May 26 - Miles Davis (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for May 26th are available here: William Bolcom (2019), Teresa Stratas (2020), and Isadora Duncan (2021)

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Miles Davis (26 May 1926 – 28 September 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left Behind

Critics were often unreceptive but the decade garnered Davis his highest level of commercial recognition. – Wikipedia

When In a Silent Way was released later that year, some critics accused him of "selling out" to the rock and roll audience. – Wikipedia

In a 1982 interview in DownBeat, Wynton Marsalis said: "They call Miles's stuff jazz. That stuff is not jazz, man. Just because somebody played jazz at one time, that doesn't mean they're still playing it." – Wikipedia

The critics objected when Miles

Explored other musical styles.

    Their writing derides

    His most popular sides,

    They said that jazz fusion

    Was just an illusion,

And they deeply disparaged such trials.

 

 

 

 

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May 25 - Bill "Bojangles" Robinson; Johann Baptist Singenberger (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for May 25th may be found here: Beverly Sills (2019), Hal David (2020), and Moritz of Hesse-Kassel (2021)

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Bill "Bojangles" Robinson  (25 May 1878 – 25 November 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. -- Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Here's to You, Mr. Robinson

Moving primarily from the waist down, Robinson maintained impressive control of his body. The  popular sensation of the Stair Dance led Robinson to try to secure a patent on the routine, ultimately to no avail, – adapted from Wikipedia

When Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was tapping,

He did it with a minimum of flapping.

He kept his still above the waist,

Which gave an air of elegance and taste

To dance routines, which though they still had gimmickry,

Were soon the source of idolizing mimicry.

 

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Johann Baptist Singenberger (25 May 1848 – 29 May 1924) was a Swiss, later American, composer, music teacher, editor and publisher, primarily of Catholic liturgical music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musica Sacra

Singenberger arrived in Wisconsin in 1873 and founded the American St. Cecilia Society, a precursor of the Church Music Association of America. – cpdl.org

The Cecilians were composers who embraced

The tenets of the Palestrina fashion,

In music both liturgical and chaste,

But leeched of personality and passion.

Wisconsonites were dubiously blessed,

When Singenberger brought the style west.

 

 

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May 24 - Bob Dylan (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for May 24th may be found here: Bob Dylan (2019),  Patti LaBelle (2020), and Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach (2021)

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Bob Dylan (b. 24 May 1941) is an important and influential American singer-songwriter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ode to the Dylan Center

The $10 million Dylan Center, located in downtown Tulsa, is the museum-like space founded to display items from the Bob Dylan Archive which was acquired in 2016 for around $20 million. – adapted from Ben Sisario, “The $10 Million Bob Dylan Center Opens Up His Songwriting Secrets,” NYTimes.com (accessed 24 May 2022)

Sing, my Muse, in festal measures

Of this home for Dylan’s treasures!

Sing of temple doors which guard

The relics of a maverick bard!

A site which cost ten million dollars

Beckoning his fans and scholars,

Shielding in its bright pavilion

Archives bought for twenty million.

A shrine in Tulsa to promote a

Simple boy from Minnesota.

 

 

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May 23 - Rosemary Clooney (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for May 23rd may be found here: Robert Moog (2019), Artie Shaw (2020), and Alicia de Larrocha; Johann Bernhard Bach (2022)

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Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything Old Is New Again

Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, but revived in 1977, and she continued recording until her death in 2002. -- adapted from Wikipedia

It is an undisputed truth,

We love the music of our youth.

 

It follows that an aging act

Should strive to monetize this fact.

 

Rosemary Clooney learned to work it

When playing the nostalgia circuit.

 

 

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