10-22: Bach Cello Suites / Casals 1936-1939 - Komitas Vardapet 1912 - Hilary Hahn : Paganini | Spohr Concertos 2006 - Leclair Trio Sonatas / Musica Alta Ripa 1994



1651 – Jacob Praetorius (German organist & composer, pupil of Sweelinck)
1764 – Jean-Marie Leclair l'aîné (French violinist & composer, founder of French Violin School)
1802 – Samuel Arnold (English composer & organist at the Chapel Royal & Westminster Abbey)
1813 – August Harder, composer, dies at 38
1859 – Louis Spohr (German composer, violinist & conductor)

1881 – Jānis Cimze (Latvian teacher, arranger & promulgator of Latvian folk song & choral singing)
1889 – Olivier Métra (French composer & conductor, l'Opéra-Comique & Folies Bergère, Paris)
1935 – Komitas Vardapet [Սողոմոն Գևորգի Սողոմոնյան
] (Armenian priest, composer, choir director, singer & ethnomusicologist)
1943 – Josef Venantius von Wöss (Austrian composer & harmony teacher, made piano transcriptions of Mahler symphonies)
1969 – Tommy Edwards (American R&B, jazz & pop singer & songwriter)
1969 – Giovanni Martinelli (Italian operatic tenor)
1973 – Pablo Casals (Spanish cellist & conductor)
1979 – Nadia Boulanger (French composer, composition teacher, pianist & organist)
1985 – Viorica Ursuleac (Romanian operatic soprano)
1986 – Jane Dornacker (American musician, actress & traffic reporter for WNBC Radio)
1989 – Ewan MacColl (English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright & record producer)
1994 - David Buchan (American ethnomusicologist)
2005 – Franky Gee [Captain Jack] (American R&B singer)


Write-up and list still need some work.


An Apology For No Posts

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

10-21: Runaways Cleveland 1976 - Elliott Smith Portland 1994 - Ruts : Stepping Bondage Demos 1978-1980 - Jack Kerouac Reads On The Road - Johann Ernst Hartmann Symphonies / Mortensen 2004



1662 – Henry Lawes (English composer, son of William)
1793 – Johann Ernst Hartmann (German composer & ancestor of several other composers)
1798 – Johann Christoph Schmugel (German composer & organist)
1805 – Johann Baptist Lasser (German composer)
1810 – Franz Teyber, composer
1897 – Paul Kuczynski (Polish composer)
1905 – Jose Teodor Vilar, composer
1919 – Sven August Korling, composer
1924 – Martin-Pierre Joseph Marsick, violinist & composer
1965 – Bill Black, American rock & country bassist
1969 – Jack Kerouac, American novelist & poet
1977 – Ferit Tuzun, composer
1984 – Dalibor Vačkář composer
1991 – Lorenc Antoni (Kosovo Albanian composer)
1995 – Shannon Hoon (American rock singer, Blind Melon)
1995 – Maxene Andrews (American pop & jazz singer, The Andrews Sisters)
2003 – Elliott Smith (American rock & folk singer, songwriter, guitarist & multi-instrumentalist)

2006 – Sandy West (American rock drummer & singer, The Runaways)
2007 – Paul Fox (English punk guitarist & singer, The Ruts)



Write-up and more detailed list to follow.


10-20: Pigface Fook 1992 - Killing Joke Amsterdam 2006 - Merle Travis in Boston 1959 - Shirley Horn : Violets For Your Furs 1981 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Oakland 1977


~ AND - Y - И - ΚΑΙ - VE - و - და ~



1676 – Christopher Gibbons (English composer & organist, son of Orlando)
1819 – Lambert-Francois Godecharle (Flemish composer)
1870 – Michael William Balfe (Irish composer, conductor, violinist & singer)
1904 – Henry Hiles (English composer, organist, writer & teacher)
1913 – Leander Schlegel (Dutch composer, violinist, pianist, choral conductor & music director of German ancestry)
1927 – Mikhail Ivanov [Михаил Иванов] (Russian composer, music critic & writer on music)
1931 – Emánuel Moór (Hungarian composer, pianist & musical instrument inventor, the Emánuel Moór Pianoforte)

