1.
Chicago
–
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
Chicago
–
Clockwise from top:
Downtown Chicago, the
Chicago Theatre, the
'L',
Navy Pier,
Millennium Park, the
Field Museum, and the
Willis Tower.
Chicago
–
Traditional
Potawatomi costume on display at the
Field Museum
Chicago
–
A 1903 painting of Chicago in 1833
Chicago
–
An artist's rendering of the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
2.
Illinois
–
Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
Illinois
–
Mississippian copper plate found at the Saddle Site in
Union County, Illinois
Illinois
–
Flag
Illinois
–
Illinois in 1718, approximate modern state area highlighted, from Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi by
Guillaume de L'Isle.
Illinois
–
Native women and children fleeing the
Battle of Bad Axe during the
Black Hawk War
3.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
4.
New York (state)
–
New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
New York (state)
–
British general
John Burgoyne surrenders at
Saratoga in 1777.
New York (state)
–
Flag
New York (state)
–
1800 map of New York from
Low's Encyclopaedia
New York (state)
–
The
Erie Canal at
Lockport, New York in 1839
5.
Dixieland
–
Dixieland, sometimes referred to as hot jazz or traditional jazz, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The first use of the term Dixieland with reference to music was in the name of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, at that time, there was no issue of subgenres of jazz, so Dixieland referred to the band and not the music. That reflected the fact that all of the recorded repertoire of New Orleans musicians was from the period when the format was already evolving beyond the traditional New Orleans format. Dixieland may in that sense be regarded as denoting the jazz movement of the 1940s and 1950s as much as any particular subgenre of jazz. The essential elements that were accepted as within the style were the front lines consisting of trumpets, trombones, and clarinets. The Jim Crow associations of the name Dixieland also did little to attract younger coloured musicians to the revival, well-known jazz standard tunes such as Basin Street Blues and When the Saints Go Marching In are known even to non-jazz fans thanks to the enduring popularity of traditional jazz. The Vietnam-era protest song Feel Like Im Fixin to Die Rag is based on tonal centers, Traditional jazz is a major tourist attraction for New Orleans to the present day. It has been an influence on the styles of modern players such as Charles Mingus. New Orleans music combined earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, the Dixieland sound is created when one instrument plays the melody or a variation on it, and the other instruments improvise around that melody. This creates a more sound than the heavily arranged big band sound of the 1930s or the straight melodies of bebop in the 1940s. The West Coast revival began in the late 1930s in San Francisco which used banjo, the Dutch old-style jazz was played with trumpets, trombones and saxophones accompanied by a single clarinet, sousaphone and a section of Marching percussion usually including a washboard. Dixieland is the given to early jazz by traditional jazz revivalists. The name is a reference to the Old South, specifically anything south of the Mason-Dixon line, the term encompasses earlier brass band marches, French Quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, and blues with collective, polyphonic improvisation. Louis Armstrongs All-Stars was the band most popularly identified with Dixieland during the 1940s and this creates a more polyphonic sound than the arranged ensemble playing of the big band sound or the straight head melodies of bebop. During the 1930s and 1940s, the earlier group-improvisation style fell out of favor with the majority of black players. Though younger musicians developed new forms, many beboppers revered Armstrong, many Dixieland groups of the revival era consciously imitated the recordings and bands of decades earlier. Other musicians continued to create innovative performances and new tunes, for example, in the 1950s a style called Progressive Dixieland sought to blend polyphonic improvisation with bebop-style rhythm. Spike Jones & His New Band and Steve Lacy played with such bands and this style is sometimes called Dixie-bop
Dixieland
–
A traditionalist jazz band plays at a party in New Orleans in 2005. Shown here are Chris Clifton, on
trumpet; Brian O'Connell, on
clarinet; Les Muscutt, on
banjo; Chuck Badie, on
string bass; and Tom Ebert, on
trombone.
Dixieland
–
The International Dixieland Festival in Dresden
6.
Clarinet
–
The clarinet is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a mouthpiece, a straight cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore. A person who plays a clarinet is called a clarinetist, the word clarinet may have entered the English language via the French clarinette, or from Provençal clarin, oboe. It would seem however that its roots are to be found amongst some of the various names for trumpets used around the renaissance. Clarion, clarin and the Italian clarino are all derived from the medieval term claro which referred to a form of trumpet. This is probably the origin of the Italian clarinetto, itself a diminutive of clarino, according to Johann Gottfried Walther, writing in 1732, the reason for the name is that it sounded from far off not unlike a trumpet. The English form clarinet is found as early as 1733, while the similarity in sound between the earliest clarinets and the trumpet may hold a clue to its name, other factors may have been involved. The trumpet parts that required this speciality were known by the term clarino, Johann Christoph Denner is generally believed to have invented the clarinet in Germany around the year 1700 by adding a register key to the earlier chalumeau. Over time, additional keywork and airtight pads were added to improve the tone and these days the most popular clarinet is the B♭ clarinet. However, the clarinet in A, just a lower, is commonly used in orchestral music. Since the middle of the 19th century the clarinet has become an essential addition to the orchestra. The clarinet family ranges from the BBB♭ octo-contrabass to the A♭ piccolo clarinet, the clarinet has proved to be an exceptionally flexible instrument, equally at home in the classical repertoire as in concert bands, military bands, marching bands, klezmer, and jazz. The cylindrical bore is primarily responsible for the clarinets distinctive timbre, the tone quality can vary greatly with the musician, the music, the instrument, the mouthpiece, and the reed. The most prominent were the German/Viennese traditions and the French school, the latter was centered on the clarinetists of the Conservatoire de Paris. The proliferation of recorded music has made examples of different styles of clarinet playing available, the modern clarinetist has a diverse palette of acceptable tone qualities to choose from. The A clarinet and B♭ clarinet have nearly the same bore, orchestral players using the A and B♭ instruments in the same concert could use the same mouthpiece for both. The A and the B♭ instruments have nearly identical tonal quality, the tone of the E♭ clarinet is brighter than that of the lower clarinets and can be heard even through loud orchestral or concert band textures. The bass clarinet has a deep, mellow sound, while the alto clarinet is similar in tone to the bass
Clarinet
–
Bass clarinet
Clarinet
–
Written range (though it is possible to play higher):
Clarinet
–
Sound wave propagation in the soprano clarinet
Clarinet
–
Schüller's quarter-tone clarinet
7.
