Tag Archives: Arturo Toscanini

Composers – T

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Tartini

Giuseppe Tartini was born in Pirano, Italy and lived from 1692 until 1770. He was a violinist and composer, who also had studied law and divinity at Padua, and was an accomplished fencer. He secretly married a proteg?e of the Archbishop of Padua, for which he was arrested. He fled to Assisi but, after attracting the archbishop’s attention by his violin playing, he was invited back to his wife. Perhaps one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was also an eminent composer. His best-known work is the Trillo del Diavolo (c.1735, Devil’s Trill).

Tavener, John

John Taverner lived from about 1490 until 1545. He was employed as master of the choristers at Cardinal College (Christ Church), Oxford, in its early heyday, retiring, on Cardinal Wolsey’s fall from power, to Boston, where he was held in considerable regard until his death in 1545. The popular, if mistaken, account of his life is the subject of the opera by Peter Maxwell Davies, Taverner.

Taverner wrote Latin Mass settings, Magnificat settings and motets. Of the first of these the Western Wynde Mass, using the melody of a popular song of that name, is among the better known. From his Mass Gloria tibi Trinitas came the fragment of a theme that served later generations as the basis of an English genre of consort music, the In nomine.

Taverner himself began the tradition of the In nomine, an instrumental arrangement of part of the Benedictus of his Mass Gloria tibi Trinitas.

Taverner, John Keith

John Kenneth Tavener, born in 1944 in London, England is a composer. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London and has been professor of music at Trinity College of Music since 1969. He was still at college when he won the prestigious Prince Rainier of Monaco Prize in 1965 with his cantata, Cain and Abel. His music is predominantly religious, and includes the cantata The Whale (1966), Ultimos ritos (1972, Last Rites) for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, and a sacred opera Therese (1979). He was converted to the Russian Orthodox faith in 1976.

His work, Eternity’s Sunrise, won a Grammy Award. His sacred work, Song for Athene, was sung at the funeral ceremony of Princes Diana.

Tchaikovsky

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky lived between 1840 and 1893. He is considered to be a romantic composer. He was a Russian composer who was a master of melancholy moods, emotional outbursts and dramatic climaxes in his music.

“Worthless, vulgar, derivative, unplayable” were a few of the adjectives that pianist and conductor Nicholas Rubinstein used to describe Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in b-flat minor, when he first heard it on Christmas Eve, 1874. Ironically, Tchaikovsky had arranged the piece as a gift for Rubinstein, to whom he intended to dedicate it. Furious, Tchaikovsky re-dedicated the piece to pianist Hans von Bülow, who was the first to perform it.

Within a few yers, Rubinstein’s distaste for the concerto mellowed and he became one of its principal interpreters.

Tchaikovsky read Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre in the 1860’s and set its melancholy poem “None but the Lonely Heart” to music.

Tchaikovsky found one of his greatest successes with his lovely waltz from the “Serenade for Strings” which he composed in 1880. He was also composing the 1812 Overture at the same time. He conducted several early performances of the Serenade himself, but he had no formal conducting training and became so nervous that he sometimes lost the place in his own music.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet inspired the melancholy Tchaikovsky to write his own version, using musical themes to suggest various themes from the play.

On his way to New York in 1891 to participate in the opening of Carnegie Hall, Tchaikovsky stopped in Paris and discovered the celesta, The celesta is a small keyboard with tiny silver bars which sound like bells when struck. He ordered one to be sent to Moscow in strict secrecy so that he could be the first to use it. His ballet The Nutcracker included the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” which has several wonderfully shimmering phrases for the celesta.

Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker was featured in the Walt Disney movie Fantasia.

The first performance of the Sixth Symphony was only a mild success. By the time of the next performance a few weeks later – which was a tremendous success – Tchaikovsky was dead of cholera. It’s title Pathétique – is characteristic of the composer, who always was afraid that his creativity would suddenly stop.

Teagarden

Weldon Leo ‘Jack’ Teagarden was a Jazz musician, born in Vernon, Texas and he lived from 1905 until 1964. He came from a musical family with his mother, Helen, playing piano and his father,Charles, trumpet. His two brothers, Charlie (trumpet) and Clois (drums) were also talented musicians as was his sister Norma (piano). Jack started on piano at the age of five and two years later learned to play the baritone horn, bought for him by his father. By the age of ten Jack was playing trombone.

The family moved from Vernon to Chappell, Nebraska in 1918 and Jack was soon playing in local theatres accompanied by his mother on piano. From here his travels become a little blurred but we know that he lived for a while in 1919 in Oklahoma City then with his uncle in San Angelo and started playing with local bands. He then played with a quartet at the Horn Palace Inn, San Antonio led by drummer Cotton Bailey,from late 1920 until September 1921 except for a summer season in Shreveport.

It was from Cotton Bailey that the young Weldon received his nickname, “Jack”. From then until the spring of 1923 he played with the legendary Peck Kelly’s Bad Boys. Dropped out of music in Wichita Falls in the summer of ’23 then joined Marin’s Southern Serenaders before rejoining Peck Kelly.

His recording debut came with Johnny Johnson and his Statler Pennsylvanians in early December 1927 when they cut two sides for Victor, “Thou Swell”/”My One and Only”. Jack was twenty-two years old. Two months with the Tommy Gott Orchestra then a major move to Ben Pollack where he remained from June 1928 until May 1933. This period with Pollack was extremely productive in recording terms as he led his own recording groups as well as playing as a sideman with Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Red Nichols, Eddie Condon, and many other famous musicians of the day.

He took part in the first ‘mixed’ recording session with Louis which produced the majestic blues “Knockin’ a Jug”. In October 1928 Jack cut “Makin’ Friends” with Eddie Condon and made history by using a water glass as a substitute for a mute, removing the bell of the trombone and holding the glass over the open end of the tubing producing a unique sound.

In December 1933 he made his big move to join Paul Whiteman. He stayed with Whiteman’s star-studded aggregation until December 1938. His stay with Whiteman brought him financial security but we will never know if this residency was a good move or a bad one. Opinions differ strongly. It has been surmised that Benny Goodman would have offered Jack the trombone chair in his new orchestra as featured soloist.

After leaving Whiteman, Jack started up his own big band which he led until from February 1939 until November 1946. Musically the band was a success but financially a disaster. When the band was finally broken up, Jack gigged around, recorded as a freelance and played at the ‘Esquire’ jazz concert in January 1944 at the Metropolitan Opera House with Armstrong, Eldridge, Tatum, Hawkins. He led his own sextet until joining Louis Armstrong’s All Stars where he stayed from July 1947 until August 1951.

