Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra was an American actor and singer, one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide. Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra found success as a solo artist after he signed with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1946. Sinatra's professional career had stalled by the early 1950s, he turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best known residency performers as part of the Rat Pack, his career was reborn in 1953 with the success of From Here to Eternity, with his performance subsequently winning an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sinatra released several critically lauded albums, including In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice'n' Easy.
Sinatra left Capitol in 1960 to start his own record label, Reprise Records, released a string of successful albums. In 1965, he recorded the retrospective September of My Years and starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music. After releasing Sinatra at the Sands, recorded at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Vegas with frequent collaborator Count Basie in early 1966, the following year he recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, the album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, it was followed by 1968's Francis Edward K. with Duke Ellington. Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971, but came out of retirement two years and recorded several albums and resumed performing at Caesars Palace, reached success in 1980 with "New York, New York". Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally until shortly before his death in 1998. Sinatra forged a successful career as a film actor.
After winning an Academy Award for From Here to Eternity, he starred in The Man with the Golden Arm, received critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He appeared in various musicals such as On the Town and Dolls, High Society, Pal Joey, winning another Golden Globe for the latter. Toward the end of his career, he became associated with playing detectives, including the title character in Tony Rome. Sinatra would receive the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1971. On television, The Frank Sinatra Show began on ABC in 1950, he continued to make appearances on television throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Sinatra was heavily involved with politics from the mid-1940s, campaigned for presidents such as Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. In crime, the FBI investigated his alleged relationship with the Mafia. While Sinatra never learned how to read music, he had an impressive understanding of it, he worked hard from a young age to improve his abilities in all aspects of music.
A perfectionist, renowned for his dress sense and performing presence, he always insisted on recording live with his band. His bright blue eyes earned him the popular nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes". Sinatra led a colorful personal life, was involved in turbulent affairs with women, such as with his second wife Ava Gardner, he married Mia Farrow in 1966 and Barbara Marx in 1976. Sinatra had several violent confrontations with journalists he felt had crossed him, or work bosses with whom he had disagreements, he was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985, the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, he was collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the twentieth century's 100 most influential people. After his death, American music critic Robert Christgau called him "the greatest singer of the 20th century", he continues to be seen as an iconic figure.
Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in an upstairs tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italian immigrants Natalina "Dolly" Garaventa and Antonino Martino "Marty" Sinatra. Sinatra weighed 13.5 pounds at birth and had to be delivered with the aid of forceps, which caused severe scarring to his left cheek and ear, perforated his eardrum—damage that remained for life. Due to his injuries at birth, his baptism at St. Francis Church in Hoboken was delayed until April 2, 1916. A childhood operation on his mastoid bone left major scarring on his neck, during adolescence he suffered from cystic acne that further scarred his face and neck. Sinatra was raised Roman Catholic. Sinatra's mother was energetic and driven, biographers believe that she was the dominant factor in the development of her son's personality traits and self-confidence. Sinatra's fourth wife Barbara would claim that Dolly was abusive to him as a child, "knocked him around a lot".
Dolly became influential in local Democratic Party circles. She worked as a midwife, earning $50 for each delivery, according to Sinatra biographer Kitty Kelley ran an illegal abortion service that catered to Italian Catholic girls, for which she was nicknamed "Hatpin Dolly", she had a gift for languages and served as a local interpreter. Sinatra's illiterate father was a bantamweight boxer who fought under the name Mar
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and arranger. Though Mulligan is known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was a significant arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, others. Mulligan's pianoless quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the best cool jazz groups. Mulligan was a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. Several of his compositions, such as "Walkin' Shoes" and "Five Brothers", have become jazz standards. Gerry Mulligan was born in Queens Village, New York, the son of George and Louise Mulligan, his father was a Wilmington, native of Irish descent. Gerry was the youngest of four sons with George and Don preceding him. George Mulligan's career as an engineer necessitated frequent moves through numerous cities; when Gerry was less than a year old, the family moved to Marion, where his father accepted a job with the Marion Power Shovel Company.
