Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument, sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater. The percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments, following the human voice; the percussion section of an orchestra most contains instruments such as timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals and tambourine. However, the section can contain non-percussive instruments, such as whistles and sirens, or a blown conch shell. Percussive techniques can be applied to the human body, as in body percussion. On the other hand, keyboard instruments, such as the celesta, are not part of the percussion section, but keyboard percussion instruments such as the glockenspiel and xylophone are included. Percussion instruments are most divided into two classes: Pitched percussion instruments, which produce notes with an identifiable pitch, unpitched percussion instruments, which produce notes or sounds without an identifiable pitch. Percussion instruments may play not only rhythm, but melody and harmony.
Percussion is referred to as "the backbone" or "the heartbeat" of a musical ensemble working in close collaboration with bass instruments, when present. In jazz and other popular music ensembles, the pianist, bassist and sometimes the guitarist are referred to as the rhythm section. Most classical pieces written for full orchestra since the time of Haydn and Mozart are orchestrated to place emphasis on the strings and brass; however at least one pair of timpani is included, though they play continuously. Rather, they serve to provide additional accents. In the 18th and 19th centuries, other percussion instruments have been used, again sparingly; the use of percussion instruments became more frequent in the 20th century classical music. In every style of music, percussion plays a pivotal role. In military marching bands and pipes and drums, it is the beat of the bass drum that keeps the soldiers in step and at a regular speed, it is the snare that provides that crisp, decisive air to the tune of a regiment.
In classic jazz, one immediately thinks of the distinctive rhythm of the hi-hats or the ride cymbal when the word "swing" is spoken. In more recent popular music culture, it is impossible to name three or four rock, hip-hop, funk or soul charts or songs that do not have some sort of percussive beat keeping the tune in time; because of the diversity of percussive instruments, it is not uncommon to find large musical ensembles composed of percussion. Rhythm and harmony are all represented in these ensembles. Music for pitched percussion instruments can be notated on a staff with the same treble and bass clefs used by many non-percussive instruments. Music for percussive instruments without a definite pitch can be notated with a specialist rhythm or percussion-clef. Percussion instruments are classified by various criteria sometimes depending on their construction, ethnic origin, function within musical theory and orchestration, or their relative prevalence in common knowledge; the word "percussion" derives from Latin the terms: "percussio", "percussus".
As a noun in contemporary English, Wiktionary describes it as "the collision of two bodies to produce a sound." The term has application in medicine and weaponry, as in percussion cap. However, all known uses of percussion appear to share a similar lineage beginning with the original Latin: "percussus". In a musical context the percussion instruments may have been coined to describe a family of musical instruments including drums, metal plates, or blocks that musicians beat or struck to produce sound. Hornbostel–Sachs has no high-level section for percussion. Most percussion instruments are classified as membranophones; however the term percussion is instead used at lower-levels of the Hornbostel–Sachs hierarchy, including to identify instruments struck with either a non-sonorous object or against a non-sonorous object. This is opposed to concussion, which refers to instruments with two or more complementary sonorous parts that strike against each other and other meanings. For example: 111.1 Concussion idiophones or clappers, played in pairs and beaten against each other, such as zills and clapsticks.
