This week in music history: July 11-17

July 11

1937 - George Gershwin, composer, died at 38

1946 - Dean Martin recorded his first 4 songs.

1959 - Suzanne Vega born in Santa Barbara, CA

1996 - Beck made a surprise performance at Lollapalooza in St. Louis, MO.

2000 - Lars Ulrich (Metallica) was the first witness to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing over copyright law issues concerning free sharing of music files on Web sites such as Napster and MP3.com.

July 12

1934 - Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr., pianist, born in Shreveport, LA

1954 - Elvis Presley signed his first recording contract (with Sun Records) and quit his job as a truck driver.

1962 - The Rolling Stones made their performance debut at the Marquee Club in London.

1970 - Blues-rock singer Janis Joplin debuted in Kentucky

1996 - Jonathan Melvoin (Smashing Pumpkins) was found dead in a New York City hotel of a heroin overdose.

This week in Music History: June 6-12

June 6
1915 - Vincent Persichetti, composer, born in Philadelphia
1955 - Bill Haley and Comets "Rock Around the Clock" hits #1
1991 - Stan Getz, jazz saxophonist, dies at 64

June 7
1972 - The musical "Grease" opened on Broadway. It had been playing off-Broadway for about 4 months
1990 - Michael Jackson hospitalized for chest pains

June 8
1810 - Robert A Schumann, Zwickau Saxony Germany, composer
1949 - Emanuel Ax, pianist, born in Lvov Poland
1969 - Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor replaces Brian Jones
2000 - Sinead O'Connor revealed that she was a lesbian in an article that would later be published by "Curve" in their July-August 2000 issue.

This week in Music History: May 30- June 5

May 30
1909 - Benny Goodman, clarinetist/bandleader born in Chicago
1964 - Beatles' "Love Me Do," single goes #1
1968 - The Beatles began recording the "White Album."
1997 - Neil Young canceled his European tour because he had cut his finger while slicing a ham sandwich.
1999 - In New Jersey, Lenny Kravitz walked off stage after 40 minutes and collapsed from heat exhaustion. He had been performing in a fur coat.

May 31
1809 - Franz Josef Haydn, Austrian composer, dies at 77
1917 - 1st jazz record released (Dark Town Strutters Ball)
1979 - In New York City, the restored Radio City Music Hall was reopened
1982 - Survivor released single "Eye of the Tiger."
1999 - VH1's "Behind the Music" began airing nightly. The premier show was "The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Behind the Music."

French Horn in Rock Music

<---This is a French Horn

I am a French Horn player (aka Horn, we ‘Horn’ players nix the ‘French’ forename because there’s not much French about the horn, it’s quite German actually). And that’s not the end of my dorking out here, folks…

I’ve played for about 15 years, went to college for horn and came out with a Masters in Music Performance. I do still play, although not professionally nor full-time. I play with orchestras often, so I’m totally fascinated and thrilled when I hear rock/pop songs and other genres of music using horns.

Some of the hipsters among us may have heard of the group French Horn Rebellion, consisting of Brooklynite brothers Robert and David Peck-Molinari. Robert co-produced and engineered MGMT Time to Pretend and David is an accomplished horn player, having attended Northwestern University (which is an excellent music school and horn studio, by the way). Pretty neat combo, I’m excited to see them when they play at Brookyn Bowl in June.