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.
Cannonball Adderley
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Julian Edwin Cannonball Adderley was a jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is remembered for his 1966 single Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, a hit on the pop charts. He was the brother of jazz cornetist Nat Adderley, a member of his band. Originally from Tampa, Florida, Adderley moved to New York in 1955 and his nickname derived from cannibal, a title imposed on him by high school colleagues as a tribute to his voracious appetite. Cannonball moved to Tallahassee, when his parents obtained teaching positions at Florida A&M University, both Cannonball and brother Nat played with Ray Charles when Charles lived in Tallahassee during the early 1940s. Cannonball was a legend in Southeast Florida until he moved to New York City in 1955. One of his known addresses in New York was in the neighborhood of Corona and he left Florida originally to seek graduate studies at New York conservatories, but one night in 1955 he brought his saxophone with him to the Café Bohemia. Adderley formed his own group with his brother Nat after signing onto the Savoy jazz label in 1957 and he was noticed by Miles Davis, and it was because of his blues-rooted alto saxophone that Davis asked him to play with his group. He joined the Davis band in October 1957, three months prior to the return of John Coltrane to the group, some of Daviss finest trumpet work can be found on Adderleys first solo album Somethin Else, which was recorded shortly after the two giants met. Adderley then played on the seminal Davis records Milestones and Kind of Blue and this period also overlapped with pianist Bill Evans time with the sextet, an association that led to recording Portrait of Cannonball and Know What I Mean. His interest as an educator carried over to his recordings, in 1961, Cannonball narrated The Childs Introduction to Jazz, released on Riverside Records. The Cannonball Adderley Quintet featured Cannonball on alto sax and his brother Nat Adderley on cornet, Cannonballs first quintet was not very successful, however, after leaving Davis group, he formed another, again with his brother, which enjoyed more success. By the end of the 1960s, Adderleys playing began to reflect the influence of the jazz, avant-garde. On his albums from this period, such as Accent on Africa and The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free, he began doubling on soprano saxophone, showing the influence of Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. In 1975 he also appeared in a role alongside José Feliciano. Songs made famous by Adderley and his bands include This Here, The Jive Samba, Work Song, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, a cover version of Pops Staples Why. also entered the charts. His instrumental Sack o Woe was covered by Manfred Mann on their debut album and he had a cerebral hemorrhage and four weeks later, on August 8,1975, he died at St. Mary Methodist Hospital in Gary, Indiana. He was buried in the Southside Cemetery, Tallahassee, later that year he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame
4.
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
5.
Ron Carter
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Ronald Levin Ron Carter is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history, Carter is also a cellist who has recorded numerous times on that instrument. Some of his albums as a leader include, Blues Farm, All Blues, Spanish Blue, Anything Goes, Yellow & Green, Pastels, Piccolo, Third Plane, Peg Leg. He was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet in the early 1960s, Carter joined Daviss group in 1963, appearing on the album Seven Steps to Heaven and the follow-up E. S. P. Carter also performed on some of Hancock, Williams and Shorters recordings during the sixties for Blue Note Records. He was a sideman on many Blue Note recordings of the era, playing with Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Horace Silver and he was elected to the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2012. In 1993, he won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Group, Carter was born in Ferndale, Michigan. Carter switched to playing double bass and he attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit, and, later, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he played in its Philharmonic Orchestra. He finished his bachelors degree at Eastman in 1959, and in 1961 a masters degree in bass performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. His first jobs as a musician were playing bass with Jaki Byard. His first records were made with Eric Dolphy and Don Ellis and his own first date as leader, Where. Carter came to fame via the second great Miles Davis Quintet in the early 1960s, Carter joined Daviss group in 1963, appearing on the album Seven Steps to Heaven and the follow-up E. S. P. The latter being the first album to only the full quintet. It also featured three of Carters compositions and he stayed with Davis until 1968, and participated in a couple of studio sessions with Davis in 1969 and 1970. Although he played electric bass occasionally during this era of early jazz-rock fusion, he has stopped playing that instrument. Carter also performed on some of Hancock, Williams and Shorters recordings during the sixties for Blue Note Records. He was a sideman on many Blue Note recordings of the era, playing with Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Horace Silver and others. After leaving Davis, Carter was for years a mainstay of CTI Records, making albums under his own name
6.
Thelonious Monk
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Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. Monk is the second most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is remarkable as Ellington composed more than a thousand pieces. He was renowned for his style in suits, hats. Monk is one of five musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time, after Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck. Thelonious Sphere Monk was born two years after his sister Marion on October 10,1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and his badly written birth certificate misspelled his first name as Thelious or Thelius. It also did not list his name, taken from his maternal grandfather. A brother, Thomas, was born in January 1920, in 1922, the family moved to 243 West 63rd Street, in Manhattan, New York City. Monk started playing the piano at the age of six, and was largely self-taught and he attended Stuyvesant High School but did not graduate. He toured with an evangelist in his teens, playing the church organ, in the early to mid-1940s, Monk was the house pianist at Mintons Playhouse, a Manhattan nightclub. Much of Monks style was developed during his time at Mintons, Monk is believed to be the pianist featured on recordings Jerry Newman made around 1941 at the club. Monks style at this time was described as hard-swinging, with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monks stated influences included Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, in the documentary Thelonious Monk, Straight, No Chaser, it is stated that Monk lived in the same neighborhood in New York City as Johnson and knew him as a teenager. So, the worked out a music that was hard to steal. Ill say this for the leeches, though, they tried, ive seen them in Mintons busily writing on their shirt cuffs or scribbling on the tablecloth. And even our own guys, Im afraid, did not give Monk the credit he had coming, why, they even stole his idea of the beret and bop glasses. In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet, Hawkins was one of the earliest established jazz musicians to promote Monk, and the pianist later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him on a 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947, Monk married Nellie Smith the same year, and in 1949 the couple had a son, T. S. Monk, who became a jazz drummer. A daughter, Barbara, was born in 1953 and died in 1984 from cancer, in August 1951, New York City police searched a parked car occupied by Monk and friend Bud Powell
7.
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
8.
Woody Shaw
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Woody Herman Shaw, Jr. was an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and band leader, described by NPR Music as the last great trumpet innovator. Shaw is regarded as one of the jazz band leaders and innovators of his generation. Born with a memory and perfect pitch, he was considered to have been generations ahead of his time. Woody Shaw was born on December 24,1944 in Laurinburg and he was taken to Newark, New Jersey by his parents, Rosalie Pegues and Woody Shaw, Sr. when he was one year old. Shaws mother was from the town as Gillespie, Cheraw. Shaw began playing the bugle at age nine and performed in the Junior Elks, Junior Mason, though not his first choice of instrument, he began studying classical trumpet with Jerome Ziering at Cleveland Junior High School at the age of 11. In a 1978 interview, Shaw explained, The trumpet was not my first choice for an instrument, in fact, I ended up playing it by default. When we were asked what we wanted to play in the Eighteenth Avenue School Band, I chose the violin and my second choice was the saxophone or the trombone but they were also all spoken for. The only instrument that was left was the trumpet, and I felt why did I have to get stuck with this tinny sounding thing. When I complained to my music teacher that I didnt think it was fair that all the kids got to play the instruments they wanted. He said he had a feeling about me and the trumpet. Of course my teacher was right, and it didnt take long for me to fall in love with the trumpet, in retrospect, I believe there was some mystical force that brought us together. His first influences were Louis Armstrong and Harry James, after skipping two grades, he began attending Newark Arts High School, from which he graduated. As a teenager, Shaw worked professionally at weddings, dances and he eventually left school but continued his study of the trumpet under the influence of Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard. He later discovered that he had picked up the trumpet during the month and year that Brown died. In 1963, after many local jobs, Shaw worked for Willie Bobo and performed and recorded as a sideman with Eric Dolphy, with whom he made his recorded debut. Dolphy, who had moved to Paris around this time, unexpectedly died in June 1964, Shaw was nonetheless invited to Paris to join Dolphys collaborator, Nathan Davis, and the two found steady work all over Europe. After some time, Shaw demanded that two of his contemporaries, organist Larry Young and drummer Billy Brooks, be brought to Paris
9.
