Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note. Born in Lima, Henderson was one of five sisters and nine brothers, he was encouraged by older brother James T. to study music. He dedicated his first album to them "for being so understanding and tolerant" during his formative years. Early musical interests included drums, piano and composition. According to Kenny Dorham, two local piano teachers who went to school with Henderson's brothers and sisters, Richard Patterson and Don Hurless, gave him a knowledge of the piano, he was enamored of his brother's record collection. It seems that a hometown drummer, John Jarette, advised Henderson to listen to musicians like Lester Young, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker, he liked Flip Phillips, Lee Konitz and the Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings. However, Parker became his greatest inspiration.
His first approach to the saxophone was under the tutelage of Herbert Murphy in high school. In this period of time, he wrote several scores for the school band. By age 18, Henderson was active on the Detroit jazz scene of the mid-1950s, playing in jam sessions with visiting New York City stars. While attending classes of flute and bass at Wayne State University, he further developed his saxophone and compositional skills under the guidance of renowned teacher Larry Teal at the Teal School of Music. In late 1959, he formed his first group. By the time he arrived at Wayne State University, he had transcribed and memorized so many Lester Young solos that his professors believed he had perfect pitch. Classmates Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris and Donald Byrd undoubtedly provided additional inspiration, he studied music at Kentucky State College. Shortly prior to his army induction in 1960, Henderson was commissioned by UNAC to write some arrangements for the suite "Swings and Strings", performed by a ten-member orchestra and the local dance band of Jimmy Wilkins.
Henderson spent two years in the U. S. Army: first in Fort Benning, where he competed in an Army talent show and won first place in Fort Belvoir, where he was chosen for a world tour, with a show to entertain soldiers. While in Paris, he met Kenny Clarke, he was sent to Maryland to conclude his enlistment. In 1962, he was discharged and promptly moved to New York, he first met trumpeter Kenny Dorham, an invaluable guidance for him, at saxophonist Junior Cook's place. That evening, they went to see Dexter Gordon playing at Birdland. Henderson was asked by Gordon himself to play something with his rhythm section. Although Henderson's earliest recordings were marked by a strong hard-bop influence, his playing encompassed not only the bebop tradition, but R&B, Latin and avant-garde as well, he soon joined Horace Silver's band and provided a seminal solo on the jukebox hit "Song for My Father". After leaving Silver's band in 1966, Henderson resumed freelancing and co-led a big band with Dorham, his arrangements for the band went unrecorded until the release of Joe Henderson Big Band in 1996.
From 1963 to 1968, Henderson appeared on nearly 30 albums for Blue Note, including five released under his name. The recordings ranged from conservative hard-bop sessions to more explorative sessions, he played a prominent role in many landmark albums under other leaders for the label, including most of Horace Silver's Song for My Father, Herbie Hancock's dark and densely orchestrated The Prisoner, Lee Morgan's hit album The Sidewinder and "out" albums with pianist Andrew Hill and drummer Pete La Roca. In 1967, there was a brief association with Miles Davis's quintet featuring Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, although the band was never recorded. Henderson's adaptability and eclecticism would become more apparent in the years to follow. Signing with Orrin Keepnews's fledgling Milestone label in 1967 marked a new phase in Henderson's career, he co-led the Jazz Communicators with Freddie Hubbard from 1967 to 1968. Henderson was featured on Hancock's Fat Albert Rotunda for Warner Bros.
It was during this time that Henderson began to experiment with jazz-funk fusion, studio overdubbing, other electronic effects. Song and album titles such as Power to the People, In Pursuit of Blackness, Black Narcissus reflected his growing political awareness and social consciousness, although the last album was named after the Powell and Pressburger film of 1947. After a brief association with Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1971, Henderson moved to San Francisco and added teaching to his résumé. Though he worked with Echoes of an Era, the Griffith Park Band and Chick Corea, Henderson remained a leader throughout the 1980s. An accomplished and prolific composer, he began to focus more on reinterpreting standards and his own earlier compositions. Blue Note attempted to position the artist at the forefront of a resurgent jazz scene in 1986 with the release of the two-volume State of the Tenor recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York City; the albums revisited the tenor trio form used by Sonny Rollins in 1957 on his own live Vanguard albums for the same label.
