FEATURE IMAGE: Views from Symphony Center, Chicago, October 2014. Firebird Today (SIGNS); Conductor; and Jazz Series (both STREET II).
24 Posts.
When I Grow Up (To Be A Man): The BEACH BOYS in 1964.
Feature Image: The Beach Boys in 1964; clockwise from left: Al Jardine, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson. Trade ad for The Beach Boys’s single “California Girls”/”Let Him Run Wild.” Public Domain. Permission details The ad appeared in the 11 September 1965 issue of Billboard and can be dated from that publication; it is pre-1978.…
The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four” was written by Paul McCartney in the 1950’s, re-emerged when his own father Jim turned 64 in 1966, and appeared in 1967 as one of the classic pop songs of the psychedelic era on the LP “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and in 1968 in “Yellow Submarine,” the animated Beatles’ feature film from United Artists and King Features Syndicate.
FEATURE Image: Yellow Submarine was a British cartoon feature film in 1968 starring comic strip figures of the Beatles in a colorful and surrealistic musical adventure featuring Beatles hits. Though it was a box office flop in the U.K., it was wildly successful in the U.S. The film title and concept were based on the…
The single MARILYN written, recorded, and released by Ray Anthony’s orchestra in 1952 had just one rising Hollywood star in mind: Marilyn Monroe.
FEATURE Image: Marilyn Monroe, 1952 by Philippe Halsman for LIFE. “Marilyn Monroe – 1952 / fotografiada por Philippe Halsman para LIFE” by Antonio Marín Segovia is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) showed up in a bright pink dress for the release party of the song, Marilyn, in 1952. Though invited, she was the “surprise” stand-out…
Seafaring Treasure in Classic Rock: the backstories of Blues Image’s no.4 hit, RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE (1970) and the Beach Boys’ twice-charting SAIL ON, SAILOR (1973/1975).
FEATURE image: “Sailing to Cape Cod” by ShaneTaremi is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Ride Captain Ride was a no. 4 hit in the U.S. and Canada in the spring and summer of 1970. It was written and performed by the Tampa, Florida-based rock band, Blues Image. The song is a fantasy about a captain and crew who,…
The 1963 chart topper, “SHUT DOWN” BY THE BEACH BOYS, glorifies a drag race between a 327 fuel-injected Stingray and 413 Super Stock Dodge.
FEATURE image: “Drag Racing in Austin Texas,1967” by Hugo-90 is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Shut Down is a song by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian that appeared on a pair of 1963 Beach Boys’ albums: Surfin’ U.S.A. in March 1963 and Little Deuce Coupe in October 1963. The song was first released in March 1963 on side…
Olivia Newton-John: A LITTLE MORE LOVE, a top-5 Billboard Hot 100 chart hit in 1978 from the no. 7 album, Totally Hot.
FEATURE IMAGE: Olivia Newton-John, November 24, 1978. “File:Aankomst zangeres Olivia Newton John op Schiphol Olivia Newton John in de persk, Bestanddeelnr 930-0132.jpg” by Bert Verhoeff / Anefo is marked with CC0 1.0. In a recording career that spanned over five decades, the singer, actress, environmentalist and animal rights activist, won 4 Grammy Awards, had 5 no.1…
HEINO ELLER (1887-1970) and LEPO SUMERA (1950-2000): influential 20th-Century Estonian composers whose contemporary classical music spanned from World War I to the 1990s’ “Singing Revolution.”
FEATURE image: Heino Eller with his students from The Tartu Higher Music School in the 1930’s. Heino Eller (1887-1970) and Lepo Sumera (1950–2000) were both influential Estonian composers and music composition teachers. Following his graduation in 1920 from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Heino Eller taught music theory and composition in Estonia for the next 50…
SUPERTRAMP, First 6 Albums of the English Prog-Rock Band, 1970-1979.
FEATURE image: “Supertramp – Crime of the Century” by vinylmeister is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Crime of the Century was Supertramp’s third album released in September 1974. The album went Gold in the U.S., Diamond in Canada, and Platinum in France. Supertramp’s debut album, Supertramp in 1970 For an enterprising American traveler in the 1970’s, the acquisition…
MARVIN GAYE (1939-1984): “Inner City Blues” is a number one single from What’s Going On (1971), one of music’s first concept albums with a social and political conscience.
FEATURE image: Marvin Gaye in 1970. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the U.S. between 1927 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. see – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Gaye#/media/File:Marvin_Gaye_(1973_publicity_photo).jpg and https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/fashion/mens-style/paul-newman-steve-mcqueen-cary-grant-style.html. R&B’s AND SOUL’S FIRST “CONCEPT” ALBUM What’s Going On is one of rhythm and blues and soul’s first…
Six Famous Ballets – GISELLE (1841), PAQUITA (1846), COPPÉLIA (1870), THE DREAM (1964), ONEGIN (1965), and MAYERLING (1978).
FEATURE image: “Ballet en la Gala Lírica” by GonzalezNovo is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0. Ballet Society, New York, 1948. Photo by Irving Penn is here: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/144790/ballet-society-new-york Six Famous Modern & Classic Ballets. # 1 The Dream (1964). Choreographer: Frederick Ashton. Music: Felix Mendelssohn. Story: W. Shakespeare. Adapted from William Shakespeare (English, 1564-1616) The Dream is a one-act ballet…
Christmas Choral Concert: BEL CANTO CHORUS, Basilica of St. Josaphat, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
FEATURE image: Milwaukee’s Bel Canto Chorus in public performance. Fair Use. INDEPENDENT CHORUS FOUNDED IN 1931 Founded in 1931, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s independent 100-voice Bel Canto Chorus performs carols and hymns in the historic Basilica of St. Josaphat, a Polish-style church in Milwaukee completed in 1901 and boasting one of the largest copper domes in the…
Christmas Choral Concert: THE TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY GOLDEN VOICES CHOIR, University Chapel, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.
FEATURE image: In each academic year the Tuskegee University Golden Voices Choir performs extensively throughout the state of Alabama, as well as nationally and internationally , including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Canada in 2018. Fair Use. Tuskegee University Golden Voices Choir The Christmas Concert is held each December in the University Chapel under the direction…
Christmas Choral Concert: John Rutter’s “Gloria” performed by the ANGELES CHORALE in Pasadena, California, at First United Methodist Church.
FEATURE image: The Angeles Chorale is based in greater Los Angeles, California, and has been active as an all-volunteer choral group for more than 40 years. Fair Use. WHO IS JOHN RUTTER AND WHAT IS HIS GLORIA ABOUT? Gloria by English composer John Rutter (b. 1945) is a musical setting of parts of the Latin…
Christmas Choral Concert: ST. BAVO CATHEDRAL CHOIR, Haarlem, Netherlands.
FEATURE image: The St. Bavo Cathedral Choir performs Christmas carols and other seasonal music for voice, many in modern settings. Fair Use. The Advent program (2012) includes well-known carols along with Anton Diabelli’s Pastoral Mass In F Major For Solos, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 147. The concert also includes excerpts from Benjamin Britten’s 11-part choral…
History of the BEE GEES’ How Deep is Your Love. A First Hit for the 1977 film, “Saturday Night Fever,” still defines the Disco Age.
FEATURE image: “Bee Gees Monument unveiled tomorrow-1=” by Sheba_Also 43,000 photos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 By John P. Walsh How Deep Is Your Love (1977) by the Bee Gees ranks number 375 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.1 It sits between White Room (1968) by Cream and Unchained Melody (1965) by The…
Anglo-American musical duo: FLO MORRISSEY and MATTHEW E. WHITE.
FEATURE image: Matthew E. White and Flo Morrissey. “Love and Other Crimes: The Song of Lee Hazlewood – Matthew E White & Flo Morrissey” by p_a_h is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Richmond, Virginia-based producer and musician Matthew White first learned about English singer-ongwriter Flo Morrissey from an article about her on The Guardian website. They met at a…
5 African-American Classical Composers: WILLIAM GRANT STILL, FLORENCE B. PRICE, HARRY T. BURLEIGH, WILLIAM LEVI DAWSON, and MARY LOU WILLIAMS.
