Samuel Gesser
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Samuel Gesser
Samuel (Sam) Gesser, (7 January 1930 – 1 April 2008) was a Canadian impresario, record producer and writer. Early life Born the son of Polish immigrants, he grew up in the Plateau-Mont-Royal district of Montreal, where he attended Baron Byng High School. One night, he got caught in his regular habit of sneaking into a local cinema, and correctly predicted to the manager that "One day I'll be presenting shows here, so you better let me in." Gesser negotiated being allowed to remain if he helped to clean up after the shows, and reported having learnt much about all aspects of the entertainment business as a result. Working life Between 1949 and 1959 Gesser worked as a commercial artist, while writing hundreds of scripts for CBC radio and TV. During the late 1940s and early 1950s Gesser also travelled throughout Quebec making recordings of French Canadian fiddle tunes and folk songs, which he released on the Allied Records record label. In addition, he presented programs abo ...
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Sam Gesser
Samuel (Sam) Gesser, (7 January 1930 – 1 April 2008) was a Canadian impresario, record producer and writer. Early life Born the son of Polish immigrants, he grew up in the Plateau-Mont-Royal district of Montreal, where he attended Baron Byng High School. One night, he got caught in his regular habit of sneaking into a local cinema, and correctly predicted to the manager that "One day I'll be presenting shows here, so you better let me in." Gesser negotiated being allowed to remain if he helped to clean up after the shows, and reported having learnt much about all aspects of the entertainment business as a result. Working life Between 1949 and 1959 Gesser worked as a commercial artist, while writing hundreds of scripts for CBC radio and TV. During the late 1940s and early 1950s Gesser also travelled throughout Quebec making recordings of French Canadian fiddle tunes and folk songs, which he released on the Allied Records record label. In addition, he presented programs about f ...
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Edith Fowke
Edith Fowke, ''(née'' Margaret Fulton; 30 April 1913 Lumsden, Saskatchewan – 28 Mar 1996 Toronto) was a Canadian folklorist.Nygaard King, Betty and Ruth Pincoe. Fowke was educated at the University of Saskatchewan. She hosted the CBC Radio program ''Folk Song Time'' from 1950 to 1963. She wrote numerous books in collaboration with folklorist and composer Richard Johnston, including ''Folk Songs of Canada'' ( Waterloo Music Company 1954), ''Folk Songs of Quebec'' (Waterloo 1957), ''Chansons canadiennes françaises'' (Waterloo 1964), and ''More Folk Songs of Canada'' (Waterloo 1967). She is particularly noted for recording the songs of traditional singers O. J. Abbott, LaRena Clark, and Tom Brandon. Edith Fowke died in Toronto in 1996. Books * ''Folk Songs of Canada'' (1954) * * ''Lumbering Songs from the Northern Woods'' (1970) *Fowke, Edith and Bram Morrison (1972). ''Canadian vibrations = Vibrations canadiennes.'' Toronto: Macmillan of Canada. * ''The Penguin Book of ...
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Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred in 17 films, notably ''Wonder Man'' (1945), ''The Kid from Brooklyn'' (1946), ''The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' (1947), '' The Inspector General'' (1949), ''Hans Christian Andersen'' (1952), '' White Christmas'' (1954), and ''The Court Jester'' (1955). His films were popular, especially for his performances of patter songs and favorites such as "Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling". He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honour in 1986 for his years of work with the organization. Early years David Daniel Kaminsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 18, 1911 (though he would later say 1913), to Ukrainian–Jewish immigrants Jacob and Clara (''n ...
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Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more than 30 albums. Fluent in Spanish and English, she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages. Baez is generally regarded as a folk singer, but her music has diversified since the counterculture era of the 1960s and encompasses genres such as folk rock, pop, country, and gospel music. She began her recording career in 1960 and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, ''Joan Baez'', ''Joan Baez, Vol. 2'' and ''Joan Baez in Concert'', all achieved gold record status. Although a songwriter herself, Baez generally interprets other composers' work, having recorded songs by the Allman Brothers Band, the Beatles, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Woody Guthrie, Violeta Parra, the Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, Ste ...
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Nana Mouskouri
Ioanna "Nana" Mouskouri ( el, Ιωάννα "Νάνα" Μούσχουρη ) (born 13 October 1934) is a Greek singer. Over the span of her career, she has released over 200 albums in at least twelve languages, including Greek, French, English, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Hebrew, Welsh, Mandarin Chinese and Corsican. Mouskouri became well known throughout Europe for the song "The White Rose of Athens", recorded first in German as "Weiße Rosen aus Athen" as an adaptation of her Greek song "" (''San sfyríxeis tris forés'', "When you whistle three times"). It became her first record to sell over one million copies. Later in 1963, she represented Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song " À force de prier". Her friendship with the composer Michel Legrand led to the recording by Mouskouri of the theme song of the Oscar-nominated film ''The Umbrellas of Cherbourg''. From 1968 to 1976, she hosted her own TV show produced by BBC, ''Presenting ...