Henderson established his basic repertoire for the next seven or eight years, with Thelonious Monk's "Ask Me Now" becoming a signature ballad feature. It was only after the release of An Evening with Joe Henderson, a live trio set (featuri
Bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States, which features songs characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, the use of scales and occasional references to the melody. Bebop developed as the younger generation of jazz musicians expanded the creative possibilities of jazz beyond the popular, dance-oriented swing style with a new "musician's music", not as danceable and demanded close listening; as bebop was not intended for dancing, it enabled the musicians to play at faster tempos. Bebop musicians explored advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, extended chords, chord substitutions, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies. Bebop groups used rhythm sections in a way. Whereas the key ensemble of the swing era was the big band of up to fourteen pieces playing in an ensemble-based style, the classic bebop group was a small combo that consisted of saxophone, piano, double bass, drums playing music in which the ensemble played a supportive role for soloists.
Rather than play arranged music, bebop musicians played the melody of a song with the accompaniment of the rhythm section, followed by a section in which each of the performers improvised a solo returned to the melody at the end of the song. Some of the most influential bebop artists, who were composer-performers, are: tenor sax players Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, James Moody; the term "bebop" is derived from nonsense syllables used in scat singing. It appears again in a 1936 recording of "I'se a Muggin'" by Jack Teagarden. A variation, "rebop", appears in several 1939 recordings; the first, known print appearance occurred in 1939, but the term was little-used subsequently until applied to the music now associated with it in the mid-1940s. Thelonious Monk claims that the original title "Bip Bop" for his tune "52nd Street Theme", was the origin of the name bebop; some researchers speculate that it was a term used by Charlie Christian because it sounded like something he hummed along with his playing.
Dizzy Gillespie stated that the audiences coined the name after hearing him scat the then-nameless tunes to his players and the press picked it up, using it as an official term: "People, when they'd wanna ask for those numbers and didn't know the name, would ask for bebop." Another theory is that it derives from the cry of "Arriba! Arriba!" used by Latin American bandleaders of the period to encourage their bands. At times, the terms "bebop" and "rebop" were used interchangeably. By 1945, the use of "bebop"/"rebop" as nonsense syllables was widespread in R&B music, for instance Lionel Hampton's "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop". Bebop grew out of the culmination of trends, occurring within swing music since the mid-1930s: less explicit timekeeping by the drummer, with the primary rhythmic pulse moving from the bass drum to the high hat cymbal; the path towards rhythmically streamlined, solo-oriented swing was blazed by the territory bands of the southwest with Kansas City as their musical capital. Ability to play sustained, high energy, creative solos was valued for this newer style and the basis of intense competition.
Swing-era jam sessions and "cutting contests" in Kansas City became legendary. The Kansas City approach to swing was epitomized by the Count Basie Orchestra, which came to national prominence in 1937. One young admirer of the Basie orchestra in Kansas City was a teenage alto saxophone player named Charlie Parker, he was enthralled by their tenor saxophone player Lester Young, who played long flowing melodic lines that wove in and out of the chordal structure of the tune but somehow always made musical sense. Young was daring with his rhythm and phrasing as with his approach to harmonic structures in his solos, he would repeat simple two or three note figures, with shifting rhythmic accents expressed by volume, articulation, or tone. His phrasing was far removed from the four bar phrases that horn players had used until then, they would be extended to an odd number of measures, overlapping the musical stanzas suggested by the harmonic structure. He would take a breath in the middle of a phrase, using the pause, or "free space," as a creative device.
