November 17 ~ On This Day in Music

today

• 1726 ~ The first performance of J. S. Bach‘s Sacred Cantata No. 55 Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht on the 22nd Sunday following Trinity. Was part of Bach’s third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig 1725-27

• 1848 ~ Frederic 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.

• 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

• 1876~ The first performance of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s March Slav in Moscow.

• 1877 ~ The first production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, The Sorcerer, was presented, in London.

• 1888~ The first production of Tchaikovsky‘s Fifth Symphony in St. Petersburg.

• 1891 ~ Poland’s premier and premier ivory tickler, Ignace Jan Paderewski, made his American debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In later years, Paderewski, who suffered from arthritis, settled in Paso Robles, CA. The hot mineral baths located there eased his pain. He played only Steinway grand pianos custom-built to his specifications. In fact, five were made just for his use.

• 1919 ~ Hershy Kay, composer/arranger (Olympic Hymn)

• 1925 ~ Sir Charles Mackerras, Australian conductor

• 1930 ~ David Amram, American composer and French-horn player

• 1938 ~ Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk singer, songwriter and guitarist

• 1938 ~ Orchestra leader Kay Kyser, speaking to an audience at the College of the City of New York (CCNY) told of the “inner workings and artistic features of swing music.” It marked the first of a series of lectures on swing music presented by Kyser, who went on to present The Kollege of Musical Knowledge on radio.

• 1941 ~ Gene Clark, Singer, guitar with The Byrds

• 1942 ~ Bob Gaudio, Singer with The Royal Teens; The Four Seasons

• 1946 ~ Martin Barre, Guitarist with Jethro Tull

• 1950 ~ Roberta Peters filled in for the lead in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She would become one of the Met’s most famous stars.

• 1959 ~ Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer/pianist/conductor, died at the age of 72

• 1962 ~ The 4 Seasons, with Frankie Valli as lead singer, began a five-week run at the top of the tunedex with Big Girls Don’t Cry.

• 1967 ~ Ronald DeVoe, Singer with New Edition

• 1970 ~ Elton John recorded an album live, on what was WABC-FM in New York City. It marked the first time that a concert was aired live and recorded for release as aired. The LP was titled, 11/17/70.

• 1981 ~ Bob Eberly died

• 2001 ~ Jerry Jerome, a tenor sax player who was a featured soloist with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, died of leukemia. He was 89. One of the big names in the Big Band era, Jerome was a featured soloist with the Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Red Norvo and Artie Shaw orchestras. He then became a successful musical director and conductor on radio and television. Jerome also established a music business, scoring and arranging commercial jingles. Three years ago, Arbors Records released Jerome’s “Something Old, Something New.” The sequel recording, “Something Borrowed, Something Blue,” will be released in December. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jerome started playing the sax while in high school. He attended the University of Alabama and went on the medical school, playing gigs at jazz clubs to earn tuition money. He joined Goodman’s orchestra at the height of its popularity in 1938. When Goodman broke up his band in 1940, Jerome joined Shaw. While with Shaw, he appeared in the film “Second Chorus,” with Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith.

• 2003 ~ Arthur Conley, a 1960s soul singer and protege of Otis Redding’s, died at his home in the town of Ruurlo, in the eastern Netherlands. He was 57. Conley was born in Atlanta and started his recording career in 1959 as leader of the group Arthur and the Corvets. He was best known for his 1967 hit, Sweet Soul Music, which he co-wrote with Redding based on a number by Sam Cooke. Conley had several minor hits in the following two years. He moved to Europe in the early 1970s after several tours of the continent, deciding that he was “fed up with the pressure” in the United States, said Giesen. In the Netherlands, Conley appeared on television and radio, and ran an independent record label. In the last five years he was an adviser to The Original Sixties R&B and Soul Show, which sought to reproduce the sound and look of the heyday of soul.

• 2018 ~ Cyril Pahinui, a nationally recognized Hawaiian guitarist and singer who preserved and extended the tradition of slack-key guitar, died at the age of 68

November 6 ~ On This Day in Music

today

OCMS 1814 ~ Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrumentalist, inventor of the saxophone and saxotromba
More information about Sax

 

OCMS 1854 ~ John Phillip Sousa, American bandmaster and composer; “The March King”
Read quotes by and about Sousa
More information about Sousa

OCMS 1860 ~ Ignace Jan Paderewski, Composer, pianist, Polish patriot, First Premier of Poland (1919), brought white Zinfandel wine grapes to U.S. for the first time
More information about Ignace Jan Paderewski

OCMS 1893 ~ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer of the late-Romantic period (1812 Overture, Swan Lake), died at the age of 53

.1916 ~ Ray Conniff, American conductor, arranger and composer of popular music, trombonist

.1932 ~ Stonewall Jackson, Singer

.1936 ~ This was the day that big band icon Woody Herman played in his first recording session. He recorded Wintertime Dreams on Decca disc #1056.

