1.
Durham, North Carolina
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Durham is a city in the U. S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County, though portions also extend into Wake County in the east, the U. S. Census Bureau estimated the citys population to be 251,893 as of July 1,2014. Durham is the core of the four-county Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Area and it is the home of Duke University and North Carolina Central University, and is also one of the vertices of the Research Triangle area. The Eno and the Occoneechi, related to the Sioux and the Shakori and they may have established a village named Adshusheer on the site. The Great Indian Trading Path has been traced through Durham, and Native Americans helped to mold the area by establishing settlements, in 1701, Durhams beauty was chronicled by the English explorer John Lawson, who called the area the flower of the Carolinas. During the mid-1700s, Scots, Irish, and English colonists settled on land granted to George Carteret by King Charles I, early settlers built gristmills, such as West Point, and worked the land. Prior to the American Revolution, frontiersmen in what is now Durham were involved in the Regulator movement, according to legend, Loyalist militia cut Cornwallis Road through this area in 1771 to quell the rebellion. Later, William Johnston, a shopkeeper and farmer, made Revolutionaries munitions, served in the Provincial Capital Congress in 1775. Large plantations, Hardscrabble, Cameron, and Leigh among them, were established in the antebellum period, by 1860, Stagville Plantation lay at the center of one of the largest plantation holdings in the South. There were free African-Americans in the area as well, including several who fought in the Revolutionary War and this road, eventually followed by US Route 70, was the major east-west route in North Carolina from colonial times until the construction of interstate highways. Steady population growth and an intersection with the road connecting Roxboro and Fayetteville made the area near this site suitable for a US Post Office, Durhams location is a result of the needs of the 19th century railroad industry. The wood-burning steam locomotives of the time had to frequently for wood and water. Eventually a railway depot was established on land donated by Bartlett S. Durham in 1849, sherman occupied the nearby state capital of Raleigh during the American Civil War. The last formidable Confederate Army in the South, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, was headquartered in Greensboro 50 miles to the west. After the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9,1865, fortunately for Durham, its future had nothing to do with 19th-century politics. As both armies passed through Durham, Hillsborough, and surrounding Piedmont communities, they confiscated the areas Brightleaf Tobacco, the community of Durham Station grew slowly before the Civil War, but expanded rapidly following the war. Much of this attributed to the establishment of a thriving tobacco industry. Veterans returned home after the war, with an interest in acquiring more of the tobacco they had sampled in North Carolina
2.
Jazz
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Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
3.
Gospel music
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Gospel music is a music genre in Christian music. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music varies according to culture. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, Gospel music usually has dominant vocals with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century, with roots in the oral tradition. Hymns and sacred songs were repeated in a call and response fashion, most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella, the first published use of the term Gospel Song probably appeared in 1874. The original gospel songs were written and composed by such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane. The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music, following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate. Gospel blues is a form of gospel music. Southern gospel used all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up, progressive Southern gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern gospel over the past couple of decades. Christian country music, sometimes referred to as gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. It peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s, bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music. Celtic gospel music infuses gospel music with a Celtic flair, and is popular in countries such as Ireland. British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora, some proponents of standard hymns generally dislike gospel music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, with distance, there is a greater acceptance of such gospel songs into official denominational hymnals. Gospel music in general is characterized by dominant vocals referencing lyrics of a Christian nature, subgenres include contemporary gospel, urban contemporary gospel, Southern gospel, and modern gospel music. Several forms of gospel music utilize choirs, use piano or Hammond organ, tambourines, drums, bass guitar and, increasingly, electric guitar. In comparison with hymns, which are generally of a statelier measure, several attempts have been made to describe the style of late 19th and early 20th century gospel songs in general
4.
Swing music
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Swing music, or simply swing, is a form of American music that dominated in the 1930s and 1940s. The name swing came from the swing feel where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music, Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, the verb to swing is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Notable musicians of the era include Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Woody Herman. Swing has roots in the late 1920s as larger ensembles began using written arrangements, a typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely tied wind and brass. The most common style consisted of having a soloist take center stage, Swing music began to decline in popularity during World War II because of several factors. By the late 1940s, swing had morphed into traditional pop music, or evolved into new styles such as jump blues, Swing music saw a revival in the late 1950s and 1960s with pop vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald. Swing blended with other genres to create new styles, in country music, artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican and Bob Wills introduced many elements of swing along with blues to create a genre called western swing. Gypsy swing is an outgrowth of Venuti and Langs jazz violin swing, in the 1970s, and 1980s, fans of big band music attended swing music performances at supper clubs. In the late-1980s a trendier, more urban-styled swing-beat emerged called new jack swing, in the late 1990s and into the 2000s there was a swing revival, led by Squirrel Nut Zippers, Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Lavay Smith. In Canada, some of the early 2000s records by The JW-Jones Blues Band included swing revival elements, the 1920s saw parallel trends in jazz and popular music that would later converge into the swing style. New Orleans style jazz was based on a meter and contrapuntal improvisation led by a trumpet or cornet, typically followed by a clarinet. The rhythm section consisted of a tuba and drums, and sometimes a banjo, by the early 1920s guitars and pianos sometimes substituted for the banjo and a string bass sometimes substituted for the tuba. Further innovations in small ensemble playing led to development of the Chicago style identified with Louis Armstrong, a stint with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra familiarized him with arranged ensemble playing that differed from the New Orleans style, in which saxophones became the dominant sound among the reeds. Armstrong brought those back to his smaller ensembles, the soloist played over an ensemble relegated to a supporting role in the background. The string bass also lent itself to playing in a 4/4 rhythm rather than the 2/4 rhythm dictated by the tuba. The new format gave the soloist the opportunity to play with more rhythmic freedom, but playing with swing remained the province of the soloist, not the ensemble. The late 1920s saw increasingly sophisticated arrangements used by bigger ensembles, some arrangements used call-response between horn sections to build the melody
5.
Bebop
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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, Bebop groups used rhythm sections in a way that expanded their role. The term bebop is derived from nonsense syllables used in scat singing and it appears again in a 1936 recording of Ise a Muggin by Jack Teagarden. A variation, rebop, appears in several 1939 recordings, the first, known print appearance also occurred in 1939, but the term was little-used subsequently until applied to the music now associated with it in the mid-1940s. Some researchers speculate that it was a used by Charlie Christian because it sounded like something he hummed along with his playing. Another theory is that it derives from the cry of Arriba, used by Latin American bandleaders of the period to encourage their bands. At times, the bebop and rebop were used interchangeably. By 1945, the use of bebop/rebop as nonsense syllables was widespread in R&B music, ability to play sustained, high energy, and creative solos was highly 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 an alto saxophone player named Charlie Parker. Young was equally daring with his rhythm and phrasing as with his approach to harmonic structures in his solos and he would frequently repeat simple two or three note figures, with shifting rhythmic accents expressed by volume, articulation, or tone. His phrasing was far removed from the two or four bar phrases that players had used until then. They would often be extended to an odd number of measures and 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, Parker played along with the new Basie recordings on a Victrola until he could play Youngs solos note for note. That understatement of harmonically sophisticated chords would soon be used by young musicians exploring the new language of bebop. That solo showed a sophisticated harmonic exploration of the tune, with implied passing chords, Hawkins would eventually go on to lead the first formal recording of the bebop style in early 1944. As the 1930s turned to the 1940s, Parker went to New York as a player in the Jay McShann Orchestra. Guitarist Charlie Christian, who had arrived in New York with the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1939 was, like Parker, christians major influence was in the realm of rhythmic phrasing
6.
Brunswick Records
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Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. The company first began producing phonographs in 1916, then began marketing their own line of records as an after-thought and these first Brunswick records used the vertical cut system like Edison Disc Records, and were not sold in large numbers. They were recorded in the US but sold only in Canada, in January 1920, a new line of Brunswick Records was introduced in the US and Canada that employed the lateral cut system which was becoming the default cut for 78 discs. Brunswick started its standard popular series at 2000 and ended up in 1940 at 8517, however, when the series reached 4999, they skipped over the previous allocated 5000s and continued at 6000. Also, when they reached 6999, they continued at 7301, the parent company marketed them extensively, and within a few years Brunswick became one of the USAs Big Three record companies, along with Victor and Columbia Records. The Brunswick line of home phonographs were commercially successful, Brunswick had a hit with their Ultona phonograph capable of playing Edison Disc Records, Pathé disc records, and standard lateral 78s. In late 1924, Brunswick acquired the Vocalion Records label, audio fidelity of early-1920s, acoustically-recorded Brunswick discs is above average for the era. They were pressed into good quality shellac, although not as durable as that used by Victor, in the spring of 1925 Brunswick introduced its own version of electrical recording using photoelectric cells, which Brunswick called the light-ray process. Then based in Chicago, many of the citys best orchestras, the labels jazz roster included Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, King Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Andy Kirk, and Red Nichols. Brunswick initiated a 7000 race series as well as the Vocalion 1000 race series and these race records series recorded hot jazz, urban and rural blues, and gospel. Brunswick also had a successful business supplying radio with sponsored transcriptions of popular music, comedy. Few orchestra records were approved for issue and those that did appear on the often combined excellent performances with execrable sound. Brunswick found it expedient and ultimately cheaper to contract with European companies to fill their electrical classical catalogue, some of these recordings have been reissued on CD. Brunswick itself switched to a conventional microphone recording process in 1927. Prior to this, however, they had introduced the Brunswick Panatrope and this phonograph met with critical acclaim, and composer Ottorino Respighi selected the Brunswick Panatrope to play a recording of bird songs in his composition The Pines of Rome. Jack Kapp became the company executive of Brunswick in 1930. In April 1930, Brunswick-Balke-Collender sold Brunswick Records to Warner Bros. Warner Bros. hoped to make their own soundtrack recordings for their sound-on-disc Vitaphone system. A number of interesting recordings were made by actors during this period, actors who made recordings included Noah Beery, Charles King, and J. Harold Murray
7.