Sun Ra
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Sun Ra was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his experimental music, cosmic philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing name, born and raised in Alabama, Blount would eventually become involved in the 1940s Chicago jazz scene. From the mid-1950s until his death, Ra led the musical collective The Arkestra and its performances often included dancers and musicians dressed in elaborate, futuristic costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the space age. He is now considered an innovator, among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation and modal jazz. Following Sun Ras death in 1993, the Arkestra continues to perform and he was born Herman Blount on May 22,1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, as discovered by his biographer, John F. Szwed, and published in his 1998 book. He was named after the popular stage magician Black Herman. He was nicknamed Sonny from his childhood, had a sister and half-brother. For decades, very little was known about Sun Ras early life, as a self-invented person, he routinely gave evasive, contradictory or seemingly nonsensical answers to personal questions, and denied his birth name. He speculated, only half in jest, that he was related to Elijah Poole, later famous as Elijah Muhammed. His birthday for years remained unknown, as he claimed it for years ranging from 1910 to 1918, only a few years before his death, the date of Sun Ras birth was still a mystery. Jim Macnies notes for Blue Delight said that Sun Ra was believed to be about 75 years old, but Szwed was able to uncover a wealth of information about his early life and confirmed a birth date of May 22,1914. As a child, Herman was a skilled pianist, by the age of 11 or 12, he was composing and sight reading music. Birmingham was an important stop for touring musicians and he saw famous musicians such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and Fats Waller, along with others who were quite talented but never made the big time. Sun Ra once said, The world let down a lot of good musicians, by his mid-teens, Blount was performing semi-professionally as a solo pianist, or as a member of various ad hoc jazz and R&B groups. Though deeply religious, his family was not formally associated with any Christian church or sect, Blount had few or no close friends in high school but was remembered as kind-natured and quiet, an honor roll student, and a voracious reader. He took advantage of the Black Masonic Lodge as one of the few places in Birmingham where African Americans had unlimited access to books and its collection on Freemasonry and other esoteric concepts made a strong impression on him. By his teens, Blount suffered from cryptorchidism and it left him with a nearly constant discomfort that sometimes flared into severe pain. Szwed suggests that Blount felt shame about it and the condition contributed to his isolation, in 1934 Blount was offered his first full-time musical job by Ethel Harper—his biology teacher from the high school, who had organized a band to pursue a career as a singer
10.
Bobby Hutcherson
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Robert Bobby Hutcherson was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. Little Bs Poem, from the 1966 Blue Note album Components, is one of his best-known compositions, Hutcherson influenced younger vibraphonists including Steve Nelson, Joe Locke, and Stefon Harris. Bobby Hutcherson was born in Los Angeles, California, to Eli, a mason, and Esther. Hutcherson was exposed to jazz by his brother Teddy, who listened to Art Blakey records in the home with his friend Dexter Gordon. His older sister Peggy was a singer in Gerald Wilsons orchestra, Hutcherson went on to record on a number of Gerald Wilsons Pacific Jazz recordings as well as play in his orchestra. Hutchersons sister personally introduced Hutcherson to Eric Dolphy and Billy Mitchell, in January 1962, Hutcherson joined the Billy Mitchell–Al Grey group for dates at The Jazz Workshop in San Francisco and Birdland in New York City. Lewis was working with The Jazztet and hosted jam sessions at his apartment, Hutcherson won the Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition award in the 1964 Down Beat readers poll, and Blue Note released Hutchersons Dialogue in 1965. Featuring Joe Henderson, Herbie Lewis, and Billy Higgins, was the first of many recorded sessions Hutcherson made with McCoy Tyner throughout their careers. Stick-Up. was also the album out of ten Hutcherson recorded as leader for Blue Note between 1965 and 1969 which did not feature drummer Joe Chambers or any of Chambers compositions. Spanning the years 1963 to 1977, Hutcherson had one of the longest recording careers with Blue Note, the Hutcherson-Land group broke up in 1971, and that same year Hutcherson won the title of Worlds Best Vibist in the International Jazz Critics Poll. After the release of Knucklebean in 1977, Hutcherson recorded three albums for Columbia Records in the late 1970s. In 2004, Hutcherson became a member of the SFJAZZ Collective, featuring Joshua Redman, Miguel Zenón, Nicholas Payton, Renee Rosnes. He toured with them for four years, and made an appearance at the SFJAZZ Centers grand opening in 2013 and his 2007 quartet included Renee Rosnes on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass and Al Foster on drums. His 2008 quartet included Joe Gilman on piano, Glenn Richman on bass, in 2010 he received the lifetime Jazz Master Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and performed at Birdland in a quintet featuring Gilman, Burno, Marshall, and Peter Bernstein. 2014 saw Hutcherson return to Blue Note Records with Enjoy the View, recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood with Joey DeFrancesco, David Sanborn, the quartet performed four sold-out shows at the SFJAZZ Center in February, prior to the albums release. Hutchersons intermittent acting career included an appearance as the bandleader in They Shoot Horses, Dont They. Hutcherson has a son, Barry, from his first marriage to Beth Buford. Hutcherson wrote the waltz Little Bs Poem for Barry in 1962 and that same year, he married Rosemary Zuniga, a ticket taker at the Both/And club in San Francisco. The couple had a son, Teddy, who is a manager for SFJAZZ
11.
Freddie Hubbard
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Frederick Dewayne Freddie Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards and his unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop. Hubbard started playing the mellophone and trumpet in his band at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis. In his teens Hubbard worked locally with brothers Wes and Monk Montgomery and worked with bassist Larry Ridley, six days later he returned the favor to Brooks, and recorded with him on True Blue. In December 1960, Hubbard was invited to play on Ornette Colemans Free Jazz after Coleman had heard him performing with Don Cherry, then in May 1961, Hubbard played on Olé Coltrane, John Coltranes final recording session for Atlantic Records. Together with Eric Dolphy, Hubbard was the only sideman who appeared on both Olé and Africa/Brass, Coltranes first album with Impulse, later, in August 1961, Hubbard recorded Ready for Freddie, which was also his first collaboration with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Hubbard joined Shorter later in 1961 when he replaced Lee Morgan in Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers and he played on several Blakey recordings, including Caravan, Ugetsu, Mosaic, and Free For All. In all, during the 1960s, he recorded eight albums as a bandleader for Blue Note. Hubbard was described as the most brilliant trumpeter of a generation of musicians who stand with one foot in tonal jazz and the other in the atonal camp. Hubbard achieved his greatest popular success in the 1970s with a series of albums for Creed Taylor and his record label CTI Records, overshadowing Stanley Turrentine, Hubert Laws, and George Benson. In 1994, Hubbard, collaborating with Chicago jazz vocalist/co-writer Catherine Whitney, had set to the music of First Light. In 1977 Hubbard joined with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter and Wayne Shorter, members of the mid-sixties Miles Davis Quintet, for a series of performances. Several live recordings of group were released as VSOP, VSOP, The Quintet, VSOP, Tempest in the Colosseum and VSOP. Hubbards trumpet playing was featured on the track Zanzibar, on the 1978 Billy Joel album 52nd Street, the track ends with a fade during Hubbards performance. An unfaded version was released on the 2004 Billy Joel box set My Lives, Hubbard played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1980 and in 1989. He played with Woody Shaw, recording with him in 1985, in 1988 he teamed up once more with Blakey at an engagement in the Netherlands, from which came Feel the Wind. In 1988, Hubbard played with Elton John, contributing trumpet and flugelhorn and trumpet solos on the track Mona Lisas and he also performed at the Warsaw Jazz Festival, at which Live at the Warsaw Jazz Festival was recorded. His best records ranked with the finest in his field, in 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts accorded Hubbard its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award
12.
