1.
Village Vanguard
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The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22,1935, by Max Gordon, at first, it featured many forms of music, such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957. For years prior to 1935, the Vanguard’s proprietor, Max Gordon and his first attempt at a Village Vanguard opened in 1934 on Charles Street and Greenwich Avenue. Gordon intended for the Vanguard to be a forum for poets and artists as well as a site for musical performances. Yet, due to insufficient facilities, Gordon was refused a license from the police department and was unable to create the club that he originally envisioned. ”In 1934, Gordon moved his business and purchased the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle, first opened its doors in 1935, the Golden Triangles basement facility structure resembled that of an isosceles triangle. After purchasing the property, Gordon changed the name of the club to the Village Vanguard, like its prototype on Charles Street, the Vanguard was initially dedicated to poetry readings and folk music. Painters would go there to have discussions regarding the Spanish Civil War, political posters dotted the walls, enhancing the atmosphere of intensity and discourse. The club also had a rich history, with comedians like Phil Leeds performing there. Yet throughout the thirties and forties, amidst the neo-bohemian culture that flourished in the Village, “The biggest reason my pals and I went to the Vanguard, though, was because there were jazz jam sessions in the afternoons on Sundays. You could go hear Lester Young, Ben Webster, all the greatest jazz musicians for fifty cents at the door, or something like that. ”Even though jazz was not yet the main attraction at the club, the Vanguard was still a haven for the then established small group swing idiom. In the 1930s and 1940s, performers of the standing of Sidney Bechet, Una Mae Carlisle, Art Hodes, and Mary Lou Williams performed at the Vanguard. The wife of Max Gordon, Lorraine Gordon, has commented on the growth of jazz at the club, stating “in time, Max began to book acts, many proved to be high-caliber jazzmen. ”In 1940, Roy Eldridge performed at the Vanguard. His virtuosic performance coupled with his dedicated following presented the possibility that jazz sets could be at the top of the bill, as modern jazz developed in the 1940s, small group sets began to dominate the Vanguard scene. The maturation of jazz at the Vanguard can be attributed to the growing interest in and identification with the music among college students. In 1940, a resident trio was formed that included the pianist Eddie Heywood, along with Zutty Singleton, mirroring the culture in the Village, the jazz scene at the Vanguard was steadily growing. By 1957, one writes, “Gordon reversed his policy, putting jazz at the top of the bill. Thus the Vanguard booked Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, the story of Monk’s introduction to the Vanguard began with the first ever encounter between Max and Lorraine
2.
Christian McBride
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Christian Lee McBride is an American jazz bassist. He is considered a virtuoso, and is one of the most recorded musicians of his generation and he is also a five-time Grammy award winner. McBride was born to Renee McBride in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and his father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBrides early mentors. After starting on bass guitar, McBride switched to double bass, McBride was heralded as a teen prodigy, having joined saxophonist Bobby Watsons group at the age of 17. From 17 to 22, McBride played in the bands of musicians such as Watson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Milt Jackson. Johnson and Hank Jones as well as his peers such as Roy Hargrove, Benny Green, in 1996, jazz bassist Ray Brown formed a group called SuperBass built around McBride and fellow Brown protégé John Clayton. The group released two CDs, SuperBass, Live at Scullers and SuperBass 2, Live at the Blue Note, McBride was a member of Joshua Redmans Quartet in the 1990s with pianist Brad Mehldau and drummer Brian Blade. In 1995 McBride began leading his own groups after his debut CD Gettin To It was released, saxophonist Tim Warfield, pianists Charles Craig and Joey Calderazzo, and drummers Carl Allen and Greg Hutchinson are among the musicians who played in McBrides early groups. As writer Alan Leeds stated in 2003, it was one of the most intoxicating, the band released two CDs – Vertical Vision and their Live at Tonic three-CD set was released in 2006. In 1996, McBride contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat, McBride primarily plays double bass, but is equally adept on the electric bass. He played bass for the collaborative project The Philadelphia Experiment, which included keyboardist Uri Caine, other projects have included tours and recordings with the Pat Metheny Trio, the Bruce Hornsby Trio, and Queen Latifah. Like Paul Chambers, McBride can solo by playing his bass arco style, in 2006, McBride was named to the position of Creative Chair for Jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, taking over from Dianne Reeves. He was initially signed to a contract that was subsequently renewed for an additional two years. He was eventually succeeded by Herbie Hancock in 2010, McBride performed with Sonny Rollins and Roy Haynes at Carnegie Hall on September 18,2007, in commemoration of Rollins 50th anniversary of his first performance there. McBride was also tapped by CBS to be a producer for the tribute to Rollins on the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors broadcast, in 2008, McBride joined John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Kenny Garrett and Vinnie Colaiuta in a jazz fusion supergroup called the Five Peace Band. They released a CD in February 2009 and completed their tour in May of that year, as Brian Blade took over for Vinnie Colaiuta as drummer in Asia. In March 2016, McBride was named director of the Newport Jazz Festival, succeeding the festivals founder and artistic director. Christian is married to singer and educator Melissa Walker
3.
