2001 - Music

Music

Broadway musicals; The Producers 4/19 at the St. James Theater, with Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Cady Huffman, music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, choreography by Susan Stroman (most tickets go for $100 each, and the theater begins in September to offer some at $480 each in an effort to thwart scalpers, who sometimes get upwards of $1,000); Urinetown 9/20 at the Henry Miller Theater, with John Cullum, Nancy Opel, Jeff McCarthy, Spencer Kayden, book by George Kotis, music by Mark Hollman, lyrics by Kotis and Hollman, 965 perfs.

Royal Ballet founder Ninette de Valois dies at her London home March 8 at age 102; former Broadway musical star Maria Karnilova at New York April 20 at age 80; violinist Isaac Stern of heart failure at New York September 21 at age 81.

Popular songs: Reveal (CD) by REM includes "Imitation of Life"; All That You Can't Leave Behind (CD) by U2 includes the single "Walk On" and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"; Songs in A Minor (CD) by New York-born songwriter and musical prodigy Alicia Keys, 19, includes the single "Fallin'"; "Drops of Jupiter" by songwriters Charlie Colin, Rob Hotchkiss, Pat Monahan, Jimmy Stafford, and Scott Underwood; Cocky (CD) by Kid Rock (Robert Ritchie); So Addictive (CD) by rap artist Missy Elliott includes the singles "One Minute Man," "Get Ur Freak On," and "4 My People;" Big Boi and Dre Present . . . OutKast (CD) by the Atlanta rap duo includes the single "The Whole World."

Bandleader Les Brown dies at Los Angeles January 4 at age 88; pop singer-songwriter Charles Trenet at the Paris suburb of Creteil February 18 at age 87; pianist-bandleader-composer Frankie Carle at a Mesa, Ariz., hospice March 7 at age 97; California Sound singer-songwriter John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas of heart failure at Los Angeles March 18 at age 65; Modern Jazz Quartet pianist John Lewis at New York March 29 at age 80; singer Perry Como at his Jupiter, Fla., home May 12 at age 88; blues guitarist John Lee Hooker in his sleep at his Los Altos, Calif., home June 21 at age 83; composer-arranger Arthur "Chico" O'Farrill at New York June 27 at age 79; guitarist Chet Atkins of cancer at his Nashville home June 30 at age 77; Bread & Roses founder Mimi Fariña of lung cancer at her Mill Valley, Calif., home July 18 at age 56; mouth organist and political exile Larry Adler at London August 7 at age 87; songwriter Jay Livingston at Los Angeles October 17 at age 86.

The $399 IPod announced by Apple Computer October 23 is a 6½-ounce digital audio player with enough capacity to store more than 1,000 songs, relying on a hard disk for storage instead of flash memory or interchangeable CD-ROMs. Engineer Tony Fadell, 32, designed the device as an outside contractor in 8 weeks before being hired by Apple to organize an implementation team, Apple ships the first IPod November 10, it works only on Macintosh computers, but third-party developers begin writing software that lets it work with PCs, and later IPods will hold as many as 10,000 songs.

Former Beatles guitarist and songwriter George Harrison dies of lung cancer at Los Angeles November 29 at age 58; soul singer Rufus Thomas at Memphis December 15 at age 84; crooner-songwriter Gilbert Bécaud of cancer in his houseboat on the Seine at Paris December 18 at age 74.