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Armando Peraza
Armando Peraza (May 30, 1924 – April 14, 2014) was a Cuban Latin jazz percussionist and a member of the rock band Santana. Peraza played congas, bongos, and timbales. Biography Early life Born in Lawton Batista, Havana, Cuba in 1924 (although the birth year is uncertain), he was orphaned by age 7 and lived on the streets. When he was twelve, he supported himself by selling vegetables, coaching boxing, playing semi-pro baseball, and becoming a loan shark. His music career began at seventeen when he heard at a baseball game that bandleader Alberto Ruiz was looking for a conga player. Ruiz's brother was on the same baseball team as Peraza. Despite the absence of experience in music, he practiced and won the audition. Moving to New York He left Cuba for Mexico in 1948 to tend to his sick friend, conga drummer Mongo Santamaría. They arrived in New York City in 1949. After playing in Machito's big band, Peraza was invited by Charlie Parker to participate in a recording session ...
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Bongo Drum
Bongos ( Spanish: ''bongó'') are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger ''hembra'' () and the smaller ''macho'' (), which are joined by a wooden bridge. They are played with both hands and usually held between the legs, although in some cases, as in classical music, they may be played with sticks or mounted on stands. Bongos are mainly employed in the rhythm section of son cubano and salsa ensembles, often alongside other drums such as the larger congas and the stick-struck timbales. In these groups, the bongo player is known as ''bongosero'' and often plays a continuous eight-stroke pattern called ''martillo'' () as well as more rhythmically free parts, providing improvisatory flourishes and rhythmic counterpoint. Bongos originated in eastern Cuba at the end of the 19th century, possibly from a pair of larger drums such as the bokú. These older, larger bongos are known ...
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Slim Gaillard
Bulee "Slim" Gaillard (January 9, 1911 – February 26, 1991), also known as McVouty, was an American jazz singer and songwriter who played piano, guitar, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone. Gaillard was noted for his comedic vocalese singing and word play in his own constructed language called "Vout-o-Reenee", for which he wrote a dictionary. In addition to English, he spoke five languages (Spanish, German, Greek, Arabic, and Armenian) with varying degrees of fluency. He rose to prominence in the late 1930s with hits such as " Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)" and "Cement Mixer (Put-Ti-Put-Ti)" after forming Slim and Slam with Leroy Eliot "Slam" Stewart. During World War II, Gaillard served in the US Army Air Forces. In 1944, he resumed his music career and performed with such notable jazz musicians as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dodo Marmarosa. In the '60s and '70s, he acted in films—sometimes as himself—and also appeared in bit parts in televis ...
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Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an upper middle-class Jewish family. He learned to play the piano and clarinet without formal training and started writing about jazz and film by his late teens. At the age of twenty-one, Feather made his first visit to the United States, and after working in the UK and the US as a record producer finally settled in New York City in 1939, where he lived until moving to Los Angeles in 1960. Feather was co-editor of '' Metronome'' magazine and served as chief jazz critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' until his death. Feather made a significant contribution to the development of jazz broadcasting in Britain, first devising three ''Evergreens of Jazz'' programmes broadcast in August and September 1936, using George Scott-Wood and His Six Swingers ...
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Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. ( ; July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982) was an American Latin Jazz musician, often described as the most successful non-Latino Latin music (genre), Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, especially small group modern jazz, even as he continued to perform music of Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Although his main instrument was the vibraphone, Tjader was also accomplished on the Drum kit, drums, bongo drum, bongos, congas, timbales, and the piano. He worked with many musicians from several cultures. He is often linked to the development of Latin rock and acid jazz. Although the fusion of Jazz with Latin music is often pigeonholed as "Latin Jazz", Tjader's works swung freely between both styles. His Grammy award in 1980 for his album ''La Onda Va Bien'' capped off a career that spanned over 40 years. Early years (1925–1943) On , Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. was born in St. Louis to touring Swedish American vaudeville, vaudevillians. His ...
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Dave Brubeck
David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasting rhythms, Metre (music), meters, tonality, tonalities, and combining different styles and genres, like classic, jazz, and blues. Born in Concord, California, Brubeck was drafted into the US Army, but was spared from combat service when a International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Red Cross show he had played at became a hit. Within the US Army, Brubeck formed one of the first racial integration, racially diverse bands. In 1951, he formed the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which kept its name despite shifting personnel. The most successful—and prolific—lineup of the quartet was the one between 1958 and 1968. This lineup, in addition to Brubeck, featured saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. A U.S. Dep ...
