Oscar Brand
Oscar Brand | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 7, 1920 |
| Nationality | Canadian-born naturalized U.S. citizen |
| Education | Brooklyn College |
| Employer | WNYC |
| Website | http://www.oscarbrand.com |
Oscar Brand (born February 7, 1920) is a folk singer, songwriter, and author. In his career, spanning over 60 years, he has composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums, among them Canadian and American patriotic songs.
Life and career
He was born into a Jewish family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada but he moved to New York as a young man where he studied at Brooklyn College.
In his long career he has played alongside such legends of folk music as Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, The Weavers and Pete Seeger. He wrote various books on the folk song and folk song collections including The Ballad Mongers: Rise of the American Folk Song, Songs Of '76: A Folksinger's History Of The Revolution and Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads, the latter comprising four volumes.[1]
Brand is well known for writing catchy, themed, folk songs, including the eponymous theme to his CBC television show "Let's Sing Out" and the Canadian patriotic song "Something to Sing About" (actual title: "This Land of Ours"), which is one of Canada's national folk songs.He collaborated on a number of musicals, most notably The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (a musical version of Leo Rosten's stories on the fictional character Hyman Kaplan), and A Joyful Noise.[2][3]
He has been hosting the radio show Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival every Saturday at 10 p.m. on WNYC-AM 820 in New York City, now going into its 65th year. The show has run more or less continuously since its debut on December 10, 1945,[4] making it the longest-running radio show with the same host, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The show celebrated its 60th anniversary on December 10, 2005. Over its run it has introduced such talents to the world as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Huddie Ledbetter, Joni Mitchell, Peter, Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger and The Weavers. In order to make sure that his radio program could not be censored he has refused to be paid by WNYC for the past 65 years. [citation needed]
Although Brand was anti-Stalinist and was never a member of the Communist party, the HUAC committee referred to his show as a "pipeline of communism", because of his belief in the rights under the First Amendment of blacklisted artists to have a platform to reach the public.[5] Accordingly, in June 1950, Brand was named in the premier issue of Red Channels as Communist sympathizer, along with Paul Robeson, Josh White, Burl Ives and Pete Seeger.
In the early 1960s Oscar Brand brought his substantial connections in the worldwide folk music community home to his native Canada with his CTV television program Let’s Sing Out. The program was staged at and broadcast from university campuses across Canada and both revived the careers of long-forgotten pioneers of the folk music movement such as Malvina Reynolds, the Womenfolk, The Weavers and others and introduced then-unknown Canadian singers such as Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot.[6] His score for the 1968 Off-Broadway show, How to Steal An Election sent up the current belief that charisma would help a candidate win. Songs included "Charisma" (sung by Calvin Coolidge) and "Down Among the Grassroots". The album cover was decorated with election buttons including the 1968 Nixon campaign. [7]
Oscar Brand has also been awarded the Peabody Award for broadcast excellence in 1982 for his broadcast The Sunday Show on National Public Radio, and was awarded the Personal Peabody Award in 1997 (shared with Oprah Winfrey).[8]
Oscar Brand was on the original board that created the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), which was the genesis of the creation of the Sesame Street television show. He maintains that the organization has never achieved its original purpose which was to reach the children in the ghetto. His demeanor and persistence led to the creation of "Oscar the Grouch". This was confirmed on March 4, 2010, by Brand's son, Jordan Brand, who was appearing on Jeopardy!, in response to a question by Alex Trebek.
Oscar Brand's music runs the gamut from novelty song to serious social commentary and spans an incredible number of genres. His records are one of the greatest repositories of American folk songs ever recorded by a single artist. Many of them cannot be found elsewhere. [citation needed]
On January 18, 2010, WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, the international radio, live webcast, and television show, celebrated Brand's upcoming 90th Birthday and the 65th Anniversary of his radio career, in show 561 before an audience from Lexington, Kentucky, where host Michael Johnathan and guest Josh White, Jr. performed with Oscar and talked with him about his life for the one hour event which is available in both audio and video on the show's archive page.[9] On Sunday, February 7, 2010, CBC Radio's "Sunday Edition" celebrated Oscar's life on his birthday.
Discography
References
External links
- American folk singers
- American male singers
- American Jews
- Canadian folk singers
- Canadian immigrants to the United States
- Canadian male singers
- Canadian Jews
- Fast Folk artists
- American radio personalities
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- Peabody Award winners
- City University of New York people
- Brooklyn College alumni
- People from Winnipeg
- Musicians from New York City
- 1920 births
- Living people
- Jewish American musicians
- National Public Radio personalities
- Radio personalities from New York City
- Anti-communism in the United States