| February Birthdays |
| Wednesday, 28 February 2007 | |
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February Birthdays Feb. 1, 1902: Writer Langston Hughes Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) African-American poet, novelist, and playwright, who became one of the foremost interpreters of racial relationships in the United States. Influenced by the Bible, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Walt Whitman, Hughes depicted realistically the ordinary lives of black people. Many of his poems, written in rhythmical language, have been set to music. Hughes's poems were meant 'to be read aloud, crooned, shouted and sung'. His poetry has also been set to some rich and lush music. Trust me, the 'Dreamer, song cycle for voice, harp & piano' is gorgeous. "Rest at pale evening... Edward "Sonny" Stitt (February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982) Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist. He was a quintessential saxophonist of the bebop idiom. He was also one of the most prolific saxophonists, recording over 100 records in his lifetime. He was nicknamed the "Lone Wolf" by jazz critic Dan Morgenstern, due to his relentless touring and his devotion to jazz. Stephanie Natalie Maria Cole (born February 6, 1950) Natalie Cole is the daughter of noted crooner Nat King Cole. In several interviews, Cole talked about her upbringing; she was raised in an affluent area of Los Angeles, and her family, which she has referred to as "the black Kennedys", lived just a few doors down from the California governor. Cole also stated in an interview that she did not connect with her cultural heritage or "blackness" until she attended college. She was 15 years old when her famous father died of cancer. She attended the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, MA. In her childhood, she was exposed to the greats of jazz, soul and blues at an early age, and she began performing at the age of 11. Cole has been married three times, and has a son, Robert Yancy, (by Marvin Yancy), born in 1977; her son is a musician who tours with her. She later married former Rufus drummer Andre Fischer, who co-produced her album Unforgettable... With Love. James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983) Blake was a composer and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music, as well as a lyricist. With his long time collaborator Noble Sissle, Blake wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along in 1921; this was the first Broadway musical ever to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as, "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way", "Memories of You", and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which featured the collective works of Blake opened on Broadway in 1978. In 1995 Eubie Blake was honored with a United States postage stamp. Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) A native of Laurel, Mississippi, Mary Violet Leontyne Price decided on a singing career after graduation from the College of Education and Industrial Arts, Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1948. Four years at the Juillard School of Music, with Florence Page Kimball guiding her as she would continue to do, led to her 1952 debut on Broadway. Ira Gershwin, based on that performance, chose Price as Bess in a revival of Porgy and Bess that played New York City 1952-54 and then toured both nationally and internationally. In 1955, Price was chosen to sing the title role in a television production of Tosca, becoming the first black singer on a television opera production. In 1957, she debuted in her first stage opera, the American premier of Dialogues of the Carmelites by Poulenc. She performed in San Francisco until 1960, appearing in Vienna in 1959 and Milan in 1960. Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1961 was as Leonora in Il Trovatore. Quickly becoming a leading soprano there, she made the Met her primary base until her retirement in 1985. After her retirement she continued to give recitals. Associated especially with Verdi and Barber, she sang the role of Cleopatra, which Barber created for her, at the opening of the new Lincoln Center home for the Met. She also performed at recitals, especially in the 1970s, and was prolific in her recordings. Todd Duncan (February 2, 1903-February 28, 1998) Duncan was the opera singer and actor who originated the role of “Porgy” in George Gershwin's famed opera Porgy and Bess. The baritone Duncan was also the first African American accepted into the New York City Opera. Duncan lived much of his life in Washington, DC, and taught voice on the faculty at Howard University as well as in his private studio. Gregory Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) Hines was a Tony Award-winning American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Born Gregory Oliver Hines in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang. Together with their father the three were known as "The Hines Kids" and later as "The Hines Brothers" only to have the name change again in 1963 to "Hines, Hines and Dad". Hines appeared in such movies as The Cotton Club, White Nights, Running Scared, and Tap. On television, he starred in his own series in 1997 called The Gregory Hines Show, as well as in the recurring role of Ben Doucette on Will & Grace. Hines made his Broadway debut with his brother in The Girl in Pink Tights in 1954. He earned Tony Award nominations for Eubie!, Comin' Uptown and Sophisticated Ladies, and won a Tony and Drama Desk Award for the revue Jelly's Last Jam and a Theatre World Award for Eubie!. Hines died of liver cancer at the age of 57 in Los Angeles, California. He was engaged to bodybuilder Negrita Jayde at the time of his death. Nancy Sue Wilson (February 20, 1937)