.1937 ~ Eugene Pitt, Singer

.1938 ~ P.J. Proby (James Smith), Singer

.1940 ~ Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians recorded one of their lesser-known songs for Decca. It was The Moon Fell in the River.

.1941 ~ Doug Sahm, Singer, founded Sir Douglas Quintet

.1943 ~ Mike Clifford, Singer

.1947 ~ George Young, Guitarist with The Easybeats

.1948 ~ Glenn Frey, Songwriter, singer with The Eagles

OCMS 1965 ~ Edgard Varèse, French-born composer, died at the age of 81

.2001 ~ John Denman, a clarinetist who was most recently artistic adviser to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s pops division, died from complications of esophageal cancer. He was 68. Denman, a native of London, was a principal clarinetist for the orchestra for more than 20 years. Denman also played principal clarinet with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He taught music at Trinity College in England before coming to teach at the University of Arizona. He joined the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in the late 1970s. In 1984, Denman left the University of Arizona after failing to receive tenure. For the rest of his life, he focused on his performing career. He also designed a small clarinet, the Kinder-Klari, to make practicing easier for young hands. Denman performed and recorded with jazz icon Buddy DeFranco and was a member of several jazz bands.

.2002 ~ Maria Johansson, an organist who became a local legend for singing religious songs and hymns in one of Stockholm’s main squares every day for nearly three decades, died at the age of 84. The daughter of a preacher, Johansson often served homemade sandwiches to the poor during breaks in her daily performance. At one point, she went to work at a bakery to help pay for the sandwiches, her husband said.

.2016 ~ Zoltan Kocsis, Hungarian pianist and conductor, died at the age of 64

September 25: On This Day in Music

today

OCMS 1683 ~ Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer, theorist and organist
Read more about Rameau

 

 

OCMS 1906 ~ Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer
Read more about Shostakovich
Grammy winner
Shostakovich’s music was once condemned as being “un-Soviet” Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto number 2 is featured in Disney’s Fantasia 2000. Read more about Shostakovich

• 1932 ~ Glenn (Herbert) Gould, Canadian pianist, composer, wrote a piano essay about Petula Clark
Read quotes by and about Gould
Read news items about Gould

• 1933 ~ Erik Darling, Folk singer with The Weavers and also The Tarriers

• 1934 ~ Hot Lips was recorded by Henry Busse and his orchestra in Chicago, IL.

• 1943 ~ Gary Alexander, Guitar, singer with The Association

• 1945 ~ Onnie McIntyre, Guitar with Average White Band

• 1950 ~ NBC~TV introduced a new concept in daytime programming. Kate Smith debuted an hourlong show. Her theme song for the show was When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. Kate’s daytime show ran for four years. God Bless America.

• 1953 ~ John Locke, Keyboards with Spirit

• 1953 ~ Following in the footlights of musical greats like Ignace Jan Paderewski and Victor Borge, a piano player named Liberace made his debut at Carnegie Hall. Liberace performed before a sellout audience. His candelabra and concert grand piano were instant trademarks that lasted throughout his career.

• 1955 ~ Steve Severin (Bailey), Bass with Siouxsie & The Banshees

• 1979 ~ The third musical resulting from the collaboration of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber lit up the Great White Way. Evita opened on Broadway to rave reviews.

• 2002 ~ Bob Radonich, who for 47 years owned a local landmark cafe shaped like a coffee pot, died after suffering a series of strokes. He was 83. His cafe, Bob’s Java Jive, evokes a largely forgotten era of architecture. The street where it sits once featured toy factories shaped like castles, a gas station resembling a colossal neon gas pump and a yellow, lemon-shaped restaurant called the Lemon Lunch. Those other buildings vanished, but the Java Jive survived. Java Jive was originally known as the Coffee Pot Restaurant, built in 1927 by local veterinarian Otis G. Button and designed by an artist, inventor and promoter named Bert Smyser. Radonich bought the cafe in 1955. His wife Lylabell renamed the business for an Ink Spots’ song whose lyrics included I love coffee, I love tea, I love java jive, it loves me. The Java Jive, which was used for a scene in the 1990 movie “I Love You to Death,” was renowned for a pair of chimpanzees, Java and Jive, who played drums while Bobby Floyd, who was Bob and Lylabell’s son, entertained on the organ. Radonich’s daughter now owns and runs Bob’s Java Jive.

• 2009 ~ Alicia de Larrocha, Catalan pianist died. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century.

• 2012 ~ Andy Williams, American singer, died from bladder cancer at the age of 84

May 26: Today’s Music History

today

• 1591 ~ Dirk Janszoon Sweelinck, Composer

• 1773 ~ Hans Georg Nageli, Composer

• 1782 ~ Joseph Drechsler, Composer

• 1832 ~ François-Louis Perne, Composer, died at the age of 59

• 1846 ~ Arthur Coquard, Composer

• 1853 ~ Monroe A Althouse, Composer

• 1856 ~ George Templeton Strong, Composer

• 1866 ~ Al Jolson, The first performer to sing in a sound movie ( The Jazz Singer)

• 1871 ~ Aime Maillart, Composer, died at the age of 54

• 1873 ~ August Conradi, Composer, died at the age of 51

• 1880 ~ John Curwen, Composer, died at the age of 63

• 1891 ~ Frederick Bowen Jewson, Composer, died at the age of 67.

• 1898 ~ Ernst Bacon, Composer

• 1898 ~ Gerard Bertouille, Composer

• 1898 ~ Ernst Bacon, American composer

• 1905 ~ Hans Holewa, Composer

• 1912 ~ Jan Blockx, Belgian opera composer, died at the age of 61

• 1920 ~ Peggy Lee, American jazz singer and music composer. She had a career spanning 70 years, during which she recorded 1,100 masters and composed more than 270 songs. She began her music career in the 1940s as a singer for Benny Goodman’s big band. Her most famous recording is a version of Little Willie Johnson’s “Fever” which was nominated for 3 awards at the inaugural Grammys in 1959. She was also an actor and famously voiced several roles for Disney’s Lady and the Tramp while also co-writing all of the original songs in the film. Lee continued to perform throughout the 1990s despite health issues. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.

• 1924 ~ Johann Heinrich Beck, Composer, died at the age of 67

• 1924 ~ Victor Herbert, Irish/US cellist/composer/conductor, died at the age of 65

• 1926 ~ Maria de Lourdes Martins, Composer

• 1933 ~ Jimmie (James Charles) Rodgers passed away

• 1937 ~ Yehuda Yannay, Composer

• 1937 ~ Lionel Hampton and his band recorded the classic, Flying Home, for Decca Records.

• 1938 ~ William Bolcom, American pianist, composer and writer
More information about Bolcom

• 1941 ~ Imants Kalnins, Composer

• 1942 ~ Lenny Kravitz, Musician

• 1942 ~ Ray Ennis, Musician, guitar, singer with The Swinging Blue Jeans

• 1943 ~ Levon Helm, Drummer

• 1944 ~ Verden Allen, Keyboards

• 1948 ~ Stevie Nicks, Singer and songwriter

• 1949 ~ Hank Williams, Jr, Singer

• 1949 ~ Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano

• 1950 ~ Antonina Neshdanova, Russian soprano (Bolshoi Theater), died

• 1954 ~ Liberace presented a three-hour, one-man concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 13,000 women and 3,000 men attended. The performance nearly broke the box office mark of 18,000 set by pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski.

• 1967 ~ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, by The Beatles, was released. It took the Fab Four only 12 hours to record their first album, “Please, Please Me”. It took them 700 hours to complete “Sgt. Pepper’s”.

• 1973 ~ Tippett’s 3rd Piano sonata, premiered

• 1993 ~ Cor de Great, Pianist, conductor and composer, died at the age of 78

• 1994 ~ Michael Jackson (35) and Elvis and Pricilla Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie (26) were married.

