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 27-July 3

June 27

1959 - "West Side Story," with music by Leonard Bernstein, closed after 734 performances on Broadway.

1959 - Trisha Yearwood born in Nashville TN

1971 - The Fillmore East in New York City closed.

1988 - Cyndi Lauper got her high school diploma from Richmond High in New York.

1988 - MCA Records bought Motown Records for $61 million.

1989 - The Who performed the rock opera, "Tommy," in its entirety for the first time in 17 years at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

1994 - Aerosmith became first major band to let fans download a full new track free online

June 28

1902 - Richard Rodgers, composer, (of Rogers & Hammerstein) born in Hammels Station, NY

1986 - Wham! made their farewell concert appearance at London's Wembley Stadium. Elton John made an appearance in a clown suit to sing a song and then came back later to sing "Candle In The Wind" with George Michael.

This week in Music History: May 23-29

May 23
1910 - Artie Shaw, [Arthur Arshawsky], bandleader, born in NYC
1969 - The Who release rock opera "Tommy"
1970 - The Grateful Dead played its first British concert at the Hollywood Rock Festival. It was also their first show outside of the U.S.
1974 - Jewel [Kilcher], folk/rock vocalist, born in Alaska
1979 - "The Kids Are Alright," Jeff Stein's documentary compilation of film clips detailing the history of the Who, debuted in New York.
1994 - Joe Pass, US jazz guitarist (The Trio), dies at 65

May 24
1944 - Patti LaBelle, [Holt], born in Philadelphia
1974 - Duke Ellington, blues singer, dies of cancer at 75
1986 - Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork reunited as The Monkees.
1998 - Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell proclaimed May 24th "Van Halen Day" in Philadelphia.
2000 - Chuck D testified to the U.S. Congress about the benefits of Napster and online music distribution.

May 25
1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera "HMS Pinafore," premieres in London
1934 - Gustav Theodore Holst, English composer, dies at 59
1969 - Led Zeppelin and The Who appeared together in concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion.
1973 - Carole King performed in New York's Central Park to an audience of 100,000.
1996 - Bradley Nowell (Sublime) was found dead in his San Francisco motel room of a drug overdose at the age of 26.
1997 - Bob Dylan was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital with chest pains. As a result, his European tour was canceled.

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.