111.2 Percussion idiophones, includes many percussion instruments played with the hand or by a percussion mallet, such as the hang and the xylophone, but not drums and only some cymbals. 21 Struck drums, includes most types of drum, such as the timpani, snare drum, tom-tom. (Included in most drum sets or 412.12 Percussion reeds, a class of wind instrument unrelated to percussion in the more common sense There are many instruments that have some claim to being percussion, but are classified otherwise: Keyboard instruments such as the celesta and piano. Stringed instruments played with beaters such as the hammered dulcimer. Unpitched whistles and similar instruments, such as the pea whistle and Acme siren. Percussion instruments are sometimes classified as "pitched" or "unpitched". While valid, this classification is seen as inadequate. Rather, it may be more informative to describe percussion instruments in regards to one or more of the following four paradigms: Many texts, including Teaching Percussion by Gary Cook of the University of Arizona, begin by studying the physica
Culture of Africa
The culture of Africa is varied and manifold, consisting of a mixture of countries with various tribes that each have their own unique characteristic from the continent of Africa. It is a product of the diverse populations that today inhabit the continent of Africa and the African Diaspora. African culture is expressed in its arts and crafts and religion, cuisine and languages. Expressions of culture are abundant within Africa, with large amounts of cultural diversity being found not only across different countries but within single countries. Though African cultures are diverse, they are when studied, seen to have many similarities. For example, the morals they uphold, their love and respect for their culture as well as the strong respect they hold for the gods they believe in and the important i.e. Kings and Chiefs. Africa has been influenced by other continents; this can be portrayed in the willingness to adapt to the ever-changing modern world rather than staying rooted to their static culture.
The Westernized few, persuaded by European culture and Christianity, first denied African traditional culture, but with the increase of African nationalism, a cultural recovery occurred. The governments of most African nations encourage national dance and music groups, to a lower degree and writers. Africa is divided into a great number of ethnic cultures; the continent's cultural regeneration has been an integral aspect of post-independence nation-building on the continent, with a recognition of the need to harness the cultural resources of Africa to enrich the process of education, requiring the creation of an enabling environment in a number of ways. In recent times, the call for a much greater emphasis on the cultural dimension in all aspects of development has become vocal. During the Roman colonization of North Africa, provinces such as Tripolitania became major producers of food for the republic and the empire, this generated much wealth in these places for their 400 years of occupation.
During colonialism in Africa, Europeans possessed a sense of mission. The French were able to accept an African as French if that person gave up their African culture and adopted French ways. Knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture and abandonment of traditional African ways defined one as civilized. Kenyan social commentator Mwiti Mugambi argues that the future of Africa can only be forged from accepting and mending the sociocultural present. For Mugambi, colonial cultural hangovers, pervasive Western cultural inundation, aid-giving arm-twisting donors are, he argues, here to stay and no amount of looking into Africa's past will make them go away. However, Maulana Karenga states: Our culture provides us with an ethos we must honor in both thought and practice. By ethos, we mean a people's self-understanding as well as its self-presentation in the world through its thought and practice in the other six areas of culture, it is above all a cultural challenge. For culture is here defined as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates and develops itself and introduces itself to history and humanity Africa has a rich tradition of arts and crafts.
African arts and crafts find expression in a variety of woodcarvings and leather art works. African arts and crafts include sculpture, pottery and religious headgear and dress. Maulana Karenga states that in African art, the object was not as important as the soul force behind the creation of the object, he states that All art must be revolutionary and in being revolutionary it must be collective and functional. Certain African cultures have always placed emphasis on personal appearance and jewelry has remained an important personal accessory. Many pieces of such jewelry are made of similar materials. Masks are made with elaborate designs and are an important part of some cultures in Africa. Masks are used in various ceremonies depicting ancestors and spirits, mythological characters and deities. In many traditional arts and craft traditions in Africa, certain themes significant to those particular cultures recur, including a couple, a woman with a child, a male with a weapon or animal, an outsider or a stranger.
Couples may represent community founder, married couple or twins. The couple theme exhibits intimacy of men and women; the mother with the child or children reveals intense desire of the women to have children. The theme is representative of mother mars and the people as her children; the man with the weapon or animal theme symbolizes power. A stranger may be from some other tribe or someone from a different country, more distorted portrayal of the stranger indicates proportionately greater gap from the stranger. Like all human cultures, African folklore and religion represents a variety of social facets of the various cultures in Africa. Like all civilizations and cultures, flood myths have been circulating in different parts of Africa. Culture and religion share space and are intertwined in African cultures. In Ethiopia and Islam form the core aspects of Ethiopian culture and inform dietary customs as well as rituals and rites. According to a Pygmy myth, hearing a strange noise in a tree, cut open its trunk and water came out in a great flood that spread all over the land.