• 1995 ~ Ron Weatherburn, Jazz pianist, died at the age of 61

• 1996 ~ Matima Kinuani Mpiosso, Musician, died at the age of 45

• 2002 ~ Oscar Florentino Tellez, one of San Antonio’s best-known bajo sexto players who was a regular with the Grammy-winning Texas Tornados, died in a one-vehicle traffic accident near Cotulla. He was 56. Tellez, a native of Laredo, taught himself to play music as a small boy. By his teens, he had learned to play the bass, drums, accordion, the keyboard and the bajo sexto, a Mexican bass guitar that resembles a 12-string guitar. In Europe, Tellez was affectionately called the ‘Frito Bandito.’

• 2003 ~ Almir Chediak, a music producer who dedicated his life to preserving the memory of Brazilian popular music, was shot to death. He was 52. Chediak was best known for transcribing the music of Brazil’s top musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Antonio Carlos Jobim and publishing them in the form of songbooks. He was also a music professor who taught some of Brazil’s top stars, including Gal Costa, Tim Maia, Cazuza and Morares Moreira, and in recent years he had gone on teach a new generation of Brazilian musicians. He also wrote two music textbooks that took harmonic theory out of the conservatory and made it more accessible for popular musicians. His publishing company, Lumiar, also produced CDs of important Brazilian musicians.

September 25: On This Day in Music

today

OCMS 1683 ~ Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer, theorist and organist
Read more about Rameau

 

 

OCMS 1906 ~ Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer
Read more about Shostakovich
Grammy winner
Shostakovich’s music was once condemned as being “un-Soviet” Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto number 2 is featured in Disney’s Fantasia 2000. Read more about Shostakovich

• 1932 ~ Glenn (Herbert) Gould, Canadian pianist, composer, wrote a piano essay about Petula Clark
Read quotes by and about Gould
Read news items about Gould

• 1933 ~ Erik Darling, Folk singer with The Weavers and also The Tarriers

• 1934 ~ Hot Lips was recorded by Henry Busse and his orchestra in Chicago, IL.

• 1943 ~ Gary Alexander, Guitar, singer with The Association

• 1945 ~ Onnie McIntyre, Guitar with Average White Band

• 1950 ~ NBC~TV introduced a new concept in daytime programming. Kate Smith debuted an hourlong show. Her theme song for the show was When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. Kate’s daytime show ran for four years. God Bless America.

• 1953 ~ John Locke, Keyboards with Spirit

• 1953 ~ Following in the footlights of musical greats like Ignace Jan Paderewski and Victor Borge, a piano player named Liberace made his debut at Carnegie Hall. Liberace performed before a sellout audience. His candelabra and concert grand piano were instant trademarks that lasted throughout his career.

• 1955 ~ Steve Severin (Bailey), Bass with Siouxsie & The Banshees

• 1979 ~ The third musical resulting from the collaboration of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber lit up the Great White Way. Evita opened on Broadway to rave reviews.

• 2002 ~ Bob Radonich, who for 47 years owned a local landmark cafe shaped like a coffee pot, died after suffering a series of strokes. He was 83. His cafe, Bob’s Java Jive, evokes a largely forgotten era of architecture. The street where it sits once featured toy factories shaped like castles, a gas station resembling a colossal neon gas pump and a yellow, lemon-shaped restaurant called the Lemon Lunch. Those other buildings vanished, but the Java Jive survived. Java Jive was originally known as the Coffee Pot Restaurant, built in 1927 by local veterinarian Otis G. Button and designed by an artist, inventor and promoter named Bert Smyser. Radonich bought the cafe in 1955. His wife Lylabell renamed the business for an Ink Spots’ song whose lyrics included I love coffee, I love tea, I love java jive, it loves me. The Java Jive, which was used for a scene in the 1990 movie “I Love You to Death,” was renowned for a pair of chimpanzees, Java and Jive, who played drums while Bobby Floyd, who was Bob and Lylabell’s son, entertained on the organ. Radonich’s daughter now owns and runs Bob’s Java Jive.

• 2009 ~ Alicia de Larrocha, Catalan pianist died. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century.

• 2012 ~ Andy Williams, American singer, died from bladder cancer at the age of 84

May 26: On This Day in Music

today

• 1591 ~ Dirk Janszoon Sweelinck, Composer

• 1773 ~ Hans Georg Nageli, Composer

• 1782 ~ Joseph Drechsler, Composer

• 1832 ~ François-Louis Perne, Composer, died at the age of 59

• 1846 ~ Arthur Coquard, Composer

• 1853 ~ Monroe A Althouse, Composer

• 1856 ~ George Templeton Strong, Composer

• 1866 ~ Al Jolson, The first performer to sing in a sound movie ( The Jazz Singer)

• 1871 ~ Aime Maillart, Composer, died at the age of 54

• 1873 ~ August Conradi, Composer, died at the age of 51

• 1880 ~ John Curwen, Composer, died at the age of 63

• 1891 ~ Frederick Bowen Jewson, Composer, died at the age of 67.

