The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  was born on January 15, 1929. A national holiday   to honor his memory and accomplishments happens every year near this date. It's this weekend.

I'm an admirer of Dr. King . I remember hearing him on the evening news and the palpable change in consciousness he brought about. Before King, you see, Civil Rights for African Americans  were hard to get, and small gains were so often reversed. Americans were either oblivious or opposed to justice for Blacks. After King began  his work, though, people were suddenly aware of African Americans' struggles, and many who were oblivious became sympathetic.

I remember his murder in 1968, too. School was cancelled, and our neighborhood was absolutely silent. Most people were watching TV, but even birds and dogs were quiet that day. I was a little kid, but I felt the enormity of it. More than war, or Nixon, music, or any other factors that shaped that era, those last couple years of Dr. King's life affected me and the person I have become.

It's those words. And that voice.

King was a magical speaker . Certain arias in opera bring tears to my eyes — some sort of reaction to the emotion in music, I guess. (No wisecracks!) It doesn't happen with any other music. Whenever I listen to Dr. King's speeches, the same darn thing happens — I get all misty and sniffly. I can't watch documentaries on Dr. King or the Movement without becoming a wreck I credit the power of conviction in King's words, as well as the royalty of his voice. He's truly larger than life.

So I was picking through some old LPs in a 2nd hand store last year, and came upon this record. It is the speech Dr. King gave in Detroit in June, 1963 , as he moved toward the historic rally at the Lincoln Memorial   that summer. The speech  he delivered was the first time he used the "I Have a Dream" piece — perhaps the greatest speech of the century.

The record, by the way, was captured and distributed by Gordy Records, a division of Barry Gordy's Motown  label. Gordy Records was the label Motown developed for spoken word albums , a standard genre of the time. "The Great March To Freedom: Rev. Martin Luther King Speaks" was the inaugural disc from Gordy.

So there you have it — my personal MLK Day. It means a lot to me because he means a lot to me. Also, Guided By History will blog about Black History Month  most of February.

Let this be the first post that celebrates Black History! 

Posted by Charles at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Found in Artifacts, Assassinations, Events, First-hand Accounts, Holidays, Misc, Music, Opera, Perspective, Protests, Remember, Wells Fargo Bank

Wells Fargo has been musically inclined since the Gold Rush. In 1855, we advanced money for an Italian opera troupe. However they defaulted, so we seized their trunk of costumes and musical instruments as security.

Actually, we are really kind hearted. In 1869, Madame Camilla Urso   proposed a music festival to benefit the Mercantile Library, featuring school children and musicians from around California and Nevada. Wells Fargo offered to carry sheet music, letters, and other equipment far and wide throughout its lines on the Pacific Coast for free. The successful San Francisco festival ran for five days in February 1870.

If it could be sent by express, Wells Fargo carried it. In May of 1860, a future jazz musician in Columbia asked Wells Fargo to supply copies of Schatzman's Sax Horn Instructor. Up they came from San Francisco.

On occasion, Wells Fargo contributed to the Big Bang Theory  . Mariposa agent Julia Jones delivered a bass drum to complete a brass band at Whitlock's Gold Mine . In the spring of 1897, this band, splendid in their white uniforms, serenaded Mariposans with "Old Folks at Home," "The Man in the Moon," and the "Young Bandsman."

In the summer of 1917, Wells Fargo also carried "several valuable violin bows from Colorado Springs to Chicago. Accompanying these bows in a handsome, sturdy, brass-bound packing case were also a few violins – one made by Nicola Amati   in 1662, another by Carlo Bergonzi   in 1723, and a third, modern one produced by Joseph Guarnerius   in 1731.

Wells Fargo starred in the performance of express service. Meredith Willson drew on his boyhood memories in Iowa to write The Music Man  . That story revolves around the arrival of band instruments on the "Wells Fargo Wagon." The whole town turns out to sing: "O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is-a comin' down the street, Oh, Please let it be for me!"

Our relations with opera singers improved through the years — we even starred in an opera. In 1910, when Puccini's Gold Rush opera The Girl of the Golden West   appeared, Wells Fargo's agent was heroic.

Posted by Bob at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Found in Artifacts, Branding, Broadway, Gold, Hollywood, Misc, Movies, Music, Opera, Perspective, Remember, San Francisco, The Music Man, Wells Fargo Bank, Westerns

As if it wasn't bad enough losing Frankie Laine  last winter...

The great Luciano Pavarotti  died the other day. He'd been ill for a few years and hadn't performed well in the years prior. But Pavarotti was a lovable guy and had a killer voice. Tenors can burn out early due to stresses on the voice, but Pavarotti was spot on for 40 years.

I like opera. But I'll qualify that by pointing out I do only by a process of elimination. I've listened to lots of recordings and have seen a fair number of live performances. The result is an appreciation for Wagner only when live, and French opera only on disc. I'll stand in the rain to hear Puccini and Mozart, but I'll ignore Verdi even if the ticket's free. It's what I hear that determines what I like, and I like Pavarotti.

Anyway, Pavarotti was one of those artists who hit the note where it was supposed to be hit. If there was an absolute dead-center of a note, he’d nail it. That puts him in exclusive company to my ears, along with Louis Armstrong  on trumpet, and of course, the perfect-est of the perfect, Ella Fitzgerald .  Pavarotti's voice is just so clear, and he had great abilities with the subtleties of drama. He made the Italian part of the music, too.

Luciano Pavarotti was the dude, one of opera's few "pop" stars who get non-opera people to listen to a note or two. Even in a less-than-flattering obituary  in the New York Times, Bernard Holland writes, "(Pavarotti) made a strong case for what his fame could do for opera itself."

To that point, Holland cites a 1998 interview with the tenor, who noted:

“I was lucky enough to make the first ’Live From the Met’ telecast. And the day after, people stopped me on the street. So I realized the importance of bringing opera to the masses. I think there were people who didn’t know what opera was before.”

The very worst part is that the standard for tenors is now Andrea Bocelli. In any case, Pavarotti went on to say:

“I think an important quality that I have is that if you turn on the radio and hear somebody sing, you know it’s me. You don’t confuse my voice with another voice.”

Here's a fine discography   to start you off with his singular voice. And you can turn it up, too. Nobody laughs at Pavarotti making the windows buzz, because everybody likes it.

Posted by Charles at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Found in Misc, Music, Opera, Wells Fargo Bank