The overall effect was that his solos were something floating above the rest of the music, rather than something springing from it at intervals suggested by the ensemble sound. When the Basie orchestra burst onto the national scene with its 1937 recordings and nationally broadcast New York engagements, it gained a national following, with legions of saxophone players striving to imitate Young, drummers striving to imitate Jo Jones, piano players striving to imitate
Gerald Wilson
Gerald Stanley Wilson was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer/arranger, educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. In addition to being a band leader, Wilson wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson. Wilson was born in Shelby, at the age of 16 moved to Detroit, where he graduated from Cass Technical High School, he joined the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra in 1939, replacing Sy Oliver. While with Lunceford, Wilson contributed numbers to the band's book, including "Hi Spook" and "Yard-dog Mazurka", the first influenced by Ellington's recording of "Caravan" and the latter an influence on Stan Kenton's "Intermission Riff". During World War II, Wilson performed for a brief time with the U. S. Navy, with musicians including Clark Terry, Willie Smith and Jimmy Nottingham, among others. Around 2005, many of the members of the band reunited as "The Great Lakes Experience Big Band," with Wilson conducting and Ernie Andrews making a guest appearance at the invitation of Clark Terry.
Wilson played and arranged for the bands of Benny Carter, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. Wilson formed his own band, with some success in the mid-1940s. In 1960, he formed a Los Angeles-based band that began a series of critically acclaimed recordings for the Pacific Jazz label, his 1968 album California Soul featured a title track written by Ashford & Simpson, as well as a version of The Doors' hit "Light My Fire". Musicians in the band at various times included lead trumpeter Snooky Young, trumpet soloist Carmell Jones and saxophonists Bud Shank, Joe Maini, Harold Land, Teddy Edwards, Don Raffell; the rhythm section included guitarist Joe Pass, Richard Holmes, vibists Roy Ayers and Bobby Hutcherson, drummers Mel Lewis and Mel Lee. Wilson's wife of more than 50 years, Josefina Villasenor Wilson, is Mexican-American, a number of his compositions showed his love of Spanish/Mexican themes "Viva Tirado", which became a hit for the rock band El Chicano. Along with his wife, Wilson had three daughters, his son Anthony, a number of grandchildren, all of whom have songs composed for them - his compositions were inspired by his family members.
Wilson continued leading bands and recording in decades for the Discovery and MAMA labels. Recent musicians included Luis Bonilla, Rick Baptist, Randall Willis, Wilson's son-in-law Shuggie Otis and son Anthony Wilson. Wilson continued to record Spanish-flavored compositions, notably the bravura trumpet solos "Carlos" and "Lomelin"; the National Endowment for the Arts named Wilson an NEA Jazz Master in 1990. In 1998 Wilson received a commission from the Monterey Jazz Festival for an original composition, resulting in "Theme for Monterey", performed at that year's festival. In years, he formed orchestras on the West and East coasts, each with local outstanding musicians, he made special appearances as guest conductor, including with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and European radio jazz orchestras, conducting the BBC Big Band in 2005. He hosted an innovative show, in the 1970s, on KBCA in Los Angeles, co-hosted by Dennis Smith, where he played "... music of the past, the present, the future."
Wilson was a member of the faculty at California State University, Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles, for many years winning a "teacher of the year" award. In the 1970s he served on the faculty at California State University, where he taught Jazz History to wide acclaim among the student body, has taught at Cal Arts in Los Angeles. In February 2006, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performed his music with Gerald Wilson conducting, he had a unique style of conducting: "Garbed in well tailored suits, his long white hair flowing, Wilson shaped the music with dynamic movements and the elegant grace of a modern dancer." Asked about his style of conducting by Terry Gross on the NPR show Fresh Air in 2006, he replied,'It's different from any style you've seen before. I move. I choreograph the music. You see, I point it out, everything you're to listen to.'"In June 2007, Wilson returned to the studio with producer Al Pryor and an all-star big band to record a special album of compositions commissioned and premiered at the Monterey Jazz Festival for the festival's 50th anniversary.
