Brooklyn Music Milestones – April 2013
May 3, 1988: Funk-metal pioneers Living Colour release their debut album, Vivid, featuring lead vocals by Crown Heights native Corey Glover.
May 3, 2009: Ditmas Park rockers Aaron and Bryce Dessner curate a concert for the AIDS charity Dark Was the Night. The Dessners’ own band, The National, and fellow Brooklyn artists Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, The Dirty Projectors and My Brightest Diamond, mix it up on the Radio City Music Hall stage with the likes of David Byrne, Bon Iver and Feist.
May 19, 1962: With Bay Ridge’s John “Jay” Traynor singing lead, Jay & The Americans’ first hit single, She Cried, peaks at number five. It would be Traynor’s only hit with the group before embarking on a solo career. Today he sings with another classic Brooklyn vocal ensemble, Jay Siegel & The Tokens.
May 26, 2009: Grizzly Bear releases their third studio album,Veckatimest. It debuts at No. 8 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart and will go on to make several “Top 10” lists for the year. The following week, the band releases the first single from the album, Two Weeks, which not only garners considerable airplay, but also get sampled on more than half a dozen songs and appears on an equal number of TV and movie soundtracks.
June 1, 1981: It’s a dream come true for “Brooklyn’s Own” Joe Causi, as he becomes the new morning man at New York’s WKTU-FM. The Bensonhurst native is currently heard weeknights 7 p.m. to midnight on WCBS-FM, where he also hosts Saturday Night ‘70s.
June 6. 1981: Neil Diamond’s America becomes the third top 10 single from his phenomenal album The Jazz Singer, which on this same date is enjoying its 28th week in the top 25.
June 16, 1965: During the recording sessions for Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone, Brooklyn-born Al Kooper, a guitarist with little experience on keyboards, talks producer Tom Wilson into letting him sit in on the Hammond organ. When Dylan hears the playback, he asks to have the organ turned up higher in the mix. Kooper’s improvised organ part becomes an iconic element of the songRolling Stone magazine ranked No. 1 among “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
June 18, 2005. Wes Jackson launches the first Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. Among those taking the stage at The Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg are local favorites Medina Green, Ge-ology and Amir.
June 21, 1988: Big Daddy Kane, widely regarded as one of the best and most influential of the golden age rappers (he mentored Jay-Z among others),releases his debut album, Long Live the Kane.