When he left Louis he formed his own All Stars and toured with them until he disbanded in 1956 when he played with Ben Pollack for a few months. He co-led another all-star group with Earl Hines which visited Britain and Europe in the fall of 1957 which was raptuorously received. Jack led another group on a State Department sponsored tour of Asia from September 1958 until January 1959.

Jack was a mainstay of late 1920s New York Jazz scene, a trombonist and singer whose relaxed, melodic instrumental style was highly influential. He was also one of the best White Jazz singers, particularly when he sang the Blues on songs like Makin’ Friends.

He continued playing and leading a group until his death on January 15, 1964. He played his last engagement at The Dream Room in New Orleans while suffering from bronchial pneumonia, returned to the Prince Conti Motor Hotel, just three blocks from Basin Street, after the gig and was found by the room-maid the next afternoon, dead on the floor clad in his dress shirt and shorts. He was 58 years old. The New Orleans “Times-Picayune” published his obituary on January 16, 1964. Jack was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Plot # 7281. The headstone reads “Where there is Hatred, Let Me Sow Love”

Tebaldi

Renata Tebaldi is an Operatic soprano, born in Pesaro, Italy in 1922. She studied at Parma Conservatory, made her debut at Rovigo in 1944, and was invited by Toscanini to appear at the re~opening of La Scala, Milan, in 1946, where she sang until 1954. She then sang in many opera houses, including several seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, and made many recordings.
Tebaldi had one of the most beautiful Italian voices of the century. Although her rivalry with Maria Callas attracted much attention, it was her singing that captivated her fans.

Her breakthrough came in 1946 when she auditioned in Milan for the great conductor Toscanini and from then until the late 1970s she performed across Europe and the United States.

When she made her debut at the city’s La Scala opera house in late 1946, the maestro dubbed her “The Voice of an Angel.”

Singing the soprano part in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Te Deum,” the concert marked the reopening of the theater after the end of World War II. It also branded Tebaldi in Italian minds as part of the country’s post-war renaissance.

She went on to perform at London’s Covent Garden, the San Francisco Opera and appeared regularly at the Metropolitan Opera (news – web sites) in New York taking the lead roles in “La Boheme,” “Madam Butterfly,” “Tosca” and “La Traviata.”

“I started my career at 22 and finished it at 54. 32 years of success, satisfaction and sacrifices. Singing was my life’s scope to the point that I could never have a family,” she wrote in a preface to her official Web site.

Tebaldi was born in the Italian seaside town of Pesaro on Feb. 1, 1922. Stricken with polio at the age of 3, she was unable to partake in strenuous activities and instead became interested in music.

In her early teens, she began studying music at the Conservatory of Parma.

“I started singing when I was a young girl but my family wanted me to study piano but my overwhelming need to express myself with my voice made me choose the art of singing,” she once told her fans.

Tebaldi has left a huge legacy of complete operas on disc with other famous singers including Mario del Monaco, Giulietta Simionato, and Carlo Bergonzi.

Her recordings include Verdi’s “Otello” and “Aida” and Puccini’s “La Boheme” and “Madama Butterfly.”

She last performed on the opera stage in 1973, and her last concert took place in 1976.

Tebaldi was a Knight Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and had received a Commander, Order of Arts and Letters from France.

Te Kanawa

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, born in 1944 in Gisborne, New Zealandin, is an Operatic soprano. After winning many awards in New Zealand and Australia she came to London, where she made her debut with the Royal Opera Company in 1970. She has since taken a wide range of leading roles, and in 1981 sang at the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales. She was made a dame in 1982 and has produced many non-classical recordings. In 1989 she published Land of the Long White Cloud: Maori Myths and Legends.

Teleman

Georg Philipp Telemann, born in 1681 in Magdeburg, Germany, was a very prolific late Baroque era composer, composing 600 overtures in the Italian style, 44 Passions, 40 operas, innumerable trio sonatas, suites and flute quartets. He was a self-taught composer and organist. When he died in 1767, his organist post in Leipzig went to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas is the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, the Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, and the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He is currently Artistic Director of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, which he and Leonard Bernstein inaugurated in 1990. Born in Los Angeles, he is the third generation of his family to follow an artistic career. At age nineteen he was named Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra where he worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen and Copland on premieres of their compositions. He was also Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival. Noted for his commitment to music education, Michael Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in 1988, to be a national orchestra for the most gifted graduates of America’s music conservatories. In addition to their regular season in Miami, they have toured France, Great Britain, South America, Japan, Israel and the United States, and in 1998 celebrated their 10th anniversary with concerts in New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Vienna.

Tilson Thomas has recently completed a very successful tour of Europe with the San Francisco Symphony and back at home in June 1999, they present a festival of Stravinsky’s music, some of which they have recently recorded together.

With the London Symphony Orchestra, Tilson Thomas has toured in Israel, Japan, the USA, as well as in Europe including an appearance at the Salzburg Festival. In London, he and the orchestra have mounted major festivals focusing on the music of Brahms, Mahler, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gershwin, Reich and Takemitsu.

Tilson Thomas’ recordings have received many awards and cover a wide range of repertoire including Bach, Beethoven, Mahler and Prokofiev as well as his pioneering work with the music of Ives, Ruggles, Reich, Cage and Gershwin. In 1994 Michael Tilson Thomas received the Ditson Award for contributions to American Music, was named Musical America’s Conductor of the Year and received five Grammy nominations and two Gramophone awards for his recordings. He has been an exclusive BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal recording artist since 1995 and his most recent releases include the disc “New World Jazz” with the New World Symphony Orchestra.

Tilson Thomas has also worked extensively for television including educational broadcasts with the New York Philharmonic, a BBC series with the London Symphony Orchestra including programmes on Strauss, Sibelius and Beethoven, and other television productions celebrating works by Gershwin and Bernstein.

Von Tilzer, Albert

Albert Von Tilzer (Albert Gumm) (1878 – 1956) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on Mar. 29, 1878. He was the younger brother of Harry Von Tilzer. He was a vaudeville performer and composer and wrote many hit tunes. Some of them were: Carrie (Carrie Marry Harry), Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl, I’ll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time, Put Your Arms Around Me Honey and Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Overview Composer Albert Von Tilzer was an important songwriter most active from the early 1900’s into the 1920’s. He was the younger brother of composer Harry Von Tilzer.

Albert went to work in his father’s Indianapolis shoe store after graduating from high school. He learned to play the piano by ear and did have some lessons in harmony before he joined a vaudeville troupe.

In 1899, he went to Chicago, and worked briefly for his older brother’s music publishing firm, Shapiro, Bernstein and Von Tilzer. Albert then traveled to New York City, and found work as a shoe salesman in a large Department store.

In 1900, he published his first song “The Absent Minded Beggar Waltz”, a piano instrumental. In 1903 he wrote “That’s What the Daisy Said”, with his own lyric. This was published by his brother’s firm.

