09-18: Jimi Hendrix : Stockholm 1967 | Albert Hall Soundcheck 1969 - Kagel Heterophonie Gielen 1968 - Jimmy Witherspoon Singin' the Blues 1958 - Ekatarina Velika : Radio Belgrade live 1991

1831 – Peter Hänsel (German-Austrian violinist & composer of chamber music)
1857 – Karol Kurpiński (Polish composer, conductor & teacher)
1903 – Sydir Vorobkevych [Isidor Vorobchievici] (Ukrainian composer, writer, priest, teacher, artist & newspaper editor)
1903 – Theodor Kirchner (German composer & pianist)
1918 – Ernest Farrar (English composer, pianist & organist)
1929 – Hermann Graedener (German composer, conductor & teacher, active in Austria)
1941 – Fred Karno (British comedian & music hall impresario, inventor of "pie in the face" gag)
1952 – Frances Alda (New Zealand-born Australian operatic soprano)
1969 – Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (Hungarian-born German composer, conductor & pianist)
1970 – Jimi Hendrix (American rock guitarist, singer & songwriter)
1997 – Jimmy Witherspoon (American blues & R&B singer)
1998 – Charlie Foxx (American R&B & soul guitarist & singer, duo with sister Inez)
2002 – Margita Stefanović (Yugoslav-Serbian rock keyboardist, Ekatarina Velika) 
2007 – Pepsi Tate (Welsh metal bass guitarist, Tigertailz)
2008 – Mauricio Kagel (Argentine-German composer)

Do you really need for me to say something about Jimi Hendrix? Well, let's see... he was the greatest guitarist in rock history. I guess that about covers it.

Well, it's the third anniversary of the passing of Mauricio Kagel, who'd been one of the last surviving internationally important composers to arise out of the European avant garde just after the end of WWII (Pierre Boulez is just about the only one left now). Kagel had a unique musical voice, a playful one which incorporated elements of performance art and a sense of humor that was never very far below the surface. He worked in several different media over the course of his very productive career, including film (e.g., Ludwig van (1970), a critical examination of the uses of Beethoven's music, made during the bicentenary of his birth), and many of his musical compositions have yet to be recorded, and/or have been performed only on very rare occasions. His love for absurdism is perhaps best appreciated in Staatstheater (1971), a work he described as a "ballet for non-dancers," but which is really more like an opera. The percussion battery for the work includes chamber pots and enema equipment. His great interest in the music of other time periods and other cultures is demonstrated in works like Exotica (1972) for 6 singing instruments with 10 or more non-European instruments, the Musik für Renaissance-Instrumente (1966), and sundry chamber works for unusual groups of instruments, such as accordions and zithers.

Others I wish I could say a few words about. Like great jump-blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon. And Ukrainian composer Сидір Іванович Воробкевич, another one of those somewhat sickening jacks-of-all-trades who makes the rest of us look bad. And Karol Kurpiński, considered Poland's greatest composer before Chopin came along. And Ekatarina Velika, another one of those bands that's not been on the radar screen at all for an ugly American like me, since they had the audacity to be from Eastern Europe, instead of North America or Britain like most reasonable bands come from. Yes, I'd love to say more, but there's still way too much catching up to do. So, in the immortal words of Marty DiBergi, "Enough of my yakkin'. Let's boogie!"

Special Comment: REQUIEMS

Requiems. Aren't they great? Requiems.

Yup, we're all about 'em here. You know it!

Sure, they don't always work out. Sometimes you poop right in the middle of writing one, and then your widow has to try to get a composer even halfway as good as you to try to complete it. And then after he gives up on it, she gets your copyist to finish it, and she has to make up a story about how he was your pupil so nobody questions his qualifications.

Another thing about requiems is that they usually take quite a few people to perform, sometimes as many as an opera would. And sometimes even if you don't count the orchestra and chorus members, the names of those people can take up a lot of characters! And sometimes those characters can push you past some arbitrary limit, like, say... 200.

Requiems.

09-17: Mahler DLvdE Klemperer 1967 - Jimmy Yancey 1940 - Mozart Requiem Messner 1950 - Hildegard von Bingen Sponsa Regis 2009 - Kabeláč Symphony 8 Neumann - Prokofiev Concerto 2 Francescatti 1952

