Asha Bhosle and her sister Lata Mangeshkar stand as the undisputed leading voices of Bollywood film music. Across decades of cinema, both singers built extraordinary careers, contributing to thousands of film soundtracks and shaping the sound of Indian popular culture. Asha Bhosle, celebrated for her versatility and high‑energy performances, became a household name across generations in India. Her collaborations brought her international recognition, further expanding her global appeal. Over her prolific career, she earned two Grammy nominations and received India’s highest artistic honor, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, as well as the Padma Vibhushan, the nation’s second‑highest civilian award.
In the Indian film industry, playback singing refers to the practice of recording film songs in advance and then synchronizing them with actors on screen. Professional singers record the tracks, which are later inserted into the soundtrack while the actors lip-sync to them in the film. During shooting, the recorded song is played back over loudspeakers so the performers can match their timing, which is how the term “playback” originated. This method emerged in the late 1930s, once film technology made it possible to record sound separately from the image. Before that, actors and actresses had to sing their own songs while filming.
Asha Bhosle (left) and Lata Mangeshkar. (Photo courtesy of Britanica.com)
Since the late 1940s, Bhosle has been acclaimed as a playback singer, recording an unparalleled range of songs across genres and languages. Her vast body of work earned her a Guinness World Record for the most studio recordings by any artist. Known for a vocal style that was flirtatious, rhythmically bold, and refreshingly modern, she broke from traditional playback conventions and connected with a younger, more cosmopolitan audience. Alongside Lata Mangeshkar, she has also performed extensively around the world, leaving an enduring legacy in Indian music.
Asha Bhosle passed away on 12 April 2026.
This according to the entry on “Women and music” by Jennifer C. Post in The Garland encyclopedia of world music. South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent (2013). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
The first image of the post is of Asha performing in 1966, courtesy of Britannica.com
International Peace Gardens in Jordan Park, Salt Lake City, Utah
Situated about three miles away from the Hilton Salt Lake City Center, site of the 2026 annual meeting of the Music Library Association attended by RILM staff, Jordan Park contains a heritage setting that is uniquely global in character: the International Peace Gardens. The grounds feature 26 country-themed sections, each reflecting a nation’s culture and landscape, that are designed to foster peace and friendship.
The locale’s spirit of international cooperation recalls the global initiatives of UNESCO that inspired the organizational structure of RILM 60 years ago. It is rooted in the conviction that authoritative and incisive knowledge on human creativity can only be attained collectively, by embracing a multitude of perspectives. Today, as RILM continues to collect and amplify every voice in music research as a UNESCO-accredited NGO, the Peace Gardens remind us of the importance of embracing a global sensibility towards interdisciplinary research.
With the approach of Voicing Innocence (7-8 April 2026)—a conference that accompanies the performance of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Innocence at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from several different fields of inquiry—the picturesque area of the park designated to represent Finland (Saariaho’s homeland and that of many of the speakers and illustrious guests) seems particularly prescient and appropriate. It immediately calls to mind the surfeit of writings on Finland’s lands, history, music and instruments, musicians and artists, and so much more that RILM has documented across all of its resources over the last six decades.
Below is a sample of this collecting effort of just some of the holdings dedicated to, and to some extent produced by, Finland. We hope that it serves as an entry point into research on the country’s artistic production and appreciation for its incredibly rich cultural heritage.
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Those interested in research surrounding Finland will encounter a plethora of writings in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. The country itself is indexed in 8126 records (1493 available in full text). Over 2200 of these writings are in the Finnish language, and writings on Finland exist in 47 languages, attesting to the global musicological interest in the country. These publications reveal a broad and well-developed field that spans historical research, contemporary analysis, and documentation of musical life. Much of the focus lies in music history and musical life, alongside strong contributions from musicology and ethnomusicology, reflecting an interest in both institutional and lived musical practices. Scholarship covers a wide range of genres, including traditional music, popular music, jazz, and religious music, while also addressing pedagogy, performance practice, and musical instruments. These studies are often supported by extensive documentation such as discographies, catalogues, and bibliographies, underscoring a commitment not only to analysis but also to preservation and reference. Geographically and culturally, the material highlights both regional diversity and cultural specificity within Finland. Major urban centers such as Helsinki, Turku, and Tampere emerge as key hubs of musical activity and scholarship, while smaller localities like Kaustinen are especially prominent in the context of folk traditions and festivals. At the same time, research engages with Finland’s multilingual and multicultural fabric, particularly Finnish-Swedish, Sámi, and other minority communities, as well as immigrant groups. Overall, writings on music in Finland situate musical practices within broader cultural, social, and political frameworks, reflecting how music intersects with identity, regional heritage, and cultural policy.