In 1903, he formed York Music Company, his own publishing house, which would thereafter publish all of his own music.

All the while Albert was composing and publishing, he was also working as a vaudeville performer. He was a headliner on the Orpheum circuit. In 1930, he settled in Hollywood and worked in a few motion pictures. He was elected to the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. Albert Von Tilzer died in L.A., in 1956, at age 78.

Von Tilzer, Harry

Harry Von Tilzer (Harry Gummbinsky -the family later shortened the name to “Gumm”.) lived from 1872 until 1946. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and was the older brother of Albert Von Tilzer. He was an entertainer and common laborer who turned to music composition and formed the Harry Von Tilzer Music Company in 1902. He wrote many hit tunes. Some of them are: (She was only a) Bird in a Gilded Cage; I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad); I’d Leave My Happy Home for You; Take Me Back to New York Town; Wait ‘Til the Sun Shines Nellie; When My Baby Smiles at Me and Why Do They Always Pick on Me?

Harry, one of six children, was to find a career in music as did his younger brother Albert. (Apparently, two of the children, a boy and an girl, perished in childhood.) When Harry was still a child, his family moved to Indianapolis, IN, where he father acquired a shoe store. A theatrical company gave performances in the loft above the store, and that’s where Harry learned to love show business.

His career really started in 1886 when, at age 14, he ran away from home and joined the Cole Brothers Circus. By 1887, he was playing piano, composing songs, and acting in a traveling repertory company. He changed his name at that time. His mother’s maiden name was Tilzer, and he ‘gussied’ it up by adding the ‘Von’. Thereafter he would be called Harry Von Tilzer, and later his younger brother would adopt the name also, Albert Von Tilzer.

Harry met Lottie Gilson when the burlesque troupe with which he was working reached Chicago. The popular vaudevillian took an interest, and induced him to go to New York. In 1892, Harry, working as a groom on a trainload of horses, arrived in New York, with just $1.65 in his pocket. He rented a room near the Brooklyn Bridge and became a $15.00 per week saloon pianist. He left New York briefly to work in a traveling medicine show, but returned to again work in saloons and later as a vaudevillian in a ‘Dutch’ act with George Sidney.

At this time, Harry was writing songs, literally hundreds of songs that were never published. He would sell them outright to other entertainers for $2.00 each. Even Tony Pastor sang a few of his songs in his theater. But the tide was about to turn for Harry.

One of his songs was published, “My Old New Hampshire Home”, lyric by Andrew B. Sterling. William C. Dunn, owner of a small print shop, purchased it outright for $15.00, and issued it in 1898. It was a hit that sold more than 2 million copies.

There is an interesting historical note connected with Harry Von Tilzer. In the Early 1900’s, Von Tilzer kept an upright piano in his publishing firm. Harry kept pieces of paper stuffed between the strings of the piano’s harp. It gave the piano a tinny sort of sound to which Von Tilzer was partial. One day, the lyricist and newspaper journalist Monroe Rosenfeld was in Harry’s office and heard him playing the tinny sounding piano. The sound suggested a title for a piece he was writing, – Tin Pan Alley.

Harry’s last years were spent in retirement, while living in the Hotel Woodward, in New York City. He died in 1946, at age 74.

Tippett

Sir Michael (Kemp) Tippett is a Composer, born in London, England, UK in 1905. He studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and became director of music at Morley College from 1940 until 1951. His oratorio, A Child of Our Time (1941), reflecting the problems of the 1930s and 1940s, won him wide recognition. A convinced pacifist, he was imprisoned for three months as a conscientious objector during World War 2. He scored a considerable success with his operas The Midsummer Marriage (1952) and King Priam (1961), and among his other works are four symphonies, a piano concerto, and string quartets. He was knighted in 1966, and received the Order of Merit in 1983.

Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini, 1867 to 1957, was a conductor who born in Parma, Italy. He was a cellist before the night in 1886 when he took over the baton from an indisposed conductor in Rio de Janeiro and stayed on the podium for the rest of his career. After years of journeyman work in Italian opera houses, he became conductor of Milan’s La Scala in 1898. In 1909 he came to the USA to lead the Metropolitan Opera orchestra; his subsequent career took him to positions in Europe, England, and the USA, including the podium of the New York Philharmonic from 1928 to 1936. In 1937 the NBC Symphony, primarily a broadcasting and recording orchestra, was created for Toscanini; he led it until 1954, cementing his reputation as one of the most revered conductors in the world. He helped pioneer a new performance tradition that proclaimed an end to Romantic interpretive excesses and substituted absolute fidelity to the score; in practice, that made for clean, sinewy performances, achieved partly by his legendary tantrums in rehearsals. He was equally admired for his performances of Beethoven and other 19th-century classics and of modern composers including Stravinsky, Debussy, and Richard Strauss.

Townshend

Born Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend on May 19, 1945, as a member of The Who, he wrote nearly all of the songs and sang “The Acid Queen” and “Sensation”. for the double album Tommy. Tommy is a deaf, dumb, and blind kid who becomes a Messiah and later is forsaken by his followers. Tommy is based, in part, on the spiritual teachings of Indian mystic Meher Baba, of whom Townshend had become a devotee. Read the rest of this biography at http://www.petetownshend.net

Tucker

There is a statue of Richard Tucker, an opera singer, in New York.

January 16 ~ On This Day in Music

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. 1864 ~ Anton Schindler, German violinist and Beethoven’s biographer, died at the age of 68

. 1875 ~ First American performance of Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dances”

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1886 ~ Death of Italian opera composer Amilcare Ponchielli, in Milan. He was 51.

. 1891 ~ French Composer Leo Delibes died at the age of 54

. 1905 ~ Ernesto Halffter, Spanish composer and conductor

. 1908 ~ Ethel Merman (Zimmerman), American singer of popular music, Tony Award-winning actress (musical), Musical Theater Hall of Fame. She is most famous for Call Me Madam in 1951, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, There’s No Business Like Show Business and Alexander’s Ragtime Band

. 1929 ~ Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano

. 1929 ~ G.T. (Granville) Hogan, Jazz drummer who played with Elmo Hope, Earl Bostic

. 1934 ~ Bob Bogle (Robert Lenard Bogle), Guitarist, bass with The Ventures

. 1938 ~ Béla Bartók and his wife, Ditta performed their first public concert featuring his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

. 1938 ~ Benny Goodman and his band, plus a quartet, brought the sound of jazz to Carnegie Hall in New York City. When asked how long an intermission he wanted, he quipped, “I don’t know. How much does Toscanini get?”

. 1942 ~ Bill Francis, Keyboard, singer with Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show

. 1942 ~ Kay Kyser and the band recorded A Zoot Suit for Columbia Records. The tune is about the problems associated with wearing this garish, exaggerated ‘hep’ fashion.

