August Music Birthday and Anniversary Stamps

I’m making a switch! I am changing the monthly birthday calendar to a music calendar to include other things besides musicians and composer birthdays. This will still include musician birthdays as there are a lot of musician stamps. You can read about many of them on this blog, from classical composers to American pop stars. Yet, in order to diversify the calendar a bit I am including other important music dates. It will not even be close to complete. Yet, each month I will select a few stamps from my collection and share them with links to relevant articles elsewhere on my bl og. If you are looking for more musician birthdays you can check out this site.

August 1
Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), American who wrote the lyrics for the U. S. national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.” Key was present at the bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 and took note of the American flag still waving over the fort at dawn. Afterwards, he wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry” about the events. Later, it was later set to a popular song. However, the song became the national anthem in 1931.

August 3, 1779 – La Scala Opera House Inaugurated in Milan

August 4
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), American jazz trumpeter and singer who was perhaps the most influential figure in jazz. Armstrong was born and grew up in New Orleans where he learned trumpet and began to play in the developing jazz style. Importantly, he was influential in making the music less about group improvisation and more about soloists. Armstrong became jazz music’s first superstar and his appeal was to both black and white audience. Later, he became an international ambassador of the music style.

August 6
Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963), Cuban composer and pianist. Lecuona began studying piano at the age of five and became accomplished on the instrument. He was a child prodigy who wrote his first music at the age of eleven, before entering the National Conservator in Havana. He also travelled internationally, making his U. S. premiere at Aeolian Hall in New York in 1916. Lecuona was important in producing piano rolls of Cuban music that were sold both within the country and internationally. Perhaps his most famous song was “Malaguena.”

August 10
Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936), Indian musicologist. Bhatkhande began studying Hindustani music as a child and at the age of fifteen began studying the sitar. He became interested in the ancient sanskrit texts that dealt with music theory. Originally a lawyer, music was a secondary pursuit, until after the death of his wife and daughter. This led him to devote himself entirely to the study of the music and among his accomplishments was writing the first modern treatise on Hindustani classical music.

August 11, 1973 – the birth of Hip Hop in the Bronx, New York

August 14
Edvard Armas Järnefelt (1869–1958), Finnish composer and conductor. Järnefelt was born in the town of Vyborg in the border region between Russia and Finland. His musical talent was discovered early and his studied more seriously in Helsinki, before moving to Paris where he was a student of Jules Massent. He was also friends with composer Jean Sibelius, who married Järnefelt’s sister. Beginning in 1905, Järnefelt was the conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, a role for which he was best known. He also had some success with composing, including two orchestral works: Berceuse and Praeludium.

August 15-18, 1969 – Woodstock Music and Art Fair

August 15
Oscar Peterson (1925-2007), was a Canadian jazz pianist. Born in Montreal, Quebec to immigrants from the West Indies, Peterson grew up surrounded by jazz in a predominantly black neighborhood. He began playing trumpet and piano at the age of five, but after suffering tuberculosis gave up the horn. Peterson’s earliest instruction was in classical piano, but he also loved ragtime, boogie-woogie, and traditional jazz. By his twenties, he was a professional pianist with a reputation for technical brilliance. He went on to appear on hundreds of recordings and to win seven Grammy Awards.

August 16, 1977 – Elvis Presley dies

August 18
Vishnu Paluskar (1872-1931), Indian Hindustani musician and educator. Paluskar was born in the small town of Kurundwad in the Deccan division during British rule. His father was a religious singer. An accident with a fire-cracker left Paluskar blind at an early age. He began to study Hindustani music soon after, devoting his life to study until 1896 when he began to tour Northern India performing and studying other musical traditions. He was a pivotal figure in popularizing Indian classical music and dance and helped to establish the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya New Delhi school.

August 19
George Enescu (1881-1955), Romanian violinist. Enescu was born in the village of Liveni (which was later renamed after the musician) in Romania. He was their eighth child, though all of the previous children died as infants. Enescu was a child prodigy, studying piano and violin and composing music for both as a young child. At the age of seven, he entered the Vienna Conservatory. After graduating at the age of twelve, he went to Paris to continue studies, including composition with Massenet and Faure. At the age of 16, one of his pieces was performed by the Colonne Orchestra in Paris. He went on to an international career as both a violin soloist and as a composer and conductor.

