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Man Bites Harmonica!
''Man Bites Harmonica!'' is an album by harmonica player Jean "Toots" Thielemans which was recorded in late 1957 and early 1958 for the Riverside label. The album showcases the harmonica as an instrument in a similar way in which Miles Davis did throughout his career on the trumpet and Charlie Parker did with the saxophone. The harmonica only does not appear on one track, Thielemans' version of "Imagination". Reception Allmusic awarded the album 4½ stars. In his review, Scott Yanow states "Even four decades later, no jazz harmonica player has dethroned the great Toots".Yanow, SAllmusic Reviewaccessed September 14, 2012 Track listing ''All compositions by Toots Thielemans except as indicated'' # " East of the Sun" (Brooks Bowman) - 7:14 # " Don't Blame Me" (Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh) - 2:27 # "18th Century Ballroom" (Ray Bryant) - 3:46 # "Soul Station" - 6:58 # "Fundamental Frequency" - 4:54 # "Struttin' With Some Barbecue" (Lil Hardin Armstrong, Don ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Toots Thielemans
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans (), was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for playing the chromatic harmonica, as well as his guitar and whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in "championing the humble harmonica", which Thielemans made into a "legitimate voice in jazz".Gioia, Ted. ''The History of Jazz'', Oxford Univ. Press (2011) p. 382 He eventually became the "preeminent" jazz harmonica player.Morton, Brian, and Cook, Richard. ''The Penguin Jazz Guide: the History of the Music in the 1000 Best Albums'', Penguin UK, (2010) ebook. His first professional performances were with Benny Goodman's band when they toured Europe in 1949 and 1950. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1951, becoming a citizen in 1957. From 1953 to 1959 he played with George Shearing, and then led his own groups on tours in the U.S. and Europe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Jimmy McHugh
James Francis McHugh (July 10, 1894 – May 23, 1969) was an American composer. One of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s to the 1950s, he is credited with over 500 songs. His songs were recorded by many artists, including Chet Baker, June Christy, Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich, Deanna Durbin, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Adelaide Hall, Billie Holiday, Beverly Kenney, Bill Kenny, The Everly Brothers, Peggy Lee, Carmen Miranda, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, and Dinah Washington. Career McHugh began his career in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, where he published about a dozen songs with local publishers. His first success was with the World War I song " Keep the Love-Light Burning in the Window Till the Boys Come Marching Home", and this also came near the start of a decade-long collaboration with lyricist Jack Caddigan. After struggling in a variety of jobs, including rehearsal pianist for the Boston Opera House and pianist- song plugge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal temperament. A musician who specializes in piano is called a pianist. There are two main types of piano: the #Grand, grand piano and the #Upupright piano. The grand piano offers better sound and more precise key control, making it the preferred choice when space and budget allow. The grand piano is also considered a necessity in venues hosting skilled pianists. The upright piano is more commonly used because of its smaller size and lower cost. When a key is depressed, the strings inside are struck by felt-coated wooden hammers. The vibrations are transmitted through a Bridge (instrument), bridge to a Soundboard (music), soundboard that amplifies the sound by Coupling (physics), coupling the Sound, acoustic energy t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Kenny Drew
Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American-Danish jazz pianist. Biography Drew was born on August 28, 1928, in New York City, United States, and he received piano lessons from the age of five. Feather, Leonard, & Ira Gitler (2007). ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'', Oxford University Press. He attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. His first recording, in 1950, was with trumpeter Howard McGhee, and over the next two years Drew worked in bands led by Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker, among others. After a brief period with his own trio in California, Drew returned to New York, playing with Dinah Washington, Johnny Griffin, Buddy Rich, and several others over the following few years. He led many recording sessions throughout the 1950s, and appears on John Coltrane's 1958 album '' Blue Train''. Drew was one of the American jazz musicians who settled in Europe around this period: he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Baritone Saxophone
The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use — the bass, contrabass saxophone, contrabass and subcontrabass saxophone, subcontrabass saxophones are relatively uncommon. Like all saxophones, it is a single-reed instrument. It is commonly used in concert bands, chamber music, military bands, big bands, and jazz combos. It can also be found in other ensembles such as Rock music, rock bands and marching bands. Modern baritone saxophones are pitched in E. History The baritone saxophone was created in 1846 by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax as one of a family of 14 instruments. Sax believed these instruments would provide a useful tonal link between the woodwinds and brasses. The family was divided into two groups of seven saxophones each, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Pepper Adams
Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III (October 8, 1930 – September 10, 1986) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 42 pieces, was the leader on eighteen albums spanning 28 years, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman. He worked with an array of musicians, and had especially fruitful collaborations with trumpeter Donald Byrd and as a member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. Biography Early life Pepper Adams was born in Highland Park, Michigan, to father Park Adams II, who worked as the manager of a furniture store, and mother, Cleo Marie Coyle. Both of his parents were college graduates, with each spending some time at the University of Michigan. Due to the onset of the Great Depression, Adams' parents separated to allow his father to find work without geographic dependence. In the fall of 1931, Adams moved with his mother to his extended family's farm near Columbia City, Indiana, where food and support were more readily available. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or Plucked string instrument, plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either Acoustics, acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or Amplified music, amplified by an electronic Pickup (music technology), pickup and an guitar amplifier, amplifier. The guitar is classified as a chordophone, meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood, with its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the nineteen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the best-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II. With Hart he wrote musicals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including ''Pal Joey (musical), Pal Joey'', ''A Connecticut Yankee (musical), A Connecticut Yankee'', ''On Your Toes'' and ''Babes in Arms.'' With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such as ''Oklahoma!'', ''Flower Drum Song'', ''Carousel (musical), Carousel'', ''South Pacific (musical), South Pacific'', ''The King and I'', and ''The Sound of Music''. His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include "Blue Moon"; " The Lady Is a Tramp"; "Manhattan"; " Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"; and " My Funny Valentine". Life and career Hart was born in Harlem, New York City, the elder of two sons, to Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (Isenberg) Hart, of German background. Through his mother, he was a great-grandnephew of the German poet Heinrich Heine. His father, a business promoter, sent Hart and his brother to private schools. (His brother, Teddy Hart, also went into theatre and became a musical comedy star. Teddy Hart's wife, Dorothy Hart, wrote a biography of Lorenz Hart.) Hart received his early education from Columbia Grammar School and entered Columbia College in 1913, before switching to Columbia University School of Journalism, where he attended for two years. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Isn't It Romantic?
"Isn't It Romantic?" is a popular music, popular song and part of the Great American Songbook. The music was composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. It has a 32-bar chorus in A–B–A–C form. Alec Wilder, in his book ''American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900–1950,'' calls it "a perfect song." It was introduced by Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in the Paramount Pictures, Paramount film ''Love Me Tonight'' (1932 in film, 1932). It has since been recorded numerous times, with and without vocals, by many jazz and popular artists. The song has also since been featured in a number of other movies. In ''Love Me Tonight'', the song is used in a sequence in which it is first sung by Maurice Chevalier, a tailor, and then taken up by others (his customer, a cabby, a composer, a troop of soldiers, a band of gypsies) and is finally heard and sung by a princess, played by Jeanette MacDonald. The lyrics in the film are not the same as those in the publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Jimmy Van Heusen
James Van Heusen (born Edward Chester Babcock; January 26, 1913 – February 6, 1990) was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television, and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Award for Best Original Song, Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his compositions later went on to become jazz standards. Life and career Born in Syracuse, New York, Edward Chester Babcock began writing music while in high school. He renamed himself to Jimmy Van Heusen at age 16, after the shirt makers PVH Corp., Phillips-Van Heusen, to use as his on-air name during local shows. His close friends called him "Chet".Coppula, C. (2014). ''Jimmy Van Heusen: Swinging on a Star''. Nashville: Twin Creek Books. Jimmy was raised Methodist. Studying at Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse University, he became friends with Jerry Arlen, the younger brother of Harold Arlen. With the elder Arlen's help, Van Heusen wrote songs for the Cotton Club revue, including "Harlem Hospitality". He then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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Johnny Burke (lyricist)
John Francis Burke (October 3, 1908 – February 25, 1964) was an American lyricist, successful and prolific between the 1920s and 1950s. His work is considered part of the Great American Songbook. His song " Swinging on a Star", from the Bing Crosby film '' Going My Way'', won an Academy Award for Best Song in 1944. Early life Burke was born in Antioch, California, United States, the son of Mary Agnes (Mungovan), a schoolteacher, and William Earl Burke, a structural engineer. When he was still young, his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Burke's father founded a construction business. As a youth, Burke studied piano and drama. He attended Crane College and then the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he played piano in the orchestra. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1927, Burke joined the Chicago office of the Irving Berlin Publishing Company in 1926 as a pianist and song salesman. He also played piano in dance bands and vaudeville ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |