June 21: On This Day in Music

 

 

Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment

 

 

• 1577 ~ Giovanni Del Turco, Composer

• 1732 ~ Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, composer and 5th son of Johann Sebastian Bach

• 1790 ~ Wilhelm Speyer, Composer

• 1805 ~ Karl Friedrich Curschmann, Composer

• 1846 ~ Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone he invented in 1840

• 1862 ~ Henry Holden Huss, Composer

• 1865 ~ Albert Herbert Brewer, Composer

• 1868 ~ Wagner’s opera “Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg” premiered in Munich

• 1887 ~ Adolf Schimon, Composer, died at the age of 67

• 1892 ~ Hilding Rosenberg, Swedish composer

• 1893 ~ Alois Hába, Czech opera composer and writer

• 1900 ~ Gunnar Ek, Composer (he died on 81st birthday)

• 1900 ~ Polibo Fumagalli, Composer, died at the age of 69

• 1903 ~ Louis Krasner, violinist

• 1906 ~ Luis Maria Millet, Composer

• 1908 ~ Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian Composer, died at the age of 64. He was best known for his orchestral piece “Sheherezade” and the opera “The Golden Cockerel” as well as his re-orchestration of Moussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov.”
More information about Rimsky-Korsakov

• 1909 ~ Kurt Schwaen, Composer

• 1910 ~ Bela Tardos, Composer

• 1910 ~ Charles Jones, Composer

• 1914 ~ Jan Decadt, Composer

• 1921 ~ Frank Scott, American pianist for the Lawrence Welk Show

• 1930 ~ Helen Merrill (Milcetic), Jazz singer, Swing Journal readers’ poll: Best American Jazz Singer in 1989

• 1932 ~ Judith Raskin, American soprano

• 1932 ~ Lalo Schifrin, Composer

• 1932 ~ O.C. (Ocie Lee) Smith, Singer, vocalist for Count Basie Orchestra

• 1939 ~ Charles Boone, Composer

• 1941 ~ Wayne King and his orchestra recorded Time Was, with Buddy Clark providing the vocal accompaniment, for Victor Records.

• 1944 ~ Ray Davies, Musician, guitar, singer, songwriter with The Kinks

• 1945 ~ Chris Britton, Guitarist with The Troggs

• 1946 ~ Brenda Holloway, American singer and songwriter

• 1946 ~ Heinrich Kaminski, Composer, died at the age of 59

• 1948 ~ Columbia Records announced that it was offering a new Vinylite long-playing record that could hold 23 minutes of music on each side. One of the first LPs produced was of the original cast of the Broadway show, South Pacific. Critics quickly scoffed at the notion of LPs, since those heavy, breakable, 78 RPM, 10- inch disks with one song on each side, were selling at an all-time high. It didn’t take very long though, for the 33-1/3 RPM album — and its 7-inch, 45 RPM cousin to revolutionize the music industry and the record-buying habits of millions.

• 1951 ~ Nils Lofgren, Musician, guitar, keyboards, singer, songwriter

• 1958 ~ Splish Splash was recorded by Bobby Darin. It was his first hit and it took Darin only ten minutes to write the song.

• 1959 ~ Kathy Mattea, Singer

• 1969 ~ Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fourteenth Symphony, premiered in Moscow

• 1972 ~ Billy Preston received a gold record for the instrumental hit, Outa-Space. Preston, who played for gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, back in 1956, was also in the film St. Louis Blues as a piano player. He was a regular on the Shindig TV show in the 1960s; and recorded with The Beatles on the hits Get Back and Let It Be. Preston also performed at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1969. Many well-known artists have utilized his keyboard talents, including Sly & The Family Stone and the Rolling Stones.

• 1972 ~ Seth Bingham, Composer, died at the age of 90

• 1975 ~ Heinz Lau, Composer, died at the age of 49

• 1978 ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice’s musical “Evita” premiered in London

• 1980 ~ Bert Kaempfert passed away

• 1981 ~ Gunnar Ek, Composer, died on 81st birthday

• 1982 ~ Paul McCartney released “Take it Away”

• 1985 ~ Ron Howard directed his first music video. The TV star of The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days also directed the film Cocoon, which included Gravity, the song used in the video. Michael Sembello, a guitarist who played on Stevie Wonder’s hits between 1974 and 1979 was responsible for Gravity.

• 1990 ~ June Christy passed away

• 1990 ~ Little Richard received a star on Hollywood’s walk of fame

• 1992 ~ Thomas Whitfield, Gospel vocalist, died of heart attack at 38

• 1993 ~ “Camelot” opened at the Gershwin Theater New York City for 56 performances

• 1997 ~ Art Prysock, Jazz musician, died at the age of 68

• 2000 ~ Alan Hovhaness, a prolific composer who melded Western and Asian musical styles, died at the age of 89.
More information about Hovhaness

• 2001 ~ Bluesman John Lee Hooker, whose foot-stompin’ and gravelly voice on songs like Boom Boom and Boogie Chillen electrified audiences and inspired generations of musicians, died of natural causes at the age of 83. He recorded more than 100 albums over nearly seven decades. He won a Grammy Award for a version of In The Mood, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s Grammys. His distinctive sound influenced rhythm and blues musicians, as well as rock ‘n’ rollers including Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt and ZZ Top. Hooker’s 1990 album “The Healer“, featured duets with Carlos Santana, Raitt and Robert Cray. It sold 1.5 million copies and won him his first Grammy Award, for a duet with Raitt on I’m in the Mood. Born in Clarksdale, Miss., August 22, 1917, Hooker was one of 11 children born to a Baptist minister and sharecropper who discouraged his son’s musical bent. In Detroit, he was discovered and recorded his first hit, Boogie Chillen, in 1948.

• 2003 ~ William Leslie died at the age of 78. He was a jazz saxophonist who toured the world with the Louis Jordan Band in the 1950s in Sellersville, Pa. He played with the Jordan Band in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Europe and on the television show “Your Hit Parade.” Mr. Leslie had played the saxophone since he was 12. After serving in World War II, he attended the Landis School of Music in West Philadelphia, Pa., on the GI Bill.

• 2015 ~ Gunther Schuller, American hornist and jazz composer (1994 Pulitzer Prize), died at the age of 89