Music, Music, Music
Listening to music is one of my great pleasures.
As a kid, I enjoyed early rock ‘n’ rollers like Elvis Presley (I especially loved “Heartbreak Hotel”), Buddy Holly, Big Bopper, Bill Haley & his Comets, and the Platters, and pop artists my parents listened to, including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and Doris Day. My parents bought the original cast recording of My Fair Lady, and that introduced me to Broadway scores. Soon we were also listening to West Side Story, Music Man, and Bye Bye Birdie.
I never felt I had to choose one type of music over others; I liked them all. At that time, songs from Broadway musicals were routinely recorded by pop, R & B, and even rock ‘n’ roll artists: Not only did Nat King Cole and Dean Martin sing “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” from My Fair Lady, so did Marvin Gaye—and on their album “Meet the Beatles!,” along with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “All I Got to Do,” the Beatles sang “Till There Was You” from The Music Man. The first time my sister, Wendy, played the album for me, I became a Beatles fan.
By the time I went to college, I also loved listening to folk artists, especially recent Nobel Prize-winner Bob Dylan, who became my idol. “Blowin’ in the Wind” was an anthem to me and to many others of my generation, with its haunting melody and poignant lyrics asking when, if ever, would we finally see the end of war and the end of racism, questions that we are still asking today. Every song Dylan recorded, whether about social issues (“The Times They Are a Changin’,” “Chimes of Freedom”) or love (“All I Really Want to Do”) or breaking up (“It Ain’t Me, Babe,” Don’t Think Twice,”) hit home, and I couldn’t wait to buy and listen to each new record (yes, vinyl!).
I also liked Motown. I loved listening to Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, and Aretha Franklin, one of the most powerful singers I’ve ever heard.
Musically speaking, college was an ear-opener for me. I’d never listened to classical music before and suddenly I started hearing it all the time. My friends in the dorm left their doors open while they played recordings of music composed by people whose names I knew but whose work was unfamiliar to me: Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Brahms. There were also pieces by composers I’d never heard of: Bartok, Mahler, Ives, Hindemith. I loved the beauty of the music, the rich sounds of the instruments, and the mastery of the musicians.
In college I was also introduced to jazz pianists Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, and Mose Allison, each with a distinctive style of playing (and Mose Allison with a unique and recognizable singing style, too), to saxophonists Ben Webster and Charlie Parker, and trumpet player Miles Davis, each of whom also had a unique style that I enjoyed tremendously.
Since my college days I’ve continued listening to rock, jazz, and pop vocalists, singer-songwriters, and bands. Besides those I’ve already mentioned, my favorites include Art Tatum, Stanley Turrentine, Oscar Petersen, Stephane Grappelli, Billie Holliday, Barbara Cook, Rosemary Clooney, Nina Simone, Etta James, Tony Bennett, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, James Taylor, Kris Kristofferson, Carly Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon (solo), Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, and Elizabeth and the Catapult.
Some of the other classical composers whose works I’ve come to love are Liszt, Vivaldi, Paganini, Verdi, Puccini, Elgar, Copland, Gershwin, and Bernstein. My friend Tony Koltz introduced me to some contemporary classical composers whose work I like, too, including John Adams, Steven Reich, Osvaldo Goijov, and Frederic Rzewski.
Please write and tell me who your favorite recording artists and composers are.