. 1946 ~ Katia Ricciarelli, Italian soprano

. 1946 ~ Ronnie Milsap, Grammy Award-winning singer in 1976, CMA Male Vocalist of the Year (1974, 1976, 1977), CMA Entertainer of the Year (1977), blind since birth, he learned to play several instruments by age 12

. 1950 ~ Debbie Allen, Dancer, actress, choreographer, sister of actress Phylicia Rashad

. 1957 ~ Conductor Arturo Toscanini died in New York at the age of 89.

. 1957 ~ The Cavern Club opened for business in Liverpool, England. The rock club was just a hangout for commoners. Then, things changed — big time. It all started in the early 1960s when four kids from the neighborhood popped in to jam. They, of course, turned out to be The Beatles.

. 1962 ~ Paul Webb, Bass with Talk Talk

. 1964 ~ “Hello Dolly!” opened at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Carol Channing starred in the role of Mrs. Dolly Levi. The musical was an adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s play, “The Matchmaker”. The show, with an unforgettable title song, was hailed by critics as the “…possible hit of the season.” It was possible, all right. “Hello Dolly!” played for 2,844 performances. And, it returned to Broadway in the 1990s, again starring Carol Channing.

. 1972 ~ David Seville died on this day in Beverly Hills, CA. Born Ross Bagdasarian, the musician was the force, and artist, behind the Alvin and the Chipmunks novelty songs of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

. 1973 ~ Clara Ward passed away. Ward was an American gospel artist who achieved great artistic and commercial success in the 1940s and 1950s.

. 1975 ~ “Mandy” is Barry Manilow’s first #1 pop hit

. 1976 ~ The album, “Frampton Comes Alive”, was released by Herb Alpert’s A&M Records. The double LP soon reached the top spot of the album charts and stayed perched there for 17 weeks. It sold 19 million copies in its first year.

. 1980 ~ Lin Manuel Miranda, American actor, composer, lyricist (Hamilton)

. 1984 ~ Michael Jackson received eight awards at the 11th annual American Music Awards this night.

. 2001 ~ Eleanor Lawrence, a flutist who played often in chamber music performances and with several orchestras in New York City, died of brain cancer at the age of 64. She is credited with transforming a simple newsletter into an important source for flutists. Lawrence studied the flute at the New England Conservatory with the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Pappoutsakis. She later studied with flutists from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. She joined the American Symphony Orchestra and the Brooklyn Philharmonic after moving to New York in the 1960s. She played periodically with the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Besides performing, Lawrence taught at the Manhattan School of Music. She served three times as the president of the New York Flute Club. She edited The National Flute Association Newsletter, now The Flutist Quarterly, from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, expanding it from a brief information sheet to a publication with regular interviews.

December 25 ~ On This Day in Music

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merry-christmas

Merry Christmas!
Christmas Family Fun
Christmas Music
Christmas Music Lyrics

Christmas Countdown: Hallelujah Chorus

• 1583 ~ Orlando Gibbons
Read quotes by and about Gibbons
More information about Gibbons

• 1896 ~ John Philip Sousa wrote the melody to a song that had haunted him for days. On Christmas Day, that melody was finally titled, The Stars and Stripes Forever.

• 1907 ~ Cab Calloway (Cabell Calloway III), American jazz singer and bandleader

• 1912 ~ Tony Martin (Alvin Morris), Singer, actor, married to dancer Cyd Charisse

• 1915 ~ Pete Rugolo, Bandleader, arranger, scored TV’s The Fugitive

• 1931 ~ Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was Hansel und Gretel by Humperdinck, heard on the NBC network of stations. In between acts of the opera, moderator Olin Downes would conduct an opera quiz, asking celebrity guests opera-related questions. The program’s host and announcer was Milton Cross. He worked out of the Met’s Box 44.

• 1932 ~ Little Richard, American rock-and-roll singer, pianist and songwriter

• 1937 ~ O’Kelly Isley, Singer with the Grammy Award-winning group, The Isley Brothers

• 1937 ~ Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of Symphony of the Air over NBC radio.

• 1939 ~ The Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, was read by Lionel Barrymore on The Campbell Playhouse on CBS radio. The reading of the tale became an annual radio event for years to come.

• 1941 ~ Don Pullen, pianist/composer

• 1944 ~ Henry Vestine, Guitarist with Canned Heat, sideman for Frank Zappa

• 1945 ~ Noel Redding, Bass with Noel Redding Band and also The Jimi Hendrix Experience

• 1946 ~ Jimmy Buffett, Songwriter, singer

• 1948 ~ Barbara Mandrell, CMA Entertainer of the Year (1980, 1981), Female Vocalist of the Year in 1979

• 1954 ~ Robin Campbell, Guitar, singer with UB40

• 1954 ~ Annie Lennox, Singer with Eurythmics

• 1957 ~ Shane MacGowan, Songwriter, musician: guitar, singer with The Pogues

• 2006 ~ James Brown, the Godfather of Soul died at the age of 73.

• 2008 ~ Singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt died at the age eighty-one.

MaryOXmasCarolers

December 20 ~ On This Day in Music

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Christmas Countdown: Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker

• 1728 ~ Franz Xaver Pokorny, Czech Classical era composer and violinist.

• 1783 ~ Padre Antonio Francisco Javier Jose Soler

• 1871 ~ Henry Kimball Hadley, American composer and conductor

• 1890 ~ Yvonne Arnaud, French-born pianist, singer and actress

• 1898 ~ Irene (Marie) Dunne, Actress in Show Boat, Anna and the King of Siam, Alternate Delegate to the United Nations, Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985.

• 1909 ~ Vagn Holmboe, Danish composer and music critic

• 1920 ~ An English-born comedian named Leslie Downes became an American citizen. He had lived in the United States since 1908 and became one of the nation’s true ambassadors for show business and charity. We say, “Thanks for the memories,” to Bob Hope.

• 1928 ~ For the first time, a living actress in the United States had a theater named after her. The Ethel Barrymore Theatre opened in New York City.

• 1932 ~ Al Jolson recorded April Showers on Brunswick Records.

• 1938 ~ John Harbison, American composer and conductor

• 1944 ~ Bobby Colomby, Drummer, singer with Blood, Sweat & Tears

• 1948 ~ Little Stevie Wright, Singer with The Easybeats

• 1949 ~ Harry Belafonte had his second session with Capitol Records. Included in the session were Whispering and Farewell to Arms. With eight tunes then recorded and little enthusiasm from record buyers, Capitol decided to part company with Belafonte by not renewing the singer’s contract. He went to RCA Victor in April 1952.

• 1952 ~ Jimmy Boyd reached the #1 spot on the record charts with the Christmas song of the year, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.

