Tag Archives: Song Writer

Glenn Miller: Born March 1, 1904

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Miller led one of the most popular and best-remembered dance bands of the swing era. In his lifetime he was seen as an intense, ambitious perfectionist, and his success was built on the precise playing of carefully crafted arrangements, rather than propulsive swing or fine jazz solo improvisation (his only important jazz soloist was Bobby Hackett). He was particularly noted for the device of doubling a melody on saxophone with a clarinet an octave higher. His arrangements were seamless and rich. Paradoxically, however, although he had many hits with sentimental ballads performed by such singers as Ray Eberle and Marion Hutton, it was his swinging riff tunes, for example In the Mood and Tuxedo Junction, which became most famous. In 1943, he published Glenn Miller’s Method for Orchestral Arranging.
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_miller_glen.htm

Bio~ https://www.biography.com/people/glenn-miller-37990

Harry Belafonte: Born on March 1, 1927

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Born March 1, 1927 in poverty-stricken Harlem to first-generation Jamaican immigrants, Belafonte emigrated with his mother back to Jamaica at eight years old, and returned to New York at age thirteen. Midway through high school, he dropped out and enlisted in the Navy. Upon discharge, the young man studied and performed at the Actors Studio (alongside such legends as Tony Curtis and Marlon Brando), Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research, and The American Negro Theater. A singing role in a theatrical piece led to a string of cabaret engagements, and before long, Belafonte’s success enabled him to secure funding to open his own nightclub. His recording career officially began at the age of 22, in 1949, when he presented himself as a pop singer along the lines of Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra, but in time he found a more unique niche by delving headfirst into the Library of Congress’s archive of folk song recordings and studying West Indian music. What emerged was a highly unique (and unprecedented) blend of pop, jazz and traditional Caribbean rhythms.
https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=Harry+Belafonte

Harry Belafonte, a supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement, used his celebrity as a beloved entertainer to garner funding for the movement. In her autobiography, Coretta Scott King said of Belafonte, “whenever we got into trouble or when tragedy struck, Harry has always come to our aid, his generous heart wide open” (King, 144-145).
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/belafonte-harold-george-jr

Johnny Cash: Born February 26, 1932

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kidjohnnyJohnny Cash was a towering figure in 20th century American music, a minimalist with a booming Old Testament baritone who could wrench an abundance of power from stark settings. At first Cash was backed by guitar and bass; in the end it was simply guitar. But when a voice can tell a story with as much resonance as Cash’s could, not much else is needed.

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Cash’s songs – from his early gospel recordings and the resonant outlaw-country of Fifties classics like “Folsom Prison Blues” to late efforts like his unlikely, gut-wrenching cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” – influenced not only his fellow country musicians, but also rockers from Bono to Bob Dylan. By turns those songs were laden with pathos, whimsy, regret, hope, lust, and fury; they always cut to the heart of its subject matter, whether it be God, love or the plight of prisoners and Native Americans. Cash led a tumultuous life, battling drug addiction, chaffing against orthodoxy, and doing things his own way. But by the end The Man in Black became an icon, a man who earns almost universal respect among music fans.
FROM http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/johnny-cash/biographyDR1001_Johnny_CASH_P

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George Harrison: Born on February 25, 1943

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George Harrison

georgewguitarAs a songwriter, Harrison was continually out-gunned by Lennon-McCartney. The intense trio of songs he contributed to Revolver — “Taxman,” “I Want to Tell You,” and “Love You To” — would be his most significant contribution to a single Beatles album. He had other classics to his credit, including “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something,” his first Beatles A-side, a track which would top the charts in America. (Both came off 1969’s Abbey Road) But Harrison also funneled his creativity into the guitar, a suitably introspective pursuit. From his raw, early rock-and-roll influences he extrapolated a wide-ranging and poetic style. In the late sixties, he helped introduce the slide guitar to prominence; he also popularized the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar and its ultra-distinctive sound on 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night.
FROM https://www.rollingstone.com/results/#?q=george%20harrisongeorge

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