Conversations With Myself (album)
''Conversations with Myself'' is a 1963 album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans recorded for Verve Records. Background During studio sessions on February 6 and 9 and May 20, 1963, Evans recorded on Steinway piano CD 318the "cherished" instrument of classical pianist Glenn Gould, who was "a connoisseur of Evans's work"using a method of overdubbing three different yet corresponding piano tracks for each song. The project posed significant "technical and musical challenges" for both Evans and his producer, Creed Taylor. Because the method was considered controversial in jazz circles at the time, Evans included "A Statement" in the liner notes to the original LP (reprinted in the 1997 CD reissue), in which he wrote: There is a viewpoint which holds that any recorded music which cannot also be produced in natural live performance is a "gimmick" and therefore should not be considered as a pure musical effort. Because the performance and recording procedure used in this recording m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bill Evans
William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, and trademark rhythmically independent "singing" melodic lines continue to influence jazz pianists today. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, he studied classical music at Southeastern Louisiana College and the Mannes School of Music, in New York City, where he majored in composition and received an artist diploma. In 1955, he moved to New York City, where he worked with bandleader and theorist George Russell (composer), George Russell. In 1958, Evans joined Miles Davis's sextet, which in 1959, then immersed in modal jazz, recorded ''Kind of Blue'', the best-selling jazz album of all time. In late 1959, Evans left the Miles Davis band and began his career as a leader, forming a Jazz trio, trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drumm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blue Rose (album)
''Blue Rose'' is the debut studio album by Rosemary Clooney, in collaboration with Duke Ellington and his orchestra, released in mono on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 872. Although she had appeared on albums before, it had been in the context of either a musical theater or multiple artist recording. The album also marked the return of Ellington to Columbia after an absence of four years, and was one of the first examples of overdubbing being used as an integral part of the creation, rather than for effects or to correct mistakes. Background and content During the early 1950s, it had been the policy of both company president Goddard Lieberson and producer Mitch Miller at Columbia to discourage their roster of popular singers from planning full albums, the LP reserved for serious work such as classical music or original cast recordings. This policy changed with the success of popular music albums on other labels, and to give the return of Ellington to the fold exposure beyond ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alex North
Alex North (born Isadore Soifer; December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (one of the first jazz-based film scores), '' Viva Zapata!'', ''Spartacus'', ''Cleopatra'', and ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' He received fifteen Academy Award nominations for his work as a composer; while he did not win for any of his nominations, he received an Honorary Academy Award in 1986, the first for a composer. He wrote the music for the Oscar-nominated song "Unchained Melody", which was used in the 1955 prison film '' Unchained''. The song became a standard and one of the most recorded of the 20th century, with over 1,500 recordings made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages. Early life North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania, to Jewish parents Jesse and Beila (Bessie). They had emigrated from the Russian Empire to the U.S. around 1906. Jesse was originally from Bil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Firebird
''The Firebird'' (; ) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who collaborated with Alexandre Benois and others on a scenario based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird (Slavic folklore), Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. It was first performed at the Palais Garnier, Opéra de Paris on 25 June 1910 and was an immediate success, catapulting Stravinsky to international fame and leading to future Diaghilev–Stravinsky collaborations including ''Petrushka (ballet), Petrushka'' (1911) and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913). ''The Firebird'' mortal and supernatural elements are distinguished with a system of leitmotifs placed in the harmony dubbed "leit-harmony". Stravinsky intentionally used many specialist techniques in the orchestra, including ''ponticello'', ''col legno'', '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century classical music, composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernism (music), modernist music. Born to a musical family in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Stravinsky grew up taking piano and music theory lessons. While studying law at the Saint Petersburg State University, University of Saint Petersburg, he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and studied music under him until the latter's death in 1908. Stravinsky met the impresario Sergei Diaghilev soon after, who commissioned the composer to write three ballets for the Ballets Russes's Paris seasons: ''The Firebird'' (1910), ''Petrushka (ballet), Petrushka'' (1911), and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913), the last of which caused a List of classical music concerts with an unruly audience respons ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anagram