John Deacon (b. 1951), bass guitarist in the rock band Queen. Deacon grew up in Oadby, Leicestershire where he played bass in a local band. He went to London to study electronics at Chelsea College. In 1971, he joined Queen. In addition to playing bass guitar in the band, he was also the composer of many of their songs. Deacon composed the hits “Another One Bites the Dust, I Want to Break Free,” and co-wrote, “Under Pressure,” among others.

August 21
Count Basie (1904-1984), American, jazz pianist and big band leader. Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, basic began studying piano with his mother, Lililan, as a young child. He was a top student in the local school, but his love was listening to music and he began improvising music to accompany silent movies. Around 1920, Basie became part of the Harlem jazz scene and met many of the era’s greatest musicians. By 1925 he began touring on the vaudeville circuit. There he played with countless jazz musicians. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra. The band became one of the most influential groups of the Swing Era.

August 22
Claude Debussy (1862-1918), French composer. Although he was born into a poor family, Debussy had enough talent to be admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten. He was a prodigy on the piano, but soon fell in love with composition. He spent many years developing the style for which he is best known, Impressionism. Debussy was influential on composers of the twentieth century, providing a break with traditional compositional styles and a foundation for the building of modernism in music.

August 24
Moisés Simons (1889-1945), Cuban composer and orchestra leader. Simons was born in Havana and studied music with his father. At the age of 9, he was the organist in a local church. He began studying composition, harmony, and counterpoint at the age of 15. Simons became a concert pianist and a musical director and conductor. He worked with other influential Cuban musicians, including Ernesto Lecuona. In the 1920s, Simons started a jazz band that played at the Plaza Hotel in Havanna. His musical compositions were a part of the blooming of Afro-Cubanism between the world wars.

Benny Moré (1919-1963), Cuban singer and band leader. Moré was the oldest of eighteen children and grew up in a town in central Cuba. There, he learned to play the guitar and to sing. At the age of seventeen, he left the city and made a living in Havana by selling fruit. After working a summer cutting cane, he had enough money to buy his first guitar. He earned a living in Havana playing in bars and cafes, but had a breakthrough after winning a singing contest on the radio. This led to a position in a Conjunto band. He became famous for his expressive tenor voice and had many hits. Moré also formed one of the leading Cuban big bands, but died at the age of 43 from liver cirrhosis.

August 26
Jimmy Rushing (1901-1972), American, blues and jazz singer and pianist. Rushing was born in Oklahoma City to a family full of talented musicians. He was successful in school and after graduating high school attended Wilberforce University. Though his father wanted Rushing to play violin, the young musician was attracted to the piano. He learned to play the Blues and toured the Midwest, before moving to Los Angeles where he performed with Jelly Roll Morton. In 1935, Rushing joined Count Basie’s Orchestra and was the lead singer for thirteen years.

August 28, 1850 – the Premiere of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin opera.

August 28
Vilayat Khan (1928-2004), Indian sitar player. Vilayat was born in Gouripur, Mymensing in East Bengal in British India (now Bangladesh). His family had many renowned musicians dating back six generations to the Mughal Empire. Both his father and grandfather were leading sitar players of their generations. However, Vilayat’s father died when he was ten, and he learned most of his musical technique and repertoire from other members of his family. He gained notoriety after playing at the All Bengal Music Conference in 1944 where he was described as playing electrifying sitar. He also worked with instruemnt builders to improve the sitar. Vilayat had an extraordinary career that lasted more than 65 years.

Luis Calvo (1881-1945), Colombian composer. Calvo was a talented pianist, violinist, and singer. At the age of ten he began formal music studies that led him to study at the Conservatory of music. In 1916, it was discovered that he suffered from leprosy and he was forced to move to the “Lazareto” Agua de Dios, a colony of other lepers under the care of the Salesian Fathers. There, Calvo devoted his life to composing. He wrote in many genres and became one of the most celebrated composers in his native Colombia.

August 29
Charlie Parker (1920-1955), American, jazz saxophonist and composer. Nicknamed “Bird,” Parker is one of the most important figures in jazz and the leading figure in the development of bebop music. He was a revolutionary virtuosic soloist on the alto saxophone. Parker became an important figure in establishing jazz musicians as intellectuals and artists on a par with classical musicians.

Dinah Washington (1924-1963), American, jazz and blues singer. Washington was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but her family moved to Chicago when she was a child. She learned music by singing in church and playing piano for the choir. Washington began performing professionally in clubs after winning a talent contest at the age of 15. She went on to sing jazz, blues, R&B, and pop music, and billed herself as the “Queen of the Blues.” Washington was also the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s.