Monday, April 02, 2007

Music and sports

1931: Louis Armstrong sponsors a New Orleans semipro team called Louis Armstrong's Secret Nine.

1938: Fred Astaire tees off a series of golf balls in rhythm, pausing only for a fast shuffle between strokes as Dr. Tony Flagg in the musical Carefree.

1963: Before becoming heavyweight champion, Cassius Clay releases an album, “I am the Greatest,” singing, “Here I predict Mr. Liston's dismemberment. I'll hit him so hard he'll wonder where October and November went.”

1970: After winning the heavy weight championship, Olympic gold winner Joe Frazier hits the road with a Memphis-style soul revue, Smokin’ Joe and the Knockouts.

1974: Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley promotes 11-year-old batboy Stanley Burrell to honorary vice-president of Oakland A’s. Sixteen years later, Burrell records top-selling rap album of all time “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em,” under name M.C. Hammer.

1985: Country musician Mike Reid, a former Cincinnati All-Pro defensive lineman, is named ASCAP’s Songwriter of the Year.

1994: Rod Steward pays $100,000 to have a soccer field built next to his home.

1995: Critically acclaimed jazz bassist and NBA veteran power forward Waymon Tisdale signs a 7-album deal with MoJazz records.

1996: Project Rhythm blends sports and music and is sponsored by Rogerick Green, a corner back for the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars.

1997: Music and sports camps are turning up with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s program, Jazz Sports.

1999: Jose Carreras, one of three tenors with Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, jokes shortly before a performance preceding the World Cup in France, “We’re singing in Paris in the hope of getting seats at the final.”

2000: L.A. Lakers play Kobe Bryant releases “Visions” in 2000.

Sports psychologist, Don Greene prepares musicians to audition to the New World Symphony

2001: The first African American to claim a United States vaulting record, Laurence Johnson, releases jazz vocal CD “It May Be Right.”

Sources: Sports Illustrated, 5/24/99 Vol. 90 Issue 21. Rock ‘N Roll is Here to Play
Saturday Evening Post, July/August 1996 Vol. 268 Issue 4 p. 15
Rolling Stone
No Fear: Sports Trainer Don Greene Demystifies the Stage Jitters, Strings, April 2000, p. 60, 62.)


2 comments:

sean coon said...

i know you hate the yankees, but no love for bernie williams? (i was sporting his jersey at lunch today).

g'night from knoxville.

Molly McGinn said...

Ok. So you're ONE reason the Yankees don't stink.

And I leave it to you to find the one true artist in the bunch.

Rock the knox.