Showing posts tagged 2010s
RIP “Soul Train” Creator Don Cornelius “Cornelius created the R&B dance television program in 1971. It became a huge success all over the world, offering critical exposure to artists like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and Michael Jackson. Cornelius hosted the show until 1993; it aired until 2006.” Watch Stevie Wonder perform on “Soul Train” here. View high resolution


RIP “Soul Train” Creator Don Cornelius

“Cornelius created the R&B dance television program in 1971. It became a huge success all over the world, offering critical exposure to artists like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and Michael Jackson. Cornelius hosted the show until 1993; it aired until 2006.”

Watch Stevie Wonder perform on “Soul Train” here.

sesamestreet:

Happy birthday to Philip Glass, born today in 1937, and the man behind the music in this classic Sesame Street clip.

(Reblogged from sesamestreet)
Philip Glass Today is the 75th birthday of Philip Glass, one of most influential contemporary classical composers today.  Glass, while he does not define himself as a minimalist, is often considered one of the leading figures in minimalist music. Says New York Times music critic Allan Kozin, “What Glass did was go back to the most basic tonality you could have — major keys, minor keys — and to take small segments of music and repeat them over and over, changing them slowly along the way in his early music.  He called it ‘additive process.’” Continue reading on NPR Music: Philip Glass at 75: Listening With Heart, Not Intellect Ira Glass Interviews His Cousin, Composer Philip Glass View high resolution

Philip Glass

Today is the 75th birthday of Philip Glass, one of most influential contemporary classical composers today.  Glass, while he does not define himself as a minimalist, is often considered one of the leading figures in minimalist music.

Says New York Times music critic Allan Kozin, “What Glass did was go back to the most basic tonality you could have — major keys, minor keys — and to take small segments of music and repeat them over and over, changing them slowly along the way in his early music.  He called it ‘additive process.’”

Continue reading on NPR Music:

Philip Glass at 75: Listening With Heart, Not Intellect

Ira Glass Interviews His Cousin, Composer Philip Glass

Colin Stetson

Experimental bass saxophonist Colin Stetson breaks down a few of the pieces that form his track “Judges” from his 2011 LP, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges.

Stetson is a touring member of Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre, and Bon Iver, and he has worked with Tom Waits, TV on the Radio, Feist, My Brightest Diamond, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Jolie Holland, Sinéad O’Connor, LCD Soundsystem, The National, Angelique Kidjo, Kevin Devine, and Anthony Braxton.

Check out the studio version of “Judges” here.

David Bowie Today marks the 65th birthday of one of popular music’s most beloved figures, David Bowie. David Bowie is rock’s foremost futurist and a genre-bending pioneer, chameleon, and transformer. Throughout his solo career and in his alliances with other artists - including Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Brian Eno and Nine Inch Nails - Bowie has positioned himself on the cutting edge of rock and roll. His innovations have created or furthered several major trends in rock and roll, including glam-rock, art-rock and the very notion of the self-mythologized, larger-than-life rock star. Continue reading on Bowie’s biography page on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website. View high resolution

David Bowie

Today marks the 65th birthday of one of popular music’s most beloved figures, David Bowie.

David Bowie is rock’s foremost futurist and a genre-bending pioneer, chameleon, and transformer. Throughout his solo career and in his alliances with other artists - including Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Brian Eno and Nine Inch Nails - Bowie has positioned himself on the cutting edge of rock and roll. His innovations have created or furthered several major trends in rock and roll, including glam-rock, art-rock and the very notion of the self-mythologized, larger-than-life rock star.

Continue reading on Bowie’s biography page on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website.

James’ Favorite Albums of 2011

Happy new year from Fuck Yeah, Music History! I thought it would be fun to kick things off by listing the 25 albums I loved the most this year.

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Tom Waits Photograph by Anton Corbijn.

Tom Waits

Photograph by Anton Corbijn.

Jay-Z “I’m not afraid of dying.  I’m afraid of not trying.” View high resolution

Jay-Z

“I’m not afraid of dying.  I’m afraid of not trying.”

In Memoriam: Musicians We Lost in 2011

NPR remembers the singers, instrumentalists, songwriters, and producers who passed away this year, including Gil Scott-Heron and Nate Dogg (pictured).

Brian Eno In 1994, Microsoft corporation designers approached Brian Eno to compose music for the six-second start-up music-sound of the Windows 95 operating system, The Microsoft Sound. In the San Francisco Chronicle he said: “The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I’d been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, ‘Here’s a specific problem — solve it.’ “The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said, ‘and it must be 31/4 seconds long.’ “I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel. “In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I’d finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.” View high resolution

Brian Eno

In 1994, Microsoft corporation designers approached Brian Eno to compose music for the six-second start-up music-sound of the Windows 95 operating system, The Microsoft Sound. In the San Francisco Chronicle he said:

“The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I’d been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, ‘Here’s a specific problem — solve it.’

“The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said, ‘and it must be 31/4 seconds long.’

“I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel.

“In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I’d finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.”