• 1898 ~ Ernst Bacon, Composer

• 1898 ~ Gerard Bertouille, Composer

• 1898 ~ Ernst Bacon, American composer

• 1905 ~ Hans Holewa, Composer

• 1912 ~ Jan Blockx, Belgian opera composer, died at the age of 61

• 1920 ~ Peggy Lee, American singer of popular music

• 1924 ~ Johann Heinrich Beck, Composer, died at the age of 67

• 1924 ~ Victor Herbert, Irish/US cellist/composer/conductor, died at the age of 65

• 1926 ~ Maria de Lourdes Martins, Composer

• 1933 ~ Jimmie (James Charles) Rodgers passed away

• 1937 ~ Yehuda Yannay, Composer

• 1937 ~ Lionel Hampton and his band recorded the classic, Flying Home, for Decca Records.

• 1938 ~ William Bolcom, American pianist, composer and writer
More information about Bolcom

• 1941 ~ Imants Kalnins, Composer

• 1942 ~ Lenny Kravitz, Musician

• 1942 ~ Ray Ennis, Musician, guitar, singer with The Swinging Blue Jeans

• 1943 ~ Levon Helm, Drummer

• 1944 ~ Verden Allen, Keyboards

• 1948 ~ Stevie Nicks, Singer and songwriter

• 1949 ~ Hank Williams, Jr, Singer

• 1949 ~ Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano

• 1950 ~ Antonina Neshdanova, Russian soprano (Bolshoi Theater), died

• 1954 ~ Liberace presented a three-hour, one-man concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 13,000 women and 3,000 men attended. The performance nearly broke the box office mark of 18,000 set by pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski.

• 1967 ~ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, by The Beatles, was released. It took the Fab Four only 12 hours to record their first album, “Please, Please Me”. It took them 700 hours to complete “Sgt. Pepper’s”.

• 1973 ~ Tippett’s 3rd Piano sonata, premiered

• 1993 ~ Cor de Great, Pianist, conductor and composer, died at the age of 78

• 1994 ~ Michael Jackson (35) and Elvis and Pricilla Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie (26) were married.

• 1995 ~ Ron Weatherburn, Jazz pianist, died at the age of 61

• 1996 ~ Matima Kinuani Mpiosso, Musician, died at the age of 45

• 2002 ~ Oscar Florentino Tellez, one of San Antonio’s best-known bajo sexto players who was a regular with the Grammy-winning Texas Tornados, died in a one-vehicle traffic accident near Cotulla. He was 56. Tellez, a native of Laredo, taught himself to play music as a small boy. By his teens, he had learned to play the bass, drums, accordion, the keyboard and the bajo sexto, a Mexican bass guitar that resembles a 12-string guitar. In Europe, Tellez was affectionately called the ‘Frito Bandito.’

• 2003 ~ Almir Chediak, a music producer who dedicated his life to preserving the memory of Brazilian popular music, was shot to death. He was 52. Chediak was best known for transcribing the music of Brazil’s top musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Antonio Carlos Jobim and publishing them in the form of songbooks. He was also a music professor who taught some of Brazil’s top stars, including Gal Costa, Tim Maia, Cazuza and Morares Moreira, and in recent years he had gone on teach a new generation of Brazilian musicians. He also wrote two music textbooks that took harmonic theory out of the conservatory and made it more accessible for popular musicians. His publishing company, Lumiar, also produced CDs of important Brazilian musicians.

On November 17 ~ in Music History

today

• 1726 ~ The first performance of J. S. Bach‘s Sacred Cantata No. 55 Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht on the 22nd Sunday following Trinity. Was part of Bach’s third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig 1725-27

• 1848 ~ Frederic 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.

• 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

• 1876~ The first performance of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s March Slav in Moscow.

• 1877 ~ The first production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, The Sorcerer, was presented, in London.

• 1888~ The first production of Tchaikovsky‘s Fifth Symphony in St. Petersburg.