Alto saxophone
–
The alto saxophone, also referred to as alto sax, is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s, and patented in 1846. It is pitched in E♭, and is smaller than the tenor, the alto sax is the most common saxophone and is commonly used in classical music, military bands, marching bands, and jazz. The alto saxophone was also commonplace in music from the 1980s. The saxophone fingerings are all universal, so a player can play any type of saxophone. The range of the saxophone is from concert A♭3 to concert A♭5. As with most types of saxophones, the standard range is B♭3 to F6. Above that, the altissimo register begins at F♯6 and extends upwards, the saxophones altissimo register is more difficult to control than that of other woodwinds and is usually only expected from advanced players. By covering or partially covering the bell of the saxophone when playing B♭3, also of note is Kadri Gopalnath, a pioneer of Carnatic music, plays a modified alto saxophone. Some companies that currently produce saxophones are Buffet Crampon, KHS/Jupiter, Conn-Selmer, Selmer Paris, Yamaha, Leblanc/Vito, Keilwerth, Cannonball, new alto saxophones range in price between €250 for lower quality student models to over €6000 for professional models. The alto saxophone has a classical solo repertoire that includes solos with orchestra, piano. Two of the most well-known solo compositions are Jacques Iberts Concertino da Camera, also, the alto saxophone is part of the standard instrumentation of concert bands and saxophone quartets. The alto saxophone is also used in orchestral compositions. Several orchestral examples are listed below, georges Bizet features it in the Minuet from the second suite of music from LArlésienne. He also includes it in his Suite No.1 and Suite No.2, maurice Ravel uses the saxophone prominently in his orchestration of Modest Moussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition, most notably as the soloist in Il vecchio castello. Alban Berg uses the saxophone in his orchestral works, most notably Der Wein, Lulu. Sergei Rachmaninoff uses the saxophone in his Symphonic Dances as a soloist in the first movement, george Gershwin includes it in a few pieces, such as Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. Pierre Boulez wrote for 2 alto saxes in his composition Pli selon pli, benjamin Britten calls for an alto in his Sinfonia da Requiem and The Prince of the Pagodas. Leonard Bernstein includes an alto sax in his Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, vincent dIndy enlists two altos in his opera Fervaal
Alto saxophone
–
Alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
–
Vintage
silver -plated 'Pennsylvania Special' alto saxophone, manufactured by J.Keilwerth in Czechoslovakia, c. 1930
Alto saxophone
–
Conn 6M "Lady Face" brass alto (dated 1935) in its original case
Alto saxophone
–
Conn 'Pan American' alto, manufactured c. 1948. Has similar body to a Conn 6M and keywork which is reminiscent of a Conn New Wonder Series 1 and 2
8.
Tenor saxophone
–
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones, the tenor is pitched in the key of B♭, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 and are pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the saxophone are known as tenor saxophonists or tenor sax players. The tenor saxophone uses a larger mouthpiece, reed and ligature than the alto, visually, it is easily distinguished by the bend in its neck, or its crook, near the mouthpiece. The alto saxophone lacks this and its neck goes straight to the mouthpiece, the tenor saxophone is commonly used in classical music, military bands, marching bands and jazz. In concert bands, the plays mostly a supporting role, sometimes sharing parts with the euphonium, horn. In jazz ensembles, the plays a more prominent role as a member of a section that includes the alto. Many of the most innovative and influential musicians have been tenor saxophonists. These include Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, the work of younger players such as Michael Brecker and Chris Potter has been an important influence in more recent jazz. The tenor saxophone was one of a family of fourteen instruments constructed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, saxs patent, granted on 28 June 1846, divided the family into two groups of seven instruments, each ranging from sopranino down to contrabass. One family, pitched alternatively in B♭ and E♭, was designed specifically to integrate with the instruments then common in military bands. The tenor saxophone, pitched in B♭, is the member of this family. The tenor saxophone, like all saxophones, consists of a conical tube of thin brass. The wider end of the tube is flared slightly to form a bell, at intervals down the bore are placed between 20 and 23 tone holes, these are covered by pads which can be pressed onto the holes to form an airtight seal. There are also two small holes which, when opened, disrupt the lower harmonics of the instrument. The pads are controlled by pressing a number of keys with the fingers of the left and right hands, the tenor saxophone is also curved at the top, above the highest tone-hole but below the highest speaker hole. While the alto is usually bent only through 80–90° to make the mouthpiece fit more easily in the mouth, the reed is shaved to come to an extremely thin point, and is clamped over the mouthpiece by the use of a ligature
Tenor saxophone
–
Tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
–
Tenor (left) and
soprano saxophones, showing their comparative sizes
Tenor saxophone
–
A silver-plated
Conn 'New Wonder' Series II tenor saxophone, with a serial number which dates manufacture to 1934. It is a very late "Transitional" model tenor sax with split bell-keys, and was manufactured just before production of the Conn 10M started.
Leon "Chu" Berry played a tenor saxophone which was very similar to this instrument.
Tenor saxophone
–
Tenor saxophone manufactured in 2008
9.
Jazz
–
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
Jazz
–
Louis Armstrong (1901–1971) is considered one of the pivotal musicians in jazz for his contributions as a trumpet player, composer and singer.
Jazz
–
Double bassist
Reggie Workman, saxophone player
Pharoah Sanders, and drummer
Idris Muhammad performing in 1978
Jazz
–
Albert Gleizes, 1915, Composition pour Jazz, gouache on cardboard, mounted on Masonite, 73 x 73 cm,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Jazz
–
In the late 18th-century painting
The Old Plantation, African-Americans dance to banjo and percussion.
10.
Saxophone
–
The saxophone is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet, the saxophone family was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840. He patented the saxophone on June 28,1846, in two groups of seven instruments each, each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for bands, have proved extremely popular. The saxophone is used in music, military bands, marching bands. The saxophone was developed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Prior to his work on the saxophone, he had several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones. As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and he wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers, Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece like a clarinet, conical brass body like an ophicleide, and some acoustic properties of both the horn and the clarinet. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, the patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. Although the instruments transposed at either F or C have been considered orchestral, the C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch. Saxs patent expired in 1866, thereafter, numerous saxophonists and instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design, the first substantial modification was by a French manufacturer who extended the bell slightly and added an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B♭. It is suspected that Sax himself may have attempted this modification and this extension is now commonplace in almost all modern designs, along with other minor changes such as added keys for alternate fingerings. Using alternate fingerings allows a player to play faster and more easily, a player may also use alternate fingerings to bend the pitch. Some of the alternate fingerings are good for trilling, scales, a substantial advancement in saxophone keywork was the development of a method by which the left thumb operates both tone holes with a single octave key, which is now universal on modern saxophones. This enables a chromatic scale to be played two octaves simply by playing the diatonic scale combined with alternately raising and lowering this one digit
Saxophone
–
An alto saxophone in E ♭
Saxophone
–
Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone
Saxophone
–
A
military band saxophonist holding a
baritone saxophone
Saxophone
–
Straight saxophones, including common fully straight types and unusual variants with slightly curved bell. Clockwise from top left: an
E♭ baritone, a
B♭ tenor, a C soprano, a
B♭ soprano, and a
B♭ soprillo
11.
Sidney Bechet
–
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist and his playing is characterized by forceful delivery, well-constructed improvisations, and a distinctive wide vibrato. Bechets erratic temperament hampered his career, however, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim, Bechet was born in New Orleans in 1897 to a middle-class Creole of color family. His older brother Leonard Victor Bechet was a full-time dentist and a part-time trombonist, Sidney quickly learned to play several musical instruments kept around the house, mostly by teaching himself, he soon decided to specialize in clarinet. At the age of six, he started playing along with his brothers band at a birthday party. Later in his youth, Bechet studied with such renowned Creole clarinetists as Lorenzo Tio, Big Eye Louis Nelson Delisle, soon after, Bechet began to play in many New Orleans ensembles, using the improvisational techniques of the time. He performed in parades with Freddie Keppards celebrated brass band, the Olympia Orchestra, in 1911–12, Bechet performed with Bunk Johnson in the Eagle Band of New Orleans, and in 1913–14, with King Oliver in the Olympia Band. Bechet spent his childhood and adolescence in New Orleans, but from 1914 to 1917 he was touring and traveling, going as far north as Chicago, in the spring of 1919, Bechet traveled to New York City, where he joined Will Marion Cooks Syncopated Orchestra. Soon after, the orchestra traveled to Europe, almost immediately upon arrival, the group was warmly received, and Bechet was especially popular, attracting attention near and far. While in London, Bechet discovered the straight soprano saxophone and quickly developed a style quite unlike his warm and his saxophone sound could be described as emotional, reckless, and large. He often used a very broad vibrato, similar to what was common among some New Orleans clarinetists at the time, Bechet was convicted of assaulting a woman and was imprisoned in London from September 13 to 26,1922. He was deported to the United States, leaving Southampton on November 3, on July 30,1923, he began recording, it is some of his earliest surviving studio work. The session was led by Clarence Williams, a pianist and songwriter, better known at time for his music publishing. Bechet recorded Wild Cat Blues and Kansas City Man Blues, Wild Cat Blues is in a multithematic ragtime tradition, with four 16-bar themes, and Kansas City Man Blues is a 12-bar blues. He interpreted and played each uniquely, with outstanding creativity and innovation for the time, on September 15,1925, Bechet and other members of the Revue Nègre, including Josephine Baker, sailed to Europe, arriving at Cherbourg, France, on September 22. The revue opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, on October 2, Bechet toured Europe with various bands, reaching as far as Russia in mid-1926. In 1928, he led his own band at the famous Bricktops Club in Montmartre. Bechet was jailed for 11 months in Paris when a passerby was wounded during a shoot-out
Sidney Bechet
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Bechet's childhood home in the
7th Ward of New Orleans
Sidney Bechet
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Sidney Bechet in 1922
Sidney Bechet
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Bust in
Juan-les-Pins
Sidney Bechet
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Bechet in New York in 1947
12.
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
Louis Armstrong
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Armstrong photographed in 1953.
Louis Armstrong
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Handcolored
etching Louis Armstrong (2002) by Adi Holzer
Louis Armstrong
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Armstrong with his first trumpet instructor, Peter Davis, in 1965
Louis Armstrong
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Label for
gramophone record, "
Heebie Jeebies " by
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five
13.
Benny Carter
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Bennett Lester Benny Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s. Carter performed with artists from several generations of jazz, and at major festivals. The National Endowment for the Arts honored Benny Carter with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, in 2000 he was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton. Born in New York City in 1907, the youngest of six children, largely self-taught, by age fifteen, Carter was already sitting in at Harlem night spots. From 1924 to 1928, Carter gained professional experience as a sideman in some of New Yorks most prominent bands, as a youth, Carter lived in Harlem around the corner from Bubber Miley, who was Duke Ellingtons featured trumpeter. Carter was inspired by Miley and bought a trumpet, but when he found he couldnt play like Miley, johnson, Duke Ellington, and their respective groups. He first recorded in 1928 with Charlie Johnsons Orchestra, also arranging the titles recorded, Carters arrangements were sophisticated and very complex, and a number of them became swing standards which were performed by other bands. He also arranged for Duke Ellington during these years, Carter was noted for his arrangements. By the early 1930s he and Johnny Hodges were considered the leading players of the day. Carter also quickly became a leading trumpet soloist, having rediscovered the instrument and he recorded extensively on trumpet in the 1930s. Carters name first appeared on records with a 1932 Crown label release of Tell All Your Day Dreams to Me credited to Bennie Carter, Carters short-lived Orchestra played the Harlem Club in New York but only recorded a handful of records for Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion. The OKeh sides were issued under the name Chocolate Dandies and his trumpet solo on the October 1933 recording of Once Upon A Time by the Chocolate Dandies has long been considered a milestone solo achievement. These 14 sides plus four by Carters big band were only issued in England at the time, originally titled Spike Hughes, the musicians were mainly made up from members of Carters band. Two recordings that typify his sound are 1937s Honeysuckle Rose, recorded with Django Reinhardt and Coleman Hawkins in Europe, returning home in 1938, he quickly formed another orchestra, which spent much of 1939 and 1940 at Harlems famed Savoy Ballroom. His arrangements were much in demand and were featured on recordings by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa and he relocated to Los Angeles in 1943, and moved increasingly into studio work. Beginning with Stormy Weather in 1943, he arranged for dozens of feature films and television productions
Benny Carter
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Benny Carter
Benny Carter
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Portrait of Benny Carter,
Apollo Theatre, New York, N.Y., ca. Oct. 1946
Benny Carter
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Robert Goffin, Benny Carter,
Louis Armstrong, and
Leonard Feather in 1942.