Additional writings are concerned with “Finnish music outside Finland”, highlighting a diaspora-oriented perspective, where references are relatively sparse and spread across a small number of countries. Mentions appear in contexts such as Canada, Estonia, France, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S., along with broader regional references such as North America. Finnish music outside its country of origin is studied primarily in terms of diaspora presence and reception rather than in large volume, with modest attention distributed across neighboring Nordic and Baltic countries as well as select global contexts.
Content related to Finland in the RILM Index to Scores and Collected Editions reflects the country’s outsized contributions to the production and development of Western art music. Finland appears in 203 indexed records, encompassing detailed bibliographic information for 94 full scores, 58 parts, and 27 works for solo instrument or voice, alongside 45 records in Finnish and 20 associated with the historic Finnish publisher Fazer. The scope of available material is further demonstrated by major editorial projects such as Documenta musicae Fennicae, a 20-volume series presenting works by Finnish composers from the 18th and 19th centuries, and the 27-volume edition of Jean Sibelius’s complete works, underscoring both the depth of archival resources and the international significance of Finnish musical output.
Oxford anthology of Western music. III, ed. Robert Rau Holzer and David J. Rothenberg (New York: Oxford University Press) 591–597 [RILM Index to Scores and Collected Editions, 2013-44897]
The RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazinesmentions Finland 383 times across 18different zines, attesting to international interest. Discourse on Finnish pop often centers on heavy metal and its stylistic offshoots. Finnish groups like Amorphis (blending death metal with local folk influences), Sentenced, and Stratovarius established a style characterized by melodic, atmospheric, and sometimes melancholic metal. By the 1990s, Finland’s reputation as an incubator for metal became solidified with the global success of groups like Nightwish, Children of Bodom, HIM, and Apocalyptica, partially defining subgenres like symphonic metal and melodic death metal.
“Finnish Line: Pagan Prog Rockers AMORPHIS defy death” by Michael Moynihan in Seconds no. 29, 1994
Finland has also produced a rich punk scene documented by several non-Finnish zines. Embracing the subversive potential of the music (and the zines themselves), writings from the 1980s sometimes situated music criticism and review within the context of the Soviet presence. Given its geographic proximity, history of conflict (e.g., the Winter and Continuation wars), perceived enforced capitulations surrounding so-called Finlandization policies, and Cold War threats, the Soviet Union as a reference point is rather unsurprising. Articles in zines offer a unique window into the agency and activities of subcultures eager to deploy text, image, and music, some as a response to perceived misunderstandings from outsiders about the Finnish situation, particularly in the country’s major cities.
Content related to Finland in the RILM Music Encyclopedias underscores the country’s rich and multifaceted musical heritage as represented across a wide range of reference works. The collection includes information on 464 Finnish musicians, 74 Finland-related topics, and 21 instruments associated with the country, alongside full encyclopedia entries dedicated to Finland in several major sources. Notable among these are Timo Leisiö’s entry in The concise Garland encyclopedia of world music, which situates Finnish music within its geopolitical, linguistic, and cultural contexts while also addressing traditional music, instruments, and developments such as jazz, and the collaborative article by Liv Greni, Miep Zijlstra, Dilkka Kolehmainen, and Rina Barbier in the Algemene muziek encyclopedie, which traces Finland’s musical history from liturgical and secular traditions through to postwar developments, including education, ballet, and key genres.