• 1891 ~ Poland’s premier and premier ivory tickler, Ignace Jan Paderewski, made his American debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In later years, Paderewski, who suffered from arthritis, settled in Paso Robles, CA. The hot mineral baths located there eased his pain. He played only Steinway grand pianos custom-built to his specifications. In fact, five were made just for his use.

• 1919 ~ Hershy Kay, composer/arranger (Olympic Hymn)

• 1925 ~ Sir Charles Mackerras, Australian conductor

• 1930 ~ David Amram, American composer and French-horn player

• 1938 ~ Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk singer, songwriter and guitarist

• 1938 ~ Orchestra leader Kay Kyser, speaking to an audience at the College of the City of New York (CCNY) told of the “inner workings and artistic features of swing music.” It marked the first of a series of lectures on swing music presented by Kyser, who went on to present The Kollege of Musical Knowledge on radio.

• 1941 ~ Gene Clark, Singer, guitar with The Byrds

• 1942 ~ Bob Gaudio, Singer with The Royal Teens; The Four Seasons

• 1946 ~ Martin Barre, Guitarist with Jethro Tull

• 1950 ~ Roberta Peters filled in for the lead in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She would become one of the Met’s most famous stars.

• 1959 ~ Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer/pianist/conductor, died at the age of 72

• 1962 ~ The 4 Seasons, with Frankie Valli as lead singer, began a five-week run at the top of the tunedex with Big Girls Don’t Cry.

• 1967 ~ Ronald DeVoe, Singer with New Edition

• 1970 ~ Elton John recorded an album live, on what was WABC-FM in New York City. It marked the first time that a concert was aired live and recorded for release as aired. The LP was titled, 11/17/70.

• 1981 ~ Bob Eberly died

• 2001 ~ Jerry Jerome, a tenor sax player who was a featured soloist with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, died of leukemia. He was 89. One of the big names in the Big Band era, Jerome was a featured soloist with the Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Red Norvo and Artie Shaw orchestras. He then became a successful musical director and conductor on radio and television. Jerome also established a music business, scoring and arranging commercial jingles. Three years ago, Arbors Records released Jerome’s “Something Old, Something New.” The sequel recording, “Something Borrowed, Something Blue,” will be released in December. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jerome started playing the sax while in high school. He attended the University of Alabama and went on the medical school, playing gigs at jazz clubs to earn tuition money. He joined Goodman’s orchestra at the height of its popularity in 1938. When Goodman broke up his band in 1940, Jerome joined Shaw. While with Shaw, he appeared in the film “Second Chorus,” with Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith.

• 2003 ~ Arthur Conley, a 1960s soul singer and protege of Otis Redding’s, died at his home in the town of Ruurlo, in the eastern Netherlands. He was 57. Conley was born in Atlanta and started his recording career in 1959 as leader of the group Arthur and the Corvets. He was best known for his 1967 hit, Sweet Soul Music, which he co-wrote with Redding based on a number by Sam Cooke. Conley had several minor hits in the following two years. He moved to Europe in the early 1970s after several tours of the continent, deciding that he was “fed up with the pressure” in the United States, said Giesen. In the Netherlands, Conley appeared on television and radio, and ran an independent record label. In the last five years he was an adviser to The Original Sixties R&B and Soul Show, which sought to reproduce the sound and look of the heyday of soul.

• 2018 ~ Cyril Pahinui, a nationally recognized Hawaiian guitarist and singer who preserved and extended the tradition of slack-key guitar, died at the age of 68

On November 6 ~ in Music History

today

OCMS 1814 ~ Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrumentalist, inventor of the saxophone and saxotromba
More information about Sax

 

OCMS 1854 ~ John Phillip Sousa, American bandmaster and composer; “The March King”
Read quotes by and about Sousa
More information about Sousa

OCMS 1860 ~ Ignace Jan Paderewski, Composer, pianist, Polish patriot, First Premier of Poland (1919), brought white Zinfandel wine grapes to U.S. for the first time
More information about Ignace Jan Paderewski

OCMS 1893 ~ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer of the late-Romantic period (1812 Overture, Swan Lake), died at the age of 53

.1916 ~ Ray Conniff, American conductor, arranger and composer of popular music, trombonist

.1932 ~ Stonewall Jackson, Singer

.1936 ~ This was the day that big band icon Woody Herman played in his first recording session. He recorded Wintertime Dreams on Decca disc #1056.