Wilson had helped lead celebrations of the festival's 20th and 40th anniversary with his specially commissioned works. The album Monterey Moods was released on Mack Avenue Records in September 2007. In September 2009, Wilson conducted his eight-movement suite "Detroit", commissioned by the Detroit Jazz Festival to mark its 30th anniversary; the work includes a movement entitled "Cass Tech" in honor of his high school alma mater. In 2011, his last recording was the Grammy nominated "Legacy" Wilson died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on September 8, 2014, after a brief illness that followed a bout of pneumonia, whic
Idabel, Oklahoma
Idabel is a city in and county seat of McCurtain County, United States. The population was 7,010 at the 2010 census, it is located in the southeast corner of a tourist area known as Kiamichi Country. Idabel was established in 1902 by the Choctaw Railway; the city was first named Purnell, after a railroad official. When postal officials rejected that designation, the name was changed to Mitchell, honoring another railroad company officer. Postal officials rejected because another post office of that name existed elsewhere in the territory, they named the post office Bokhoma, which opened December 15, 1902. Railroad officials chose the name Idabel, a compound of the names of Isaac Purnell's two daughters and Bell; the post office was renamed Idabel. For its first four years, Idabel local government was the responsibility of the Choctaw tribe for the Indians themselves; the national government was responsible for enforcing the law among non-Choctaws. In 1906, the citizens established a mayor-council form of government.
At the time of statehood, November 16, 1907, the town was designated as the county seat of McCurtain County. A census in that year reported 726 residents. By 1910, the population had grown to 1,493. In 1920, there were 3,617 residents, but the number fell to 2,581 in 1930. Growth resumed by the end of the Great Depression in the late 1930s. Idabel lies between the Little River and the Red River, about 21 miles west of the Oklahoma-Arkansas state line and 40 miles east of Hugo. U. S. Routes 70 and 259 pass through the city. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.9 square miles, of which, 15.9 square miles of it is land and 0.06% is water. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Idabel has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps; as of the census of 2000, there were 7,658 people, 2,735 households, 1,785 families residing in the city. The population density was 436.3 people per square mile.
There were 3,129 housing units at an average density of 196.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 56.99% White, 24.45% African American, 10.44% Native American, 0.30% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 3.37% from other races, 4.43% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.96% of the population. There were 2,735 households out of which 34.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.6% were married couples living together, 21.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 34.7% were non-families. 31.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.9% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.08. In the city, the population was spread out with 29.5% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 26.0% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, 14.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $20,496, the median income for a family was $24,189. Males had a median income of $24,182 versus $16,958 for females; the per capita income for the city was $12,241. About 28.7% of families and 31.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 42.5% of those under age 18 and 18.4% of those age 65 or over. Timber was the basis for the local economy, but this was supplanted by cotton production after the nearby forests were cleared. One cotton gin operated in Idabel in 1904, but six were in business in 1930. However, the Great Depression, depleted soil and destructive pests wiped out this industry around Idabel. Landowners converted their properties to expanded beef production. Chicken farms were established in the area and marginal agricultural land was turned into pine plantations. Idabel Public Schools serves the community. Idabel High School - Grades 9–12 Idabel Middle School - Grades 6–8 Central Elementary - Grades 3–5 Idabel Primary South - Grades 1–2 PRE-K–K EvenStart - Ages 2–4 Southeast Elementary - pre-k–4–Adult Ed Denison Elementary - Pre-Kindergarten - 8th Kiamichi Technology Center Southeastern Oklahoma State University, McCurtain County campus Eastern Oklahoma State College Vice Admiral Phillip Balisle, United States Navy Randall Burks, former professional football player Ray Burris, professional baseball player Hadley Caliman, jazz musician Earl Grant, organist Jeff Keith, lead singer for the rock band Tesla Odell McBrayer, Fort Worth attorney who ran for governor of Texas in 1974, resided in Idabel in the years of his life Sunny Murray, jazz drummer and band leader Harold Stevenson, artist Countess Vaughn, actress Idabel Public Library Idabel Public Schools McCurtain County OSU Extension Center Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Idabel
Hampton Hawes
Hampton Barnett Hawes, Jr. was an American jazz pianist. He was the author of the memoir Raise Up Off Me, which won the Deems-Taylor Award for music writing in 1975. Hampton Hawes was born on November 1928, in Los Angeles, California, his father, Hampton Hawes, Sr. was minister of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. His mother, the former Gertrude Holman, was Westminster's church pianist. Hawes' first experience with the piano was as a toddler sitting on his mother's lap while she practiced, he was able to pick out complex tunes by the age of three. Hawes was self-taught, his second professional job, at 18, was playing for eight months with the Howard McGhee Quintet at the Hi De Ho Club, in a group that included Charlie Parker. After serving in the U. S. Army in Japan from 1952 to 1954, Hawes formed his own trio, with bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Chuck Thompson; the three-record Trio sessions made by this group in 1955 on Contemporary Records were considered some of the finest records to come out of the West Coast at the time.