14.
Teddy Wilson
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Theodore Shaw Teddy Wilson was an American jazz pianist. With Goodman, he was one of the first black musicians to appear prominently with white musicians, in addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s. Wilson was born in Austin, Texas, on November 24,1912 and he studied piano and violin at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. After working in Speed Webbs band, with Louis Armstrong, and also understudying Earl Hines in Hiness Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra, in 1935, he joined the Benny Goodman Trio. The trio performed during the big bands intermissions, by joining the trio, Wilson became one of the first black musicians to perform prominently in a racially integrated group. He recorded fifty hit records with singers such as Lena Horne, Helen Ward and Billie Holiday. Wilson formed his own short-lived big band in 1939, then led a sextet at Café Society from 1940 to 1944, in the 1950s, Wilson taught at the Juilliard School. Wilson can be seen appearing as himself in the 1955 motion picture The Benny Goodman Story and he also worked as music director for the Dick Cavett Show. Wilson lived quietly in suburban Hillsdale, New Jersey and he was married three times, including to the songwriter Irene Kitchings. He performed as a soloist and with pick-up groups until the years of his life, including leading a trio with his sons Theodore Wilson on bass. Wilson died in New Britain, Connecticut, on July 31,1986 and he is buried at Fairview Cemetery in New Britain. In addition to Theodore and Steven, Wilson had three children, William, James and Dune and three grandchildren, James II, Olivia and Liam Wilson
Teddy Wilson
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Teddy Wilson at the Turkish Embassy,
Washington, D.C., 1940 ©
William P. Gottlieb
Teddy Wilson
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Wilson at a Benny Goodman rehearsal, 1950
15.
Hot Lips Page
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Oran Thaddeus Page was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader born in Dallas, Texas, United States. He was better known as Hot Lips Page by the public and he was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist. Page was a member of Walter Pages Blue Devils, Artie Shaws Orchestra and Count Basies Orchestra, and he worked with Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. In his early years, Page, who moved to Corsicana, Texas in his teens, traveled across the Southwestern United States and toured as far east as Atlanta. He played in circuses and minstrel shows and backing such blues singers as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Pages main trumpet influence was Louis Armstrong, though throughout his career he cited other local trumpeters, including Harry Smith and Benno Kennedy as being early influences. In 1926, he caught the eye of the bassist Walter Page who had assumed leadership of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. It is believed that Oran Page joined the Blue Devils circa 1927 and he played and toured with the Blue Devils until the spring of 1931, when he joined the Bennie Moten Orchestra, the leading dance band of Kansas City. Page embarked upon a career during this period, playing with small pick up bands from Kansas City. The Reno Club, in downtown Kansas City, had a floor show and he moved to New York City in December 1936. Page toured extensively throughout the southern United States, and throughout the northeast and he appeared briefly with Bud Freemans Orchestra in 1938, and was a featured vocalist and hot soloist with Artie Shaws Symphonic Swing Orchestra in 1941 and 1942, with whom he recorded over 40 sides. From 1929, he made over 200 recordings, most as a leader, for Bluebird, Vocalion, Decca and Harmony Records and his band backed the singer Wynonie Harris on the session that produced the hit Good Rocking Tonight though Page was never credited as the leader. He was the leader of the band at the Apollo Theater during the early 1940s. He traveled to Europe in 1949 and appeared at Salle Pleyel in the first international jazz festival there and he also recorded for the Mezzrow-Bechet Septet. He was one of the most flexible of trumpeters, demonstrating a broad tone, Page died in New York in November 1954, aged 46
Hot Lips Page
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Hot Lips Page, c. June 1946 Photo:
William P. Gottlieb
16.
Fats Waller
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Thomas Wright Fats Waller was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano and his best-known compositions, Aint Misbehavin and Honeysuckle Rose, were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999. Waller was the youngest of 11 children born to Adeline Locket Waller and he started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to playing the organ at his fathers church four years later. His mother instructed him when he was a youth, at the age of 14 he was playing the organ at the Lincoln Theater, in Harlem, and within 12 months he had composed his first rag. Wallers first piano solos were recorded in October 1922, when he was 18 years old and he was the prize pupil and later the friend and colleague of the stride pianist James P. Johnson. Against the opposition of his father, a clergyman, Waller became a professional pianist at the age of 15, working in cabarets, in 1918 he won a talent contest playing Johnsons Carolina Shout, a song he learned from watching a player piano play it. Waller became one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in the United States and he was also a prolific songwriter, and many songs he wrote or co-wrote are still popular, such as Honeysuckle Rose, Aint Misbehavin and Squeeze Me. Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant dubbed Waller the black Horowitz, Waller is believed to have composed many novelty tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for small sums, attributed to another composer and lyricist. Standards attributed to Waller, sometimes controversially, include I Cant Give You Anything but Love and he further supports the conjecture, noting that early handwritten manuscripts in the Dana Library Institute of Jazz Studies of Spreadin Rhythm Around are in Wallers hand. Machlin comments that the Singer conjecture has considerable justification, maurice Wallers biography similarly notes his fathers objections to hearing On the Sunny Side of the Street playing on the radio. The anonymous sleeve notes on the 1960 RCA Victor album Handful of Keys state that Waller copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Razaf described his partner as the soul of melody. A man who made the piano sing, both big in body and in mind. After a balance had been taken, wed just need one take to make a side, on one occasion his playing seemed to have put him at risk of injury. Waller was kidnapped in Chicago leaving a performance in 1926, four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by Al Capone. Waller was ordered inside the building, and found a party in full swing, gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano, and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the surprise guest at Capones birthday party and it is rumored that Waller stayed at the Hawthorne Inn for three days and left very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash from Capone and other party-goers as tips. After sessions with Ted Lewis, Jack Teagarden and Billy Banks Rhythmakers, he began in May 1934 the voluminous series of recordings with a band known as Fats Waller. This six-piece group usually included Herman Autrey, Gene Sedric or Rudy Powell, Waller wrote Squeeze Me, Keepin Out of Mischief Now, Aint Misbehavin, Blue Turning Grey Over You, Ive Got a Feeling Im Falling, Honeysuckle Rose and Jitterbug Waltz
Fats Waller
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Fats Waller
17.