Wilson was born in Chillicothe, Ohio. At age 15, she won a local talent contest, the prize for which was her own television series, "Skyline Melodies," on a local station. While performing in Columbus, Ohio, Wilson had an opportunity to sit in with Cannonball Adderley, who sensed her potential and helped her to get her a manager, John Levy. This led to the recording contract at Capitol Records. At Capitol, Wilson's first recording was "Like In Love". She scored her first big hit in 1962 with Adderley and "Save Your Love For Me." By the mid-1960s, Wilson had become one of the label's best-selling artists, second only to the Beatles. In 1964, she won a Grammy Award for "How Glad I Am" and an Emmy Award for her 1967-68 NBC series, The Nancy Wilson Show. She also made guest appearances on variety shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett and Dean Martin. Back in the United States, she began her association with Columbia Records in 1984, collaborating with such artists as Ramsey Lewis and working on an album of previously-unpublished Johnny Mercer lyrics set to the music by co-producer Barry Manilow, "With My Lover Beside Me." (1991). She was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2001, she released her first Christmas recording, A Nancy Wilson Christmas, after moving to Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (MCG) Jazz. She won a Grammy for R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) in 2005. In 2007, Wilson received her third Grammy Award in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Album for Turned to Blue, a recording which saw release on August 22, 2006. Fats Domino (born February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana) They call him the Fat Man. With his easy-rolling boogie-woogie piano and smooth rhythm & blues vocals, Antoine "Fats" Domino put a New Orleans-style spin on what came to be known as rock and roll. A pianist, singer, and songwriter who was born in the Crescent City in 1928, Domino sold more records (65 million) than any Fifties-era rocker except Elvis Presley. Between 1950 and 1963, he cracked the pop Top Forty thirty-seven times and the R&B singles chart fifty-nine times. Domino's biggest songs are as winning as his broad smile. They include "Ain't That a Shame," "Blueberry Hill," "I'm Walkin'," "Blue Monday" and "Walking to New Orleans." Domino was born into a musical family and, like such New Orleans piano greats as Professor Longhair and Amos Milburn, began performing for small change in local honky-tonks while working odd jobs to make ends meet. By 1949, Domino had become a fixture at the Hideaway Club. That same year he met Dave Bartholomew, who became his longtime producer, bandleader and collaborator. It proved to be a fortuitous partnership that yielded a bounty of durable, straight-ahead New Orleans rhythm & blues records. While less of an outgoing personality than some of his extroverted rock and roll contemporaries, Domino exhibited staying power based on the solid musicality of his recordings and live performances. In short, he all but dominated the Fifties, insofar as rock and roll was concerned. Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) Marian Anderson was an American contralto, perhaps best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She debuted with the New York Philharmonic on August 26, 1925 and scored an immediate success, also with the critics. In 1928, she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall. Her reputation was further advanced by her tour through Europe in the early 1930s where she did not encounter certain racial prejudices she had experienced in America. The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius dedicated his Solitude to her. Famed conductor Arturo Toscanini told her she had a voice "heard once in a hundred years." In 1935 impresario Sol Hurok took over as her manager and was with her for the rest of her performing career. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. The District of Columbia Board of Education declined a request to use the auditorium of a white public high school. As a result of the furor which followed, thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned. On January 7, 1955, Anderson broke the color barrier by becoming the first African-American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. On that occasion, she sang the part of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. In 1958 she was officially designated delegate to the United Nations, a formalization of her role as "goodwill ambassador" of the U.S. she played earlier, and in 1972 she was awarded the UN Peace Prize. In 1993, Anderson died of natural causes at age 96 in Portland, Oregon at the home of her nephew, conductor James DePreist. On January 27, 2005, a commemorative U.S. postage stamp honored Marian Anderson as part of the Black Heritage series. Anderson is also pictured on the US $5,000 Series I United States Savings Bond. Dexter (Keith) Gordon (February 27, 1923 - April 25, 1990) The only musician ever nominated for an Oscar was, "Dexter 'LTD' Gordon (Long Tall Dexter)," for his role in the most praised jazz film of all time, Bertrand Tavernier's, "Round Midnight"; titled for Theolonius Monk's signature composition. In Tavernier's jazz classic, Dexter plays expatriate, "Dale Turner," whose mission was to depict a great creative artist, and reveal the pain which often accompanies the exploration of beauty; an ongoing search for new melodic lines and harmonies that prevail within the full musical spectrum...that is be-bop. |
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