Decca Records
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Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U. S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis along with American Deccas first president Jack Kapp and later American Decca president Milton Rackmil. In 1937, as a result of anticipating Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca, the British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group, which is owned by Vivendi, the US Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG. The name Decca was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the word Mecca with the initial D of their logo Dulcet or their trademark Dulcephone, Samuel, a linguist, chose Decca as a brand name as it was easy to pronounce in most languages. The name dates back to a gramophone called the Decca Dulcephone patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel. That company was renamed the Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd. Within years, Decca Records Ltd. was the second largest record label in the world, Decca bought the UK branch of Brunswick Records and continued to run it under that name. In the 1950s the American Decca studios were located in the Pythian Temple in New York City, in classical music, Decca had a long way to go from its modest beginnings to catch up with the established HMV and Columbia labels. The pre-war classical repertoire on Decca was not extensive, but was select, heinrich Schlusnus made important pre-war lieder recordings for Decca. John Culshaw, who joined Decca in 1946 in a junior post and he revolutionised recording – of opera, in particular. Hitherto, the practice had been to put microphones in front of the performers, Culshaw was determined to make recordings that would be a theatre of the mind, making the listeners experience at home not second best to being in the opera house, but a wholly different experience. To that end he got the singers to move about in the studio as they would onstage, used sound effects and different acoustics. His skill, coupled with Decca engineering, took Decca into the first flight of recording companies and his pioneering recording of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Georg Solti was a huge artistic and commercial success. In the wake of Deccas lead, artists such as Herbert von Karajan, Joan Sutherland, however, Culshaw was, strictly speaking, not the first to do this. Far from being a mere rendering of the score, the 3-LP album set used sound effects to recreate the production as if the listener were watching a stage performance of the work. Until 1947, American Decca issued British Decca classical music recordings, afterwards, British Decca took over distribution through its new American subsidiary London Records. American Decca actively re-entered the classical music field in 1950 with distribution deals from Deutsche Grammophon, American Decca began issuing its own classical music recordings in 1956 when Israel Horowitz joined Decca to head its classical music operations
8.
Folkways Records
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Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and childrens music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways, the Folkways Records & Service Co. was founded by Moses Asch and Marian Distler in 1948 in New York City. Asch sought to record and document sounds and music from everywhere in the world, from 1948 until Aschs death in 1986, Folkways Records released 2,168 albums. In 1964, Asch helped MGM Records start Verve Folkways Records which evolved in 1967 into Verve Forecast Records, the Folkways catalog includes traditional and contemporary music from around the world, poetry, spoken word, language instruction, and field recordings of people and nature. Folkways was a supporter of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Lead Belly. The Anthology of American Folk Music appeared on Folkways, as did the album to The Country Blues by Samuel Charters. Folkways was one of the earliest companies to release albums of world music and it also released many spoken word albums, and other unusual repertoire. The albums came with a pull-out leaflet containing extensive liner notes, the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington, D. C. acquired Aschs Folkways recordings and business files after his death in 1986. This acquisition was initiated by Ralph Rinzler of the Smithsonian before Aschs death and completed by the Asch Family to ensure the sounds and artists would be preserved for future generations. As a result, it was agreed to continue Aschs policy that all of the 2,168 titles would stay in print indefinitely regardless of market sales. The Smithsonian Folkways website uses the internet to make the recordings available as streaming samples, DRM-free digital downloads in MP3 and lossless FLAC format, and on CDs via mail order. A complete set of the Folkways recordings was donated to the University of Alberta where Michael Asch. Since acquiring Folkways, the Smithsonian has expanded Aschs collection by adding several other labels, including Cook, Monitor, Fast Folk, Dyer-Bennet. They have released over 300 new recordings, Smithsonian Folkways states that their mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document peoples music. By making these available, they intend to strengthen peoples engagement with their own cultural heritage and to enhance their awareness. Smithsonian Folkways has produced or co-produced a number of series based on Folkways collections. Sounds to Grow On is hosted by Michael Asch, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Alberta and the son of Moses Asch
9.
Victor Talking Machine Company
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The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American flagship record company headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. The company was founded by Eldridge R. Johnson, who had previously made gramophones to play Emile Berliners disc records, Victor Talking Machine Co. was incorporated officially in 1901 shortly before agreeing to allow Columbia Records use of its disc record patent. Victor had acquired the Pan-American rights to use the trademark of the fox terrier Nipper listening to a gramophone when Berliner. Barraud noticed that whenever he played a recorded by his brother. Barrauds original depicts Nipper staring intently into the horn of an Edison-Bell while both sit on a wooden surface. The London branch was managed by an American, William Barry Owen, Barraud paid a visit with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a horn. Owen gave Barraud an entire gramophone and asked him to paint it into the picture, the original painting still shows the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph beneath the paint of the gramophone when viewed in the correct light. Only 13 originally commissioned His Masters Voice paintings were commissioned by the company, in 1915, the His Masters Voice logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola factory building. The tower remains today with replica windows installed during Radio Corporation of Americas ownership of the plant in its later years, today, one of the original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D. C. There are different accounts as to how the Victor name came about, a second account is that Johnson emerged as the Victor from the lengthy and costly patent litigations involving Berliner and Frank Seamans Zonophone. A third story is that Johnsons partner, Leon Douglass, derived the word from his wifes name Victoria, finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular Victor bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts the first two are the most generally accepted, perhaps coincidentally, the first use of the Victor title on a letterhead, on March 28,1901, was only nine weeks after the death of British Queen Victoria. Before 1925, recording was done by the purely mechanical. No microphone was involved and there was no means of amplification, the recording machine was essentially an exposed-horn acoustical record player functioning in reverse. The sound-vibrated center of the diaphragm was linked to a stylus that was guided across the surface of a very thick wax disc. The wax was too soft to be played back even once without seriously damaging it, although test recordings were sometimes made, although sound quality was gradually improved by a series of small refinements, the process was inherently insensitive. From the start, Victor innovated manufacturing processes and soon rose to preeminence by recording famous performers, in 1903, it instituted a three-step mother-stamper process to produce more stampers and records than previously possible. These new celebrity recordings bore red labels, and were marketed as Red Seal records, for many years these records were single-sided, only in 1923 did Victor begin offering Red Seals in double-sided form
10.
King Records (United States)
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King Records was an American leading independent record company and label founded in 1943 by Syd Nathan in Cincinnati, Ohio. The label owned several divisions, including Federal Records, which launched the career of James Brown, it operated until 1975, in the beginning, King specialized in country music, at the time known as hillbilly music. King advertised, If its a King, Its a Hillbilly – If its a Hillbilly, one of the labels hits was Im Using My Bible for a Road Map by Reno and Smiley. Important recordings in this field were done by the Delmore Brothers, the Delmores and Moon Mullican played a country-boogie style that was similar to rockabilly. Several King artists, such as Bill Beach, are in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, beachs song Peg Pants was popular during the European resurgence of rockabilly in the late 1980s. Popular songs on the label included Ill Sail My Ship Alone, Blues Stay Away from Me, Chew Tobacco Rag, Eight More Miles to Louisville, Sweeter Than the Flowers, and Cherokee Boogie. King owned race records label Queen Records, which was folded into King, and Federal Records, King also had a long legal battle with James Brown after he repeatedly violated his contract with the company. King bought De Luxe Records and Bethlehem Records, in 1951, Federal Records made the first significant crossover of an R&B record into the white pop music charts with Billy Ward and the Dominoes Sixty Minute Man. It reached number 17 on the Billboard pop chart and number 1 in the R&B chart and it helped pave the way for future R&B artists and record labels to get their music heard on white radio, which was not easy in those days. The significance of this event cannot be overrated, as it was a point in the evolution of music. King mixed the country and R&B sides of the label, R&B artists recorded country songs, such as Bubber Johnsons Keep a Light in the Window for Me. During the 1950s, King distributed portable phonographs, King Records was unique among the independent labels because the entire production process was done in-house, recording, mastering, printing, pressing and shipping. This gave Nathan complete control, and a record could be recorded one day, for that reason, King records that did not sell well are now rare. Seymour Stein, a co-founder of Sire Records, interned at King Records as a school student in 1957 and 1958. When Nathan died in 1968, King was acquired by Hal Neelys Starday Records and restarted as Starday, in 1971, James Browns recording contract and back catalogue were sold to Polydor Records. Since 2001, Collectables Records has been remastering and reissuing the King Records catalogue, the former King Records headquarters, at 1540 Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati, is still standing. A historical marker was placed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, audio Lab Records Bethlehem Records De Luxe Records Federal Records Festival Records Queen Records Starday Records List of record labels King Records discography at Discogs The King Records story
11.