Slide Hampton
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Locksley Wellington Slide Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. Described by critics as a composer, arranger and uniquely gifted trombone player. As his nickname implies, Hamptons main instrument is slide trombone, Slide Hampton was born in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. Laura and Clarke Deacon Hampton raised 12 children, taught them how to play musical instruments, the family first came to Indianapolis in 1938. The Hamptons were a musical family in which mother, father, eight brothers. Slide Hampton is one of the few left-handed trombone players, as a child, Hampton was given the trombone set up to play left-handed, or backwards, and as no one ever dissuaded him, he continued to play this way. At the age of 12, Slide played in his familys Indianapolis jazz band, by 1952, at the age of 20, he was performing at Carnegie Hall with the Lionel Hampton Band. In 1958, he recorded with trombone masters on the release of Melba Liston, Melba Liston. In 1962, he formed the Slide Hampton Octet, with horn players Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, the band toured the U. S. and Europe and recorded on several labels. In 1968 he toured with Woody Herman orchestra, settling in Europe where he remained until 1977 and he taught at Harvard, artist-in-residence in 1981, the University of Massachusetts, De Paul University in Chicago, and Indiana State University. During this period he led his own nine-trombone, three-rhythm band, World of Trombones, co-led Continuum and he also appeared on The Cosby Show 1986. The episode entitled Play It Again, Russell, Hampton also played the trombone in Diana Ross Live. Jazz & Blues, Stolen Moments DVD, on June 4,2006, Hampton promoted his first concert at The Tribeca PAC in New York City and debuted the Slide Hampton™ Ultra Big Band. The concert was the first of many planned for the near future, Hampton is a resident of North New Jersey. He is the uncle of Chicago jazz trumpeter Pharez Whitted,2009 saw the completion of four new compositions entitled A Tribute to African-American Greatness. The songs honored Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, the songs contained accompanying lyrics written by Hampton and Tony Charles, arrangements honoring Thelonious Monk, Thad Jones, Eddie Harris, Dexter Gordon and Gil Evans round out the program. The album will be recorded in 2010 and he recently completed two new Big Band arrangements – In Case of Emergency and The Drum Song. These two songs will be available exclusively to universities and other institutions through Slide Hampton Musique Publishing
13.
Horace Silver
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Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950, Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing. Frequent sideman recordings in the mid-1950s helped further, but it was his work with the Jazz Messengers, co-led by Art Blakey and their Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers album contained Silvers first hit, The Preacher. After leaving Blakey in 1956, Silver formed his own quintet, with became the standard small group line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass. Their public performances and frequent recordings for Blue Note Records increased Silvers popularity and his most successful album was Song for My Father, made with two iterations of the quintet in 1963 and 1964. The last two of these were combined, resulting in commercially unsuccessful releases such as The United States of Mind series. Silver left Blue Note after 28 years, founded his own record label, in 1993, he returned to major record labels, releasing five albums before gradually withdrawing from public view because of health problems. His compositions similarly emphasized catchy melodies, but often also contained dissonant harmonies, Many of his varied repertoire of songs, including Doodlin, Peace, and Sister Sadie, became jazz standards that are still widely played. His considerable legacy encompasses his influence on other pianists and composers, Silver was born on September 2,1928, in Norwalk, Connecticut. His mother, Gertrude, was from Connecticut, his father, John Tavares Silver, was born on the island of Maio, Cape Verde and she was a maid and sang in a church choir, he worked for a tire company. Horace had a much older half-brother, Eugene Fletcher, from his mothers first marriage, and was the child for his parents, after John, who lived to 6 months, and Maria. Silver began playing the piano in his childhood and had music lessons. His father taught him the music of Cape Verde. At the age of 11 Silver became interested in becoming a musician, after hearing the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra. His early piano influences included the styles of boogie-woogie and the blues, the pianists Nat King Cole, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Silver graduated from St. Marys Grammar School in 1943. From ninth grade he played Lester Young-influenced tenor saxophone in the Norwalk High School band, Silver played gigs locally on both piano and tenor saxophone while still at school. He was rejected for service by a draft board examination that concluded that he had an excessively curved spine. Around 1946 he moved to Hartford, Connecticut to take up a job as pianist in a nightclub
14.
Hugh Masekela
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Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and singer. He is the father of American television host Sal Masekela and he is known for his jazz compositions, as well as for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as Soweto Blues and Bring Him Back Home. Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa and he began singing and playing piano as a child. At the age of 14, after seeing the film Young Man with a Horn and his first trumpet was given to him by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the anti-apartheid chaplain at St. Peters Secondary School. Huddleston asked the leader of the then Johannesburg Native Municipal Brass Band, Uncle Sauda, soon, some of his schoolmates also became interested in playing instruments, leading to the formation of the Huddleston Jazz Band, South Africas first youth orchestra. By 1956, after leading other ensembles, Masekela joined Alfred Herberts African Jazz Revue, since 1954, Masekela has played music that closely reflects his life experience. The agony, conflict, and exploitation South Africa faced during the 1950s and 1960s inspired and influenced him to make music and he was an artist who in his music vividly portrayed the struggles and sorrows, as well as the joys and passions of his country. His music protested about apartheid, slavery, government, the individuals were living. Masekela reached a population that also felt oppressed due to the countrys situation. Following a Manhattan Brothers tour of South Africa in 1958, Masekela wound up in the orchestra of the musical King Kong, written by Todd Matshikiza. King Kong was South Africas first blockbuster theatrical success, touring the country for a year with Miriam Makeba. The musical later went to Londons West End for two years and he was helped by Trevor Huddleston and international friends such as Yehudi Menuhin and John Dankworth, who got him admitted into Londons Guildhall School of Music. During that period, Masekela visited the United States, where he was befriended by Harry Belafonte and he attended Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he studied classical trumpet from 1960 to 1964. In 1964, Makeba and Masekela were married, divorcing two years later and he had hits in the United States with the pop jazz tunes Up, Up and Away and the number-one smash Grazing in the Grass, which sold four million copies. He also appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and was featured in the film Monterey Pop by D. A. Pennebaker. In 1974, Masekela and friend Stewart Levine organised the Zaire 74 music festival in Kinshasa set around the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match and he has played primarily in jazz ensembles, with guest appearances on recordings by The Byrds and Paul Simon. In 1984, Masekela released the album Techno Bush, from that album, in 1987, he had a hit single with Bring Him Back Home, which became an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela. Here he re-absorbed and re-used mbaqanga strains, a style he has continued to use since his return to South Africa in the early 1990s and he also collaborated in the musical development for the Broadway play, Sarafina
15.
Modern Jazz Quartet
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The Modern Jazz Quartet was a jazz combo established in 1952 that played music influenced by classical, cool jazz, blues and bebop. The band performed over a 40-year span with only one personnel change, for the majority of their career, the group was composed of John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Connie Kay. Under Lewiss leadership, they carved their own niche by specializing in elegant, restrained music that used sophisticated counterpoint, bach and the blues were compatible, combining classical form with jazz improvisation and polyphony. The band was noted for its ability to play alongside a variety of other groups. Initially active into the 1970s until Jackson quit in 1974 due to disagreement and frustration with their busy touring schedule. In 1946, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Ray Brown and Kenny Clarke, all members of Dizzy Gillespies big band, by 1951, the combo were recording as the Milt Jackson Quartet. In 1952, Percy Heath replaced Brown on bass and in late 1952 they changed the name to Modern Jazz Quartet, in 1955, the final switch to the bands lineup occurred as Connie Kay replaced Clarke. In their middle years, the group played with classical musicians. From 1952 to 1955, the recorded for Prestige and released two of their most famous compositions, Django and Bags Groove. In the late 1950s, they provided music for Roger Vadims film Sait-on Jamais. From 1956 to 1974, they recorded for Atlantic Records, with projects with other record labels such as Apple. In 1974, Jackson departed from the group and they ceased to play until the early 1980s when they began reuniting periodically, the MJQ released their final recording in 1993. When Kay died in November 1994, the group stopped reuniting, five later in October 1999, Milt Jackson died, followed by John Lewis in March 2001. The paradox of the MJQs music-making was that individual member could improvise with an exciting vibrancy while maintaining the precision. They typified cool jazz through John Lewis composition skills, but also exemplify bop with Jacksons virtuosic improvisation, as musical director, Lewis envisioned a style that fused composition and improvisation. Lewis wrote both “fugue-like” classically influenced pieces as well as jazz standards such as Django. The Modern Jazz Quartet played in a variety of styles, but generally played a combination of cool jazz, Jackson brought a strong bebop influence to the group with his virtuosic improvisation and was the first to play vibraphone in a bop style. Percy Heath too brought a hard-bop influence to the group having played with J. J, johnson, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk and Clifford Brown
16.
