09-06: Atari Teenage Riot The Future of War 1987 - Jeff Beck Truth 1968 - Nico Chelsea Girl 1968 - Hanss Eisler Deutsche Sinfonie - Ernest Tubb Say Something Nice To Sarah 1972 - Marcel Journet 78s 1906-1919

1811 – Julien-Amable Mathieu (French violinist & composer)
1819 – Georg Druschetzky [Jiří Družecký] (Bohemian composer, oboist & timpanist)
1831 – Johann Ernst Friedrich Wollank (German composer)
1933 – Marcel Journet (French operatic lyric bass)
1937 – Henry Hadley (American composer & conductor)
1949 – Walter Widdop (English Heldentenor)
1952 – José Forns y Cuadras (Spanish musicologist & author)
1956 – Felix Borowski (English-born American composer, music critic, teacher, pianist & violinist)
1962 – Hanns Eisler (German-born composer, pupil of Schoenberg, friend & colleague of Brecht)
1965 – Konstantin Mostras (Russian violinist & composer, pupil of Auer, teacher of Galamian)
1966 – Luigi Perrachio (Italian composer & pianist)
1968 – Karl Rankl (Austrian-born British conductor (Covent Garden) & composer (pupil of Schoenberg & Webern))
1973 – Sir William Henry Harris (English organist, choirmaster & composer, New College & Christ Church, Oxford & St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle)
1977 – Paul Burkhard (Swiss composer & songwriter, "O mein Papa")
1977 – Guido Pannain (Italian musicologist, author & composer)
1978 – Tom Wilson (American record producer)
1979 – Ronald Binge (English composer & arranger of light music)
1981 – Joseph Yasser (Polish-born American music theorist, organist & composer)
1984 – Ernest Tubb (American country singer, songwriter & guitarist)
1985 – Léon Orthel (Dutch composer, pianist & teacher)
1985 – Franco Ferrara (Italian conductor & teacher of many conductors)
1985 – Johnny Desmond (American jazz & pop singer)
1990 – Tom Fogerty (American rock guitarist, songwriter & singer, older brother of John, CCR)
1994 – Max Kaminsky (American jazz trumpeter & bandleader)
1994 – Nicky Hopkins (English session keyboardist & vocalist, Rolling Stones et al.)
1995 – Joanne Gail Abbott (MTV executive)
1996 – Esther [Ester] Soré (Chilean popular singer & actress)
1998 – Ric Segreto (American pop singer, actor, teacher & journalist, active in the Philippines & Guam)
2001 – Carl Crack (Swazi-born German techno musician, Atari Teenage Riot)
2007 – Luciano Pavarotti (Italian operatic lyric tenor)

Weren't we just talking yesterday about the tragic recent passing of Salvatore Licitra, who'd been hailed as "the New Pavarotti," and who'd made his Met debut as a stand-in for Pavarotti on just 2 hours' notice? And now look who's on our list... the old Pavarotti! And the image I used of Luciano is of him making his curtain call for the same role Licitra sang that night: Cavaradossi from Puccini's Tosca... I'll bet you're grateful I used that pic instead of the usual concert-performance-in-formal-attire-with-white-hanky photos we're used to seeing of the great and now 4-years defunct tenor. I was tempted to make a mini-collage of him in photos alongside various pop stars... Michael Jackson, Bono, Julio Iglesias, Vanessa Williams... aren't you also grateful I resisted that impulse?

And weren't we just remembering Gisele MacKenzie yesterday? Well, turns out that one of the most memorable television appearances by singer Johnny Desmond, whom we remember today, was with Boris Karloff in 1957, on guess whose show on  NBC... that's right, The Gisele MacKenzie Show!

And wasn't it just a week ago that we were remembering Carl Wayne from the Move, specifically with their 1968 album that included session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins on a few tracks? And so who makes it to the list today? Yep, it's the "Sixth Stone" himself... (Read more about him below)

And then in the comments to the post from a few days ago in which we remembered Feldman and Partch, weren't Wes and I (Say "hi" to Wes everybody - he's the one person who reads this blog - say "hi" to yourself, Wes) discussing equal divisions of the octave, in which I mentioned 19-tone equal temperament? And now along comes none other than Joseph Yasser, one of the main theorists to suggest this very tuning way back in the 30s, and poops on September 6th!