• 1957 ~ Billy (Steven) Bragg, Songwriter, guitarist, singer

• 1966 ~ Chris Robinson, Singer with The Black Crowes

• 1972 ~ Jack Albertson and Sam Levine starred as two retired vaudevillians in Neil Simon’s classic comedy, The Sunshine Boys, which opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in NYC. The play had a run of 538 performances. The movie version later became a box office smash, as well.

• 1973 ~ Singer Bobby Darin passed away following open-heart surgery at the age of 37. He left a legacy of memories in rock ’n’ roll and pop tunes, as well as on television and in movies (even an Oscar nomination for his role in Captain Newman, M.D.). The story of Darin being groomed to replace Frank Sinatra at Capitol Records is absolutely true. Unfortunately, Capitol didn’t think the grooming was going so well and withheld many of Darin’s songs for many years; releasing them in a compilation CD in 1995. Good stuff to listen to: Splish Splash, Queen of the Hop, Dream Lover, Mack the Knife, Beyond the Sea, If I Were a Carpenter, etc. At the end, Darin, who had recorded for Atco, Capitol and Atlantic Records had just begun recording for Motown.

• 1980 ~ Shirley Temple Black became a grandmother. Her oldest daughter gave birth to a baby girl.

• 1982 ~ Artur Rubinstein, pianist (My Young Years), died at the age of 95

• 1999 ~ Hank Snow passed away

• 2000 ~ Roebuck “Pops” Staples, patriarch of the Staple Singers whose lyrics on “Respect Yourself” and other hits delivered a civil rights message with a danceable soul beat, passed away. “They took this really positive message music and made it contemporary and popular by putting it with electric guitars and inserting a groove,” said Sherman Wilmott, who is helping create a museum in Memphis, Tennessee, honoring the musical stars at Stax Records, the Staple Singers’ principal label. Born in Winona, Mississippi, Staples learned to sing acapella and developed his Delta blues electric guitar style. Starting out as a gospel group in 1948, the Staple Singers with son Pervis and daughters Mavis and Cleotha as singers reached an even wider audience with 1970s soul hits such as Respect Yourself, I’ll Take You There and If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me). Before achieving stardom, Staples resisted taking his family on tour and held jobs in Chicago’s stockyards and steel mills. Staples came to believe he could contribute in song to the battle for blacks’ civil rights being waged by the Rev. Martin Luther King and others, Wilmott said. “He sang and played guitar. He was extremely well- spoken and calm and intelligent,” he said. Another daughter, Yvonne, told the Tribune: “When Dr. King started preaching, Pops said ‘I think we can sing it.’ That’s what he felt,” she said. “He believed that the world could be made a better place for all of us.” At age 80, Staples won a Grammy Award as a solo artist in 1994 for his album “Father Father.” He also received a National Heritage Fellowship Award at the White House from first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. In a 1998 interview with the Tribune, Staples said his musical education began early. “We’d come home and didn’t have anything to do after we eat but go to bed. So we’d go out in the yard and sing.”

• 2000 ~ Rob Buck, lead guitarist for the rock band 10,000 Maniacs, died of liver failure at the age of 42, three weeks after he collapsed at his home in western New York.

• 2004 ~ Blues singer-guitarist Son Seals, one of the most distinctive voices to emerge in the genre during the 1970s, died at the age of 62.
More information about Son Seals

• 2004 ~ Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, one of the great post-World War II opera divas who Arturo Toscanini said had the “voice of an angel,” died at the age of 82.
More information about Renata Tebaldi

December 18 ~ On This Day in Music

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Christmas Countdown: Good King Wenceslas

• 1644 ~ Antonio Stradivari, Italian, most celebrated of all violin makers, died on this date.
Read more information about Stradivari

• 1778 ~ Joseph Grimaldi, Clown: ‘greatest clown in history’, ‘king of pantomime’, Joey the Clown; singer, dancer, acrobat, his character was part of the plot for the movie “Her Alibi”. He died in 1837.

• 1786 ~ Baron Karl von Weber, Opera composer

• 1788 ~ Camille Pleyel, Austrian piano builder/composer

• 1869 ~ Edward Alexander MacDowell, American composer and pianist
More information about MacDowell

• 1869 ~ Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist and composer, dies at 40

• 1892 ~ Premiere of The Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky. This traditional Christmas ballet is so popular that its annual performances keeps many opera companies afloat. Act 1 tells a story of how little Clara aids her magical Christmas gift (a Nutcracker in the form of a soldier) defeat an army of mice. As a reward, he takes her to his magic kingdom and introduces her to a variety of subjects in a colorful stream of character dances. Tchaikovsky’s supply of themes is endless and he constantly provides brilliant orchestration.

• 1919 ~ Anita O’Day (Colton), American jazz singer

• 1920 ~ Conductor Arturo Toscanini made his first recording for Victor Records in Camden, New Jersey.

• 1934 ~ Willie Smith sang with Jimmy Lunceford and his orchestra on Rhythm is Our Business on Decca Records

• 1941 ~ Sam Andrew, Guitarist with Big Brother and the Holding Company

• 1943 ~ Keith Richards, British rock guitarist and singer with The Rolling Stones

• 1948 ~ Bryan ‘Chas’ Chandler, Bass with the Animals

• 1961 ~ The Tokens celebrated their first #1 hit single. The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) was a chart-topper for four weeks in a row.

• 1972 ~ Helen Reddy received a gold record for the song that became an anthem for women’s liberation, I Am Woman. The song had reached number one on December 9, 1972.

• 1975 ~ Rod Stewart announced that he was leaving the group, Faces, and was going solo in a deal with Warner Brothers.

• 1981 ~ Rod Stewart gave a concert at the Los Angeles Forum, which was televised to 23 countries and carried by FM radio stations in the US to an audience of about 35 million.

• 1982 ~ Daryl Hall and John Oates reached the #1 spot on the music charts for the fifth time with Maneater. The song stayed in the top spot for four weeks, making it Hall and Oates’ most popular hit.

• 2001 ~ Eddie Baker, whose efforts to create a jazz hall of fame planted the seeds for the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, died after complications from heart surgery. He was 71. Baker, a trumpeter and pianist, had led the New Breed Jazz Orchestra since the 1960s, forming close relationships with many top jazz artists. He began calling for a jazz hall of fame as early as the 1970s. He held what he hoped would be the first annual induction to the International Jazz Hall of Fame in 1985 at the Music Hall. But attendance was low, despite a star-studded roster of talent that included the Count Basie Orchestra, George Benson and Woody Herman. He maintained the hall of fame on paper, even though it never had a physical home. Through the years, Baker suggested building a jazz hall in several spots in Kansas City, including the 18th and Vine district and Union Station. His push generated interest in the project, but the American Jazz Museum opened under a different name in 1997 without his involvement. He also was an original member of the Kansas City Jazz Commission, which organized pub crawls and promoted jazz in the 1980s, and he helped organize the Elder Statesmen of Jazz, a service organization of older musicians.

