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"If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music." Keith Richards
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. He is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century: music critic Donal Henahan stated that "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim."
His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by James Agee. At the time of his death, nearly all of his compositions had been recorded.
His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by James Agee. At the time of his death, nearly all of his compositions had been recorded.
steve vai
Steven Siro Vai (/vaɪ/; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, singer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, and played in Zappa's band from 1980 to 1983. He embarked on a solo career in 1983 and has released eight solo albums to date. He has recorded and toured with Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake, as well as recording with artists such as Public Image Ltd, Mary J. Blige, Spinal Tap, and Ozzy Osbourne. Additionally, Vai has toured with live-only acts G3, Zappa Plays Zappa, and the Experience Hendrix tour, as well as headlining international tours.
pat metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny (/məˈθiːni/ mə-thee-nee; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, post-bop, latin jazz and jazz fusion. Pat Metheny has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards. He is the brother of jazz flugelhornist and journalist Mike Metheny.
He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, post-bop, latin jazz and jazz fusion. Pat Metheny has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards. He is the brother of jazz flugelhornist and journalist Mike Metheny.
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau (March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017) was an American singer and musician. He received a total of seven Grammy Awards and was nominated for over a dozen more. Jarreau is perhaps best known for his 1981 album Breakin' Away. He also sang the theme song of the late-1980s television series Moonlighting, and was among the performers on the 1985 charity song "We Are the World."
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (January 25, 1927 in Rio de Janeiro – December 8, 1994 in New York City), also known as Tom Jobim, was a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. A primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, Jobim is acknowledged as one of the most influential popular composers of the 20th century. His songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within Brazil and internationally.
Alex Fox
Alex Fox is a guitarist. Fox was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he was inspired by a broad range of artists ranging from Paco De Lucia, The Beatles to The Gipsy Kings.
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 – November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras ("Brazilian Bachian-pieces").
His earliest pieces originated in guitar improvisations, for example Panqueca ("Pancake") of 1900. The concert series of 1915–21 included first performances of pieces demonstrating originality and virtuosic technique. Some of these pieces are early examples of elements of importance throughout his œuvre. His attachment to the Iberian Peninsula is demonstrated in Canção Ibéria of 1914 and in orchestral transcriptions of some of Enrique Granados' piano Goyescas (1918, now lost). Other themes that were to recur in his later work include the anguish and despair of the piece Desesperança— Sonata Phantastica e Capricciosa no. 1 (1915), a violin sonata including "histrionic and violently contrasting emotions", the birds of L'oiseau blessé d'une flèche (1913), the mother-child relationship (not usually a happy one in Villa-Lobos's music) in Les mères of 1914, and the flowers of Suíte floral for piano of 1916–18 which reappeared in Distribuição de flores for flute and guitar of 1937.
Reconciling European tradition and Brazilian influences was also an element that bore fruit more formally later. His earliest published work Pequena suíte for cello and piano of 1913 shows a love for the cello, but is not notably Brazilian, although it contains elements that were to resurface later. His three-movement String Quartet no. 1 (Suíte graciosa) of 1915 (expanded to six movements ca. 1947) is influenced by European opera, while Três danças características (africanas e indígenas) of 1914–16 for piano, later arranged for octet and subsequently orchestrated, is radically influenced by the tribal music of the Caripunas Indians of Mato Grosso.
With his tone poems Amazonas (1916, first performed in Paris in 1929) and Uirapurú (1916, first performed 1935) he created works dominated by indigenous Brazilian influences. The works use Brazilian folk tales and characters, imitations of the sounds of the jungle and its fauna, imitations of the sound of the nose-flute by the violinophone, and not least imitations of the uirapuru itself.
His earliest pieces originated in guitar improvisations, for example Panqueca ("Pancake") of 1900. The concert series of 1915–21 included first performances of pieces demonstrating originality and virtuosic technique. Some of these pieces are early examples of elements of importance throughout his œuvre. His attachment to the Iberian Peninsula is demonstrated in Canção Ibéria of 1914 and in orchestral transcriptions of some of Enrique Granados' piano Goyescas (1918, now lost). Other themes that were to recur in his later work include the anguish and despair of the piece Desesperança— Sonata Phantastica e Capricciosa no. 1 (1915), a violin sonata including "histrionic and violently contrasting emotions", the birds of L'oiseau blessé d'une flèche (1913), the mother-child relationship (not usually a happy one in Villa-Lobos's music) in Les mères of 1914, and the flowers of Suíte floral for piano of 1916–18 which reappeared in Distribuição de flores for flute and guitar of 1937.
Reconciling European tradition and Brazilian influences was also an element that bore fruit more formally later. His earliest published work Pequena suíte for cello and piano of 1913 shows a love for the cello, but is not notably Brazilian, although it contains elements that were to resurface later. His three-movement String Quartet no. 1 (Suíte graciosa) of 1915 (expanded to six movements ca. 1947) is influenced by European opera, while Três danças características (africanas e indígenas) of 1914–16 for piano, later arranged for octet and subsequently orchestrated, is radically influenced by the tribal music of the Caripunas Indians of Mato Grosso.
With his tone poems Amazonas (1916, first performed in Paris in 1929) and Uirapurú (1916, first performed 1935) he created works dominated by indigenous Brazilian influences. The works use Brazilian folk tales and characters, imitations of the sounds of the jungle and its fauna, imitations of the sound of the nose-flute by the violinophone, and not least imitations of the uirapuru itself.
Amina Figarova
Amina Figarova (born 1964) is an Azerbaijani jazz pianist. Trained as a classical pianist in Baku, she became interested in the local folk music, later specializing in jazz. Since the late 1980s, together with her husband, the flutist Bart Platteau, she has performed in jazz festivals around the world.Born in Baku on 2 December 1964, Amina Figarova learnt to play the piano as a small child and began composing when only six. She attended the Baku Academy of Music where she studied to become a classical concert pianist. In 1988, while at the Moscow Jazz Festival, she was invited to study at the Rotterdam Conservatoire where she soon developed an interest in jazz. She completed her education at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
John Scofield
John Scofield (born December 26, 1951), sometimes referred to as "Sco", is an American jazz-rock guitarist and composer whose music includes bebop, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul, and rock. He has worked with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Palmieri, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham, Medeski Martin & Wood, George Duke, Jaco Pastorius, John Mayer, Robert Glasper, and Gov't Mule.
Mighty Sparrow
Slinger Francisco ORTT CM OBE, better known as Mighty Sparrow, is a Trinidadian calypso vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist. Known as the "Calypso King of the World", he is one of the best-known and most successful calypsonians.
huey lewis
Hugh Anthony Cregg III (born July 5, 1950), known professionally as Huey Lewis, is a Grammy-winning American singer, songwriter, and actor.
Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs. The band is known for their third, and best-selling, album Sports, and their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film Back to the Future. Lewis previously played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.
Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs. The band is known for their third, and best-selling, album Sports, and their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film Back to the Future. Lewis previously played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.
Charles Fox
Charles Fox (born October 30, 1940 in New York City), is a composer for film and television. His most heard compositions are probably the "love themes" (the sunshine pop musical backgrounds which accompanied every episode of the 1970s ABC-TV show Love, American Style), and the dramatic theme music to ABC's Wide World of Sports.
His career started by playing the piano for, composing and arranging for artists such as Ray Barretto, Joe Quijano and Tito Puente. He also wrote theme music and arranged for Skitch Henderson and the Tonight Show Orchestra. Fox worked under the banner of Bob Israel's Score Productions where he composed the themes for several Goodson-Todman game shows including The Match Game (NBC version), What's My Line? (syndicated version) and To Tell the Truth (lyrics by director Paul Alter). He co-composed the theme song for Love, American Style, along with Arnold Margolin. He also co-composed "Killing Me Softly with His Song" with Norman Gimbel in 1971, which was first recorded by Lori Lieberman. They later wrote the theme songs to films and programs such as Last American Hero ("I Got A Name", sung by Jim Croce), Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman.
His career started by playing the piano for, composing and arranging for artists such as Ray Barretto, Joe Quijano and Tito Puente. He also wrote theme music and arranged for Skitch Henderson and the Tonight Show Orchestra. Fox worked under the banner of Bob Israel's Score Productions where he composed the themes for several Goodson-Todman game shows including The Match Game (NBC version), What's My Line? (syndicated version) and To Tell the Truth (lyrics by director Paul Alter). He co-composed the theme song for Love, American Style, along with Arnold Margolin. He also co-composed "Killing Me Softly with His Song" with Norman Gimbel in 1971, which was first recorded by Lori Lieberman. They later wrote the theme songs to films and programs such as Last American Hero ("I Got A Name", sung by Jim Croce), Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman.
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950.
Domenico Dragonetti
Domenico Carlo Maria Dragonetti (7 April 1763 – 16 April 1846) was an Italian double bass virtuoso and composer with a 3 string double bass. He stayed for thirty years in his hometown of Venice, Italy and worked at the Opera Buffa, at the Chapel of San Marco and at the Grand Opera in Vicenza. By that time he had become notable throughout Europe and had turned down several opportunities, including offers from the Tsar of Russia. In 1794, he finally moved to London to play in the orchestra of the King's Theatre, and settled there for the remainder of his life. In fifty years, he became a prominent figure in the musical events of the English capital, performing at the concerts of the Philharmonic Society of London as well as in more private events, where he would meet the most influential persons in the country, like the Prince Consort and the Duke of Leinster
Larry Graham
Larry Graham Jr. is an American bassist and singer, both with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station.