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which is an Easter egg suggestion in Google after searching for the word "anagram". The original word or phrase is known as the ''subject'' of the anagram. Any word or phrase that exactly reproduces the letters in another order is an anagram. Someone who creates anagrams may be called an "anagrammatist", and the goal of a serious or skilled anagrammatist is to produce anagrams that reflect or comment on their subject. Examples Anagrams may be created as a commentary on the subject. They may be a parody, a criticism or satire. For example: * "The New York Times, New York Times" = "monkeys write" * "Church of Scientology" = "rich-chosen goofy cult" * "McDonald's restaurants" = "Uncle Sam's standard rot" An anagram may also be a synonym of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom. Early life Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh.Stephenson, Sam (January 13, 2011"Notes from a Biographer: Sonny Clark" ''The Paris Review''. His parents were originally from Stone Mountain, Georgia. His miner father, Emery Clark, died of a lung disease two weeks after Sonny was born. Sonny was the youngest of eight children. At age 12, he moved to Pittsburgh. Later life and career While visiting an aunt in California at age 20, Clark decided to stay and began working with saxophonist Wardell Gray. Clark went to San Francisco with Oscar Pettiford and after a couple months, was working with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco in 1953. Clark toured the United States and Europe with DeFranco until January 1956, when he joined The Lighthouse All-Stars, led by bass ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ''The Wizard of Oz'' (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including "Over the Rainbow", which won him the Oscar for Academy Award for Best Original Song, Best Original Song, he was nominated as composer for 8 other Oscar awards. Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA and the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA. Life and career Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish hazzan, cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band, Hyman Arluck's Snappy Trio, at age 15. He left home at 16 against his parents' wishes; within two years, he was per ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A Sleepin' Bee
"A Sleepin' Bee" is a popular music, popular song composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Arlen and Truman Capote. It was introduced in the musical ''House of Flowers (musical), House of Flowers'' (1954) and performed by Diahann Carroll. While ''House of Flowers'' was a flop, "A Sleepin' Bee" became a standard of the American songbook. Barbra Streisand referred to it as her favorite song, recorded it several times, and performed it in her national television debut in April 1961 on the "Jack Paar Show". Mel Tormé's performance of the song in ''Mel Tormé Swings Shubert Alley'' was called "definitive" in ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz''. Selected recordings * Ernestine Anderson - ''Ernestine Anderson'' (1958) * Julie Andrews - ''Broadway's Fair Julie'' (1962) * Tony Bennett - on the album ''Tony Sings for Two'' (1961) * June Christy - ''Off-Beat'' (1960) * Bill Evans - numerous versions including Trio 64 and Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreaux Jazz Festival * Johnny ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bemsha Swing
This is a list of compositions by jazz musician Thelonious Monk. 0-9 52nd Street Theme A contrafact based loosely on rhythm changes in C, and was copyrighted by Monk under the title "Nameless" in April 1944. The tune was also called "Bip Bop" by Monk, and he claims that the tune's latter title was the origin of the genre-defining name bebop. It quickly became popular as an opening and closing tune on the clubs on 52nd Street on Manhattan where Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker played. It was first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie's sextet on February 22, 1946, under the title "52nd Street Theme". Leonard Feather claims he gave the latter title. A Ask Me Now A tonally ambiguous ballad in D first recorded on July 23, 1951, for the '' Genius of Modern Music'' sessions. It also appears on '' 5 by Monk by 5'', and '' Solo Monk''. Jon Hendricks wrote lyrics to the tune and called it ”How I Wish”; it was first recorded by Carmen McRae on ''Carmen Sings Monk''. Mark Murphy sings a ver ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight (song), 'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser (composition), Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear (composition), Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. Monk's compositions and improvisations feature consonance and dissonance, dissonances and angular melodic twists, often using flat ninths, flat fifths, unexpected chromatic notes together, low bass notes and stride, and fast whole tone scale, whole tone runs, combining a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. Monk's distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit dur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |