News from the Mudd

Today Ringo Starr is 68. Yes, 68. Those of you mature enough to know his real name will be feeling extremely ancient and those who have never heard of him will be asking, "Whose grandpappy is that?"
In a dastardly bit of birthday irony, it was reported yesterday that his birthplace is certain to be demolished after English Heritage decided not to list it on its register. But Pete Best's home will be preserved only because it was the location of the original Cavern Club, and..., oh, just read the article.
Do what Richard requests today: "...everyone, everywhere, wherever they are, at noon on July 7 make the peace sign and say 'Peace & Love.'" And listen to some tunes.

Once again it's Sir Paul McCartney's birthday. He's been in this music business for over 50 years, and he's still touring. His latest stop was in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine where he gave a concert sponsored by Victor Pinchuk, Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist. Pinchuk said, "One could not imagine this 30 years ago. Nobody could even dare to hope for this 20 years ago. One could only dream about it 10 years ago. 5 years ago we could only envy our neighbors for whom this became a reality. And finally the day has come. For the first time we have the opportunity to hear the songs that changed the world and created a new culture." We couldn't agree more.
Sure, we have the Beatles recordings and even one McCartney solo disc. But the library's McCartney collection includes Lennon-McCartney tunes interpreted by vocalists Kiri Te Kanawa, Cathy Berberian and Cristina Zavalloni, double bassists, and a brass quintet. Very versatile.

We're heavy on the vocal music today with our latest CD pile. Once again we've dipped into the storeroom of gifts and have emerged with arias, vocalises, songs and voice with instrumental ensemble.

After a long, dry spell, here's the latest batch of new-to-us CDs. We have dipped into our treasure trove of gifts and extracted a pile of what we like to call the good ol' M1505's. For you browsers, M1505 is excerpts from operas. To get the whole deal, go to M1500. This batch even has a few selections from musicals.

After a long, dry spell, here is an interesting batch of CDs. Today's CD pile is heavy on the Stockhausen and light on the C.P.E. Bach. Ballet by Stockhausen? Songs by C.P.E.? You guessed it.

Today's quiz: How many ways can you think of to legally transport edible grease? You can get take-out from KFC®. You can fail to wipe your hands before leaving a rib place. You can load yourself up with popcorn at a movie. But illegally transporting inedible grease takes some doing.
NPR reported this morning that a man in California was apprehended after being caught siphoning used cooking grease from in back of a Burger King®. He was charged with illegal transport of inedible grease, in violation of California Food and Agricultural Code, Section 19310-19317.
Sing from, listen to, or view Grease in the Mudd.

The CGA (Compressed Gas Association) Hydrogen Seminar is being held today at the Sacramento (CA) Convention Center. Try not to blurt out the obvious completion of this presentation topic as stated in the form of a question: "Hydrogen in your pocket."
You won't be surprised to learn Philip Glass composed a work with hydrogen in the title.

Who is more multi-faceted than singer/actress Shirley Jones? She went from Academy Award-winner, playing a prostitute in Elmer Gantry, to the most wholesome of TV mothers on The Partridge Family. In between she portrayed Rodgers and Hammerstein heroines, solidified every stereotype of librarians in The Music Man and married both the suave Jack Cassidy and the goofy Marty Ingles. Had she stayed in Western Pennsylvania where she was born 74 years ago today, she might have ended up working in the family business, the Jones Brewery.
We've got her on video in Carousel, The Music Man and Oklahoma!

Today jazz pianist/composer/leader Marian McPartland turns 90. When she started out in the United States in the '40's, an English woman jazz piano player wasn't standard fare. But she soon formed her own trio and played long engagements at clubs in New York. In 1978 she began taping the NPR series, "Piano Jazz," which she still hosts today.
The Mudd has her autobiography, All in good time, and you can see her in the video Piano legends.

