Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today November 16
1873
W.C. Handy is born, the man who wrote the blues down
W.C. Handy, the “Father of the Blues”, is born in Florence, Alabama. He did not invent the genre, but he was the first to hear it at a Mississippi train station, transcribe it and publish it: “Memphis Blues” and “St. Louis Blues” carried that music to the world's printing presses. Without his ear and pen, rock's foundation would have taken decades longer to circulate.
W.C. Handy
1931
Hubert Sumlin is born: the guitar behind every Howlin' Wolf record
On November 16, 1931, Hubert Sumlin was born in Mississippi. At eight he sneaked into a club by climbing through a window to hear Howlin' Wolf. Years later he was Wolf's guitarist for more than two decades, and Wolf treated him like a son: he paid for his teeth and sent him to study music. He played with his fingers, no pick, with a nervous attack that Clapton, Hendrix and the Stones all copied.
Hubert Sumlin
Howlin' Wolf
Keith Richards
1941
Dan Penn is born: the white Alabaman who wrote some of soul's greatest songs
On November 16, 1941, Wallace Daniel Pennington was born in Alabama, one of southern soul's central songwriters without hardly anyone outside the trade knowing his face. He wrote "The Dark End of the Street", the finest song about a clandestine affair ever recorded, and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", which Aretha Franklin turned into a manifesto in 1967.
Dan Penn
Aretha Franklin
James Carr
1964
Diana Krall is born, the pianist who returned vocal jazz to the sales charts
Diana Krall is born in Nanaimo, Canada: the pianist and singer who turned jazz standards into twenty-first century commercial success. With her smoky contralto and multi-platinum albums like “The Look of Love”, she proved the Great American Songbook was still alive. Married to Elvis Costello, she joins song's tradition and present like few others.
Diana Krall
1888
Luis Cluzeau Mortet is born, who put the Uruguayan landscape inside the orchestra
On November 16, 1888, Luis Cluzeau Mortet was born in Montevideo, son and grandson of French musicians settled in Uruguay. He was a violist in the Solís theatre orchestra for decades and, alongside that, composed a body of work deliberately seeking a national sound: milongas, cielitos and country rhythms carried into symphonic writing, in a country that did not yet have a concert music tradition of its own.
Luis Cluzeau Mortet
1895
Paul Hindemith is born, whose music the Nazis declared degenerate
On November 16, 1895, Paul Hindemith was born near Frankfurt, a violist and composer who at twenty was already leading an orchestra's string section. He wrote an opera about a painter forced to choose between art and politics just as the Nazi regime began persecuting him: they banned his music, called him degenerate and he had to emigrate to the United States, where he taught at Yale.
Paul Hindemith
1948
Chi Coltrane is born, who succeeded in Europe after the United States ignored her
On November 16, 1948, Chi Coltrane was born in Wisconsin, a pianist and singer with no relation to John Coltrane despite the surname. In 1972 she put "Thunder and Lightning" on the American charts and then her label stopped backing her. She moved to Europe, where she filled halls for decades, especially in Germany: one of those cases where an artist has two entirely different careers depending on the continent.
Chi Coltrane
1981
Kate Miller-Heidke is born: the conservatoire soprano who sang Eurovision on a pole
On November 16, 1981, Kate Miller-Heidke was born in Brisbane. She studied classical singing at the conservatoire and decided to use that technique for pop. She has written commissioned operas and also songs that play on the radio. In 2019 she represented Australia at Eurovision standing on a flexible four-metre pole that swayed while she held extremely high notes without flinching.
Kate Miller-Heidke
1983
Kool A.D. is born, of the group that became famous with a song about a fast food outlet
On November 16, 1983, Victor Vázquez was born in California, son of a Cuban father and an Italian-American mother. In 2008, with Das Racist, he released "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell", a song consisting almost entirely of two men arguing about where they are. Half the critics took it for a stupid joke and the other half for brilliant satire on advertising. They sold the argument and gave the albums away free.
Kool A.D.
Das Racist
1984
Vic Dickenson dies: the trombonist who played as though telling a joke
On November 16, 1984, Vic Dickenson died at 78. A trombonist in the Count Basie and Benny Carter orchestras, he accompanied Billie Holiday on several of her finest sessions. His style was unmistakable: growls, slides and silences loaded with intent, as though every phrase carried a wink. Musicians said it was impossible to stay serious playing beside him.
Vic Dickenson
Count Basie
Billie Holiday
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