With the demands of a large home and four young boys to raise, Mulligan's mother hired an African-American nanny named Lily Rose, who became fond of the youngest Mulligan. As he became older, Mulligan began spending time at Rose's house and was amused by Rose's player piano, which Mulligan recalled as having rolls by numerous players, including Fats Waller. Black musicians sometimes came through town, because many motels would not take them, they had to stay at homes within the black community; the young Mulligan met such musicians staying at Rose's home. The family's moves continued with stops in southern New Jersey, Chicago and Kalamazoo, where Mulligan lived for three years and attended Catholic school; when the school moved into a new building and established music courses, Mulligan decided to play clarinet in the school's nascent orchestra. Mulligan made an attempt at arranging with the Richard Rodgers song "Lover", but the arrangement was seized prior to its first reading by an overzealous nun, taken aback by the title on the arrangement.
When Gerry Mulligan was 14, his family moved to Detroit and to Reading, Pennsylvania. While in Reading, Mulligan began studying clarinet with dance-band musician Sammy Correnti, who encouraged Mulligan's interest in arranging. Mulligan began playing saxophone professionally in dance bands in Philadelphia, an hour and a half or so away; the Mulligan family next moved to Philadelphia, where Gerry attended the West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys and organized a school big band, for which he wrote arrangements. When Mulligan was sixteen, he approached Johnny Warrington at local radio station WCAU about writing arrangements for the station's house band. Warrington began buying Mulligan's arrangements. Mulligan dropped out of high school during his senior year to pursue work with a touring band, he contacted bandleader Tommy Tucker. While Tucker did not need an additional reedman, he was looking for an arranger and Mulligan was hired at $100 a week to do two or three arrangements a week.
At the conclusion of Mulligan's three-month contract, Tucker told Mulligan that he should move on to another band, a little less "tame". Mulligan went back to Philadelphia and began writing for Elliot Lawrence, a pianist and composer who had taken over for Warrington as the band leader at WCAU. Mulligan moved to New York City in January 1946 and joined the arranging staff on Gene Krupa's bebop-tinged band. Arrangements of Mulligan's work with Krupa include "Birdhouse", "Disc Jockey Jump" and an arrangement of "How High the Moon", quoting Charlie Parker's "Ornithology" as a countermelody. Mulligan next began arranging for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra sitting in as a member of the reed section. Thornhill's arranging staff included Gil Evans, whom Mulligan had met while working with the Krupa band. Mulligan began living with Evans, at the time that Evans' apartment on West 55th Street became a regular hangout for a number of jazz musicians working on creating a new jazz idiom. In September 1948, Miles Davis formed a nine-piece band that featured arrangements by Mulligan and John Lewis.
The band consisted of Davis on trumpet, Mulligan on baritone saxophone, trombonist Mike Zwerin, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, Junior Collins on French horn, tubist Bill Barber, pianist John Lewis, bassist Al McKibbon and drummer Max Roach. The band only played a handful of live performances. However, over the next couple of years, Davis reformed the nonet on three occasions to record twelve pieces for release as singles; these were compiled on a Capitol Records long-playing record, titled Birth of the Cool. Mulligan wrote and arranged three of the tunes recorded, arranged a further three, he was one of only four musicians who played on all the recordings. Despite the chilly reception by audiences of 1949, the Davis nonet has been judged by history as one of the most influential groups in jazz history, creating a sound that, despite its East Coast origins, became known as West Coast Jazz. During his period of occasional work with the Davis nonet between 1949 and 1951, Mulligan regularly performed with a
Dearest Enemy
Dearest Enemy is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, music by Richard Rodgers. This was the first of eight book musicals written by the songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart and writer Herbert Fields, the first of more than two dozen Rodgers and Hart Broadway musicals; the musical takes place in 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, when Mary Lindley Murray detained British troops long enough in Manhattan to give George Washington time to move his vulnerable troops. Hart got the idea for the musical from a plaque in Manhattan about Murray. He, Rodgers and Fields first took their musical to Fields' father, Lew Fields, to produce, but he declined, thinking the Revolutionary War story would not be commercial. At the time and Hart were unknown young songwriters, but in May 1925, they wrote songs for a charity revue, The Garrick Gaieties, which became a surprise success, their songs were a hit. George Ford, husband of Helen Ford, a star of the show, agreed to produce it.
