Alfred Avison (July 7, 1920 – December 1984)^[1] is an American comic book artist known for his work on the Marvel Comics characters Captain America and the Whizzer during the 1930-1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of comic books.

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

The son of Connecticut artist and WPA muralist George Avison,^[2] Influenced by the work of his father and of commercial illustrator Albert Dorne,^[2] Al Avison studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.^[3] His first known comics work is co-inking Jack Kirby's lead story in Novelty Press' Blue Bolt Comics #4 (Sept. 1940).^[4]

Timely touchstones[link]

For Marvel Comics' predecessor, Timely Comics, penciler Avison and an unknown writer, co-created super-speedster the Whizzer in U.S.A. Comics #1 (August 1941).^[5] The character would appear in most issues of that comic, and was part of Timely/Marvel's first superhero team, the All-Winners Squad.

After Captain America creators Jack Kirby and Joe Simon moved on following Captain America Comics #10 (Jan. 1942), Avison and Syd Shores became regular pencilers of the celebrated title, with one generally inking over the other. Avison had been the inker over penciler Kirby on Captain America Comics #4-6 (June-Sept. 1941), and had penciled or inked that character's stories in All Winners Comics as early as issue #3 (Winter 1941-42).^[4] Shores would take over as regular penciller, inked by Vince Alascia, while Avison did his World War II military service.^[6]

Avison also worked as a penciler or, more often, as inker on characters including The Vision (in Marvel Mystery Comics); the Blonde Phantom; The Young Allies (in Amazing Comics, Kid Komics and Mystic Comics); writer-editor Stan Lee's the Black Marvel (in All Winners Comics); and Tommy Tyme (in Mystic Comics). With Joe Simon, he was one of two inkers on the Kirby-drawn debut of Marvel Boy in Daring Mystery Comics #6 (Sept. 1940). Avison's Timely work appears as late as Captain America Comics #71 (March 1949).^[4]

Other work[link]

Avison additionally worked on the original Captain Marvel for Fawcett Comics in 1941-42. He also freelanced for Harvey Comics both during and after his Timely stint, on such features as "The Red Blazer" (introducing him in Pocket Comics #1, Aug. 1941), "Casper the Friendly Ghost", "Captain Freedom" (including inking Jack Kirby's cover art on Speed Comics #16 & #18, Jan. & May 1942), "Joe Palooka", "The Green Hornet", "Humphrey", "Little Dot" and "Shock Gibson" (including the cover of Speed Comics #14, Dec. 1941), through at least the early 1950s.^[4]

Avison's last known work is penciling and inking the cover of Harvey's horror anthology Chamber of Chills #26 (Dec. 1954).^[4]

Golden Age reprints[link]

As inker, unless otherwise specified (p) for penciler, or (p)(i) for penciler & inker

• Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (Nov. 1968)

(p) The All-Winners Squad in "Chapter 1: Menace from the Future World", All Winners Comics #21 (Winter 1946-47)

• Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (Jan. 1969)

(p) The All-Winners Squad in "Chapter 4: Wave of Destruction", All Winners Comics #21 (Winter 1946)

The All-Winners Squad in "Chapter 7: War Between the Worlds", All Winners Comics #21 (Winter 1946)

• Comix: A History of the Comic Book in America, by Les Daniels and John Peck (Bonanza Books, 1971; reprinted Random House Value Publishing, 1988; ISBN 0-517-11037-7)

(p) (i) "The Vampire Strikes", Captain America Comics #24 (March 1943)

• Captain America: The Classic Years (1998) ISBN 0-7851-0660-X

"Bomb Sight Thieves", Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941)

"Captain America and Ivan the Terrible", Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941)

"Captain America in Horror Hospital", Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941)

"The Case of the Fake Money Fiends", Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941)

"The Unholy Legion", Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941)

"Captain America and the Ringmaster of Death", Captain America Comics #5 (Aug. 1941)

"Killers of the Bund", Captain America Comics #5 (Aug. 1941)

"The Gruesome Secret of the Dragon of Death", Captain America Comics #5 (Aug. 1941)

"The Terror that was Devil's Island, Captain America Comics #5 (Aug. 1941)