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Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album '' Calypso'' (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is best known for his recordings of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature "Day-O" lyric, " Jump in the Line", and " Jamaica Farewell". He has recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, including ''Carmen Jones'' (1954), '' Island in the Sun'' (1957), and ''Odds Against Tomorrow'' (1959). Belafonte considered the actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson a mentor, and was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. As he later recalled, "Paul Robes ...
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Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, workers' rights, and environmental causes. A prolific songwriter, his best-known songs include "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (with additional lyrics by Joe Hickerson), " If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (with Lee Hays of the Weavers), " Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (also with Hays), and "Turn! Turn! Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement. "Flowers" was ...
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Irving Layton
Irving Peter Layton, OC (March 12, 1912 – January 4, 2006) was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following, but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography (2001), Layton fought Puritanism throughout his life: Life Early life Irving Layton was born on March 12, 1912, as Israel Pincu Lazarovitch in Târgu Neamţ to Romanian-Jewish parents, Moses and Klara Lazarovitch. He migrated with his family to Montreal, Quebec in 1913, where they lived in the impoverished St. Urbain Street neighbourhood, later made famous by the novels of Mordecai Richler. There, Layton and his family (his father died when Irving was 13) faced daily struggles with, among others, Montreal's French Canadians, who were uncomfortable with the growing numbers of Jewish newcomers.''Poet Irving Layton dies at 93: Was nominated for Nobel Prize'', Chatham Daily News (ON). News, Thursday, January 5, 2006, p.2. Retrieved October 6, 20 ...
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Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize. Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not begin a music career until 1967. His first album, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' (1967), was followed by three more albums of folk music: ''Songs from a Room'' (1969), ''Songs of Love and Hate'' (1971) and ''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'' (1974). His 1977 record '' Death of a Ladies' Man'', co-written and produced by Phil Spector, was a move away f ...
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Alan Mills (music)
Alan Mills (born Albert Miller; September 7, 1912 or 1913 – June 14, 1977 ) was a Canadians, Canadian folksinger, writer, and actor. He was best known for popularizing Canadian folk music, and for his original song, ''There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly''. He appeared on several radio and television programs and in movies. Career As a young man, Mills worked as a newspaperman. He left this work in about 1940 and took a job in radio. He hosted a show for CBC radio on which he played Canadian folk music. Mills began singing and recording traditional music from Canada, accompanying himself on guitar. His first album, ''Let's Sing a Little'', was released by RCA Victor. He composed the classic folk song ''I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly'' (with lyrics by Rose Bonne) which was later recorded by Burl Ives, Peter Paul and Mary and many others. He published a book, ''The Alan Mills Book of Folk Songs and Ballads'', in 1949. His r ...
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Monique Leyrac
Monique Leyrac, (26 February 1928 – 15 December 2019) was a Canadian singer and actress who popularized many songs by French-Canadian composers. Early life Leyrac was born Monique Tremblay in Montreal, Quebec.Alexis Luko, Rachelle Taylor and Hélène Plouffe"Monique Leyrac" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', 12 March 2007. She helped raise her siblings while her mother worked as a milliner, while educating herself by reading poetry and fiction. She studied drama with Madame Maubourg. Career Leyrac began her acting career on the radio in 1943, using her knowledge of music and drama. In 1965 she won the grand prize at the Sopot International Song Festival in Poland for her rendition of Gilles Vigneault's "Mon Pays".Carlotta Hacker. The Book of Canadians'. Hurtig; 1 October 1983. . p. 130. That year she also won first prize at the Festival de la Chanson at Ostende, Belgium. In 1967 she sang at Expo 67.Bill Marshall. France and the Americas'. ABC-CLIO; 2005. . p. 720. Leyrac was na ...
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Jacques Labrecque
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over one hundred identified noble families related to the surname by the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Origins The origin of this surname ultimately originates from the Latin, Jacobus which belongs to an unknown progenitor. Jacobus comes from the Hebrew name, Yaakov, which translates as "one who follows" or "to follow after". Ancient history A French knight returning from the Crusades in the Holy Lands probably adopted the surname from "Saint Jacques" (or "James the Greater"). James the Greater was one of Jesus' Twelve Apostles, and is believed to be the first martyred apostle. Being endowed with this surname was an honor at the time and it is likely that the Church allowed it because of acts during the Crusades. Indeed ...
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