Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today December 4
1993
Frank Zappa dies, the genius who mocked everyone and composed better than almost anyone
Frank Zappa dies of cancer in Los Angeles at 52, leaving more than 60 albums spanning satirical rock to avant-garde orchestral music. An enemy of censorship, he defended artistic freedom all the way to the US Senate. Czechoslovakia wanted him as cultural ambassador: few musicians have been so unclassifiable and so respected.
Frank Zappa
1944
Chris Hillman is born, the mandolin player who steered the Byrds towards Nashville
On December 4, 1944, Chris Hillman was born in Los Angeles. He came out of bluegrass and learned bass in a hurry to join the Byrds. He was the one who pushed the band towards "Sweetheart of the Rodeo", the 1968 album that invented country rock, and then founded the Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons to keep going down that road without arguing with anybody.
Chris Hillman
The Byrds
Gram Parsons
1944
Dennis Wilson is born, the only Beach Boy who actually surfed
Dennis Wilson is born in Inglewood, California: the Beach Boys' drummer and the only member who lived the beach life their songs were selling. His solo album “Pacific Ocean Blue” (1977) is a gem of melancholy, increasingly vindicated. He drowned in 1983, in the same ocean that gave his music its name and soul.
Dennis Wilson
The Beach Boys
1951
Gary Rossington is born, the last original Lynyrd Skynyrd left standing
On December 4, 1951, Gary Rossington was born in Jacksonville, founding guitarist of Lynyrd Skynyrd and author of the arpeggio that opens "Free Bird". He survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three of his bandmates, spent months in hospital and went back on stage. He was the last original member still playing; he died in 2023, forty-six years later.
Gary Rossington
Lynyrd Skynyrd
1955
Cassandra Wilson is born, who opened jazz's repertoire to blues and folk
On December 4, 1955, Cassandra Wilson was born in Jackson, Mississippi, a contralto with a low register and lazy phrasing who refused to be confined to the standard songbook. On "Blue Light 'Til Dawn", released in 1993, she sang Robert Johnson and Joni Mitchell over acoustic percussion and dirty guitars, and changed what a jazz vocalist was allowed to record.
Cassandra Wilson
1969
Jay-Z is born, who founded his own label because nobody would sign him
On December 4, 1969, Shawn Carter was born in the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn. No label would sign him, so in 1996 he founded Roc-A-Fella with two partners and put out "Reasonable Doubt" himself. From there he built a career of fourteen number-one albums in the United States and a fortune that made him the first billionaire rapper and the first inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jay-Z
1910
Alex North is born, nominated for fifteen Oscars and never a winner
On December 4, 1910, Alex North was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, the first composer to write a jazz-based score for Hollywood, on "A Streetcar Named Desire". Four years later he wrote the melody of "Unchained Melody" for a forgotten prison film; the song outlived everything. He was nominated for fifteen Oscars without ever winning, until they gave him an honorary one in 1986.
Alex North
1930
Jim Hall is born, the guitarist who taught everyone to play quietly
On December 4, 1930, Jim Hall was born in Buffalo. On an instrument built for volume he constructed an entire aesthetic of silence. He backed Sonny Rollins on "The Bridge", the record the saxophonist made after two years in seclusion. Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell and John Scofield all name him as the starting point: nearly all later jazz guitar runs through his way of leaving space.
Jim Hall
Sonny Rollins
1969
Dionne Farris is born, who sang the hook on "Tennessee" and then left the group
On December 4, 1969, Dionne Farris was born in New Jersey. Her voice carries the hook of "Tennessee", the track that won Arrested Development two Grammys in 1993. She left the group almost immediately because they would not credit her as a member, and answered with "I Know", a hit of her own that established her as a songwriter in an awkward crossing of soul, rock and hip hop.
Dionne Farris
Arrested Development
1992
Jin is born, the oldest member of BTS and the first to leave for military service
On December 4, 1992, Kim Seok-jin was born in Gwacheon, South Korea, the oldest member of BTS. He was studying acting when a scout stopped him on the street. With the group he became part of the first Korean act to top the American album chart, and in 2022 he was the first to interrupt that career to serve his compulsory military duty.
Jin
BTS
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