Atlantic Records
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Atlantic Recording Corporation is an American major record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. In 2004, Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group, craig Kallman is currently the chairman of Atlantic Records. Ahmet Ertegün served as founding chairman until his death on December 14,2006, the brothers had become ardent fans of jazz and rhythm & blues music, amassing a collection of over 15,00078 RPM records. He convinced the family dentist, Dr Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and recruited Herb Abramson, Abramson had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine. He founded Jubilee Records in 1946, but had no interest in its most successful artists, so, in September 1947, he sold his share in Jubilee to his partner, Jerry Blaine, and invested $2500 in the new Atlantic label. When interviewed in 2009 she attributed her reputation to the companys chronic cash-flow shortage, most of the problems we had with artists were that they wanted advances, and that was very difficult for us. We were undercapitalized for a long time, the labels original office in the Ritz Hotel, Manhattan proved too expensive so they relocated to an $85 per month room in the Hotel Jefferson. In its early years Atlantic focused principally on modern jazz although it released some country and western and spoken word recordings. The union action forced Atlantic to use almost all its capital to cut and stockpile enough recordings to last through the ban, Ertegun and Abramson spent much of the late 1940s and early 1950s scouring nightclubs in search of talent. Ertegun composed many songs under the alias A, in early 1949 a New Orleans distributor phoned Ertegun trying to obtain Stick McGhees Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee, which was unavailable due to the closure of McGhees previous label. Ertegun knew Sticks younger brother Brownie McGhee, with whom Stick happened to be staying, so he contacted the McGhee brothers, Ertegun asked about artists royalties, which he paid, which surprised Columbia executives, who did not, which scuttled the deal. On the recommendation of broadcaster Willis Conover, Ertegun and Abramson went to see Ruth Brown at the Crystal Caverns club in Washington and she was badly injured in a car accident en route to New York but Atlantic supported her for nine months and then signed her. Her first release for the label So Long, cut at her second Atlantic session on May 25,1949 with the Eddie Condon band, was a major hit, reaching #6 on the R&B chart. Brown went on to more than eighty songs for the label, becoming the most prolific. So significant was Browns success to Atlantics fortunes that the label became known colloquially as The House That Ruth Built. The Clovers Dont You Know I Love You became the labels first R&B #1 in September 1951 and she hit #1 again in March–April 1952 with 5-10-15 Hours. After she left the label in 1961 Browns fortunes declined rapidly - within a few years was reduced to working as a cleaner and bus-driver to support her children. Brown eventually received a payment of $20,000 and founded a charity
12.
Circle Records
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Circle Records is a jazz record label founded in 1946 by Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis. In New York, Blesh and Janis heard jazz drummer Warren Baby Dodds playing inventive solos with Bunk Johnsons band, Blesh said he hated drum solos until he saw Dodds. To record Dodds and others, they started Circle Records, the name was given by fellow audience member Marcel Duchamp, who said Records are circles, and besides, no one can call you squares. Circle recorded traditional jazz of the time, and its releases included Chippie Hill, George Lewis, the label was the first to release Jelly Roll Mortons Library of Congress recordings. Blesh and Janis continued the label until 1952, Circle was bought in the mid-1960s by George H. Buck, Jr. who reissued some of the catalog on compact disc, now under the control of the George H. Buck Jr. This Circle Records is not to be confused with the German record label of the same name
13.
Vogue Records
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Vogue Records was a short-lived United States-based record label of the 1940s, noted for the artwork embedded in the records themselves. The discs were manufactured by first sandwiching printed illustrations around a core of aluminum, the company went out of business the following year, having released between 67 and 74 double-sided 78 rpm gramophone records. Some of the Vogue issues were re-releases of recordings issued by other companies. The colorful artwork on the records have made Vogue Records a collectors item, however this rumor was later debunked by surviving members of the Down Homers as well as Haley researchers. Nonetheless, the Vogue Down Homers releases are considered among the more collectable of the labels releases, list of record labels Unusual types of gramophone records Whats a Vogue Picture Record. From The Association of Vogue Picture Record Collectors Vogue Picture Records from the Todd Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library
14.
Duke Ellington
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Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years. Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, in the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Some of the musicians who were members of Ellingtons orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered to be among the best players in jazz, Ellington melded them into the best-known orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stayed with the orchestra for several decades, a master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington often composed specifically to feature the style and skills of his individual musicians. Ellington also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, for example Juan Tizols Caravan, and Perdido, after 1941, Ellington collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or suites, following an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, in July 1956, Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed a major career revival and embarked on world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in films, scoring several. His reputation continued to rise after he died, and he was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999, Ellington was born on April 29,1899, to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Ellington in Washington, D. C. Daisy primarily played parlor songs and James preferred operatic arias and they lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place, NW, in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D. C. Dukes father was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15,1879, Daisy Kennedy was born in Washington, D. C. on January 4,1879, the daughter of a former American slave. James Ellington made blueprints for the United States Navy, when Ellington was a child, his family showed racial pride and support in their home, as did many other families. African Americans in D. C. worked to protect their children from the eras Jim Crow laws, at the age of seven, Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners, Ellingtons childhood friends noticed that his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman, and began calling him Duke. Ellington credited his chum Edgar McEntree for the nickname, I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was interested in baseball. President Roosevelt would come by on his horse sometimes, and stop and watch us play, Ellington went to Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D. C. He gained his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games, in the summer of 1914, while working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Ellington wrote his first composition, Soda Fountain Rag. He created the piece by ear, as he had not yet learned to read, I would play the Soda Fountain Rag as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot, Ellington recalled
15.
Benny Goodman
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Benjamin David Benny Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as the King of Swing. In the mid-1930s, Goodman led one of the most popular groups in America. Goodmans bands launched the careers of many jazz artists. During an era of segregation, he led one of the first well-known integrated jazz groups. Goodman performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music, Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman, came to America in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and his mother, Dora, came from Kaunas, Lithuania. His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Benny was born, hundreds of houses are unconnected with the street sewer. Money was a constant problem in the family, Bennys father earned at most $20 per week. On Sundays, his father took the children to free concerts in Douglas Park. The following year Benny joined the club band at Jane Addamss Hull House. By joining the band, he was entitled to two weeks at a summer camp about fifty miles from Chicago. It was the time he was able to get away from the bleak environment of his urban neighborhood. He also received two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp and his early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists working in Chicago, notably Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo and Jimmie Noone. Goodman learned quickly, becoming a player at an early age. Goodman made his debut in 1921 at the Central Park Theater on Chicagos West Side. He entered Harrison High School in Chicago in 1922 and he joined the musicians’ union in 1923 and by the age of 14 was in a band featuring Bix Beiderbecke. Goodman attended Lewis Institute in 1924 as a sophomore, while also playing the clarinet in a dance hall band. When Goodman was 16, he joined one of Chicagos top bands, when he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar
16.
Thelonious Monk
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Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. Monk is the second most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is remarkable as Ellington composed more than a thousand pieces. He was renowned for his style in suits, hats. Monk is one of five musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time, after Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck. Thelonious Sphere Monk was born two years after his sister Marion on October 10,1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and his badly written birth certificate misspelled his first name as Thelious or Thelius. It also did not list his name, taken from his maternal grandfather. A brother, Thomas, was born in January 1920, in 1922, the family moved to 243 West 63rd Street, in Manhattan, New York City. Monk started playing the piano at the age of six, and was largely self-taught and he attended Stuyvesant High School but did not graduate. He toured with an evangelist in his teens, playing the church organ, in the early to mid-1940s, Monk was the house pianist at Mintons Playhouse, a Manhattan nightclub. Much of Monks style was developed during his time at Mintons, Monk is believed to be the pianist featured on recordings Jerry Newman made around 1941 at the club. Monks style at this time was described as hard-swinging, with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monks stated influences included Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, in the documentary Thelonious Monk, Straight, No Chaser, it is stated that Monk lived in the same neighborhood in New York City as Johnson and knew him as a teenager. So, the worked out a music that was hard to steal. Ill say this for the leeches, though, they tried, ive seen them in Mintons busily writing on their shirt cuffs or scribbling on the tablecloth. And even our own guys, Im afraid, did not give Monk the credit he had coming, why, they even stole his idea of the beret and bop glasses. In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet, Hawkins was one of the earliest established jazz musicians to promote Monk, and the pianist later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him on a 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947, Monk married Nellie Smith the same year, and in 1949 the couple had a son, T. S. Monk, who became a jazz drummer. A daughter, Barbara, was born in 1953 and died in 1984 from cancer, in August 1951, New York City police searched a parked car occupied by Monk and friend Bud Powell
17.