Traditional
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California, United States. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.
Henry Fillmore
Henry Fillmore (December 3, 1881 – December 7, 1956) was an American musician, composer, publisher, and bandleader, best known for his many marches and screamers.In the 1920s Fillmore was back in Cincinnati conducting the Shriners Temple Band, which he turned into one of the best marching bands in the country.In 1938 Fillmore, after being advised by a physician that he had just a few months to live, retired to Miami, Florida. He went on, however, to prove the physician wrong. So Fillmore kept an active schedule rehearsing high school bands in Florida and composing marches. Henry Fillmore Band Hall, the rehearsal hall for many of the University of Miami's performing groups, acquired its name as a tribute to Fillmore's work in the band genre. His march "Orange Bowl" was written for Miami's Band of the Hour. Uncle Henry, as Fillmore was affectionately known to the members of the Band of the hour, also wrote the University of Miami's current official fight song – "Miami U How-De-Doo". His arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the traditional arrangement performed by the Florida State University Marching Chiefs. His march "Men of Florida" was composed for the bands at the University of Florida. He was given an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the University of Miami in 1956 in recognition of his career. Fillmore lived out the rest of his days in South Florida.
Enrique Jorrín
Enrique Jorrín was a Cuban charanga violinist, composer and music director. He is considered the inventor of the cha-cha-chá, a popular style of ballroom music derived from danzón.
Wayne shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. More recently, in the late 1950s, he emerged as the primary composer and member of Art Blakey's Jazz Reporters. He joined Miles Davis' Second Big Five in the 1960s, where he founded the jazz fusion group Weather Report. More than 20 albums
Guiseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Italian pronunciation: ; 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture - such as "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La traviata and the "Grand March" from Aida. Although his work was sometimes criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom and having a tendency toward melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.
Verdi's predecessors who influenced his music were Rossini, Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer and, most notably, Gaetano Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante. With the exception of Otello and Aida, he was free of Wagner's influence. Although respectful of Gounod, Verdi was careful not to learn anything from the Frenchman whom many of Verdi's contemporaries regarded as the greatest living composer. Some strains in Aida suggest at least a superficial familiarity with the works of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt, after his tour of the Russian Empire as a pianist, popularized in Western Europe.
Throughout his career, Verdi rarely utilised the high C in his tenor arias, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing that particular note in front of an audience distracts the performer before and after the note appears. However, he did provide high Cs to Duprez in Jérusalem and to Tamberlick in the original version of La forza del destino. The high C often heard in the aria Di quella pira does not appear in Verdi's score.
Verdi's predecessors who influenced his music were Rossini, Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer and, most notably, Gaetano Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante. With the exception of Otello and Aida, he was free of Wagner's influence. Although respectful of Gounod, Verdi was careful not to learn anything from the Frenchman whom many of Verdi's contemporaries regarded as the greatest living composer. Some strains in Aida suggest at least a superficial familiarity with the works of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt, after his tour of the Russian Empire as a pianist, popularized in Western Europe.
Throughout his career, Verdi rarely utilised the high C in his tenor arias, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing that particular note in front of an audience distracts the performer before and after the note appears. However, he did provide high Cs to Duprez in Jérusalem and to Tamberlick in the original version of La forza del destino. The high C often heard in the aria Di quella pira does not appear in Verdi's score.
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. He is particularly noted for his original melodic and harmonic writing.
While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (including his teacher Antonio Salieri, and the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl), wider appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best. He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment, and for most of his career he relied on the support of friends and family. Interest in Schubert's work increased dramatically in the decades following his death and he is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.
While he was clearly influenced by the Classical sonata forms of Beethoven and Mozart (his early works, among them notably the 5th Symphony, are particularly Mozartean), his formal structures and his developments tend to give the impression more of melodic development than of harmonic drama. This combination of Classical form and long-breathed Romantic melody sometimes lends them a discursive style: his 9th Symphony was described by Robert Schumann as running to "heavenly lengths". His harmonic innovations include movements in which the first section ends in the key of the subdominant rather than the dominant (as in the last movement of the Trout Quintet). Schubert's practice here was a forerunner of the common Romantic technique of relaxing, rather than raising, tension in the middle of a movement, with final resolution postponed to the very end.
While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (including his teacher Antonio Salieri, and the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl), wider appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best. He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment, and for most of his career he relied on the support of friends and family. Interest in Schubert's work increased dramatically in the decades following his death and he is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.
While he was clearly influenced by the Classical sonata forms of Beethoven and Mozart (his early works, among them notably the 5th Symphony, are particularly Mozartean), his formal structures and his developments tend to give the impression more of melodic development than of harmonic drama. This combination of Classical form and long-breathed Romantic melody sometimes lends them a discursive style: his 9th Symphony was described by Robert Schumann as running to "heavenly lengths". His harmonic innovations include movements in which the first section ends in the key of the subdominant rather than the dominant (as in the last movement of the Trout Quintet). Schubert's practice here was a forerunner of the common Romantic technique of relaxing, rather than raising, tension in the middle of a movement, with final resolution postponed to the very end.
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully (UK: /ˈlʊli/, US: /luːˈliː/; French: ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, Italian: ; 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, instrumentalist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France and became a French subject in 1661.
Mark King
Mark Raymond King is an English musician. He is the lead singer and bassist of the band Level 42. King is known for his slap style of playing the bass guitar, with MusicRadar describing him as "the guy who put the slap in pop during the 80s".
Keane
Keane are an English piano rock band, first established in Battle, East Sussex in 1995, and taking their current name in 1997. The group comprises composer, bassist, and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley, lead vocalist Tom Chaplin and drummer Richard Hughes. Their original line-up included founder and guitarist Dominic Scott, who left in 2001. Keane are known for using a piano as their lead instrument instead of guitars, significantly differentiating them from most rock bands. The inclusion of a distorted piano effect since 2006 and various synthesizers are now a common feature in their music that nowadays combines the piano rock sound used during their first album and the alternative rock sound which developed during 2005. Acoustic and power ballads are a highlight in the group's music, including fan favourite songs such as "On a Day Like Today" and "We Might as Well Be Strangers".
Their first two studio albums, Hopes and Fears and Under the Iron Sea achieved success in the United Kingdom upon release and very high sales worldwide: their multi-award-winning debut was the best-selling British album of 2004, and their sophomore sold up to 222,000 copies during its first week on sale in June 2006. In May 2008, both Hopes and Fears (#13) and Under the Iron Sea (#8) were voted by readers of Q magazine within the best British albums ever; Keane, The Beatles, Oasis and Radiohead were the only musical acts having two albums in the top 20.
The band's third studio album, Perfect Symmetry will be released in October 13, 2008.
Their first two studio albums, Hopes and Fears and Under the Iron Sea achieved success in the United Kingdom upon release and very high sales worldwide: their multi-award-winning debut was the best-selling British album of 2004, and their sophomore sold up to 222,000 copies during its first week on sale in June 2006. In May 2008, both Hopes and Fears (#13) and Under the Iron Sea (#8) were voted by readers of Q magazine within the best British albums ever; Keane, The Beatles, Oasis and Radiohead were the only musical acts having two albums in the top 20.
The band's third studio album, Perfect Symmetry will be released in October 13, 2008.
Sting
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born October 2, 1951), better known by his stage name Sting, is a three time Academy Award-nominated and multiple Grammy-winning English musician from Wallsend in North Tyneside. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the rock band The Police. As a solo musician and member of The Police, Sting has sold over 100 million records, and received over sixteen Grammy Awards for his work, receiving his first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981, and receiving an Oscar nomination for best song.
Sting has stated that he gained his nickname while with the Phoenix Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes that bandleader Gordon Solomon had noted made him look like a bumblebee; thus Sumner became "Sting". He uses Sting almost exclusively, except on official documents. In a press conference filmed in the movie Bring on the Night, he jokingly stated when referred to by a journalist as Gordon, "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?"
Sting has stated that he gained his nickname while with the Phoenix Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes that bandleader Gordon Solomon had noted made him look like a bumblebee; thus Sumner became "Sting". He uses Sting almost exclusively, except on official documents. In a press conference filmed in the movie Bring on the Night, he jokingly stated when referred to by a journalist as Gordon, "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?"
Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss.His career highlights as a musician include recording five No. 1 albums; charting 28 albums on the Billboard magazine album chart; achieving sales of 14 platinum albums and 15 gold albums; and earning nine Grammy Awards. He has sold 72 million records worldwide. Alpert is the only musician to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) and an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979).
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles by vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger. They were considered a controversial band, due mostly to Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona. The band dissolved in March 1973, short of two years after Morrison's death in July 1971. According to the RIAA, they have sold over 32 million albums in the US alone.
The Doors' music during the 1965-68 era was a fusion of hard rock, blues-rock, and acid rock. The origins of The Doors lay in a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLA film school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantasic rock-n-roll concert going on in my head") and, at Manzarek's encouragement, sang "Moonlight Drive". Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band.
The Doors' music during the 1965-68 era was a fusion of hard rock, blues-rock, and acid rock. The origins of The Doors lay in a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLA film school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantasic rock-n-roll concert going on in my head") and, at Manzarek's encouragement, sang "Moonlight Drive". Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band.
