Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today August 19
1939
Ginger Baker is born, the wild drummer who hated being called a rocker
On August 19, 1939, Ginger Baker was born in London — Cream's polyrhythmic engine alongside Clapton and Jack Bruce. He considered himself a jazz drummer trapped in rock, studied African drumming in Lagos alongside Fela Kuti and fought with half the world, starting with his own bandmates. An ungovernable genius: modern rock drumming owes him half its grammar.
Ginger Baker
Cream
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1945
Ian Gillan is born, the scream of 'Child in Time' made flesh
On August 19, 1945, Ian Gillan was born in London — the voice of Deep Purple's golden era. His controlled howls on 'Child in Time' and his attack on 'Highway Star' set hard rock's vocal standard, and along the way he was the original Jesus of the rock opera 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. Decades later he is still touring, irony intact and myth secured.
Ian Gillan
Deep Purple
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1951
John Deacon is born, Queen's quiet architect of groove
On 19 August 1951, John Deacon was born in Leicester — the bassist who joined Queen last and ended up writing some of their biggest hits. Reserved on stage but decisive in the studio, he penned 'Another One Bites the Dust' and 'You're My Best Friend', and contributed the electronic ingenuity of the homemade Deacy Amp that Brian May used throughout the band's career. After Freddie Mercury's death he withdrew almost entirely from public life, true to his low profile. His funk-driven pulse gave Queen a rhythmic elasticity few stadium rock bands ever had.
John Deacon
Queen
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1951
Gustavo Santaolalla is born: the producer who rebuilt Latin American rock
On August 19, 1951, Gustavo Santaolalla was born in El Palomar, Buenos Aires. He started as a musician in Arco Iris, but his major work was as a producer: from Mexico he shaped Café Tacvba, Molotov, Julieta Venegas and Bersuit, and in the process defined how rock in Spanish would sound in the nineties. He later won two consecutive Oscars for film scores. His signature instrument is the ronroco, an Andean charango.
Gustavo Santaolalla
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2006
'Year of the Dog... Again' tops the chart and DMX barks from the summit one last time
On August 19, 2006, DMX's 'Year of the Dog... Again' topped the R&B and hip-hop albums chart. It was his sixth consecutive album to reach number one overall, a run no rapper had managed before him. His broken voice and the prayers halfway through his records were the opposite of the elegant rap in fashion then. It would be his last big success: the years that followed were prison, addiction and relapse.
DMX
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1940
Johnny Nash is born: the Texan who opened the world to Bob Marley
On August 19, 1940, Johnny Nash was born in Houston. He was among the first American singers to record in Kingston, and out of that trip came 'I Can See Clearly Now', a worldwide number one built with Jamaican musicians. There he met a still-unknown local songwriter: he signed Bob Marley as a writer and took him to London. The door through which reggae entered the Anglo market was opened by a Texan.
Johnny Nash
Bob Marley
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1969
Nate Dogg is born: the man who sang every hook in rap
On August 19, 1969, Nathaniel Hale was born in Long Beach. Nate Dogg didn't rap: he sang, in a flat lazy baritone learned in a church choir, and for fifteen years he turned up on the hooks of half of West Coast hip-hop. Dr. Dre, Snoop, 50 Cent, Eminem and Warren G all called him for the same thing. He invented a job that hadn't existed and that everybody afterwards imitated without saying so.
Nate Dogg
Snoop Dogg
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2000
'Incomplete' at the top: the ballad nobody expected from the thong guy
On August 19, 2000, Sisqó's 'Incomplete' was number one in the United States. Months earlier he had turned 'Thong Song' into the musical joke of the year, with silver-dyed hair and a chorus about underwear. Then came this solemn ballad, and it went higher. That is the double life of nearly all the R&B of those years: you had to make the filthy party song before they let you make the slow one.
Sisqó
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2008
Farewell to LeRoi Moore, Dave Matthews Band's founding sax
On 19 August 2008, LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died in Los Angeles from complications of an ATV accident suffered in June on his Virginia farm. He was 46 and the band's quiet arranger, co-writer of pieces like 'Too Much' and 'Stay (Wasting Time)'. That very night the band played the Staples Center and Dave Matthews dedicated the show to him as the crowd was still processing the news. His saxophone gave American jam rock a warmth of horns the band never quite replaced.
LeRoi Moore
Dave Matthews Band
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One ephemeris a day, one editorial a week. Zero spam, pure archive.