12-29: Freddie Hubbard : First Light 1971 - Bruckner 8 / Takashi Asahina 1976 - Kosaku Yamada : Symphony Triumph & Peace etc. / Yuasa 2008 - Tim Hardin 1 1966

Not shown: Albert Christoph Dies, Charles-Joseph Tolbecque, Ferdinand Marcucci, Fritz Behrend & Gene Tanner

1785 – Johann Heinrich Rolle (German composer)
1819 – Josepha Weber (Austrian soprano, sister-in-law of Mozart & creator of The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute)
1822 – Albert Christoph Dies (German painter, composer & early biographer of Joseph Haydn)
1825 – Giuseppe Cambini (Italian composer & violinist)
1835 – Charles-Joseph Tolbecque (French violinist, conductor & composer)
1836 – Johann Baptist Schenk (Austrian composer, multi-instrumentalist & teacher)
1847 – William Crotch (English composer, organist & artist)
1876 – Ferdinand Marcucci (Italian harpist & composer)
1898 – Georg Goltermann (German cellist & composer)
1915 – Charles Beach Hawley (American bass, choir director & composer)
1952 – Beryl Rubinstein (American pianist, composer & teacher)
1959 – Robin Milford (English composer, pianist, flutist & organist)
1964 – Miroslav Krejčí (Czech composer & teacher)
1965 – Kōsaku Yamada [山田 耕筰] (Japanese composer & conductor)
1967 – Paul Whiteman (American jazz, pop & classical bandleader & violinist, commissioned Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue)
1972 – Fritz Behrend (German composer)
1980 – Tim Hardin (American folk singer, songwriter, guitarist & pianist)
1986 – John Antill (Australian composer, known for Aboriginal-inspired ballet Corroboree)
1989 – Irma Beilke (German coloratura soprano)
1990 – Aulikki Rautawaara (Finnish soprano)
1994 – Gene Tanner (American R&B singer, The Five Royales)
1996 – Mireille Hartuch (French theatrical singer, composer, pianist, actress & teacher)
2001 – Takashi Asahina [朝比奈 隆] (Japanese conductor, famed in particular for his performances of Bruckner)
2001 – Cássia Eller (Brazilian rock & MPB singer & guitarist)
2004 – Floriana Cavalli (Italian soprano)
2008 – Freddie Hubbard (American jazz trumpeter, cornetist, flugelhornist & composer)

Yay, Japan! Yay, Bruckner! Yay, Freddie Hubbard! Boo, Death!!

10-28b: Oliver Nelson & Eric Dolphy Straight Ahead 1961 - Carlos Guastavino Las Puertas de la Mañana : Espaillat / Zinger 1994 - Porter Wagoner et al : Shit Happens!

1970 – Eduardo López-Chávarri (Spanish composer, writer & musicologist)
1971 – Yves de la Casinière (French pianist, organist, composer & teacher)
1975 – Oliver Nelson (American jazz composer, arranger, conductor & saxophonist)
1991 – Sylvia Fine Kaye (American popular songwriter & pianist, spouse of Danny Kaye)
1999 – Antonis Katinaris [Αντώνιος Κατινάρης] (Greek rebetiko songwriter & bazouki player of Turkish ancestry)
2000 – Carlos Guastavino (Argentine composer & pianist, "the Schubert of the Pampas" )
2001 – Gerard Hengeveld (Dutch pianist, composer & teacher)
2005 – Fernando Quejas (Cape Verdean morna singer, songwriter & guitarist, active in Portugal)
2006 – Marijohn Wilkin (American country & gospel songwriter & guitarist)
2007 – Jimmy (Dimitrios) Makulis [Τζίμης Μακούλης] (Greek popular singer)
2007 – Porter Wagoner (American country singer, guitarist & songwriter)

Well, you might be surprised that I was unable to locate very much in the way of supplemental reading about Porter Wagoner, either with or without his singing partner of many years, Dolly Parton. So, I put a couple videos up on our YouTube page to make up for it, and in particular the one of Porter & Dolly together is just super and delightful.

But I'm sure it will not surprise any of you that it's Oliver Nelson who really interests me today, given the regular attention I lavish on jazz musicians of the no-longer-with-us sort. Nelson died much too young and thus had a short career, but he lived long enough to record an album that's consistently on everyone's list of one of the all-time great jazz albums, Blues and the Abstract Truth from 1961, an all-star large-combo masterpiece featuring Nelson's wonderful compositions (most notably "Stolen Moments") and expert arrangements, and some mighty soloing from the assembled crowd of geniuses. Of course, if you have any jazz collection to speak of, Blues and the Abstract Truth is already a part of it, so why not dip into some of Nelson's other less-heard works for a change of pace?