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Max Kortlander
Maximilian Joseph Kortlander (September 1, 1890 - October 11, 1961) was an American composer, arranger, and pianist. He is best known for his numerous piano rolls which he performed for QRS Music Technologies, Inc. He often collaborated with fellow QRS pianist and composer, Pete Wendling. A song they wrote together in 1922, 'Whenever You're Lonesome (Just Telephone Me)' has become a jazz standard. Life and career Source:http://ragpiano.com/comps/kortland.shtml Max Kortlander was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1890 to parents Joseph and Elizabeth Kortlander. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory after high school, and later the American Conservatory, in Chicago, Illinois. In 1914, he was hired by QRS and began writing his own compositions in 1917. His first songs were entitled 'The Ragtime Sailor Man' and 'Chicken Pranks'. After moving to New York City, he wrote the hit song 'Tell Me' (1919), which was recorded by Al Jolson, one of the most popular singers of the ti ...
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Piano Roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. Piano rolls, like other music rolls, are continuous rolls of paper with holes punched into them. These perforations represent note control data. The roll moves over a reading system known as a tracker bar; the playing cycle for each musical note is triggered when a perforation crosses the bar. Piano rolls have been in continuous production since at least 1896, and are still being manufactured today; QRS Music offers 45,000 titles with "new titles being added on a regular basis", although they are no longer mass-produced. MIDI files have generally supplanted piano rolls in storing and playing back performance data, accomplishing digitally and electronically what piano rolls do mechanically. MIDI editing software often features the ability to represent the music graphically as a piano roll. The first paper rolls were used commercially by Welte & Sons in their orchestrions ...
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Paul Whiteman Orchestra
Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, Whiteman produced recordings that were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz". His most popular recordings include "Whispering", "Valencia", " Three O'Clock in the Morning", " In a Little Spanish Town", and " Parade of the Wooden Soldiers". Whiteman led a usually large ensemble and explored many styles of music, such as blending symphonic music and jazz, as in his debut of '' Rhapsody in Blue'' by George Gershwin. Whiteman recorded many jazz and pop standards during his career, including " Wang Wang Blues", " Mississippi Mud", "Rhapsody in Blue", " Wonderful One", " Hot Lips (He's Got Hot Lips When He Plays Jazz)", " Mississippi Suite", "Grand Canyon Suite", and " Trav'lin' Light". He co-wro ...
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1961 Deaths
Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Finnair, Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the Captain (civil aviation), captain and First officer (civil aviation), first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country. * January 5 ** Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti enters the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terra ...
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1890 Births
Events January * January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa. * January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House. * January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The United Kingdom demands Portugal withdraw its forces from the land between the Portuguese colonies of Portuguese Mozambique, Mozambique and Portuguese Angola, Angola (most of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia). * January 15 – Ballet ''The Sleeping Beauty (ballet), The Sleeping Beauty'', with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky, is premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia. * January 25 ** The United Mine Workers of America is founded. ** American journalist Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days. February * February 5 – The worldwide insurance and financial service brand Allianz is founded in Berlin, Germany. * February 18 – The National Americ ...
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Clarence Williams (musician)
Clarence Williams (October 8, 1898 or October 6, 1893 – November 6, 1965) was an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher. Biography Williams was born in Plaquemine, Louisiana, to Dennis, a bassist, and Sally Williams, and ran away from home at age 12 to join Billy Kersands' Traveling Minstrel Show, then moved to New Orleans. At first, Williams worked shining shoes and doing odd jobs, but soon became known as a singer and master of ceremonies. By the early 1910s, he was a well-regarded local entertainer also playing piano, and was composing new tunes by 1913. Williams was a good businessman and worked arranging and managing entertainment at the local African American vaudeville theater as well as at various saloons and dance halls around Rampart Street, and at clubs and houses in Storyville. Williams started a music publishing business with violinist/bandleader Armand J. Piron in 1915, which by the 1920s was the leading African ...