Melodibog
Melodibog A very nice study book containing all the notes of many songs.
Nick Hexum
Nicholas Lofton Hexum is an American singer, songwriter and rapper, currently the vocalist and guitarist for the multi-platinum alternative rock band 311 and The Nick Hexum Quintet.
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (pronounced /ˈpɜrsəl/; 10 September 1659 (?) – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music.
Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains (genellikle AIC olarak kısaltılır), 1987'de gitarist ve vokalist Jerry Cantrell ve davulcu Sean Kinney tarafından oluşturulan Seattle, Washington'dan bir Amerikan grunge grubudur , daha sonra basçı Mike Starr ve vokalist Layne Staley'i gruba dahil edilmiştir. Mike Starr, 1993 yılında Mike Inez ile değiştirildi. William DuVall, 2002'de ölen Staley'in yerine 2006 yılında ortak vokalist ve ritm gitaristi olarak katıldı. Grup adını Staley'nin bir önceki grubu olan glam metal grubu Alice N 'Chains'den almıştır. .
police
This article is about the band. For law enforcement organisations, see Police. For other uses, see Police (disambiguation).
The Police
The Police onstage
Andy Summers (far right), Sting (front), Stewart Copeland (drums). The Police performing at Madison Square Garden, New York City, on 1 August 2007.
Background information
Origin London, England
Genres
New wave reggae rock post-punk pop rock
Years active
1977–1984, 1986 2007–2008
Labels
Illegal A&M
Associated acts
Strontium 90 Eberhard Schoener
Website www.thepolice.com
Past members
Sting
Stewart Copeland
Henry Padovani
Andy Summers
The Police were a British rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar, primary songwriter), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Emerging in the British new-wave scene, they played a style of rock influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz. Considered one of the leaders of the Second British Invasion of the U.S., in 1983 Rolling Stone labelled them "the first British New Wave act to break through in America on a grand scale, and possibly the biggest band in the world." The Police disbanded in 1986, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour that ended in August 2008.
Their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d'Amour, reached No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart. Their second album Reggatta de Blanc (1979), became the first of four consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the UK and Australia with its lead single, "Message in a Bottle", their first UK number one. Their next two albums, Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) and Ghost in the Machine (1981), featuring "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", both UK number one singles, saw further critical and commercial success. Their final studio album, Synchronicity (1983), was No. 1 in both the UK and the US, selling over 8 million copies in the US alone. Its lead single, "Every Breath You Take", became their fifth UK number one, and first in the US. The Police have sold over 75 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. They were the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008, due to their reunion tour.
The Police
The Police onstage
Andy Summers (far right), Sting (front), Stewart Copeland (drums). The Police performing at Madison Square Garden, New York City, on 1 August 2007.
Background information
Origin London, England
Genres
New wave reggae rock post-punk pop rock
Years active
1977–1984, 1986 2007–2008
Labels
Illegal A&M
Associated acts
Strontium 90 Eberhard Schoener
Website www.thepolice.com
Past members
Sting
Stewart Copeland
Henry Padovani
Andy Summers
The Police were a British rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar, primary songwriter), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Emerging in the British new-wave scene, they played a style of rock influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz. Considered one of the leaders of the Second British Invasion of the U.S., in 1983 Rolling Stone labelled them "the first British New Wave act to break through in America on a grand scale, and possibly the biggest band in the world." The Police disbanded in 1986, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour that ended in August 2008.
Their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d'Amour, reached No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart. Their second album Reggatta de Blanc (1979), became the first of four consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the UK and Australia with its lead single, "Message in a Bottle", their first UK number one. Their next two albums, Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) and Ghost in the Machine (1981), featuring "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", both UK number one singles, saw further critical and commercial success. Their final studio album, Synchronicity (1983), was No. 1 in both the UK and the US, selling over 8 million copies in the US alone. Its lead single, "Every Breath You Take", became their fifth UK number one, and first in the US. The Police have sold over 75 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. They were the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008, due to their reunion tour.
Tom Hack
Born: May 13, 1985 (age 37 years), Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan Music groups: OxT, MYTH & ROID.
Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: Никола́й Андре́евич Ри́мский-Ко́рсаков, Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov, Russian pronunciation: ) (18 March 1844, – 21 June 1908) was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are considered staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects.
Rimsky-Korsakov believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.
Rimsky-Korsakov believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.
Glenn Miller Orchestra
This article is about the band that Glenn Miller fronted. For the band that performed after his disappearance, see Glenn Miller Orchestra (1956–present).
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
Glenn Miller Band.jpg
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, on the set of Sun Valley Serenade, 1941
Background information
Genres Dance band, Swing
Years active April 1938 – September 1942
Labels
Bluebird Victor
Website www.glennmiller.com
Past members see members section
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was an American swing dance band formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most popular and commercially successful dance orchestra of the Swing era and one of the greatest singles charting acts of the 20th century.
Miller began professionally recording in New York City as a sideman in the Hot jazz era of the late 1920s. With the arrival of virtuoso trombonists Jack Teagarden and Tommy Dorsey, Miller focused more on developing his arrangement skills. Writing for contemporaries and future stars such as Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman, Miller gained prowess as an arranger by working in a variety of settings. Later, Miller largely improved his arranging and writing skills by studying under music theorist Joseph Schillinger.
In February 1937, Miller started an orchestra that briefly made records for Decca. With this group, Miller used an arrangement he wrote for British bandleader Ray Noble's American band in an attempt to form a clarinet-reed sound. This style developed over time, and eventually became known as the Glenn Miller sound. Frustrated with his agency over playing inconsistent bookings and lacking broad radio exposure, Miller gave the band notice in December 1937. Less than three months later, he was looking for members and forming a new band.
Miller began a partnership with Eli Oberstein, which led directly to a contract with Victor subsidiary Bluebird Records. Gaining notoriety at such engagements as the Paradise Restaurant and Frank Dailey–owned Meadowbrook and their corresponding nationwide broadcasts, Miller struck enormous popularity playing the Glen Island Casino in the summer of 1939. From late 1939 to mid-1942, Miller was the number-one band in the country, with few true rivals. Only Harry James' band began to equal Miller's in popularity as he wound down his career in the wake of the Second World War. The AFM strike prevented Miller from making any new recordings in the last two months of his band's existence, and they formally disbanded at the end of September 1942.
Miller's short-term chart successes have seldom been duplicated and his group's unprecedented dominance of early Your Hit Parade and Billboard singles charts, resulting in 16 number-one singles and 69 Top Ten hits, foreshadowed future record-breaking chart acts such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
Contents
1 Musical success
1.1 Beginnings
1.2 Glen Island Casino and Meadowbrook
1.3 Nationwide popularity
2 Radio success
3 Chart success
4 Past members
5 Discography
5.1 Singles
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Musical success
Beginnings
By March 1938, Glenn was planning to form a new group. The newly reformed band featured several longtime associates of Miller. From his first orchestra, Miller invited back Hal McIntyre, and hired Paul Tanner, Wilbur Schwartz, Ray Eberle (who was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey's vocalist Bob Eberly), and his old friend Chummy MacGregor. Miller's perseverance, business expertise, combined with a penchant for showmanship and musical taste, provided the faith for financiers Mike Nidorf and Cy Shribman. Miller used the 'clarinet-lead' sound as the foundation for his new band, and this caught the attention of students at Northeastern campuses. They opened on April 16, 1938, at Raymor Ballroom in Boston. When the band reached New York, they were billed below Freddie Fisher and His Schnickelfritzers, a dance band comedy routine. From Vincent Lopez's group came Marion Hutton, who added enthusiasm and energy in her performances. On September 7, 1938, the band made their first recordings, "My Reverie", "King Porter Stomp" and "By the Waters of Minnetonka", in two parts. Keeping up radio dates, Miller was only booked for 1 more session the rest of the year.
Glen Island Casino and Meadowbrook
In March 1939, the Glenn Miller Orchestra was given its big break, when they were chosen to play the summer season at the prestigious Glen Island Casino located on the north shore of Long Island Sound in New Rochelle, New York. Frank Dailey, manager of The Meadowbrook Ballroom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, immediately booked the band for a four-week stay in March and April, before Glen Island. The band was well-received and within days Dailey picked up a three-week extension offer. During this time, Bluebird recording dates became more common and Glenn added drummer Maurice Purtill and trumpeter Dale "Mickey" McMickle to stabilize personnel. Opening at Glen Island on May 17, 1939, the casino's radio broadcast antenna ensured the Miller band was heard around the country. In late August, the end of their summer season, they had nationwide attention.
George T. Simon, writer and one-time drummer for Miller, spoke of the Glen Island broadcasts:
Glen Island was the prestige place for people who listened to bands on radio. The band's first semi hit, "Little Brown Jug", came out just when it opened at Glen Island. That helped. And the clarinet lead in Glenn's arrangements was such a romantic sound! It caught the public fancy during this exposure. Miller began ending his broadcasts from Glen Island with his "Something Old, Something New" medleys. But the most important thing for Glenn's success was that he recorded "In the Mood" while he was at the casino. That made him the Michael Jackson of his day.
Nationwide popularity
Capitalizing on newfound popularity, Miller decided to add a trombone and a trumpet, giving the band a fuller sound. On April 4, 1939, Miller and his orchestra recorded "Moonlight Serenade". Considered one of the top songs of the swing era, and Miller's best composition, it soon became the theme song to start and end all of his radio performances.
Miller's most popular track "In the Mood" was recorded August 1, 1939. Famous for its opening and bass riffs as well as its "dueling" saxophone solos between Tex Beneke and Al Klink, the song hit number one on the Billboard charts, staying for a total of 30 weeks. Joe Garland compiled the song from riffs he'd heard in other songs, and is credited on the label. Elements of "In the Mood" can be found in earlier jazz recordings, such as Jimmy O'Bryant's "Clarinet Getaway", Wingy Manone's "Tar Paper Stomp", and Fletcher Henderson's "Hot and Anxious." Garland put these pieces together and initially offered the song, in a six-minute form, to Artie Shaw. Despite playing it for radio broadcast, Shaw found no success with it in this form. Miller purchased the song in June 1939 and asked Eddie Durham to arrange it for his orchestra, and Miller made final tweaks in Victor studios. In a 2000 interview for npr, trombonist Paul Tanner remembered recording the song and playing it live:
He would say, "You fellas do this, and you fellas do that, and let's hear it once." And then, "We're gonna cut from this spot to this spot in the arrangement, and in here we're gonna put a trumpet solo. And in this spot and this spot we're gonna cut way down here and we're gonna have the two saxophones have a little battle in there," and decided to make cuts. And then at the end, Alice , if you know the arrangement, at the end there are all those false endings that go on, and it kept getting softer and softer until Glenn would give the drummer a clue and he would hit the cowbell and then we would know that the next time we were to come on very loud. And the dancers just loved it. He tried it out on the dances at the Glen Island Casino, and they loved it. They couldn't figure out how we knew when to come in loud. But, you know, I told them, "Well, we have a sixth sense of that sort of thing." But actually, what happened is the drummer hit the cowbell, and we knew the next time was loud. And this was all Glenn's doing.
On February 5, 1940, Miller recorded "Tuxedo Junction", which hit number one and reportedly sold 115,000 copies within the first week of release, and placed 7th overall for the National Hit Parade that year. Bob Eberly said that it "sold 90,000 copies in the first week, at a time when 25,000 was considered a great seller". In April, the band chant track "Pennsylvania 6-5000", referencing the phone number for the Hotel Pennsylvania, which housed the Café Rouge, a common engagement and broadcasting spot for the band, was released and it too became an instant swing standard.
On January 1, 1941, following tensions regarding licensing fees, radio networks banned ASCAP songs from live performance. Miller had to work to reform his radio programs for BMI published tunes, temporarily switching his theme to "Slumber Song". In early 1941, Marion Hutton left the band to go on maternity leave. In the meantime, Miller needed an additional female vocalist, and he offered Dorothy Claire, then with Bobby Byrne's band, twice her salary. Claire went to work for Miller, despite her signature on a three-year contract with Byrne in November 1940, and Miller ignored Byrne's wishes for compensation. Byrne then launched a $25,000 lawsuit against the Miller orchestra's business dealings. Miller met with Byrne in Columbus, Ohio sometime in early March and settled the dispute – Claire went back to working with Byrne's band. Miller soon hired The Modernaires from Paul Whiteman, who was disbanding his orchestra. Still in need of a female vocalist, the wife of Modernaire Hal Dickinson, Paula Kelly, who had sung previously with Al Donahue, stepped up to fill in the role. The signing of the Modernaires significantly benefitted the Miller organization. Hip and popular with young listeners, the Modernaires' vocal range added a new dimension to Miller's recordings.
In late March, Miller and his orchestra began work on their first motion picture, Sun Valley Serenade. Previously, swing films such as Hollywood Hotel with Benny Goodman's orchestra had only featured bands for song performances; Miller reportedly insisted, perhaps even to the extent of contract clauses, that the plot of Sun Valley revolve around the band rather than only feature them. Harry Warren and Mack Gordon were commissioned to write songs for the film. The Miller band filmed and recorded an extended song-and-dance number featuring the Nicholas Brothers for what was soon to be its biggest selling record, surprise hit "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Despite criticism of the plot, Sun Valley Serenade was received with general positivity from critics, and Miller earned praise for his band's role in the film, with Barry Ulanov writing for Metronome:
Miller comes across as a convincing band leader, and, even more important, a convincing human being in this film. He’s on mostly for music, but most of the film is music and the dozen or so reels are a better showcase for the Glenn Miller band than they are for the Sonja Henie torso and limbs, with and without skates. Never has a movie made more of a popular band and never has a movie featuring such an organization presented its music so tastefully... Pictorially, Trigger Alpert and Maurice Purtill take the honors. Trigger hops around like mad and Maurice looks like the movies’ idea of a swing drummer, all right. They stay within the bounds of good taste, however ... the story is believable, and happily centers around the band, so that the whole thing is a triumph for Glenn Miller and the band.
Billboard top 10 chart for January 24, 1942, where Glenn Miller and His Orchestra hold five of the slots.
In October, ASCAP and the radio networks agreed on a new rate, and the band could finally play "Chattanooga" and their other songs on radio. W. Wallace Early, the manager of record sales for RCA Victor and Bluebird Records, presented the first ever gold record to Miller on February 10, 1942, saying:
It's a pleasure to be here tonight. And speaking of RCA Victor, we're mighty proud of that Chattanooga Choo Choo, and the man that made the record, Glenn Miller. You see it's been a long time – 15 years in fact – since any record has sold a million copies. And Chattanooga Choo Choo certainly put on steam and breezed right through that million mark by over 200,000 pressings. And we decided that Glenn should get a trophy. The best one we could think of is a gold record of Chattanooga. And now Glenn, it's yours – with the best wishes of RCA Victor Bluebird Records.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Miller began incorporating more patriotic themes into his radio shows and recordings.
In early 1942, the band was upgraded from Bluebird to full-price Victor Records. Following very closely in the footsteps of its predecessor, the Miller band started work on their second film, Orchestra Wives in March. Once again, Gordon and Warren were recalled to compose the songs. The previous year, both had composed "At Last" but couldn't place it into Sun Valley Serenade. They worked over the arrangement, and it was displayed prominently in Orchestra Wives. Years later, it became a standard when recorded by Etta James. Akin to "Chattanooga", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo" was filmed as a song and dance number featuring the Nicholas Brothers and also sold a million pressings, with Billboard ranking it among the most popular records of the year.
In mid–July, Miller and the band recorded thirteen sides, as James Petrillo, chief of the musicians' union, embarked on a 28-month recording ban. The strike prevented Miller from making additional records in his career, although Victor slowly released the last set of tracks, with "That Old Black Magic" hitting number one in May 1943, over eight months after his band ceased to exist.
Miller began privately sending letters to the Armed Forces in attempts to lead a modern military band. Accepted into the United States Navy and later transferred to the Army Air Forces, in early September he broke the news to the band and later that month they played their last radio shows. Miller surrendered his Chesterfield radio slot to Harry James.
Radio success
Radio played a pivotal role in the success of Miller and His Orchestra. Featured heavily on the format during their existence, many of their earlier programs from such venues as the Paradise Restaurant, Glen Island and the Meadowbrook Ballroom used remote connections to the National Broadcasting Company, on both NBC–Red and NBC–Blue.
The makers of Chesterfield Cigarettes hosted a half-hour radio show on CBS that featured King of Jazz Paul Whiteman. Whiteman decided to retire and recommended Glenn as a replacement. On December 27, 1939, Miller took over the program as Chesterfield Moonlight Serenade. During the first 13 weeks, The Andrews Sisters were featured as Chesterfield were worried over whether Miller could sustain his popularity. Their fear subsided, and the program, reformatted for 15 minutes, aired Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10:15pm. Miller and his band held the slot until their disbandment in 1942.
In 1940, the band broadcast from the first time from the Café Rouge at the Hotel Pennsylvania, soon to become a regular booking and a host of long-term engagements. By then, the Miller band had several NBC sustaining broadcasts in addition to three CBS programs, reaching American homes 6–7 days a week. In August, Miller's orchestra had an hour-long program on NBC–Blue, Glenn Miller's Sunset Serenade featuring prizes Miller paid for out-of-pocket. A review in Billboard commented, "Unusual length of the program allows Miller to display all the top items in his library."
Chart success
According to Paul Albone, of the 121 singles by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra that made the charts, 69 were Top Ten hits, and 16 reached number-one. In just a 4-year career, Miller and His Orchestra's songs spent a cumulative total of 664 weeks, nearly thirteen years, on the charts, 79 of which were at the number-one position. Miller also has the distinction of three posthumous albums reaching number-one on Billboard charts: Glenn Miller in 1945, its follow-up in 1947, and his original recordings repackaged for the release of The Glenn Miller Story in 1954.
Past members
Ray Anthony, who played trumpet with the band from 1940 to 1941, is the last surviving member as of 2019.
Discography
See also: Glenn Miller discography
Singles
Million-selling singles:
1939: "Little Brown Jug"
1939: "Moonlight Serenade"
1939: "In the Mood"
1940: "Tuxedo Junction"
1940: "Pennsylvania 6-5000"
1941: "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
1941: "A String of Pearls"
1941: "Moonlight Cocktail"
1942: "American Patrol"
1942: "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo"
See also
Glenn Miller
Swing music
Bandleader
Big band
References
"A Portrait of Glenn Miller" (PDF). www.colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive.
Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Tape 2, side A.