1944 – Gabriel Grovlez (French conductor & composer, pupil of Fauré)
1955 – Eino Roiha (Finnish musicologist, composer, choral conductor & music critic)
1977 – Cassie Gaines (American gospel & rock singer, Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1977 – Steve Gaines (American rock guitarist, songwriter & singer, Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1977 – Ronnie Van Zant (American rock singer & songwriter, Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1983 – Merle Travis (American country singer, guitarist & songwriter)

1992 – Werner Torkanowsky (German conductor, violinist & composer, active in the United States)
1995 – Raymond Rasberry (American gospel pianist & singer)
2005 – Shirley Horn (American jazz singer & pianist)

2007 – Paul Raven (English post-punk, industrial & metal bass guitarist & producer, Killing Joke, Pigface, Prong, Ministry)

10-19b: Don Cherry Eternal Rhythm 1968 - Alice Cooper Los Angeles Forum 1973



Our labels runneth over!


10-19a: Son House 1941-1942 Library of Congress - Jacqueline Du Pré : Elgar | Delius | Saint-Saëns 1



1758 – Johan Helmich Roman (Swedish composer, the "Father of Swedish Music")
1786 – Pietro Alessandro Pavona (Italian organist, composer & church music director)
1932 – Arthur Friedheim [Артур Фридхайм] (Russian pianist, conductor & composer, active in Britain, the United States & Canada, pupil of Liszt)
1956 – Isham Jones (American jazz bandleader, saxophonist, bassist & songwriter, "It Had To Be You")
1959 – Stanley Bate (English composer & pianist)
1960 – Günter Raphael (German composer & music editor)
1961 – John Fernström (Swedish composer, conductor, teacher, violinist, poet & author)
1987 – Jacqueline du Pré (English cellist, spouse of Daniel Barenboim)
1988 – Son House (American blues singer, guitarist & songwriter)
1992 – Maurice le Roux (French conductor & composer, pupil of Messiaen, known for soundtracks)
1995 – Don Cherry (American jazz pocket trumpeter, cornetist, pianist & composer)
1997 – Glen Buxton (American rock guitarist & songwriter, Alice Cooper)
2000 – Hortense Ellis (Jamaican reggae singer, younger sister of Alton)
2005 – Dallas Cook (American ska-punk trombonist, Suburban Legends)


Jacqueline du Pré, Son House, and Don Cherry. There are three names that likely wouldn't be mentioned in the same book, much less in the same phrase, if it weren't for October the 19th. But they do have one other thing in common, which is that all of these musicians were at the absolute top of the heap within their respective genres - namely, classical violoncello, Delta blues, and avant-garde jazz. Let's examine the three of them chronologically, but according to year of birth, rather than year of death, as above.

Son House was not from that very first generation of Delta bluesman who were born in the 1880s and 90s, and which was occupied by the original himself, Mr. Charlie Patton. However, with a birthdate of 1902 he lay, along with Skip James, in a middle-ground between Patton's generation and that second generation of Delta bluesman, represented most famously by Robert Johnson (b. 1911). But any way you wanna slice it, it cannot be denied that with Son House's passing in 1988, it really was the end of an era, because it meant that the very last of the old-time Delta bluesman who'd made their first commercial recordings in the 1920s was now gone.

And what a great bluesman he was. Often using a slide on his National steel guitar, House infused his fervent vocal performances with a rare amount of borrowings from the style of 19th-century black spirituals, and the hypnotic repetitiousness of plantation work songs. It may represent as close a performance style as many 20th-century performers ever got to the proto-blues of those years before recording technology existed, or before people who had access to such technology thought music of this sort was worth using it for.

Don Cherry, player of both the tiny pocket trumpet and the normal-sized cornet, was one of the pivotal figures in some of the most exciting developments in avant-garde jazz in the 1960s thru 80s. He's most associated with the free jazz of Ornette Coleman, nine of whose albums he played on between the late 50s and early 70s. He also appeared with Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, and was one of many players to appear on Carla Bley's avant-garde jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill.