You're lucky. Your space solutions most likely involve a few wicker baskets and a double-rod hanging system. But when NASA gets involved it's a whole-nother kettle of fish.
The International Space University symposium, Space Solutions to Earth's Global Challenges, begins today in Strasbourg, France. Here we're talking SPACE space, as in outer. Some topics are a little out-there ("Why We Need an Elevator to Space!") and some are downright bone-chilling ("The Intersection of Air Law and Space Law.") And who knew there was an International Space University?
Listen to some Strauss while you ponder your future on the final frontier.

Today's short stack of CDs comprises all string music, if you agree that a piano has strings and vocal cords are somewhat stringy.

Bach, Beethoven, Brahms? Pffft. In our never-ending quest to provide the newest, the oddest, the anti-top-ten-est music, we present in today's CD pile some piano works with a warning label, "Doo-dah" on saxophones, art songs by a German composer in English sung by a German guy and music inspired by paintings. The Mudd collection: not for the faint of heart.

If we've been asked this question once, we been asked it a thousand times: where can I find sheet music for tunes commonly played in British pubs? We usually answer this query with the reference librarian's shrug. But now a new source has appeared: A Traditional Music Library. This web site out of the U.K. is a "large traditional and folk music library of songbooks, tune-books, sheet-music, lyrics, midis, tablature, plus music theory, chord diagrams, scales and other music educational & academic reference materials." It has handy full-text searching capability, too. Impress/bore/frighten your friends at your next gathering with rugby songs, sea chanties and banjo ballads.

On this day in 1987 Liberace went to that great diamond-studded, fur lined Cadillac in the sky. You young folk may not hear the word "flamboyant" much these days, but this gentleman was the textbook definition. Wisconsin claims him as its own since he was born in West Allis and, as you can see, he also did a few years in Sheboygan

On January 16, 1940 the Milwaukee Journal reported on his debut with the Chicago Symphony at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater. It appears that it took a while to develop his signature style:

"Walter Liberace, a member of the excellent group of young Milwaukee pianists ... was heard Monday night at the Pabst as soloist with the Chicago Symphony orchestra. . . .
"Mr. Liberace, a strikingly good looking young man with a most engaging personality, had won the honor of an appearance with the orchestra in a local competition . . . The young artist was at no time in difficulty, but it was apparent that he was proceeding with infinite care, and the swaggering approach that goes so well with Liszt (Liberace had chosen to play Liszt's Second Concerto in A) was somewhat missed."

Among today's new CDs we have the largest multi-disc CD set in existence: Jacqueline Du Pré and everything she ever recorded on EMI. And, to cleanse your palate after all that cello music, an opera that's really not and a little live jazz.

Silver discs, silver discs. It's CD time in the city. Today we have recorder chamber music, some Dylan, some Flying Pizzarellis, more jazz, music for strings, plus a lot more.

On January 18, 1944 the "All American Jazz Band" played the first jazz concert ever presented at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The players were chosen as a result of a poll conducted by Esquire Magazine. This jam session was held in conjunction with the awarding of $10,000 in war bonds to these poll winners:

trumpet: Louis Armstrong (first), Cootie William (second)
clarinet: Benny Goodman, Barney Bigard
trombone: Jack Teagarden, Lawrence Brown
saxophone: Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges
bass: Oscar Pettiford, Milton Hinton and Al Morgan (tied for second)
guitar: Al Casey, Oscar Moore
drums: Sidney Catlett, Cozy Cole
piano: Art Tatum, Earl Hines
odd instruments: Red Norvo and Lionel Hampton, tied
Armed Forces favorites: Artie Shaw, Willie Smith and Dave Tough (tied for second)
female vocalists: Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey
male vocalists: Louis Armstrong, Leo Watson

The Mudd has Esquire Magazine's Jazz Book from 1944, 1945 and 1946 containing information on the All-American Jazz Band plus articles on jazz, jazz players and jazz records.

This item appeared in the New York Times on January 14, 1908.

Because turnabout is fair play, we give you "Bei mir bist du schön" with a Latin beat.

It was only a matter of time before someone thought of this: Carmen Miranda's saucy tropical hit, "Mama Yo Quiero" sung in Yiddish and Portuguese.
If you are itching for some more, the Mudd does have one Carmen Miranda recording.