Charlie Parker
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Charles Charlie Parker, Jr. also known as Yardbird and Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Parker was an influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop. Parker was a blazingly fast virtuoso, and he introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords and his tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Parker acquired the nickname Yardbird early in his career, Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer. Charles Parker, Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, the child of Charles Parker and Adelaide Addie. He attended Lincoln High School in September 1934, but withdrew in December 1935, Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11, and at age 14 he joined his schools band using a rented school instrument. His father, Charles, was absent but provided some musical influence, he was a pianist. He later became a Pullman waiter or chef on the railways, Parkers mother Addie worked nights at the local Western Union office. His biggest influence at that time was a trombone player who taught him the basics of improvisation. In the late 1930s Parker began to practice diligently, during this period he mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas that led to bebop. In an interview with Paul Desmond, he said that he spent three to four years practicing up to 15 hours a day, bands led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten certainly influenced Parker. In 1937, Parker played at a jam session at the Reno Club in Kansas City and his attempt to improvise failed when he lost track of the chord changes. This prompted Jo Jones, the drummer for Count Basies Orchestra, in 1938 Parker joined pianist Jay McShanns territory band. The band toured nightclubs and other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago, Parker made his professional recording debut with McShanns band. As a teenager, Parker developed a morphine addiction while hospitalized after an automobile accident and he continued using heroin throughout his life, and it ultimately contributed to his death. In 1939 Parker moved to New York City, to pursue a career in music and he held several other jobs as well. He worked for nine dollars a week as a dishwasher at Jimmies Chicken Shack, in 1942 Parker left McShanns band and played for one year with Earl Hines, whose band included Dizzy Gillespie, who later played with Parker as a duo. This period is virtually undocumented, due to the strike of 1942–1943 by the American Federation of Musicians, Parker joined a group of young musicians, and played in after-hours clubs in Harlem, such as [[Clark Monroes Uptown House
18.
Miles Davis
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Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz, with his ever-changing directions in music, Davis was at the forefront of a number of major stylistic developments in jazz over his five-decade career. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records, after a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, he signed a long-term contract with Columbia Records and recorded the 1957 album Round About Midnight. It was his first work with saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Paul Chambers and his million-selling 1970 record Bitches Brew helped spark a resurgence in the genres commercial popularity with jazz fusion as the decade progressed. In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Miles Dewey Davis III was born on May 26,1926 into an affluent middle class African-American family in Alton, Illinois,15 miles north of St. Louis. The second of three children, he had a sister, Dorothy Mae, and a younger brother. His father, Miles Dewey Davis II of Arkansas, was a dental surgeon who earned three college degrees, and his mother Cleota Mae Davis, also of Arkansas, was a music teacher. They owned a 200-acre estate near Pine Bluff, Arkansas where Davis and his siblings would ride horses, fish, and hunt. In 1927, the moved to East St. Louis, Illinois. From 1932 to 1934, Davis attended John Robinson Elementary School, an institution, followed by Crispus Attucks School where he performed well in mathematics, music. It was in East St. Louis and Pine Bluff that the young Davis developed his earliest appreciation for music, Davis later suggested that his fathers instrument choice was made largely to irk his wife, who disliked the trumpets sound. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato, Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. He once remarked on its importance to him, saying, I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a voice with not too much tremolo. If I cant get that sound I cant play anything, in 1939, the family moved to 1701 Kansas Avenue in East St. Louis. For his 13th birthday held that year, Davis father bought his son a new trumpet, around this time, Davis took additional trumpet lessons from Joseph Gustat, first chair of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. In 1941, the 15-year-old Davis began at East St. Louis Lincoln High School where he joined the marching band directed by Buchanan. Davis claimed the contests he did not win was largely down to prejudice over his race and it was at Lincoln High where Davis met his first girlfriend, Irene Cawthorn. Davis had formed his own group by this time, performing in local venues such as Huffs Beer Garden with hits such as In the Mood by Glenn Miller
19.
Tadd Dameron
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Tadley Ewing Peake Tadd Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called him the romanticist of the bop movement, born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swing and hard bop players. The bands he arranged for included those of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine and he and lyricist Carl Sigman wrote If You Could See Me Now for Sarah Vaughan and it became one of her first signature songs. According to the composer, his greatest influences were George Gershwin, in the late 1940s, Dameron wrote arrangements for Gillespies big band, who gave the première of his large-scale orchestral piece Soulphony in Three Hearts at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Also in 1948, Dameron led his own group in New York, which included Fats Navarro, from 1961 he scored for recordings by Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, and Blue Mitchell. Dameron also arranged and played for rhythm and blues musician Bull Moose Jackson, playing for Jackson at that same time was Benny Golson, who was to become a jazz composer in his own right. Golson has said that Dameron was the most important influence on his writing, Dameron composed several bop standards, including Hot House, If You Could See Me Now, Our Delight, Good Bait, and Lady Bird. Damerons bands featured leading players such as Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, after forming another group of his own with Clifford Brown in 1953, Dameron developed an addiction to narcotics toward the end of his career. He served time in prison in Lexington, Kentucky. Dameron suffered from cancer and had heart attacks before dying of cancer in 1965. Continuum, Mad About Tadd, The Music of Tadd Dameron is a released in 1982 by a group consisting of Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Ron Carter, Art Taylor. The LP has since been reissued on CD, in 1975, jazz pianist Barry Harris recorded Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron for Xanadu Records. In 2007, pianist Richard Tardo Hammer recorded Look Stop and Listen, dameronia, The Life and Music of Tadd Dameron. Tadd Dameron biographical information at the Dameron/Damron Family Association web page
20.
Dizzy Gillespie
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John Birks Dizzy Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer. AllMusics Scott Yanow wrote, Dizzy Gillespies contributions to jazz were huge, Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks. In the 1940s Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a figure in the development of bebop. He taught and influenced other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione. Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children of James, James was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to the children. Gillespie started to play the piano at the age of four, Gillespies father died when he was only ten years old. Gillespie taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve, from the night he heard his idol, Roy Eldridge, play on the radio, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. He received a scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina which he attended for two years before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia. Teddy Hills band was where Gillespie made his first recording, King Porter Stomp, Willis was not immediately friendly but Gillespie was attracted anyway. The two finally married on May 9,1940 and they remained married until his death in 1993. Gillespie stayed with Teddy Hills band for a year, then left, in 1939, Gillespie joined Cab Calloways orchestra, with which he recorded one of his earliest compositions, the instrumental Pickin the Cabbage, in 1940. After a notorious altercation between the two men, Calloway fired Gillespie in late 1941, the incident is recounted by Gillespie, along with fellow Calloway band members Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones, in Jean Bachs 1997 film, The Spitball Story. Calloway did not approve of Gillespies mischievous humor, nor of his approach to soloing, according to Jones. Finally, their grudge for each other erupted over a thrown spitball, Calloway never thought highly of Gillespie, because he didnt view Gillespie as a good musician. Once during a rehearsal, a member of the band threw a spitball, already in a foul mood, Calloway decided to blame this on Gillespie. In order to clear his name, Gillespie didn’t take the blame, Calloway had minor cuts on the thigh and wrist. After the two men were separated, Calloway fired Gillespie, a few days later, Gillespie tried to apologize to Calloway, but he was dismissed
21.
Atlanta
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
22.
East Liberty (Pittsburgh)
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East Liberty is a culturally diverse neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanias East End. It is bordered by Highland Park, Morningside, Stanton Heights, Garfield, Friendship, Shadyside and Larimer, one of the most notable features in the East Liberty skyline is the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, which is an area landmark. Around the time of the American Revolution, East Liberty was a grazing area in Allegheny County located a few miles east of the young, growing town called Pittsburgh. Two farming patriarchs owned much of the land, and their descendants names grace streets in. Alexander Negley owned a farm called Fertile Bottom north of present-day East Liberty along the bank of the Allegheny River. Negleys land included some of present-day East Liberty and much of nearby Highland Park, Morningside, Larimer, alexander Negleys son Jacob married Barbara Winebiddle, built a manor house, and developed a village that he called East Liberty after the old grazing commons. In 1816, Negley saw to it that the Pittsburgh-Greensburg turnpike was built through East Liberty, East Liberty truly began to develop as a commercial area in 1843, when Jacobs daughter Sarah Jane Negley married the ambitious lawyer Thomas Mellon. Mellon had first visited the area of modern-day East Liberty in 1823, like Jacob Negley before him, Thomas Mellon worked to make East Liberty a transportation hub, Mellon convinced some of Pittsburghs first trolley lines to pass through East Liberty. On June 30,1868, the City of Pittsburgh annexed Collins Twp, thanks to its favorable location and Mellons guiding hand, East Liberty became a thriving commercial center in the following years. East Libertys merchants served many of Pittsburghs industrial millionaires, who settled in nearby Shadyside, professionals in Highland Park and Friendship and laborers in Bloomfield and Garfield also shopped in East Liberty. By 1950, the area was a bustling and fully urban marketplace, two decisions in the 1960s changed East Liberty. The first was an attempt to halt a slow trickle of businesses from the City to the suburbs and these merchants feared that suburban development would harm East Libertys status as a market center, and asked the City of Pittsburghs Urban Redevelopment Authority to take action. This plan required the demolition of half of the 254 ac that comprised East Liberty. Many small shops were destroyed—a million square feet of space in all. While the URA was remaking the street plan of East Liberty, the housing authoritys solution was to build three large housing complexes, each close to 20 stories tall, in East Liberty along the new Penn Circle roads. These two measures ultimately failed to preserve East Liberty as a center, and arguably hastened the old neighborhoods demise. By routing cars away from Penn Avenue, the URAs new street plan seemed to send a message that the commercial center was not worth visiting. In the span of just a few years during the mid-1960s, there were some 575 businesses in East Liberty in 1959 but only 292 in 1970 and just 98 in 1979
23.