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Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1892 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Smith was young when her parents died, and she and her six siblings survived by performing on street corners. She began touring and performed in a group that included Ma Rainey, and then went out on her own. Her successful recording career with Columbia Records began in 1923, but her performing career was cut short by a car crash that killed her at the age of 45. Biography Early life The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was bor ...
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Victor Recording Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became the RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America until late 1968, when it was renamed RCA Records. Established in Camden, New Jersey, Victor was the largest and most prestigious firm of its kind in the world, best known for its use of the iconic "His Master's Voice" trademark, the design, production and marketing of the popular "Victrola" line of phonographs and the company's extensive catalog of operatic and classical music recordings by world famous artists on the prestigious RCA Victor Red Seal, Red Seal label. After Victor merged with RCA in 1929, the company maintained its eminence as America's foremost producer of records and phonographs until the 1960s. History In 1896, Emile Berliner, the inventor of the Phonograph, ...
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Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Music Group, an American division of multinational conglomerate Sony. Founded in 1889, Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels, along with Epic Records, RCA Records and Arista Records. History Beginnings (1888–1929) The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded on January 15, 1889, by stenographer, lawyer, and New Jersey native Edward D. Easton (1856–1915) and a group of investors. It derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a local monopoly on sales and service of Edison ...
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Henry Burr
Henry Burr (January 15, 1882 – April 6, 1941) was a Canadian singer, radio performer and producer. He was born Harry Haley McClaskey and used Henry Burr as one of his many pseudonyms, in addition to Irving Gillette, Henry Gillette, Alfred Alexander, Robert Rice, Carl Ely, Harry Barr, Frank Knapp, Al King, and Shamus McClaskey. He produced more than 12,000 recordings, by his own estimate, and some of his most popular recordings included " Just a Baby's Prayer at Twilight", " Till We Meet Again" with Albert Campbell, " Beautiful Ohio", " I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" " When I Lost You" and " In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree". A tenor, he performed as a soloist and in duets, trios and quartets. Early years Born in the border town of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, Harry McClaskey was the son of a candy and tobacco store owner, A. A. McClaskey. His mother was the former Ida Connors and he was the youngest of four children.Doug Dougherty, ''St. Stephen – Yesteryear ...
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Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River on the Canada–United States border, Canadian border. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the List of municipalities in New York, second-most populous city in New York State after New York City, and the List of United States cities by population, 82nd-most populous city in the U.S. Buffalo is the primary city of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2020, making it the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 49th-largest metro area in the U.S. Before the 17th century, the region was inhabited by nomadic Paleo-Indians who were succeeded by the Neutral Confederacy, Neutral, Erie people, Erie, and Iroquois nations. In the early 1 ...
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Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". His technical skill on the trombone gave him renown among other musicians. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s. He is best remembered for standards such as "Opus No. 1, Opus One", "This Love of Mine" (no. 3 in 1941) featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals, "Song of India (song), Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again" (no. 1 for 12 weeks in 1940). Early life Born in Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. was the second of four children born to Thomas Fra ...
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Rudy Vallée
Hubert Prior Vallée (July 28, 1901 – July 3, 1986), known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, saxophonist, bandleader, actor, and entertainer. He was the first male singer to rise from local radio broadcasts in New York City to national popularity as a crooner. Early life Vallée was born in Island Pond, Vermont on July 28, 1901, the son of Catherine Lynch and Charles Alphonse Vallée. His maternal grandparents were English and Irish, while his paternal grandparents were French Canadians from Quebec. He grew up in Westbrook, Maine. On March 29, 1917, he enlisted in the US Navy in Portland, Maine to fight in World War I, but authorities discovered he was only 15 and had given the false birth date of July 28, 1899. He was discharged at the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island on May 17, 1917, after 41 days of active service. Career Music After playing drums in his high school band, Vallée played clarinet and saxophone in bands around New E ...
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