We get gifts. Most of the time they're a welcome addition to the collection. Today's CDs come from the library of a fine gentleman who passed away recently. As you can see, he enjoyed music - all kinds of music. And spooky Halloween sounds.

On December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley met President Richard M. Nixon in the White House. Elvis just showed up at the White House that morning and asked to see the President by presenting a letter to a security guard. A meeting was set up for 12:30 that day. The National Archives and Records Administration of the United States has an entire web site marking this event. "Wha...?" you say? This iconic photo from that meeting is said to be the most requested image from the National Archives. Look through the images on NARA website very quickly and you'll get a nice flip-chart effect. It's almost like being there. The Wikimedia Commons entry on this event includes this photo with the helpful description: "Elvis is on the right."

Holy Hanna, we forgot to commemorate the anniversary of Beethoven's baptism, Dec. 17, 1770. Here's Dudley Moore playing a little fake (but perfectly executed) Beethoven.

Today's first CD pile is a piano-rama, with the exception of one flute (AND piano) recording that slipped in there. And for good measure we bring you another bunch featuring choruses, orchestra, chamber music and music for wind ensemble.

It may surprise the young folk out there that what is widely considered to be the first rock 'n' roll recording was done three years before Bill Haley and the Comets did "Rock Around the Clock." Jackie Brenston and the Kings of Rhythm recorded "Rocket 88" in 1951, a recording which had nothing to do with either the space program (then non-existent) or a piano. It was an Oldsmobile. Again, ask your granddad. Please enjoy the audio on this clip and ignore the wildy inappropriate video. We have a recording in the Mudd, too.
One of the people responsible for that 1951 recording died today. Ike Turner, probably more widely known as the Svengali/abusive husband to Tina Turner, was 76. Ike and Tina were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

We can hardly keep ahead of the onslaught. For all of you who have been clamoring for CDs featuring doughnuts, trombone, didjeridu and Brahms piano music, too, today is your day. You can get everything you want in the Mudd's latest CD pile.

Today's new CD pile takes you from Bach to Takemitsu with a stop for some American composers. Take a look.

Frank Sinatra would have been 92 today. That's all (which is a great song and the Mudd has it.) Enjoy some Sinatra, too.

This latest bunch of CDs carries on the Mudd tradition of bringing you just about every kind of music you desire. Today if you want vocal music, we've got it, both jazz and classical. How about cello? Some nice string quartets? Does symphonic music float your boat? Done, done, done and done.

Who has to win the award for the hippest minister ever? Why Little Richard, of course, whose birthday is celebrated today.

Listen to a few versions of Tutti Frutti, including one by Pat Boone (ask you granddad.) For the real thing, watch the master at work on Long Tall Sally, and then compare the version by a very fine cover band. This recording we've got.
Rolling Stone has an item about the bizarre rivalry between Pat Boone and Little Richard.

Here at the Mudd we don't think The Web is evil. In fact, its beauty lies in the fact that it makes everyone's lives easier and more complicated at the same time. If there were no internet you wouldn't be reading this right now. You'd have to intercept this message using your tin-foil hat.
The latest issue of the online magazine Online is featuring a subject near and dear to our hearts: research. And music research to boot: "Music to Researchers' Ears: Ten Top Sites for Researching Music." This helpful guide, written by a music librarian in California, runs the gamut from Mozart to world music. Unfortunately, as web resources sometimes go, one of the links she's included is no longer valid. It's the International Sheet Music Library Project and if you go to the site you'll get a rather depressing message from the site's founder explaining why he's decided not to go on. Those who value the site's purpose are trying valiantly to get another sponsor in spite of the threats of legal action. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, all of the other sites get the official Mudd Seal of Approval.

It's December. It's cold. There's snow. That means two things are certain: fewer students wearing shorts and flip-flops, and the concert season is in full swing. Today's CD pile features some fine performances by well-known artists, and some home-grown talent on LU Conservatory CDs. We'll be dribbling in more LU CDs on future CD piles.

It was a very sad day in 2001. George Harrison died of cancer in Los Angeles. Those of you who remember the 20-something George will be stunned to see his son Dhani who looks exactly like him. This clip is from "Concert for George," organized a year after his death by his widow Olivia and his friend Eric Clapton, who, incidentally used to be married to George's ex-wife Pattie Boyd.
If you're under 30 you can get a good sense of George on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website. And the Mudd has a few of his recordings.

We love to sing-a about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a. All of our CDs in today's pile contain vocal music. We've got chants, art song favorites with violin obbligato, and opera excerpts. For good measure we've also got some chamber music with and without voice.

On this day in 1942 possibly the most famous interpreter of the United States national anthem was born. Listen to the greatest left-handed guitar version performed outside a stadium or arena.
The Mudd has several recordings of riffs on Jimi Hendrix.

You young 'ns have probably only seen the word "phonograph" in history books. Conventional wisdom has it that on this date in 1877 Thomas Alva Edison publicly introduced the cylinder phonograph. It is not known the precise date Mr. Edison spoke the first verse of "Mary had a little lamb" into the contraption, but the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress puts the date somewhere August 12th and December 24th. We'll go with the flow and say it's today.
The New York Times ran a commentary on November 28 of that year stating that with the invention of the telegraph, telephone and now the phonograph "electricians had lost all self-restraint." On the horizon was the wireless telegraph, the use of which could have dire consequences: "A mother, sitting in the nursery with her baby in her arms, may be struck by a violent speech by Wendell Phillips, and sustain a fatal injury." "The aerial electrical current will be constantly full of Congressional speeches...which will be liable at any moment to...penetrate our houses." Sounds very familiar.

Sometimes our CD collection has such depth and breadth we can hardly stand it. Today we offer CDs containing piano trios; choral music; an Orff work probably new to you; chants that are, to say the least, unusual and a '50's pop vocal quartet.

Todays' new CD pile is prid near all Miles Davis. We threw in a little Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and a couple of Ben Allisons, too.

Glass harmonica? How about a water-organ? A Croatian architect has created a giant water-powered organ that is played by waves from the Adriatic Sea lapping onto steps. Now visitors don't need to be bored by those dull sounds of nature.

On this day 40 years ago Rolling Stone published its first issue. The title comes from the Bob Dylan song "Like a rolling stone". It looked a little different back then - no shiny glossy cover. But its founder Jann Wenner is still the editor and publisher.

The obvious choice for the first cover was John Lennon, a popular entertainer at that time who composed, sang and played guitar, and who'd just finished filming the Richard Lester film How I Won the War.

The Mudd subscribes to Rolling Stone and keeps the paper copies for a year. We also have R.S. on microfilm from January, 1978 to June, 2002 for all your fogey rock needs.

It's Saxophone Day! It's a woodwind made of metal! It's named after a real guy whose birthday is today! It comes in all different sizes! And what could be cooler than a saxophone, or for that matter, a saxophone player? Once you get past the shades and the slouching demeanor, you'll find a hug-able human being. So go hug one.
The Mudd has a boat load of recordings, scores and videos featuring the saxophone. Of course there's Coltrane. But we also feature a composer who writes for saxophone(s) and ghettoblaster. For the less adventurous, how about some saxophone quartets?

We've got not one, but TWO new CD piles today: The first one is string-crazy. The second is a mish mash of vocals, instrumental, orchestral, jazz and your favorites from the Great Depression.

Here at the Mudd we're nothing if not eclectic. This latest CD pile has Bach cello transcriptions for piano and a new St. Matthew passion, "Professor Bad Trip," and Donaueschinger Musiktage 2002. Who could ask for anything more?

They're coming in faster than we can post them: more CDs. This time it's 20th century chamber music, an opera like you've never heard before, a CD featuring one of LU's Artist Series performers, plus Lang Lang at Carnegie Hall.

It's about time, you may well say, and we agree. If you're a fan of close vocal harmonies, cello concertos and porcine super heroes, check out today's new CD pile.