But Cherry also led a couple dozen visionary sessions of his own, in which his musical explorations led him to what would become known as "global fusion," a style which signaled jazz finally dissolving into the larger world of music, incorporating not just jazz and rock but potentially all music of all peoples into its improvisational framework. In the hands of Cherry, and similarly-minded individuals, jazz was now becoming not just the music of African-Americans, and of hip and educated European-Americans, but of the whole planet.


(more on Jackie later...)

10-18/19 BONUS REGGAE! Lucky Dube : Prisoner 1991 | House of Exile 1992 - Alton & Hortense Ellis : I'm Still in Love with You 1990

Lucky Dube - Hortense Ellis



10-18: Anna Russell : Ring of the Nibelungs Analysis 1953 - Marion Brown : Sweet Earth Flying 1974 - John TaveRner / BBC Singers 2010 - Gounod Sept Paroles | Symphony 2 / Petit 1993



1545 – John Taverner (English composer & organist)
1634 – Pierre De La Barre (French court organist & composer)
1771 – Robert Praelisauer (German priest, composer, organist & choir director)
1788 – Jean-Guillain Cardon (French court violinist & composer)
1817 – Étienne Nicolas Méhul (French composer & keyboardist)
1832 – Othon-Joseph Vandenbroek (Belgian hornist & composer)
1864 – Jacques-François Gallay (French hornist, tuba player, teacher & composer)
1893 – Charles Gounod (French composer & pianist)
1953 – Federico Gerdes (Peruvian pianist, conductor & composer)
1963 – Cláudio Carneyro (Portuguese composer & violinist)
1965 – Frank Hutchens (New Zealand-born pianist, teacher & composer, active in Australia)
1994 – Lee Allen (American R&B & rock saxophonist)

2000 – Julie London (American pop & jazz singer & actress)
2001 – Micheline Ostermeyer (French champion Olympic athlete & concert pianist)
2002 – Lo Man,
羅文  [Tam Pak-Sin, 譚百先] (Hong Kong Cantopop singer & actor)
2006 – Anna Russell (English-born Canadian music satirist, contralto & pianist)
2007 – Lucky Dube (South African reggae & mbaqanga singer & keyboardist)

2008 – Dee Dee Warwick (American soul singer, sister of Dionne, niece of Cissy Houston & cousin of Whitney Houston)
2010 – Marion Brown (American jazz alto saxophonist, composer & ethnomusicologist)


Another day of international poopery here at YiDM. We've got one of the greatest English composers of the first half of the 16th century, John Taverner. (Be sure not to confuse him with the still-living composer who doesn't have the 'r' in the middle of his surname.) We also have some important French opera composers, one of whom, Charles Gounod, also wrote much sacred music. Micheline Ostermeyer, a champ both on the concert stage and in the discus circle. Some notables from South Africa, Portugal, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Peru! It almost makes you wish they all weren't dead, doesn't it?

And then there's free-jazz alto sax player Marion Brown, who's probably most famous for having appeared, early in his career, on John Coltrane's Ascension (1965), an album which restaurant workers often keep on hand to get rid of thoughtless patrons who linger at their tables too long after closing time.

But to start off, there's something special. Are you a music-lover who's been putting off getting to know the gargantuan music dramas of Richard Wagner? Are you baffled and intimidated by The Ring, and wonder what it all could possibly mean? Afraid you'll embarrass yourself and doze off during Der Walküre because you just can't relate to what's going on? Well, Anna Russell is here to save the day! In just 21 short minutes, she'll explain (and play, and sing!) everything you need to know about Der Ring des Nibelungen, and she may even have you rolling on the floor with laughter in the process (notwithstanding that her cultural references are half a century out of date). "I'm not making this up, you know!" And the funniest part is that she isn't.

UPDATE: See, I didn't realize I'd forgotten to put up the link for this post. I only figured it out by stumbling across it. Maybe if some of you would leave a COMMENT about links that aren't working or aren't there, I could fix things...

Well, I just started a YiDM YouTube Channel...