Earlier and complementary perspectives are provided by the Finland entry in Hugo Riemann’s Musik-Lexikon, which documents sacred, secular, and traditional music in a historical framework from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Together, these sources are further enriched by specialized scholarship such as The historical dictionary of the music and musicians of Finland by Ruth-Esther Hillilä and Barbara Blanchard Hong, the only comprehensive English-language reference devoted entirely to Finnish music and culture. Spanning a broad historical range from antiquity to the late 20th century, these encyclopedic resources collectively highlight the depth of Finnish musical life, its historiography, and its continued relevance within both national and international contexts.
Kalevala-style song (soloist and choir): Timo Leisiö, Kalevalaisen kansanlaulun ulottuvuuksia, 1976. Liv Greni, Miep Zijlstra, Dilkka Kolehmainen, and Rina Barbier, “Finland”, Vocale muziek, Algemene muziek encyclopedie, eds. Jozef Robijns and Miep Zijlstra (Haarlem: De Haan/Unieboek, 1979–84). Article published 1980.
Finally, the articles dedicated to Finland in the standalone encyclopedias—DEUMM Online and MGG Online—provide a thorough inspection of the county’s vocal and instrumental traditional musics, art music from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era, and modern musical life, including the music industry, concerts, opera, and festivals. Valuable bibliographies accompany both as well.
Beyond this, both resources contain many entries that center on Finnish musicians across several genres. In MGG Online, the researcher will encounter 62 Finnish composers, 14 conductors, and eight pianists, for example. Additionally, both encyclopedias cover not only the nation’s artistic production, but its scholarly output as well, with entries on prominent Finnish musicologists and music critics.
The jouhikko player Juho Vaittinen (d.1916) from East Karelia, in playing position. Ilkaa Oramo, “Finnland”, Volksmusik, Die Instrumente und die Instrumentalmusik, MGG Online, ed. Laurenz Lütteken. (New York: RILM; Kassel: Bärenreiter; Stuttgart: Metzler, 2016–) Article published November 2016.
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James Chambers, better known as Jimmy Cliff, one of Jamaica’s most prolific and celebrated performers, and an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has been hailed as the first true superstar of Jamaican music. As a uniquely gifted singer-songwriter, Cliff was among the earliest artists to bring reggae to a global audience. With more than 25 studio albums to his credit, he was the only living musician to have received the Jamaican government’s Order of Merit for his contributions to national culture. Yet his path to international acclaim was far from straightforward. Born James Chambers in Adelphi, a small, rural town on Jamaica’s north coast near Montego Bay, Cliff’s early life was marked by poverty, controversy, and prejudice.
A mural honoring Jimmy Cliff in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Following the dissolution of his parents’ marriage, Cliff and his older brother were raised by their father, a Pentecostal Christian, in a modest two-room shack. When Hurricane Charlie destroyed their home in 1951, Cliff was forced to live for a time with his aunt and grandmother on a nearby farm. At Somerton All Age School, his intelligence was quickly recognized by a teacher who recommended that he pursue studies in electronics at Kingston Technical High School. Moving to Jamaica’s capital of Kingston in the late 1950s, Cliff began studying electronics while simultaneously entering talent contests under the stage name Jimmy Cliff.
Jimmy Cliff in Kingston, mid-1970s.
Cliff’s appearance at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York brought him to the attention of Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who brought him to London two years later and promoted him as a soul singer, backed by musicians who would later form Mott the Hoople. Even before Bob Marley’s international breakthrough in the 1970s, Cliff introduced Jamaican rocksteady to U.S. audiences through his starring role in the 1972 cult classic film The harder they come. His portrayal of Ivan in the groundbreaking film drew on elements of his own youthful experiences. The film’s soundtrack became a reggae primer for many listeners unfamiliar with the genre, with Cliff contributing four songs, including his enduring You can get it if you really want, which reached number two on the U.K. singles chart; the title track, The harder they come; and the soulful ballad Sitting in limbo.
Promotion poster for The harder they come (1972).
Cliff was among the first Jamaican vocalists to relocate to London in pursuit of greater recognition. He also became one of the earliest artists to make a significant impact in South America and Africa, broadening his musical output to reach diverse audiences.
Cover art for The harder they come soundtrack.
