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It was truly a “ragtime to riches” path chosen by the immigrant Russian Jew Israel Baline. A teenaged waif slumming an existence in the Bowery during the earliest years of the twentieth-century, Irving Berlin, as he was later known, began writing songs before he knew how to read music. A self-taught and rather pathetic pianist, [...]

Although ragtime music was first heard at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, it took another seven years for the syncopated music to become the rage of the new century. Scott Joplin wrote the bulk of the most-remembered classical piano rags, but dozens of other composers vied for his recognition. From Kansas City came James [...]

The musical theatre of the Victorian era radiated the brilliance of librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and to the works they jointly created. Between 1871 and 1896 they collaborated on fourteen comic operas of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Along with Gilbert’s [...]

The musical theatre of the Victorian era radiated the brilliance of librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and to the works they jointly created. Between 1871 and 1896 they collaborated on fourteen comic operas of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Along with Gilbert’s [...]

The musical theatre of the Victorian era radiated the brilliance of librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and to the works they jointly created. Between 1871 and 1896 they collaborated on fourteen comic operas of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Along with Gilbert’s [...]

Sinatra’s career took flight from the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliff, NJ, when trumpeter Harry James rescued him from the ranks of singing waiters in 1939. Yet not until Tommy Dorsey coaxed him into his band later that year did Sinatra begin to soar as the idol of the bobby-soxers. Within three years, he led [...]

Baritone Frank Sinatra was indisputably the 20th century's greatest singer of popular song. Though influenced by Bing Crosby's crooning, and by learning from trombonist Tommy Dorsey's breath control and blues singer Billie Holiday's rhythmic swing, Frank Sinatra mainstreamed the concept of singing colloquially, treating lyrics as personal statements and handling melodies with the ease of [...]

The musical theatre of the Victorian era radiated the brilliance of librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and to the works they jointly created. Between 1871 and 1896 they collaborated on fourteen comic operas of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Along with Gilbert’s [...]

Sinatra’s career took flight from the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliff, NJ, when trumpeter Harry James rescued him from the ranks of singing waiters in 1939. Yet not until Tommy Dorsey coaxed him into his band later that year did Sinatra begin to soar as the idol of the bobby-soxers. Within three years, he led [...]