“The Other Mozart” is Franz Xaver, son of Wolfgang Amadeus, who was born in the year of Wolfgang Amadeus’s death, 1791. Franz Xaver lived into the era of high romanticism and died in 1844. Franz Xaver’s lineage, some enthusiastic early reports from his teachers (not least Salieri!) and the influence of his mother, Mozart’s widow Constanze, ensured that Franz Xaver’s talents as a pianist and composer allowed him a career. He grew up and lived his last years in Vienna, but spent most of his adult life in and around Lvov (in present-day Ukraine). Constanze complained of his easy-going nature; whether this was the cause of his limited success is not known.
John Coltrane is undoubtedly in the upper echelon of elite jazz musicians, but deciding which album to listen to is complicated because his sound changed every week. Some groups exhaust a sound or just feel compelled to change direction, while some bands successfully keep the same sound for decades. The currency of Coltrane’s assessment is practically in days, not years. Was Coltrane content as a relentless explorer, or was he a tortured soul who constantly yearned for something else? In any case, choosing an album requires considering where it falls along his musical spectrum. The album The Other Village Vanguard Tapes was recorded in late 1961, when the improvising was very free and modal, but the rhythms had a strong pulse. It stands at the fifty yard line between his early outings and his later “out there” freer stuff.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is the only studio album by Anglo-American blues rock band Derek and the Dominos. Released in November 1970, the double album is best known for its title track, "Layla", and is often regarded as Eric Clapton's greatest musical achievement. The other band members were Bobby Whitlock on keyboards and vocals, Jim Gordon on drums, Carl Radle on bass, and special guest performer Duane Allman on lead and slide guitar on 11 of the 14 songs. In 2000, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2003, television network VH1 named Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs the 89th-greatest album of all time, and Rolling Stone ranked it number 117 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Critic Robert Christgau ranked Layla the third greatest album of the 1970s.