1.
Jazz
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Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
2.
Library of Congress
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The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, the Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. it also maintains the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, which houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world and its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Two-thirds of the books it acquires each year are in other than English. The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for years in the temporary national capitals of New York. John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was two dollars per day and was required to also serve as the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s, most of the original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. To restore its collection in 1815, the bought from former president Thomas Jefferson his entire personal collection of 6,487 books. After a period of growth, another fire struck the Library in its Capitol chambers in 1851, again destroying a large amount of the collection. The Library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works to have two copies deposited of books, maps, illustrations and diagrams printed in the United States. It also began to build its collections of British and other European works and it included several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials may check out books, the Library promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book, and Poet Laureate. James Madison is credited with the idea for creating a congressional library, part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress. And for fitting up an apartment for containing them. Books were ordered from London and the collection, consisting of 740 books and 3 maps, was housed in the new Capitol, as president, Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The new law also extended to the president and vice president the ability to borrow books and these volumes had been left in the Senate wing of the Capitol. One of the only congressional volumes to have survived was a government account book of receipts and it was taken as a souvenir by a British Commander whose family later returned it to the United States government in 1940. Within a month, former president Jefferson offered to sell his library as a replacement
3.
Herbie Hancock
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Herbert Jeffrey Herbie Hancock is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers, Hancocks music is often melodic and accessible, he has had many songs cross over and achieved success among pop audiences. Hancocks best-known compositions include Cantaloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Maiden Voyage, Chameleon, and his 2007 tribute album River, The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965. Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winnie Belle, a secretary, and Wayman Edward Hancock and his parents named him after the singer and actor Herb Jeffries. He attended the Hyde Park Academy, like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education. He studied from age seven, and his talent was recognized early, through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher, but developed his ear and sense of harmony. He was also influenced by records of the group the Hi-Los. He reported that. by the time I actually heard the Hi-Los, I started picking that stuff out, my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and thats when I really learned some much farther-out voicings – like the harmonies I used on Speak Like a Child – just being able to do that, I really got that from Clare Fischers arrangements for the Hi-Los. Clare Fischer was an influence on my harmonic concept. he and Bill Evans. You know, thats where it came from, in 1960, he heard Chris Anderson play just once, and begged him to accept him as a student. Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru, Hancock left Grinnell College, moved to Chicago and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, during which period he also took courses at Roosevelt University. Byrd was attending the Manhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition with Vittorio Giannini, the pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album Takin Off for Blue Note Records in 1962, Watermelon Man was to provide Mongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock, Takin Off caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963, he joined Daviss Second Great Quintet. Davis personally sought out Hancock, whom he saw as one of the most promising talents in jazz, the rhythm section Davis organized was young but effective, comprising bassist Ron Carter, 17-year-old drummer Williams, and Hancock on piano. After George Coleman and Sam Rivers each took a turn at the saxophone spot and this quintet is often regarded as one of the finest jazz ensembles, and the rhythm section has been especially praised for its innovation and flexibility. The second great quintet was where Hancock found his own voice as a pianist, not only did he find new ways to use common chords, but he also popularized chords that had not previously been used in jazz
4.