Lovie Austin
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Cora Lovie Austin was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, singer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period and she was born Cora Taylor in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Lovie grew up with eight brothers and sisters and she studied music theory at Roger Williams University and Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee which was uncommon for African American woman and jazz musicians alike during the time. In 1923, Lovie Austin decided to make Chicago her home and she was often seen racing around town in her Stutz Bearcat with leopard skin upholstery, dressed to the teeth. Her early career was in vaudeville, where she played piano, accompanying blues singers was Lovies specialty, and can be heard on recordings by Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Ethel Waters, and Alberta Hunter. The Blues Serenaders developed their own unique sound within the jazz genre and they strayed away from the typical jazz band paradigm. Austin worked with other top jazz musicians of the 1920s, including Louis Armstrong. Austins skills as songwriter can be heard in the classic Down Hearted Blues, the lament of a woman with a broken heart, the song describes how the man she loved wrecked her life. Singer Bessie Smith turned the song into a hit in 1923, Austin was also a session musician for Paramount Records. Austin and the Blues Serenaders recorded with Paramount Records during their shift from New York to Chicago in 1923. She worked there for 20 years, during wartime, many jazz musicians had to find other forms of work to support themselves and Austin was reported to be working as a security guard at a defense plant. After World War II she became a pianist at Jimmy Paynes Dancing School at Penthouse Studios, austins songs included Sweet Georgia Brown, C Jam Blues and Gallon Stomp. Austin died on July 8,1972 in Chicago, mary Lou Williams, a pianist born in Atlanta, Georgia, claims that Lovie Austin is her greatest influence. Williams refers to Austin as, a woman and a fabulous musician too. I dont believe theres a woman around now who could compete with her and she was a greater talent than many of the men of this period. With her performances and compositions, Lovie enriched the lives of female artists during the Harlem Renaissance
24.
Orpheum Circuit
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The Orpheum Circuit was a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters. It was founded in 1886 and operated through 1927 when it was merged with the Keith-Albee theater chain, the Orpheum Circuit was started by the vaudeville impresario Gustav Walter, who opened the Orpheum Opera House in San Francisco in 1886. This first Orpheum seated 3500 and quickly became one of the most popular theaters in San Francisco attracting a variety of people. The Orpheums tickets were scaled to draw a mixed audience, customers bought tickets to the Orpheum because of its diverse program that ranged from knockabout comedy to opera. It drew a late-night crowd since it was the theater open late with performances lasting until two in the morning. The Orpheums shows were advertised to appeal to audiences and were suitable for refined young ladies. One reporter noted that seeing a show at the Orpheum. Despite his success, Walter was in debt, and in 1891, faced bankruptcy, he leased his theater. Cort took over the operations of the Orpheum for two years until his own led to Walter being rehired as manager. This time, Walter had the backing of Morris Meyerfeld. Meyerfeld became Walters business partner, investing $50,000 as his share, as co-owner, Meyerfeld managed the business and financial aspects of the Orpheum while Walter managed the talent and booking for the theater. As partners they re-opened the theater is 1893 and made the Orpheum the place to go for a night on the town and it was regularly sold out, including the standing room. Following their success in San Francisco, Meyerfeld encouraged Walter to open more theaters, Meyerfeld argued that in order to entice more performers to make the journey to perform at their theater, they needed to make their journey worthwhile. San Francisco was so far removed geographically from the rest of the nation that continuing to attract quality acts was difficult, by offering more opportunities to perform, Meyerfeld persuaded Walter that they would entice more performers to come to their theater from the east coast and Europe. The next logical city to Meyerfeld was Los Angeles, the pair leased the Grand Opera House and opened the Los Angeles Orpheum to a sold out house in 1894. It was now customary for performers to stop in Los Angeles after playing in San Francisco, Walter and Meyerfeld continued to expand their operations by opening more theaters on the road between the Midwestern United States and their Pacific Coast theaters. Due to its connections and thriving economy, Kansas City. The pair leased the Ninth Street Theatre and renamed it the Orpheum and it opened in 1898 to a sold out house
25.
Louis Armstrong
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Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo or Satch, was an American trumpeter, composer, singer and occasional actor who was one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s and he was also skilled at scat singing. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to cross over and he rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation in the Little Rock crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society which were restricted for black men of his era. Armstrong often stated that he was born on July 4,1900, although he died in 1971, it was not until the mid-1980s that his true birth date, August 4,1901, was discovered by the researcher Tad Jones through the examination of baptismal records. Armstrong was born into a family in New Orleans, Louisiana. He spent his youth in poverty, in a neighborhood known as the Battlefield. His father, William Armstrong, abandoned the family when Louis was an infant and his mother, Mary Mayann Albert, then left Louis and his younger sister, Beatrice Armstrong Collins, in the care of his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong, and at times his uncle Isaac. At five, he moved back to live with his mother, her relatives and he attended the Fisk School for Boys, where he most likely had early exposure to music. He hung out in dance halls close to home, where he observed everything from licentious dancing to the quadrille, after dropping out of the Fisk School at age eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money. He also started to get into trouble, Cornet player Bunk Johnson said he taught Armstrong to play by ear at Dago Tonys Tonk in New Orleans, although in his later years Armstrong gave the credit to Oliver. It has given me something to live for and he also worked for a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant family, the Karnofskys, who had a junk-hauling business and gave him odd jobs. They took him in and treated him like family, knowing he lived without a father and he later wrote a memoir of his relationship with the Karnofskys, Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans, La. the Year of 1907. Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life and wrote about what he learned from them, how to live—real life, professor Peter Davis instilled discipline in and provided musical training to the otherwise self-taught Armstrong. Eventually, Davis made Armstrong the band leader, the home band played around New Orleans and the thirteen-year-old Louis began to draw attention by his cornet playing, starting him on a musical career. At fourteen he was released from the home, living again with his father and new stepmother, Gertrude, Armstrong got his first dance hall job at Henry Ponces, where Black Benny became his protector and guide. He hauled coal by day and played his cornet at night, later, he played in brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and began traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable, which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River. He described his time with Marable as going to the University, in 1919, Joe Oliver decided to go north and resigned his position in Kid Orys band, Armstrong replaced him
26.
Andy Kirk (musician)
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Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist best known as a bandleader of the Twelve Clouds of Joy, popular during the swing era. Kirk grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he was tutored by Wilberforce Whiteman, Kirk started his musical career playing with George Morrisons band, but then went on to join Terrence Holders Dark Clouds of Joy. In 1929 he was elected leader after Holder departed, renaming the band Clouds of Joy, Kirk also relocated the band from Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Kansas. Although officially titled as the Clouds of Joy, the band has also known to be called the Twelve Clouds of Joy due to the number of musicians in the band. They set up in the Pla-Mor Ballroom on the junction of 32nd and Main in Kansas City, Mary Lou Williams came in as pianist at the last moment, but she impressed Brunswicks Dave Kapp, so she became a regular member of the band. Kirk moved the band to Kansas City, and since their first recordings in 1929–1930, in mid-1936, he was signed to Decca and made scores of popular records until 1946. In 1938, Kirk and band held the top spot of the Billboard chart for 12 weeks with I Wont Tell a Soul, written by Hughie Charles and Ross Parker, in 1943, with June Richmond on vocals, he had a number 4 hit with Hey Lawdy Mama. Although the leader of the band, Kirk usually was not a soloist, utilizing the talent in his band for the spotlight instead. His genius lay in realizing how best to use of his band members skills Their pianist, and the bands arranger, was Mary Lou Williams. In 1948, Kirk disbanded the Clouds of Joy and continued to work as a musician and he also served as an official in the Musicians Union. Andy Kirk And His Clouds Of Joy, Souvenir Album, Vol, ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press,1989. Frank Driggs & Chuck Haddix Kansas City Jazz, From Ragtime to Bebop – A History, Oxford, Oxford University, Oxford 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-530712-2
27.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
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Tulsa /ˈtʌlsə/ is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. As of July 2015, the population was 403,505 and it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 981,005 residents in the MSA and 1,151,172 in the CSA. The city serves as the county seat of Tulsa County, the most densely populated county in Oklahoma, with urban development extending into Osage, Rogers, Tulsa was settled between 1828 and 1836 by the Lochapoka Band of Creek Native American tribe. For most of the 20th century, the city held the nickname Oil Capital of the World, once heavily dependent on the oil industry, Tulsa experienced economic downturn. Subsequent diversification efforts created a base in the energy, finance, aviation, telecommunications. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa, at the head of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, is the most inland port in the U. S. with access to international waterways. Two institutions of education within the city have sports teams at the NCAA Division I level, Oral Roberts University. It is situated on the Arkansas River at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in northeast Oklahoma, the city has been called one of Americas most livable large cities by Partners for Livable Communities, Forbes, and Relocate America. FDi Magazine in 2009 ranked the city no.8 in the U. S. for cities of the future, in 2012, Tulsa was ranked among the top 50 best cities in the United States by BusinessWeek. People from Tulsa are called Tulsans, the area where Tulsa now exists was considered Indian Territory when it was first formally settled by the Lochapoka and Creek tribes in 1836. They established a settlement under the Creek Council Oak Tree at the present day intersection of Cheyenne Avenue. This area and this tree reminded Chief Tukabahchi and his group of trail of tear survivors of the bend in the river and their previous Creek Council Oak Tree back in the Talisi. They named their new settlement Tallasi, meaning old town in the Creek language, the area around Tulsa was also settled by members of the other so-called Five Civilized Tribes who had relocated to Oklahoma from the Southern United States. Most of modern Tulsa is located in the Creek Nation, with parts located in the Cherokee Nation, although Oklahoma was not yet a state during the Civil War, the Tulsa area did see its share of fighting. The Battle of Chusto-Talasah took place on the side of Tulsa. After the War, the tribes signed Reconstruction treaties with the government that in some cases required substantial land concessions. On January 18,1898, Tulsa was officially incorporated and elected its first mayor, Tulsa was a small town near the banks of the Arkansas River in 1901 when its first oil well, named Sue Bland No. Much of the oil was discovered on land whose mineral rights were owned by members of the Osage Nation under a system of headrights
28.