.1937 ~ Eugene Pitt, Singer

.1938 ~ P.J. Proby (James Smith), Singer

.1940 ~ Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians recorded one of their lesser-known songs for Decca. It was The Moon Fell in the River.

.1941 ~ Doug Sahm, Singer, founded Sir Douglas Quintet

.1943 ~ Mike Clifford, Singer

.1947 ~ George Young, Guitarist with The Easybeats

.1948 ~ Glenn Frey, Songwriter, singer with The Eagles

OCMS 1965 ~ Edgard Varèse, French-born composer, died at the age of 81

.2001 ~ John Denman, a clarinetist who was most recently artistic adviser to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s pops division, died from complications of esophageal cancer. He was 68. Denman, a native of London, was a principal clarinetist for the orchestra for more than 20 years. Denman also played principal clarinet with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He taught music at Trinity College in England before coming to teach at the University of Arizona. He joined the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in the late 1970s. In 1984, Denman left the University of Arizona after failing to receive tenure. For the rest of his life, he focused on his performing career. He also designed a small clarinet, the Kinder-Klari, to make practicing easier for young hands. Denman performed and recorded with jazz icon Buddy DeFranco and was a member of several jazz bands.

.2002 ~ Maria Johansson, an organist who became a local legend for singing religious songs and hymns in one of Stockholm’s main squares every day for nearly three decades, died at the age of 84. The daughter of a preacher, Johansson often served homemade sandwiches to the poor during breaks in her daily performance. At one point, she went to work at a bakery to help pay for the sandwiches, her husband said.

.2016 ~ Zoltan Kocsis, Hungarian pianist and conductor, died at the age of 64

On September 25 ~ in Music History

today

OCMS 1683 ~ Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer, theorist and organist
Read more about Rameau

 

 

OCMS 1906 ~ Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer
Read more about Shostakovich
Grammy winner
Shostakovich’s music was once condemned as being “un-Soviet” Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto number 2 is featured in Disney’s Fantasia 2000. Read more about Shostakovich

• 1932 ~ Glenn (Herbert) Gould, Canadian pianist, composer, wrote a piano essay about Petula Clark
Read quotes by and about Gould
Read news items about Gould

• 1933 ~ Erik Darling, Folk singer with The Weavers and also The Tarriers

• 1934 ~ Hot Lips was recorded by Henry Busse and his orchestra in Chicago, IL.

• 1943 ~ Gary Alexander, Guitar, singer with The Association

• 1945 ~ Onnie McIntyre, Guitar with Average White Band

• 1950 ~ NBC~TV introduced a new concept in daytime programming. Kate Smith debuted an hourlong show. Her theme song for the show was When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. Kate’s daytime show ran for four years. God Bless America.

• 1953 ~ John Locke, Keyboards with Spirit

• 1953 ~ Following in the footlights of musical greats like Ignace Jan Paderewski and Victor Borge, a piano player named Liberace made his debut at Carnegie Hall. Liberace performed before a sellout audience. His candelabra and concert grand piano were instant trademarks that lasted throughout his career.

• 1955 ~ Steve Severin (Bailey), Bass with Siouxsie & The Banshees

• 1979 ~ The third musical resulting from the collaboration of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber lit up the Great White Way. Evita opened on Broadway to rave reviews.

• 2002 ~ Bob Radonich, who for 47 years owned a local landmark cafe shaped like a coffee pot, died after suffering a series of strokes. He was 83. His cafe, Bob’s Java Jive, evokes a largely forgotten era of architecture. The street where it sits once featured toy factories shaped like castles, a gas station resembling a colossal neon gas pump and a yellow, lemon-shaped restaurant called the Lemon Lunch. Those other buildings vanished, but the Java Jive survived. Java Jive was originally known as the Coffee Pot Restaurant, built in 1927 by local veterinarian Otis G. Button and designed by an artist, inventor and promoter named Bert Smyser. Radonich bought the cafe in 1955. His wife Lylabell renamed the business for an Ink Spots’ song whose lyrics included I love coffee, I love tea, I love java jive, it loves me. The Java Jive, which was used for a scene in the 1990 movie “I Love You to Death,” was renowned for a pair of chimpanzees, Java and Jive, who played drums while Bobby Floyd, who was Bob and Lylabell’s son, entertained on the organ. Radonich’s daughter now owns and runs Bob’s Java Jive.

• 2009 ~ Alicia de Larrocha, Catalan pianist died. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century.