Tito Puente
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Ernesto Antonio Tito Puente was an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions that endured over a 50-year career and he and his music appear in many films such as The Mambo Kings and Fernando Truebas Calle 54. He guest-starred on several shows, including Sesame Street and The Simpsons two-part episode Who Shot Mr. Burns. Tito Puente was born on April 20,1923, at Harlem Hospital Center in the New York borough of Manhattan and his family moved frequently, but he spent the majority of his childhood in the Spanish Harlem area of the city. Puentes father was the foreman at a razorblade factory, as a child, he was described as hyperactive, and after neighbors complained of hearing seven-year-old Puente beating on pots and window frames, his mother sent him to 25-cent piano lessons. By the age of 10, he switched to percussion, drawing influence from jazz drummer Gene Krupa and he later created a song-and-dance duo with his sister Anna in the 1930s and intended to become a dancer, but an ankle tendon injury prevented him pursuing dance as a career. When the drummer in Machitos band was drafted to the army, Tito Puente served in the Navy for three years during World War II after being drafted in 1942. He was discharged with a Presidential Unit Citation for serving in nine battles on the escort carrier USS Santee, the GI Bill allowed him to study music at Juilliard School of Music, where he completed a formal education in conducting, orchestration and theory. In 1969, he received the key to the City of New York from former Mayor John Lindsay, in 1992, he was inducted into the National Congressional Record, and in 1993 he received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian. During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his popularity, and helped to bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds like mambo, son, Puente was so successful playing popular Afro-Cuban rhythms that many people mistakenly identify him as Cuban. Dance Mania, possibly Puentes most well known album, was released in 1958, later, he moved into more diverse sounds, including pop music, bossa nova and others, eventually settling down with a fusion of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz. In 1979, Puente won the first of five Grammy Awards for the albums A Tribute to Benny Moré, On Broadway, Mambo Diablo, in 1990, Puente was awarded the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal. He was also awarded a Grammy at the first Latin Grammy Awards, in 1995, he appeared as himself on the Simpsons episode Who Shot Mr. Burns. In early 2000, he shot the music documentary Calle 54 and he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Puentes son Richard Richie Puente was the percussionist in the 70s Funk Band Foxy, Puentes youngest son, Tito Puente Jr. Puentes granddaughter, Janeen Puente, is a singer and bandleader. Her band is known as the Janeen Puente Orchestra, on September 10,2007, a United States Post Office in Spanish Harlem was named after him at a ceremony presided by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and Rep. José Serrano. An amphitheatre was named in his honor at Luis Muñoz Marín Park, next to the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, in San Juan, Puente performed at the closing ceremonies at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The timbales he used there are on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington D. C, in 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts
5.
Morgan State University
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Morgan State University is a public research university and historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Marylands designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in Maryland and it became a university in 1975. MSU is a member of Thurgood Marshall College Fund, although a public institution, MSU is not a part of the University System of Maryland, the school opted out and possesses its own governing Board of Regents. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 45 fields, masters degrees in 35 fields, doctoral degrees in 15 fields, and online programs in 9 fields through its colleges, schools. Morgan State University was founded in 1872 as the Centenary Biblical Institute, at the time of his death, Thomas Kelso, cofounder and president of the board of directors, endowed the Male Free School and Colored Institute through a legacy of his estate. It later broadened its mission to both men and women as teachers. The school was renamed Morgan College in 1890 in honor of the Reverend Lyttleton Morgan, the first chairman of its Board of Trustees, who donated land to the college. In 1895, the institution awarded its first baccalaureate degree to George F. McMechen, after whom the building of the school of business, George F. McMechen later obtained a law degree from Yale University and later became one of Morgans main financial supporters. In 1915 Andrew Carnegie gave the school a grant of $50,000 for an academic building. The terms of the grant included the purchase of a new site for the College, payment of all outstanding obligations, the College met the conditions and moved to its present site in northeast Baltimore in 1917. Then a controversy exploded, in 1918, the community of Lauraville was incensed that the Ivy Mill property. It attempted to have the sale revoked by filing suit in the court in Towson. They then appealed the case to the state Court of Appeals, the appellate court upheld the lower court decision, finding no basis that siting the college at this location would constitute a public nuisance. Despite some ugly threats and several demonstrations against the project, Morgan College was allowed to be constructed at the new site, Carnegie Hall, the oldest original building on the present MSU campus, was erected a year later. Morgan remained an institution until 1939. That year, the state of Maryland purchased the school in response to a study that determined that Maryland needed to provide more opportunities for its black citizens. Morgan College became Morgan State College, in 1975, Morgan added several doctoral programs and its Board of Directors petitioned the Maryland Legislature to be granted University status. Morgan State University has undergone a physical renaissance, the latter two buildings, plus one of the two parking garages, are in the far north of the campus, connected by a new Communications Bridge over Herring Run
6.