• 2004 ~ Legendary British saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, who played with a list of musicians that reads like a who’s who of the international jazz and rock music scene, has died.

December 10 ~ On This Day in Music

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Christmas Countdown: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

• 1822 ~ César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck, Belgian composer and organist

• 1823 ~ Theodore Furchtegott Kirchner, German composer

• 1906 ~ Harold Adamson, Lyricist

• 1908 ~ Olivier Messiaen, French composer
More information about Messiaen

• 1910 ~ Dennis Morgan (Stanley Morner), Singer, actor

• 1910 ~ Tenor Enrico Caruso and conductor Arturo Toscanini were featured at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for the world premiere of Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West.

• 1913 ~ Morton Gould, American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, conductor and pianist

• 1924 ~ Ken Albers, Bass singer with The Four Freshmen

• 1927 ~ For the first time, famed radio announcer George Hay introduced the WSM Barn Dance as the Grand Ole Opry. The show’s title may have changed but it remained the home of country music.

• 1930 ~ Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded the haunting Mood Indigo on Victor Records. It became one of the Duke’s most famous standards.

• 1943 ~ Chad Stuart, Guitarist, lyricist, singer with the duo – Chad & Jeremy

• 1946 ~ Christopher ‘Ace’ Kefford, Bass with The Move

• 1947 ~ Walter ‘Clyde’ Orange, Drummer, singer with The Commodores

• 1948 ~ Jessica Cleaves, Singer with Friends of Distinction

• 1949 ~ Frank Beard, Drummer with ZZ Top

• 1949 ~ Fats Domino recorded his first sides for Imperial Records. The legend from New Orleans recorded The Fat Man, one of the earliest rock and roll records. The title also turned into Domino’s nickname and stayed with him through his years of success.

• 1951 ~ John (Raul) Rodriguez, Singer

• 1953 ~ Harry Belafonte debuted on Broadway in Almanac at the Imperial Theatre. Critics hailed Belafonte’s performance as “electrifyingly sincere.” Also starring in the show: Hermione Gingold, Billy DeWolfe, Polly Bergen and Orson Bean.

• 1966 ~ The Beach Boys made a one-week stop at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 asGood Vibrations made it to #1. It was the third #1 hit the group scored. The others were I Get Around and Help Me, Rhonda.

• 1967 ~ Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays (Otis’ backup group) were killed in the crash of a private plane near Madison, Wisconsin. Redding was 26 years old. His signature song, (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay was recorded three days before his death. It was #1 for four weeks beginning February 10, 1968. Redding was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. The Bar-Kays biggest hit was in July, 1967: Soul Finger. James Alexander, bass player for the group, was not on the plane. Ben Cauley, trumpet player, survived the crash. The group played for a time with various new members.

• 1987 ~ Jascha Heifetz passed away
Read quotes by and about Heifetz
More information about Heifetz

• 2021 ~ Michael Nesmith, a singer and guitarist for the hit group the Monkees, died at the age of 78.

November 16 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 1569 ~  Paul Sartorius, German organist and composer

• 1615 ~ Guillaume Dumanoir, II, French violinist and composer who composed dance music enjoyed by Louis XIV

• 1667 ~ Nathaniel Schnittelbach, composer, died at the age of 34

• 1715 ~ Girolamo Abos, composer of Italian opera and church music.

• 1720 ~ Carlo Antonio Campioni, Italian composer.

• 1757 ~ Daniel Read, American composer of the First New England School, and one of the primary figures in early American classical music.

• 1775 ~ Karl Marian Paradeiser, German composer, died at the age of 28.

• 1780 ~ Robert Archibald Smith, English composer.

• 1829 ~ Anton G Rubinstein, Russian pianist/conductor/composer

• 1840 ~ Frederick Scotson Clark, composer.

• 1848 ~ Frédéric Chopin played his final piano concert at a Polish benefit ball at Guildhall in London.

• 1850 ~ Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera Stifellio was first performed at the Teatro Grande in Trieste despite difficulties with the censors which resulted in cuts and changes.

• 1852 ~ Minnie Hauk, American soprano

• 1854 ~ First Performance of Anton Rubinstein‘s Ocean Symphony in Leipzig.

• 1860 ~ Edmund Scheucker, Viennese harpist.

• 1861 ~ Vaclav Suk, Czech-born Russian composer and violinist.

• 1861 ~ First Performance of Johannes Brahms‘ Piano Quintet No. 1 in g, Op. 25, at a rehearsal in Hamburg, with pianist Clara Schumann.

• 1862 ~ The work noted above received its official premiere with members of the Hellmesberger Quartet; Brahms at the piano, in Vienna.

• 1870 ~ Alfred Hill, Australian composer

• 1873 ~ David Karl Björling, Swedish tenor

• 1873 ~ W.C. Handy, American blues composer and bandleader
More information about Handy

• 1889 ~ George S. (Simon) Kaufman, Playwright: The Cocoanuts, A Night at the Opera, with Moss Hart, The Man Who Came to Dinner, You Can’t Take It with You

• 1893 ~ George Alexander Osborne, Irish pianist and composer (La Pluie de perles), died of natural causes at the age of 87

• 1894 ~ Debut of opera star Enrico Caruso in Mario Morelli’s L’Amico Francesco at Naples Teatro Nuovo.

• 1895 ~ Paul Hindemith, German-born American composer and conductor
Read quotes by and about Hindemith
More information about Hindemith

• 1896 ~ Lawrence Mervil Tibbett, American baritone

• 1905 ~ Eddie (Albert) Condon, Guitarist, bandleader, promoter of Dixieland Jazz

• 1908 ~ Conductor Arturo Toscanini made his debut in the United States this day. He appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, conducting Aida.

• 1931 ~ Bob Gibson, Singer, songwriter, leader of folk music movement in late ’50s, duo of Gibson and (Bob) Camp

• 1932 ~ The Palace in New York City closed its doors. It was the most famous vaudeville theater in America. Later, it became a movie house with live performances preceding the flicks; most notably: the team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their heyday.

• 1935 ~ The Rodgers and Hart musical, Jumbo, opened in New York City for a run of 233 performances.

• 1937 ~ Bob Crosby and his orchestra recorded South Rampart Street Parade on Decca Records.

• 1945 ~ Martine Van Hammel, Ballet, American Ballet Theatre

• 1955 ~ ‘Tennessee’ Ernie Ford drove to the top spot on the record charts on this day. Sixteen Tons, where he owed his “soul to the company store…”, became the fastest-selling record in history, jumping to #1 in just 3 weeks. The tune, on Capitol Records, stayed at #1 for eight weeks.