Earl Hines
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Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl Fatha Hines, was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of piano and. The trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie wrote, The piano is the basis of modern harmony and this little guy came out of Chicago, Earl Hines. He changed the style of the piano and you can find the roots of Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, all the guys who came after that. If it hadnt been for Earl Hines blazing the path for the generation to come. There were individual variations but the style of, the modern piano came from Earl Hines. The pianist Lennie Tristano said, Earl Hines is the one of us capable of creating real jazz. Horace Silver said, He has a unique style. No one can get that sound, no other pianist, Erroll Garner said, When you talk about greatness, you talk about Art Tatum and Earl Hines. Count Basie said that Hines was the greatest piano player in the world, Hines was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania,12 miles from the center of Pittsburgh, in 1903. His father, Joseph Hines, played cornet and was the leader of the Eureka Brass Band in Pittsburgh, Hines intended to follow his father on cornet, but blowing hurt him behind the ears, whereas the piano did not. The young Hines took lessons in playing classical piano, by the age of eleven he was playing the organ in his Baptist church. He had an ear and a good memory and could replay songs after hearing them in theaters and park concerts. That astonished a lot of people and theyd ask where I heard these numbers, later, Hines said that he was playing piano around Pittsburgh before the word jazz was even invented. With his fathers approval, Hines left home at the age of 17 to take a job playing piano with Lois Deppe and His Symphonian Serenaders in the Liederhaus and he got his board, two meals a day, and $15 a week. Deppe, a well-known baritone concert artist who sang both classical and popular songs, also used the young Hines as his concert accompanist and took him on his trips to New York. In 1921 Hines and Deppe became the first African Americans to perform on radio, Hiness first recordings were accompanying Deppe – four sides recorded for Gennett Records in 1923, still in the very early days of sound recording. Only two of these were issued, one of which was a Hines composition, Congaine, a keen snappy foxtrot, which also featured a solo by Hines
29.
Tommy Dorsey
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Thomas Francis Tommy Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing, because of his smooth-toned trombone playing and his technical skill on the trombone gave him renown among other musicians. He was the brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely popular and he is best remembered for standards such as Opus One, Song of India, Marie, On Treasure Island, and his biggest hit single Ill Never Smile Again. Thomas Francis Dorsey, Jr. was born in Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, the second of four born to Thomas Francis Dorsey, Sr. a bandleader himself. He and Jimmy, his brother by slightly less than two years, would become famous as the Dorsey Brothers. The two younger siblings were Mary and Edward, Tommy Dorsey initially studied the trumpet with his father, only to later switch to the trombone. At age 15, Jimmy recommended Tommy as the replacement for Russ Morgan in the 1920s territory band The Scranton Sirens, Tommy and Jimmy worked in several bands, including those of Tal Henry, Rudy Vallee, Vincent Lopez, Nathaniel Shilkret. In 1923, Dorsey followed his brother Jimmy to Detroit to play in Jean Goldkettes band, in 1927 he joined Paul Whiteman. In 1929, the Dorsey Brothers had their first hit with Coquette for OKeh records, in 1934, the Dorsey Brothers band signed with Decca records, having a hit with I Believe In Miracles. Ongoing acrimony between the brothers, however, led to Tommy Dorseys walking out to form his own band in 1935, Dorseys orchestra was known primarily for its renderings of ballads at dance tempos, frequently with singers such as Jack Leonard and Frank Sinatra. Tommy Dorseys first band was formed out of the remains of the Joe Haymes band, if he admired a vocalist, musician or arranger, he would think nothing of taking over their contracts and careers. Dorsey had a reputation for being a perfectionist and he was volatile and also known to hire and fire musicians based on his mood. The new band was popular from almost the moment it signed with RCA Victor with On Treasure Island, after his 1935 recording however, Dorseys manager cut the hot jazz that Dorsey had mixed with his own lyrical style and instead had Dorsey play pop and vocal tunes. Dorsey would keep his Clambake Seven as a Dixieland group that played during performances, the Dorsey band had a national radio presence in 1936, first from Dallas and then from Los Angeles. Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra took over comedian Jack Pearls radio show in 1937, by 1939, Dorsey was aware of criticism that his band lacked a jazz feeling. He hired arranger Sy Oliver away from the Jimmie Lunceford band, Sy Olivers arrangements include On The Sunny Side of the Street and T. D. s Boogie Woogie, Oliver also composed two of the new bands signature instrumentals, Well, Git It and Opus One. In 1940, Dorsey hired singer Frank Sinatra from bandleader Harry James, Frank Sinatra made eighty recordings from 1940 to 1942 with the Dorsey band
30.
Boogie-woogie
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Boogie-woogie is a musical genre that became popular during the late 1920s, but developed in African American communities in the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano, to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, while the blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing. The lyrics of one of the earliest hits, Pinetops Boogie Woogie, consist entirely of instructions to dancers, Now, and when I tell you to get it, I want you to Boogie Woogie. It is characterized by a regular bass figure, which is transposed following the chord changes. Boogie-woogie is not strictly a solo style, it can accompany singers and be featured in orchestras. It is sometimes called eight to the bar, as much of it is written in common time time using eighth notes, the chord progressions are typically based on I - IV - V - I. For the most part, boogie-woogie tunes are blues, although the style has been applied to popular songs such as Swanee River. Jeremy Denk, for example, describes the movement using terms like proto-jazz. The origin of the term boogie-woogie is unknown, according to Websters Third New International Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary states that the word is a reduplication of boogie, which was used for rent parties as early as 1913. John Tennison, a San Antonio psychiatrist, pianist, and musicologist, among them are four African terms, including the Hausa word Boog and the Mandingo word Booga, both of which mean to beat, as in beating a drum. There is also the West African word Bogi, which means to dance, the meanings of these terms are consistent with the percussiveness, dancing, and uninhibited behaviors historically associated with boogie-woogie music. The African origin of these terms is also consistent with evidence that the music originated among newly emancipated African-Americans, in sheet music literature prior to 1900, there are at least three examples of the word boogie in music titles in the archives of the Library of Congress. In 1901, Hoogie Boogie appeared in the title of published sheet music, the first use of Boogie in a recording title appears to be a blue cylinder recording made by Edison of the American Quartet performing That Syncopated Boogie Boo in 1913. Boogie next occurs in the title of Wilbur Sweatmans April 1917 recording of Boogie Rag, however none of these sheet music or audio recording examples contain the musical elements that would identify them as boogie-woogie. The 1919 recordings of Weary Blues by the Louisiana Five contained the same boogie-woogie bass figure as appears in the 1915 Weary Blues sheet music by Artie Matthews, Tennison has recognized these 1919 recordings as the earliest sound recordings which contain a boogie-woogie bass figure. Blind Lemon Jefferson used the term Booga Rooga to refer to a bass figure that he used in Match Box Blues. Jefferson may have heard the term from Huddie Lead Belly Ledbetter and he said it influenced his guitar-playing. Lead Belly also said he heard boogie-woogie piano in the Fannin Street district of Shreveport, additional citations place the origins of boogie-woogie in the Piney Woods of northeast Texas
31.
Shorty Baker
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Harold Shorty Baker was a jazz trumpeter. Baker began on drums, but switched to trumpet during his teens and he started his career on riverboats and played with Don Redman in the mid-1930s. He also worked with Teddy Wilson and Andy Kirk before joining Duke Ellington and he married Kirks pianist Mary Lou Williams and though the two separated shortly thereafter, they never officially divorced. Baker worked on and off in Duke Ellingtons Orchestra from 1942 to 1962 and he also worked with Johnny Hodgess group in the early 1950s during the period when Hodges was not a member of Ellingtons orchestra. With Johnny Hodges The Blues Used to Be Duke The Big Sound With Billy Strayhorn Cue for Saxophone Shorty Baker at AllMusic Jazz trumpet site
32.