Buck Clayton
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His principal influence was Louis Armstrong. The Penguin Guide to Jazz says that he “synthesi much of the history of jazz trumpet up to his own time, with a bright brassy tone, Clayton worked closely with Li Jinhui, father of Chinese popular music in Shanghai. His contributions helped change history in China, Hong Kong. Clayton learned to play the piano from the age of six and his father was an amateur musician associated with the familys local church, who was responsible for teaching his son the scales on a trumpet which he did not take up until his teens. From the age of seventeen, Clayton was taught the trumpet by Bob Russell, in his early twenties he was based in California, and was briefly a member of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and worked with other leaders. Clayton was also taught at this time by trumpeter Mutt Carey, after high school, he moved to Los Angeles. He later formed a band named “14 Gentlemen from Harlem” in which he was the leader of the 14-member orchestra, from there, there are multiple sources claiming different ways in which Clayton ended up in Shanghai. Some claimed that Clayton was picked by Teddy Weatherford for a job at the Canidrome ballroom in the French Concession in Shanghai, others claimed he escaped the US temporarily to avoid racism. From 1934 or 1935, he was a leader of the Harlem Gentlemen in Shanghai, some of the bureaucratic social groups he was with included Chiang Kai-sheks wife Soong Mei-ling and her sister Ai-ling, who were regulars at the Canidrome. Clayton would play a number of songs that were composed by Li Jinhui, Li learned a great deal from the American jazz influence brought over by Clayton. A1935 guidebook in Shanghai listed Clayton and Teddy Weatherford as the main attraction at the Canidrome. He would eventually leave Shanghai before the 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War, Clayton is credited for helping to close the gap between traditional Chinese music and shidaiqu/mandopop. Li is mostly remembered in China as a casualty of the Cultural Revolution, Clayton remained with Basie until he was drafted for war service in November 1943. Based at Camp Kilmer near New York, Clayton was able to participate in various all-star sessions and he also recorded at this time for the H. R. S. In 1947 he was back in New York, and had a residency at the Café Society, Downtown, Clayton and Rushing worked together occasionally into the 1960s. From September 1949 Clayton was in Europe for nine months, leading his own band in France, Clayton recorded intermittently over the next few years for the French Vogue label, under his own name, that of clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow and for one session, with pianist Earl Hines. In 1953, he was again in Europe, touring with Mezzrow, in Italy, the English critic Stanley Dance coined the term mainstream in the 1950s to describe the style of those swing era players who fell between the revivalist and modernist camps. Clayton was precisely one of the players to whom this appellation most applied, in December 1953 Clayton embarked on a series of jam session albums for Columbia, which had been the idea of John Hammond, though George Avakian was the principal producer
Buck Clayton
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Clayton in Shanghai around 1934
18.
Lionel Hampton
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Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Hampton worked with musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, Lionel Hampton was born in 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky, and was raised by his mother. Shortly after he was born, he and his moved to her hometown Birmingham. He spent his childhood in Kenosha, Wisconsin, before he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois. As a youth, Hampton was a member of the Bud Billiken Club, an alternative to the Boy Scouts of America, during the 1920s—while still a teenager—Hampton took xylophone lessons from Jimmy Bertrand and started playing drums. Hampton was raised Roman Catholic, and started out playing fife, Lionel Hampton began his career playing drums for the Chicago Defender Newsboys Band while still a teenager in Chicago. He moved to California in 1927 or 1928, playing drums for the Dixieland Blues-Blowers and he made his recording debut with The Quality Serenaders led by Paul Howard, then left for Culver City and drummed for the Les Hite band at Sebastians Cotton Club. One of his trademarks as a drummer was his ability to do stunts with multiple pairs of such as twirling and juggling without missing a beat. During this period he began practicing on the vibraphone, in 1930 Louis Armstrong came to California and hired the Les Hite band, asking Hampton if he would play vibes on two songs. So began his career as a vibraphonist, popularizing the use of the instrument in the process, invented ten years earlier, the vibraphone is essentially a xylophone with metal bars, a sustain pedal, and resonators equipped with electric-powered fans that add vibrato. While working with the Les Hite band, Hampton also occasionally did some performing with Nat Shilkret, during the early 1930s, he studied music at the University of Southern California. In 1934 he led his own orchestra, and then appeared in the Bing Crosby film Pennies From Heaven alongside Louis Armstrong, also in November 1936, the Benny Goodman Orchestra came to Los Angeles to play the Palomar Ballroom. The Trio and Quartet were among the first racially integrated jazz groups to perform before audiences, while Hampton worked for Goodman in New York, he recorded with several different small groups known as the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, as well as assorted small groups within the Goodman band. In 1940 Hampton left the Goodman organization under amicable circumstances to form his own big band, Hamptons orchestra became popular during the 1940s and early 1950s. His third recording with them in 1942 produced a version of Flying Home. The selection became popular, and so in 1944 Hampton recorded Flyin Home #2 featuring Arnett Cobb, the song went on to become the theme song for all three men. Guitarist Billy Mackel first joined Hampton in 1944, and would perform, in 1947, Hamp performed Stardust at a Just Jazz concert for producer Gene Norman, also featuring Charlie Shavers and Slam Stewart, the recording was issued by Decca
Lionel Hampton
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Lionel Hampton, 1946. Photo by
William P. Gottlieb.
Lionel Hampton
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Lionel Hampton during a concert in Aachen (Germany) on May 19, 1977
19.
