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Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her notable recordings include "Dinah", " Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", " Am I Blue?", " Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award, the first African American to star on her own television show, and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Early life Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 31, 1896 (some sources incorrectly state her birth year as 1900) as a result of the rape of her teenaged African-American mother, Louise Anderson (1881–1962), by 17 year old John Wesley (or Wesley John) Waters (1878–1901), a pianist and family acq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
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, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supper Time
"Supper Time" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1933 musical ''As Thousands Cheer'', where it was introduced by Ethel Waters. The song is about racial violence inspired by a newspaper headline about a lynching. History Berlin wrote the musical ''As Thousands Cheer'' with the librettist Moss Hart in Bermuda. Berlin's biographer, Laurence Bergreen, described it as "the best work he had ever done for the stage" and consisting of "nothing but hits". The score included the songs " Easter Parade", "Harlem on My Mind", "Heat Wave" and "How's Chances?" in addition to "Supper Time". The musical was a satirical revue of recent events that had made news headlines with parodies of President Herbert Hoover, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Barbara Hutton, Noel Coward, Edward, Prince of Wales, and Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Context and composition Berlin first met Waters in the spring of 1933 during her headlining appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Berlin was im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabin In The Sky (film)
''Cabin in the Sky'' is a 1943 American musical film based on the 1940 Broadway musical of the same name. The first feature film directed by Vincente Minnelli, ''Cabin in the Sky'' features an all-black cast and stars Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Lena Horne. Waters and Rex Ingram reprise their roles from the Broadway production as Petunia and Lucifer Junior, respectively. The film was Horne's first and only leading role in an MGM musical. Louis Armstrong is also featured in the film as one of Lucifer Junior's minions, and Duke Ellington and his Orchestra have a showcase musical number in the film. In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot Little Joe is a well meaning but weak man whose attempts at redemption are cut short when he is killed over gambling debts by big shot Domino Johnson. On his deathbed, Little Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (namely the Broadwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, but the idea of vaudeville's theatre changed radically from its French antecedent. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosetta Reitz
Rosetta Reitz (September 28, 1924 – November 1, 2008) was an American feminist and jazz historian who searched for and established a record label producing 18 albums of the music of the early women of jazz and the blues.Martin, Douglas"Rosetta Reitz, Champion of Jazz Women, Dies at 84" ''The New York Times'', November 14, 2008. Accessed November 19, 2008. Life and career Reitz was born in Utica, New York on September 28, 1924. She attended the University of Buffalo for one year and the University of Wisconsin–Madison for two years. After leaving college, she moved to Manhattan and worked at the Gotham Book Mart, later opening the Four Seasons, a bookstore in Greenwich Village she operated from 1947-1956.Reinholz, Mary. "Rosetta Reitz, 84, jazz historian, feminist writer", 'The Villager (Manhattan), The Villager'', November 12–18, 2008. Throughout her varied career she worked as a stockbroker, owner of a greeting card business, a college professor and a food columnist for '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime Emmys are presented in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming. The award categories are divided into three classes: the regular Primetime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards to honor technical and other similar behind-the-scenes achievements, and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards for recognizing significant contributions to the engineering and technological aspects of television. First given out in 1949, the award was originally referred to as simply the " Emmy Award" until the International Emmy Award and the Daytime Emmy Award were created in the early 1970s to expand the Emmy to other sectors of the television industry. The Primetime Emmy Awards generally air every September, on th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cerem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslaved Africans who are from the United States. While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African-American, the majority of first generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. African Americans constitute the second largest racial group in the U.S. after White Americans, as well as the third largest ethnic group after Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of West/ Central African with some European descent; some also have Native American and other ancestry. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
His Eye Is On The Sparrow
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow" is a gospel hymn written in 1905 by lyricist Civilla D. Martin and composer Charles H. Gabriel. It is most associated with actress-singer Ethel Waters who used the title for her autobiography. Mahalia Jackson's recording of the song was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2010. Whitney Houston's recording of the song, one of the singer's last to be recorded before her death in 2012, was released off the soundtrack of the film, ''Sparkle'', and became a posthumous number one ''Billboard'' single off one of the gospel singles charts. Sometimes it was sung with the slightly altered title "His Eye is on the Tiny Bird" and this version was recorded by actress Violet Carson in 1972. Inspiration The theme of the song is inspired by the words of David in the Psalms and Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye" (Psalm 32:8). "Look at the birds of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I'm Coming Virginia
''"I'm Coming Virginia"'' is a song composed in 1926 by Donald Heywood with lyrics by Will Marion Cook. It is often wrongly attributed to vocalist Ethel Waters, who first recorded it on September 18, 1926 with Will Marion Cook's Singing Orchestra. Waters is credited with popularizing it. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, pianist Fats Waller (with Fletcher Henderson) and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bing Crosby all recorded it in 1927. The song has become a jazz standard performed by Dixieland musicians. History Ethel Waters first recorded it for Columbia Records on September 18, 1926 and she identified Heywood and Cook as the authors in her autobiography. The following year, Waters first sang it during her Broadway premiere in a production of ''Africana'' at Daly's Sixty-third Street Theatre. After the Waters release, the tune was adopted by numerous Dixieland groups, who increased the tempo. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke recorded the song in 1927 with Frankie Trumbauer, and it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Am I Blue?
"Am I Blue?" is a 1929 song copyrighted by Harry Akst (music) and Grant Clarke (lyrics), then featured in four films that year, most notably with Ethel Waters in the movie '' On with the Show''. It has appeared in 42 movies, most recently ''Funny Lady'', '' The Cotton Club'' and Downton Abbey: A New Era, and has become a standard covered by numerous artists. Eddie Cochran version Eddie Cochran recorded his version of "Am I Blue" sometime between May and August 1957. It was released on the B-side of Liberty Records single 55087. The A-side was " Drive In Show" which rose to number 82 on the Billboard charts. Personnel used in the recording session: * Eddie Cochran – guitars, ukulele, vocals * Perry Botkin – rhythm guitar * Connie "Guybo" Smith – double bass * The Johnny Mann Chorus – backing vocals Cher version American singer-actress Cher recorded and released "Am I Blue" in 1973. It was released on single and the album ''Bittersweet White Light.'' Chart performan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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