Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today November 18
1993
Nirvana tapes its MTV Unplugged among lilies and candles: a funeral in advance
At Sony Studios in New York, Nirvana tapes its MTV Unplugged in a single take, the stage decorated at Cobain's request with lilies and candelabras, “like a funeral”. Through covers of Bowie, the Meat Puppets and Lead Belly, the band showed an unprecedented fragility. Five months later Cobain was dead and the record became his testament.
Nirvana
1909
Johnny Mercer is born, who wrote fifteen hundred songs and founded a record label
On November 18, 1909, Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia, lyricist of some fifteen hundred songs and winner of four Academy Awards, among them for "Moon River". He wrote the English words to "Les feuilles mortes" and turned it into "Autumn Leaves". In 1942, fed up with how labels treated him, he founded Capitol Records with two partners; eight years later it was one of the industry's majors.
Johnny Mercer
Capitol Records
1927
Hank Ballard is born, the man who wrote “The Twist” before Chubby Checker
Hank Ballard is born in Detroit: rhythm and blues pioneer with the Midnighters and original author of “The Twist”. His version was relegated to a B-side, and it was Chubby Checker's cover that unleashed the century's greatest dance craze. Ballard, a Rock Hall inductee, is a reminder that history doesn't always reward the inventor.
Hank Ballard
1936
Don Cherry is born, who played a pocket trumpet and travelled the world collecting instruments
On November 18, 1936, Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma. He became famous playing a pocket trumpet, a small instrument with a nasal tone, in the quartet with which Ornette Coleman blew apart the rules of jazz in 1959. He later settled in Sweden and spent decades travelling and learning instruments from Africa, India and Turkey. Neneh and Eagle-Eye Cherry are his stepchildren.
Don Cherry
Ornette Coleman
Neneh Cherry
1962
Kirk Hammett is born, who took lessons from Joe Satriani while already in Metallica
On November 18, 1962, Kirk Hammett was born in San Francisco to a Filipina mother, and bought his first guitar with money from a fast food job. He joined Metallica in 1983 replacing Dave Mustaine, and although he was already the guitarist of a rising band he kept paying Joe Satriani for lessons for years, so as not to stop improving.
Kirk Hammett
Metallica
Joe Satriani
1860
Paderewski is born: the world's most famous pianist who ended up prime minister
On November 18, 1860, Ignacy Jan Paderewski was born in Poland, a pianist whose American tours caused riots and sold out halls like a rock singer's fifty years later. He used that fame to campaign for Polish independence during the First World War, and in 1919 he was appointed prime minister of the newly created country. He signed the Treaty of Versailles.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
1904
Masao Koga is born, whose melodies defined Japanese popular song for half a century
On November 18, 1904, Masao Koga was born in Japan. He spent part of his childhood in Korea, then under Japanese rule, and learned to play mandolin and guitar. He composed more than four thousand songs and created a melodic style so recognisable it was simply called the Koga melody: melancholy, minor scales and a way of phrasing that marked all of twentieth-century Japanese popular song.
Masao Koga
1928
Sheila Jordan is born, who invented the voice-and-bass duo with nothing else
On November 18, 1928, Sheila Jordan was born in Detroit and raised in a Pennsylvania mining town by her grandmother. She discovered bebop hearing Charlie Parker on a jukebox and moved to New York to be near that music. She worked thirty years as a secretary while singing at night. She was the first to record whole albums with just voice and double bass, a format many later imitated.
Sheila Jordan
Charlie Parker
1950
Rudy Sarzo is born: the Cuban bassist who was there the morning Randy Rhoads died
On November 18, 1950, Rudy Sarzo was born in Havana and came to the United States as a child when his family went into exile. He played bass in Ozzy Osbourne's band and was asleep on the tour bus on the 1982 morning when a small plane carrying guitarist Randy Rhoads crashed into the vehicle. He later joined Quiet Riot and played on the first metal album to reach number one.
Rudy Sarzo
Quiet Riot
Randy Rhoads
1977
Fabolous is born, discovered freestyling live on a radio show
On November 18, 1977, John Jackson was born in Brooklyn. In 1998 he went with a friend to the radio station where a well-known producer worked and ended up freestyling on air. The producer signed him that same week. He built a two-decade career on a formula almost nobody sustains that long: wordplay, sports references and hooks sung by other people.
Fabolous
One ephemeris a day, one editorial a week. Zero spam, pure archive.