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Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer, and Pin-up model, pin-up girl. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films in total over 37 years. The press coined the term "The Love Goddess" to describe Hayworth, after she had become the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s. She was the top Pin-up model, pin-up girl for GIs during World War II. Hayworth is widely known for her performance in the 1946 film noir ''Gilda (film), Gilda'', opposite Glenn Ford, in which she played the ''femme fatale'' in her first major dramatic role. She is also known for her performances in ''Only Angels Have Wings'' (1939), ''The Strawberry Blonde'' (1941), ''Blood and Sand (1941 film), Blood and Sand'' (1941), ''The Lady from Shanghai'' (1947), ''Pal Joey (film), Pal Joey'' (1957), and ''Separate Tables (film), Separate Tables'' (1958). Fr ...
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Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia''"Marlon Brando Quotes."
''Flixster''. Retrieved August 19, 2009.
Brando received List of awards and nominations received by Marlon Brando, numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, Cannes Film Festival Award, three British Academy Film Awards, and an Primetime Emmy Award, Emmy Award. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to mainstream audiences. Brando came under the influence of Stella Adler and Stanislavski's sys ...
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Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia de Havilland, and reputation for his womanising and hedonistic personal life. His most notable roles include Robin Hood in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), which was later named by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains, 18th-greatest hero in American film history, the lead role in Captain Blood (1935 film), ''Captain Blood'' (1935), Major Geoffrey Vickers in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936 film), ''The Charge of the Light Brigade'' (1936), and the hero in a number of Westerns such as Dodge City (film), ''Dodge City'' (1939), Santa Fe Trail (film), ''Santa Fe Trail'', Virginia City (film), ''Virginia City'' (both 1940) and San Antonio (film), ''San Antonio'' (1945). Flynn was posthumousl ...
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The Real McCoys
''The Real McCoys'' is an American sitcom starring Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Kathleen Nolan. Co-produced by Danny Thomas's Marterto Productions in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's Westgate Company, it was broadcast for six seasons: five by the ABC-TV network, from 1957 to 1962; and a final season by CBS, 1962–1963. Set in California's San Fernando Valley, it was filmed at Desilu studios in Hollywood. Synopsis ''The Real McCoys'' concerns the lives of a family originally from the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, from a fictional place named Smokey Corners. They relocated to California to live and work on a farm they inherited from Ben McCoy, brother to patriarch Amos McCoy. The family included Grandpa Amos (Walter Brennan), his grandson Luke ( Richard Crenna), Luke's new wife Kate (Kathleen Nolan), Luke's teenage sister Tallahassie "Hassie" ( Lydia Reed), and her 11-year-old brother "Little Luke" ( Michael Winkelman). The double nam ...
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Tony Martinez (actor)
Tony Martinez (January 27, 1920 – September 16, 2002) was an American film, television and theatre actor. He was perhaps best known for playing "Pepino" in the American situation comedy television series ''The Real McCoys''. Life and career Martinez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He first studied music, in which Martinez later moved to New York City, attending Juilliard. He played five instruments, and formed his own musical ensemble, "Tony Martinez and His Mambo" in New York City. In 1956, his group appeared in the film ''Rock Around the Clock''. Later, Martinez studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. Martinez began his film and television career appearing in small roles. In 1957 he was cast in the role of Pepino, the hired Mexican Farmhand farmworker in the ABC situation comedy television series ''The Real McCoys''. He won the role as he was discovered by the creator Irving Pincus and producer Norman Pincus, while Martinez was just with his musical ensemble perfo ...
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Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant". His studio and performance career spanned more than 40 years. Gordon's sound was commonly characterized as being "large" and spacious and he had a tendency to play behind the beat. He inserted musical quotes into his solos, with sources as diverse as "Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday" and well-known melodies from the operas of Richard Wagner, Wagner. Quoting from various musical sources is not unusual in jazz improvisation, but Gordon did it frequently enough to make it a hallmark of his style. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Rollins and Coltrane then influenced Gordon's playing as he explored hard bop and modal playing d ...
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Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history,See the 1998 documentary ''Triumph of the Underdog'' with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Eric Dolphy. Mingus's work ranged from advanced bebop and avant-garde jazz with small and midsize jazz ensemble, ensembles to pioneering the post-bop style on seminal recordings like ''Pithecanthropus Erectus (album), Pithecanthropus Erectus'' (1956) and ''Mingus Ah Um'' (1959) and progressive big band experiments such as ''The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady'' (1963). Mingus's compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty (b ...
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