Music of Philadelphia
A three-tiered music hall, restaurant, and bar, WCL has been host to such artists as George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic, Rhett Miller, Natalie Cole, KT Tunstall, Allen Toussaint, Pink Martini, Buckethead, and Liz Phair.
Philadelphia's diverse ethnic groups have established several organizations that promote their musical styles, including the Asian Arts Initiative and the Latin American Musicians Association (AMLA).
Perhaps the most famous annual musical event in Philadelphia is the Mummers Parade, a New Year's Day celebration that features outrageous costumes, old-time string bands and other entertainment.
The Mummers' string band is a large group of several dozen musicians who play banjos, violins, bass viols, glockenspiels, bells, accordions, saxophones and drums in an "old-fashioned, tinny sound approximating the popular music of 1900 and earlier".
One of the earliest English-language hymnals from the United States that still survives is an extant copy of Isaac Watts' Hymns and Spiritual Songs, printed in 1741 by Benjamin Franklin.
[19] Philadelphia saw the première in 1845 of the first American grand opera, Leonora by composer and music journalist of the National Gazette and the Public Ledger, William Henry Fry.
Many first American performances were given there, including Charles Gounod's Faust (in German, 1863), Richard Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer (in Italian, 1876) and Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele (1880).
[16] Philadelphia's population, like those of other major American metropolitan areas, grew steadily more diverse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with immigrants from Ireland, Russia, and Italy landing on the banks of the Delaware Bay and constituting the largest groups.
The latter became the 'theme song' of the Mummers, who established clubs and formally inaugurated the annual tradition in 1901 of dressing in extravagant costumes and parading on New Year's Day while performing on banjos, guitars, saxophones and glockenspiels.
Curtis has trained some of the world's best-known composers and musicians, including Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, Leonard Bernstein, and pianists Abbey Simon, Walter Hautzig, Richard Goode, Susan Starr, and Peter Serkin as well as current international performers including David Hayes, Juan Diego Flórez, Alan Gilbert, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang and Vinson Cole.
Other famous faculty members at Curtis over the years include pianists Jozef Hofmann, Rudolf Serkin, Gary Graffman and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, singers Margaret Harshaw, Eufemia Giannini Gregory, Charles Kullman, Richard Lewis, violinist Efrem Zimbalist, and composers George Frederick Boyle and Randall Thompson.
As Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly were creating rock and roll during the middle 1950s, Philadelphia—then experiencing a citywide cultural and political renaissance led by Mayors Joseph S. Clark and Richardson Dilworth and chief city planner Edmund Bacon—began in 1956 to host the national television show that would prove to transform popular music in America and around the world by bringing rock and roll brightest stars to West Philadelphia to accompany Philadelphia school kids as they danced after school at 46th and Market Streets--"American Bandstand" with host Dick Clark.
He is co-founder of the Irish music band Solas, and he co-wrote Sarah McLachlan's hit song "I Will Remember You", featured in the soundtrack for the film The Brothers McMullen, for which Egan also provided the score.
To that end, local composer, conductor and publisher Nicola Montani led the reform, which restricted musical style and instrumentation, and encouraged the use of polyphony, Latin and restored Gregorian chant.
Montani also created a list of music that did and did not meet the standards put forth by Motu Proprio, in the process banning or altering well-known works by composers ranging from Franz Schubert and Gioacchino Rossini to Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
[16][31] Philadelphia developed an early jazz scene, beginning with Ethel Waters, a singer from nearby Chester, Pennsylvania, who was the first star for Black Swan Records.
The city's early 20th century mainstream dance scene was led by the bandleader Howard Lanin, whose band performed popular showtunes, waltzes and light jazz.
[34] The city produced a number of bop-era saxophonists, the most famous of whom was John Coltrane, one of the most renowned jazz musicians of the 20th century, known for an "active, vigorous, emotionally charged style".