"Top Ten Hits 1939-1943" (PDF). colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive. September 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
"Captain Swing - Glenn Miller - America in WWII magazine". www.americainwwii.com.
"A Bluebird Reverie – The First RCA Session". 1 April 2014.
Settlemier, Tyrone. "The Online 78 rpm Discographical Project". www.78discography.com.
"POP/JAZZ; GLENN MILLER SOUND OF 1939 AT GLEN ISLAND CASINO".
"Glenn Miller Orchestra – History". glennmillerorchestra.com.
http://ww Archived 2013-07-12 at the Wayback Machine w.glennmiller.com/index.php
"Army Band Hits High Note With Community".
Tsort. "Song title 150 - In the Mood". tsort.info.
""In the Mood"—Glenn Miller (1939)" (PDF). Library of Congress.
Spragg, Dennis. "In the Mood" (PDF). www.colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive.
"'In the Mood'". National Public Radio.
Simon, George T. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. NY: Crowell, 1974.
Spragg, Dennis. "Sun Valley Serenade 75th Anniversary Commemoration" (PDF). Glenn Miller Archive.
Crowther, Bosley. "Sonia Henie in 'Sun Valley Serenade,' a Sparkling and Melodious Outdoor Picture, at the Roxy". The New York Times.
Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 4. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
"Radio Recordings" (PDF). colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive.
Carter, Dick (January 3, 1942). "On the Air: Glenn Miller". Billboard. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
Whitburn, Joel. Pop Memories (1900-1940). Record Research.
Whitburn, Joel (2015). Pop Hits Singles and Albums, 1940-1954. Record Research. ISBN 978-0-89820-198-7.
Popa, Christopher. "Record Sales". Big Band Library.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Website of past vocalist Eileen Burns
YouTube Videos from 1983 GMO US and Japan Tour
vte
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
Discography Timeline of members, 1938–1942
Number one hits
1939
"Wishing (Will Make It So)" "Stairway to the Stars" "Moon Love" "Over the Rainbow" "The Man With the Mandolin" "Blue Orchids" "In the Mood"
1940
"Tuxedo Junction" "The Woodpecker Song"
1941
"Song of the Volga Boatmen" "Chattanooga Choo Choo" "Elmer's Tune"
1942
"A String of Pearls" "Moonlight Cocktail" "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo"
1943
"That Old Black Magic"
Albums
Up Swing (1944) Smoke Rings (1944) Glenn Miller (1945) Glenn Miller Masterpieces, Volume II (1947) Glenn Miller Plays Selections From the Film "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954) The Glenn Miller Carnegie Hall Concert (1958) Pure Gold (1975)
Members
Vocalists
Marion Hutton Ray Eberle Tex Beneke Jack Lathrop Ernie Caceres Kay Starr Dorothy Claire Paula Kelly The Modernaires Skip Nelson
Musicians
Al Klink Al Mastren Paul Tanner Toby Tyler Tommy Mack Frank D’Annolfo Howard Gibeling Jimmy Priddy Wilbur Schwartz Stanley Aronson Hal McIntyre Tex Beneke Ernie Caceres Jimmy Abato Gabe Galinas Hal Tennyson Benny Feman Babe Russin Skip Martin Johnny Austin Lou Mucci Bob Price Charlie Hill Legh Knowles Mickey McMickle Clyde Hurley Johnny Best Zeke Zarchy Charles Frankhauser Billy May Ray Anthony Alec Fila Bill Graham Steve Lipkins Allan Reuss Arthur Ens Dick Fisher Jack Lathrop Bobby Hackett Bill Conway Chummy MacGregor Bob Spangler Cody Sandifer Frankie Carlson Maurice Purtill Rollie Bundock Tony Carlson Trigger Alpert Doc Goldberg
Arrangers
Jerry Gray Bill Finegan Glenn Miller Billy May
Composers
Glenn Miller Harry Warren Mack Gordon
Army Air Force
band alumni
The Crew Chiefs Addison Collins Jr. Johnny Desmond Peanuts Hucko Jack Lathrop Norman Leyden Ray McKinley Artie Malvin Ralph Patt Mel Powell George Siravo Charlie Spivak
Media
Films
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) Orchestra Wives (1942) The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
Publications
125 Jazz Breaks for Trombone (1927) Glenn Miller's Method for Orchestral Arranging (1943)
Related
List of songs written by Glenn Miller Dorsey Brothers Orchestra The Glenn Miller Story (Decca) (1954) Glenn Miller Orchestra (1956–present) Glenn Miller Time
Authority control Edit this at Wikidata
ISNI: 0000 0001 1536 8834 MusicBrainz: 9b87c1f6-23ae-469b-b710-ea5da2d3f848
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
Glenn Miller Band.jpg
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, on the set of Sun Valley Serenade, 1941
Background information
Genres Dance band, Swing
Years active April 1938 – September 1942
Labels
Bluebird Victor
Website www.glennmiller.com
Past members see members section
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was an American swing dance band formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most popular and commercially successful dance orchestra of the Swing era and one of the greatest singles charting acts of the 20th century.
Miller began professionally recording in New York City as a sideman in the Hot jazz era of the late 1920s. With the arrival of virtuoso trombonists Jack Teagarden and Tommy Dorsey, Miller focused more on developing his arrangement skills. Writing for contemporaries and future stars such as Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman, Miller gained prowess as an arranger by working in a variety of settings. Later, Miller largely improved his arranging and writing skills by studying under music theorist Joseph Schillinger.
In February 1937, Miller started an orchestra that briefly made records for Decca. With this group, Miller used an arrangement he wrote for British bandleader Ray Noble's American band in an attempt to form a clarinet-reed sound. This style developed over time, and eventually became known as the Glenn Miller sound. Frustrated with his agency over playing inconsistent bookings and lacking broad radio exposure, Miller gave the band notice in December 1937. Less than three months later, he was looking for members and forming a new band.
Miller began a partnership with Eli Oberstein, which led directly to a contract with Victor subsidiary Bluebird Records. Gaining notoriety at such engagements as the Paradise Restaurant and Frank Dailey–owned Meadowbrook and their corresponding nationwide broadcasts, Miller struck enormous popularity playing the Glen Island Casino in the summer of 1939. From late 1939 to mid-1942, Miller was the number-one band in the country, with few true rivals. Only Harry James' band began to equal Miller's in popularity as he wound down his career in the wake of the Second World War. The AFM strike prevented Miller from making any new recordings in the last two months of his band's existence, and they formally disbanded at the end of September 1942.
Miller's short-term chart successes have seldom been duplicated and his group's unprecedented dominance of early Your Hit Parade and Billboard singles charts, resulting in 16 number-one singles and 69 Top Ten hits, foreshadowed future record-breaking chart acts such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
Contents
1 Musical success
1.1 Beginnings
1.2 Glen Island Casino and Meadowbrook
1.3 Nationwide popularity
2 Radio success
3 Chart success
4 Past members
5 Discography
5.1 Singles
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Musical success
Beginnings
By March 1938, Glenn was planning to form a new group. The newly reformed band featured several longtime associates of Miller. From his first orchestra, Miller invited back Hal McIntyre, and hired Paul Tanner, Wilbur Schwartz, Ray Eberle (who was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey's vocalist Bob Eberly), and his old friend Chummy MacGregor. Miller's perseverance, business expertise, combined with a penchant for showmanship and musical taste, provided the faith for financiers Mike Nidorf and Cy Shribman. Miller used the 'clarinet-lead' sound as the foundation for his new band, and this caught the attention of students at Northeastern campuses. They opened on April 16, 1938, at Raymor Ballroom in Boston. When the band reached New York, they were billed below Freddie Fisher and His Schnickelfritzers, a dance band comedy routine. From Vincent Lopez's group came Marion Hutton, who added enthusiasm and energy in her performances. On September 7, 1938, the band made their first recordings, "My Reverie", "King Porter Stomp" and "By the Waters of Minnetonka", in two parts. Keeping up radio dates, Miller was only booked for 1 more session the rest of the year.
Glen Island Casino and Meadowbrook
In March 1939, the Glenn Miller Orchestra was given its big break, when they were chosen to play the summer season at the prestigious Glen Island Casino located on the north shore of Long Island Sound in New Rochelle, New York. Frank Dailey, manager of The Meadowbrook Ballroom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, immediately booked the band for a four-week stay in March and April, before Glen Island. The band was well-received and within days Dailey picked up a three-week extension offer. During this time, Bluebird recording dates became more common and Glenn added drummer Maurice Purtill and trumpeter Dale "Mickey" McMickle to stabilize personnel. Opening at Glen Island on May 17, 1939, the casino's radio broadcast antenna ensured the Miller band was heard around the country. In late August, the end of their summer season, they had nationwide attention.
George T. Simon, writer and one-time drummer for Miller, spoke of the Glen Island broadcasts:
Glen Island was the prestige place for people who listened to bands on radio. The band's first semi hit, "Little Brown Jug", came out just when it opened at Glen Island. That helped. And the clarinet lead in Glenn's arrangements was such a romantic sound! It caught the public fancy during this exposure. Miller began ending his broadcasts from Glen Island with his "Something Old, Something New" medleys. But the most important thing for Glenn's success was that he recorded "In the Mood" while he was at the casino. That made him the Michael Jackson of his day.