1179 – Hildegard von Bingen (German abbess, composer & author)
1762 – Francesco Geminiani (Italian violinist, composer & music theorist)
1803 – Franz Xaver Süssmayr (Austrian composer, Mozart's copyist & friend, completed Requiem K.626)
1884 – Louis Schubert (German violinist, teacher & composer)
1907 – Ignaz Brüll (Austrian pianist & composer)
1951 – Jimmy Yancey (American blues & jazz pianist, composer & lyricist)
1960 – José [Josep] Sancho Marraco (Spanish composer & church musician)
1966 – Fritz Wunderlich (German lyric tenor)
1973 – Hugo Winterhalter (American easy listening arranger, composer & conductor)
1979 – Miloslav Kabeláč (Czech composer, conductor & pianist)
1982 – Manos Loïzos (Egyptian-born Greek composer & guitarist of Cypriot descent)
1988 – Hilde Gueden [Güden] (Austrian lyric soprano)
1991 – Zino Francescatti (French violinist)
1992 – Roger Wagner (American choral conductor & teacher)
1994 – John Delafose (American zydeco accordionist, composer, fiddler & bandleader)
1996 – Jessie Hill (American blues & R&B singer & songwriter, "Ooh Poo Pah Doo")
1999 – Frankie Vaughan (English pop & easy listening singer)
2005 – Alfred Reed (American composer & conductor)

Write-up pending... the goods are below, though :>

09-16: T. Rex Chicago 1972 - Tosca Callas Bergonzi 1964 - Victor Jara Pongo... 1969 - Rose Royce Car Wash 1976 - Arias for Farinelli : Genaux / Jacobs 2008

1696 – Lambert Pietkin (Belgian composer & organist, Liège Cathedral)
1782 – Farinelli (Italian castrato)
1896 – Antônio Carlos Gomes (Brazilian composer, 1st from Americas to be widely played in Europe)
1945 – John McCormack (Irish tenor)
1965 – Ahn Eak-tai (Korean composer & conductor)
1973 – Víctor Jara (Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter, guitarist & political activist)
1977 – Marc Bolan (English rock & folk singer-songwriter, guitarist & poet, T. Rex)
1977 – Maria Callas (Greek-American operatic soprano sfogato)
1993 – František Jílek (Czech conductor)
2005 – Harry Freedman [Henryk Frydmann] (Polish-born Canadian composer, English hornist & teacher)
2008 – Norman Whitfield (American R&B songwriter & producer, Motown Records)
2009 – Ernst Märzendorfer (Austrian conductor)
2009 – Mary Travers (American folk singer, Peter, Paul and Mary)


Wikipedia:

[Víctor] Jara was deeply influenced by the folklore of Chile and other Latin American countries; he was particularly influenced by artists like Violeta Parra, Atahualpa Yupanqui, and the poet Pablo Neruda. Jara began his foray into folklore in the mid-1950s when he began singing with the group Cuncumen. He moved more decisively into music in the 1960s getting the opportunity to sing at Santiago's La Peña de Los Parra, owned by Ángel Parra. Through them Jara became greatly involved in the Nueva Canción movement of Latin American folk music. He published his first recording in 1966 and, by 1970, had left his theater work in favor of a career in music. His songs were drawn from a combination of traditional folk music and left-wing political activism. From this period, some of his most renowned songs are Plegaria a un Labrador ("Prayer to a Worker") and Te Recuerdo Amanda ("I Remember You Amanda"). He supported the Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition candidate Salvador Allende for the presidency of Chile, taking part in campaigning, volunteer political work, and playing free concerts.

Allende's campaign was successful and, in 1970, he was elected president of Chile. However, the Chilean right wing, who opposed Allende's socialist politics, staged a coup with the help of the Chilean military on September 11, 1973, in the course of which Allende was killed (See Death of Salvador Allende). At the moment of the coup, Jara was on the way to the Technical University (today Universidad de Santiago), where he was a teacher. That night he slept at the university along with other teachers and students, and sang to raise morale.

On the morning of September 12, Jara was taken, along with thousands of others, as a prisoner to the Chile Stadium (renamed the Estadio Víctor Jara in September 2003). In the hours and days that followed, many of those detained in the stadium were tortured and killed there by the military forces. Jara was repeatedly beaten and tortured; the bones in his hands were broken as were his ribs. Fellow political prisoners have testified that his captors mockingly suggested that he play guitar for them as he lay on the ground with broken hands. Defiantly, he sang part of "Venceremos" (We Will Win), a song supporting the Popular Unity coalition. After further beatings, he was machine-gunned on September 16, his body dumped on a road on the outskirts of Santiago and then taken to a city morgue where they found 44 bullet shots on his body.

File under the "That could never happen here" category.

