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Osmani Horowitz
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Hailing from North Iceland, Blood Harmony started as a collaboration project of brother and sister Örn Eldjárn and Ösp Eldjárn. Having been brought up in a musical family, it was no wonder that both of their paths led into a musical career. Now, after more than a decade in various musical projects and bands, they have joined forces again, like they did when they were teenagers, and returned to their folky roots.
Jeffrey Buettner, Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choral Activities, will offer a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 P.M. at Mead Chapel. Audience members are invited to come early to hear more about the ensemble, their musical tradition, and the works to be performed.
There have been countless moments in history when songs have united nations, cultures and causes. Finding Harmony reflects on times of upheaval while celebrating gospel, African tribal songs and religious hymns about unity. Also featuring renditions of iconic U2 and Mahalia Jackson songs, this rousing repertoire is both a testament to how singing binds us together, and a reminder that music has always been our common language.
According to King, he was five when his father left the family and eight when he moved with his mother, Mary Blevins, and two sisters to the Forrest City, Arkansas, area. King said his family had also lived in Arcola, Mississippi, at one time. He made his first guitar out of a cigar box, a piece of a bush, and a strand of broom wire, and later bought a real guitar for $1.25. As a southpaw learning guitar on his own, he turned his guitar upside down. King picked cotton, drove a bulldozer, did construction, and worked other jobs until he was finally able to support himself as a musician.
Happy Birthday! Thanks for all the fantastic music over the years that have made me and so many other people Happy. GG,a force of good in the world. Also that was an alarming time over at Holland Tunnel Drive. What was going on?
The son of string bassist Phil "Charlie" Towles, Nat was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 10, 1905.[1] Starting his musical career as a guitarist and violinist at the age of 11, Towles switched to the bass at the age of 13. He performed in New Orleans through his teenage years with Gus Metcalf's Melody Jazz Band, eventually playing with a number of bands, including those of Buddie Petit, Henry "Red" Allen, Jack Carey, and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra.[3]
In 1923 he formed The Nat Towles' Creole Harmony Kings. This jazz band became one of the prominent territory bands in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. In 1925 he played bass for Fate Marable, and reformed his own band the next year. In 1934, Towles organized a band of young musicians studying music at Wiley College in Austin, Texas.[4][3] Towles also worked a club circuit in Dallas during this period, reportedly working for a gangster who owned 26 nightclubs throughout the city. During this period T-Bone Walker and Buddy Tate worked for Towles.[5]
In the 1930s Towles transformed his band into The Nat Towles Dance Orchestra, signed with the National Orchestra Service, and focused on swing music through the 1930s and 1940s. In 1934 Towles took up residence in North Omaha, Nebraska, where his band was stationed for the next 25 years. With this outfit Towles dueled with Lloyd Hunter for dominance over the much-contested Near North Side in North Omaha, where he was held over at the Dreamland Ballroom for several weeks. In 1936 and 1937 Towles' band held residence at Omaha's Krug Park.[1]
In his role as their bandleader, Towles is credited with influencing a variety of musicians including Sir Charles Thompson and Neal Hefti, as well as superior saxophonists Jimmy Heath, Oliver Nelson and Paul Quinichette.[6] As an educator Towles influenced many younger musicians such as pianist Duke Groner and trombonist Buddy McLewis (aka Joe McLewis).
The Swan Silvertones are an American gospel music group that first achieved popularity in the 1940s and 1950s under the leadership of Claude Jeter.[1] Jeter formed the group in 1938 as the "Four Harmony Kings" while he was working as a coal miner in West Virginia, United States.[1] After moving to Knoxville, Tennessee and obtaining their own radio show, the group changed its name to the Silvertone Singers in order to avoid confusion with another ensemble known as the "Four Kings of Harmony." They added the name Swan shortly thereafter, since Swan Bakeries sponsored their show.[1] Their wide exposure through radio brought them a contract in 1946 with King Records.[1]
At this early stage, the Silvertones already embodied an amalgam of two styles: the close barbershop harmony that they had featured when starting out in West Virginia, and virtuoso leads supplied by Jeter and Solomon Womack. The group later lost Womack, but added Paul Owens in 1952 and Louis Johnson in 1955. Claude Jeter performed as lead singer on "Mary Don't You Weep".[2]
The group got together in 1965, half a dozen choral singers at King's College in Cambridge, England. They were students of organist and choral director David Willcocks, who instilled the idea of a bright, clear vocal sound -- vibrato only as a color choice, not standard operating procedure. They sang with those lovely straight tones at the college chapel, and soon booked a few local gigs, doing an eclectic mix of music.
At those first performances they went by the catchy name Schola Cantorum Pro Musica Profana in Cantabridgiense. And their eclecticism wasn't so much an artistic choice as an imperative: They didn't know enough of any one kind of music to fill a concert program. So Renaissance madrigals, English folk songs, jazz arrangements, pop tunes, glee club favorites and barbershop songs all happily tumbled out.
This is a new single from The King's Singers' album 'Finding Harmony', which explores songs from all of the world which have helped bring communities together and give them a voice in difficult times. 'If I can help somebody' is a song which became popular during the struggles of the American Civil Rights movement. It was one of Martin Luther King Jr's favorite hymns, and he quoted it in one of his final sermons before his assassination. The Civil Rights movement had music and singing at its very core, and the words of this song summarize the message of hope which lay at the center of it.
On its first visit to New Haven, the group will perform early sacred choral works (Palestrina, Parsons, Josquin), part songs (Wagner, Schubert, Vaughn Williams), and a selection of close-harmony arrangements of folksongs and a capella favorites.
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