The next year, Hawes added guitarist Jim Hall for the All Night Sessions. These were three records made during a non-stop overnight recording session. After a six-month national tour in 1956, Hawes won the "New Star of the Year" award in Down Beat magazine, "Arrival of the Year" in Metronome; the following year, he recorded in New York City with Charles Mingus on the album Mingus Three. Struggling for many years with a heroin addiction, in 1958 Hawes became the target of a federal undercover operation in Los Angeles. Investigators believed that he would inform on suppliers rather than risk ruining a successful music career. Hawes was arrested on heroin charges on his 30th birthday but refused to cooperate and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. In the intervening weeks between his trial and sentencing, Hawes recorded an album of spirituals and gospel songs, The Sermon. In 1961, while at a federal prison hospital in Fort Worth, Hawes was watching President Kennedy's inaugural speech on television, became convinced that Kennedy would pardon him.
With help from inside and outside the prison, Hawes submitted an official request for a presidential pardon. In an miraculous turn, in August 1963, Kennedy granted Hawes executive clemency, the 42nd of only 43 such pardons given in the final year of Kennedy's presidency. After being released from prison, Hawes resumed recording. During a world tour in 1967–68, he was startled to discover that he had become a legend among jazz listeners overseas. During a ten-month tour of Europe and the Middle East, Hawes recorded nine albums, played sold out shows and concert halls in ten countries, was covered in the press, including appearances on European television and radio. Raise Up Off Me, Hawes' autobiography, written with Don Asher and published in 1974, shed light on his heroin addiction, the bebop movement, his friendships with some of the leading jazz musicians of his time, it was the first book about the bebop era written by a musician, won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music writing in 1975.
Critic Gary Giddins, who wrote the book's introduction, called Raise Up Off Me "a major contribution to the literature of jazz." The Penguin Guide to Jazz cites it as "one of the most moving memoirs written by a musician, a classic of jazz writing." In the 1970s, Hawes experimented with electronic music, although he returned to playing the acoustic piano. Hampton Hawes died unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage in 1977, at the age of 48, he was buried next to Hampton Hawes, Sr. who had died five months earlier. In 2004, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution declaring November 13 "Hampton Hawes Day". Hawes' playing style developed in the early 1950s, he included "figures used by Parker and Powell, some Oscar Peterson phrases, some Bill Evans phrases, an impressive locked-hands style in which the top notes always sang out clearly." He helped develop "the double-note blues figures and rhythmically compelling comping style that Horace Silver and others were to use in the mid-1950s." His technique featured "great facility with rapid runs and a versatile control of touch."Hawes influenced a great number of prominent pianists, including André Previn, Horace Silver, Claude Williamson, Pete Jolly, Toshiko Akiyoshi.