Art Blakey
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Arthur Art Blakey was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he became a Muslim, Blakey made a name for himself in the 1940s in the big bands of Fletcher Henderson and Billy Eckstine. He worked with bebop musicians Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, in the mid-1950s Horace Silver and Blakey formed the Jazz Messengers, a group that the drummer was associated with for the next 35 years. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz calls the Jazz Messengers the archetypal hard bop group of the late 50s and he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1991, Blakey was born on October 11,1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a single mother, who died shortly after his birth. According to Leslie Gourses biography, the mother figure was Annie Peron. The stories related by family and friends, and by Blakey himself, are contradictory as to how long he spent with the Peron family, equally clouded by contradiction are stories of Blakeys early music career. He switched from piano to drums at a date in the early 1930s. An oft-quoted account of the event states that Blakey was forced at gunpoint to move from piano to drums by a club owner, the veracity of this story is called into question in the Gourse biography, as Blakey himself gives other accounts in addition to this one. The style Blakey assumed was the swing style of Chick Webb, Sid Catlett. From 1939-44, Blakey played with fellow Pittsburgh native Mary Lou Williams, while sources differ on the timing, most agree that he traveled to New York with Williams in 1942 before joining Henderson a year later. While playing in Hendersons band, Blakey got into a scuffle with Georgia police and he then led his own band at the Tic Toc Club in Boston for a short time. From 1944-47, Blakey worked with Billy Eckstines big band, after the Eckstine band broke up, Blakey states that he traveled to Africa for a time, In 1947, after the Eckstine band broke up, we -- took a trip to Africa. I was supposed to stay three months and I stayed two years because I wanted to live among the people and find out just how they lived. Blakey is known to have recorded in 1947,1948 and 1949, Blakey toured with Buddy DeFranco from 1951 to 1953 in a band that also included Kenny Drew. On December 17,1947, Blakey led a group known as Art Blakeys Messengers in his first recording session as a leader, the records were released as 78 rpm records at the time, and two of the songs were released on the New Sounds 10 LP compilation. The octet included Kenny Dorham, Sahib Shihab, Musa Kaleem, around the same time, or 1949 he led a big band called Seventeen Messengers. The band proved to be unstable and broke up soon after
33.
Irving Berlin
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Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, Marie from Sunny Italy, in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights and he also was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. Alexanders Ragtime Band sparked a dance craze in places as far away as Berlins native Russia. In doing so, said Walter Cronkite, at Berlins 100th birthday tribute, he helped write the story of country, capturing the best of who we are. He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which him a legend before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including Easter Parade, White Christmas, Happy Holiday, This Is the Army, Mr. Jones, and Theres No Business Like Show Business. His Broadway musical and 1942 film, This is the Army, Celine Dion recorded it as a tribute, making it no.1 on the charts after the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 2015, pianist and composer Hershey Felder began touring nationwide as a show, portraying Berlin. Composer George Gershwin called him the greatest songwriter that has ever lived, Berlin was born on May 11,1888, in Tolochin, Russian Empire. He was one of eight children of Moses and Lena Lipkin Beilin and his father, a cantor in a synagogue, uprooted the family to America, as did many other Jewish families in the late 19th century. In 1893 they settled in New York City, as of the 1900 census, the name Beilin had changed to Baline. By daylight the house was in ashes, as an adult, Berlin said he was unaware of being raised in abject poverty since he knew no other life. Tsar Alexander III of Russia and then Tsar Nicholas II, his son, had revived with utmost brutality the anti-Jewish pogroms, which created the spontaneous mass exodus to America. When they reached Ellis Island, Israel was put in a pen with his brother and his Yiddish-speaking family eventually settled on Cherry Street, a windowless cold-water basement flat in the Theater District of the Lower East Side. His father, unable to find work as a cantor in New York, took a job at a kosher meat market and gave Hebrew lessons on the side
34.
Jack Teagarden
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Weldon Leo Jack Teagarden, was a jazz trombonist and singer. Born in Vernon, Texas, his brothers Charlie and Clois Cub and his father was an amateur brass band trumpeter and started him on baritone horn, by age seven he had switched to trombone. His first public performances were in theaters, where he accompanied his mother. Teagardens trombone style was largely self-taught, and he developed many unusual alternative positions, chief among his contributions to the language of jazz trombonists was his ability to interject the blues or merely a blue feeling into virtually any piece of music. By 1920 Teagarden was playing professionally in San Antonio, including with the band of pianist Peck Kelley, in the mid-1920s he started traveling widely around the United States in a quick succession of different bands. In 1927, he went to New York City where he worked with several bands, by 1928 he played for the Ben Pollack band. Within a year of the commencement of his career, he became a regular vocalist, first doing blues material. He is often mentioned as one of the best jazz vocalists of the era, his style is like his trombone playing. His singing is best remembered for duets with Louis Armstrong and Johnny Mercer, in the early 1930s Teagarden was based in Chicago, for some time playing with the band of Wingy Manone. He played at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, Teagarden sought financial security during the Great Depression and signed an exclusive contract to play for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra from 1933 through 1938. The contract with Whitemans band provided him financial security but prevented him from playing an active part in the musical advances of the mid-thirties swing era. Teagarden then started leading his own big band, in 1946 Teagarden joined Louis Armstrongs All Stars. In late 1951 Teagarden left to lead his own band, then co-led a band with Earl Hines. Teagarden appeared in the movies Birth of the Blues, The Strip, The Glass Wall, and Jazz on a Summers Day and he recorded for RCA Victor, Columbia, Decca, Capitol, and MGM Records. As a jazz artist he won the 1944 Esquire magazine Gold Award, was rated in the Metronome polls of 1937-42 and 1945. Teagarden was the performer at the Newport Jazz Festival of 1957. In 1969, Jack Teagarden was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame and he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1985. Other honors have included induction in the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame in 2005 and inclusion in the Houston Institute for Cultures Texas Music Hall of Fame
35.
Hank Jones
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Henry Hank Jones Jr. was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable, in 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, in 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13,2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with a Doctorate Degree for his musical accomplishments, Jones recorded more than 60 albums under his own name, and countless others as a sideman, including Cannonball Adderleys celebrated album Somethin Else. On May 19,1962, he played piano as actress Marilyn Monroe sang her famous Happy Birthday, Mr. President song to then U. S. president John F. Kennedy. Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Henry Hank Jones moved to Pontiac, Michigan, one of seven children, Jones was raised in a musical family. His mother Olivia Jones sang, his two sisters studied piano, and his two younger brothers—Thad, a trumpeter, and Elvin, a drummer—also became prominent jazz musicians. He studied piano at an age and came under the influence of Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson. By the age of 13 Jones was performing locally in Michigan, while playing with territory bands in Grand Rapids and Lansing in 1944 he met Lucky Thompson, who invited Jones to work in New York City at the Onyx Club with Hot Lips Page. In New York City, Jones regularly listened to leading bop musicians, while practicing and studying the music he worked with John Kirby, Howard McGhee, Coleman Hawkins, Andy Kirk, and Billy Eckstine. From 1959 through 1975 Jones was staff pianist for CBS studios and this included backing guests such as Frank Sinatra on The Ed Sullivan Show. He played the accompaniment to Marilyn Monroe as she sang Happy Birthday Mr. President to John F. Kennedy on May 19,1962. By the late 1970s, his involvement as pianist and conductor with the Broadway musical Aint Misbehavin had informed an audience of his unique qualities as a musician. The trio also recorded with other personnel, such as Art Farmer, Benny Golson. In the early 1980s Jones held a residency as a solo pianist at the Cafe Ziegfeld and made a tour of Japan, Jones versatility was more in evidence with the passage of time. He collaborated on recordings of Afro-pop with an ensemble from Mali and on an album of spirituals, hymns and folksongs with Charlie Haden called Steal Away. Jones made his debut on Lineage Records, recording with Frank Wess and with the guitarist Eddie Diehl and he also accompanied Diana Krall for Dream a Little Dream of Me on the album compilation, We all Love Ella. He is one of the musicians who test and talk about the piano in the documentary Note by Note, The Making of Steinway L1037, Hank Jones lived in Cresskill NJ, upstate New York and in Manhattan
36.
WNEW-FM
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WNEW-FM is a New York City hot adult contemporary radio station owned and operated by CBS Radio. WNEW-FMs studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility in the West Soho section of Manhattan, WNEW-FM is best remembered for one of its previous incarnations, a progressive rock radio format that began in 1967 and lasted into the 1990s. That station became very influential in the development of music during the 1970s and 1980s. The station shared the WNEW call letters between 1958 and 1986 with former sister AM station WNEW and television station WNEW-TV, with all being owned by Metromedia, WNEW-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio format. The 102.7 FM frequency was first assigned in the mid-1940s as WNJR-FM from Newark, intended to be a simulcasting sister to WNJR, the FM station never made it to the air despite being granted several extensions of its construction permit. WNJR gave up and turned in the FM license to the Federal Communications Commission in 1953, in 1955 the FCC awarded a new permit for 102.7 FM to a group called Fidelity Radio Corporation, based in West Paterson, New Jersey. The station was granted the call sign WHFI, and a year later the community of license was moved back to Newark from West Paterson. Once again, the failed to put the station on the air. In November 1957, the WHFI construction permit was purchased by the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation, in January 1958, WHFI was renamed WNEW-FM and DuMont completed its build-out, moving the license to New York City. The station finally came on the air on August 25,1958, DuMont Broadcasting, meanwhile, would change its corporate name twice within the next three years before settling on Metromedia in 1961. WNEW-FMs early programming included an automated middle-of-the-road format, followed quickly by a period playing pop music with an unusual twist in its day. an all-female air staff. The gimmick was unique and had not before been attempted anywhere in American radio. The lineup of disc jockeys during this stunt included actress and TV personality Peggy Cass, Alison Steele, Rita Sands, Margaret Draper, Ann Clements, Arlene Kieta, Pam McKissick, the music was similar to that of WNEW s MOR format. But only Cass, Steele, Sands, and Bassett had broadcast experience, meanwhile, the male DJs on WNEW were still very popular, so it was hard for WNEW-FM to find an audience. The all-female disc jockey lineup endured for a more than a year, switching in September 1967 to a mixed-gender staff. On October 30,1967, WNEW-FM adopted a rock radio format. Alison Steele would stay on from the staff and eventually take over the overnight shift on January 1,1968. Later, Dave Herman featured a Bruce Juice segment each morning, John Lennon once stopped by to guest-DJ along with Dennis Elsas and appeared on-air several other times during his friend Scott Munis afternoon slot
37.