Nationwide popularity
Capitalizing on newfound popularity, Miller decided to add a trombone and a trumpet, giving the band a fuller sound. On April 4, 1939, Miller and his orchestra recorded "Moonlight Serenade". Considered one of the top songs of the swing era, and Miller's best composition, it soon became the theme song to start and end all of his radio performances.
Miller's most popular track "In the Mood" was recorded August 1, 1939. Famous for its opening and bass riffs as well as its "dueling" saxophone solos between Tex Beneke and Al Klink, the song hit number one on the Billboard charts, staying for a total of 30 weeks. Joe Garland compiled the song from riffs he'd heard in other songs, and is credited on the label. Elements of "In the Mood" can be found in earlier jazz recordings, such as Jimmy O'Bryant's "Clarinet Getaway", Wingy Manone's "Tar Paper Stomp", and Fletcher Henderson's "Hot and Anxious." Garland put these pieces together and initially offered the song, in a six-minute form, to Artie Shaw. Despite playing it for radio broadcast, Shaw found no success with it in this form. Miller purchased the song in June 1939 and asked Eddie Durham to arrange it for his orchestra, and Miller made final tweaks in Victor studios. In a 2000 interview for npr, trombonist Paul Tanner remembered recording the song and playing it live:
He would say, "You fellas do this, and you fellas do that, and let's hear it once." And then, "We're gonna cut from this spot to this spot in the arrangement, and in here we're gonna put a trumpet solo. And in this spot and this spot we're gonna cut way down here and we're gonna have the two saxophones have a little battle in there," and decided to make cuts. And then at the end, Alice , if you know the arrangement, at the end there are all those false endings that go on, and it kept getting softer and softer until Glenn would give the drummer a clue and he would hit the cowbell and then we would know that the next time we were to come on very loud. And the dancers just loved it. He tried it out on the dances at the Glen Island Casino, and they loved it. They couldn't figure out how we knew when to come in loud. But, you know, I told them, "Well, we have a sixth sense of that sort of thing." But actually, what happened is the drummer hit the cowbell, and we knew the next time was loud. And this was all Glenn's doing.
On February 5, 1940, Miller recorded "Tuxedo Junction", which hit number one and reportedly sold 115,000 copies within the first week of release, and placed 7th overall for the National Hit Parade that year. Bob Eberly said that it "sold 90,000 copies in the first week, at a time when 25,000 was considered a great seller". In April, the band chant track "Pennsylvania 6-5000", referencing the phone number for the Hotel Pennsylvania, which housed the Café Rouge, a common engagement and broadcasting spot for the band, was released and it too became an instant swing standard.
On January 1, 1941, following tensions regarding licensing fees, radio networks banned ASCAP songs from live performance. Miller had to work to reform his radio programs for BMI published tunes, temporarily switching his theme to "Slumber Song". In early 1941, Marion Hutton left the band to go on maternity leave. In the meantime, Miller needed an additional female vocalist, and he offered Dorothy Claire, then with Bobby Byrne's band, twice her salary. Claire went to work for Miller, despite her signature on a three-year contract with Byrne in November 1940, and Miller ignored Byrne's wishes for compensation. Byrne then launched a $25,000 lawsuit against the Miller orchestra's business dealings. Miller met with Byrne in Columbus, Ohio sometime in early March and settled the dispute – Claire went back to working with Byrne's band. Miller soon hired The Modernaires from Paul Whiteman, who was disbanding his orchestra. Still in need of a female vocalist, the wife of Modernaire Hal Dickinson, Paula Kelly, who had sung previously with Al Donahue, stepped up to fill in the role. The signing of the Modernaires significantly benefitted the Miller organization. Hip and popular with young listeners, the Modernaires' vocal range added a new dimension to Miller's recordings.
In late March, Miller and his orchestra began work on their first motion picture, Sun Valley Serenade. Previously, swing films such as Hollywood Hotel with Benny Goodman's orchestra had only featured bands for song performances; Miller reportedly insisted, perhaps even to the extent of contract clauses, that the plot of Sun Valley revolve around the band rather than only feature them. Harry Warren and Mack Gordon were commissioned to write songs for the film. The Miller band filmed and recorded an extended song-and-dance number featuring the Nicholas Brothers for what was soon to be its biggest selling record, surprise hit "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Despite criticism of the plot, Sun Valley Serenade was received with general positivity from critics, and Miller earned praise for his band's role in the film, with Barry Ulanov writing for Metronome:
Miller comes across as a convincing band leader, and, even more important, a convincing human being in this film. He’s on mostly for music, but most of the film is music and the dozen or so reels are a better showcase for the Glenn Miller band than they are for the Sonja Henie torso and limbs, with and without skates. Never has a movie made more of a popular band and never has a movie featuring such an organization presented its music so tastefully... Pictorially, Trigger Alpert and Maurice Purtill take the honors. Trigger hops around like mad and Maurice looks like the movies’ idea of a swing drummer, all right. They stay within the bounds of good taste, however ... the story is believable, and happily centers around the band, so that the whole thing is a triumph for Glenn Miller and the band.
Billboard top 10 chart for January 24, 1942, where Glenn Miller and His Orchestra hold five of the slots.
In October, ASCAP and the radio networks agreed on a new rate, and the band could finally play "Chattanooga" and their other songs on radio. W. Wallace Early, the manager of record sales for RCA Victor and Bluebird Records, presented the first ever gold record to Miller on February 10, 1942, saying:
It's a pleasure to be here tonight. And speaking of RCA Victor, we're mighty proud of that Chattanooga Choo Choo, and the man that made the record, Glenn Miller. You see it's been a long time – 15 years in fact – since any record has sold a million copies. And Chattanooga Choo Choo certainly put on steam and breezed right through that million mark by over 200,000 pressings. And we decided that Glenn should get a trophy. The best one we could think of is a gold record of Chattanooga. And now Glenn, it's yours – with the best wishes of RCA Victor Bluebird Records.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Miller began incorporating more patriotic themes into his radio shows and recordings.
In early 1942, the band was upgraded from Bluebird to full-price Victor Records. Following very closely in the footsteps of its predecessor, the Miller band started work on their second film, Orchestra Wives in March. Once again, Gordon and Warren were recalled to compose the songs. The previous year, both had composed "At Last" but couldn't place it into Sun Valley Serenade. They worked over the arrangement, and it was displayed prominently in Orchestra Wives. Years later, it became a standard when recorded by Etta James. Akin to "Chattanooga", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo" was filmed as a song and dance number featuring the Nicholas Brothers and also sold a million pressings, with Billboard ranking it among the most popular records of the year.
In mid–July, Miller and the band recorded thirteen sides, as James Petrillo, chief of the musicians' union, embarked on a 28-month recording ban. The strike prevented Miller from making additional records in his career, although Victor slowly released the last set of tracks, with "That Old Black Magic" hitting number one in May 1943, over eight months after his band ceased to exist.
Miller began privately sending letters to the Armed Forces in attempts to lead a modern military band. Accepted into the United States Navy and later transferred to the Army Air Forces, in early September he broke the news to the band and later that month they played their last radio shows. Miller surrendered his Chesterfield radio slot to Harry James.
Radio success
Radio played a pivotal role in the success of Miller and His Orchestra. Featured heavily on the format during their existence, many of their earlier programs from such venues as the Paradise Restaurant, Glen Island and the Meadowbrook Ballroom used remote connections to the National Broadcasting Company, on both NBC–Red and NBC–Blue.
The makers of Chesterfield Cigarettes hosted a half-hour radio show on CBS that featured King of Jazz Paul Whiteman. Whiteman decided to retire and recommended Glenn as a replacement. On December 27, 1939, Miller took over the program as Chesterfield Moonlight Serenade. During the first 13 weeks, The Andrews Sisters were featured as Chesterfield were worried over whether Miller could sustain his popularity. Their fear subsided, and the program, reformatted for 15 minutes, aired Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10:15pm. Miller and his band held the slot until their disbandment in 1942.
In 1940, the band broadcast from the first time from the Café Rouge at the Hotel Pennsylvania, soon to become a regular booking and a host of long-term engagements. By then, the Miller band had several NBC sustaining broadcasts in addition to three CBS programs, reaching American homes 6–7 days a week. In August, Miller's orchestra had an hour-long program on NBC–Blue, Glenn Miller's Sunset Serenade featuring prizes Miller paid for out-of-pocket. A review in Billboard commented, "Unusual length of the program allows Miller to display all the top items in his library."
Chart success
According to Paul Albone, of the 121 singles by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra that made the charts, 69 were Top Ten hits, and 16 reached number-one. In just a 4-year career, Miller and His Orchestra's songs spent a cumulative total of 664 weeks, nearly thirteen years, on the charts, 79 of which were at the number-one position. Miller also has the distinction of three posthumous albums reaching number-one on Billboard charts: Glenn Miller in 1945, its follow-up in 1947, and his original recordings repackaged for the release of The Glenn Miller Story in 1954.
Past members
Ray Anthony, who played trumpet with the band from 1940 to 1941, is the last surviving member as of 2019.
Discography
See also: Glenn Miller discography
Singles
Million-selling singles:
1939: "Little Brown Jug"
1939: "Moonlight Serenade"
1939: "In the Mood"
1940: "Tuxedo Junction"
1940: "Pennsylvania 6-5000"
1941: "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
1941: "A String of Pearls"
1941: "Moonlight Cocktail"
1942: "American Patrol"
1942: "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo"
See also
Glenn Miller
Swing music
Bandleader
Big band
References
"A Portrait of Glenn Miller" (PDF). www.colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive.
Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Tape 2, side A.
"Top Ten Hits 1939-1943" (PDF). colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive. September 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
"Captain Swing - Glenn Miller - America in WWII magazine". www.americainwwii.com.
"A Bluebird Reverie – The First RCA Session". 1 April 2014.
Settlemier, Tyrone. "The Online 78 rpm Discographical Project". www.78discography.com.
"POP/JAZZ; GLENN MILLER SOUND OF 1939 AT GLEN ISLAND CASINO".
"Glenn Miller Orchestra – History". glennmillerorchestra.com.
http://ww Archived 2013-07-12 at the Wayback Machine w.glennmiller.com/index.php
"Army Band Hits High Note With Community".
Tsort. "Song title 150 - In the Mood". tsort.info.
""In the Mood"—Glenn Miller (1939)" (PDF). Library of Congress.
Spragg, Dennis. "In the Mood" (PDF). www.colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive.
"'In the Mood'". National Public Radio.
Simon, George T. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. NY: Crowell, 1974.
Spragg, Dennis. "Sun Valley Serenade 75th Anniversary Commemoration" (PDF). Glenn Miller Archive.
Crowther, Bosley. "Sonia Henie in 'Sun Valley Serenade,' a Sparkling and Melodious Outdoor Picture, at the Roxy". The New York Times.
Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 4. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
"Radio Recordings" (PDF). colorado.edu. Glenn Miller Archive.
Carter, Dick (January 3, 1942). "On the Air: Glenn Miller". Billboard. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
Whitburn, Joel. Pop Memories (1900-1940). Record Research.
Whitburn, Joel (2015). Pop Hits Singles and Albums, 1940-1954. Record Research. ISBN 978-0-89820-198-7.
Popa, Christopher. "Record Sales". Big Band Library.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Website of past vocalist Eileen Burns
YouTube Videos from 1983 GMO US and Japan Tour
vte
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
Discography Timeline of members, 1938–1942
Number one hits
1939
"Wishing (Will Make It So)" "Stairway to the Stars" "Moon Love" "Over the Rainbow" "The Man With the Mandolin" "Blue Orchids" "In the Mood"
1940
"Tuxedo Junction" "The Woodpecker Song"
1941
"Song of the Volga Boatmen" "Chattanooga Choo Choo" "Elmer's Tune"
1942
"A String of Pearls" "Moonlight Cocktail" "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo"
1943
"That Old Black Magic"
Albums
Up Swing (1944) Smoke Rings (1944) Glenn Miller (1945) Glenn Miller Masterpieces, Volume II (1947) Glenn Miller Plays Selections From the Film "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954) The Glenn Miller Carnegie Hall Concert (1958) Pure Gold (1975)
Members
Vocalists
Marion Hutton Ray Eberle Tex Beneke Jack Lathrop Ernie Caceres Kay Starr Dorothy Claire Paula Kelly The Modernaires Skip Nelson
Musicians
Al Klink Al Mastren Paul Tanner Toby Tyler Tommy Mack Frank D’Annolfo Howard Gibeling Jimmy Priddy Wilbur Schwartz Stanley Aronson Hal McIntyre Tex Beneke Ernie Caceres Jimmy Abato Gabe Galinas Hal Tennyson Benny Feman Babe Russin Skip Martin Johnny Austin Lou Mucci Bob Price Charlie Hill Legh Knowles Mickey McMickle Clyde Hurley Johnny Best Zeke Zarchy Charles Frankhauser Billy May Ray Anthony Alec Fila Bill Graham Steve Lipkins Allan Reuss Arthur Ens Dick Fisher Jack Lathrop Bobby Hackett Bill Conway Chummy MacGregor Bob Spangler Cody Sandifer Frankie Carlson Maurice Purtill Rollie Bundock Tony Carlson Trigger Alpert Doc Goldberg
Arrangers
Jerry Gray Bill Finegan Glenn Miller Billy May
Composers
Glenn Miller Harry Warren Mack Gordon
Army Air Force
band alumni
The Crew Chiefs Addison Collins Jr. Johnny Desmond Peanuts Hucko Jack Lathrop Norman Leyden Ray McKinley Artie Malvin Ralph Patt Mel Powell George Siravo Charlie Spivak
Media
Films
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) Orchestra Wives (1942) The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
Publications
125 Jazz Breaks for Trombone (1927) Glenn Miller's Method for Orchestral Arranging (1943)
Related
List of songs written by Glenn Miller Dorsey Brothers Orchestra The Glenn Miller Story (Decca) (1954) Glenn Miller Orchestra (1956–present) Glenn Miller Time
Authority control Edit this at Wikidata
ISNI: 0000 0001 1536 8834 MusicBrainz: 9b87c1f6-23ae-469b-b710-ea5da2d3f848
Galt MacDermot
Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theatre. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most successful musicals were Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona.
peter washington
Peter Washington (born in Los Angeles on August 28, 1964) is a jazz double bassist. He played with the Westchester Community Symphony at the age of 14. Later he played electric bass in rock bands. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in English Literature, and performed with the San Francisco Youth Symphony and the UC Symphony Orchestra. His growing interest in jazz led him to play with John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, Frank Morgan, Ernestine Anderson, Chris Connor and other Bay Area luminaries.
Music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. The Oxford Companion to Music describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory"
George Michael
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (born June 25, 1963) best known as George Michael, is a two-time Grammy Award winning, English singer-songwriter, who has had a career as frontman of the duo Wham! as well as a soul-influenced, solo pop musician. He has sold over 100 million records worldwide, encompassing 12 British #1 singles, 7 British #1 albums, 10 US #1 singles, and 2 US #1 albums. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith became one of the best selling albums of all time, and also the first album to produce six top 5 singles in the United States and it has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. All four of his solo studio albums have all reached #1 on the U.K. charts and have gone on to become huge international successes. This success has made George Michael the most played artist on British radio over the past two decades.
Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen (9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931), widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age. While it was some time before his works were fully appreciated, even in his home country, Nielsen has now firmly entered the international repertoire. Especially in Europe and the United States, Nielsen's music is ever more frequently performed, with interest growing in other countries too. Carl Nielsen is especially admired for his six symphonies, his Wind Quintet and his concertos for violin, flute and clarinet. In Denmark, his opera Maskarade and a considerable number of his songs have become an integral part of the national heritage. While his early music was inspired by composers such as Brahms and Grieg, he soon started to develop his own style, first experimenting with progressive tonality and later diverging even more radically from the standards of composition still common at the time. For many years, he appeared on the Danish hundred-kroner banknote.
Nielsen is best known for his six symphonies. Other well-known pieces are the incidental music for Adam Oehlenschläger's drama Aladdin, the operas Saul og David and Maskarade, the three concertos for violin, flute and clarinet, the Wind Quintet, and the Helios Overture, which depicts the passage of the sun in the sky from dawn to nightfall. Most Danes can sing many of the numerous songs by various poets, set to music by Carl Nielsen.
The music initially had a neo-classical sound but became increasingly modern as Nielsen developed his own approach to what Robert Simpson called progressive tonality, moving from one key to another. Typically, he would end on a different key, sometimes as the outcome of a struggle as in his symphonies. His frequently blended melodic passages inspired by folk music with more complicated stylings including counterpoint and modern variations.
Like his contemporary, the Finn Jean Sibelius, he studied Renaissance polyphony closely, which accounts for much of the melodic and harmonic "feel" of his music.
Nielsen is best known for his six symphonies. Other well-known pieces are the incidental music for Adam Oehlenschläger's drama Aladdin, the operas Saul og David and Maskarade, the three concertos for violin, flute and clarinet, the Wind Quintet, and the Helios Overture, which depicts the passage of the sun in the sky from dawn to nightfall. Most Danes can sing many of the numerous songs by various poets, set to music by Carl Nielsen.
The music initially had a neo-classical sound but became increasingly modern as Nielsen developed his own approach to what Robert Simpson called progressive tonality, moving from one key to another. Typically, he would end on a different key, sometimes as the outcome of a struggle as in his symphonies. His frequently blended melodic passages inspired by folk music with more complicated stylings including counterpoint and modern variations.
Like his contemporary, the Finn Jean Sibelius, he studied Renaissance polyphony closely, which accounts for much of the melodic and harmonic "feel" of his music.
Real Book
The Real Book refers to compilations of lead sheets for jazz standards. It usually refers to the first volume of a series of books transcribed and collated by Berklee College of Music students during the 1970s.The name is derived from "fake books", so called because they contained only rough outlines of music pieces rather than fully notated scores. Early fake books were often used by professional bands who performed mostly standards, often more geared to society and dance bands rather than jazz ensembles, and devoted much space to show tunes, novelty tunes, traditional jazz, etc. The first three Real Book volumes, in contrast, contained many bebop and other jazz standards that were likely to be encountered on jazz gigs at the time. For this reason, the books were quickly adopted among jazz players in the 1970s, particularly on the east coast.
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s. Born: January 11, 1952 (age 67 years), Los Angeles, California, United States Spouse: Carmen Santos Ritenour (m. 1990) Music groups: Fourplay (1991 – 1997), GRP All-Star Big Band, The Love Unlimited Orchestra
Albert Hammond
Albert Hammond (born 18 May 1944, London, England) is a Gibraltarian-British singer, songwriter and music producer. Hammond is one of the more successful pop/rock songwriters to come out of England during the 1960s and 1970s, and has also enjoyed a long career as a recording artist, his work popular in two languages on three continents across four decades.