09-15: Crumb DeGaetani 1974 - Pink Floyd LA 1975 - Bill Evans Umbria 1978 - Ramones San Francisco 1979 - Webern Complete Robert Craft 1957 - Willie Bobo Bobo Motion 1967 - Sayed Darwish / Beirut Oriental Ensemble

1747 – Johann Gotthilf Ziegler (German composer)
1841 – Alessandro Rolla (Italian violist, violinist & composer, teacher of Paganini)
1915 – Ernest Gagnon (Canadian folk music collector, composer & organist)
1923 – Sayed Darwish (Egyptian singer & oud player, considered Egypt's greatest composer)
1924 – Anthony Johnson Showalter (American hymn composer, teacher & publisher)
1945 – Anton Webern (Austrian composer)
1950 – Vojtěch Říhovský (Czech composer & pianist)
1951 – Jacinto Guerrero (Spanish composer of zarzuelas & orchestral music)
1965 – Steve Brown (American jazz bassist, New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Paul Whiteman)
1972 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin (Turkish composer, one of the "Turkish Five")
1980 – Bill Evans (American jazz pianist & composer)
1983 – Willie Bobo (American Latin jazz percussionist)
1985 – Cootie Williams (American jazz & blues trumpeter, Duke Ellington)
1989 – Jan DeGaetani (American mezzo-soprano, known for 20th-century repertoire)
1993 – Frits Noske (Dutch musicologist, music editor & writer)
1994 – Haywood Henry (American jazz baritone saxophonist)
2003 – Jack Brymer (English classical & jazz clarinetist)
2004 – Johnny Ramone (American punk guitarist, The Ramones)
2007 – Aldemaro Romero (Venezuelan pop & classical pianist, composer, arranger & conductor)
2008 – Richard Wright (English rock keyboardist, Pink Floyd)

Well, I've been thinking... if it takes 2 or 3 posts just to fit in all the labels for these multi-day posts, I might as well just do a separate post for each day! But I'll also need to be making at least 2 posts per day if I ever hope to get caught up.

Some real stars of the music world today. It's hard to imagine what jazz of the past 55 years or so would have been like without Bill Evans. Easily one of the most influential pianists of the second half of the 20th century, his impressionistic, probing style of improvisation can still be heard in the work of many artists, including Keith Jarrett, Steve Kuhn, and Paul Bley. And there's also Cootie Williams, and Willie Bobo, and Haywood Henry. Those guys get major jazz props just for their names. You don't even have to hear one note - which is exactly what you might hear from Cootie (he was something of a minimalist when it came to trumpet solos).

Speaking of minimalists, Anton Webern. He was accidentally shot to death at the end of WWII by an American soldier. Webern had some nervous tics, and apparently one of them was mistaken for... I dunno, reaching for something? A hand-grenade? Anyway, Webern - a musical miniaturist who reveled in symmetries and subtleties of expression - was, among those from the Second Viennese School, the one who had the most influence on those composers of integral serialism who dominated the classical avant-garde in the post-war period.

Sayed (or Sayyed) Darwish (but really of course it's سيد درويش‎) is one of the single most prominent figures in the history of Egyptian music. He's considered to be not only Egypt's greatest composer, but also the father of Egyptian popular music. Thus Darwish enjoys a status in his home country that is unparalleled for a musician from just about any other country.

Also there's Turkish composer Ulvi Cemal Erkin, who was one of the major figures to bring original homegrown Western-style classical music to Turkey in the early-to-mid 20th century, following the important reforms of modernization initiated by the heroic Mustafa Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey and its first president.

Dan JeGaetani, er, Jan DeGaetani was one of those great, great mezzos who ya just want to hug. You know what I mean? Wouldn't you just love to give Jan, and Cathy Berberian, and Christa Ludwig, and Janet Baker, and Marilyn Horne and Risë Stevens and Teresa Berganza a big old hug? Probably still could with Cecilia Bartoli or Frederica von Stade... not dead! That's an important criterion when it comes to hugging. Anyway, Jan DeGaetani made some pretty sick recordings of modern music. Such as her Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire, still considered the reference recording of that very difficult-to-sing-and-speak-and-something-in-between work. And who could ever forget the original LP cover of that sweet baby?

DeGaetani also did some important work with living composers, in particular George Crumb...

BACH / STOKOWSKI BONUS ! Orchestral Transcriptions (plus more space for The Dead and Dying)

The fine transfer work of F. Reeder at the Internet Archive. Half of these 10 tracks are Stokowski transcriptions, performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The remainder are the work of Frederick Stock & Fritz Reiner with Chicago, Dimitri Mitropoulos with Minneapolis, and Pierre Monteux with San Francisco:

J. S. Bach: Transcriptions for Orchestra

If you've reached this post looking for Felix Mendelssohn, Camille Saint-Saëns, Alexander Glazunov, Antonín Dvořák, or Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, I have some bad news for you: they're dead! But you can find some of their music here:

Stokowski Sampler

09-121314: Rameau Anacréon Christie - ABBA live 1981 - Johnny Cash @ Folsom Prison - Furry Lewis On the Road Again 1969 - Stanley Turrentine Let It Go 1966 - DJ Mehdi Daftworld Mix 2011