Folktales play an important role in many African cultures. Stories reflect a group cultural identity and preserving the stories of Africa will help preserve an entire culture. Storytelling affirms identity in a culture. In Africa, stories are created by and
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire; the Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror. During the 16th and 17th centuries, at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was a multinational, multilingual empire controlling most of Southeast Europe, parts of Central Europe, Western Asia, parts of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. At the beginning of the 17th century, the empire contained numerous vassal states; some of these were absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.
With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, the Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. While the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians; the empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy and military throughout the 17th and much of the 18th century. However, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian empires; the Ottomans suffered severe military defeats in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, which prompted them to initiate a comprehensive process of reform and modernisation known as the Tanzimat. Thus, over the course of the 19th century, the Ottoman state became vastly more powerful and organised, despite suffering further territorial losses in the Balkans, where a number of new states emerged.
The empire allied with Germany in the early 20th century, hoping to escape from the diplomatic isolation which had contributed to its recent territorial losses, thus joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent with the Arab Revolt in its Arabian holdings. During this time, atrocities were committed by the Young Turk government against the Armenians and Pontic Greeks; the Empire's defeat and the occupation of part of its territory by the Allied Powers in the aftermath of World War I resulted in its partitioning and the loss of its Middle Eastern territories, which were divided between the United Kingdom and France. The successful Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allies led to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey in the Anatolian heartland and the abolition of the Ottoman monarchy; the word Ottoman is a historical anglicisation of the name of Osman I, the founder of the Empire and of the ruling House of Osman.
Osman's name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān. In Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı Devleti; the Turkish word for "Ottoman" referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, subsequently came to be used to refer to the empire's military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term "Turk" was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, was seen as a disparaging term when applied to urban, educated individuals. In the early modern period, an educated urban-dwelling Turkish-speaker, not a member of the military-administrative class would refer to himself neither as an Osmanlı nor as a Türk, but rather as a Rūmī, or "Roman", meaning an inhabitant of the territory of the former Byzantine Empire in the Balkans and Anatolia; the term Rūmī was used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond.
In Western Europe, the two names "Ottoman Empire" and "Turkey" were used interchangeably, with "Turkey" being favoured both in formal and informal situations. This dichotomy was ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms "Turkey", "Turks", "Turkish" when referring to the Ottomans, due to the empire's multinational character; as the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman I, a figure of obscure origins from whom the name Ottoman is derived. Osman's early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River.
It is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a percussion mallet, to produce sound. There is a resonance head on the underside of the drum tuned to a lower pitch than the top drumhead. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, the basic design has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Drums may be played individually, with the player using a single drum, some drums such as the djembe are always played in this way. Others are played in a set of two or more, all played by the one player, such as bongo drums and timpani. A number of different drums together with cymbals form the basic modern drum kit. Drums are played by striking with the hand, or with one or two sticks.
A wide variety of sticks are used, including wooden sticks and sticks with soft beaters of felt on the end. In jazz, some drummers use brushes for a smoother, quieter sound. In many traditional cultures, drums are used in religious ceremonies. Drums are used in music therapy hand drums, because of their tactile nature and easy use by a wide variety of people. In popular music and jazz, "drums" refers to a drum kit or a set of drums, "drummer" to the person who plays them. Drums acquired divine status in places such as Burundi, where the karyenda was a symbol of the power of the king; the shell always has a circular opening over which the drumhead is stretched, but the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely. In the Western musical tradition, the most usual shape is a cylinder, although timpani, for example, use bowl-shaped shells. Other shapes include a frame design, truncated cones, goblet shaped, joined truncated cones. Drums with cylindrical shells can be open at one end, or can have two drum heads, one head on each end.
