Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today December 12
1915
Frank Sinatra is born, the Voice that defined the American century
Francis Albert Sinatra is born in Hoboken, New Jersey: the son of Italian immigrants who would become the definitive singer of the twentieth century. He invented modern phrasing, the concept album with “In the Wee Small Hours”, and the mass idol who triggered teenage hysteria before Elvis. Every popular singer since owes him their breathing.
Frank Sinatra
1923
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou is born, the Ethiopian nun the world discovered in her eighties
On December 12, 1923, Yewubdar Gebru was born in Addis Ababa. She studied violin in Switzerland and returned to Ethiopia as a pianist. When she was denied a scholarship to continue studying in London, she withdrew to a monastery and went on composing for decades for almost nobody. Her recordings only circulated abroad in the 2000s. She died in 2023, aged ninety-nine.
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou
1929
Toshiko Akiyoshi is born, the Japanese pianist Oscar Peterson found in a Tokyo club
On December 12, 1929, Toshiko Akiyoshi was born in Manchuria to a Japanese family. Oscar Peterson heard her playing in a Tokyo club in 1953 and arranged for her to record an album; shortly afterwards she was the first Japanese student admitted to the Berklee school. She ended up leading her own big band and becoming the first woman to win DownBeat magazine's best arranger poll.
Toshiko Akiyoshi
Oscar Peterson
1940
Dionne Warwick is born, the perfect interpreter of Bacharach and David
Dionne Warwick is born in East Orange, New Jersey: the voice that made Burt Bacharach and Hal David's devilish melodies singable. “Walk On By” and “I Say a Little Prayer” defined sixties pop-soul sophistication. Whitney Houston's cousin and a star across six decades, she owns one of the most precise voices America has produced.
Dionne Warwick
1943
Grover Washington Jr. is born, whose saxophone recorded one of the world's most gifted songs
On December 12, 1943, Grover Washington Jr. was born in Buffalo, a saxophonist who crossed jazz with soul until it became radio music. In 1980 he recorded "Just the Two of Us" with Bill Withers singing, a track that won a Grammy and has since played at weddings, graduations and commercials all over the planet. He died in 1999, just after finishing a television taping.
Grover Washington, Jr.
Bill Withers
1945
Tony Williams is born, who at seventeen was already Miles Davis's drummer
On December 12, 1945, Tony Williams was born in Chicago. At seventeen he joined Miles Davis's group and became the engine of what is called the second great quintet. He played time as if it were elastic material, pushing and pulling it without ever losing the pulse. In 1969 he founded Lifetime with John McLaughlin, one of the first openly electric bands in jazz.
Tony Williams
Miles Davis
John McLaughlin
1957
Sheila E. is born, the percussionist who started singing in front of Prince's band
On December 12, 1957, Sheila Escovedo was born in Oakland, daughter of percussionist Pete Escovedo, with whom she had played timbales since she was a teenager. Prince heard her and in 1984 turned her into a solo artist with "The Glamorous Life", while also bringing her into his band. She was one of very few women that decade to lead a group from the percussion rather than the microphone.
Sheila E.
Prince
Pete Escovedo
1918
Joe Williams is born, the baritone who gave the blues back to Count Basie's orchestra
On December 12, 1918, Joe Williams was born in Georgia and raised in Chicago singing in church. In 1954 he joined Count Basie's orchestra, then going through a rough patch, and with "Every Day I Have the Blues" handed it back its commercial success. He spent seven years in the band and then built his own career on a deep baritone that never seemed to strain.
Joe Williams
Count Basie
1923
Bob Dorough is born, the only singer Miles Davis allowed on a record of his
On December 12, 1923, Bob Dorough was born in Arkansas, a pianist and singer who in 1962 recorded "Blue Xmas" with Miles Davis, one of the very rare cases in which the trumpeter permitted a voice on his sessions. A decade later he was commissioned to set the multiplication tables to music for children's television, and so taught grammar and arithmetic to two American generations.
Bob Dorough
Miles Davis
1925
Vladimir Shainsky is born, whose children's songs were sung by two hundred million people
On December 12, 1925, Vladimir Shainsky was born in Kyiv, a composer who survived the Second World War and devoted the rest of his life to writing songs for Soviet cartoons. Pieces like the blue wagon song from Cheburashka were known by heart by every child in the Soviet Union, from Estonia to Uzbekistan, whatever language they had learned them in.
Vladimir Shainsky
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