Baltimore
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Baltimore is the largest city in the U. S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county, thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States, with a population of 621,849 as of 2015. As of 2010, the population of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area was 2.7 million, founded in 1729, Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimores Inner Harbor was once the leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a city of neighborhoods, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, later the American national anthem, in Baltimore. More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any city in the nation. The city has 289 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords, Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, in 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River. The name Patapsco is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to backwater or tide covered with froth in Algonquian dialect, a quarter century after John Smiths voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The area constituting the modern City of Baltimore and its area was first settled by David Jones in 1661. He claimed the area today as Harbor East on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated, if at all. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, one Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. During the Late Woodland period, the culture that is called the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County, in 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province. The site of the house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House
17.
Severn, Maryland
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Severn is a census-designated place in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 44,231 at the 2010 census, a 26% increase from its population of 35,076 at the 2000 census, Severn is located at 39°7′58″N 76°41′38″W in northwestern Anne Arundel County. It is bordered by Hanover to the north, Glen Burnie to the east, Odenton and Millersville to the south, the Baltimore–Washington Parkway forms the northwestern edge of the CDP, Maryland Route 176 forms the northern edge, and Interstate 97 forms the eastern edge. Part of the boundary of the CDP is formed by the non-tidal portion of the Severn River. The Maryland Route 100 freeway runs through the part of the CDP, connecting the B-W Parkway. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 17.7 square miles. As of the census of 2000, there were 35,076 people,12,003 households, the population density was 2,511.3 people per square mile. There were 12,362 housing units at a density of 885.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 56. 25% White,34. 56% Black,0. 42% Native American,4. 29% Asian,0. 10% Pacific Islander,1. 36% from other races, and 3. 02% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3. 96% of the population,15. 3% of all households were made up of individuals and 2. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and the family size was 3.24. In the CDP, the population was out with 30. 3% under the age of 18,7. 8% from 18 to 24,35. 7% from 25 to 44,21. 1% from 45 to 64. The median age was 33 years, for every 100 females there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males, the median income for a household in the CDP was $66,204, and the median income for a family was $68,424. Males had an income of $42,933 versus $31,751 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $24,640, about 5. 4% of families and 6. 5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10. 7% of those under age 18 and 7. 1% of those age 65 or over. Students may attend school within the Anne Arundel County Public Schools district. Eisenhower, died at Fort Meade C. Edward Middlebrooks, politician Marina Harrison, Miss Maryland 2003 and Miss Maryland USA2005 Jessica Benson, singer Erin ODonnell, francis, Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Mariela Pepin, Miss Maryland Teen USA2014
18.
Peabody Conservatory of Music
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The Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 by philanthropist George Peabody, and is the oldest conservatory in the United States. Its association with JHU allows students to do research across disciplines, George Peabody founded the Institute with a bequest of about $800,000 from his fortune made in Massachusetts and Baltimore. Completion of the Grecian-Italian west wing building housing the Institute, designed by Edmund George Lind, was delayed by the Civil War, the library was created and endowed by Peabodys friend and fellow Bay-Stater, Enoch Pratt. In 1978, the Institute began working with The Johns Hopkins University under an affiliation agreement, in 1985, the Institute became a division of the university. Peabody is one of 156 schools in the United States that offers a Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree, Peabody Preparatory offers instruction and enrichment programs for school-age children across various sites in Baltimore and its surrounding counties, Downtown, Towson, Annapolis and Howard County. The Peabody Childrens Chorus is for children ages 6 to 18 and it is divided into three groups, Training Choir, Choristers, and Cantate, grouped by age in ascending order. They practice weekly in Towson or Columbia, Maryland, and sing in concerts biannually under the instruction of Doreen Falby, Bradley Permenter, tori Amos, singer, songwriter, at age five, Amos was the youngest student ever admitted to the Institute
19.
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
20.
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
21.
Mickey Fields
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He is recognised as one of Baltimores most well-known jazz saxophonists and was a mentor to many other jazz musicians. Mickey created the Monday Night Jam Session at the Sportsmans Lounge and he was also known for his constant encouragement of young artists. Fields was born in 1932 to James and Etta Fields, in Towson, at an early age, Fields realized that he was naturally musically gifted. He had perfect pitch and was a musician, playing just about every instrument he could get his hands on. At the age of 14, he taught himself how to play the saxophone, the story is that his older brother, Warren, won a saxophone in a crap game while heading back home aboard ship after WWII. When Mickey found it in the closet, he knew that was the instrument for him, Fields began his career with the jump blues band The Tilters. As a solo artist, he recorded on Atlantic Records and Groove Merchant, another member of the Tilters was Howard Earl Washington, a Baltimore-area jazz drummer. The Tilters played for the great Ethel Ennis, Fields later recorded several songs with his group Mickey Fields and His Mice, entitled The Cracker Jack, known as one of the top 100 funkiest songs ever and the popular Little Green Apples. He later recorded an album with the great Richard Groove Holmes, Fields also performed with his very talented sister, Shirley Fields, who was the lead singer for many years and also a big fixture in the jazz society in Baltimore. He has also recognised as a major musician of the swing era. In the early 1950s Fields met Constance Wozniak while performing at a jazz club. In 1956, Fields married Constance Wozniak and had two children, Michael and Jacqueline, because it was illegal for African-Americans and Caucasians to marry in Maryland, they had to drive to Washington, D. C. to get married. In his later years, Fields suffered from gout which caused his hands to disfigure. But that never stopped him playing his saxophone. He retrained himself to play with his deformity, Fields continued to perform for his many fans until he became very ill from kidney disease in October,1994. He later died at 62 on January 16,1995 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and his funeral was known as one of the largest funerals ever held for a local musician. He is survived by his widow Constance Fields, son Michael Fields, daughter Jacqueline Fields, granddaughter Danielle Fields, Fields was later inducted into the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, Maryland as one of the greatest jazz saxophonists ever known. Fieldss musical influence still lives on today through his recordings and countless proteges here in Baltimore and throughout the world
22.
Lloyd Price
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Lloyd Price is an American R&B vocalist, known as Mr. Personality, after one of his million-selling hits. His first recording, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, was a hit for Specialty Records in 1952 and he continued to release records, but none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Price was born in Kenner, Louisiana, and grew up in a suburb of New Orleans. He had formal training in playing the trumpet and piano, sang in his churchs gospel choir and his mother, Beatrice Price, owned the Fish n Fry Restaurant, and Price picked up lifelong interests in business and food from her. Rupe heard Prices song Lawdy Miss Clawdy and wanted to record it, because Price did not have a band, Rupe hired Dave Bartholomew to create the arrangements and Bartholomews band to back Price in the recording session. The song was a massive hit and his next release, Oooh, Oooh, Oooh, cut at the same session, was a much smaller hit. Price continued making recordings for Speciality, but none of them reached the charts at that time, in 1954 he was drafted and sent to Korea. When he returned he found he had replaced by Little Richard. In addition, his chauffeur, Larry Williams, was also recording for the label. Price eventually formed KRC Records with Harold Logan and Bill Boskent and their first single, Just Because, was picked up for distribution by ABC Records. From 1957 to 1959 Price recorded a series of hits for ABC, which were successful adaptations of the New Orleans sound, including Stagger Lee, Personality. Stagger Lee was Prices version of an old standard, recorded many times previously by other artists. Greil Marcus, in a analysis of the songs history, wrote that Prices version was an enthusiastic rock rendition, all momentum. In all of early recordings by Price Merritt Mel Dalton was the lead sax player, he was also in the traveling band. In 1962, Price formed Double L Records with Logan, wilson Pickett got his start on this label. Price then founded a new label, Turntable, and opened a club by the name in New York City. During the 1970s Price owned a Manhattan restaurant-nightclub called Turntable and helped the boxing promoter Don King promote fights and he later became a builder, erecting 42 town houses in the Bronx. Price toured Europe in 1993 with Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Gary U. S. Bonds
23.
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
24.
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
25.