Johns Hopkins University
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The Johns Hopkins University is an American private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur, abolitionist and his $7 million bequest—of which half financed the establishment of The Johns Hopkins Hospital—was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States at that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as the institutions first president on February 22,1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U. S. by integrating teaching and research. Adopting the concept of a school from Germanys ancient Heidelberg University. Johns Hopkins is organized into 10 divisions on campuses in Maryland and Washington, D. C. with international centers in Italy, China, and Singapore. The two undergraduate divisions, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimores Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, the school, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. Johns Hopkins was a member of the American Association of Universities. Over the course of almost 140 years, thirty-six Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins, founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men’s lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and joined the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member in 2014. On his death in 1873, Johns Hopkins, a Quaker entrepreneur and childless bachelor, bequeathed $7 million to fund a hospital and university in Baltimore, Maryland. At that time this fortune, generated primarily from the Baltimore, the first name of philanthropist Johns Hopkins is the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, who named his own son Samuel Hopkins, Samuel named one of his sons for his father and that son would become the universitys benefactor. Milton Eisenhower, a university president, once spoke at a convention in Pittsburgh where the Master of Ceremonies introduced him as President of John Hopkins. Eisenhower retorted that he was glad to be here in Pittburgh, the original board opted for an entirely novel university model dedicated to the discovery of knowledge at an advanced level, extending that of contemporary Germany. Building on the German education model of Wilhelm von Humboldt, it dedicated to research. Johns Hopkins thereby became the model of the research university in the United States. Its success eventually shifted higher education in the United States from a focus on teaching revealed and/or applied knowledge to the discovery of new knowledge. The trustees worked alongside four notable university presidents – Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, Noah Porter of Yale College and they each vouched for Daniel Coit Gilman to lead the new University and he became the universitys first president
7.
Count Basie
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William James Count Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens, dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a local movie theater in his home town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16 years old, he played jazz piano at parties, resorts. In 1924, he went to Harlem, where his career expanded, he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis. In 1929 he joined Bennie Motens band in Kansas City, in 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. William Basie was born to Harvey Lee and Lillian Basie in Red Bank and his father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his became an groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area. Both of his parents had some type of musical background and his father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano, in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living and she paid 25 cents a lesson for piano instruction for him. Not much of a student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life and he finished junior high school but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies, though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. Discouraged by the talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellingtons drummer in 1919. Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career, by then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardsons Kings of Syncopation. When not playing a gig, he hung out at the pool hall with other musicians. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, around 1920, Basie went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, where he lived down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were making the scene, including Willie the Lion Smith and James P. Johnson. His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, throughout his tours, Basie met many jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong. Before he was 20 years old, he toured extensively on the Keith and TOBA vaudeville circuits as a solo pianist, accompanist, and music director for blues singers, dancers and this provided an early training that was to prove significant in his later career
8.
Duke Ellington
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Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years. Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, in the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Some of the musicians who were members of Ellingtons orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered to be among the best players in jazz, Ellington melded them into the best-known orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stayed with the orchestra for several decades, a master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington often composed specifically to feature the style and skills of his individual musicians. Ellington also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, for example Juan Tizols Caravan, and Perdido, after 1941, Ellington collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or suites, following an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, in July 1956, Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed a major career revival and embarked on world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in films, scoring several. His reputation continued to rise after he died, and he was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999, Ellington was born on April 29,1899, to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Ellington in Washington, D. C. Daisy primarily played parlor songs and James preferred operatic arias and they lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place, NW, in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D. C. Dukes father was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15,1879, Daisy Kennedy was born in Washington, D. C. on January 4,1879, the daughter of a former American slave. James Ellington made blueprints for the United States Navy, when Ellington was a child, his family showed racial pride and support in their home, as did many other families. African Americans in D. C. worked to protect their children from the eras Jim Crow laws, at the age of seven, Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners, Ellingtons childhood friends noticed that his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman, and began calling him Duke. Ellington credited his chum Edgar McEntree for the nickname, I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was interested in baseball. President Roosevelt would come by on his horse sometimes, and stop and watch us play, Ellington went to Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D. C. He gained his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games, in the summer of 1914, while working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Ellington wrote his first composition, Soda Fountain Rag. He created the piece by ear, as he had not yet learned to read, I would play the Soda Fountain Rag as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot, Ellington recalled
9.