• The Golden Age of Marvel Comics, Vol. 2 (1999) ISBN 0-7851-0713-4

(p) The Black Marvel in "The Order of the Hood", All Winners Comics #1 (Summer 1941)

(p) "The Whizzer", USA Comics #1 (Aug. 1941)

• Captain America: The Classic Years, Vol. 2 (2000) ISBN 0-7851-0743-6

"Meet The Fang, Arch Fiend of the Orient", Captain America Comics #6 (Sept. 1941)

"The Camera Fiend and His Darts of Doom", Captain America Comics #6 (Sept. 1941)

"The Strange Case of Captain America and the Hangman Who Killed Dr. Vardoff?", Captain America Comics #6 (Sept. 1941)

• Marvel Visionaries: Stan Lee (2005) ISBN 0-7851-1693-1

(p) Captain America in "The Red Skull's Deadly Revenge", Captain America Comics #16 (July 1942):

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• The Syd Shores Timely Gallery. WebCite archive 2009-11-23
• Vassallo, Michael J. "A Timely Talk with Allen Bellman", Comicartville.com, 2005. WebCitation archive. 2009-11-23
• Heroes of the Golden Age (First page only archived 2009-10-24)

Tito Rodríguez (January 4, 1923 – February 28, 1973) was a popular 1950s and 1960s Puerto Rican singer and bandleader. He is known by many fans as "El Inolvidable" (The Unforgettable), a moniker based on his most popular interpretation, a song written by composer Julio Gutierrez.

Early years[link]

Rodríguez (birth name: Pablo Rodríguez Lozada), born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, to a Dominican father and a Cuban mother, became interested in music as a child. He was always surrounded by musical toys, such as guitars, pianos and trumpets. His older brother, Johnny Rodríguez was a popular song composer and bandleader, who inspired the younger Rodríguez to become a musician. In 1936, 13 year old Rodríguez joined the group of Ladislao (El Maestro Ladí) Martínez, "Industrias Nativas" as a singer and when he was 16 years old, he participated in a recording with the Mayari Cuartet. In 1940, Rodríguez emigrated to New York City shortly after his parents, Jose and Severina died. He went to live with his brother Johnny, who had been living there since 1935.^[1]

Musical career[link]

In New York, Rodríguez found a job as a singer and bongo player for the orchestra of Eric Madriguera. In 1941, he recorded "Amor Guajiro", "Acercate Mas" (Come Closer) and "Se Fue la Comparsa". In 1942, Rodríguez joined the band of Xavier Cugat, and recorded "Bin, Bam, Bum" and "Ensalada de Congas" (Conga Salad).^[2]

Rodríguez joined and served in the U.S. Army for one year. After he was discharged, he returned to New York where he joined the orchestra of José Curbelo. On one occasion, the band performed at the China Doll Cabaret. There he met a young Japanese chorus girl by the name of Tobi Kei (b. Takeku Kunimatsu, 23 January 1925, Bellingham, Washington, USA), who eventually became his wife.^[2]

Solo debut[link]

In 1947, Rodríguez made his "solo" debut and finally organized his own band, which he named "Los Diablos del Mambo". In 1950, he enrolled in The Juilliard School of the Performing Arts, where he studied the vibraphone, xylophone and percussion. He renamed his band "Los Lobos del Mambo" and later he dropped the name altogether. That's when he decided to go with the name "The Tito Rodríguez Orchestra". The first song that he recorded under the band's new name which became a "hit" was "Besame La Bemba" (Kiss My Big Lips). In 1952, he was honored for having developed his own unique singing style by the "Century Conservatory of Music of New York". His orchestra won the "Gran Trofeo Award" for two consecutive years.^[1]

In 1953, Rodríguez heard a percussionist by the name of Cheo Feliciano. Rodríguez was so impressed with Feliciano that he offered him a job in his band. Rodríguez discovered that Feliciano also knew how to sing and gave him an opportunity to sing at the Palladium Ballroom. Eventually Feliciano went to work for another band, but the friendship between the two lasted for the rest of their lives. Among the other orchestras that played at the Palladium were the Charlie Palmieri and Tito Puente orchestras. A rivalry, which was to last for years, quickly developed between the two Titos. The popular Latin music craze at the time was the cha-cha-cha and the Mambo.