Jimmy Scott
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James Victor Jimmy Scott, often credited as Little Jimmy Scott, was an American jazz vocalist famous for his high countertenor voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs. After success in the 1940s and 1950s, Scotts career faltered in the early 1960s and he slid into obscurity before launching a comeback in the 1990s. His unusual singing voice was due to Kallmann syndrome, a genetic disorder that limited his height to 4 feet 11 inches until the age of 37. The syndrome prevented him from reaching puberty and left him with a high voice, Scott was born in Cleveland, Ohio. The son of Arthur and Justine Stanard Scott, he was the child in a family of ten. As a child he got his first singing experience by his mothers side at the family piano, at 13, he was orphaned when his mother was killed by a drunk driver. Lionel Hampton gave him the nickname Little Jimmy Scott because he looked young and was short and his phrasing made him a favorite of artists such as Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Frankie Valli, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson. He first rose to prominence as Little Jimmy Scott in the Lionel Hampton Band as lead singer on Everybodys Somebodys Fool and it became a top ten R&B hit in 1950. Credit on the label went to Lionel Hampton and vocalists, Scott received no credit on any of the songs. A similar event occurred several years later when his vocal on Embraceable You with Charlie Parker, in 1963 his girlfriend Mary Ann Fisher, who sang with Ray Charles, helped him sign with Tangerine Records, Charless label, and record the album Falling in Love is Wonderful. The album was withdrawn while Scott was on his honeymoon because he had signed a contract with Herman Lubinsky. Scott disputed the contract he had with Lubinsky, who had loaned him to Syd Nathan at King Records for 45 recordings in 1957–58, Another album, The Source, was not released until 2001. Scotts career faded by the late 1960s, and he returned to his native Cleveland to work as an orderly, shipping clerk. Scott resurfaced in 1991 when he sang at the funeral of his longtime friend, afterwards Lou Reed recruited him to sing backup on the song Power and Glory on Reeds 1992 album Magic and Loss. Scott appeared on the finale of David Lynchs television series Twin Peaks. He sang Sycamore Trees, a song with lyrics by Lynch and he was also featured on the soundtrack to the movie Twin Peaks, Fire Walk with Me. Scott was nominated for a Grammy Award for the album, Scott released Dream in 1994 and the jazz-gospel album Heaven in 1996. His next work, an album of pop and rock interpretations entitled Holding Back the Years, was produced by Gerry McCarthy, released in the US on Artists Only Records in October 1998, it peaked at No.14 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart
26.
LaVern Baker
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Delores LaVern Baker was an American rhythm-and-blues singer who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were Tweedle Dee, Jim Dandy, and I Cried a Tear, Baker was born Delores Evans in Chicago. Some sources refer to her as Delores Williams, the name by which she was known during her marriage to Eugene Williams. Baker began singing in Chicago clubs such as the Club DeLisa around 1946, often billed as Little Miss Sharecropper, and first recorded under that name in 1949. She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for Okeh Records in 1951 and then was billed as LaVern Baker when she sang with Todd Rhodes, in 1953 she signed with Atlantic Records as a solo artist, her first release being Soul on Fire. Her first hit came in early 1955, with the Latin-tempo Tweedle Dee, Baker had a succession of hits on the R&B charts over the next couple of years with her backing group, the Gliders, including Bop-Ting-a-Ling, Play It Fair, and Still. At the end of 1956 she had hit with Jim Dandy. Further hits followed for Atlantic, including the follow-up Jim Dandy Got Married, I Cried a Tear, I Waited Too Long, Saved, and See See Rider. In addition to singing, she did work with Ed Sullivan and Alan Freed on TV and in films, including Rock, Rock, Rock. In 1964, she recorded a Bessie Smith tribute album and she then left Atlantic for Brunswick Records, for which she recorded the album Let Me Belong to You. In 1966, Baker recorded a single with Jackie Wilson. The controversial song, Think Twice, featured raunchy lyrics considered inappropriate for airplay at that time or even today, three versions were recorded, one of which is the version with the raunchy lyrics. Baker and the comedian Slappy White were married in 1959, after the couple was divorced in 1969, Baker signed on for a USO tour. She became seriously ill with pneumonia after a trip to Vietnam. While recovering at the U. S. naval base at Subic Bay, in the Philippines and she remained there for 22 years, returning to the United States after the base was closed in 1988. In 1988 she performed at Madison Square Garden for Atlantic Records 40th anniversary and she then worked on the soundtracks of the films Shag, Dick Tracy and A Rage in Harlem, all of which were issued on CD. She performed a song for Alan Parkers film Angel Heart, which appeared on the vinyl soundtrack album but was not included on the later CD issue for contractual reasons. In 1990, she made her Broadway debut, replacing Ruth Brown as the star of the hit musical Black and Blue
27.
Mickey & Sylvia
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Mickey & Sylvia was an American R&B duo, composed of Mickey Baker and Sylvia Vanderpool, who later became Sylvia Robinson. They were the first big seller for Groove Records, Mickey was a music instructor and Sylvia one of his pupils. Baker was inspired to form the group by the success of Les Paul & Mary Ford and they had a Top 20 hit with Love Is Strange in 1956, which sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. The duo eventually bought their own nightclub, established a publishing company, although Mickey & Sylvia disbanded by the end of the 1950s, they continued to record together on an infrequent basis until 1965, when Mickey quit the music industry in the United States. A second studio recording of Love Is Strange in 1962 featured now-legendary drummer Bernard Pretty Purdie, Love Is Strange would be featured in movies like Dirty Dancing, Badlands and Casino, and would be covered many times. The reasons the duo split are not entirely clear, Baker subsequently recorded a successful instrumental solo album, The Wildest Guitar. In the 1960s, Baker moved to France and worked with various French musicians, Baker died at his home in Montastruc-la-Conseillère, France on November 27,2012, at the age of 87. Sylvia Robinson had a hit record in 1973 with Pillow Talk, Mickey & Sylvia at Color-Radio Mickey & Sylvia Discography
28.
Clyde McPhatter
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Clyde Lensley McPhatter was an American rhythm-and-blues, soul and rock-and-roll singer. He was perhaps the most widely imitated R&B singer of the 1950s and early 1960s and was a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and he is best known for his solo hit A Lovers Question. His high-pitched tenor voice was steeped in the music he sang in much of his early life. He was the tenor of the Mount Lebanon Singers, a gospel group he formed as a teenager. He was later the lead tenor of Billy Ward and His Dominoes and was responsible for the initial success of the group. After his tenure with the Dominoes, McPhatter formed his own group, the Drifters and he left a legacy of over 22 years of recording history. He was the first artist to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first as a member of the Drifters, subsequent double and triple inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are said to be members of the Clyde McPhatter Club. McPhatter was born in the community of Hayti, in Durham, North Carolina and he was raised in a Baptist family, as the son of the Rev. George McPhatter and his wife Beulah. Starting at the age of five, he sang in his fathers church gospel choir along with his three brothers and three sisters, when he was ten, Clyde was the soprano-voiced soloist for the choir. In 1945, Rev. McPhatter moved his family to Teaneck, New Jersey and he worked part-time as a grocery store clerk and was promoted to shift manager upon graduating high school. The family then relocated to New York City, where Clyde formed a gospel group, in his book The Drifters, Bill Millar named Ben E. King, Smokey Robinson of the Miracles, Sammy Turner, and Marv Johnson among the many vocalists who patterned themselves after McPhatter. Most important, he concluded, McPhatter took hold of the Ink Spots simple major chord harmonies, drenched them in call-and-response patterns, in doing so, he created a revolutionary musical style from which—thankfully—popular music will never recover. Strangely enough, McPhatter didnt think much of his own singing abilities, after recording several more songs, including Have Mercy Baby, Do Something for Me, and The Bells, McPhatter left the Dominoes on May 7,1953. He was sometimes passed off as Clyde Ward, Billys little brother, others assumed it was Billy Ward doing the lead singing. As a member of the Dominoes, McPhatter did not earn money, Ward paid him $100 a week, minus deductions for food, taxes, motel bills. In an interview in 1971 McPhatter told journalist Marcia Vance that whenever Id get back on the block where everybodyd heard my records—half the time I couldnt afford a Coca-Cola. Because of such occurrences, and because he was frequently at odds with Ward, McPhatter decided he would quit the Dominoes and he announced his intention to quit the group, and Ward agreed to his leaving provided that McPhatter stayed long enough to coach a replacement. Auditions for a replacement were held at Detroits Fox Theater, the position influenced Wilsons singing style and stage presence
29.
