Vince Mendoza
Vince Mendoza (born November 17, 1961) is an American composer, music arranger and conductor. He debuted as a solo artist in 1989, and is known for his work conducting the Metropole Orkest and WDR Big Band Köln, as well as arranging music for musicians such as John Scofield, Joni Mitchell, Michael Brecker and Björk. Over the course of his career, he has won seven Grammy Awards and one Latin Grammy Award and has been nominated for a total of 38 between the two awards. Early life Mendoza was born in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1961, He began studying music on the piano and classical guitar at an early age, before changing his focus to playing the trumpet and composing in high school, due to his love of jazz and soul music. Mendoza wrote music for his high school jazz ensemble, later continuing studies in music composition at Ohio State University. Mendoza moved to Los Angeles in 1983, where he completed a master's degree in composition at USC Thornton School of Music. Caree ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Norwalk, Connecticut
, image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg , mapsize = 230px , map_caption = Location in Fairfield County and Connecticut , coordinates = , pushpin_map = USA#Connecticut , pushpin_label_position = top , pushpin_label = Norwalk , pushpin_map_caption = Location in the United States and Connecticut , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state , subdivision_name1 = , subdivision_type2 = County , subdivision_name2 = Fairfield , subdivision_type3 = Region , subdivision_name3 = Western CT , established_title = Settled , established_date = February 26, 1640 , established_title2 = Incorporated , established_date2 = September 11, 1651 , established_title3 = Consolidated , established_date3 = June 6, 1913 , founder ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the music industry worldwide. It was originally called the Gramophone Awards, as the trophy depicts a gilded gramophone. The Grammys are the first of the Big Three networks' major music awards held annually, and is considered one of the four major annual American entertainment awards, alongside the Academy Awards (for films), the Emmy Awards (for television), and the Tony Awards (for theater). The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1958. After the 2011 ceremony, the Recording Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. History The Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Abercrombie (guitarist)
John Laird Abercrombie (December 16, 1944 – August 22, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist. His work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his understated style and his work with organ trios. Career Early life and education John Abercrombie was born on December 16, 1944, in Port Chester, New York. Growing up in the 1950s in Greenwich, Connecticut he was attracted to the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley and the Comets. He also liked the sound of jazz guitarist Mickey Baker of the vocal duo Mickey and Silvia. He had two friends who were musicians with a large jazz collection. They played him albums by Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis. The first jazz guitar album he heard was by Barney Kessel. He took guitar lessons at the age of ten, asking his teacher to show him what Barney Kessel was playing. After high school, he attended Be ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sean Jones (trumpeter)
Sean Jones (born May 29, 1978 in Warren, Ohio) is an American trumpeter and composer featured on the 2007 Grammy Award-winning album '' Turned to Blue'' by Nancy Wilson. As a bandleader, Jones has released seven albums under the Mack Avenue Records label. He performs with his own groups both nationally and internationally. Jones often plays at music venues and jazz festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Vail Jazz Festival and Montreal International Jazz Festival. Background Among Jones' first musical experiences were the gospel music he heard while attending Saint James' Church of God in Christ in Warren, Ohio, where he sang and performed with the choir. As a beginning musician, Jones started on the drums and switched to trumpet in the fifth grade after his grandmother told him about his grandfather playing the instrument during World War II. Jones developed an interest in jazz music around the same time, after receiving two ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, latin jazz, and jazz fusion. Metheny has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards and is the only person to win Grammys in 10 categories. He is the younger brother of jazz flugelhornist Mike Metheny. Biography Early years and education Metheny was born in Lee's Summit, Missouri. His father Dave played trumpet, his mother Lois sang, and his maternal grandfather Delmar was a professional trumpeter. Metheny's first instrument was trumpet, which he was taught by his brother, Mike. His brother, father, and grandfather played trios together at home. His parents were fans of Glenn Miller and swing music. They took Metheny to concerts to hear Clark Terry and Doc Severinsen, but they had little respect for guitar. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated.Corley, Cheryl (May 8, 2004)"Gary Burton Steps Down, Out: Jazz Vibraphonist Moves On After Three Decades at Berklee". ''NPR''. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years at the Berklee College of Music. Biography Burton was born in Anderson, Indiana, United States. Beginning music at six years old, he mostly taught himself to play marimba and vibraphone. He began studying piano at age sixteen while finishing high school at Princeton Community High School in Princeton, Indiana (1956–60). He has cited jazz pianist Bill Evans as the inspiration for his a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra because of a new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services. The LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset the LSO was organised on co-operative lines, with all players sharing the profits at the end of each season. This practice continued for the orchestra's first four decades. The LSO underwent periods of eclipse in the 1930s and 1950s when it was regarded as inferior in quality to new London orchestras, to which it lost players and bookings: the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1930s and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic after the Second World War. The profit-sharing ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Big Band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands. Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists. Instruments Big bands generally have four sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section of guitar, piano, double bass, and drums. The division in early big bands, from the 1920s to 1930s, was typically two or three trumpets, one or two trombones, three or four sa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author. Over the course of a career that spans five decades, she has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, pop, soul, and jazz. A two-time Grammy Award winner (from seven nominations), Jones was listed at No. 30 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll in 1999. She released her self-titled debut album in 1979, to critical and commercial success. It peaked at No. 3 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, and spawned the hit single "Chuck E.'s in Love", which peaked at No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The album went Platinum later that year, and earned Jones four Grammy Award nominations in 1980, including Best New Artist, which she won. Her second album, ''Pirates'', followed in 1981 to further critical and commercial success; it peaked at No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' 200, went Gold, and ranked No. 49 on NPR's list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women in 2017. Her th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking Ornette Coleman Quartet. Haden revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz. German musicologist Joachim-Ernst Berendt wrote that Haden's "ability to create serendipitous harmonies by improvising melodic responses to Coleman's free-form solos (rather than sticking to predetermined harmonies) was both radical and mesmerizing. His virtuosity lies (…) in an incredible ability to make the double bass 'sound out'. Haden cultivated the instrument's gravity as no one else in jazz. He is a master of simplicity which is one of the most difficult things to achieve." Haden played a vital role in this revolutionary new approach, evolving a way of playing that sometimes complemented the soloist and sometimes moved independently. In th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine (born June 5, 1954) is an American jazz drummer who was a member of the jazz fusion groups Weather Report and Steps Ahead. Early life and education Erskine was born in Somers Point, New Jersey, U.S. He began playing the drums at the age of four. He graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, then studied percussion at Indiana University. Career His professional music career started in 1972 when he joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra. After three years with Kenton, he joined Maynard Ferguson for two years. In 1978, he joined Weather Report, joining Jaco Pastorius in the rhythm section. After four years and five albums with Weather Report and the Jaco Pastorius big band's ''Word of Mouth'', he joined Steps Ahead. In 1983, he performed on the Antilles Records release '' Swingrass '83''. He toured the US in 1992 with Chick Corea. Erskine splits his time as a musician and a professor at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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USC Thornton School Of Music
The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los Angeles. The school is located on the USC University Park Campus, south of Downtown Los Angeles. The Thornton School is noted for blending the rigors of a traditional conservatory-style education with a forward-looking approach to training the next generation of musicians. Highly regarded internationally, the school is widely ranked as one of the top 10 schools of music in the United States. History The USC Thornton School of Music was founded in 1884 and dedicated in 1999. It was named in honor of philanthropist Flora L. Thornton following a $25 million gift from her foundation. At the time, this was the largest donation to a school of music in the United States. In 2006, she donated an additional $5 million to support the facility ne ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |