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TEACHING WITH IN TUNE I C O N GREAT MUSICIANS IN HISTORY BY PETER GERSTENZANG WHO: Rock quartet from London, England WHAT: One of the essential acts of the original 1960s British Invasion; loud, lyrical, and ambitious WHEN: Formed in 1964, still active in 2017, even after losing two key members and matured into one of the towering songwriters of the time. With their 1969 “rock opera” Tommy, the Who showed they could make a conceptually uni- BY PETER GERSTENZANG ed album that brought in elements of classical music ICONOGRAPHY and told a story—a strange ICON GREAT MUSICIANS IN HISTORY BY PETER GERSTENZANG tale about a deaf, dumb, The Who and blind boy who mirac- Singer and ulously regains his senses GREAT MUSICIANS IN HISTORY WHO: OR THE FIRST 10 years of their existence, the Who and becomes a prophet—while never WHO: Classical pianist ICON electric guitar player A gospel and thrillingly stretched the boundaries of rock, becoming sounding pretentious. WHAT: A brilliant, if eccentric, WHAT: The music only improved from there musical interpreter who R&B pioneer who may one of the most important and in uential British bands redefi ned how a classical just be the mother of F with the 1971 masterpiece Who’s Next and HE ARGUMENT rock music musician could play, record, Born Mar. 20, of the ’60s, along with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. a second rock opera, 1973’sQuadrophenia, act, and look about who was WHEN: which told stories of both the mods and BY PETER GERSTENZANG 1915, Cotton Plant, After a brief stint as the Detours, gui- WHEN: Born Sept. 25, 1932 in America’s rst true just a nimble-fingered bassist but also a everyday English life in the ’60s, in writerly GREAT MUSICIANS IN HISTORY some tracks with a nine- Ark.; died Oct. 9, 1973, ICON tarist Pete Townshend (pronounced with a WHO: Trumpeter, piece group. These Toronto, Ont., Canada; died Oct. talented brass player and arranger, Moon composer, bandleader tracks, as quiet and con- Philadelphia, Pa. detail with near-symphonic arrangements. WHAT : A restless giant of templative as bebop was 4, 1982 in Toronto 20th-century music who T silent h), bassist John Entwistle, drummer loud and frenetic, were was a wildly inventive orchestral-style changed the course of jazz instantly acclaimed and rock ’n’ roller is nev- Townshend was an early adopter of the many times over came to be regarded as : Born May 26, 1926 WHEN an early example of a new Keith Moon, and lead vocalist Roger Daltrey in Alton, Ill.; died Sept. 28, drummer, Daltrey was the archetypal leath- 1991 in Santa Monica, Calif. style, “cool jazz.” (Even- er-ending: Elvis Presley? in a way that’s di erent from other synthesizer and put it to imaginative use tually they were compiled on an album aptly .) challenging 20th-century compos- o cially became the Who in 1964. From called Birth of the Cool er-lunged rock singer, and Townshend was Davis continued to explore this style gospel singers of the time. Then put during this time. through the 1950s, reaching a peak in 1959 ers such as Paul Hindemith and Chuck Berry? Ike Turner? the beginning, the band was musically , an album that featured with Kind of Blue arguably the finest rhythm guitarist in up-and-coming players like saxophonist John on a Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard Quadrophenia was the pinnacle of the Coltrane and pianist Bill Evans (no relation Arnold Schoenberg. Clearly, the startling and visually arresting. Spokesmen to Gil). Universally considered a master- Fats Domino? Louis Jor- Britain, if not the world. piece, Kind of Blue has sold over four million track and see if you can’t hear Who’s recording career. What followed copies in the U.S. alone, making it the young Canadian had his own ideas for a subculture of young, well-dressed biggest-selling jazz album of all time. Tharpe’s style coming through the Once Townshend, the band’s main But if anyone thought success would keep dan? Too often lost in the were a series of uneven releases, long hia- Davis in one place, they didn’t know Miles. about music. Most famously, after English hipsters known as mods, they played In short order there were new touchstones: music of those two early rockers. tunesmith, found his style with the 1965 tuses—including a 24-year gap between discs like the delicate Sketches of Spain (one shuffle is Sister Rosetta of several more arranged by Gil. Davis Evans) contin- and having established himself as a per- ferocious covers of Motown and blues songs the hard-driving Miles Smiles Tharpe’s biggest success came in single “I Can’t Explain,” he went on to pro- ued to be a superb talent scout, introducing studio albums—and tragedies. In 1978, listeners to many gifted young performers, former, he came to believe that Tharpe, an African-Amer- in the style of thuggish lunatics, smashing including saxophonist Wayne Shorter, 1945 with “Strange Things Happen- duce a string of brilliant songs (“My Gen- keyboardist Herbie Hancock, and guitarist Moon died from a drug overdose. In 2002, Miles Davis John McLaughlin—all of whom soon concerts were a needless distraction their instruments at the ends of shows E DIDN’T LIKE LABELS, including the term “jazz.” became stars themselves. ican woman who spanked ing Every Day,” ’sthe Race rst Records gospel (later song eration,” “Substitute,” “I Can See for Miles”) Entwistle did the same. Townshend and And so, for more than 40 years, Miles Davis took Starting with 1969’s In a Silent Way and Billboard America’s native art form and continually reimagined continuing through the mid-’70s, Davis and gave up playing live at the age renamed Rhythm (Townshend called it “auto-destructive art”) H incorporated rock and funk sounds into his to enter Daltrey, however, brought in other musicians it, to the delight of music fans and the horror of jazz purists. music, adding electric instruments to his an electric guitar with an recording debut as a sideman in 1945, and bands and playing his trumpet through wah- of 31. For the rest of his life, he was & Blues) chart. It and even occasionally ghting each other Davis’ childhood in East St. Louis, Ill., formed his own sextet the following year. wah and delay eects. Controversial at the and carried on, even as they maintained their was unusual for the Great Depression era Davis played plenty of bebop with Parker time, this phase of his career proved hugely Who’s Listening inuential to both jazz and rock musicians, a creature of the studio. insistent downbeat, sang because his family was prosperous. He took and others, but his trademark spare style got all the way uponstage. trumpet lessons at an early age, discovering wouldn’t truly emerge until later. spawning another new style called fusion. After a ve-year layo, Davis returned own successful solo careers. They continue the vibrato-less sound that would soon set Unhappy dwelling in Parker’s shadow, Davis left the saxman’s band in 1948 and to music in the early ’80s. As always, he Gould was fascinated by recording Perhaps the loudest band of their era— him apart. Although he was scouted by star with the hair-raising squall to No. 2, the rst of The Who Hits 50! bandleaders while still in high school, his teamed with arranger Gil Evans to record confounded expectations, covering such Is a as the Who to this day, drawing large crowds parents insisted that he continue his educa- contemporary pop songs as Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and working with rap- technology, by microphones and their in-concert volume kept them in the tion. This led the teenager to the Juilliard Miles of Tracks several Top 10 hits comprehensive collection of the School in New York. pers. By the time of his death, he had secured of a gospel singer—and and, on a good night, still sounding superb. Once Davis got to Manhattan, he spent Davis’ discography is loaded his place for all time as a jazz innovator, easily Glenn Gould audio editing. When it came to sound and with classics, but you can’t go wrongIn a on par with Louis Armstrong, Duke Elling- Guinness Book of World Records for years band’s many great singles. more time playing nightclubs with his hero, Kind of Blue, Tommy, starting off with ton, and his former boss Charlie Parker. saxophonist Charlie Parker—originator , or any of the albums he HEN GLENN GOULD EXPLODED onto the But both they and their audience understand Silent Way IMAGES REDFERN/GETTY DAVID of an exciting new branch of jazz called recorded with Gil Evans. technique, he was a perfectionist. But at the heavily in uenced all of Who’s Next, Quadrophenia bebop—than he did studying. He made his that Tharpe would have over the(and next destroyed their hearing)—the Who , and intunemonthly.com classical music landscape in the 1950s, no other 1967’s The Who Sell Out that they can never top what they achieved “Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.” –Miles Davis same time, his famous humming habit made the above male artists. decade. When she married her pavedman- the way for hard rock, art rock, punk, are all • October 2016 16 In Tune Monthly in the 1960s and ’70s. At their peak, the pianists played like he did, looked like he did, or a perfect recording difficult to achieve, ager and third husband Russelland Mor- heavy metal, in uencing everyone from excellent entry points as well.

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