Cannabis (drug)
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Cannabis, also known as marijuana among several other names, is a preparation of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or medicine. The main psychoactive part of cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol, one of 483 known compounds in the plant, Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporization, within food, or as an extract. Cannabis is often used for its mental and physical effects, such as a high or stoned feeling, a change in perception, euphoria. Short term side effects may include a decrease in short-term memory, dry mouth, impaired motor skills, red eyes, long term side effects may include addiction, decreased mental ability in those who started as teenagers, and behavioral problems in children whose mothers used cannabis during pregnancy. Onset of effects is within minutes when smoked and about 30 to 60 minutes when cooked and they last for between two and six hours. Cannabis is mostly used recreationally or as a medicinal drug and it may also be used for religious or spiritual purposes. In 2013, between 128 and 232 million people used cannabis, in 2015, 43% of Americans had used cannabis, which increased to 51% in 2016. About 12% have used it in the past year, and 7. 3% have used it in the past month and this makes it the most commonly used illegal drug both in the world and the United States. The earliest recorded uses date from the 3rd millennium BC, since the early 20th century, cannabis has been subject to legal restrictions. The possession, use, and sale of cannabis is illegal in most countries of the world, Medical cannabis refers to the physician-recommended use of cannabis, which is taking place in Canada, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and 23 U. S. states. Cannabis use started to become popular in the US in the 1970s, support for legalization has increased in the United States and several US states have legalized recreational or medical use. Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana can refer to the use of cannabis and its cannabinoids to treat disease or improve symptoms, however, the use of cannabis as a medicine has not been rigorously scientifically tested, often due to production restrictions and other federal regulations. There is limited evidence suggesting cannabis can be used to reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, to improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS and its use for other medical applications is insufficient for conclusions about safety or efficacy. Short-term use increases the risk of minor and major adverse effects. Common side effects include dizziness, feeling tired, vomiting, long-term effects of cannabis are not clear. Concerns include memory and cognition problems, risk of addiction, schizophrenia in people. Cannabis has psychoactive and physiological effects when consumed, at higher doses, effects can include altered body image, auditory and/or visual illusions, pseudohallucinations and ataxia from selective impairment of polysynaptic reflexes. In some cases, cannabis can lead to states such as depersonalization and derealization
Cannabis (drug)
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A flowering cannabis plant
Cannabis (drug)
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A joint prior to rolling, with a paper handmade filter on the left
Cannabis (drug)
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Dried flower buds
Cannabis (drug)
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Kief
20.
Stuff Smith
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Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith, better known as Stuff Smith, was an American jazz violinist. He is well known for the song If Youre a Viper, Smith was, along with Stéphane Grappelli, Michel Warlop, Svend Asmussen and Joe Venuti, one of jazz musics preeminent violinists of the swing era. He was born in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1909 and studied violin with his father, Smith cited Louis Armstrong as his primary influence and inspiration to play jazz, and like Armstrong, was a vocalist as well as instrumentalist. In the 1920s, he played in Texas as a member of Alphonse Trents band. After moving to New York City he performed regularly with his sextet at the Onyx Club starting in 1935 and also with Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and later, Sun Ra. After being signed to Vocalion Records in 1936, he had a hit with Ise a Muggin and was billed as Stuff Smith and he recorded for Vocalion in 1936, Decca in 1937, and Varsity in 1939–1940. He is featured in numbers on the Nat King Cole Trio album. Smith was critical of the movement, although his own style represented a transition between swing and bebop. He is credited as being the first violinist to use electric amplification techniques on a violin and he was one of the writers of the song Its Wonderful, which was often performed by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald throughout their careers. Smith moved to Copenhagen in 1965, performed actively in Europe and he is buried at Klakring Cemetery in Jutland, Denmark. Stuff Smith is one of the 57 jazz musicians photographed in the 1958 portrait A Great Day in Harlem
Stuff Smith
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Stuff Smith by William P. Gottlieb
21.
Muggles (recording)
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Muggles is the title of a recording by Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra. It was recorded in Chicago on December 7,1928, the title refers to the use of the word muggles as a slang term for marijuana amongst jazz musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. Armstrong was a user of marijuana, which was legal in most American states at the time. The personnel of this recording were, in addition to Armstrong on trumpet, Fred Robinson, trombone, Jimmy Strong, clarinet, Earl Hines, piano, Mancy Carr on banjo, muggles is in the 12-bar blues form. It starts out with some rather modernistic Hines piano work for the time with Singleton playing sensitively on the brushes, Robinson then takes a gutsy lead without breaking the mood, followed by a chorus by Strong showing the influence of Jimmie Noone. The rest of the band then stops for 2 measures while Armstrong starts a chorus on an adventuresome break subtly playing with the rhythm, the horns then play chords behind Armstrongs excellent 2 choruses of solo. Muggles is regarded as one of Armstrongs masterpieces and it was originally issued on Okeh 8703, a 78 RPM disc in Okehs race record series. The recording has been reissued numerous times, and is available on compact disc, muggles has been covered by later jazz musicians, including Nicholas Payton
Muggles (recording)
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Muggles by
Louis Armstrong
22.
African-American
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor
African-American
African-American
African-American
African-American
23.
Harlem
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Harlem is a large neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Since the 1920s, Harlem has been known as a major African-American residential, cultural, originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlems history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, African-American residents began to arrive by a lot in 1905, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the focus of the Harlem Renaissance, however, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly. Harlems African-American population peaked in the 1950s, in the second half of the 20th century, Harlem became a major hub of African-American businesses. In 2008, the United States Census found that for the first time since the 1930s, less than half of residents were black, since New York Citys revival in the late 20th century, long-time residents of Harlem have been experiencing the effects of gentrification and new wealth. Harlem is located in Upper Manhattan, often referred to as Uptown by locals. Central Harlem is bounded by Fifth Avenue on the east, Central Park on the south, Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Avenue and Edgecombe Avenue on the west, and the Harlem River on the north. A chain of three large linear parks—Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park and Jackie Robinson Park—are situated on steeply rising banks, on the east, Fifth Avenue and Marcus Garvey Park, also known as Mount Morris Park, separate this area from East Harlem. The bulk of the falls under Manhattan Community Board No.10. In the late 2000s, South Harlem, emerged from area redevelopment, the West Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights comprise part of Manhattan Community Board No.9. The two neighborhoods area is bounded by Cathedral Parkway on the South, 155th Street on the North, nicholas/Bradhurst/Edgecome Avenues on the East, and Riverside Park/the Hudson River on the west. Morningside Heights is located in the southern most section of West Harlem, Manhattanville begins at roughly 123rd Street and extends northward to 135th Street. The northern most section of West Harlem is Hamilton Heights, the New York City Police Department patrols six precincts located within Harlem. The New York City Fire Department operates 9 firehouses in Harlem, as many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands. Between 1637 and 1639, a few settlements were established, during the American Revolution, the British burned Harlem to the ground. It took a time to rebuild, as Harlem grew more slowly than the rest of Manhattan during the late 18th century. After the American Civil War, Harlem experienced an economic boom starting in 1868, the neighborhood continued to serve as a refuge for New Yorkers, but increasingly those coming north were poor and Jewish or Italian
Harlem
–
Stately Harlem apartment buildings adjacent to
Morningside Park
Harlem
–
The
Apollo Theater on
125th Street, in November 2006.