Today marks the 163th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher extraordinaire and (who knew?) opera buff. He had definite opinions: Bizet, good; Wagner, bad. Of course, being a philosopher, he was a little more wordy than that. As quoted in his entry in Grove, the music in Carmen "is wicked, cunning, fatalistic: it remains at the same time popular ... It is rich. It is precise. It constructs, organizes, finishes." On the other hand, "Wagner's art is sick." Yikes.
If you've a hankering for the wicked and cunning, here's Callas as Carmen. Sick art more your thing? How about a little Walküre with Kirsten Flagstad? Or read something by the man himself.

Everyone loves craigslist. You can procure just about anything: animal, vegetable, mineral, legal, illegal. We were intrigued by this posting. It's a whole different world down there in the Southern Hemisphere. Or in Minnesota.

While not all of the Mudd staff believe that all "good" rock and roll ceased at the end of the '60s, we would be remiss if we did not point out that today is the birth anniversary of John Lennon (you know, that Beatle guy...) John would have been 67 today.
Sharing today's birthday is son Sean Ono Lennon, born on John's 35th birthday, and turning 32 today.

On October 4, 1970, Janis Joplin committed her final act of self-destruction. At a time when women in popular music were folk singers (Mary Travers, Joan Baez,) flower children (Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips,) tightly coiffed and choreographed girl groups (The Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas) or singer-song writers (Carole King and Carly Simon,) a white, female blues singer was a stand-out. A year earlier on the "The Tonight Show" Johnny Carson asked her if she was going to her high school reunion. She smiled and said "Yeah. I'm goin'." We hope she made it.
Watch her in action at Woodstock.

Last week we were too consumed by meat products to mark this momentous anniversary. On Sept. 26, 1957, West Side Story opened at the Winter Garden in New York, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by a very young Stephen Sondheim. An item in the New York Times that day revealed that it dealt with "the timely subject of juvenile delinquency." They might as well have said "Oklahoma! it ain't." The next day Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson showed that he got it: a score that captures "the shrill beat of life in the streets;" "Everything contributes to the total impression of wildness, ecstasy and anguish;" "This is one of those occasions when theatre people...are all in top form."

The Mudd has the original cast recording, the full score, the 1961 film (on DVD) starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, and the crazy, what-were-they-thinking 1985 studio recording with José Carreras as the Polish youth and Tatiana Troyanos as the Puerto Rican teenage girl. Give it a listen just to hear UW-Milwaukee's own Kurt Ollmann.

Those wacky electrical engineers and computer scientists at the University of California at San Diego are at it again. They're working on creating a "Google for music." The idea is for people who are not music experts to be able to call up songs matching their parameters using natural language. One big stumbling block is creating words that are universally meaningful and useful when describing music. One person's Barry Manilow may be "intensely meaningful" while another's may be "gag-inducing."
Read about it on the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering web site.

Here are a couple of birthdays to celebrate today. First on our list is the irreplaceable George Gershwin who was born in 1898 in Brooklyn and died at the very young age of 38. Today you can play the "what if?" game: what if he'd lived to be over 100 like Irving Berlin, who was born ten years before? We've got tons of Gershwin in the Mudd. Try a search for yourself.
Next is LU's own Dale Duesing who marks a milestone today, but we aren't at liberty to say which one. If you're REALLY dying to know, he's in New Grove. And imdb.com. And in the Mudd.

We shouldn't even mention this on One-Hit Wonder Day, but we just heard about this year's awards. Two musicians, singer Dawn Upshaw and blues musician Corey Harris are among the 24 winners of a $500,000 no-restrictions grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This award is even more amazing since there's no application process. People who have shown "exceptional creativity" get a call out of the blue saying they've won a half a million. Potential geniuses, start your engines.