The Drifters
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The Drifters are a long-lasting American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group. They were originally formed to serve as a group for Clyde McPhatter in 1953. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the Drifters were the least stable of the vocal groups, as they were low-paid musicians hired by George Treadwell. There have been 60 vocalists in the history of the Treadwell Drifters line and these groups are usually identified with a possessive credit such as Bill Pinkneys Original Drifters, Charlie Thomas Drifters, etc. There were three Golden eras of the Drifters, the early 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s, from these, the first Drifters, formed by Clyde McPhatter, was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as The Drifters. The second Drifters, featuring Ben E. King, was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as Ben E. King. In their induction, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame selected four members from the first Drifters, two from the second Drifters, and one from the post-Atlantic Drifters. According to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, Through turmoil and changes, matching that feat, subsequent formations of the Drifters recorded 13 Billboard Hot 100 top 30 chart hits. To many fans and historians, The Drifters means Clyde McPhatter, McPhatter was lead tenor for Billy Ward and His Dominoes for three years, starting in 1950. It was McPhatters high-pitched tenor that was responsible for the Dominoes success. In 1953, Ahmet Ertegün of Atlantic Records attended a Dominoes performance at Birdland and noticed Clyde wasnt present, as Jerry Wexler recalls, Ahmet exited Birdland like a shot and headed directly uptown. He raced from bar to bar looking for Clyde and finally found him in a furnished room and that very night, Ahmet reached an agreement with McPhatter under which Clyde would assemble a group of his own. They became known as the Drifters, wanting to blend gospel and secular sounds, Clydes first effort was to get members of his old church group, the Mount Lebanon Singers. They were William Chick Anderson, Charlie White, David Baldwin, James Wrinkle Johnson, after a single recording session of four songs on June 29,1953, Ertegün realized that this combination didnt work and had McPhatter recruit another lineup. McPhatter was barely known during his time with the Dominoes, and he was passed off as Clyde Ward. In other instances people assumed it was Billy Ward doing the singing, money Honey was a huge success and propelled the Drifters to immediate fame. More lineup changes followed, after Ferbee was involved in an accident and left the group, Adams was replaced by Jimmy Oliver. However, Ferbee was not replaced, instead, the parts were shifted around
30.
The Platters
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The Platters is an American vocal group. They were one of the most successful groups of the early rock. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the new genre. The act went through personnel changes, with the most successful incarnation comprising lead tenor Tony Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed. The group had 40 charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1955 and 1967, including four no.1 hits. The Platters were one of the first African American groups to be accepted as a major group and were, for a period of time. The Platters formed in Los Angeles in 1952 and were managed by Federal Records A&R man. The original group consisted of Alex Hodge, Cornell Gunter, David Lynch, Joe Jefferson, Gaynel Hodge and Herb Reed, in June 1953, Gunter left to join the Flaires and was replaced by lead vocalist Tony Williams. The band then released two singles with Federal Records, under the management of Bass, but found little success, Bass then asked his friend music entrepreneur and songwriter Buck Ram to coach the group in hope of getting a hit record. Ram made some changes to the lineup, most notably the addition of female vocalist Zola Taylor, later, at Reeds urging, Hodge was replaced by Paul Robi. Under Rams guidance, the Platters recorded eight songs for Federal in the R&B/gospel style, scoring a few regional hits on the West Coast. One song recorded during their Federal tenure, Only You, originally written by Ram for the Ink Spots, was deemed unreleasable by the label, though copies of this early version do exist. Despite their lack of success, the Platters were a profitable touring group, successful enough that the Penguins, coming off their #8 single Earth Angel. With the Penguins in hand, Ram was able to parlay Mercury Records interest into a 2-for-1 deal, to sign the Penguins, Ram insisted, Mercury also had to take the Platters. The Penguins would never have a hit for the label, convinced by Jean Bennett and Tony Williams that Only You had potential, Ram had the Platters re-record the song during their first session for Mercury. Released in the summer of 1955, it became the groups first Top Ten hit on the pop charts, the Great Pretender was also the acts biggest R&B hit, with an 11-week run atop that chart. In 1956, the Platters appeared in the first major motion picture based around rock and roll, Rock Around the Clock and this latter release caused a small controversy after Kerns widow expressed concern that her late husbands composition would be turned into a rock and roll record. It topped both the American and British charts in a Platters-style arrangement, the Platters also differed from most other groups of the era because Ram had the group incorporated in 1956
31.
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
32.
Jackie McLean
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McLean was born in New York City. His father, John Sr. played guitar in Tiny Bradshaws orchestra, after his fathers death in 1939, Jackies musical education was continued by his godfather, his record-store-owning stepfather, and several noted teachers. He also received tutoring from neighbors Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell. During high school he played in a band with Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins, along with Rollins, he played on Miles Davis Dig album, when he was 20 years old. As a young man McLean also recorded with Gene Ammons, Charles Mingus on the seminal Pithecanthropus Erectus, George Wallington, McLean joined Blakey after reportedly being punched by Mingus. Fearing for his life, McLean pulled out a knife and contemplated using it against Mingus in self-defense and he later stated that he was grateful that he had not stabbed the bassist. His early recordings as leader were in the hard bop school and he later became an exponent of modal jazz without abandoning his foundation in hard bop. Consequently, he produced a body of recorded work in the 1950s and 1960s. He was under contract with Blue Note Records from 1959 to 1967, in 1962, he recorded Let Freedom Ring for Blue Note. Let Freedom Ring began a period in which he performed with jazz musicians rather than the veteran hard bop performers he had been playing with previously. His adaptation of jazz and free jazz innovations to his vision of hard bop made his recordings from 1962 on distinctive. McLean recorded with dozens of musicians and had a gift for spotting talent. Saxophonist Tina Brooks, trumpeter Charles Tolliver, pianist Larry Willis, trumpeter Bill Hardman, drummers such as Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Lenny White, Michael Carvin, and Carl Allen gained important early experience with McLean. In 1967, his contract, like those of many other progressive musicians, was terminated by Blue Notes new management. His opportunities to record promised so little pay that he abandoned recording as a way to earn a living, concentrating instead on touring, in 1968, he began teaching at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. He later set up the universitys African American Music Department and its Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies program and his Steeplechase recording New York Calling, made with his stepson René McLean, showed that by 1980 the assimilation of all influences was complete. It provides educational programs and instruction in dance, theatre, music, the membership of McLeans later bands were drawn from his students in Hartford, including Steve Davis and his son René, who is a jazz saxophonist and flautist as well as a jazz educator. Also in McLeans Hartford group was Mark Berman, the jazz pianist and broadway conductor of Smokey Joes Cafe, in 1979 he reached No.53 in the UK Singles Chart with Doctor Jackyll and Mister Funk
33.
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
34.
Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts
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The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts is an integrated magnet arts high school in Hartford, Connecticut. It is one of four located on the 16-acre campus of The Learning Corridor. The Academy is open through lottery to high school students in the state of Connecticut, the Capital Region Education Council has managed the school since it was established in 1985. The Academy was founded as a magnet school, and strives to maintain a student body that is balanced in terms of race. It was formed to give students artistic freedom without feeling judged by others, in 2005 the Academy was selected by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to be the first high school in the United States to perform the long-running Broadway Musical Cats. In December 2011 the Academy became the first high school to perform Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesoris Caroline, initially, students submitted applications and were required to audition in their specific art form. This was the case up until only a few years ago, today, students are selected to attend the school based on lottery. Students can apply for the day or the half day program. Full day students take academic classes typical of a high school in the morning. Half day students take classes at the high school in the town they live in. Both full and half day students maintain a course load. For most students, their day starts at 7,30 AM and they are released from school at 4,15 PM, when they go home to do both academic and arts homework. Also, students have opportunities at the Academy to participate in plays, musicals, and showcases throughout the year. Since 2001 the Academy has been located at The Learning Corridor, previously, it was housed in a former funeral parlor, with an annex that was a former bar. The Academy offers a curriculum in nine concentrations, Creative Writing & Media Arts, Visual Arts, Dance, Music Instrumental, Music Vocal, Theatre, Musical Theatre, and Technical Theatre. Because of the new expansion of the school, there is now a second campus housed in the Colt Gateway building and this building houses the students for their morning academics, and the theatre, musical theatre, and creative writing departments in the afternoon. The dance, technical theatre, music, and visual art departments are housed on the Learning Corridor campus, using the Arts to Attract a Diverse Student Body, The Christian Science Monitor, June 23,1998
35.
George Benson
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George Benson is an American musician, guitarist and singer-songwriter. He began his career at 21 as a jazz guitarist. Benson uses a rest-stroke picking technique similar to that of jazz players such as Django Reinhardt. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, playing jazz with Jack McDuff. He then launched a solo career, alternating between jazz, pop, R&B singing, and scat singing. His album Breezin was certified triple-platinum, hitting no.1 on the Billboard album chart in 1976 and his concerts were well attended through the 1980s, and he still has a large following. He has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Benson was born and raised in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of seven, he first played the ukulele in a drug store. At the age of eight, he played guitar in a nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights. At the age of 10, he recorded his first single record, She Makes Me Mad, with RCA-Victor in New York, Benson attended and graduated from Schenley High School. As a youth he learned how to play straight-ahead instrumental jazz during a relationship performing for years with organist Jack McDuff. One of his early guitar heroes was country-jazz guitarist Hank Garland. At the age of 21, he recorded his first album as leader, The New Boss Guitar, Bensons next recording was Its Uptown with the George Benson Quartet, including Lonnie Smith on organ and Ronnie Cuber on baritone saxophone. Benson followed it up with The George Benson Cookbook, also with Lonnie Smith and Ronnie Cuber on baritone, Miles Davis employed Benson in the mid-1960s, featuring his guitar on Paraphernalia on his 1968 Columbia release, Miles in the Sky before going to Verve Records. Benson then signed with Creed Taylors jazz label CTI Records, where he recorded albums, with jazz heavyweights guesting, to some success. His 1974 release, Bad Benson, climbed to the top spot in the Billboard jazz chart, while the follow-ups, Good King Bad and Benson and Farrell, both reached the jazz top-three sellers. Benson played on sessions for other CTI artists during this time, including Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine. By the mid- to late-1970s, as he recorded for Warner Bros, Records, a whole new audience began to discover Benson
36.
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
37.
Bobby Hebb
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Robert Von Bobby Hebb was an American R&B/soul singer, musician, songwriter, recording artist, and performer known for his 1966 hit entitled Sunny. Hebb was born in Nashville, Tennessee and his parents, William and Ovalla Hebb, were both blind musicians. Hebb and older brother, Harold Hebb, performed as a team in Nashville beginning when Bobby was three and Harold was nine. Hebb performed on a TV show hosted by country music record producer Owen Bradley, Hebb played Spoons and other instruments in Acuffs band. Harold later became a member of Johnny Bragg and the Marigolds, Bobby Hebb sang backup on Bo Diddleys Diddley Daddy. Hebb played West-coast-style trumpet in a United States Navy jazz band, on November 23,1963, the day after John F. Kennedys assassination, Bobby Hebbs brother, Harold, was killed in a knife fight outside a Nashville nightclub. Hebb was devastated by both events and sought comfort in songwriting, though many claim that the song he wrote after both tragedies was the optimistic Sunny, Hebb himself stated otherwise. He immersed himself in the Gerald Wilson album, You Better Believe It. for comfort, All my intentions were just to think of happier times – basically looking for a brighter day – because times were at a low tide. After I wrote it, I thought Sunny just might be a different approach to what Johnny Bragg was talking about in Just Walkin in the Rain, Sunny was recorded in New York City after demos were made with the record producer Jerry Ross. Released as a single in 1966, Sunny reached No.3 on the R&B charts, No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No.12 in the United Kingdom. When Hebb toured with The Beatles in 1966 his Sunny was, at the time of the tour, BMI rated Sunny number 25 in its Top 100 songs of the century. In 1976, Hebb released a newly recorded disco version entitled Sunny 76, the single was a minor hit reaching No.94 on the R&B chart. Hebb also had hits with his A Satisfied Mind in 1966 and Love Me in 1967. Six years prior to Sunny, Hebb reached the New York City Top 50 with a remake of Roy Acuffs Night Train to Memphis, in 1972, his single Love Love Love reached No.32 on the UK charts. After a recording gap of 35 years, Hebb recorded Thats All I Wanna Know and it was released in Europe in late 2005 by Tuition, a pop indie label. Two new duet versions of Sunny were issued, one with Astrid North, in October 2008, he toured and played in Osaka and Tokyo in Japan. Ipanema Films of Germany was involved in a film which included Hebb, his biographer Joseph Tortelli. Hebb continued to live in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, until his death in 2010, on August 3,2010, Hebb died from lung cancer while being treated at TriStar Centennial Medical Center located in Nashville
38.
Joe Henderson
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Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than 40 years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note. From a family with five sisters and nine brothers, Henderson was born in Lima, Ohio and he dedicated his first album to them for being so understanding and tolerant during his formative years. Early musical interests included drums, piano, saxophone and composition, according to Kenny Dorham, two local piano teachers who went to school with Hendersons brothers and sisters, Richard Patterson and Don Hurless, gave him a knowledge of the piano. He was particularly enamored of his brothers record collection and it seems that a hometown drummer, John Jarette, advised Henderson to listen to musicians like Lester Young, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker. He also liked Flip Phillips, Lee Konitz and the Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings, however, Parker became his greatest inspiration. His first approach to the saxophone was under the tutelage of Herbert Murphy in high school, in this period of time, he wrote several scores for the school band and rock groups. By eighteen, Henderson was active on the Detroit jazz scene of the mid-1950s, in late 1959, he formed his first group. By the time he arrived at Wayne State University, he had transcribed and memorized so many Lester Young solos that his professors believed he had perfect pitch, classmates Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris and Donald Byrd undoubtedly provided additional inspiration. He also studied music at Kentucky State College, while in Paris, he met Kenny Drew and Kenny Clarke. Then he was sent to Maryland to conclude his draft, in 1962, he was finally discharged and promptly moved to New York. He first met trumpeter Kenny Dorham, a guidance for him. That very evening, they went see Dexter Gordon playing at Birdland, Henderson was asked by Gordon himself to play something with his rhythm section, needless to say, he happily accepted. Although Hendersons earliest recordings were marked by a strong influence, his playing encompassed not only the bebop tradition. He soon joined Horace Silvers band and provided a solo on the jukebox hit Song for My Father. After leaving Silvers band in 1966, Henderson resumed freelancing and also co-led a big band with Dorham and his arrangements for the band went unrecorded until the release of Joe Henderson Big Band in 1996. From 1963 to 1968, Henderson appeared on nearly 30 albums for Blue Note, the recordings ranged from relatively conservative hard-bop sessions to more explorative sessions. In 1967, there was an association with Miles Daviss quintet featuring Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams
39.
Grady Tate
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Grady Tate is an American hard bop and soul-jazz drummer and singer with a distinctive baritone voice. In addition to his work as sideman, Tate has released albums as leader. Tate was born in Hayti, Durham, North Carolina, in 1963 he moved to New York City, where he became the drummer in Quincy Joness band. Grady Tates drumming helped to define a particular hard bop, soul jazz and organ trio sound during the mid-1960s and beyond. His slick, layered and intense sound is recognizable for its understated style in which he integrates his trademark subtle nuances with sharp. The Grady Tate sound can be heard prominently on many of the classic Jimmy Smith, Tate was the drummer on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for six years. During the 1970s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet, in 1981 he played drums and percussion for Simon and Garfunkels Concert in Central Park. Among his most widely heard vocal performances are the songs I Got Six, Naughty Number Nine, for the 1973 motion picture Cops And Robbers, Tate sang the title song, written by Michel Legrand and Jacques Wilson. He has been on the faculty of Howard University since 1989, J. J. Johnson – The Total J. J. 1968, J. J. J.32007, Kenny Barron - The Traveler Grady Tate at the Internet Movie Database
40.