Cliff was also the first reggae singer to assume a leading role in a feature film (The harder they come) which introduced international audiences to Jamaica’s vibrant musical culture. His distinctive style of reggae, infused with non-Jamaican musical elements, resonated strongly in Africa, leading to performances in Nigeria in 1974 and a subsequent tour of West Africa three years later.
This according to Jimmy Cliff: An unauthorized biography by David Katz (Oxford: Signal Books, 2011; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature 2011-18440).
Jimmy Cliff passed away on 24 November 2025 at the age of 81.
Cliff performs at the Love Supreme Jazz Festival in 2019.
As a child, Indian playback singer M.L. Vasanthakumari–affectionately known as Vasanthi–dreamed of becoming a doctor, inspired by her belief that “doctors save lives.” Though she ultimately did not pursue a medical career, Vasanthi touched countless lives through the power of her resonant voice. In many ways, music was her birthright: both her parents were accomplished musicians. Her father, Koothanur Ayyasami Iyer, was deeply knowledgeable in Karnatak music and held a strong interest in Hindustani classical traditions. Her mother, Lalithangi, came from a family steeped in the fine arts, studied under several renowned musicians, and was an active concert performer.
M.L. Vasanthakumari performing in Karur.
Despite her parents’ deep involvement in Karnatak music and her evident musical talent from an early age, Vasanthi’s parents were initially reluctant to support a professional career in music. Instead, they enrolled her in a convent school in Madras (now Chennai), where she studied with the intention of pursuing medicine. Nevertheless, the rich musical environment at home offered her ample opportunities to sing and develop her craft. At a young age, she recorded her first 78-rpm single in 1941, paving the way for future recording contracts and releases. Her turning point came when the renowned Karnatak musician G. N. Balasubramaniam heard her sing and persuaded her parents to let him mentor her. At just 12 years old, Vasanthi accompanied her mother at a recital and soon after made her solo concert debut in Bengaluru.
Listen to M.L. Vasanthakumari perform live in Madras (Chennai) in 1975 here.
By the mid-1940s, Vasanthi had established herself as a playback singer, cultivating a distinctive voice and style that would make her one of the leading figures in Indian film music for the next two decades. She was a featured performer at nearly every major music festival in South India, as well as in prominent Karnatak music circles across the country. Her presence on radio was equally pervasive, further solidifying her reputation as a national icon. Vasanthi remained a top performer in India until her passing in October 1990. Her mentor, G. N. Balasubramaniam, once remarked, “Vasanthi typifies real discipleship. She applies her mind to what all she absorbs and presents a glorious edifice of her own creation.”
This according to “M. L. Vasanthakumari–Melody, laya, vidwat” by N. Pattabhi Raman, et al. (Sruti 75-76 [1990–1991] 25–42,47–63; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature 1991-38894). Find it in RILM Abstracts with Full Text.
An official Indian postage stamp celebrating M. L. Vasanthakumari.
The Indian singer Jayashri Ramnath (better known as Bombay Jayashri) was introduced to Karnatak music in her early childhood, influenced by her parents’ roles as music teachers. Jayashri began her performing career at the age of 28, and having grown up in cosmopolitan Mumbai (formerly Bombay), she was exposed to a wide range of music genres, including bhajans, film music, Hindustani classical, and light music. Despite this diverse musical background, Jayashri’s passion for Karnatak music remained at the core of her identity. During her childhood and college years, she kept her Karnatak training a secret while also exploring other musical opportunities, including singing jingles. Her voice, shaped by Hindustani training, combined with her soulful delivery drawn from her eclectic musical experiences, made Jayashri a distinctive performer.
Jayashri also has ventured into other genres, frequently collaborating with a variety of instrumentalists and vocalists. Boldly, for a Karnatak classical singer not yet widely established, she sang for films in multiple South Asian languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. Many of these film songs became huge successes, earning her the title of best female playback singer in Tamil Nadu province. Until today, her music is characterized by a contemplative quality known as sruti suddham. Initially criticized for offering sweet music rather than more profound depth, Jayashri’s style has matured into a serene and resonant presence. Her stage demeanor exudes dignity, free from unnecessary gestures, reflecting her deep connection to the beauty of raga. As a composer, she has also earned recognition for her collaborations with artists like Chitra Visweswara, Parvathy, and others.
