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)

10-05: Revueltas Centennial Anthology - Evile Enter the Grave 2007 - Bert Jansch 1965 - Offenbach Romantique 2007

1564 – Pierre de Manchicourt (Franco-Flemish composer, active in Spain at the court of Philip II)
1707 – Daniel Speer (German composer & author)
1813 – Etienne Ozi (French bassoonist & composer)
1867 – Thomas Täglichsbeck (German violinist & composer)
1880 – Jacques Offenbach (German-born French composer, cellist & impresario)
1911 – Charles Théodore Malherbe (French musicologist & composer)
1915 – José María Usandizaga (Spanish composer & pianist, pupil of d'Indy in Paris)
1915 – Otto Malling (Danish composer, organist & teacher, pupil of Gade, director of Royal Danish Academy of Music)
1924 – Joseph Vézina (Canadian conductor, composer, organist & teacher)
1940 – Silvestre Revueltas (Mexican composer, violinist & conductor)
1943 – Leon Roppolo (American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist & guitarist, New Orleans Rhythm Kings)
1954 – Flor Alpaerts (Belgian conductor, teacher & composer, co-director of Royal Flemish Opera)
1965 – Gustaf Bengtsson (Swedish composer)
1981 – Jud Strunk (American country & pop singer, songwriter, banjoist & comedian, Laugh-In)
1992 – Eddie Kendricks (American R&B singer & songwriter, The Temptations)
1992 – Paul Acket (Dutch entrepreneur, founder of Musiek Express magazine & organizer of North Sea Jazz Festival)
1995 – Dick Jurgens (American jazz bandleader & trumpeter)
2009 – Mike Alexander (English thrash metal bass guitarist & songwriter, Evile)
2010 – Steve Lee (Swiss rock singer, songwriter, drummer & harmonica player, Gotthard)
2011 – Bert Jansch (Scottish folk singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2011 – Steve Jobs (American computer entrepreneur & innovator, co-founder & CEO of Apple Inc.)

Well, as you should know by now, this blog does occasionally feature folks who weren't necessarily musicians, but who played an important role in the world of music in one way or another. That's true of businessman Paul Acket, and boy, is it certainly true of the fellow who occupies the bottom row of the collage. Chances are, he's had more of an effect on the way you consume and listen to music than just about any other individual human being who's been alive in the past 10 years. And yes, I'm including Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, and Kevin Bacon in that.

See, now, that's all I have to say today. Nothing about how unique and influential Jacques Offenbach or Bert Jansch were. No inane remarks about how low-pitched instruments such as the cello, trombone, bassoon, and electric bass seem to be dominant within the October 5th cavalcade of poopery. I opined, and yet I was pithy, as my idol Bill O'Reilly might say. Yes, that was a joke. I hope you don't find my silence on these and the others to be too terribly revuelting...