Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today November 11
1929
LaVern Baker is born, the rhythm and blues pioneer who fought for her own
LaVern Baker is born in Chicago: one of rhythm and blues' first female stars with hits like “Tweedle Dee” and “Jim Dandy”. When white artists copied her recordings note for note, she took her complaint all the way to the US Congress. The second woman inducted into the Rock Hall, she cleared the path by singing and by fighting.
LaVern Baker
1927
Mose Allison is born, covered by The Who, the Clash and Van Morrison
On November 11, 1927, Mose Allison was born in Mississippi, a pianist and singer who mixed his home state's rural blues with modern jazz harmony and dry, ironic lyrics. He never sold much, but British musicians of the sixties adopted him: The Who recorded "Young Man Blues", the Clash did "Look Here" and Van Morrison devoted an entire tribute album to him.
Mose Allison
The Who
1948
Mutt Lange is born: the invisible producer behind rock's best-selling albums
On November 11, 1948, Robert John Lange was born in Zambia and raised in South Africa, known as Mutt. He produced AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" and "Back in Black", Def Leppard's "Pyromania" and "Hysteria", and Shania Twain's "Come On Over", the best-selling album by a female artist in history; he married her. He never gives interviews and photographs of him barely exist.
Robert John "Mutt" Lange
AC/DC
Shania Twain
1953
Andy Partridge is born, the pop genius who refused to take the stage
Andy Partridge, leader of XTC, is born in Malta: the Swindon band that went from new wave nerves to jeweled baroque pop. Stage fright made him abandon touring in 1982, and the band existed only in the studio thereafter, producing marvels like “Skylarking”. His case proved you can become a legend without setting foot on a stage.
Andy Partridge
XTC
1986
Jon Batiste is born, who won the album of the year Grammy against every prediction
On November 11, 1986, Jon Batiste was born near New Orleans, into a family with generations of musicians behind it. He studied jazz at Juilliard and became known leading the band on a late-night show. In 2022 his album "We Are" won the album of the year Grammy ahead of Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Billie Eilish: almost nobody expected it, and neither did he.
Jon Batiste
1928
Ernestine Anderson is born, schoolmate of Quincy Jones and Ray Charles
On November 11, 1928, Ernestine Anderson was born in Houston and raised in Seattle, where she went to the same school as Quincy Jones and crossed paths with a young Ray Charles in the city's clubs. She sang with a voice that could move from blues to jazz without a seam. In 1958 an American magazine named her the most promising new singer of the year. She recorded for five decades.
Ernestine Anderson
Quincy Jones
1955
Dave Alvin is born, who with his brother rescued rockabilly in the middle of Californian punk
On November 11, 1955, Dave Alvin was born near Los Angeles. As a teenager he went with his brother Phil to see the old bluesmen still playing the city's bars. In 1979 they formed the Blasters, a band playing vintage rockabilly and rhythm and blues in the same venues as the punk groups, and shared stages with them without anyone seeing a contradiction.
Dave Alvin
The Blasters
1958
Luz Casal is born, whose version of a Mexican bolero made her huge across Europe
On November 11, 1958, Luz Casal was born in Galicia. She started out singing hard rock in the Madrid scene of the eighties. In 1991 Pedro Almodóvar asked her to record "Piensa en mí", an Agustín Lara bolero, for the film "High Heels"; that version made her a major name in France and Italy. She came through two breast cancers and returned to the stage after each one.
Luz Casal
Pedro Almodóvar
1966
Peaches is born: the primary school teacher who made the 2000s' most provocative album
On November 11, 1966, Merrill Nisker was born in Toronto and worked for years as a music teacher at a primary school. In 2000, aged thirty-four, she released "The Teaches of Peaches", recorded alone on a cheap drum machine: explicit songs about sex and gender that critics struggled to digest. She became a reference point for an entire generation of artists.
Peaches
1974
Static Major is born, who died weeks before his song reached number one
On November 11, 1974, Stephen Garrett was born in Kentucky, a writer and singer who worked for Aaliyah, Ginuwine and Destiny's Child without hardly anyone knowing his name. In 2008 he sang the hook on Lil Wayne's "Lollipop". In February of that year he entered hospital for a routine procedure and died of a complication. The song reached number one six weeks later.
Static Major
Lil Wayne
Aaliyah
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