Kenny Burrell
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He has cited jazz guitarists Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt as influences, along with blues musicians T-Bone Walker and Muddy Waters. Burrell also serves as a professor and Director of Jazz Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Burrell was born in Detroit, Michigan. Both his parents played instruments, and he began playing guitar at the age of 12 and he went on to study composition and theory with Louis Cabara and classical guitar with Joe Fava. While in college, Burrell founded the New World Music Society collective with fellow Detroit musicians Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones, Burrell toured with Oscar Peterson after graduating in 1955 and then moved to New York City in 1956 with pianist Tommy Flanagan. From 1957 to 1959, Burrell occupied the chair of Charlie Christian in Benny Goodmans band. In 1978, he began teaching a course at UCLA called Ellingtonia, examining the life, although the two never collaborated directly, Ellington called Burrell his favorite guitarist, and Burrell has recorded a number of tributes to and interpretations of Ellingtons works. Since 1996, Burrell has served as Director of Jazz Studies at UCLA, mentoring such notable alumni as Gretchen Parlato, Burrell has won several jazz polls in Japan and the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. 12–15–78 – compiles Live at the Village Vanguard and In New York Introducing Kenny Burrell, The First Blue Note Sessions – compiles Introducing Kenny Burrell, blues Kenny Burrell Interview NAMM Oral History Library
41.
Philly Joe Jones
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Joseph Rudolph Philly Joe Jones was a Philadelphia-born American jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the first Great Miles Davis Quintet. He is sometimes confused with another influential jazz drummer, Papa Jo Jones, the two died only a few days apart. As a child, Jones appeared as a tap dancer on The Kiddie Show on the Philadelphia radio Station WIP. He was in the army during World War II, in 1947 he became the house drummer at Café Society in New York City, where he played with the leading bebop players of the day. Among them, the most important influence on Jones was Tadd Dameron, Jones toured and recorded with Miles Davis Quintet from 1955 to 1958—a band that became known as The Quintet. Davis acknowledged that Jones was his drummer, and stated in his autobiography that he would always listen for Jones in other drummers. From 1958 Jones worked as a leader, but continued to work as a sideman with musicians, including Bill Evans. Evans, like Davis, also stated that Jones was his all-time favorite drummer. Between late 1967 and 1972 Jones lived in London and Paris, performing and recording musicians including Archie Shepp, Mal Wadron. For two years Jones taught at an organized school in Hampstead, London, but was prevented from otherwise working in the UK by the Musicians Union. His 1968 album Mo Joe was recorded in London with local musicians, after returning to Philadelphia, Jones led a fusion group called Le Grand Prix, toured with Bill Evans in 1976, recorded for Galaxy in 1977–79, and worked with Red Garland. From 1981 he helped to found the group Dameronia, dedicated to the music of the composer Tadd Dameron and he also played in two movies. Jones died in 1985 of an attack at home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was survived by his wife and son, Jones combination of deep-toned tom-tom and bass drums with subtle swirls of cross-rhythm on cymbals was widely imitated. 1958, Blues for Dracula 1959, Drums Around the World 1959, Showcase 1960, Philly Joes Beat 1961, – with Elvin Jones 1968, Mo Joe 1977, Mean What You Say 1977, Philly Mignon 1978, Drum Songs 1979, Advance. With Benny Golson The Other Side of Benny Golson Benny Golson, sounds from Rikers Island The Final Sessions With Freddie Hubbard Goin Up Hub Cap Here to Stay With Milt Jackson and Wes Montgomery Bags Meets Wes. R. Monterose J. R. Monterose With Phineas Newborn, Jr. Phineas Rainbow A World of Piano
42.
Anita Bryant
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Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, anti-gay activist, and former brand ambassador for the Florida Citrus Commission. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Paper Roses and this involvement significantly damaged her popularity and career in show business. Bryant was born in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, the daughter of Lenora A. after her parents divorced, her father went into the U. S. Army and her mother went to work, taking her children to live with their grandparents temporarily. When Bryant was two old, her grandfather taught her to sing Jesus Loves Me. She was singing at the age of six onstage on local fairgrounds in Oklahoma and she sang occasionally on radio and television and was invited to audition when Arthur Godfreys talent show came to town. Bryant became Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and was a second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America beauty pageant at age 19, right after graduating from Tulsas Will Rogers High School. In 1960, Bryant married Bob Green, a Miami disc jockey, with whom she raised four children, Robert Jr. Gloria. She appeared early in her career on the NBC interview program Heres Hollywood, Bryant placed a total of 11 songs on the U. S. Hot 100, although most were at the bottom reaches of the chart and she had a moderate pop hit with Till There Was You. She also saw three hits in Paper Roses, In My Little Corner of the World, and Wonderland by Night. Paper Roses, In My Little Corner of the World, and Till There Was You, each sold one million copies. Bryant released several albums on the Carlton and Columbia labels, the 1959 Carlton LP Anita Bryant contained Till There Was You. The 1963 Columbia Greatest Hits LP contained both re-recordings of her Carlton hits plus sides from her Columbia recordings, including Paper Roses and Step by Step, Little by Little. In 1964 she released The World of Lonely People, containing, in addition to the song, Welcome, Welcome Home. In addition, during time, she also appeared in advertisements for Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Holiday Inn. Bryant was interviewed by Playboy in May 1978, Bryant hosted a two-hour television special, The Anita Bryant Spectacular, in March 1980. She recounted her autobiography, appeared in medleys of prerecorded songs, the West Point Glee Club and General William Westmoreland participated. In The New York Times, John J. OConnor commented, For all of her careful projections of wholesomeness and benevolence, Miss Bryant delivers a message that is persistently hostile and aggressive
43.
Betty Carter
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Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked, Theres really only one jazz singer—only one, Betty Carter. Carter was born in Flint, Michigan, and grew up in Detroit, as a child, Carter was raised to be extremely independent and to not expect nurturing from her family. Even thirty years after leaving home, Carter was still aware of and affected by the home life she was raised in. But there was…no real closeness, where the family urged me on and she studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory at the age of fifteen, but did not exceed a modest level of expertise. At the age of sixteen, Carter began singing, as her parents were not big proponents of her pursuing a singing career, Carter would sneak out at night to audition for amateur shows. After winning first place at her first amateur competition, Carter felt as though she were being accepted into the music world and decided that she must pursue it tirelessly. When Carter began performing live, she was too young to be admitted into bars, even at a young age, Carter was able to bring a new vocal style to jazz. The breathiness of her voice was a characteristic seldom heard before her appearance on the music scene, Detroit, where Carter grew up, was a hotbed of jazz growth. Gillespie is often considered responsible for her passion for scatting. In earlier recordings, it is apparent that her scatting had similarities to the qualities of Gillespies, at the time of Gillespies visit, Charlie Parker was receiving treatment in a psychiatric hospital, delaying her encounter with him. However, Carter eventually also received an opportunity to perform with Parker, as well as with his band consisting of Tommy Potter, Max Roach, and Miles Davis. After receiving praise from both Gillespie and Parker for her vocal prowess, Carter felt a strong burst in confidence, in 1948, Carter was asked by Lionel Hampton to join his band. Carter finally had her big break, Hampton obviously had an ear for talent and a love for bebop. Carter too had a love for bebop as well as a talent for it. Hamptons wife Gladys gave her the nickname Betty Bebop, a nickname she reportedly detested, despite her good ear and charming personality, Carter was fiercely independent and had a tendency to attempt to resist Hamptons direction, while Hampton had a temper and was quick to anger. Hampton expected a lot from his players and did not want them to forget that he was the bands leader and she openly hated his swing style, refused to sing in a swinging way, and she was far too outspoken for his tastes. Carter honed her singing ability while on tour, which was not well received by Hampton as he did not enjoy her penchant for improvisation. Over the course of two and a half years, Hampton fired Carter a total of seven times, because of Hamptons hiring of Carter, she also goes down in history as one of the last big band era jazz singers in history
44.
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