Single-headed drums consist of a skin stretched over an enclosed space, or over one of the ends of a hollow vessel. Drums with two heads covering both ends of a cylindrical shell have a small hole somewhat halfway between the two heads. Exceptions include the African slit drum known as a log drum as it is made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, the Caribbean steel drum, made from a metal barrel. Drums with two heads can have a set of wires, called snares, held across the bottom head, top head, or both heads, hence the name snare drum. On some drums with two heads, a hole or bass reflex port may be cut or installed onto one head, as with some 2010s era bass drums in rock music. On modern band and orchestral drums, the drumhead is placed over the opening of the drum, which in turn is held onto the shell by a "counterhoop", held by means of a number of tuning screws called "tension rods" that screw into lugs placed evenly around the circumference; the head's tension can be adjusted by tightening the rods.
Many such drums have six to ten tension rods. The sound of a drum depends on many variables—including shape, shell size and thickness, shell materials, counterhoop material, drumhead material, drumhead tension, drum position and striking velocity and angle. Prior to the invention of tension rods, drum skins were attached and tuned by rope systems—as on the Djembe—or pegs and ropes such as on Ewe drums; these methods are used today, though sometimes appear on regimental marching band snare drums. The head of a talking drum, for example, can be temporarily tightened by squeezing the ropes that connect the top and bottom heads; the tabla is tuned by hammering a disc held in place around the drum by ropes stretching from the top to bottom head. Orchestral timpani can be tuned to precise pitches by using a foot pedal. Several factors determine the sound a drum produces, including the type and construction of the drum shell, the type of drum heads it has, the tension of these drumheads. Different drum sounds have different uses in music.
For example, the modern Tom-tom drum. A jazz drummer may want drums that are high pitched and quiet whereas a rock drummer may prefer drums that are loud and low-pitched; the drum head has the most effect on. Each type of drum head has its own unique sound. Double-ply drumheads dampen high frequency harmonics because they are heavier and they are suited to heavy playing. Drum heads with a white, textured coating on them muffle the overtones of the drum head producing a less diverse pitch. Drum heads with central silver or black dots tend to muffle the overtones more, while drum heads with perimeter sound rings eliminate overtones; some jazz drummers avoid using thick drum heads, preferring single ply drum heads or drum heads with no muffling. Rock drummers prefer the thicker or coated drum heads; the second biggest factor that affects drum sound is head tension against the shell. When the hoop is placed around the drum head and shell and tightened down with tension rods, the tension of the head can be adjusted.
When the tension is increased, the amplitude of the sound is reduced and the frequency is increased, making the pitch higher and the volume lower. The type of shell affects the sound of a drum; because the vibrati
Chasseurs Alpins
The chasseurs alpins are the elite mountain infantry of the French Army. They are trained to operate in urban warfare. France created its own mountain corps in the late 19th century in order to oppose any Italian invasion through the Alps. In 1859 -- 70 Italy became unified; the French army saw this geopolitical change as a potential threat to their Alpine border as the Italian army was creating troops specialized in mountain warfare. On December 24, 1888, the first troupes de montagne corps were created from 12 of the 31 existing Chasseurs à pied battalions; these units were named bataillons alpins de chasseurs à pied. This was shortened to bataillons de chasseurs alpins. From their establishment the chasseurs Alpins wore a plain and practical uniform designed to be suitable for mountain service; this comprised a loose-fitting dark blue jacket and blue-grey breeches, together with a large beret carrying the yellow hunting horn insignia of the Chasseur branch. They are believed to have been the first regular military unit.
Since 1999 they have been part of the 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade, are organised into three battalions: 7th Battalion, Varces 13th Battalion, Chambéry 27th Battalion, Cran-Gevrier All three battalions are based in cities in the French Alps, thus the name of the units. Training includes climbing, cross-country skiing, plus winter and summer mountain leadership and mountain guiding skills completed at the High Mountain Military School. Traditional training included mountain survival skills such as to build an igloo shelter and to sleep in temperatures around 0 °C. Modern troops may be transported in VACs, or untracked VAB personnel carriers. Personal weaponry includes the FAMAS assault rifle, Minimi machine gun, FRF-2 sniper rifle, PGM Hécate II heavy sniper rifle, LGI light mortar, while group weapons included the M2 machine gun, LLR 81mm mortar, vehicle-mounted 20 mm autocannon, plus AT4, ERYX and MILAN anti-tank missiles; the chasseurs are recognised by their wide beret, named the tarte des Alpes.