Jayashri with her son, Amrit.
The most exceptional aspect of her musical career, however, is her immense popularity, which spans across regions and extends worldwide. She has truly become an internationally beloved star, forging a unique connection with diverse audiences through her hypnotic and compelling voice. Beyond her musical talents, she is known for her warmth and kindness in post-concert interactions, leaving lasting memories not only of her remarkable music but also of her humble and genuinely kind nature.
This according to “Bombay Jayashri Ramnath–Notes of resilience: Reflecting with grace and gratitude” by Shailaja Khanna (Sruti: India’s premier magazine for the performing arts 31/1 [2024] 20–25; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2024-10526). Find it in RILM Abstracts with Full Text.
Below, Jayashri performs at a concert in Sri Lanka.
Jayashri performs Valli devasenapate.
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The U.S. composer and conductor William Grant Still, whose maternal grandmother had been a slave on a plantation in Georgia, attended Wilberforce University in Ohio from 1911 to 1915 after attending high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, where his mother taught English literature. Still learned to play the violin, cello, and oboe and wrote his first arrangements and began to compose as an autodidact. In 1917, he enrolled at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied composition and theory. After eight months of service in the Navy during World War I, Still briefly resumed his studies but in 1919, went to work in New York as an arranger for the Pace and Handy Music Publishing Company, for which he arranged, among other things the songSaint Louis blues, which was recorded by James Reese Europe’sHellfighters (369th Infantry Regiment Band). In 1936, he conducted the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and in 1955, the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. In both instances, Still was the first African American conductor to do so.
As many of the titles reveal, nearly all of Still’s work reflected African American life. His first orchestral compositions were Darker America (1924), From the journal of a wanderer (1925), and From the Black belt (1926). Two major orchestral pieces, Africa (1930) and the popular Afro-American symphony (1930), established his wide reputation and helped him earn a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1933. At this time, Still turned his attention to the stage with two ballets for the Ruth Page Company of Chicago: La guiablesse (1927), set in Martinique, and Sahdji (1930), with an African background. A third ballet, Miss Sally’s party, dates from 1940. In 1934, Still received another Guggenheim Fellowship for composition and moved from New York to Los Angeles, where he completed his first opera, Blue steel (1934).
Still with Verna Arvey and their two children. Photo courtesy Judith Anne Still.
This marked the beginning of a series of stage works characterized by close collaboration with Verna Arvey, a white Jewish pianist, librettist, and writer, and Still’s second wife, which became high points of his career. Almost all these works addressed racial problems in the U.S., with Troubled island being the most notable example. Created in collaboration with Langston Hughes, it premiered in 1949 at the New York City Center. Still’s dedication to African American themes resulted in three notable text settings: And they lynched him from a tree (1940); Plainchant for America (1941), and Pages from Negro history (1943). He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship again in 1935 and 1938. During this time, Still composed for film and television while also pursuing his aspirations as a composer of serious music.
This according to the Dictionary of American classical composers (2005). Find it in RILM Music Encylopedias.
Listen to two of William Grant Still’s better known compositions below.
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From 1918 to 1928, Tin Pan Alley solidified its connection with the film industry. Although early films lacked sound, music played a crucial role in enhancing the viewing experience, often provided live by a pianist in theaters. Charles N. Daniels, writing under the pseudonym Neil Moret, teamed up with lyricist Harry Williams to compose the first commissioned title song for a film. The song, Mickey, was released by Daniels and Wilson in 1918 to coincide with the film’s debut, starring Mabel Normand, whose image was featured on the sheet music cover. Later that year, Mickey was acquired by Waterson, Berlin, and Snyder, who published it in two small editions, helping to launch the trend of title songs that remains popular to this day.
Many famous silent film stars, such as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Pearl White, graced the covers of sheet music as early as 1914. March of the movies by M. A. Althouse (1915) features an illustration of an audience in a nickelodeon, watching Chaplin in his tramp costume, accompanied by a pianist in the pit. Those Keystone comedy cops by Charles McCarron (1915) showcases a classic photo of Mack Sennett’s Keystone cops on the cover, with Ford Sterling on the phone and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle eavesdropping on the conversation. Over the next twenty years, the film industry would become a powerful promoter of songs, with major studios even acquiring some of Tin Pan Alley’s most prominent firms to manage their musical needs.
