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[Wilton Jameson ]

(b New Albany, IN, July 21, 1939). American educator, publisher, record producer, and saxophonist. He performed locally from the age of 15 and while studying at Indiana University (BM 1961; MM 1962) led groups that worked in southern Indiana and Kentucky. Having taught music education at Indiana University Southeast (1967–9) and classical saxophone at the University of Louisville (1970–72), in the early 1970s he established a week-long jazz workshop (or “jazz camp”) held during the summer; by the late 1990s the workshop took place twice annually. Aebersold also presented workshops in other countries, including Australia, Germany, England, Scotland, Denmark, and Canada. In 1992 he received an honorary doctorate in music from Indiana University and began teaching jazz improvisation at the the University of Louisville.

In addition to his principal instrument, Aebersold plays piano and double bass, but he is far better known as an educator than as a performer. In ...

(b Mainz, Jan 13, 1883; d Wiesbaden, Sept 15, 1978). German librettist and publisher. In 1909 he joined his father Ludwig Strecker (1853–1943) as a partner in the music publishing house of Schott in Mainz, becoming a director with his brother Willy Strecker (1884–1958) in 1920. From an early age he had shown a deep interest in literature and poetry, and during the 1930s began to develop his skills as a librettist, adopting the professional pseudonym of Ludwig Andersen. His first efforts were in oratorio, but he soon moved on to opera, adapting Franz Graf von Pocci’s tale Die Zaubergeige (1935) for Werner Egk, Karl Simrock’s version of the medieval puppet play Doktor Johannes Faust (1936) for Hermann Reutter, and Hermann Heinz Ortner’s drama Tobias Wunderlich (1937) for Joseph Haas. The first two of these works ranked among the most frequently performed contemporary operas in Nazi Germany and were largely responsible for securing Schott’s reputation as the pre-eminent German publisher of music-theatre works of the period. During World War II Andersen completed librettos for two comic operas, Wolf-Ferrari’s ...

(b Anguilla, MS, March 21, 1919; d Hazel Crest, IL, 15 June, 1995). American gospel director, singer, composer, and publisher. Anderson established a career forming and training gospel groups in Chicago. His formative years were spent as one of the original Roberta Martin Singers, one of the premiere gospel groups of the 1930s and 1940s. He left briefly, between 1939 and 1941, to form the first of his many ensembles, the Knowles and Anderson Singers with R.L. Knowles. He rejoined Martin, but ultimately resigned because of the travel demands. In 1947 he formed Robert Anderson and his Gospel Caravan, but after several members left in 1952, he formed a new set of singers that recorded and performed under the name the Robert Anderson Singers through the mid-1950s. Throughout his career, Anderson recorded on a multitude of labels including Miracle and United with Robert Anderson and the Caravans; and later with the Robert Anderson Singers, on Apollo. Anderson wrote, and often sang lead on, many of the songs his groups performed, including “Why Should I Worry” (...

(fl Castleton, Derbys., 1723–53). English psalmodist and ?composer. In 1723 he published the first edition of A Book of Psalmody in conjunction with John Barber. A second edition, by Robert Barber alone, followed in 1733, and a third, entitled David’s Harp Well Tuned, in 1753. He also published The Psalm Singer’s Choice Companion in 1727. A Book of Psalmody enjoyed a good deal of popularity in the north Midlands. It was similar to other parochial collections, and most of its contents were derivative. The second edition, however, had a remarkable feature: it included, as well as chants for the canticles, a complete musical setting of Morning Prayer, litany and ante-communion on cathedral lines, but for alto, tenor and bass only. Barber made it clear on the title-page that this was designed for ‘our Country Churches’. He thus brought to its logical conclusion the trend begun by Henry Playford, who published anthems for parish church use in ...

(b Pekin, Tazewell County, IL, ?March 9, 1870; d Washington, DC, March 7, 1949). American publisher, real estate developer, and politician. Born into poverty, he began working as a child in a San Francisco vacuum cleaner brush factory, and soon began picking up odd jobs at local theaters. By 15, he was assistant treasurer at the Alcazar Theater, and he had become wealthy by 18. After traveling abroad, he settled in Chicago, and was in charge of the Midway Plaisance during the 1893 World’s Fair. He claimed to have composed the well-known “snake charmer’s” tune, or “Hoochie Coochie Dance” while there. Following the Fair, Bloom’s past connections in San Francisco brought him into association with the Witmark family and his first experience in music publishing. By 1895, Rothschild’s department store turned their sheet music department over to him. The next year he started his own company, publishing the hit “The Heroes Who Sank with the Maine” (...

