Discover America (album)
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Discover America (album)
''Discover America'' is the second album by American recording artist Van Dyke Parks, released in May 1972 by Warner Bros. Its sound is a major departure from his debut album, ''Song Cycle'' (1967), featuring all cover versions of previously written songs. The album mostly features songs popularized by early Calypso musicians, as well as songs by Allen Toussaint (" Occapella" and "Riverboat"), Little Feat ("Sailin' Shoes"), John Philip Sousa ("Stars and Stripes Forever") and one song of unknown origin ("Be Careful"). The title of the album is derived from the poem "I Am Waiting" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Background Most of the album's songs were originally written by early Calypso musicians between the 1920s and 1940s, but had fallen into the public domain by the time ''Discover America'' was recorded in 1972. As such, nearly all of the songs are listed as "Public domain; arranged & adapted by Van Dyke Parks." Lyrical themes run a wide range of American history, from John Pau ...
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Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual Phonograph record#78 rpm disc developments, 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP record, long-playing (LP) records played at  revolutions per minute, rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the populari ...
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John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites (including John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin) as well as enemies (who accused him of piracy), and his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation that persists to this day. As such, he is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the American Navy" (a nickname he shares with John Barry and John Adams). Jones was born and raised in Scotland, became a sailor at the age of thirteen, and served as commander of several merchantmen. After having killed one of his mutinous crew members with a sword, he fled to the Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at ...
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I Ain't Got Nobody
"I Ain't Got Nobody" (sometimes referred to as "I'm So Sad and Lonely" or "I Ain't Got Nobody Much") is a popular song copyrighted in 1915. Roger A. Graham (1885–1938) wrote the lyrics, Spencer Williams composed it, and Roger Graham Music Publishing published it. It was first recorded by Marion Harris, and became a perennial standard, recorded many times over following generations, in styles ranging from pop to jazz to country music. The 2008 film ''Be Kind Rewind'' uses the version recorded by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, although two covers were recorded for the film as well: a piano solo version by Jean-Michel Bernard, and a Fats Waller-esque version by Mos Def. Attribution Chicago and Saint Louis ragtime pianist and blues composer Charles Warfield (1878–1955) claimed to have originally written the song and a copyright dated April 1914 attributes Warfield as the composer, David Young as the lyricist, and Marie Lucas as the arranger. The title of the song is given as "I Ain' ...
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Jazz Vocal
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style), ...
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Esso Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band
The Esso Trinidad Steel Band was a steel band from Trinidad, active from 1942 to 1976. History The group began in 1942 as the Tripoli Steel Band, named after a lyric in the United States Marines' Hymn.Biography
In 1951, the group came under the leadership of Hugh Borde, who directed the ensemble to greater technical skill and established them as contenders in local competitions. In 1964, the group won the

Roaring Lion
Roaring Lion (22 February 190811 July 1999) was a Trinidadian calypsonian (calypso singer/composer). His 65-year career began in the early 1930s and he is best known for his compositions "Ugly Woman" (1933), " Mary Ann" and "Netty, Netty", which are still performed today. The song "If You Wanna Be Happy", which hit number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on 18 May 1963, as well as the R&B singles chart, is based on Roaring Lion's "Ugly Woman". Early life Lion was born Rafael de Leon in Aroquita, in the Caura Hills of northern Trinidad, to a mother named Basalicion de Leon and a father named Arias Cairi Llama. An illegitimate child, Lion spent some of his earliest years in two orphanages, before being taken in, following his mother's illness, by an elderly woman named Miss Charles who lived on Coffee Street in the southwestern city of San Fernando. Finally, he was presented by Charles to a Muslim Indian family in San Fernando who wanted him; he was adopted by Najeeran Khan, who ...
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AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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Daylight Saving Time
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typically by one hour) during warmer months so that darkness falls at a later clock time. The typical implementation of DST is to set clocks forward by one hour in the spring ("spring forward"), and to set clocks back by one hour in the fall ("fall back") to return to standard time. As a result, there is one 23-hour day in early spring and one 25-hour day in the middle of autumn. The idea of aligning waking hours to daylight hours to conserve candles was first proposed in 1784 by U.S. polymath Benjamin Franklin. In a satirical letter to the editor of ''The Journal of Paris'', Franklin suggested that waking up earlier in the summer would economize on candle usage; and calculated considerable savings. In 1895, New Zealand entomologist and astronome ...
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Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa and Pieria, about southwest from Thessaloniki. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks and deep gorges. The highest peak, Mytikas (Μύτικας ''Mýtikas''), meaning "nose", rises to . It is one of the highest peaks in Europe in terms of topographic prominence. In Greek mythology, Olympus is the home of the Greek gods, on Mytikas peak. The mountain has exceptional biodiversity and rich flora. It has been a National Park, the first in Greece, since 1938. It is also a World Biosphere Reserve. Every year, thousands of visitors admire its fauna and flora, tour its slopes, and climb its peaks. Organized mountain refuges and various mountaineering and climbing routes are available. The usual starting point for cli ...
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Parnassus, Pennsylvania
New Kensington, known locally as New Ken, is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It is situated along the Allegheny River, northeast of Pittsburgh. The population was 12,170 at the 2010 census. History Like much of Westmoreland County and surrounding areas, the region was a hunting ground for Native Americans of the Six Nations. European-American settlement began in the mid-1700s. Continental army troops built Fort Crawford, near the mouth of Pucketa Creek, in 1777. The fort was abandoned in 1793. Originally part of Burrell (and later Lower Burrell) Township, the city of New Kensington was founded in 1891. In 1890, the Burrell Improvement Company considered the advantages of the level land south of its home in Lower Burrell, and deemed it a prime location for a city and named the area "Kensington"; this was later changed to "New Kensington" for postal reasons, to avoid confusion with the Philadelphia neighborhood of the same name. In an attempt to make New Kensing ...
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The Mighty Sparrow
Slinger Francisco ORTT CM OBE (born July 9, 1935), better known as Mighty Sparrow, is a Trinidadian calypso vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist. Known as the "Calypso King of the World", he is one of the best-known and most successful calypsonians. He has won Trinidad's Carnival Road March competition eight times, Calypso King/Monarch eight times, and has twice won the Calypso King of Kings title. Career Slinger Francisco was born in the fishing village of Grand Roy, Grenada, West Indies on July 9, 1935. He moved to Trinidad as a one-year-old with his mother, his father having relocated there in 1937.Thompson, p. 184.Harris He grew up in Port of Spain. He began singing as a small child, but his love of calypso was discouraged while at Newtown Boys Catholic School, where he sang in the choir. At the age of 14 he joined a steel band comprising neighbourhood boys, and performed with the band at Carnival. He received his performing name "Little Sparrow" during his early ca ...
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Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the leader of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. He built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended in victory shortly after he died in office. Born into the prominent Roosevelt family in Hyde Park, New York, he graduated from both Groton School and Harvard College, and attended Columbia Law Scho ...
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