What does Nostradamus have to say about music?

9/13/99 Jay Korman writes: You have missed some very obvious crossovers, to wit: "Watermelon Man" Mongo Santamaria, Beep Beep AHHH Joe Cuba, El Chico (I don’t know - it was the one that had the blabbering in Spanish). Stuff by Santana does not count. The Blues Magoos had a hit with "I’ll never go back to Georgia" (I think it was Tito Puente who did the original)

1/10/2000 Deven Black: To augment what Jay wrote, you also forgot the classic "Say Leroy, Your Mama, She Calling You Man" which had a distinctively latin beat if not actual Spanish lyrics. And who could forget all those bossa nova records of  the 50s: "Mama Loves Mambo" is used in a current TV ad, and I cherish my copy of "Lena Goes Latin."

3/8/04 Nos: There's also Danny Flores (Chuck Rio), composer of Tequia and member of the Champs; and Ritchie Valenzuela who brought us La Bamba.

10/6/04 Nos: And Jimmy Torres, lead guitarist of the String-A-Longs and composer of their hit instrumental, "Wheels." Actually, Jimmy was born in Texas of Kickapoo, Choctaw, Spanish, German, Mayan, and Irish heritage.

2/14/05 Nos: And Chris Montez (Christopher Montanez) of "Let's Dance" fame.

American Music

Nos asks 1/9/2000:

I’ve been thinking - If one were to put out a CD of "American Music," what should be on it? My thoughts so far:

	Maple Leaf Rag - Joplin
	West Side Story - Bernstein
	Heartbreak Hotel - Presley
	My Way - Sinatra
	A blues
	Something by Hank Williams

	Aaron Copeland: Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, or Billy the Kid
	something by Irving Berlin
	Bluegrass (Bill Monroe?)
	Prof. Longhair, Fats Domino, or some other New Orleans music
	Everley Brothers
	Doo-Wop
	Gospel
	Bob Dylan
	Louis Armstrong

	George M. Cohan
	Yankee Doodle [good example of the American spirit: taking a British taunt and turning it into a patriotic song --Nos]
	After the Ball is Over -- or other Victorian song
	Louis Armstrong for Jazz [Bill thinks that Armstrong might even displace Ellington on this list because of Armstrong's contribution to the birth of Jazz]
	Sousa -- Stars and Stripes Forever

	Bill Monroe (father of bluegrass)
	black spiritual music (I heard a great CD with stuff from the 30s on it at a photo shoot, but the gentleman passed away and I don’t recall the name of the collection)
	Stephen Foster (for the mid-1800s)
	cowboy songs like "The Strawberry Roan" (for this and other Americana folk, see http://www.mcneilmusic.com/cowboy.html)
	Jimi Hendrix
	David Alan Coe’s song "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" (it has every country-western cliché in the book, very tongue-in-cheek)
	some Navajo music, atonal to my ears, but pretty American
	Benny Goodman!! (black jazz meets klez roots meets swing)
	Bob Wills!!! (black jazz meets everything western meets swing
	Los Lobos
	Billie Holliday
	some Hollywood musical show tunes (makes me shudder, but very American)
	cartoon music soundtrack

I heartily agree with votes for Louis Armstrong, who more or less invented the jazz solo, and is an indisputable icon of American music. I would choose West End Blues, whose opening bars define this new music for all first time.

I am a Billie Holiday fanatic (I wanted to be Billie Holiday when I was 15, despite the obvious discrepancies in ethnic heritage and talent), but I think that Bessie Smith needs to be included too. I’d use Bessie’s recording of "Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out." For Lady Day, I’d choose ""Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do." Great recording, of course, but also classic American songs.

Modern Classical Music

1/13/2001 Nos: While listening to Khachaturian's Saber Dance, I started to wonder whether there was other listenable modern "classical" music. I came up with a brief list of composers. Then Bill Wollheim vastly expanded the list. Here's what we have so far. We invite your reactions:

We've relegated the following to the "anachronistic" pile: Camille Saint-Sans.

4/21/02 Critique by Stephen Lawrence: 

Your admirable modern classical list is incomplete without Krzysztof Penderecki whose opera Die Teufel Von Loudun (The Devils Of Loudon) is so striking I rushed out to buy it after hearing a short segment on the radio. His instrumental and vocal textures and atonal/melodic writing have been extremely influential. 

I was glad to see the inclusion of Marc Blitzstein, whose Regina occupied my mind exclusively for weeks after I first heard it. And Samuel Barber, same reaction for Vanessa as Blitzstein's Regina. Other listees (I may have just coined that) I love include Menotti, Korngold (certainly one of the great melody writers in any genre, Milhaud (whose La
Creation du Monde I played with the Hofstra Symphony in my college days). He appeared on campus for a week, each day struggling to the stage on his crutches and filling the Hofstra Playhouse with brilliance. (One music
professor said (jokingly I assume) that Milhaud prided himself on being the fastest pen in the west and he supposedly wrote on scrolls of paper, not sheets, and rolled them into a basket, his writing hand never stopping). 

But where is Bartok? An argument could also be made for George Crumb. Also for Schoenberg and Berg (but not by me). Finally, if Kurt Weill makes the list for his theater music (the instrumental music being all but forgotten), then one must consider that Street Scene is certainly a lesser work than Porgy And Bess, thus the case for Gershwin. And if Franz Lehar is included, then his successor on the musical time line, Jerome Kern needs consideration. 

But that starts to open up the entire world of popular theater music (although it's already been opened by Sondheim) and I guess you have to stop somewhere. Anyway, I was glad to see all or most of my personal favorites on the list.

4/22/02 Response by Bill Wollheim:

Penderecki: I would not include him in the category of "listenable" modern classical music.

Bartok: ditto. Arguably one of the 20th century's greatest composers, and some of his works (for instance the "Concerto for Orchestra") are fairly accessible, but much of his work remains abstruse and far from accessible.

I originally included Sondheim and not Gershwin because much of Sondheim's work is intentionally "classical" in its goals and forms. I'd personally take Gershwin's music over Sondheim's any day, but aside from "Porgy and Bess," almost all of his work was in popular forms.