• 2012 ~ Andy Williams, American singer, died from bladder cancer at the age of 84

On May 26 in Music History

today

• 1591 ~ Dirk Janszoon Sweelinck, Composer

• 1773 ~ Hans Georg Nageli, Composer

• 1782 ~ Joseph Drechsler, Composer

• 1832 ~ François-Louis Perne, Composer, died at the age of 59

• 1846 ~ Arthur Coquard, Composer

• 1853 ~ Monroe A Althouse, Composer

• 1856 ~ George Templeton Strong, Composer

• 1866 ~ Al Jolson, The first performer to sing in a sound movie ( The Jazz Singer)

• 1871 ~ Aime Maillart, Composer, died at the age of 54

• 1873 ~ August Conradi, Composer, died at the age of 51

• 1880 ~ John Curwen, Composer, died at the age of 63

• 1891 ~ Frederick Bowen Jewson, Composer, died at the age of 67.

• 1898 ~ Ernst Bacon, Composer

• 1898 ~ Gerard Bertouille, Composer

• 1898 ~ Ernst Bacon, American composer

• 1905 ~ Hans Holewa, Composer

• 1912 ~ Jan Blockx, Belgian opera composer, died at the age of 61

• 1920 ~ Peggy Lee, American singer of popular music

• 1924 ~ Johann Heinrich Beck, Composer, died at the age of 67

• 1924 ~ Victor Herbert, Irish/US cellist/composer/conductor, died at the age of 65

• 1926 ~ Maria de Lourdes Martins, Composer

• 1933 ~ Jimmie (James Charles) Rodgers passed away

• 1937 ~ Yehuda Yannay, Composer

• 1937 ~ Lionel Hampton and his band recorded the classic, Flying Home, for Decca Records.

• 1938 ~ William Bolcom, American pianist, composer and writer
More information about Bolcom

• 1941 ~ Imants Kalnins, Composer

• 1942 ~ Lenny Kravitz, Musician

• 1942 ~ Ray Ennis, Musician, guitar, singer with The Swinging Blue Jeans

• 1943 ~ Levon Helm, Drummer

• 1944 ~ Verden Allen, Keyboards

• 1948 ~ Stevie Nicks, Singer and songwriter

• 1949 ~ Hank Williams, Jr, Singer

• 1949 ~ Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano

• 1950 ~ Antonina Neshdanova, Russian soprano (Bolshoi Theater), died

• 1954 ~ Liberace presented a three-hour, one-man concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 13,000 women and 3,000 men attended. The performance nearly broke the box office mark of 18,000 set by pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski.

• 1967 ~ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, by The Beatles, was released. It took the Fab Four only 12 hours to record their first album, “Please, Please Me”. It took them 700 hours to complete “Sgt. Pepper’s”.

• 1973 ~ Tippett’s 3rd Piano sonata, premiered

• 1993 ~ Cor de Great, Pianist, conductor and composer, died at the age of 78

• 1994 ~ Michael Jackson (35) and Elvis and Pricilla Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie (26) were married.

• 1995 ~ Ron Weatherburn, Jazz pianist, died at the age of 61

• 1996 ~ Matima Kinuani Mpiosso, Musician, died at the age of 45

• 2002 ~ Oscar Florentino Tellez, one of San Antonio’s best-known bajo sexto players who was a regular with the Grammy-winning Texas Tornados, died in a one-vehicle traffic accident near Cotulla. He was 56. Tellez, a native of Laredo, taught himself to play music as a small boy. By his teens, he had learned to play the bass, drums, accordion, the keyboard and the bajo sexto, a Mexican bass guitar that resembles a 12-string guitar. In Europe, Tellez was affectionately called the ‘Frito Bandito.’

• 2003 ~ Almir Chediak, a music producer who dedicated his life to preserving the memory of Brazilian popular music, was shot to death. He was 52. Chediak was best known for transcribing the music of Brazil’s top musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Antonio Carlos Jobim and publishing them in the form of songbooks. He was also a music professor who taught some of Brazil’s top stars, including Gal Costa, Tim Maia, Cazuza and Morares Moreira, and in recent years he had gone on teach a new generation of Brazilian musicians. He also wrote two music textbooks that took harmonic theory out of the conservatory and made it more accessible for popular musicians. His publishing company, Lumiar, also produced CDs of important Brazilian musicians.