The composer Ernö Rapée helped popularize the use of thematic music—stock melodies designed to accompany common silent film scenes—through two well-known collections he published in the mid-1920s. Many orchestra leaders in smaller towns and cities relied on these books as a guide to provide music for films. Rapée also composed several original scores, with his most famous being the 1926 What price glory? The theme song from the film, with lyrics by Lew Pollack, became a major hit under the title Charmaine.
Below is a recording of Charmaine performed by David De Groot and The Piccadilly Orchestra in 1927.
The advent of talking pictures made music’s role in film even more crucial. Broadway musicals were a natural fit for adaptation to the new medium, and film studios quickly realized the need to hire composers and lyricists to create both background music and songs for their films. Hit songs also served as excellent promotional tools to attract audiences to theaters, prompting studios to acquire music publishers to profit from their catalogs. Major studios like Warner Bros., MGM, and Paramount became heavily involved in music publishing.
The Great Depression had a significant impact on Broadway, forcing many writers who relied on the numerous revues and shows to turn to Hollywood for work. While some were dissatisfied with how their songs were often treated as mere commodities—added or removed from films at will—others found the medium creatively fulfilling. Over time, unique musical films emerged featuring songs that were just as memorable and well-crafted as the Broadway hits of the Tin Pan Alley era.
This according to Tin Pan Alley: An encyclopedia of the golden age of American song (2012). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
An example of the early use of music in film from One week featuring Buster Keaton (1920).
As a child prodigy, Quincy Jones was awarded a scholarship to what would later become the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he began his studies in 1951. He further honed his skills by studying arranging in Paris under the guidance of the highly influential teacher Nadia Boulanger. Born in Chicago and raised in Seattle, Jones was immersed in music from a young age. At just 12, he performed in a gospel group, and by the age of 14, he formed his first band with a young Ray Charles. Despite their early collaboration and lifelong friendship, Jones and Charles surprisingly did not work together more closely in later years. Reflecting on their bond, Charles once remarked, “Quincy had a loving style about him. He was genuine. We hit it off right away.” Their relationship, formed during their teenage years in Seattle, remained a strong and enduring one throughout their lives.
In the 1950s, Quincy Jones moved to New York, where his reputation as an arranger quickly began to flourish. He worked as a freelancer on recording sessions for labels such as Epic and Mercury, collaborating with a range of iconic artists including Clifford Brown, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Sarah Vaughan. In 1953, Jones joined Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra, further cementing his place in the jazz world. By 1956, he became the musical director for an orchestra that toured internationally with the legendary Dizzy Gillespie, marking a pivotal moment in his career and solidifying his role as one of the most sought-after arrangers and conductors of his time.
Jones returned to New York long enough to become the musical director for Harold Arlen’s blues opera Free and Easy, which featured a band that included renowned musicians such as Clark Terry, Phil Woods, and Budd Johnson. The production toured Europe in 1959 and 1960, further expanding Jones’ influence in the jazz and music world. During this period, he also arranged songs for artists like Peggy Lee and Billy Eckstine and conducted the Count Basie Orchestra during joint performances with Frank Sinatra.
In the 1960s, Jones served as an artist and repertoire (A&R) director for the Mercury label, where he played a key role in producing a string of chart-topping pop hits for a variety of artists. He also established himself as a prolific composer of soundtracks and a recording artist in his own right. However, in 1974, Jones suffered a near-fatal stroke, which posed a serious threat to both his career and his life. Despite this setback, his resilience and dedication to music would help him recover and continue to shape the music industry for decades to come.
Quincy Jones with Michael Jackson (early 1980s).
Jones’ success continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He produced albums for iconic artists like George Benson and Chaka Khan, further establishing his versatility and influence across genres. However, it was his legendary partnership with Michael Jackson that truly cemented his place in music history. Jones played a pivotal role in producing Jackson’s first three platinum solo albums, Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad, albums that propelled Jackson to global megastardom.
