|
Billy Berg's
Billy Berg's was a jazz club located at 1356 North Vine Street in Hollywood. History Berg (d. 1962) had owned several other Hollywood jazz clubs prior to opening his Vine Street location. These included the Capri Club (Pico and La Cienega), the Trouville (Beverly and Fairfax), and the Swing Club (Hollywood and Las Palmas). Billy Berg's was noted as one of the first integrated jazz clubs in Hollywood. Today the original building still stands at the corner of Vine Street and De Longpre Avenue, currently named The Parker Room, in honor of jazz great Charlie Parke Dizzy Gillespie Quintet debut The Vine Street club was most noted for booking the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, an engagement that lasted from Monday, 10 December 1945 to Monday, 4 February 1946. This was the first appearance for both Gillespie and Charlie Parker on the west coast. Along with Gillespie and Parker, the quintet was composed of Al Haig on piano, Ray Brown on bass, and Stan Levey on drums. Milt Jackson was added to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a metonymy, shorthand reference for the Cinema of the United States, U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was Merger (politics), consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, having developed first on the East Coast. Eventually it became the most recognizable in the world. History Initial development H.J. Whitley, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the E.C. Hurd ranch. They agreed on a price and shook hands on the deal. Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis (publisher), Harrison Gray Otis, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality provided one of bebop's most prominent symbols. In the 1940s, Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman. He pioneered Afro-Cuban jazz and won several Grammy Awards. Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and advanced harmonies. Parker was an extremely brilliant virtuoso and introduced revolutionary rhythmic and harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Primarily a player of the alto saxophone, Parker's tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career on the road with Jay McShann. This, and the shortened form "Bird", continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise". Parker was an icon for the hipster ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Haig
Alan Warren Haig (July 19, 1922 – November 16, 1982) was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop. Biography Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in nearby Nutley. In 1940, he majored in piano at Oberlin College. He started performing with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in 1945, and performed and recorded under Gillespie from 1945 to 1946, as a member of Eddie Davis and His Beboppers in 1946 (also featuring Fats Navarro), and the Eddie Davis Quintet in 1947, under Parker from 1948 to 1950, and under Stan Getz from 1949 to 1951. The Gillespie quintet, which included Haig, recorded four 78 r.p.m. sides for Guild Records in May 1945 which are regarded as the first recordings to demonstrate all elements of the mature bebop style. He was part of the nonet on the first session of Miles Davis' ''Birth of the Cool''. For much of the 1950s and 1960s, "Haig was all but a forgotten giant", in Brian Case's words; "Jazz pianism, ever more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown (October 13, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American jazz double bassist, known for his extensive work with Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald. He was also a founding member of the group that would later develop into the Modern Jazz Quartet. Biography Early life Ray Brown was born October 13, 1926, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and took piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one. With a vacancy in the high school jazz orchestra, he took up the upright bass. Career A major early influence on Brown's bass playing was Jimmy Blanton, the bassist in the Duke Ellington band. As a young man Brown became increasingly well known in the Pittsburgh jazz scene, with his first experiences playing in bands with the Jimmy Hinsley Sextet and the Snookum Russell band. After graduating high school, having heard stories about the burgeoning jazz scene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Levey
Adolph Stanley Levey known professionally as Stan Levey (April 5, 1926 – April 19, 2005) was an American jazz drummer. He was known for working with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the early development of bebop during the 1940s, and in the next decade had stint with bandleader Stan Kenton. Levey retired from music in the 1970s to work as a photographer. Biography He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Levey is considered one of the earliest bebop drummers, and one of the very few white drummers involved in the formative years of bebop. He played in Philadelphia with Dizzy Gillespie's group in 1942, at the age of 16. Soon after, he went to New York City, where he and Gillespie worked on 52nd Street with Charlie Parker and Oscar Pettiford. After his tenure with the Stan Kenton Orchestra he moved to the West Coast in 1954, joining Howard Rumsey, Don Joham and the Lighthouse All-Stars, and was a major influence in West Coast jazz. Though "cool" jazz w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milt Jackson
Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with hard bop and post-bop players. A very expressive player, Jackson differentiated himself from other vibraphonists in his attention to variations on harmonics and rhythm. He was particularly fond of the twelve-bar blues at slow tempos. On occasion, Jackson also sang and played piano. Biography Jackson was born on January 1, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, United States, the son of Manley Jackson and Lillie Beaty Jackson. Like many of his contemporaries, he was surrounded by music from an early age, particularly that of religious meetings: "Everyone wants to know where I got that funky style. Well, it came from church. The music I heard was open, relaxed, imprompt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cherokee (Ray Noble Song)
"Cherokee" (also known as "Cherokee (Indian Love Song)") is a jazz standard written by the British composer and band leader Ray Noble and published in 1938. It is the first of five movements in Noble's "Indian Suite" (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue). Structure The composition has a 64-bar AABA construction. The A-section harmony is straightforward by the standards of 1930s songs, but the B-section is more sophisticated. This is because "it cadences (via ii-7–V7–I progressions) into the keys of B Major, A Major and G Major before moving toward the B tonic." Recordings "Cherokee" has been recorded over the years by many jazz musicians and singers. Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra's 1939 version reached No. 15 on the pop charts; he later re-recorded it in Hi Fi stereo for Everest Records in 1958. It was later recorded by Charlie Parker, the Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan (1955), Dakota Staton (1958), Art Tatum and Keely Smit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird (1988 Film)
''Bird'' is a 1988 American biographical film about jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Joel Oliansky. The film stars Forest Whitaker as Parker, with Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker, Samuel E. Wright, and Keith David in supporting roles. It is constructed as a montage of scenes from Parker's life, from his childhood in Kansas City, through his early death at the age of 34. The film moves back and forth through Parker's history, blending moments to find some truth to his life. Much of the film revolves around his only grounding relationships with wife Chan Parker (Venora), Bebop pioneer trumpet player and band leader Dizzy Gillespie (Wright), and his influence (both musically and into the world of heroin addiction) on trumpet player Red Rodney (Zelniker). Despite lukewarm commercial performance, the film was critically well-received, with particular praise toward Whitaker's performance, for whom the film became a br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucky Thompson
Eli "Lucky" Thompson (June 16, 1924 – July 30, 2005) was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist whose playing combined elements of swing music, swing and bebop. Although John Coltrane usually receives the most credit for bringing the soprano saxophone out of obsolescence in the early 1960s, Thompson (along with Steve Lacy (saxophonist), Steve Lacy) embraced the instrument earlier than Coltrane. Early life Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and moved to Detroit, Michigan, during his childhood. Thompson had to raise his siblings after his mother died, and he practiced saxophone fingerings on a broom handle before acquiring his first instrument. He joined Erskine Hawkins' band in 1942 upon graduating from high school. Career After playing with the swing music, swing orchestras of Lionel Hampton, Don Redman, Billy Eckstine (alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker), Lucky Millinder, and Count Basie, he worked in rhythm and blues and then established ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salt Peanuts
"Salt Peanuts" is a bebop tune reportedly composed by Dizzy Gillespie in 1942, credited "with the collaboration of" drummer Kenny Clarke. It is also cited as Charlie Parker's. The original lyrics have no exophoric meaning. Instead, they are a skat/bebop vocal which matches the octave note interval played predominantly throughout the song. The Pointer Sisters subsequently included vocalese lyrics for their rendition of Salt Peanuts as recorded on their That's a Plenty album. Composition "Salt Peanuts" is a contrafact of "I Got Rhythm": it has the same 32-bar AABA structure and harmony, but its melody is different. It is a simple piece – "a four-measure riff phrase played twice in each A section, and a slightly more complex bridge (which incorporates the ubiquitous 9–7–8 figure twice)". While the verbal exhortation "Salt Peanuts, Salt Peanuts!" is closely identified with Dizzy Gillespie, the musical motif upon which it is based predates Gillespie/Clarke. Glenn Miller record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Gioia
Ted Gioia (born October 21, 1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian. He is author of eleven books, including ''Music: A Subversive History'', '' The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire'', ''The History of Jazz'' and ''Delta Blues''. He is also a jazz musician and one of the founders of Stanford University's jazz studies program. Early years Gioia grew up in an Italian-Mexican household in Hawthorne, California, and later earned degrees from Stanford University and Oxford University, as well as an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He served for a period as an adviser to Fortune 500 companies while with the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Company. When Gioia worked amidst Silicon Valley's venture capital community on Sand Hill Road, he was known as the "guy with the piano in his office." Gioia is also owner of one of the largest collections of research materials on jazz and ethnic music in the Western United States. Gioia is the brother of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Ray Brown (musician)")