Note though that this is worn by other mountain troops, such as the Alpine infantry, cavalry and signals. However the mountain troops of the Foreign Legion engineers wear the legion green beret; the 16th battalion of chasseurs are not mountain troops and wear the standard French Army blue beret with the chasseur cap badge. Current winter uniform consists of'Tundra' camouflage made in 50/50 ripstop, it was created for the Chasserurs & has been adopted by other French units such as the GCM for winter exercises. Chasseurs do not say rouge but bleu-cerise, except when speaking of the color of the lips of a beloved, the red in the Legion of Honour's insignia, the red of the French flag; this stems from the days when Napoleon III tried to impose the wearing of the scarlet pantalons garance. The mountain troops objected, no longer use the word'red' as a result; the chasseurs have a few other typicalities in what they say: not jonquille. The chasseurs are said to have green blood, after the pun: "Le sang vert, c'est pour la France.
Note that these traditions are shared by the 16th battalion of chasseurs, who are not chasseurs alpins. When marching with the band and horns, the marching pace is 140 steps a minute - faster than most other armed forces units, with the exception of the Italian Bersaglieri, whose pace is 180 steps per minute; the chasseurs alpins are informally known as Les diables bleus. Monuments and memorials to the unit, such as Memorial to the Chasseur Alpins are marked Aux Diables Bleus. A chasseur salutes when he hears Les Allobroges; each battalion has a different chorus, a chasseur must learn all of them: 1er bataillon « Si l'septième de ligne a des couilles au cul, C'est qu'le Premier Chasseurs les lui a foutues! » 2e bataillon « Le Commandant a mal aux dents, mes enfants! » 3e bataillon « V'la l'troisième, v'la l'troisième, qui rapplique au galop, V'la l'troisième, v'la l'troisième, qui rapplique sac au dos! » 4e bataillon « Quatrième bataillon, Commandant Clinchant, Toujours en avant! » 5e bataillon « Cinquième Bataillon ventre à terre, Commandé par Certain Canrobert, en avant!
» 6e bataillon « Le sixième est là, il est un peu là! » 7e bataillon « Bataillon, Bataillon de fer, Bataillon, Bataillon d'acier ». 8e bataillon « T'as beau courir, tu ne m'rattraperas pas! » 9e bataillon « Marie, j'ai vu ton cul tout nu, pourquoi le regardes-tu? » 10e bataillon « Dixième Bataillon, Commandant Mac-Mahon, N'a pas peur du canon nom de nom » 11e bataillon « Onzième Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins, Onzième Bataillon d'lapins » 12e bataillon « Ah c'qu'il est con, c'qu’il est con l'Douziè
Ginger Baker
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer and a founder of the rock band Cream. His work in the 1960s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer," while his individual style melds a jazz background with African rhythms. Baker is credited as a pioneer of drumming in genres like heavy metal and world music. Baker began playing drums at age 15, took lessons from Phil Seamen. In the 1960s, he joined Blues Incorporated; the two clashed but would be rhythm section partners again in the Graham Bond Organisation and Cream, the latter of which Baker co-founded with Eric Clapton in 1966. Cream achieved worldwide success but lasted only until 1968, in part due to Baker's and Bruce's volatile relationship. After working with Clapton in Blind Faith and leading Ginger Baker's Air Force, Baker spent several years in the 1970s living and recording in Africa with Fela Kuti, in pursuit of his long-time interest in African music. Among Baker's other collaborations are his work with Gary Moore, Masters of Reality, Public Image Ltd, Atomic Rooster, Bill Laswell, jazz bassist Charlie Haden, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and Ginger Baker's Energy.
