1.
Pontiac, Michigan
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Pontiac /ˈpɒntiæk, ˈpɒni-/ is a city in the U. S. state of Michigan, located in Metro Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 59,515. It is the county seat of Oakland County, and about 12 miles north and slightly west of the Detroit city limits. Pontiac is notably the first organized settlement of a town in 1818 within the interior of Michigan and they were named after the city. The city of Pontiac also was home to Oakland Motor Car Company, also of note is the Pontiac Silverdome, the stadium that hosted the Detroit Lions of the National Football League from 1975 until 2002, when the team returned to downtown Detroit. Super Bowl XVI was played at the Silverdome in 1982, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 20.28 square miles, of which 19.97 square miles is land and 0.31 square miles is water. Pontiac is bounded by the city of Auburn Hills to the east and north, the city of Lake Angelus to the north, Waterford Township to the west, the former Pontiac Township included what are now the cities of Pontiac, Lake Angelus, and Auburn Hills. The township incorporated as the city of Auburn Hills in 1983, although the township no longer exists as a civil entity, it is still used as a survey township for land use purposes. As of 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $31,207, males had a median income of $31,961 versus $24,765 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,842, about 18. 0% of families and 22. 1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29. 3% of those under age 18 and 15. 7% of those age 65 or over. As of the census of 2010, there were 59,515 people,22,220 households, the population density was 2,980.2 inhabitants per square mile. There were 27,084 housing units at a density of 1,356.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 34. 4% White,52. 1% African American,0. 6% Native American,2. 3% Asian,6. 2% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 16. 5% of the population. 33. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 8. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.28. The median age in the city was 33.4 years. 27. 2% of residents were under the age of 18,11. 2% were between the ages of 18 and 24,28. 2% were from 25 to 44,24. 2% were from 45 to 64, and 9. 3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49. 1% male and 50. 9% female, residents are zoned to the School District of the City of Pontiac. The district runs one main school, Pontiac High School
2.
Englewood, New Jersey
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Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17,1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township, with the creation of the City of Englewood, Englewood Township was dissolved. An earlier referendum on March 10,1896, was declared unconstitutional, Englewood Township, the citys predecessor, is believed to have been named in 1859 for the Engle family. Other sources indicate that the name is derived from wood ingle, meaning woody nook, numerous other settlements in the United States were named for Englewood as settlement in North America expanded westward. J. Wyman Jones is credited with convincing residents to choose Englewood for the name when it was incorporated over such alternatives as Brayton. Englewood, like the rest of New Jersey, was populated by Lenape Native Americans prior to European colonization, the Lenape who lived in the Englewood region were of the turtle clan which used a stylized turtle as its symbol, but little else is known of those inhabitants. In 1664, after the Dutch surrendered all of New Netherland to England, the English were generous with land grants, and many families, not only English but also Dutch and Huguenot, settled the area, which during the colonial era was known as the English Neighborhood. From 1906 until March 16,1907, when it burned down, Englewood was the site of Upton Sinclairs socialist-inflected intentional community, associated with the project were Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Sinclair Lewis. The United States telephone industry introduced direct distance dialing to the public in Englewood, on November 10,1951, Englewood Mayor M. Leslie Denning made the first customer-dialed long distance call, to Mayor Frank Osborne of Alameda, California. Two years after his graduation from Fordham University, Vince Lombardi began his coaching career at Englewoods St. Cecilia High School. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include Highwood, the city borders Bergenfield, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Leonia, Teaneck and Tenafly. As of the census of 2010, there were 27,147 people,10,057 households, the population density was 5,524.6 per square mile. There were 10,695 housing units at a density of 2,176.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 45. 28% White,32. 58% Black or African American,0. 54% Native American,8. 10% Asian,0. 04% Pacific Islander,9. 73% from other races, and 3. 72% from two or more races. [[Hispanic |Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27. 48% of the population,27. 3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9. 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the family size was 3.24. In the city, the population was out with 22. 2% under the age of 18,7. 7% from 18 to 24,28. 9% from 25 to 44,27. 0% from 45 to 64. The median age was 38.9 years, for every 100 females there were 90.0 males
3.