• 1964 ~ Albert Hay Malotte, composer, died at the age of 69

• 1964 ~ Diana Krall, Canadian Jazz pianist and singer

• 1970 ~ Anne Murray received a gold record for Snowbird. She was the first Canadian recording artist to receive a gold record.

• 2000 ~ Russ Conway, a British pianist known as the “Prince Charming of Pop” who sold
More than 30 million records in the 1950s and ’60s, died at age 75. He had 17 consecutive hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and won a silver disc when his record Roulette topped 250,000 sales – a total rapidly equaled by three other hits, Sidesaddle, China Tea and Snow Coach. Conway’s formal piano education consisted of one lesson at age 4. He left school at 14 and got work in a lawyer’s office. But he was sent to juvenile detention for three years for taking money he found in a package. In a detention center, he found a piano to play. While doing a stint as a pianist in a club, he was discovered by choreographer Irving Davies. He went on to provide piano accompaniment to a string of singers. Soon he was composing the songs that made him famous and won him the nicknames “Prince Charming of Pop” and the “Sheik of the Keyboard.”

• 2001 ~ Blue guitarist and singer Isaac Scott, a major figure in the city’s music scene for more than a quarter century, died of complications from diabetes. He was 56. A stream of musicians paid their respects to Scott, said his ex-wife, Eloise DePoe. He was found in his apartment Nov. 4 and never regained consciousness. Scott recorded several albums, including “The Isaac Scott Band,” “Big Time Blues Man” and “High Class Woman.” He also appeared on the compilation albums “Live at the San Francisco Jazz Festival” and “Live at the Roadhouse.” Primarily a “cover artist,” Scott did not write his own songs, which hindered national recognition. But he received several local honors, including the Washington Blues Society’s Hall of Fame (1991) and lifetime-achievement (2000) awards. He also performed at last year’s opening of the Experience Music Project. Scott taught himself piano and guitar, and started out playing gospel music, once touring the West Coast with the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. In 1974, he turned his attention to blues, with a sound flavored by his love of Seattle-born guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. Like Albert Collins, an early influence, Scott played electric guitar with his thumb instead of a pick, which contributed to his distinctive sound. He also was known for his stamina, often playing two- and three-hour sets.

• 2001 ~ Tommy Flanagan, a jazz pianist who worked with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, died of an arterial aneurysm. He was 71. Flanagan, part of his own classic jazz trio, accompanied Fitzgerald for 20 years, also acting as her musical director. He also worked for Tony Bennett. He became a celebrated figure in jazz with such trio albums as “Jazz Poet” (1989) and “Let’s” (1993). Flanagan’s trio included bassists George Mraz and Peter Washington, and drummers Kenny Washington, Lewis Nash and Albert Heath. Flanagan won the distinguished Danish Jazzpar Prize in 1993. Born in Detroit, Flanagan was the youngest of six children. He recorded “Sunset and the Mockingbird: The Birthday Concert,” live at the Vanguard in 1998. He was to appear at Iridium this holiday season.

Happy Birthday, Vladimir Horowitz!

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Destined to become one of the world’s greatest pianists, Vladimir Horowitz was born in 1903 in Kiev, Russia. While most young children were playing games, Vladimir was playing with the ivories. His time was well spent as he was fully capable of performing publicly by the time he was sixteen.

Within four years, the young piano virtuoso was entertaining audiences at recitals throughout Leningrad – 23 performances in one year, where he played over 200 different works of music, never repeating a composition. After Leningrad, Horowitz played in concerts in Berlin, Hamburg and Paris.

In 1928, the Russian pianist traveled to the United States to play with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Arturo Toscanini chose Horowitz to perform his first solo with the New York Philharmonic. It was there that Horowitz met his bride-to-be, Toscanini’s daughter, Wanda. The two were wed in Milan in 1933. New York became Horowitz’ permanent home in 1940. He became a U.S. citizen a few years later, devoting the rest of his career to benefit performances, and helping young, aspiring artists.

His return to the concert stage in May of 1965 was a triumphant success, as was his television recital, Vladimir Horowitz at Carnegie Hall.

Just three years before his death, Vladimir Horowitz returned to his homeland to perform once again for the Russian people on April 20, 1986. They felt he had been away far too long … close to sixty years.

     Horowitz’s birthday

     anniversary of Horowitz’s death

     History of the Piano

     News Item including Horowitz

September 30: On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

• 1852 ~ Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish composer and organist

• 1908 ~ David Oistrakh, Russian violinist

• 1922 ~ Oscar Pettiford, Bass, cello. He played with Charlie Barnet, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, and Stan Getz

• 1933 ~ The theme song was Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here and it opened the National Barn Dance. The half-hour country music and comedy show, originally heard on WLS, Chicago since 1924, moved to the NBC Blue network this night. National Barn Dance was broadcast from the Eighth Street Theater in Chicago, where the stage was transformed into a hayloft every Saturday night. The host was Joe Kelly. Uncle Ezra was played by Pat Barrett who was known to say, “Give me a toot on the tooter, Tommy,” as he started dancing. A few of the other Barn Dance characters were Arkie, the Arkansas Woodchopper; Pokey Martin; the Hoosier Hotshots; the Prairie Ramblers; cowgirl, Patsy Montana; Pat Buttram; Lulu Belle and the Cumberland Road Runners. Gene Autry and Red Foley were heard early in their careers on National Barn Dance. Although there were plenty of sponsors (Alka Seltzer, One-A-Day vitamins, Phillips Milk of Magnesia), the National Barn Dance was one of the few radio shows to charge admission!

• 1935 ~ Jill Corey (Norma Jean Speranza), Singer

• 1935 ~ Johnny Mathis, American singer of popular music

• 1935 ~ “Summertime … and the livin’ is easy.” Porgy and Bess was presented for the first time, at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. It was a flop! It was revived in 1942. It wasn’t a flop that time. It ran longer than any revival in the history of U.S. musical theater.

• 1941 ~ The Larry Clinton Orchestra recorded their version of That Solid Old Man, on Bluebird Records.

• 1942 ~ Frankie Lymon, Singer: recorded at age 14

• 1942 ~ Dewey Martin, Drummer, singer with Buffalo Springfield

• 1943 ~ Marilyn McCoo (Davis), Singer with The Fifth Dimension, TV hostess of Solid Gold from 1981 to 1984 and 1986 to 1988, TV music reporter

• 1946 ~ Sylvia Peterson, Singer with The Chiffons

• 1953 ~ Deborah Allen (Thurmond), Singer

• 1954 ~ Julie Andrews, who would later become a household name in movies, TV and on records, opened on Broadway for the first time. The future star of The Sound of Music appeared in The Boy Friend this night.