1645 – Heinrich Steuccius (German composer, in J. S. Bach's choral repertoire)
1750 – Charles Theodore Pachelbel (German composer, organist & harpsichordist, active in Charleston, SC, son of Johann)
1764 – Jean-Philippe Rameau (French composer, music theorist & harpsichordist)
1789 – Franz Xaver Richter (Austrian singer, violinist, composer, conductor & music theorist)
1861 – Fortunato Santini (Italian priest & collector of large music score archive)
1894 – Emmanuel Chabrier (French composer & pianist)
1924 – Pekka Hannikainen (Finnish composer, father of pianist Ilmari, composer Väinö & cellist Tauno)
1932 – Jean Cras (French composer & career naval officer)
1932 – Julius Röntgen (German-Dutch composer & pianist)
1936 – Ossip Gabrilowitsch (Russian-American pianist & conductor)
1960 – Dino Borgioli (Italian lyric tenor)
1960 – Leo Weiner (Hungarian composer & music educator)
1964 – Mary Howe (American composer & pianist)
1975 – Walter Herbert (German-born American conductor & impresario)
1977 – Leopold Stokowski (British-born American conductor)
1981 – Furry Lewis (American blues guitarist, singer & songwriter)
1981 – Yasuji Kiyose (Japanese composer, teacher of Hiroyoshi Suzuki & Tōru Takemitsu)
1982 – Christian Ferras (French violinist)
1982 – Federico Moreno Torroba (Spanish composer)
1985 – Dane Rudhyar (American author, composer & astrologer)
1989 – Perez Prado (Cuban bandleader, singer, composer & keyboardist, active in Mexico, "King of the Mambo")
1990 – Wim de Craene (Belgian pop & cabaret singer & songwriter)
1991 – Ferry Barendse (Belgian jazz trumpeter & composer, The Ramblers)
1991 – Robert Irving (English conductor)
1994 – Georgi Tutev (Bulgarian composer)
1997 – Stig Anderson (Swedish pop songwriter & entrepreneur, manager of Abba)
1997 – Georges Guétary (French singer & actor)
2000 – Stanley Turrentine (American jazz tenor saxophonist)
2000 – Carlo Del Monte (Spanish operatic tenor, active also in Italy, France & Mexico)
2001 – Stelios Kazantzidis (Greek laïkó singer)
2003 – Johnny Cash (American singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor & author)
2006 – Norman Brooks (Canadian singer, Al Jolson soundalike)
2007 – Robert Savoie (Canadian operatic baritone)
2011 – DJ Mehdi (French hip hop & electro producer of Tunisian ancestry)

 ~ RIP DJ Mehdi ~

(20 Jan. 1977 – 13 Sep. 2011)

Our Hearts Go Out to All Your Loved Ones

*   *   *   *   *

Well, I left a lot of links for you up there, so I wouldn't have to write as much. Yes, I am, how you say, lazy-ass American. That's right. Me want lot of money, no want work.

Not like in old country. We work! Stomp on grapes for wine, 14 hours a day, they pay us 37 cents. It's not much... enough for a little bread... and to keep power on so we can blog one more day! That is all we ask... is it so much? To blog just once more... maybe download some Morton Feldman or early Franco-Flemish isorhythmic motets... you know... usual sad life of common people like it always has been!

So many times we feel despair of oppression. But then we break out music, and violins, and wine (oh, I forgot to mention that part... since they pay us so little to stomp on grapes, we get to take some of wine home with us... which is, you know, kinda cool, actually), and we start to dance... dance... DANCE... in that... you know, in that silly way that people in my country do... and then all is right with the world!

And then we go to sleep. For a really, really long time, maybe 10 hours. All that dancing... it wears you out, you know! And the drinking too. Maybe you call in sick for work the next day. The boss says "No problem, this other guy wants more hours this week anyway. See you tomorrow, buddy." What a tragedy! Damnable world and its unfairness.

UPDATE: Oh, and be sure check out vee-deo of Pachelbel kanon in just intonation, meantone tuning & equal temperament, with rolling score to follow along... it's, how you say, a real "ear-stretcher." Hehehe. Just like in old days, in old country. They make you confess. Stretch ears, stretch arms... you would not believe some parts they stretch! Torture you, you confess. Then they burn at stake. Or impale you... take many hours, even days, crucifixion more humane. But in other ways, not like old days, old country. You no roll score... score roll you. Also, NO CHOICE OF TUNING! You tune OUR way!! NO?!? Then we torture, impale!! Very painful, many hours you long for death. So... aaaaahhh.... ya. De Pachelbel kanon. In Re, ah... in D! Major! Have a happy day, and keep with your face a smile upon it !!  :D