Feuds[link]

The feud between the two Titos was reflected on some of Rodriguez's recordings. "Avisale a Mi Contrario Que Aqui Estoy Yo" (Tell My Counterpart That I Am Here) and "Que Pena Me Da" (I Pity You), are just two examples of the bad feelings between them.^[1]

Rodríguez also feuded with future bandleader Johnny Pacheco, who was once Rodríguez's musical arranger. When Pacheco went solo, he did three arrangements on hire for Puente. Since his financial situation at the time was not healthy, Pacheco later visited the band's rehearsal studio as to ask Rodriguez (who was not at the room at the time) for further work, then left. When Rodríguez returned, not only did he forbid his musicians to make any further contact with Pacheco, he wrote "A mí no me importas tú" ("I don't care about you"), an indirect jab against Pacheco which eventually became a popular salsa single.^[2]

1960s[link]

With the beginning of the 1960s, all that was going to change with the popularity gained by rock music. Latin bands began to switch their styles and started playing more salsa and boogaloo, which was more attractive to Latin youth of the day. Rodríguez then tried his luck with boleros and recorded various albums, which gave way to various hit songs, particularly "Inolvidable" (Unforgettable), composed by Julio Gutierrez, and "En La Soledad", (In Solitude), composed by Puchi Balseiro, which are considered by many to be his most successful songs. They sold over a million and a half copies world wide. He also produced records for other groups, such as Los Hispanos and Los Montemar.^[1]

Selected discography[link]

External audio
	You may listen to Tito Rodríguez's "Cara De Payaso" here.

Represented by Sony International (née Columbia Records.)

• 19__ WSLatino "Esta es mi Historia"
• 1960 United Artists "Tito Rodríguez Live at the Palladium"
• 1961 WS Latino "Charanga, Pachanga"
• 1961 WS Latino "Tito Returns to the Palladium - Live"
• 1962 WS Latino "Latin Twist"
• 1962 WS Latino "Tito's Hits"
• 1962 WSLatino "Let's do the Bossanova"
• 1963 Palladium Records "Tito Rodríguez from Hollywood"
• 1963 Palladium Records "Tito Rodríguez Live at Birdland"
• 1963 WS Latino "From Tito With Love"
• 1964 WSLatino "Carnaval de las Américas"
• 1967 WS Latino "En la Oscuridad"
• 1968 WSLatino "Esta es mi Orquesta"
• 1969 TR Records "Inolvidable"
• 1971 Fania "Tito Dice... Sepárala También" con el Sexteto La Playa
• 1972 (1949 a 1958) Tico Records-Fania Legend "Nostalgia con Tito Rodríguez"
• 1993 Palacio de la Música-WS Latino "Tito Rodríguez con la Rondalla Venezolana: Eternamente"
• 1995 Palacio América "Cindy & Tito Rodríguez: Alma con Alma"
• 1999 Palacio de la Música-WS Latino "Tito Rodríguez con la Rondalla Venezolana: Nuevamente Juntos"

Later years[link]

Rodríguez returned to Puerto Rico in 1970 and built a Japanese style house in Santurce, where he lived with his family. Rodríguez produced his own television show called "El Show de Tito Rodríguez" which was transmitted through San Juan's television Channel 7 (whose call letters were WRIK-TV at the time). Among the special guest stars that appeared in his show were Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett and Shirley Bassey. Rodríguez also founded his own recording studio called TR Records.

Rodríguez's last public appearance was with Machito and his Band on February 2, 1973 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tito Rodríguez died of leukemia on February 28, 1973.

Legacy[link]

On April 1999 Tito Rodríguez was represented by his son, Tito Rodríguez Jr., in the induction ceremonies of the International Latin Music Hall of Fame. Tito Rodríguez's Japanese style house in Puerto Rico is featured in tours of the San Juan metropolitan area. Cheo Feliciano recorded a tribute to Rodríguez honoring his memory.^[2]

On August 2010 reggae band Cultura Profetica release the song "Me faltabas tu" in the disc "La Dulzura" were the band plays his song with a modern bolero style.