Modal jazz
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Modal jazz is jazz that uses musical modes rather than chord progressions as a harmonic framework. Originating in the late 1950s and 1960s, modal jazz is epitomized by Miles Daviss 1958 composition Milestones,1959 album Kind of Blue, and John Coltranes classic quartet from 1960–64. Other important performers include Woody Shaw, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Larry Young, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, in bebop as well as in hard bop, musicians use chords to provide the background for solos. A song starts out with a theme that introduces the chords for the solos and these chords repeat throughout the whole song, while the soloists play new, improvised themes over the repeated chord progression. By the 1950s, improvising over chords had become such a dominant part of jazz and this inversion technique led to a modal sound throughout Tizols work. Towards the end of the 1950s, spurred by the experiments of composer and bandleader George Russell and they chose not to write their pieces using conventional chord changes, but instead using modal scales. Musicians employing this technique include Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, among the significant compositions of modal jazz were So What by Miles Davis and Impressions by John Coltrane. So What and Impressions follow the same AABA song form and were in D Dorian for the A sections, the Dorian mode is the natural minor scale with a raised sixth. Other compositions include Davis Flamenco Sketches, Bill Evans Peace Piece, Miles Davis recorded one of the best selling jazz albums of all time in this modal framework. Kind of Blue is an exploration of the possibilities of modal jazz, included on these sessions was tenor saxophonist John Coltrane who, throughout the 1960s, would explore the possibilities of modal improvisation more deeply than any other jazz artist. The rest of the musicians on the album were alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and this record is considered a kind of test album in many conservatories focusing on jazz improvisation. The compositions So What and All Blues from Kind of Blue are considered jazz standards. Davis has acknowledged the role played by Bill Evans, a former member of George Russells ensembles. Another great innovator in the field of jazz is pianist Herbie Hancock. He is well known for working in Miles Daviss Second Great Quintet, Herbie Hancock recorded a number of solo albums, the pieces haunting repeating vamps in the rhythm section and the searching feeling of the entire piece has made Maiden Voyage one of the most famous modal pieces. Miles Davis was effusive in his praise for Jamals influence on him, his playing, and his music, Adderley, Coltrane, and Davis at the Twilight of Bebop, The Search for Melodic Coherence
4.
John Coltrane
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John William Coltrane, also known as Trane, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career and he led at least fifty recording sessions during his career, and appeared as a sideman on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on a spiritual dimension. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant saxophonists in music history and he received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane and a special Pulitzer Prize in 2007. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist, Coltrane was born in his parents apartment at 200 Hamlet Avenue, Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23,1926. His father was John R. Coltrane and his mother was Alice Blair and he grew up in High Point, North Carolina, attending William Penn High School. Beginning in December 1938 Coltranes aunt, grandparents, and father all died within a few months of one another, leaving John to be raised by his mother, in June 1943 he moved to Philadelphia. In September of that year his mother bought him his first saxophone, Coltrane played the clarinet and the alto horn in a community band before taking up the alto saxophone during high school. He had his first professional gigs in early to mid-1945 – a cocktail lounge trio, with piano and guitar. To avoid being drafted by the Army, Coltrane enlisted in the Navy on August 6,1945, by the time he got to Hawaii, in late 1945, the Navy was already rapidly downsizing. As the Melody Masters was a band, however, Coltrane was treated merely as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation in the band. He continued to other duties when not playing with the band, including kitchen. By the end of his service, he had assumed a role in the band. His first recordings, a session in Hawaii with Navy musicians. Coltrane played alto saxophone on a selection of standards and bebop tunes. In Philadelphia after the war, he studied theory with guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole. Originally an altoist, in 1947 Coltrane also began playing saxophone with the Eddie Vinson Band. Coltrane later referred to point in his life as a time when a wider area of listening opened up for me
5.