Baker's drumming is regarded for its style and use of two bass drums instead of the conventional one. In his early days, he performed lengthy drum solos, most notably in the Cream song "Toad", one of the earliest recorded examples in rock music. Baker is an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Cream, of the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2008, of the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2016. Ginger Baker was born in South London, his mother worked in a tobacco shop. An athletic child, Baker began playing drums at about 15 years old as an outlet for his restless energy. In the early 1960s he took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of the leading British jazz drummers of the post-war era, he gained early fame as a member of the Graham Bond Organisation with future Cream bandmate Jack Bruce. The Graham Bond Organisation was an R&B/blues group with strong jazz leanings. Baker founded the rock band Cream in 1966 with guitarist Eric Clapton. A fusion of blues, psychedelic rock and hard rock, the band released four albums in a little over two years before breaking up in 1968.
Baker joined the short-lived "supergroup" Blind Faith, composed of Eric Clapton, bassist Ric Grech from Family, Steve Winwood from Traffic on keyboards and vocals. They released Blind Faith, before breaking up. In 1970 Baker formed and recorded with fusion rock group Ginger Baker's Air Force. In November 1971, Baker decided to set up a recording studio in Lagos the capital of Nigeria. Baker was one of the first rock musicians to realize the potential of African music, he decided that it would be an interesting experience to travel to Nigeria overland across the Sahara Desert. Baker invited documentary filmmaker Tony Palmer to join him and Ginger Baker in Africa follows his odyssey as he makes his journey and arrives in Nigeria to set up his studio. After many frustrating set-backs & technical hitches, Batakota studios opened at the end of January 1973, it would operate through the seventies as a facility for both local and western musicians. Baker sat in for Fela Kuti during recording sessions in 1971 released by Regal Zonophone as Live!'
Fela appeared with Ginger Baker on Stratavarious alongside Bobby Gass, a pseudonym for Bobby Tench from the Jeff Beck Group. Stratavarious was re-issued as part of the compilation Do What You Like. Baker formed Baker Gurvitz Army with brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz in 1974; the band recorded three albums, Baker Gurvitz Army, Elysian Encounter and Hearts on Fire, the band toured through England and Europe in 1975. The band broke up in 1976, not long after the death in a plane crash of Bill Fehilly. After the failure of the recording studio in Lagos, Baker spent most of the early 1980s on an olive ranch in a small town in Italy. During this period, he played little music and managed to kick the heroin habit that contributed to the downfall of his career. Producer Bill Laswell talked him into doing some session work on John Lydon's Public Image Ltd. album, called Album, in 1985. In the early 1980s, Baker joined Hawkwind for an album and tour, he recorded two additional albums with the group. Baker moved to Los Angeles in the late 80's intending to become an actor.
He appeared in the 1990 TV series Nasty Boys as Ginger. In 1992 Baker played with the hard-rock group Masters of Reality with bassist Googe and singer/guitarist Chris Goss on the album Sunrise on the Sufferbus; the album sold fewer than 10,000 copies. Baker lived in part due to his passion for polo. Baker not only participated in polo events at the Salisbury Equestrian Park, but he sponsored an ongoing series of jam sessions and concerts at the equestrian centre on weekends. In 1994, he formed The Ginger Baker Trio with guitarist Bill Frisell, he joined BBM, a short-lived power trio with the line-up of Baker, Jack Bruce and Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore. On 3 May 2005, Baker reunited with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce for a series of Cream concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Madison Square Garden; the London concerts were recorded and released as Royal Al
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time and was known for his virtuoso technique and speed, he performed with Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Count Basie, led a big band. Rich was born in Sheepshead Bay, New York, to Jewish-American parents Bess Skolnik and Robert Rich, both vaudevillians; as a kid, when he was at a restaurant with his parents, he used the fork as drum sticks. Before he turned two, he was part of his parents' act on vaudeville, but on breaks he would sneak into the orchestra pit and try to get the drummer's sticks, he was on Broadway as Baby Traps the Drum Wonder at age four, playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" on a drum. He was a tap dancer. In his teens he led a band and toured in the U. S. and Australia. At fifteen he became the second highest paid child entertainer behind Jackie Coogan during the 1930s, his jazz career began in 1937 with clarinetist Joe Marsala. He became a member of big bands led by Artie Shaw.