FEATURE image: Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), African-American poet, standing, at right, in a photograph of the Howard University Class of 1900. William Grant Still extensively used Dunbar’s poetry in his Symphony No. 1 in A-flat, “Afro-American” in 1930. African American pianist, composer and arranger, and vocalist Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981). She demonstrated remarkable musical talent in…
Origin, History, and Meaning of the Irish Folk Song “BRÍD ÓG NÍ MHÁILLE” (“Young Bridget O’Malley”).
FEATURE image: La Ghirlandata. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). 1873. Oil on canvas. 124 x 85 cm. Guildhall Gallery, London. City of London Corporation. Public Domain. All variations of the name Brigid mean “power, strength, force, and authority” as well as “vigor, virtue and fortitude.” By John P. Walsh In Ireland a generation ago the girl’s first name of Brigid…
Origin, history and meaning of the popular Irish Folk Song, “WEILE WEILE WAILA.”
FEATURE image: “#The_Dubliners_mural Deluxe Cinema, Camden Street” by Gary Boyne is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. By John P. Walsh There are thousands of Irish folk songs, a traditional and often nationalistic musical genre that is experiencing today a renaissance and renewal as song collections are widely available that began to be compiled in the nineteenth century and…
From his Grammy-Award winning “Last Tango in Paris” (1972) to the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement (2015), saxophonist LEANDRO “GATO” BARBIERI is one talented cat.
FEATURE image: “RICH FREE-6” by jeanmimi 2000 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Shadow of the Cat was Grammy-nominated for Best Latin Jazz. Gato Barbieri looked to two major sources for the album’s inspiration. The first was the 30th anniversary of his Last Tango in Paris (1972) for which Barbieri won a Grammy Award for the film score.…
FRITZ REINER, JEAN MARTINON, & GEORG SOLTI: A Critical Look at the Modern Music Directors of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Part 1.
FEATURE image: Sir Georg Solti conducting the CSO in Orchestra Hall in November 1971. By John P. Walsh PART I: Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, & Georg Solti. In 2013 just ahead of Game Four of the Stanley Cup Finals the principal conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra dressed up in a Chicago Blackhawk’s sweater…
GUIDO MORINI ( b. 1959, Italian), co-founder of the Baroque Ensemble Accordone, writes his 21st century opera Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis (Revive the Life Force Spirit) inspired by music of the 6th and 16th centuries.
FEATURE image: Lion, Lodi Cathedral, Italy. The cathedral commissioned the opera. “Leone stiloforo di pietra. Lodi, cattedrale” by claudiobertolesi is marked with CC PDM 1.0. Public Domain. By John P. Walsh The Italian early Baroque ensemble “Ensemble Accordone” was founded in 1984 by two musicologists—composer Guido Morini (b. 1959) and tenor Marco Beasley (Italian-English, b. 1957). In the last…
At Versailles: Messe et Motets Pour La Vierge (1702) by MARC-ANTONE CHARPENTIER (1643-1704, French).
FEATURE image: “Jordi Savall à l’Arsenal.” by iJuliAn is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Le Concert des Nations is an orchestra created in 1989 that performs orchestral, choral, and symphonic music with period instruments. Founded by Catalan maestro and viola de gamba virtuoso, Jordi Savall (b. 1941), Le Concert de Nations performs a wide ranging repertoire from the Baroque…
Music Revolution of 1800: “new” music of 30-year-old LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827, German).
FEATURE image: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1804/05, Joseph Willibrord Mähler (German, 1778-1860), Wien (Vienna) Museum. Beethoven as a young man, c. 1800. Nineteenth century painting after an engraving by Karl Traugott Riedel (1769–c.1832). December 16 is the birthday of Classical-Romantic German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Throughout the 1790’s young Beethoven composed in the drawing-room tradition.…