Harlem
–
Rowhouse built for the African-American population of Harlem in the 1930s
Harlem
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A condemned building in Harlem after the 1970s
24.
New York City
–
The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
New York City
–
Clockwise, from top:
Midtown Manhattan,
Times Square, the
Unisphere in
Queens, the
Brooklyn Bridge,
Lower Manhattan with
One World Trade Center,
Central Park, the
headquarters of the United Nations, and the
Statue of Liberty
New York City
–
New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual
Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year
England took control and renamed it "New York".
New York City
–
The
Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the
American Revolution, took place in
Brooklyn in 1776.
New York City
–
Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.
25.
Joint (cannabis)
–
A joint is a rolled marijuana cigarette. Unlike commercial tobacco cigarettes, joints are ordinarily hand-rolled by the user with rolling papers, modern papers are manufactured in a range of sizes from a wide variety of materials including rice, hemp, and flax, and are also available in liquorice and other flavoured varieties. A joint can vary in size, typically containing between 0.25 to 1 g net weight of cannabis, tobacco may or may not be used in the rolling process. Although joints by definition contain cannabis, regional differences have been noted, the term spliff is sometimes used to distinguish a joint prepared with both cannabis and tobacco, as is commonly done in European countries, where joints containing only cannabis are rarely smoked. However, in the West Indies where this term originated, a spliff is simply a marijuana cigarette, special e-cigarettes have also been designed for use with cannabis extract. The word joint ultimately originated from French, where it is an adjective meaning joined, derived in turn from Latin iunctus, by 1821, joint had become an Anglo-Irish term for an annexe, or a side-room joined to a main room. By 1877, this had developed into U. S. slang for a place, building, establishment and its first usage in the sense of marijuana cigarette is dated to 1938. There are many slang terms synonymous with the word joint, the term spliff is a West Indian word of Jamaican English origin which has spread to several western countries, particularly the UK and many countries in Europe. Its precise etymology is unknown, but it is attested as early as 1936, J or jay can be used as an abbreviation for a generic joint. Another frequently used term is doobie, the end or butt of a mostly smoked joint is referred to as a roach in U. S. slang. Small metal clips to facilitate the smoking of a roach are called roach clips. In the UK the term roach is commonly used to describe the cardboard mouthpiece mentioned earlier, blunt Cannabis smoking Recreational drug use Medical cannabis Vaporizer
Joint (cannabis)
–
A burning joint.
Joint (cannabis)
–
A joint prior to rolling with a paper filter at left
Joint (cannabis)
–
Commercially prepared American
medical cannabis joint.
26.
Black people
–
As such, the meaning of the expression varies widely both between and within societies, and depends significantly on context. For many other individuals, communities and countries, black is also perceived as a derogatory, outdated, reductive or otherwise unrepresentative label, different societies apply differing criteria regarding who is classified as black, and these social constructs have also changed over time. In a number of countries, societal variables affect classification as much as skin color, in the United Kingdom, black was historically equivalent with person of color, a general term for non-European peoples. In South Africa and Latin America, mixed-race people are not classified as black. In other regions such as Australasia, settlers applied the term black or it was used by local populations with different histories and ancestral backgrounds. The Romans interacted with and later conquered parts of Mauretania, a state that covered modern Morocco, western Algeria. The people of the region were noted in Classical literature as Mauri, numerous communities of dark-skinned peoples are present in North Africa, some dating from prehistoric communities. In the 18th century, the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his Black Guard and he claims that black-looking Arabs, much like black-looking Latin Americans, consider themselves white because they have some distant white ancestry. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had a mother who was a dark-skinned Nubian Sudanese woman, in response to an advertisement for an acting position, as a young man he said, I am not white but I am not exactly black either. My blackness is tending to reddish, due to the patriarchal nature of Arab society, Arab men, including during the slave trade in North Africa, enslaved more black women than men. They used more black female slaves in domestic service and agriculture than males, the men interpreted the Quran to permit sexual relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage, leading to many mixed-race children. When an enslaved woman became pregnant with her Arab masters child, she was considered as umm walad or mother of a child, the child was given rights of inheritance to the fathers property, so mixed-race children could share in any wealth of the father. Because the society was patrilineal, the children took their fathers social status at birth and were born free, some succeeded their fathers as rulers, such as Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who ruled Morocco from 1578 to 1608. He was not technically considered as a child of a slave, his mother was Fulani. Such tolerance for black persons, even when technically free, was not so common in Morocco, the long association of sub-Saharan peoples as slaves is shown in the term abd, it is still frequently used in the Arabic-speaking world as a term for black people. In early 1991, non-Arabs of the Zaghawa tribe of Sudan attested that they were victims of an intensifying Arab apartheid campaign, Sudanese Arabs, who controlled the government, were widely referred to as practicing apartheid against Sudans non-Arab citizens. The government was accused of deftly manipulat Arab solidarity to carry out policies of apartheid, American University economist George Ayittey accused the Arab government of Sudan of practicing acts of racism against black citizens. The Arabs monopolized power and excluded blacks – Arab apartheid, many African commentators joined Ayittey in accusing Sudan of practising Arab apartheid
Black people
–
Soldiers of the
Free Arabian Legion in Greece, September 1943
Black people
–
Algerian footballer
Yacine Brahimi
Black people
–
Moroccan Gnawa musician
Hassan Hakmoun
Black people
–
Nelson Mandela led the
ANC in the battle against South African Apartheid.
27.
