Austrian operatic tenor)
1985 – Paul Creston (American composer)
1988 – Kenneth Leighton (English composer & pianist)
1992 – Larrie Londin (American rock & country session & road drummer, Journey, Elvis, et al.)
1999 – Alexandre Lagoya (Egyptian-born Greek-Italian classical guitarist & boxer)
2005 – Kaleth Morales (Colombian vallenato singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2005 – Harold "Hal" Kalin (American pop singer, The Kalin Twins, "When")
2006 – Léopold Simoneau (French operatic lyric tenor)

Write-up pending... but it's going to be a good one... a great one... an exciting one, I can feel it...

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...