Well, it's all uncanny or whatever, and if you like you can imagine me as Jack Palance from Ripley's Believe It Or Not with that creepy grin on my face, talking about how very uncanny it is. Oh, and Jack Palance. I'll bet you're just dying (like just about everyone we ever talk about has) to know what day he met his maker, aren't you? You'll never guess... it was... it was... November 10th. Why, that's only about a month away! It's positively canny, I tell you!
 

08-30: Velvet Underground : VU 1985 | Live at Max's Kansas City 1972 - Juan del Enzina ( Encina ) / Hespèrion XX Jordi Savall - Sinatra Sings Gershwin 1943-1952 Columbia

Would be chronological if Mortenson were just before Morrison. Tagged image here.

1529 – Juan del Enzina (Spanish composer, poet, playwright & priest)
1745 – Jean-Baptiste-Maurice Quinault (French actor, musician & composer)
1808 – Joseph Anton Bauer (German trumpeter & composer)
1826 – Theodor Zwettler (Austrian Benedictine prior & composer)
1883 – Angela Peralta (Mexican operatic soprano)
1904 – Kate Fanny Loder [Lady Thompson] (English composer, pianist & organist)
1940 – Fritz Feinhals (German operatic baritone)
1953 – Gaetano Merola (Italian-born American opera impresario & conductor)
1953 – Dimiter Nenov (Bulgarian pianist, composer, teacher & architect)
1956 – Padre José Antonio de Donostia (Benedictine priest, organist, composer & pianist)
1958 – Alexander Albrecht (Slovak-Hungarian composer & organist)
1963 – Axel Stordahl (American arranger, composer & conductor, Frank Sinatra)
1986 – Otto Mortensen (Danish pianist, composer, conductor & organist)
1995 – Sterling Morrison (American rock guitarist, The Velvet Underground)

He's usually called "Juan del Enzina" today, because that's what he called himself. But he's often instead called "Juan del Encina" since the tiny town in Salamanca he was probably from is now called Encina de San Silvestre (population 128... Saaaaa-lute!! Sorry... guess I still have Hee-Haw on the brain after Archie Campbell yesterday...):

Actually, his real name was Juan de Fermoselle, but nobody ever calls him that, for some reason. What they do also call him is "the founder of Spanish drama." And that is really saying something, because if you've ever met a Spanish person you know they can be a rather dramatic people. And to think, it all started with this guy! Oh... but I see here that he was also one of at least 7 known children. Maybe it's Señor y Señora Fermoselle who really deserve the credit. I mean, when your one family makes up half the town, some drama's bound to happen.

There is also some disagreement about exactly when it was that Juan del Enzina died. Some sources say it was sometime late in 1529 or early in 1530. Others state it was in 1533. The source I went with states unequivocally that it was on August 29, 1529, which of course isn't consistent with either of those other approximations. I'm guessing therefore that this date has about a 0.001% chance of being the correct one. But while the date may not be accurate, there's one thing it is that those others aren't: firm. We can't remember you on Yesterday in Dead Musicians (or as I should perhaps call it now "Three or Four Days Ago in Dead Musicians") if we don't know what day yesterday was. Better that we remember you on the wrong day than not at all. And remember Juan del Enzina we shall... (Read more below)

Juan del Enzina is considered the founder of Spanish drama, and Gaetano Merola is considered the founder of San Franciscan opera. That's because Gaetano Merola founded the San Francisco Opera. That was in 1923, and he served for the next 30 years as its general director and principal conductor, until... yup, you guessed it: poopage. Hey, you know what they call me? The founder of this here blog. And they're right. Thanks to all my floundering, this blog could foundering just about any day now...

ERRATUM/ADDENDUM: Case in point. I left out one of the great drummers in jazz history, Philly Joe Jones! One of the quintessential hard bop players. Member of Miles Davis's first great quintet (also known as just "The Quintet," as in "What? You mean there's some other quintet?"), along with Coltrane, Garland, and Chambers. Played with pretty much anybody who was anybody in jazz. Used the traditional grip. Miles said of him, "Philly Joe was the fire that was making a lot of things happen. See he knew everything I was going to do, everything I was going to play; he anticipated me, felt what I was thinking ... Philly Joe was the kind of drummer I knew my music had to have." In his autobiography, Miles says that later, when working with other drummers, he would ask them to do the "Philly Joe Lick," with mixed results.

Go here for the Philly Joe update.