"It Never Rains in Southern California" reached number five in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart and became a million-seller around the world, the first in a string of eight charting singles that Hammond enjoyed over the next five years. The accompanying album also introduced "Down by the River" and "If You Gotta Break Another Heart" — which was recorded by Cass Elliot in a slightly rewritten version — and "The Air That I Breathe." The latter was Hammond's favorite song on the album, and it was later to become the last major international hit by The Hollies (and that group's last significant U.S. single for more than a decade). Meanwhile, Hammond's follow-up album, The Free Electric Band (its title track salvaged from the unproduced musical), was nearly as impressive musically as its predecessor, although it sold far fewer copies without a huge hit to drive its sales. His next hit, "I'm a Train," came amid a flurry of activity surrounding Hammond's career. He produced records by Johnny Cash ("Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup"), collaborated with Richard Carpenter and John Bettis ("I Need to Be in Love"), wrote songs with Art Garfunkel, and, growing out of the latter project, recorded a self-titled third album produced by Garfunkel producer Roy Halee.
"It Never Rains in Southern California" reached number five in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart and became a million-seller around the world, the first in a string of eight charting singles that Hammond enjoyed over the next five years. The accompanying album also introduced "Down by the River" and "If You Gotta Break Another Heart" — which was recorded by Cass Elliot in a slightly rewritten version — and "The Air That I Breathe." The latter was Hammond's favorite song on the album, and it was later to become the last major international hit by The Hollies (and that group's last significant U.S. single for more than a decade). Meanwhile, Hammond's follow-up album, The Free Electric Band (its title track salvaged from the unproduced musical), was nearly as impressive musically as its predecessor, although it sold far fewer copies without a huge hit to drive its sales. His next hit, "I'm a Train," came amid a flurry of activity surrounding Hammond's career. He produced records by Johnny Cash ("Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup"), collaborated with Richard Carpenter and John Bettis ("I Need to Be in Love"), wrote songs with Art Garfunkel, and, growing out of the latter project, recorded a self-titled third album produced by Garfunkel producer Roy Halee.
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces. "Edvard" is sometimes mispelt as "Edward".
Grieg is renowned as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony (which he later suppressed) and a piano sonata. He also wrote three sonatas for violin and piano and a cello sonata. His many short pieces for piano — often based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances — led some to call him the "Chopin of the North".
Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato
Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano)
Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen)
Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio
Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano)
Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen)
Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato
Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano)
Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen)
Notturno, Op. 54, No. 4
Performed live by Mark Gasser
Problems listening to these files? See media help.
The Piano Concerto is his most popular work. Its champions have included the pianist and composer Percy Grainger, a personal friend of Grieg who played the concerto frequently during his long career. An arrangement of part of the work made an iconic television comedy appearance in the 1971 Morecambe and Wise Show, conducted by André Previn.
Some of the Lyric Pieces (for piano) are also well-known, as is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, a play that Grieg found to be an arduous work to score properly. In a 1874 letter to his friend Frants Beyer, Grieg expressed his unhappiness with what is now considered one of his most popular compositions from Peer Gynt, In the Hall of the Mountain King: "I have also written something for the scene in the hall of the mountain King - something that I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible."
Grieg is renowned as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony (which he later suppressed) and a piano sonata. He also wrote three sonatas for violin and piano and a cello sonata. His many short pieces for piano — often based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances — led some to call him the "Chopin of the North".
Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato
Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano)
Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen)
Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio
Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano)
Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen)
Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato
Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano)
Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen)
Notturno, Op. 54, No. 4
Performed live by Mark Gasser
Problems listening to these files? See media help.
The Piano Concerto is his most popular work. Its champions have included the pianist and composer Percy Grainger, a personal friend of Grieg who played the concerto frequently during his long career. An arrangement of part of the work made an iconic television comedy appearance in the 1971 Morecambe and Wise Show, conducted by André Previn.
Some of the Lyric Pieces (for piano) are also well-known, as is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, a play that Grieg found to be an arduous work to score properly. In a 1874 letter to his friend Frants Beyer, Grieg expressed his unhappiness with what is now considered one of his most popular compositions from Peer Gynt, In the Hall of the Mountain King: "I have also written something for the scene in the hall of the mountain King - something that I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible."
Dovid Gabay
Gabay began his musical career at age nineteen, singing at simchos. Since then Gabay has become one of Jewish music's fastest rising stars, ...
Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai is a Grammy Award-winning English acid jazz/funk/soul band. Jamiroquai was initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the Brand New Heavies, Galliano, and Corduroy. Subsequent albums have explored other musical directions such as, but not limited to, pop, rock and electronica. Jamiroquai has sold over 2.5 million records in the United States alone and over 21 million records all over the world.
The band name is a blend of Jam session and "iroquai", based on the Iroquois, a Native American tribe. The lineup of the band has changed several times, and the longest serving and now core members of the band are lead singer and songwriter Jason "Jay" Kay and drummer Derrick McKenzie (1994). Despite his self-professed attempts to treat Jamiroquai as a band, Kay has always been at the forefront of how the group is marketed, and has therefore always had the lion's share of media attention, to the point where he is viewed as almost a solo artist. He was the impetus behind the formation of Jamiroquai, deciding to form the band after an unsuccessful audition to become the singer of the Brand New Heavies.
The band name is a blend of Jam session and "iroquai", based on the Iroquois, a Native American tribe. The lineup of the band has changed several times, and the longest serving and now core members of the band are lead singer and songwriter Jason "Jay" Kay and drummer Derrick McKenzie (1994). Despite his self-professed attempts to treat Jamiroquai as a band, Kay has always been at the forefront of how the group is marketed, and has therefore always had the lion's share of media attention, to the point where he is viewed as almost a solo artist. He was the impetus behind the formation of Jamiroquai, deciding to form the band after an unsuccessful audition to become the singer of the Brand New Heavies.
Yoko Kanno
Yoko Kanno (菅野 よう子 Kanno Yōko?, born March 19, 1964 in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan) is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements. She has written scores for famous animated works, including Macross Plus, Turn A Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf's Rain, and is the most trusted composer by veteran and new-wave directors such as Yoshiyuki Tomino, Shinichiro Watanabe and Shoji Kawamori. Kanno has also composed music for J-pop artists, the most notable being Maaya Sakamoto and Kyōko Koizumi. She is also a skilled keyboardist, and is the frontwoman for The Seatbelts, who perform many of Kanno's compositions on the various original soundtracks for which she is responsible.
Earth Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or simply EWF) is an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, dance, Latin, and Afro pop. They have been described as one of the most innovative and commercially successful acts of all time. Rolling Stone called them "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop". VH1 has also described EWF as "one of the greatest bands" ever.
Joris Teepe
Joris Teepe is a Dutch jazz bassist, composer, arranger, and big-band leader. He plays contemporary jazz, bebop, and free jazz.
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American hard rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" The band was formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton, originally in a band together called the Jam Band, met up with singer Steven Tyler, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarist Ray Tabano, and formed Aerosmith. By 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, and the band began developing a following in Boston.
They were signed to Columbia Records in 1972 and released a string of multi-platinum albums, beginning with their 1973 eponymous debut album. In 1975, the band broke into the mainstream with the album Toys in the Attic, and their 1976 follow-up Rocks cemented their status as hard rock superstars. The band did not fare well between 1980 and 1984, releasing a lone album, Rock in a Hard Place, which only went gold, failing to match the successes of their previous efforts.
Although Perry and Whitford returned in 1984 and the band signed a new deal with Geffen Records, it wasn't until the band sobered up and released 1987's Permanent Vacation that they regained the level of popularity they had experienced in the 1970s. After 38 years of performing, the band continues to tour and record music.
They were signed to Columbia Records in 1972 and released a string of multi-platinum albums, beginning with their 1973 eponymous debut album. In 1975, the band broke into the mainstream with the album Toys in the Attic, and their 1976 follow-up Rocks cemented their status as hard rock superstars. The band did not fare well between 1980 and 1984, releasing a lone album, Rock in a Hard Place, which only went gold, failing to match the successes of their previous efforts.
Although Perry and Whitford returned in 1984 and the band signed a new deal with Geffen Records, it wasn't until the band sobered up and released 1987's Permanent Vacation that they regained the level of popularity they had experienced in the 1970s. After 38 years of performing, the band continues to tour and record music.
Bill Holman
Willis Leonard Holman, known professionally as Bill Holman, is an American composer, arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop. His career is over seven decades long, having started with the Charlie Barnet orchestra in 1950.
Tomaso Albinoni
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751) was an Italian Baroque composer. While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is known today for his instrumental music, especially his concertos. He is also remembered today for a work called "Adagio in G minor", supposedly written by him, but probably written by Remo Giazotto, a modern musicologist and composer, who was a cataloger of the works of Albinoni.
Jack Johnson
Jack Hody Johnson (born May 18, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, record producer, documentary filmmaker and former professional surfer. Johnson is known primarily for his work in the soft rock and acoustic pop genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. Johnson has reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart with his albums Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George in 2006, Sleep Through the Static in 2008, To the Sea in 2010 and From Here to Now to You in 2013. His album In Between Dreams peaked at number two on the chart in 2005 and again in 2013.