The musical had been variously described as a genuine comic opera in the press. Ford presented a tryout of the musical, titled Dear Enemy at the Ohio Colonial Theatre in July 1925. After rewrites, it played for a week in Baltimore in early September 1925; the Broadway production opened on September 18, 1925 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and closed on May 22, 1926, after 286 performances. Directed by John Murray Anderson, the cast included Flavia Arcaro as Mary, Helen Spring as Jane, John Seymour as Captain Harry Tryon, Helen Ford as Betsy Burke, Charles Purcell as Captain Sir John Copeland, Alden Gay as Caroline, Marian Williams as Annabelle, Jane Overton as Peg, Andrew Lawlor Jr. as Jimmy Burke, William Eville as General Henry Clinton, Harold Crane as General William Howe, Detmar Poppen as General John Tryon, Arthur Brown as Lieutenant Sudsby, Percy Woodley as General Israel Putnam, James Cushman as Major Aaron Burr, Jack Shannon as Private Peters, Mark Truscott as Private Woods, Percy French as Private Lindsay, Frank Lambert as Envoy, H. E. Eldridge as George Washington.
The success of the show led to many more Hart musicals. Despite a good run with favorable reviews and a national tour, revivals afterwards were few; the musical was seen in 1976 at the Goodspeed Opera House, as an American bicentennial production, in 1996 at 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco. It was given an on-book concert in 1999 by the Musicals Tonight! Troupe with piano accompaniment. In 2002, for the Richard Rodgers centennial, New York's amateur Village Light Opera Group produced the show conducted by Ron Noll with an orchestration reconstructed by Larry Moore. A television musical special featuring Cyril Ritchard, Anne Jeffreys, Robert Sterling, Cornelia Otis Skinner as Mrs. Murray, in an adaptation by Neil Simon, was broadcast on November 26, 1955, the soundtrack is still available. A cast recording of that broadcast was released on compact disc in 1997. In 2013, New World Records released a recording of the complete score in the Moore reconstruction; the recording features the Orchestra of Ireland, conducted by David Brophy, Kim Criswell as Mrs. Murray.
According to Steven Suskin, writing in Playbill, it "couldn't be bettered". The story is based on an American Revolutionary War incident in September 1776 when Mary Lindley Murray, under orders from General George Washington, detained General William Howe and his British troops by serving them cake and conversation in her Kips Bay, Manhattan home long enough for some 4,000 American soldiers, fleeing their loss in the Battle of Brooklyn, to reassemble in Washington Heights and join reinforcements to make a successful counterattack. Patriot Mary Murray and her young ladies are working to sew uniforms for American soldiers, but they are sad at the absence of their young men. Mary's flirty daughter Jane leads British General Tryon's son Harry to her house, his commander, General Howe, some British officers commandeer Mary's house as their temporary headquarters. Mary instructs the houseful of beautiful young ladies to discourage the British soldiers, but the girls are eager to engage the enemy in more than just conversation.
George Washington sends word to Mary asking her to try to detain his officers overnight. Mary's feisty, feminist Irish niece Betsy Burke comes home wearing only a barrel after a dog steals her clothes while she is swimming. British Captain Sir John Copeland has gallantly supplied the barrel. Though divided by nationality and Copeland's sexism, they fall in love. Mary gives a Ball for the British officers, promising to show them some of the beauties of the local countryside; the British soldiers are happy to spend time consuming refreshment and indulging in music and flirtation at the Murray mansion. Betsy and Sir John dream of being together when the war is over as Jane and Harry fall in love. Mary's messenger is captured, Betsy volunteers to take an update to General Washington, she is told to return to Mary's house and, when the coast is clear for the American soldiers to move, to light a lantern put it out. Upon her return, Sir John and she acknowledge their love for each other; when Sir John falls asleep, Betsy lights the signal.
The American soldiers march North safely. Sir John is captured but, in the post-war epilogue, he is freed and reunited with Betsy. Note: During the tryouts, numerous songs were cut from the production, including Ale, Ale!, "Duet", "Girls Do Not Tempt Me", "The Three Musketeers". The duet "Dear Me" is believed to have been cut from the show because Mrs. Ford could not dance in only a barrel costume while holding a p
Steel Ball Run
Steel Ball Run is the reboot and seventh story arc of the Japanese manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. Set in 1890, it stars Gyro Zeppeli, a disgraced former executioner, Johnny Joestar, a former hot-shot jockey, shot and lost the use of his legs, as well as his fame and fortune. They, along with others, race across America for $50 million; the first 23 chapters were serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 2004 under the title Steel Ball Run. Although the character's names are related to the series, it was unclear if the story was a part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. However, when the series moved to Ultra Jump in 2005, it was announced as part 7 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but in an alternate universe, like the following and current arc, JoJolion; the 95 chapters were combined into 24 tankōbon volumes, following the trend set by the previous part, Stone Ocean, of starting over the volume count. A couple of chapters were adapted into a "Vomic" series, which has voice actors act over the manga pages as they are shown on screen.
The series is set in 1890 in an alternate reality from previous JoJo's Bizarre Adventure parts, where racing jockeys from all over the world flock to the United States to take part in the Steel Ball Run — a cross-country horse race from San Diego to New York City with a prize of fifty million dollars. Johnny Joestar, a former jockey who fell from glory after a shooting paralyzed him from the waist down, enters the race after meeting the mysterious Gyro Zeppeli to learn the secrets of the man's Spin technique which temporarily restored his mobility. While beginning as rivals and Gyro become friends as they travel through the wilderness while fending off violent competitors; as Gyro begins teaching Johnny the secrets of the Spin, his own background is explored through flashbacks. He is a former executioner from Naples, competing in the Steel Ball Run not for his own gain, but to win the favor of the Neapolitan royalty and thus prevent the unjust execution of a young boy, falsely accused of treason.
The two continue their progression through the race, all the while being attacked by various assassins and outlaws. Although the Steel Ball Run is organized by the eccentric oil tycoon Stephen Steel, it is revealed that the race is backed by the United States government. Steel is unaware of the actual agenda of US President Funny Valentine: the race is a means for Valentine to collect the scattered pieces of a two-thousand-year-old corpse known as the Saint's Corpse so he can use the reassembled body to achieve incredible power. Stephen's wife Lucy discovers this plot and finds out that Valentine possesses one part of the Corpse, the heart. After Johnny and Gyro encounter another piece of the Saint's Corpse, it is absorbed into Johnny's body and he develops a Stand, allowing him to fend off one of Valentine's minions, they meet the mysterious racer Diego Brando, who obtains one of two Corpse eyes, while Gyro gains the other. Lucy intercepts a message to Valentine about the Corpse parts, she is able to escape him and with Johnny and Gyro's help she finds one of the parts.
With the information provided by Lucy and Gyro decide to search for the next three Corpse parts while sending Lucy, with the advantage of Gyro's Corpse eye, to take the Heart from Valentine himself. Meanwhile, Diego makes a deal with Valentine to help him deal with the traitor. Partnered with another racer, Diego attacks Gyro. Gyro teaches Johnny how to use the Golden Ratio found in nature to amplify the power of the Spin, he defeats the other racer with this technique, but Diego escapes and all but one of the Corpse parts are stolen by another racer, Hot Pants. Johnny and Gyro are next forced to deal with a Stand based on the fable of The Honest Woodman by Aesop, which grants them a considerable fortune alongside another Corpse part but forces them to get rid of both before sunrise or else they will be trapped within an ancient tree forever and become the new users of the Stand, making the same deal with passersby; the duo spend the money hiring a mercenary force to fend off Valentine's henchmen, but Gyro is nearly lost forever until Johnny trades away the Corpse parts to the last survivor of Valentine's forces, saving Gyro's life but leaving them with nothing.
Lucy uses Hot Pants' Stand to disguise herself as Valentine's wife Scarlet, while Hot Pants steals several Corpse parts from Valentine, including the Heart. Johnny and Gyro are led to a garbage dump by Hot Pants, only for all three to be nearly defeated by one of Valentine's men, who takes all of the parts they have collected. With the help of a vision of the Saint, Johnny's Stand develops new powers in combination with the Spin. Before he can win the battle, Valentine arrives and kills his own minion leaves along with all the Corpse parts except for the undiscovered head and the eyes possessed by Diego and Lucy. Upon returning to the Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Valentine uncovers Lucy's disguise and takes her captive after she fuses with the Corpse and becomes pregnant with the Corpse's head. Lucy escapes from captivity, only to be lured into Valentine's clutches once again. Diego and Hot Pants ally against Valentine, chasing him and Lucy to a trainyard while being followed themselves by Johnny and Gyro.
Diego and Hot Pants fight Valentine on the moving train but his Stand's ability prov
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording Preservation Board, whose members are appointed by the Librarian of Congress. The recordings preserved in the United States National Recording Registry form a registry of recordings selected yearly by the National Recording Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress; the legislative intent of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 was to develop a national program to guard America's sound recording heritage. The Act resulted in the formations of the National Recording Registry, The National Recording Preservation Board and a fund-raising foundation to aid their efforts; the act established the Registry for the purpose of maintaining and preserving sound recordings and collections of sound recordings that are culturally or aesthetically significant.