Hawes' own influences came from a number of sources, including the gospel music and spirituals he heard in his father's church as a child, the boogie-woogie piano of Earl Hines. Hawes learned much from pianists Powell and Nat King Cole, among others. By Hawes' own account, his principal source of influence was his friend Charlie Parker. With Gene Ammons Gene Ammons and Friends at Montreux With Sonny Criss I'll Catch the Sun! With Art Farmer On the Road With Dexter Gordon The Hunt Blues à la Suisse With Barney Kessel Kessel Plays Standards Let's Cook! With Warne Marsh Live in Hollywood With Charles Mingus Mingus Three With Blue Mitchell Stratosonic Nuances With Red Mitchell Red Mitchell With Art Pepper The Early Show Surf Ride Living Legend With Shorty Rogers Modern Sounds Shorty Rogers and His Giants With Sonny Ro
Bridge into the New Age
Bridge into the New Age is an album by saxophonist Azar Lawrence, recorded in 1974 and released on the Prestige label. The Allmusic site awarded the album 4 stars. All compositions by Azar Lawrence. "Bridge into the New Age" – 6:45 "Fatisha" – 4:05 "Warriors of Peace" – 7:59 "Forces of Nature" – 8:41 "The Beautiful and Omnipresent Love" – 10:07 Azar Lawrence – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone Woody Shaw – trumpet Julian Priester – trombone Black Arthur – alto saxophone Hadley Caliman – flute Ray Straughter – wood flute Joe Bonner – piano Woody Murray – vibraphone John Heard, Clint Houston – bass Billy Hart, Ndugu – drums Mtume – congas, percussion Guilherme Franco, Kenneth Nash – percussion Jean Carn – vocals
Seattle
Seattle is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of Washington. With an estimated 730,000 residents as of 2018, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. According to U. S. Census data released in 2018, the Seattle metropolitan area’s population stands at 3.87 million, ranks as the 15th largest in the United States. In July 2013, it was the fastest-growing major city in the United States and remained in the Top 5 in May 2015 with an annual growth rate of 2.1%. In July 2016, Seattle was again the fastest-growing major U. S. city, with a 3.1% annual growth rate. Seattle is the northernmost large city in the United States; the city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 100 miles south of the Canada–United States border. A major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015; the Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers.
Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851; the settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named "Seattle" in 1852, in honor of Chief Si'ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Today, Seattle has high populations of Native, Scandinavian and Asian Americans, as well as a thriving LGBT community that ranks 6th in the United States for population. Logging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late 19th century, the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding center as a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. Growth after World War II was due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing; the Seattle area developed into a technology center from the 1980s onwards with companies like Microsoft becoming established in the region. Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle in 1994, major airline Alaska Airlines is based in SeaTac, serving Seattle's international airport, Seattle–Tacoma International Airport.
The stream of new software and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city's population by 50,000 between 1990 and 2000. Owing to its increasing population in the 21st century and the state of Washington have some of the highest minimum wages in the country, at $15 per hour for smaller businesses and $16 for the city's largest employers. Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District to the Central District; the jazz scene nurtured the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, others. Seattle is the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix, as well as the origin of the bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters and the alternative rock movement grunge. Archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay.
The first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest. In 1851, a large party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Thirteen days members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party. Members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28, 1851; the rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland and landed on Alki point during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851. After a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. Charles Terry and John Low remained at the original landing location and reestablished their old land claim and called it "New York", but renamed "New York Alki" in April 1853, from a Chinook word meaning "by and by" or "someday". For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, but in time Alki was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers.
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Seattle of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name "Seattle" appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23, 1853, when the first plats for the village were filed. In 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14, 1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of trustees managing the city; the Town of Seattle was disincorporated on January 18, 1867, remained a mere precinct of King County until late 1869, when a new petition was filed and the city was re-incorporated December 2, 1869, with a mayor–council government. The corporate seal of the City of Seattle carries the date "1869" and a likeness of Chief Sealth in left profile. Seattle has a history of boom-and-bust cycles, like many other cities near areas of extensive natural and mineral resources. Seattle has risen several times economically gone into precipitous decline, but it has used those periods to rebuild solid infrastructure