[32] The city also produced Charlie Biddle, Clifford Brown, Ray Bryant, Tommy Bryant, Kenny Dennis, Jimmy Oliver, Catalyst, Philly Joe Jones, Al Grey, Reggie Workman, Red Rodney, Jimmy Smith, Hank Mobley, Billy Root, Specs Wright, Jerry Thomas, Wilbur Ware, Hasaan Ibn Ali, Clarence Sharpe, John Dennis, Walt Dickerson, Johnny Coles, Lee Morgan, Cal Massey, Benny Golson, Odean Pope, Bill Barron, Kenny Barron, Arthur Harper, Jymie Merritt, Henry Grimes, Leon Grimes, Jimmy Garrison, Colmar Duncan, Sherman Ferguson, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Rodgers, D.B.
Shrier, Mickey Roker, Donald Bailey, Victor Bailey, Thornel Schwartz, Bootsie Barnes, Bobby Timmons, Spanky DeBrest, Sam Dockery, Wayne Dockery, Richard Grossman, Sonny Fortune, Tyrone Brown, Charles Fambrough, Gerald Veasley, Earl Grubbs, Carl Grubbs, Sam Reed, Tom Darnell, Jimmy Vass, Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, Rashied Ali, and Buddy Delco.
The 1990s local jazz scene continued to thrive with artists like Tim Warfield, Terell Stafford, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Mark Kramer, Uri Caine, Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco, Orrin Evans, Ben Schachter, Eddie Green, Suzanne Cloud, Tyrone Brown, Jim Miller, Larry McKenna, Mike Boone, and Byron Landham.
Beginning in the late 1950s, when he came to fame as a dancer on American Bandstand, the influential dj and media personality Jerry Blavat was a major force in promoting Philadelphia's music, particularly that of Black artists, until his death in 2023.
Major girl group-oriented acts included Brenda & the Tabulations, with their string-dominated doo wop hit "Dry Your Eyes", Barbara Mason's sultry vocals on "Yes, I'm Ready" and Claudine Clark's "raucous" sound.
Jerry Butler became an increasingly important performer later in the decade, as Gamble and Huff experimented with a lush, orchestral sound produced by large ensembles of strings, bells and horns.
The most important drum and bass nightclub in Philadelphia was Club Skyline, which closed in the late 1990s and is now a parking lot, and local performers include Jordana LeSesne, Karl K and MC Dub 2.
The first major pop hip hop acts from Philadelphia were Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff; the city also produced a number of other noted performers, like Tuff Crew, Lisa Lopes of TLC, and new jack swing group Boyz II Men.
Some performers have achieved considerable national acclaim since Smith, however, especially The Roots, Cassidy, The Goats, Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Kurupt, Peedi Crakk, State Property, Nonfiction, Meek Mill and Eve;[48][49] the city has also produced the well-known alternative hip hop duo Jedi Mind Tricks, Digable Planets, Princess Superstar, Bahamadia, Chiddy Bang, Spank Rock, Philadelphia Slick, Amanda Blank, Lil Dicky, PnB Rock, and Lil Uzi Vert, who worked with Philadelphia native production group Working On Dying, known for flag-shipping Tread rap, a sub-genre of hip-hop that originated in Philadelphia's underground rap scene.
Rock and Roll was arguably birthed by Bill Haley and the Comets during their regular gigs at the Twin Bar in Gloucester City NJ just across the river from Philadelphia during the early 1950s.
The area includes critically acclaimed rock and metal bands, including A Life Once Lost, Cinderella, Circa Survive, Valencia, Varials, Sinch, Free Energy, Dead Milkmen, Hall and Oates, George Thorogood, G. Love & Special Sauce, Robert Hazard and The Heroes (Hazard wrote Cyndi Lauper's hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"), The Hooters, The A's, and Todd Rundgren.
Popular rock and indie rock musicians from Philadelphia include Poison, The Bloodhound Gang, Amos Lee, Man Man, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Bardo Pond, Norwegian Arms, The Starting Line, The Wonder Years, Dr. Dog, Steve Gunn (musician), Phil Moore Browne, National Eye, Nothing, Kurt Vile, CRUISR, The Tressels, Sun Airway, Breaking Benjamin, Halestorm, The War on Drugs, Alex G, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, Hop Along, Beach Slang, Zonic Shockum, Clockcleaner, Modern Baseball, and Cold Cave.