Fats Domino
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Antoine Fats Domino, Jr. is an American pianist and singer-songwriter of French Creole descent. Five of his records released before 1955 sold over a million copies and were certified as gold records and his musical style is based on traditional rhythm and blues, accompanied by saxophones, bass, piano, electric guitar, and drums. Domino was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Domino family was of French Creole background. Louisiana Creole French was his first language, antoine was born at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a midwife. His name was given as Anthony on his birth certificate but was later corrected. His family were new arrivals in the Lower Ninth Ward from Vacherie and his father was a well-known violinist. Domino learned to play the piano from his brother-in-law, the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett, even after his success, he continued to live in his old neighborhood. His large home was enough for his 13 children. In the summer of 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at the Hideaway Club, in New Orleans. Diamond nicknamed him Fats, because Domino reminded him of the renowned pianists Fats Waller, the Fat Man sold one million copies by 1953, it is widely considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this feat. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Dominos band were the saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, Domino crossed into the pop mainstream with Aint That a Shame, which reached the Top Ten. Pat Boones milder cover version reached number 1, having received wider radio airplay in a racially segregated era, Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles. The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and his 1956 recording of Blueberry Hill, a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock, reached number 2 in the Top 40 and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. Blueberry Hill sold more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957. Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including When My Dreamboat Comes Home, Im Walkin, Valley of Tears, Its You I Love, Whole Lotta Loving, I Want to Walk You Home, and Be My Guest. Domino appeared in two films released in 1956, Shake, Rattle & Rock. and The Girl Cant Help It, on December 18,1957, his hit recording of The Big Beat was featured on Dick Clarks television program, American Bandstand. On November 2,1956, a riot broke out at Dominos show in Fayetteville, the police resorted to using tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out a window to avoid the melee, he, Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including Walking to New Orleans, co-written by Bobby Charles, and My Girl Josephine in the same year
10.
University of Hartford
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The University of Hartford is a private, independent, nonsectarian, coeducational university located mostly in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its 350-acre main campus touches portions of three municipalities, Bloomfield, Hartford, and West Hartford, the university attracts students from 48 states and 43 countries. The University of Hartford was chartered through the joining of the Hartford Art School, Hillyer College, prior to the charter, the University of Hartford did not exist as an independent entity rather in the chronicles of Hillyer College, The Hartford Art School, and The Hartt School. Its original location was at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the first public art museum in the United States and it is still associated with the museum today. Hillyer College, which was named for the U. S. Civil War General Charles Hillyer, was created as a part of the Hartford YMCA in 1879. In the early 20th century it provided instruction in technology at a time when Hartford was a center for the infant automobile industry. In 1947, it was separated from the YMCA and saw an influx of a large number of World War II veterans afforded an education under the G. I. The Hartt School was founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and Moshe Paranov and it remains today as the University of Hartfords comprehensive performing arts conservatory, and is regarded among the most recognized schools for music, dance, and theatre in the United States. The universitys athletic programs are the Hawks, and most teams play in the America East Conference, following the 1983–1984 school year, the university elevated its athletics program to Division I status, the highest level of intercollegiate competition. Since 1988, the university has been an institution for the Connecticut Space Grant College Consortium. In the 1990s, pledging its commitment to education, the university bought the financially struggling Hartford College for Women. Since the university itself was in a financial position, several years later HCW was closed. In the summer of 2008, the bridge over the Park River connecting the academic, the acceptance rate to the University of Hartford in the fall of 2014 was 71. 2% for all new full-time freshman, transfers, re-admits, and fresh starts. Of the admitted students, the majority attend the College of Arts, the University of Hartford has more than 6,000 full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate students. The university offers 82 bachelors degree programs,10 associate degrees,28 graduate degrees, the student-faculty ratio is nearly 14,1. The departments in each of the seven schools are listed below, the Village Lawn Situated between the residential apartments, it hosts university-sponsored spring fling events. A major renovation of the Gengras Student Union was begun in early February,2017, the Harry Jack Gray Center Centrally located on campus, the Harry Jack Gray Center houses the Mortensen Library and the Allen Memorial Library. It was the home of the Museum of American Political Life
11.
Max Roach
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Maxwell Lemuel Max Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer. A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in other styles of music. He was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1980, Roach was born in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, which borders the southern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, to Alphonse and Cressie Roach. Many confuse this with Newland Town in Avery County, although Roachs birth certificate lists his date of birth as January 10,1924, Roach has been quoted by Phil Schaap as having stated that his family believed he was born on January 8,1925. Roachs family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York when he was 4 years old and he grew up in a musical home, his mother being a gospel singer. He started to play bugle in parade orchestras at a young age, at the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands. In 1942, as an 18-year-old fresh out of Boys High School, in 1942, Roach started to go out in the jazz clubs of the 52nd Street and at 78th Street & Broadway for Georgie Jays Taproom. His first professional recording took place in December 1943, supporting Coleman Hawkins. He was one of the first drummers to play in the style, and performed in bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell. Roach played on many of Parkers most important records, including the Savoy November 1945 session, the drummers early brush work with Powells trio, especially at fast tempos, has been highly praised. Roach studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music from 1950 to 1953, in 1952, Roach co-founded Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus. This label released a record of a May 15,1953 concert, billed as the greatest concert ever, also released on this label was the groundbreaking bass-and-drum free improvisation, Percussion Discussion. The group was a example of the hard bop style also played by Art Blakey. This group was to be short-lived, Brown and Powell were killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in June 1956, the first album Roach recorded after their deaths was Max Roach +4. After Brown and Powells deaths, Roach continued leading a similarly configured group, with Kenny Dorham on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor, Roach expanded the standard form of hard-bop using 3/4 waltz rhythms and modality in 1957 with his album Jazz in 3/4 time. During this period, Roach recorded a series of albums for the EmArcy label featuring the brothers Stanley. In 1955, he was the drummer for vocalist Dinah Washington at several live appearances, in 1960 he composed and recorded the album We Insist. In 1962, he recorded the album Money Jungle, a collaboration with Mingus and this is generally regarded as one of the very finest trio albums ever made
12.
Bill Cosby
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William Henry Bill Cosby, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and singer. Cosbys start in comedy began at the hungry i in San Francisco and was followed by his landing a starring role in the 1960s television show I Spy. He was also a regular on the television series The Electric Company during the shows first two seasons. Throughout the 1970s, Cosby starred in a number of films, after attending Temple University in the 1960s, he received his bachelors degree there in 1971. In 1973, he received a degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His dissertation discussed the use of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids as a tool in elementary schools. The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an affluent African-American family, Cosby has been the subject of publicized sexual assault allegations since about 2000. He surrendered to authorities on December 30,2015, and was released on $1 million bail, Cosby is scheduled to go on trial on or before June 5,2017. Cosby was born on July 12,1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he is one of four sons of Anna Pearl, a maid, and William Henry Cosby Sr. who served as a mess steward in the U. S. Navy. During much of Cosbys early childhood, his father was away in the U. S. armed forces, as a student, he described himself as a class clown. Cosby was the captain of both the team and the track and field team at Mary Channing Wister Public School in Philadelphia. Early on, though, teachers noted his propensity for clowning around rather than studying, at FitzSimons Junior High School, Cosby began acting in plays as well as continuing his devotion to playing sports. Cosby went on to Philadelphias Central High School, a magnet and academically rigorous university prep school where he played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track. In addition, Cosby was working before and after school, selling produce, shining shoes and he transferred to Germantown High School, but failed the tenth grade. Instead of repeating, he got a job as an apprentice at a repair shop, which he liked. In 1956, Cosby enlisted in the Navy, serving at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. During his four years in the Navy, Cosby served as a Hospital Corpsman working in therapy with Navy. He finished his equivalency diploma via correspondence courses and was awarded a track, there, he studied physical education while running track and playing fullback on the universitys football team