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
4.
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
5.
Vibraphone
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The vibraphone is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family. The vibraphone resembles the xylophone, marimba, and glockenspiel, each bar is paired with a resonator tube that has a motor-driven butterfly valve at its upper end. The valves are mounted on a shaft, which produces a tremolo or vibrato effect while spinning. The vibraphone also has a sustain pedal similar to that on a piano, with the pedal up, the bars are all damped and produce a shortened sound. With the pedal down, they sound for several seconds, the vibraphone is commonly used in jazz music, in which it often plays a featured role and was a defining element of the sound of mid-20th-century Tiki lounge exotica, as popularized by Arthur Lyman. It is the second most popular solo keyboard percussion instrument in music, after the marimba. It is an instrument in the modern percussion section for orchestras. The first musical instrument called vibraphone was marketed by the Leedy Manufacturing Company in the United States in 1921, however, this instrument differed in significant details from the instrument now called the vibraphone. The Leedy vibraphone achieved a degree of popularity after it was used in the novelty recordings of Aloha Oe and this popularity led J. C. Deagan, Inc. in 1927 to ask its Chief Tuner, Henry Schluter, to develop a similar instrument. Schluters design was more popular than the Leedy design, and has become the template for all instruments now called vibraphone, however, when Deagan began marketing Schluters instrument in 1928, they called it the vibraharp. The name derived from similar aluminum bars that were mounted vertically, since Deagan trademarked the name, others were obliged to use the earlier vibraphone for their instruments incorporating the newer design. The name confusion continues, even to the present, but over time vibraphone became significantly more popular than vibraharp, by 1974, the Directory of the D. C. Federation of Musicians listed 39 vibraphone players and 3 vibraharp players, the initial purpose of the vibraphone was to add to the large arsenal of percussion sounds used by vaudeville orchestras for novelty effects. This use was quickly overwhelmed in the 1930s by its development as a jazz instrument, the use of the vibraphone in jazz was pioneered by Paul Barbarin, the drummer with Luis Russells band. Bergerault, of Ligueil, France also began manufacturing vibraphones in the 1930s, Deagan struck endorsement deals with many of the leading players, including Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson. The Deagan company went out of business in the 1980s, its trademark, Yamaha continues to make percussion instruments based on Deagan designs. In 1948, the Musser Mallet Company was founded by Clair Omar Musser, the Musser company continues to manufacture vibraphones as part of the Ludwig Drum Company. The standard modern instrument has a range of three octaves, from the F below middle C, larger three-and-a-half or four octave models from the C below middle C are also becoming more common
6.
Mack Avenue Records
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Mack Avenue Records is an independent record label in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. Mack Avenue was founded in 1999 by Gretchen Carhartt Valade, a jazz fan, the company is a sponsor of the Detroit Jazz Festival, to which Gretchen Valade donated $15 million in 2006. Early recordings included Terry Gibbs, Oscar Castro-Neves, and George Shearing, over time Mack Avenue signed veteran jazz musicians such as Gary Burton, Kevin Eubanks, Stanley Jordan, Christian McBride, and the Yellowjackets. Acquisitions made in 2008 expanded the labels catalogue beyond jazz and into blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues, with Jonathan Butler, Brian Bromberg, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, Mack Avenues recording artists have received multiple Grammy awards and nominations. In 2016 Mack Avenue expanded its catalogue further when it acquired MAXJAZZ
7.