When he was home from touring with Shaw, he gave drum lessons to a 14-year-old Mel Brooks for six months. At 21, he participated in his first major recording with the Vic Schoen Orchestra who backed the Andrews Sisters. In 1942 he joined the United States Marine Corps, he was discharged for medical reasons. After leaving the Marines, he returned to the Dorsey band. In 1946, with financial support from Frank Sinatra, he formed a band and continued to lead bands intermittently until the early 1950s. In addition to Tommy Dorsey, Rich played with Benny Carter, Harry James, Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, Jazz at the Philharmonic, Charlie Parker. From 1966 until his death, he led successful big bands in an era, he continued to play clubs but stated in interviews that the majority of his band's performances were at high schools and universities rather than clubs. He was a session drummer for many recordings, where his playing was more understated than in his big-band performances. Notable were sessions for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and the Oscar Peterson trio with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis.
In 1968, Rich collaborated with the Indian tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha on the album Rich à la Rakha. He performed a big-band arrangement of a medley from West Side Story, released on the 1966 album Swingin' New Big Band; the "West Side Story Medley" is a complex big-band arrangement which highlights Rich's ability to blend the rhythm of his drumming into his band's playing of the musical chart. Penned by Bill Reddie, Rich received the West Side Story arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's melodies from the famed musical in the mid-1960s and found it challenging, it consists of many difficult sections which feature 6/8 time signatures. It became a staple in all his performances, clocking in at various lengths from seven to fifteen minutes. In 2002, a DVD was released called The Lost West Side Story Tapes that captured a 1985 performance of this along with other numbers. A live recording of the "Channel One Suite" is on the album Mercy, Mercy recorded at Caesars Palace in 1968; the album received acclaim as the "finest all-round recording by Buddy Rich's big band".
In the 1950s Rich was a frequent guest on The Steve Allen Show and other television variety shows, most notably on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson where he was a frequent guest. Rich and Johnny were lifelong friends and Johnny Carson was a drum enthusiast himself. In 1973 PBS broadcast and syndicated Rich's February 6, 1973, performance at the Top of the Plaza in Rochester, New York, it was the first time thousands of drummers were exposed to Buddy in a full-length concert setting, many drummers continue to name this program as a prime influence on their own playing. One of his most seen television performances was in a 1981 episode of The Muppet Show in which he engaged Muppet drummer "Animal" in a drum battle. Rich's famous televised drum battles included Gene Krupa, Ed Shaughnessy and Louie Bellson. Rich was married to Marie Allison, a dancer and showgirl on April 24, 1953, until his death in 1987; the marriage produced one child in 1954, daughter Cathy, who became a vocalist and carried on her father's band.
Rich was cousin of actor Jonathan Haze. He lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Rich continued performing until the end of his life. In early March 1987, he was touring in New York when he was hospitalized after suffering a paralysis on his left side that physicians believed had been caused by a stroke, he was transferred to California to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for tests, where doctors discovered and removed a brain tumor on March 16. He was discharged a week but had been receiving daily chemotherapy treatments at the hospital when, on April 2, 1987, he died of unexpected respiratory and cardiac failure after his treatment for the malignant brain tumor, his wife Marie and daughter Cathy buried him in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. He was 69. Rich had a notoriously short temper. Singer Dusty Springfield slapped him after several days of "putting up with Rich's insults and show-biz sabotage", he held a rivalry with Frank Sinatra which sometimes ended in brawls when both were members of Tommy Dorsey's band.
But they remained lifelong friends, Sinatra delivered a eulogy at Rich's funeral in 1987. Rich held a black belt in karate. Billy Cobham said that he met Rich in a club and asked him to sign his sna
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