Some music groups are born great (Beatles,) some achieve greatness (Beatles) and some have greatness thrust upon them (Milli Vanilli.) And then some have, to paraphrase Andy Warhol, 15 minutes of greatness. These are One-Hit Wonders and they are celebrated today, appropriately, one day of the year.
The Web has many dozens of sites of supposed One-Hit Wonders, but beware: not everything you read on the Web is true. Some of them list Janis Joplin. Please.
We're sure if you listen to commercial radio today, you may hear:
The Monotones, "Book of Love"
The Silhouettes, "Get a Job"
The Murmaids, "Popsicles and Icicles" (at 3:47 on the video)
The Lemon Pipers, "Green Tambourine"
John Fred & His Playboy Band, "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)"
Norman Greenbaum, "Spirit in the Sky

Ninety-five years ago today the world was given Chuck Jones, a name inextricably linked with classic Warner Brothers cartoons. He died in 2002, but in those 90 years his creative output produced such icons as Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe le Pew and Michigan J. Frog. He also animated and directed cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. He produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." His official web site quotes the National Film Registry in describing one of his creations, "the Wagnerian mini epic, 'What's Opera, Doc?'" as being "among the most culturally, historically and aesthetically significant films of our time." And, of course, the Mudd has it.

We've already fêted the Monterey Pop Festival (June 14,) but today we celebrate the Big Daddy, if you will, of them all: the Monterey Jazz Festival. Tomorrow in Monterey, California, a 3-day celebration of jazz begins. In 1958 "best jazz people in the whole world," as the founders called them, played a whole weekend of jazz. Back in 1958 when beatniks still roamed the earth, these artists included Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Max Roach and Billie Holiday. At this 50th festival the tradition continues with Chris Potter, one of LU's upcoming Jazz Series Artists, Feb. 8, 2008; Dave Holland, who appeared on the Jazz Series in 2000; Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Jazz Series 2005; Diana Krall, LU Jazz Weekend Guest Artist 1997; Terrance Blanchard, Jazz Series Feb. 2007; and, of course, to round things out, Dave Brubeck.

We're wishing we had some sea chanties today, but instead we're featuring more Artists' Series performers in our CD pile: one CD by The Brentano Quartet and several by Cantus. And there's a Bizet thrown in for good measure.

Today in 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the words to what would become the U.S. national anthem. If Francis Scott Key were alive today, we know he would approve of this version as interpreted by SCTV's Rick Moranis channeling yesterday's birthday boy, Mel Tormé. If you are too young to have experienced SCTV, run out right now and rent or buy some episodes.

Today's David Clayton Thomas's 66th birthday. He's the distinctive voice of Blood, Sweat and Tears. Fortunately, he shares his birthday with some musical types that are represented in the Mudd, since the Mudd has no BS&T:

Mel Tormé (1925)

Arnold Schoenberg (1874) (interesting side note: he was triskaidekaphobic, afraid of the number 13; ironically, he was born and died on the 13th day of the month) Here's a CD of his opera Moses und Aron, with "Aaron" spelled with only one "a, " since two a's would have resulted in a 13-letter title.

Clara Schumann (1819)

An ocean away on Sept. 12, 1910, "Antonio Martello pleads guilty...to playing a guitar and singing Neapolitan ballads to a woman in the Bronx and is sentenced to serve 20 days in the workhouse as a common nuisance." -- Music Since 1910.

The Mudd has numerous recordings of the Mahler and even one of Neapolitan songs.

On September 11, 1967 The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS. It was the first hour-long comedy-variety show to be hosted by a woman. When you think about it, the show produced theater (skits,) production numbers and musical numbers with all the trappings every week: choreography, sets, costumes by Bob Mackie, the works. Today the costs would be prohibitive and TV audiences probably would have no interest. But back then people stayed home to watch the show. Imagine doing this for a weekly TV show today.
The Paley Center for Media, formerly The Museum of Television & Radio, has an informative profile on Carol Burnett for you young folk who missed this golden age. You can also hear Carol Burnett on the original cast recording of Once Upon a Mattress.

On September 10, 1907 a new department store, Neiman Marcus, (that's a big store in Big D) opened its doors. Also on this day 75 years ago at one minute past midnight the A Train started running on the IND 8th Avenue Line in New York.
There's a Neiman Marcus in Manhattan at 41st. and Broadway. The A Train doesn't run over there, but you can take it to 42nd St. (the Port Authority Bus Terminal) and then take the IRT Times Square-Grand Central Shuttle. It'll get you pretty close. And listen to Billy Strayhorn's "Take the A Train" while you're traveling.