Not sure what use I'll get out of it, but the URL to this place is up there, so maybe it'll pull in more readership. Hell, I dunno. We surpassed the 2000 page-view mark today, by the way. Anyway, to inaugurate the new channel, here's some videos I made for an EP by my little solo act Papaw from a few years ago. There are three of them, all below the jump. That's where I'll be posting videos, so that you'll only have plug-ins revving up their engines if you really want to watch them:

10-17b: Savatage : Sirens 1983 | Edge of Thorns 1993 - Alberta Hunter w/ Lovie Austin 1961 - The Chieftains 4 1973



1984 – Alberta Hunter (American blues & jazz singer & songwriter & nurse)
1991 – Tennessee Ernie Ford (American country, pop & gospel singer, guitarist, violinist & television host)
1993 – Criss Oliva (American metal guitarist & songwriter, Savatage)
1996 – Chris Acland (English rock drummer, Lush)
1996 – Berthold Goldschmidt (German composer & conductor, active in England)
2000 – Jokke [Joachim Nielsen] (Norwegian rock singer, guitarist & poet, Jokke & Valentinerne)
2001 – Jay Livingston (American songwriter w/ Ray Evans of "Mona Lisa," "Buttons and Bows," "Que Sera, Sera" & "Bonanza" & "Mr. Ed" themes)
2002 – Derek Bell (Northern Irish harpist, pianist, oboist, musicologist & composer, The Chieftains)
2004 – Uzi Hitman [עוזי חיטמן] (Israeli pop singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist & TV personality)
2007 – Teresa Brewer (American pop & jazz singer)

2008 – Levi Stubbs (American R&B & soul singer & voice actor, The Four Tops)
2009 – Vic Mizzy (American TV & film composer, "Green Acres," "The Addams Family")


What you're reading right now is the write-up.


10-17a: Chopin Bonanza! Cortot | Lipatti | Rachmaninoff | Richter - Janácek / Haas / Szymanowski Quartets arr. Tognetti 2002 - Hummel Mandolin & Trumpet Concertos : Stephens / Agnes / Shelley 2001



1825 – Peter Winter (German opera composer & violinist)
1837 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel (Austrian composer & pianist)
1849 – Frédéric Chopin (Polish composer & pianist)
1890 – Prosper Sainton (French violinist))
1910 – Julia Ward Howe (American abolitionist, author & poet, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic")
1944 – Pavel Haas (Czech composer, pupil of Janáček, perished at Auschwitz)

1972 – Billy Williams (American R&B & pop singer)
1979 – Karel Reiner (Czech composer & pianist, the only classical composer to survive Theresienstadt)
1981 – David Guion (American composer & arranger, inspired by soundscape of the American West)


Another uncanny coincidence, in that Karel Reiner should have died on the 35th anniversary of the day the promising composer Pavel Haas was murdered at Auschwitz. Both of them had been been housed at Theresienstadt, a somewhat less hellish concentration camp, which the Nazis had established in a Polish Jewish ghetto, in part to make a propaganda film demonstrating that their musically gifted "detainees" were being treated well and allowed to flourish musically (in fact, the orchestra in the film were surrounded by flowerpots to hide the fact their shoes had been taken away). Reiner was the only classical composer at Theresienstadt to survive the war. But the story of Haas's untimely demise was later related by another survivor, conductor Karel Ančerl, who claimed he was standing next to Haas at Auschwitz the day they both arrived (many of the Theresienstadt prisoners having been transported there as soon as the filming was finished), and that originally it was he, Ančerl, who had been among those chosen for the gas chambers, but that Haas had a bad cough which caused the commanding officer to change his mind and send him instead. Ančerl went on to have a brilliant career with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. We can only guess at what great things Haas would have accomplished had he lived a full life, as Reiner and Ančerl did.

Well, Chopin is one of those composers it's hard to have too much of in your record collection. His works are open to so many interpretive possibilities, making it difficult to decide on just one version of the Ballades, or the Mazurkas, or the Scherzi, or what have you. Plus, all his works are so gorgeous, so emotionally satisfying, and so amazingly well-crafted - all things that make Chopin perhaps the piano composer par excellence. The only others who might come close are Schumann, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff, but even they seem to fall short of the almost universal appeal of Poland's greatest composer. And Chopin's life was a good six years shorter than Pavel Haas's was. Tuberculosis, you know. So, he was also coughing shortly before the end. How many more of those perfect little masterpieces he might have had inside him. Keep reading about him!