Today in Music History for Dec. 23:
In 1893, the Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Haensel und Gretel" was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.
In 1935, singer Little Esther Phillips was born in Galveston, Texas. At age 13, she was a member of Johnny Otis' Rhythm and Blues Revue. She had a number of R&B hits in the early '50s but was forced to retire temporarily because of illness later in the decade. Phillips came back stronger than ever at the start of the '60s with an R&B version of a country ballad, "Release Me." He died in Torrance, Calif., on Aug. 7, 1984.
In 1938, music impresario John Hammond presented his famous "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. The event introduced many black jazz musicians to a white audience for the first time, and helped launch a craze for the rhythmic boogie-woogie piano style.
In 1941, folk singer and songwriter Tim Hardin was born in Eugene, Ore. Hardin's best-known composition is "If I Were a Carpenter," which provided Bobby Darin with a hit in the early '60s, and a gold-record single for Johnny Cash and June Carter later in the decade. In 1980, Tim Hardin was found dead of a heroin overdose in his Hollywood apartment.
In 1955, pioneer rock 'n' roll disc jockey Alan Freed sponsored a week-long series of shows at the Academy of Music in Manhattan. The bill included both jazz and R&B acts, such as "The Count Basie Orchestra" and "The Cadillacs." The shows took in more than $100,000.
In 1963, the establishment of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Ottawa was approved by the federal government.
In 1964, "The Beach Boys" guiding force, Brian Wilson, had a nervous breakdown aboard a plane en route to a concert in Texas. After more than a year of isolation, Wilson came up with one of pop music's classic albums, "Pet Sounds."
In 1966, "Ready Steady Go," the British TV program that helped launch the careers of such stars as David Bowie, "The Rolling Stones" and Donovan, was broadcast for the last time.
In 1967, "The Rolling Stones" album "Their Satanic Majesties Request" was released.
In 1969, "The Supremes" began Diana Ross's farewell engagement at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. Ross would go on to a hugely successful solo career. "The Supremes" also continued to hit record charts with Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell.
In 1970, Canadian folksinger Joni Mitchell was awarded her first gold record for the album "Ladies of the Canyon." The LP contained the hit single "Big Yellow Taxi."
In 1972, "Grand Funk Railroad's" rehearsal for a live album in New York was interrupted by former manager Terry Knight, two deputy sheriffs and an attorney. Knight had a court order giving him the right to seize $1 million or equivalent assets, and he took the band's equipment after the show.
In 1980, John McVie of "Fleetwood Mac" and his wife, Julie, were arrested for cocaine possession in Honolulu after a police dog sniffed out the drug in their mail.
In 1985, three people were shot and wounded and one person was trampled during a performance by rap artist LL Cool J at a roller rink in Baltimore.
In 1985, two teenage fans of "Judas Priest," after listening to the band's "Stained Class" album for six hours, took a shotgun to a churchyard in Sparks, Nev., and shot themselves. Raymond Belknap died immediately and the other youth, James Vance, was wounded. Vance died Nov., 29, 1988, after lapsing into a coma while in hospital for treatment of depression. A drug overdose was blamed. The estate and parents of the young men filed suit against "Judas Priest," seeking $6.2 million in damages. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 1990, ruling there were no subliminal messages on the "Judas Priest" album, as the plaintiffs had claimed.
In 1992, Eddie Hazel, the original guitarist for George Clinton's black funk-rock band "Funkadelic," died in Plainfield, N.J., of complications from liver failure. He was 42. Hazel's combination of blues licks, funk rhythms and screaming rock solos helped make "Funkadelic" unique among soul bands of the 1970s. Hazel left the group in 1974, four years before its biggest hit, "One Nation Under a Groove - Part One."
In 1994, Courtney Love, in an interview published in "Spin" magazine, said husband Kurt Cobain's drug problems and constant threats to kill himself nearly drove her to suicide. Love said she put a revolver to her head but Cobain grabbed it from her. The incident occurred only weeks before Cobain killed himself with a shotgun at their Seattle-area home in April 1994.
In 1994, Dan Hamilton of "Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds" died in Sherman Oaks, Calif., following a long illness. He was 48. The trio's "Don't Pull Your Love" made the top-five in 1971 and "Fallin' in Love" hit No. 1 four years later.
In 1996, British saxophonist and jazz club owner Ronnie Scott was found dead at his London home. He was 69. There were widespread reports that he had committed suicide but a coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure, saying "an incautious overdose of barbiturates" had led to Scott's death. He opened Ronnie Scott's Club in London's Soho district in 1959. It became Britain's leading showcase for modern jazz, and among those who played there were Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Jimi Hendrix.
In 1996, "Motley Crue" bassist Nikki Sixx wed Baywatch actress Donna D'Errico in a private ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. They divorced in 2007.
In 2006, Nova Scotian-born musician Dutch Mason, known as "prime minister of the blues," died at age 68. The singer-guitarist was one of Canada's best-known blues artists. He was inducted into the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame and, in 2005, was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
In 2007, Canadian jazz legend Oscar Peterson, widely counted among the most accomplished pianists in the world for his seemingly magical hands, died at age 82 of kidney failure. Peterson's storied 50-year career took him from the jazz clubs of 1950s Montreal to the bright lights of New York's Carnegie Hall and beyond. He collected eight Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award in 1997, hundreds of prizes from the jazz community, the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement and was a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2005, Canada Post marked his contribution to music with a 50-cent stamp. The keyboard titan, who recorded almost 200 albums, played alongside the greats of the jazz world - Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.
In 2008, Clint Ballard Jr., the man who wrote Linda Ronstadt's 1975 No. 1 hit "You're No Good," died at age 77. He also wrote "The Game of Love" for "Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders," which was No. 1 in 1965.
In 2012, former "Ministry" guitarist Mike Scaccia died shortly after collapsing onstage while performing with his other band, "Rigor Mortis," in Fort Worth, Texas. Authorities ruled his death a result of a sudden heart attack brought on by heart disease. He was 47.
In 2013, two jailed members of the Russian punk bank Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, were released following an amnesty law that both described as a Kremlin public relations stunt ahead of the Sochi Olympics. They were convicted in August 2012 of hooliganism for an impromptu "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral calling for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against president Vladimir Putin.
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The Canadian Press