Melody Maker
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Melody Maker was a British weekly pop/rock/disco music newspaper, one of the worlds earliest music weeklies. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher Lawrence Wright, in 2000 it was merged into long-standing rival New Musical Express. Originally the Melody Maker concentrated on jazz, and had Max Jones, one of the leading British proselytizers for that music and it was slow to cover rock and roll and lost ground to the New Musical Express, which had begun in 1952. MM began its Melody Maker LP charts in November 1958, two years after the Record Mirror published the first UK Albums Chart, MM had larger and more specialised advertising, soon-to-be well-known groups would advertise for musicians. It ran pages devoted to minority interests like folk and jazz, a 1968 Melody Maker poll named John Peel best radio DJ, attention which John Walters revealed may have helped Peel keep his job despite concerns at BBC Radio 1 about Peels style and record selection. Melody Maker supported glam rock and progressive rock in the 1970s, Coleman had been insistent that the paper should look like The Daily Telegraph, but Williams wanted the paper to look more contemporary. He commissioned a design, but this was rejected by Coleman. During this period Melody Maker was described as the journal. In January 1972, in a moment for rock journalism. It was during this interview that Bowie claimed, Im gay, OH YOU PRETTY THING ran the headline, and swiftly became part of pop mythology. Bowie later attributed his success to this interview, stating that, Yeah and it was that piece by Mick Watts. During his tenure at the paper, Watts also toured with and interviewed artists including Syd Barrett, Waylon Jennings, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, in 1980, after a strike which had taken the paper out of publication for a period, Williams left MM. Several journalists, such as Chris Bohn and Vivien Goldman, moved to NME, Coleman left in 1981, the papers design was updated, but sales and prestige were at a low ebb through the early 1980s, with NME dominant. While MM continued to devote most space to rock and indie music, it covered techno, rap and post rock, two of the papers writers, Push and Ben Turner, went on to launch IPC Medias monthly dance music magazine Muzik. The paper printed harsh criticism of Ocean Colour Scene and Kula Shaker, in 1992, they gave a French rock band called Darlin a negative review calling them a daft punky thrash. Darlin eventually became the music duo Daft Punk. The magazine retained its large classified ads section, and remained the first call for musicians wanting to form a band, Suede formed through ads placed in the paper. In early 1997, Allan Jones left to edit Uncut and he was replaced by Mark Sutherland, formerly of NME and Smash Hits, who thus fulfilled boyhood dream and stayed on to edit the magazine for three years
38.
Ben Webster
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Benjamin Francis Ben Webster was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, is considered one of the three most important swing tenors along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. Known affectionately as The Brute, or Frog, he had a tough, raspy, stylistically he was indebted to alto star Johnny Hodges, who, he said, taught him to play his instrument. Webster learned to play piano and violin at an age before taking up the saxophone, although he did return to the piano from time to time. Once Budd Johnson showed him some basics on the saxophone, Webster began to play that instrument in the Young Family Band, Kansas City at this point was a melting pot from which emerged some of the biggest names in 1930s jazz. Webster joined Bennie Motens band in 1932, a grouping which also included Count Basie, Oran Hot Lips Page and this era was recreated in Robert Altmans film Kansas City. Ben Webster played with Duke Ellingtons orchestra for the first time in 1935 and he credited Johnny Hodges, Ellingtons alto soloist, as a major influence on his playing. Webster left the band in 1943 after an altercation during which he allegedly cut up one of Ellingtons suits. In an interview with the Newark Star-Ledger in 2003, trumpeter Clark Terry claimed that Webster left Ellington because he slapped Duke, for a few months in 1948, he returned briefly to Ellingtons orchestra. Along with Peterson, trumpeter Harry Sweets Edison and others, he was touring and recording with Granzs Jazz at the Philharmonic package, in 1956, he recorded a classic set with pianist Art Tatum, supported by bassist Red Callender and drummer Bill Douglass. Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster with fellow tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins was recorded on December 16,1957, along with Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, and Alvin Stoller. The Hawkins and Webster recording is a classic, the coming together of two giants of the tenor saxophone, who had first met back in Kansas City. In the late 1950s, he formed a quintet with Gerry Mulligan and it was there that the Webster-Mulligan group backed up blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon on an album recorded live. Webster generally worked steadily, but in 1965 he moved permanently to Europe and he played when he pleased during his last decade. He lived in London for one year, followed by four years in Amsterdam, Webster appeared as a sax player in a low-rent cabaret club in the 1970 Danish blue film titled Quiet Days in Clichy. In 1971, Webster reunited with Duke Ellington and his orchestra for a couple of shows at the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, in addition and he also recorded or performed with Buck Clayton, Bill Coleman and Teddy Wilson. Webster suffered a hemorrhage in Amsterdam in September 1973, following a performance at the Twee Spieghels in Leiden. His body was cremated in Copenhagen and his ashes were buried in the Assistens Cemetery in the Nørrebro section of the city, after Websters death, Billy Moore Jr. together with the trustee of Websters estate, created the Ben Webster Foundation
39.
Alvin Ailey
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Alvin Ailey was an African-American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. He is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th-century concert dance and his company gained the nickname Cultural Ambassador to the World because of its extensive international touring. Aileys choreographic masterpiece Revelations is believed to be the best known, in 1977, Ailey was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1988, in 2014, President Barack Obama selected Ailey to be a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Ailey was born to his 17-year-old mother, Lula Elizabeth Ailey, in Rogers and his father, also named Alvin, abandoned the family when Alvin was only six months old. Like many African Americans living in Texas during the Great Depression, Ailey, Ailey grew up during a time of racial segregation, violence and lynchings against African Americans. Early experiences in the Southern Baptist church and juke joints instilled in him a sense of black pride that would later figure prominently in Aileys signature works. In the fall of 1942, Aileys mother, in common with many African Americans, migrated to Los Angeles, California, Ailey, aged 11, joined his mother later by train, having stayed behind in Texas to finish out the school year. Aileys first junior school in California was located in a primarily white school district. As one of the few students, Ailey felt out of place because of his fear of whites. He matriculated at George Washington Carver Junior High School, and later attended the Thomas Jefferson High School and he sang spirituals in the glee club, wrote poetry, and demonstrated a talent for languages. He regularly attended shows at Lincoln Theater and the Orpheum Theater, Ailey did not become serious about dance until in 1949 his school friend Carmen De Lavallade introduced him to the Hollywood studio of Lester Horton. Horton would prove to be Aileys major influence, becoming a mentor, Hortons school taught a wide range of dance styles and techniques, including classical ballet, jazz, and Native American dance. Alvin quickly fell in love with dance, Hortons school was also the first multi-racial dance school in the United States. Ailey was, at first, ambivalent about becoming a professional dancer and he moved to San Francisco to continue his studies in 1951. There, he met Marguerite Johnson, who changed her name to Maya Angelou. They occasionally performed an act called Al and Rita. Ailey earned a living waiting tables and dancing at the New Orleans Champagne Supper Club, eventually, he returned to study dance with Horton in southern California
40.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
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The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a modern dance company based in New York, New York. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey and it is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya. Alvin Ailey and a group of young Black modern dancers first performed at New Yorks 92nd Street Young Mens Hebrew Association, under the name Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, at this point in time, Alvin Ailey was the companys director, choreographer, and principal dancer. The company started as an ensemble of seven dancers, plus their choreographer. It was during this period that Ailey choreographed his famous work Revelations, in 1962, Ailey changed his all-black dance company into a multi-racial group, believing that there was a kind of reverse chauvinism to anything all black. In that same year, the company was chosen to tour the Far East, Southeast Asia and Australia as part of President John F. Kennedys Presidents Special International Program for Cultural Presentations, AAADT was the first Black company to travel for Kennedys program. Judith Jamison, a star of the company for 15 years, Ailey established a school in 1969, the same year that the company moved to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Both company and school relocated to 229 East 59th Street in Manhattan a year later, in April of that year, a financial crisis caused Ailey to issue a statement that the dissolution of the company might take place. The crisis abated, however, and in 1971 AAADT made its first performance at the New York City Center, associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya joined the company in 1972. AAADT, the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble and the Ailey School relocated in 1980 to four new studios in a building on Broadway, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary three years later. The Ailey School and nearby Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Fordham University, have affiliated to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program. Many arts organizations have experienced stresses upon the death of their artistic director. Ground was broken on the site in Manhattan the following year. The company and school moved into the building, named the Joan Weill Center for Dance, the company toured Russia and the United Kingdom the following year. The Ailey School is an institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Dance. The Ailey School is recognized by the U. S. Department of Education as an institution of education and is eligible to participate in Title IV programs. The Ailey School is recognized by the US Veterans Administration as a school to participate in Veterans Educational Benefit Programs. The Ailey School is authorized under Federal Law to enroll non-immigrant alien students, denise Jefferson was selected by Ailey to head the school when it was founded in 1984 and served as its director until her death in 2010
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