reviews, news & interviews

Birthdays on the Tube: 21-26 March

Aretha Franklin, Solomon Burke, Son House, Bela Bartok, Michael Nyman and Stephen Sondheim

by Peter CulshawSaturday, 20 March 2010

Son House: Influential Delta Blues pioneer

A bumper week for blues and soul artists including some staggeringly good vintage videos from Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin and Son House. Birthday composers are Stephen Sondheim, Michael Nyman and Bela Bartok. Then there’s Vivian Stanshall from the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band doing the “Intro and the Outro”. “Princess Anne on sousaphone. Adolf Hitler, looking very relaxed on vibes… Nice.”

21 March 1943: Vivian Stanshall narrates “The Intro and the Outro” with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Featuring “the Count Basie Orchestra on triangle”. Simultaneously brilliant and stupid.

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21 March 1949: Classic footage of Solomon Burke singing “None of us are Free” with the Blind Boys of Alabama as backing singers. I recall Charlie Gillett , who died this week, playing his music on his radio show and commenting how Jerry Wexler, the producer, favoured him more than any of the other great soul singers.

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25 March 1942: Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin at her peak singing “I Say a little Prayer”.

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21 March 1902: Eddie James “Son” House was a key Delta Blues figure, still influential on contemporary bands like The White Stripes who covered this song, "Death Letter Blues".

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22 March 1937: Composer Angelo Badalamenti wrote the haunting theme tune to David Lynch's strange and beautiful TV series Twin Peaks.

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25 March 1881: Bela Bartok borrowed from gypsy music to create his Romanaian Folk Dances music – here modern gypsy group Taraf de Haidouks borrow it back. After two minutes or so on the video.

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23 March 1944: Michael Nyman’s setting of Celan’s “Corona” sung by Ute Lemper.

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22 March 1930: Stephen Sondheim in action, teaching a student at the Guildhall how to sing “Later” from A Little Night Music. Listen to theartsdesk’s 80th birthday special on Sondheim.

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