See also[link]

Puerto Rico portal

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• Charanga
• Mambo
• Puchi Balseiro

References[link]

External links[link]

• Music of Puerto Rico

Francesco Geminiani.

Francesco Saverio Geminiani (5 December 1687 – 17 September 1762) was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist.

Biography[link]

Born at Lucca, he received lessons in music from Alessandro Scarlatti, and studied the violin under Carlo Ambrogio (Ambrosio) Lonati in Milan and afterwards under Arcangelo Corelli. From 1707 he took the place of his father in the Cappella Palatina of Lucca. From 1711, he led the opera orchestra at Naples, as Leader of the Opera Orchestra and concertmaster, which gave him many opportunities for contact with Alessandro Scarlatti. After a brief return to Lucca, in 1714, he set off for London, where he arrived with the reputation of a virtuoso violinist, and soon attracted attention and patrons, including William Capel, 3rd Earl of Essex, who remained a consistent patron. In 1715 Geminiani played his violin concerti for the court of George I, with Handel at the keyboard.

Geminiani made a living by teaching and writing music, and tried to keep pace with his passion for collecting by dealing in art, not always successfully. Many of his students went on to have successful careers such as Charles Avison, Matthew Dubourg, Michael Christian Festing, Bernhard Joachim Hagen, and Cecilia Young.

After visiting Paris and residing there for some time, he returned to England in 1755. In 1761, on one of his sojourns in Dublin, a servant robbed him of a musical manuscript on which he had bestowed much time and labour. His vexation at this loss is said to have hastened his death.

He appears to have been a first-rate violinist. His Italian pupils reportedly called him Il Furibondo, the Madman, because of his expressive rhythms. He is best known for three sets of concerti grossi, his Opus 2 (1732), Opus 3 (1733) and Opus 7 (1746), (there are 42 concerti in all) which introduce the viola as a member of the concertino group of soloists, making them essentially concerti for string quartet. These works are deeply contrapuntal to please a London audience still in love with Corelli, compared to the galant work that was fashionable on the Continent at the time of their composition. Geminiani also reworked a group of violin sonatas from his teacher Corelli into concerti grossi.

His Art of Playing the Violin published in London (1751) is the best-known summation of the 18th century Italian method of violin playing, and is an invaluable source for study of late Baroque performance practice, giving detailed information on vibrato, trills, and other violin techniques. His Guida harmonica (c.1752, with an addendum in 1756) is one of the most unusual harmony treatises of the late Baroque, serving as a sort of encyclopedia of basso continuo patterns and realizations. There are 2236 patterns in all, and at the end of each pattern is a page number reference for a potential next pattern; thus a student composer studying the book would have an idea of all the subsequent possibilities available after any given short bass line.

Geminiani published a number of solos for the violin, three sets of violin concerti, twelve violin trios, The Art of Accompaniment on the Harpsichord, Organ, etc. (1754), Lessons for the Harpsichord, Art of Playing the Guitar (1760) and some other works.

External links[link]

• Vita of Francesco Geminiani
• Free scores by Francesco Geminiani at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Francesco Geminiani in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Francesco Geminiani in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

This entry incorporates corrected and expanded material originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Domenico Scarlatti
1738 portrait by Domingo Antonio Velasco

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (26 October 1685 – 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.

Life and career[link]

Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was the sixth of ten children and a younger brother to Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, also a musician. He probably first studied under his father, the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti; other composers who may have been his early teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparini, and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom may have influenced his musical style.

He became a composer and organist at the royal chapel in Naples in 1701. In 1704, he revised Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's opera Irene for performance at Naples. Soon afterwards, his father sent him to Venice. After this, nothing is known of Scarlatti's life until 1709, when he went to Rome in the service of the exiled Polish queen Marie Casimire. He met Thomas Roseingrave there. Scarlatti was already an eminent harpsichordist: there is a story of a trial of skill with George Frideric Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome where he was judged possibly superior to Handel on that instrument, although inferior on the organ. Later in life, he was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill. In Rome, Scarlatti composed several operas for Queen Casimira's private theatre. He was Maestro Di Cappella at St. Peter's from 1715 to 1719. In 1719 he travelled to London to direct his opera Narciso at the King's Theatre.