(b Chicago, March 23, 1881; d Los Angeles, Aug 17, 1955). American popular pianist, teacher and editor. He studied the piano as a youth and in 1903 opened a teaching studio in Chicago with the advertisement ‘Ragtime Taught in Ten Lessons’. He simplified African-American ragtime piano playing to three essential melodic-rhythmic patterns or ‘movements’, and these became the basis for his teaching method and for a series of instruction books he brought out from 1904. Christensen’s Rag-time Instruction Book for Piano went through numerous revisions and title changes to incorporate early jazz and, eventually, swing styles; one method book remained in print until at least 1955.

Early in his career Christensen began establishing branch schools to teach ragtime piano. By 1914 he had founded 50 branches, and by 1918 he had schools in most major cities in the USA and also some abroad. By 1935 these schools had taught ragtime, popular piano and jazz piano to approximately 500,000 (mostly white) pupils....

[John Henderson ]

(b Whitehaven, TN, April 8, 1931). American singer-songwriter, producer, publisher, and entrepreneur. He began playing bluegrass while in the military and after his discharge in 1952, played at radio stations in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Boston. While enrolled in Memphis State University (from 1954), he worked nights and weekends at the Eagle’s Nest club. After working briefly for Fernwood Records, he was hired by Sun Records, where he recorded Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, among others. He wrote hits for several of Sun’s artists, including Johnny Cash’s singles “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” and “Guess things happen that way” (both Sun, 1958).

Clement left Sun in 1960 to became a staff producer for RCA in Nashville. In 1963 he moved to Texas, started a publishing company, and produced Dickey Lee’s hit “Patches” (Smash, 1963). After returning to Nashville in 1965, he discovered and produced Charlie Pride and wrote songs for a variety of country artists, including Pride (“Just between you and me,” RCA Victor, ...

(b Rome; d ?London, after 1741). Italian teacher of languages and editor of librettos . He was in London by 1723, when he published A New Method for the Italian Tongue: or, a Short Way to Learn It. Its title-page identifies him as ‘a Roman, Master of the Latin, Spanish and Italian Languages; living at Mr. Wallis’s in Lisle-Street, near Leicester-Fields’, and its list of subscribers includes Ariosti, Bononcini, Geminiani, J. J. Heidegger and John Rich, the poet Paolo Antonio Rolli and many diplomats (including Riva of Modena). Rolli refers to Cori as Padre or Fra ‘Ciro’ in five extant epigrams and declares that he was defrocked and became a freemason. Rolli also describes him and the aged ‘Roscio’ (Giacomo Rossi) as teachers of Mongolese Italian who exercised their poetic ability where the ‘cembalo alemanno’ (‘German harpsichord’) had banished good sense. Cori as well as Rossi may thus have adapted texts for Handel in the 1730s....

[Richardson, Sally Jayne]

(b Fort Huachuca, AZ, May 10, 1934; d Manhattan, Dec 28, 2012). American poet, mother of Denardo Coleman. Her birth year had been published as 1936, but the birth certificate and obituaries give 1934 and confirm her birth name, Sally Jayne Richardson; she later adopted her maternal grandmother’s maiden name, Cortez, for professional work. She moved in 1944 to Los Angeles, where she played double bass in high school and later studied music theory and drama. From 1954 to 1964 she was married to Ornette Coleman. She was a founder of the Watts Repertory Theater Company in 1964 and remained its artistic director until 1970. In 1972 she settled in New York and from 1977 to 1983 taught literature at Livingston College, Rutgers. In 1975 she married the sculptor Melvin Edwards, and thereafter they maintained a second home in Dakar, Senegal.

Cortez founded her own publishing and recording company, Bola Press (...

[Albert R. ]

(b Honolulu, HI, Oct 1, 1879; d Honolulu, HI, Jan 23, 1933). Composer, arranger, publisher, pianist, and bandleader, active in Hawaii. Cunha’s compositions early in the 20th century spearheaded the development of the hapa haole song, featuring predominantly English lyrics with some references to Hawaii and the Hawaiian language, earning him the title of “Father of Hapa Haole Songs.” His innovation is credited with making Hawaii’s music accessible to a much wider audience, which rapidly grew to global proportions over the next few decades.