Beginning in 2002, the National Recording Preservation Board began selecting nominated recordings each year to be preserved. The first four yearly lists each included 50 selections. However, since 2006, 25 recordings have been selected annually. Thus, a total of 525 recordings have been preserved in the Registry as of 2018; each calendar year, public nominations are accepted for inclusion in that year's list of selections to be announced the following spring. Nominations are made in the following categories: Each yearly list has included a few recordings that have been selected for inclusion in the holdings of the National Archives' audiovisual collection; those recordings on the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry that are of a political nature will tend to overlap with the audiovisual collection of the National Archives. The list shows overlapping items and whether the National Archives has an original or a copy of the recording; the criteria for selection are as follows: Recordings selected for the National Recording Registry are those that are culturally or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.
For the purposes of recording selection, "sound recordings" are defined as works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds, but not including the sound component of a moving image work, unless it is available as an autonomous sound recording or is the only extant component of the work. Recordings may be a single group of related items. Recordings will not be considered for inclusion into the National Recording Registry if no copy of the recording exists. No recording should be denied inclusion into the National Recording Registry because that recording has been preserved. No recording is eligible for inclusion into the National Recording Registry until ten years after the recording's creation. On January 27, 2003, the following 50 selections were announced by the National Recording Preservation Board. In March 2004, the following 50 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board. In April 2005, the following 50 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board.
In April 2006, the following 50 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board. On March 6, 2007, the following 25 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board. On May 14, 2008, the following 25 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board. On June 10, 2009, the following 25 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board. On June 23, 2010, the following 25 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board. On April 6, 2011, the following 25 selections were announced. On May 23, 2012, the following 25 selections were made by the National Recording Preservation Board. On March 21, 2013, the following 25 selections were announced. On April 2, 2014, the following 25 selections were announced. On March 25, 2015, the following 25 selections were announced. On March 23, 2016, the following 25 selections were announced. On March 29, 2017, the following 25 selections were announced. On March 21, 2018, the following 25 selections were announced.
On March 20, 2019, the following 25 selections were announced As of 2018, the oldest recording on the list is Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville's Phonautograms which date back to the 1850s. The most recent is The Blueprint by Jay-Z released in 2001. Selections vary in duration. Both the early Edison recordings and the instrumental "Rumble" by Link Wray, as well as "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets clock in at under three minutes. Meanwhile, Georg Solti's recording of Wagner's complete Ring Cycle is 15 hours in duration and Alexander Scourby's recitation of the King James Bible is over 80 hours in length. Stevie Wonder: Lift Every Voice and Sing and Songs in the Key of Life John Coltrane: Giant Steps and A Love Supreme Scott Joplin: Ragtime piano rolls and Treemonisha Orson Welles: War of the Worlds and The Fall of the City Curtis Mayfield: People Get Ready and Super Fly Louis Armstrong: Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, Canal Street Blues and Mack The Knife Joe Falcon: Allons à Lafayette and Anthology of American Folk Music Paul Robeson: Show Boat and Othello Bing Crosby: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? and White Christmas Miles Davis: Ko-Ko and Kind of Blue Paul Simon: Sounds of Silence and Gracela
My Funny Valentine (Larry Willis album)
My Funny Valentine is an album by American jazz pianist Larry Willis recorded in 1988 and released on the Japanese Jazz City label before being reissued in the US on Evidence Music in 1998. Allmusic's Michael G. Nastos said: "the Willis heard on 1988's enjoyable, if conventional, My Funny Valentine is a more conservative post-bopper/hard bopper... Willis plays the acoustic piano on this CD, standards are a high priority. Nothing cutting-edge occurs, just straight-ahead jazz that's honest and melodic.... All of which demonstrate how sensitive a ballad player he can be". "For Openers" – 5:46 "It Could Happen to You" – 3:18 "Blues for Wynton Kelly" – 6:32 "Who's Kidding Who?" – 8:52 "Rhythm-a-Ning" – 6:04 "Blood Count" – 6:29 "My Shining Hour/I'll Be Seeing You" – 6:46 "Lazy Afternoon" – 5:16 "Ethiopia" – 8:02 "My Funny Valentine" – 6:02 Larry Willis – piano Kenny Garrett – alto saxophone George Mraz – bass Al Foster – drums