Eddie Condon
–
Albert Edwin Condon, better known as Eddie Condon, was an American jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in Chicago jazz, he played piano. Condon was born in Goodland, Indiana, the son of John and he grew up in Momence, Illinois, and Chicago Heights, Illinois, where he attended St. Agnes and Bloom High School. After playing ukulele, he switched to banjo and was a musician by 1921. He was based in Chicago for most of the 1920s, and played with such notables as Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden. In 1928, Condon moved to New York City and he frequently arranged jazz sessions for various record labels, sometimes playing with the artists he brought to the recording studios, including Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. He organised racially integrated recording sessions—when these were still rare—with Waller, Armstrong and he played with the band of Red Nichols for a time. Later, from 1938 he had an association with Milt Gablers Commodore Records. A handful of records were issued under his own name, a July 28,1928 two-song session was recorded for OKeh, on October 30,1928, an OKeh was issued as Eddie Condon and his Footwarmers, featuring Jack Teagarden. A further session on February 8,1929 yielded a record issued under the name Eddie Hot Shots, in 1933, a further two sessions were recorded for Brunswick consisting of 6 recordings, only 2 of which were released in the US. From 1938 on, Condon recorded for Commodore and one session for Decca, from the late 1930s on he was a regular at the Manhattan jazz club Nicks. The sophisticated variation on Dixieland music which Condon and his colleagues created there came to be nicknamed Nicksieland, by this time, his regular circle of musical associates included Wild Bill Davison, Bobby Hackett, George Brunies, Edmond Hall, and Pee Wee Russell. In 1939, he appeared with Bobby Hacket and Band in the Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film musical short-subject, Condon did a series of jazz radio broadcasts from New Yorks Town Hall during 1944–45 which were nationally popular. These recordings survive, and have issued on the Jazzology label. In the 1950s Condon recorded a sequence of albums for Columbia Records. Condon toured Britain in 1957 with a band including Wild Bill Davison, Cutty Cutshall, Gene Schroeder and his last tour was in 1964, when he took a band to Australia and Japan. Condons men, on tour, were top mainstream jazz musicians, Buck Clayton, Pee Wee Russell, Vic Dickenson, Bud Freeman, Dick Cary, Jack Lesberg, Cliff Leeman. In 1948, Condons autobiography We Called It Music was published, Eddie Condons Treasury of Jazz was a collection of articles co-edited by Condon and Richard Gehman
Eddie Condon
–
Contents
28.
Pere Lachaise
–
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, though there are larger cemeteries in the citys suburbs. Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement and is notable for being the first garden cemetery and it is also the site of three World War I memorials. The cemetery is on Boulevard de Mènilmontant, many tourists prefer the Gambetta station on line 3, as it allows them to enter near the tomb of Oscar Wilde and then walk downhill to visit the rest of the cemetery. Each year, Père Lachaise Cemetery has more than 3.5 million visitors, the cemetery takes its name from the confessor to Louis XIV, Père François de la Chaise, who lived in the Jesuit house rebuilt during 1682 on the site of the chapel. The property, situated on the hillside from which the king watched skirmishing between the armies of the Condé and Turenne during the Fronde, was bought by the city during 1804, established by Napoleon during this year, the cemetery was laid out by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart and later extended. Near the middle of the city is Passy Cemetery, Père Lachaise Cemetery was opened on 21 May 1804. The first person buried there was a girl named Adélaïde Paillard de Villeneuve. Her grave no longer exists as the plot was a temporary concession, Napoleon, who had been proclaimed Emperor by the Senate three days earlier, had declared during the Consulate that Every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion. At the time of its opening, the cemetery was considered to be situated too far from the city, moreover, many Roman Catholics refused to have their graves in a place that had not been blessed by the Church. During 1804, the Père Lachaise contained only 13 graves, consequently, the administrators devised a marketing strategy and during 1804, with great fanfare, organized the transfer of the remains of Jean de La Fontaine and Molière. The next year there were 44 burials, with 49 during 1806,62 during 1807 and 833 during 1812 and this strategy achieved its desired effect, people began clamouring to be buried among the famous citizens. Records show that the Père Lachaise contained more than 33,000 graves during 1830, Père Lachaise was expanded five times, during 1824,1829,1832,1842 and 1850. Presently there are more than 1 million bodies buried there, and many more in the columbarium, the Communards Wall is also located in the cemetery. This is the site where 147 Communards, the last defenders of the district of Belleville, were shot on 28 May 1871 – the last day of the Bloody Week in which the Paris Commune was crushed. The site is today a traditional rallying point for members of the French political Left, ironically, Adolphe Thiers, the French president who directed Bloody Week, is also interred in the cemetery, where his tomb has occasionally been subject to vandalism. A funerary chapel was erected during 1823 by Étienne-Hippolyte Godde at the place of the ancient Jesuit house. This same Neoclassical architect created the entrance a few years later. A columbarium and a crematorium of a Neo-Byzantine style were designed in 1894 by Jean-Camille Formigé, Père Lachaise is still an operating cemetery and accepting new burials
Pere Lachaise
–
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
Pere Lachaise
–
Looking down the hill at Père Lachaise
Pere Lachaise
–
A winding path through the cemetery
Pere Lachaise
–
Père Lachaise Cemetery in spring
29.
Blue Note
–
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch than standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies among performers and genres, blue notes may be marked by a glissando or trill. The blue notes are usually said to be the third, lowered fifth. The musicologist Peter van der Merwe also includes the lowered sixth, the lowered fifth is also known as the raised fourth. Blue notes are used in blues songs, in jazz. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the pitches with emotive blue-notes. Blue notes are seen as akin to relative pitches found in traditional African work songs. Blue notes are also prevalent in English folk music and Irish traditional music, though the blues scale has an inherent minor tonality, it is commonly forced over major-key chord changes, resulting in a distinctively dissonant conflict of tonalities. A similar conflict occurs between the notes of the scale and the minor blues scale, as heard in songs such as Why Dont You Do Right. In the case of the third over the root, the resulting chord is a neutral mixed third chord. Harmonic seventh Major and minor Twelve-bar blues Schuller, Gunther, early Jazz, Its Roots and Musical Development, pp. 46–52). Cited in Benward & Saker, p.39
Blue Note
–
Blue notes (in blue): ♭ 3, (♯ 4)/ ♭ 5, ♭ 7
30.
Victor Records
–
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
Victor Records
Victor Records
–
Enrico Caruso with a Victrola
phonograph in 1918
Victor Records
–
A Victor Talking Machine
Victor Records
–
Victor "scroll" label from 1930, featuring the company's house band directed by
Nathaniel Shilkret
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