Cunha left Hawaii to attend Yale University, where he excelled in sports, the Yale Glee Club, and composed Yale’s “Boola, Boola.” Rather than practice law after graduation, he toured the mainland United States performing a new kind of Hawaiian song, combining the popular ragtime rhythm of American music with Hawaiian songs. Cunha returned to Hawaii and composed his first hapa haole song, “Waikiki Mermaid,” in ...

(b Leavenworth, KS, April 12, 1878; d Los Angeles, CA, Jan 23, 1943). American songwriter and music publisher. He had popular success early in his career with the two-step “Margery” (1898), the song “You tell me your dream” (1899), and “Hiawatha” (1901, described as an “Indian intermezzo,” although it was an early ragtime song). He also purchased and published Scott Joplin’s first piano rag, Original Rags, in 1898. Daniels began working for Carl Hoffman, a local publisher in Kansas City, then formed his own firm, Daniels, Russel & Boone, which he sold to Whitney-Warner of Detroit in 1902 for a reputed $10,000 based on the rights to the hugely popular “Hiawatha.” In Los Angeles he later established another publishing firm, Villa Moret, which took its name from one of Daniels’ pseudonyms, Neil Moret, and was highly successful in the 1920s. Daniels contributed many enduring standards to the American popular song repertory, including “Moonlight and Roses” (...

[Jim ]

(b Berwyn, IL, Sept 3, 1940). American editor, writer, teacher, leader, and pianist. He studied composition at the University of Illinois (BMus 1962, MMus 1963, DMA 1971) and from 1966 taught at the University of Michigan. In his work as an editor and writer he has devoted particular attention to the music of Jelly Roll Morton; his book Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton: the Collected Piano Music (1982) offers a comprehensive edition of transcriptions of a jazz musician’s work and includes biographical material and analysis. He also wrote entries on major jazz musicians for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980). As a pianist Dapogny has performed widely in concert and on radio and television, and he recorded as the leader of the Chicago Jazz Band, in a duo with Butch Thompson, and with the State Street Aces, the Mysterious Babies, and Sippie Wallace. His Chicago Jazz Band, founded in ...

(b Louisville, KY, May 12, 1928; d Skokie, IL, Feb 4, 1982). American editor. After teaching percussion and leading his own band in Louisville (1951–60) he moved to Chicago to become the managing editor of Down Beat, of which he was later the editor-in-chief (1961–7...

[James Rae ]

(b Buffalo Valley, TN, Feb 28, 1911; d Nashville, TN, Aug 27, 1963). American country music agent, publisher, and Grand Ole Opry manager. One of the most influential and powerful figures in the country music business, Jim Denny followed the path of the classic American success story. He left his home in Buffalo Valley, Tennessee, at age 16 with purportedly no more than 40 cents in his pocket. He moved to Nashville and joined the mailroom staff at WSM radio (home of the Grand Ole Opry). He completed his college degree by mail and worked his way up the corporate ladder, becoming the manager of concessions at the Opry during World War II. In 1951 Denny was promoted to manager of the Opry, an appointment that granted him to programming privileges and thus put him in the position to make or break performers’ careers. Additionally, he headed the ...

(b Brooklyn, NY, Feb 15, 1893; d Santa Monica, CA, July 15, 1947). American songwriter, lyricist and publisher. He was a pianist and song plugger in Tin Pan Alley before World War I and then became a staff composer for Irving Berlin’s publishing company. His first successful song was My Mammy (J. Young and S. Lewis, 1918), which Al Jolson used in a blackface revue. My Buddy (1922) was his first popular collaboration with the lyricist Gus Kahn, who wrote the words to most of his hit songs, including Carolina in the Morning (1922), and Yes, sir, that’s my baby (1925). Donaldson also wrote My Blue Heaven (G. Whiting, 1927), Little White Lies (1930), and At Sundown (1927) and You’re Driving Me Crazy (1930) which became jazz standards. He left New York to work in the Hollywood film industry after the advent of sound, beginning with ...