Besides his work with pop and jazz musicians, Jones earned widespread recognition for his film and television scores. He won an Academy Award in 1967 for his work on the score for In cold blood, showcasing his talent as a composer for cinema. His contributions to the music world were not limited to recording; he also became co-producer of the Montreux Jazz and World Music Festival, further solidifying his influence in shaping the direction of both jazz and international music.
This according to the Encyclopedia of music in the 20th century (2013). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
Watch a 1965 performance the Quincy Jones Orchestra (with Jones directing) below.
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DEUMM Online digitizes, enhances, and extends the Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti (DEUMM), the most important modern music dictionary in the Italian language. Comprising a broad range of entries (persons, topics, dances, genres, geographical locations, institutions, instruments, and works), DEUMM Online uses advanced and intuitive search and translation functionalities. This venerable music encyclopedia, which has set the standards in modern Italian music lexicography, is, in its new online format, once again an indispensable node in a comprehensive, international, networked research experience.
For those unable to join the Rome event in person, the event will be live streamed on YouTube by Fondazione Roma Tre Teatro Palladium, accessible directly from the following QR code:
The program (below) will include Daniele Trucco’s DEUMM-inspired music, greetings from Luca Aversano (President, ADUIM), Marcoemilio Camera (President, IAML Italia), and Tina Frühauf (Executive Director, RILM), as well as presentations by Zdravko Blažeković (Executive Editor, RILM), Stefano Campagnolo (Director, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma), Alex Braga (composer), and DEUMM Online’s general editors Antonio Baldassarre and Daniela Castaldo. Pianist Giuseppe Magagnino will also perform works by Ellington, Beethoven, The Beatles, and more.
And mark your calendars: DEUMM Online will be featured again at the following events:
19 November 2024: Turin, hosted by Istituto per i Beni Musicali di Piemonte at the Teatro Regio
21 November 2024: Milan, hosted by the Archivio Storico Ricordi in the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense
The Hollywood Bowl is one of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with seating for 18,000 people. The first concert season was held in 1922 and since that time, some of the greatest performers have appeared in this venue, including such diverse artists as Jascha Heifetz, Otto Klemperer, Leonard Bernstein, Judy Garland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Beatles, The Doors, The Who, Ben Harper, and Halsey.
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was founded by Leopold Stokowski in 1945 and gained immediate recognition for its distinctive sound and exciting programs. In the 1950’s the orchestra was conducted by Carmen Dragon, who introduced the popular evening concerts. In 1991, John Mauceri took over the orchestra and greatly enhanced its proud tradition. The repertoire of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is quite diverse, ranging from Mozart to Motown. Each season, the orchestra can be heard performing Broadway favorites, film music, pop, jazz, classical music, and premieres by living composers. The specialty of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, however, has been the live performance of film music that previously had been heard only on original soundtracks. Beginning in the early 1990s, the Hollywood Bowl (and Los Angeles Philharmonic) have restored and performed a number of neglected or lost film scores. Some of this repertoire has been performed live by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra including the theme to Gone with the wind, the Dream ballet sequence from Oklahoma!, the Born in a trunk sequence from A star is born (1954), and many others.
Learn more in Conductors and composers of popular orchestral music: A biographical and discographical sourcebook (2013). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
Below is a medley of music from well-known movies performed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
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The library of the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris is home to an extensive collection of writings on music from the Arab world, a region stretching from the Atlas Mountains to the Indian Ocean. This series … Continue reading →
The Filipino ethnomusicologist and composer Jose Maceda created unique works that blended his fieldwork on Filipino and other music with his expertise in European avant-garde traditions. His compositions combined innovative techniques such as spatialization, a focus on timbre, and musique … Continue reading →
The Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, and politician Youssou N’Dour was born just six months before Senegal achieved independence. His mother hailed from a long line of griots, or gawlo, who served as hereditary musicians and custodians of oral history in … Continue reading →
Ellis Marsalis first learned to play the clarinet and saxophone but the piano later became his main instrument. From 1951 to 1955, he completed a bachelor’s degree in music education at Dillard University in New Orleans while receiving informal jazz … Continue reading →