Charles Mingus
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Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader. His compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop, drawing heavily from black gospel music and blues, while containing elements of Third Stream, free jazz. He once cited Duke Ellington and church as his main influences, Mingus espoused collective improvisation, similar to the old New Orleans jazz parades, paying particular attention to how each band member interacted with the group as a whole. In creating his bands, he looked not only at the skills of the available musicians, many musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. He recruited talented and sometimes little-known artists, whom he utilized to assemble unconventional instrumental configurations, as a performer, Mingus was a pioneer in double bass technique, widely recognized as one of the instruments most proficient players. Nearly as well known as his ambitious music was Minguss often fearsome temperament and his refusal to compromise his musical integrity led to many onstage eruptions, exhortations to musicians, and dismissals. Indeed, Dizzy Gillespie had once claimed Mingus reminded him of a young Duke, Gunther Schuller has suggested that Mingus should be ranked among the most important American composers, jazz or otherwise. Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona and he was largely raised in the Watts area of Los Angeles. His maternal grandfather was a Chinese British subject from Hong Kong, Mingus was the third great-grandson of the familys founding partiarch who was, by most accounts, a German immigrant. His ancestors included German American, African American, British, Chinese, in Minguss autobiography Beneath the Underdog his mother was described as the daughter of an Englishman and a Chinese woman, and his father was the son of a black farm worker and a Swedish woman. The autobiography doesnt confirm whether Charles Mingus Sr. or Mingus himself believed this story was true and his mother allowed only church-related music in their home, but Mingus developed an early love for other music, especially Duke Ellington. Despite this, Mingus was still attached to the cello, as he studied bass with Red Callender in the late 1930s, Callender even commented that the cello was still Minguss main instrument. In Beneath the Underdog, Mingus states that he did not actually start learning bass until Buddy Collette accepted him into his band under the stipulation that he be the bands bass player. Due to an education, the young Mingus could not read musical notation quickly enough to join the local youth orchestra. This had a impact on his early musical experiences, leaving him feeling ostracized from the classical music world. These early experiences, in addition to his confrontations with racism, were reflected in his music. Much of the technique he learned was applicable to double bass when he took up the instrument in high school. He studied for five years with Herman Reinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, throughout much of his career, he played a bass made in 1927 by the German maker Ernst Heinrich Roth
6.
Thad Jones
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Thaddeus Joseph Thad Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, on March 28,1923, to Henry and Olivvia Jones, a self-taught musician, Thad began performing professionally at the age of 16. He served in U. S. Army bands during World War II, after his military service, which included an association with the U. S. Military School of Music and working with bands in Des Moines and Oklahoma City. He was featured as a soloist on such tunes as April in Paris, Shiny Stockings. However, his contribution to Basies organization was nearly two dozen arrangements and compositions, which included The Deacon, H. R. H. Counter Block, and lesser known tracks such as Speaking of Sounds, in 1959 Jones played cornet on Thelonious Monks 5 by Monk by 5 album. Jones left the Basie Orchestra in 1963 to become a freelance arranger, in 1965 he and drummer Mel Lewis formed the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. The group started with informal jam sessions among New Yorks top studio musicians. They began performing at the Village Vanguard in February 1966, to wide acclaim and they won a 1978 Grammy Award for their album Live in Munich. Jones also taught at William Paterson College in New Jersey, which is now the site of the Thad Jones Archive, containing pencil scores, Jones big-band arranging style was unique, especially from the standpoint of featuring dissonant voicings in a tonal context. This required the members of his big band to play correctly in tune, minor 2nds and major 7ths are often featured in his voicings, especially when the entire band plays a long, powerful chord that some would describe as having bite. In January 1979, Thad suddenly moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, there he became the leader of The Danish Radio Big Band, and married a Danish woman. Jones transformed the Danish Radio Big Band into one of the worlds best, the result can be heard on a live-recording from the Montmartre in Copenhagen. In July 1979 Jones formed a new big band, Eclipse, with which he recorded a live album, several Americans were on the album, pianist Horace Parlan, baritonist Sahib Shihab, trumpeter Tim Hagans and trombonist/vocalist Richard B. Boone, along with trombonists Bjarne Thanning and Ture Larsen, trumpeter Lars Togeby, altoists Ole Thøger and Michael Hove, tenor saxophonist Bent Jædig, Jones further composed for the Danish Radio Big Band and taught jazz at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen. He studied composition formally during this period, and also took up the valve trombone, in February 1985, Jones returned to the U. S. to take over the leadership of the Count Basie Orchestra, upon his former leaders death. He returned to his home in Copenhagen for the last few months of his life, in later years his playing ability was diminished due to lip injury, but his composing and arranging skills blossomed