(b Cheshire, CT, Aug 29, 1772; d Argyle, NY, April 1850). American psalmodist and singing master, brother to the engraver Amos Doolittle. Eliakim moved to Hampton, New York, around 1800. There he married Hasadiah Fuller in 1811, and the couple had six children. He also lived in Poultney and Pawlet, Vermont, where he taught singing schools. A Congregationalist, Doolittle is remembered primarily for his 45 sacred vocal works. He composed in every genre common during the period, with the exception of the set piece. His most frequently reprinted pieces were his fuging tunes, and his “Exhortation” appeared in print over 40 times by 1820. Doolittle was talented at musically depicting the meaning and mood of the texts he set. Most of his music was published in his own tunebook, The Psalm Singer’s Companion (New Haven, CT, 1806). He also composed a secular tune, “The Hornet Stung the Peacock,” about a naval battle during the War of ...

(b Terre Haute, IN, April 22, 1858; d New York, Jan 30, 1906). American songwriter, lyricist, publisher and performer. He was the brother of the novelist Theodore Dreiser. He learned the guitar and piano, and at the age of 16 joined a travelling show, adopting the pseudonym Dresser. From 1885 he performed with the Billy Rose Minstrels, composed sentimental songs and wrote and acted in five plays. After his first successful songs, The Letter that Never Came (1886) and The Outcast Unknown (1887), he became one of the first American performers to enter music publishing, as a staff composer for Willis Woodward Co. He continued to write songs (e.g. The pardon came too late, 1891), and about 1894 helped found the George T. Worth Co. (eventually Howley, Haviland & Dresser, 1901). The company thrived, mostly on Dresser’s tragic and sentimental ballads such as ...

(b Cologne, Germany, Sept 30, 1875; d New York, Jan 14, 1942). American composer, lyricist and publisher. His parents, Max and Theodora Breitenbach, were Americans. He ran away from home at the age of 13, enlisting in the German navy and in the French Foreign Legion before coming to the USA in 1900. Fisher began composing in 1904; he also wrote the words for his first big success, If the Man in the Moon were a Coon (1905). In 1907 he started his own publishing business, in which the lyricist Joseph McCarthy was briefly a partner; this was remarkably successful. Fisher composed music for silent films and in the 1920s moved to Hollywood, where he wrote songs for films such as Hollywood Revue of 1929 and Their Own Desire (1930). He returned to New York in the early 1930s.

Early in his career Fisher concentrated on ethnic songs; later he made something of a speciality out of geographical topics, as in ...

(b Fayette, MS, Sept 10, 1899; d Chicago, IL, Aug 26, 1963). American gospel pianist, composer, and publisher. He sang in local choirs before settling in Chicago in 1927. There he joined the Ebenezer Baptist Church and became co-director of its junior choir with Thomas A. Dorsey. With Dorsey he organized in 1931 the first known black gospel chorus. In 1932, with Dorsey, Sallie Martin, and Magnolia Lewis Butts, he formed the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, and the same year he and Roberta Martin, pianist for his junior choir, founded the Martin–Frye Quartet (renamed the Roberta Martin Singers in 1935). In the late 1940s Frye began an association with Mahalia Jackson, and it was for her that he surreptitiously secured the song “Move on up a little higher”; her recording in 1947 was a great success, selling over a million copies. Frye later published this composition as his own (he opened a publishing house in the early 1950s), without crediting its rightful composer, William Herbert Brewster. He did, however, compose several well-known gospel songs, including “I am sending my timber up to heaven” (...

[William J. ]

(b Alexandria, IN, March 28, 1936). American gospel songwriter, performer, producer, and publisher. He grew up on a small farm in Indiana and graduated from Anderson College with a major in English and a minor in music. He went on to receive a master’s degree in guidance and counseling and met his future wife and song-producing partner, Gloria Sickal, while both were teaching high school. Gaither started singing gospel music as a child and in 1956 formed the Bill Gaither Trio with his brother Danny and his sister Mary Ann. He started his own publishing company in 1959. He continued to perform and compose while a teacher at Alexandria High School and in 1961 formed the Gaither Music Company to publish his works. After their marriage in 1962, Gaither and his wife wrote their first major song, “He touched me,” which was a significant hit by 1963. He re-formed the Bill Gaither Trio with Gloria and Danny, and in ...