Peabody Institute
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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
8.
Baltimore School for the Arts
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The Baltimore School for the Arts is a public arts high school located in Baltimore, Maryland, and is part of its public school system. BSA offers art concentrations in music, instrumental music, theater acting, theater production, dance. The school has produced numerous Presidential Scholars in the Arts and its students have gone on to attend major conservatories and Ivy League Schools. In 2016, BSA was named a Silver Medal School by the U. S. News and World Report, in 1979, the President of the Board of School Commissioners authored a Charter creating the Baltimore School for the Arts. The charter stated that it differ from other Baltimore city high schools by training students with potential for careers in the performing, the Baltimore School for the Arts is a school that intends to prepare its students for careers in the arts. The school provides qualified students with training in one of four disciplines, music, visual arts, theatre, or dance in combination with a comprehensive. Today, BSA graduates go on to study at a number of colleges, universities and conservatories, BSA alumni also have careers in business, human services and education. Working with a faculty, students pursue any one of four disciplines—the visual arts, music, theater, or dance—in an environment that emphasizes professionalism. About 320 students attend the school, coming from public and private schools in, students are accepted by a separate audition or portfolio review, though they only allow this for starting, 8th and 9th grades. The school in the film 2006 film Step Up was a version of BSA. There are some significant differences between the institution portrayed in the film and the school, and some parts of the movie were filmed in the school. Tupac Shakur,1989 – Hip hop artist, actor 1971-1996, jada Pinkett Smith,1989 – Actress, wife of Will Smith. Christian Siriano,2003 – Fashion designer and Project Runway winner, antonio Hart,1986 – Jazz saxophonist. Katherine Needleman,1996 – classical oboist
9.
Berklee College of Music
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Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Since 2012, Berklee College of Music has also operated a campus in Valencia, in December 2015, Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory agreed to a merger. The combined institution will be known as Berklee, with the conservatory becoming The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Berklee College of Music is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. NEASC is the accreditation agency for schools and colleges located in the New England region of the United States. In 1945 pianist, composer, arranger and MIT graduate Lawrence Berk founded Schillinger House, located at 284 Newbury St. in Bostons Back Bay, the school specialized in the Schillinger System of harmony and composition developed by Joseph Schillinger. Instrumental lessons and a few classes in theory, harmony. At first, most students were working professional musicians, many students were former World War II service members who attended under the G. I. Initial enrollment was fewer than 50 students, but by 1949 there were more than 500 students, Lawrence Berk placed great emphasis on learning from practitioners, as opposed to academics, and generally hired working musicians as faculty members. Several of the schools best-known musician-educators arrived after the name change. In 1956, trumpeter Herb Pomeroy joined the faculty and remained until his retirement in 1996, drummer Alan Dawson and saxophonist Charlie Mariano became faculty members in 1957. Reed player John LaPorta began teaching in 1962, like many of Berks ideas, this practice continues into the present. Another trend in the schools history also began the mid-1950s, during this period, the school began to attract international students in greater numbers. For example, Japanese pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi arrived in 1956, multiple Grammy-winning producer Arif Mardin came from Turkey to study at the school in 1958. In 1957, Berklee initiated the first of many applications of technology to music education with Jazz in the Classroom. The series, which continued until 1980, was a precursor to subsequent Berklee-affiliated recording labels, Berklee awarded its first bachelor of music degrees in 1966. Members of the first graduating class to receive degrees included Alf Clausen, Stephen Gould, Gould taught film scoring at Berklee and is currently the Program Director for the Educational Leadership PhD program at Lesley University. During the 1960s, the Berklee curriculum began to reflect new developments in music, such the rise of rock and roll, soul and funk. In 1962, Berklee offered the first college-level instrumental major for guitar, the guitar department initially had nine students, and today it is the largest single instrumental major at the college
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