• 1976 ~ Mary Ford passed away

• 1977 ~ President Jimmy Carter designated October as the official country music month.

• 1979 ~ Clio-Danae Othoneou, Greek actress, musician and pianist

• 1989 ~ Virgil Thomson, US composer/critic (4 saints in 3 acts), died at the age of 92

• 2003 ~ Ronnie Dawson, the rock singer known as the “Blonde Bomber,” died. He was 64. Dawson was diagnosed in 2002 with throat cancer but continued to perform. One of his last gigs was an emotional performance at the Rockabilly Rave festival in England in February. He enthralled fans at the Big D Jamboree in the 1950s and at Carnegie Hall in the 1990s. Among Dawson’s songs as a teenager in the 1950s were Action Packed and I Make the Love. He was famous for live performances where he would jump from the stage, run through the audience and play his guitar while standing on a table. In the late 1950s, Dawson recast himself as an R&B artist named Snake Monroe, signed briefly with Columbia Records, and then joined the local Western swing pioneers the Light Crust Doughboys. In the 1960s, he packed the Levee Club with the Levee Singers, a folk act that appeared nationally on “The Danny Kaye Show” and “The Jimmy Dean Show.” After the Levee Singers broke up, he formed a country band, Steel Rail, and later sang television and radio jingles.

• 2003 ~ Robert LaMarchina, conductor of the Honolulu Symphony from 1967 to 1978, died. He was 75. Born in New York City, Robert LaMarchina began studying the cello at the age of 7. At 8, he made his first appearance as a solo cellist with the St. Louis Symphony. LaMarchina was 15 when famed conductor Arturo Toscanini hired him to perform with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. LaMarchina made is first appearance as a conductor in 1951 in Japan in the Fujiwara Opera’s production of “Madame Butterfly”. He later taught music at Indiana University, traveled with the Ambassadors of Opera and conducted operas on the West Coast.

July 22: On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

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

• 1597 ~ Virgilio Mazzocchi, Composer

• 1635 ~ Pietro Antonio Tamburini, Composer, died at the age of 45

• 1642 ~ Johann Quirsfeld, Composer

• 1651 ~ Ferdinand Tobias Richter, Composer

• 1721 ~ François-Joseph Krafft, Composer

• 1786 ~ Vaclav Kalous, Composer ~ died at the age of 71

• 1794 ~ Jean-Benjamin de La Borde, Composer ~ died at the age of 59

• 1830 ~ Herbert Stanley Oakeley, Composer

• 1833 ~ Benjamin Hanby, Composer

• 1848 ~ Lucien Fugère, French baritone

• 1871 ~ Akos Buttykai, Composer

• 1873 ~ Ettore Pozzoli, Composer

• 1878 ~ Ernest R. Ball, Composer

• 1879 ~ Gustaf Heintze, Composer

• 1889 ~ Frederick Preston Search, Composer

• 1893 ~ Katherine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful in Colorado

• 1913 ~ Licia Albanese, Italian-born American soprano. She is best remembered for her roles at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and for her recording of La Boheme conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

• 1919 ~ De Falla and Massine’s “Three-cornered Hat”, premiered in London

• 1924 ~ Margaret Whiting, Pop Singer

• 1932 ~ Florenz Ziegfeld, U.S. theatrical producer and impresario, died. He was famed for his “Follies” spectacular revues which ran every year from 1907 to 1931.

• 1933 ~ Caterina Jarboro became the first black prima donna of an opera company. The singer performed Verdi’s “Aida” with the Chicago Opera Company at the Hippodrome in New York City.

• 1937 ~ Chuck Jackson, Singer

• 1937 ~ Hal Kemp and his orchestra recorded the now-standard tune, Got a Date with an Angel, for Victor Records in Hollywood, California. The distinctive vocal on the tune is provided by Skinnay Ennis.

• 1940 ~ George Clinton, Singer

• 1941 ~ Thomas Wayne (Perkins), Singer

• 1944 ~ Estelle Bennett, Singer with The Ronettes

• 1944 ~ Richard Davies, Keyboards, singer with Supertramp

• 1945 ~ Bobby Sherman, Singer, actor and founder of TAC-5, a paramedics group

• 1947 ~ Don Henley, Drummer, singer with Shiloh; The Eagles, songwriter

• 1959 ~ Benjamin Britten’s “Missa Brevis” in D premiered

• 1963 ~ The Beatles released “Introducing the Beatles”

• 1967 ~ The Billboard singles chart showed that Windy, by The Association, was the most popular record in the U.S. for the fourth straight week. The Los Angeles~based sextet would make way for Jim Morrison and The Doors a week later when Light My Fire became the hottest record of the mid~summer.

• 1977 ~ Tony Orlando announced his retirement from show business. Orlando was performing in Cohasset, MA when he said that he had finally decided to call it quits. Orlando had two solo hits in 1961 (Halfway to Paradise and Bless You) and 14 hits with his backup singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent, (known as Dawn) through the mid~1970s. He also hosted a weekly TV variety show with Dawn from 1974~1976.

• 1985 ~ Bruce Springsteen became the hottest ticket in the rock concert biz as 70,000 Cleveland fans lined up (in less than three hours) to grab tickets to see the ‘Boss’.

• 2001 ~ Bob Ferguson, who wrote the standard Wings of a Dove and produced records for Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner and other country music stars, died at the age of 73. Ferguson, a native of Willow Springs, Mo., was hired in 1955 to produce films for the Tennessee Game & Fish Commission. He worked there until 1960, when he wrote and produced the No. 1 hit Wings of a Dove for Ferlin Husky. As a staff producer at RCA Records in the 1960s and early ’70s, Ferguson worked with artists like Parton, Connie Smith, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, Jim Ed Brown, George Hamilton IV and Archie Campbell. He wrote The Carroll County Accident, a No. 2 hit for Wagoner. It was named the best country song of 1969 by the Country Music Association.

• 2002 ~ Jazz singer Marion Montgomery, who frequently performed on British television and was known for her smooth, versatile voice, died. She was 67. Montgomery was born in Natchez, Miss., and lived in England for more than 30 years. She was well-known to television audiences as a resident singer on the British Broadcasting Corp. talk show “Parkinson” through the 1970s and was widely praised for her smooth voice and intimate, relaxed singing style. Montgomery worked as a cabaret singer in Las Vegas, New York and Los Angeles before moving to Britain. She starred in the West End production of “Anything Goes” in 1969 and recorded a one-woman show for the BBC in 1975. Her albums included “Swings for Winners and Losers” (1963), “Let There Be Marion Montgomery,” (1963) and “Sometimes in the Night” (1989).

• 2025 ~ John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne died at the age of 76. He was an English singer, songwriter and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adopted the nickname “Prince of Darkness”.