According to Vicente Bicchi (Papal Nuncio at the time), Domenico Scarlatti arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 1719. There he taught music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. He left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728. In 1729 he moved to Sevilla, staying for four years and gaining a knowledge of flamenco. In 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house. The Princess later became Queen of Spain. Scarlatti remained in the country for the remaining twenty-five years of his life, and had five children there. After the death of his first wife in 1742, he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes. Among his compositions during his time in Madrid were a number of the 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known.

Scarlatti befriended the castrato singer Farinelli, a fellow Neapolitan also enjoying royal patronage in Madrid. The musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick commented that Farinelli's correspondence provides "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day." Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid, at the age of 71. His residence on Calle Leganitos is designated with a historical plaque, and his descendants still live in Madrid.

This section includes inline links to audio files. If you have trouble playing the files, see Wikipedia Media help.

Music[link]

	Sonata in D minor K. 9, Allegretto performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
	Sonata in E major K. 20, Presto performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
	Sonata in B minor K. 27, Allegro performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
	Sonata in F Minor K. 69 performed on a spinet by Ulrich Metzner
	Sonata in C major K. 159, Allegro performed on a piano by Veronica van der Knaap
	Sonata in B minor K. 377 MIDI rendition
	Sonata in E major K. 380, Andante comodo performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
	Sonata in E major K. 531, Allegro performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan

Only a small fraction of Scarlatti's compositions were published during his lifetime; Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, his 30 Essercizi ("Exercises"). These were rapturously received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, Charles Burney.

The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti has attracted notable admirers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, Heinrich Schenker, Vladimir Horowitz, Emil Gilels, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes. (There are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys.

Other distinctive attributes of Scarlatti's style are the following:

• The influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music. An example is Scarlatti's use of the Phrygian mode and other tonal inflections more or less alien to European art music. Many of Scarlatti's figurations and dissonances are suggestive of the guitar.
• A formal device in which each half of a sonata leads to a pivotal point, which the Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick termed "the crux", and which is sometimes underlined by a pause or fermata. Before the crux, Scarlatti sonatas often contain their main thematic variety, and after the crux the music makes more use of repetitive figurations as it modulates away from the home key (in the first half) or back to the home key (in the second half).

Ralph Kirkpatrick produced an edition of the sonatas in 1953, and the numbering from this edition is now nearly always used – the Kk. or K. number. Previously, the numbering commonly used was from the 1906 edition compiled by the Neapolitan pianist Alessandro Longo (L. numbers). Kirkpatrick's numbering is chronological, while Longo's ordering is a result of his grouping the sonatas into "suites". In 1967 the Italian musicologist Giorgio Pestelli published a revised catalogue (using P. numbers), which corrected what he considered to be some anachronisms.^[1]

Aside from his many sonatas, he composed a quantity of operas and cantatas, symphonias, and liturgical pieces. Well known works include the Stabat Mater of 1715 and the Salve Regina of 1757, which is thought to be his last composition.

References[link]

• Kirkpatrick, Ralph (1953). Domenico Scarlatti. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02708-0. 

Notes[link]

Free scores[link]

• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti at the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music for K.1 to K.176 John Sankey edition
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net harpsichord sonatas by Scarlatti
• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Sheet music engraved by Sebastiano Vigna

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Domenico Scarlatti

• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Domenico Scarlatti
• Converter for Scarlatti's Works Number
• Associazione Domenico Scarlatti
• John Sankey: Keyboard Tuning of Domenico Scarlatti
• John Sankey: Complete edition, harpsichord, downloadable recordings in MIDI
• The Life of Domenico Scarlatti
• Scarlatti Domenico – A new look at the keyboard sonatas; complete catalogue including newly discovered works
• "The mercurial maestro of Madrid" by Robert White, 20 July 2007, The Guardian
• 538 Piano Sonatas (mp3 files)
• Piano Society – A short biography and some free recordings in MP3 format, performed by Roberto Carnevale, Chase Coleman, Graziella Concas, Knut Erik Jensen