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First Time! The Count Meets The Duke
''First Time! The Count Meets the Duke'' is an album by American pianists, composers and bandleaders Duke Ellington and Count Basie with their combined Orchestras recorded and released on the Columbia label in 1961.A Duke Ellington Panorama accessed May 17, 2010 On stereo releases of the album, Basie's band is featured on the left channel and Ellington's on the right. Reception The review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars calling it "a very successful and surprisingly uncrowded encounter. On most selections Ellington and Basie both play piano (their interaction with each other is wonderful) and ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's " Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed multipl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Strayhorn
William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the 'A' Train", "Chelsea Bridge", "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing", and " Lush Life". Early life Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio, United States. His family soon moved to the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his mother's family came from Hillsborough, North Carolina, and she sent him there to protect him from his father's drunken sprees. Strayhorn spent many months of his childhood at his grandparents' house in Hillsborough. In an interview, Strayhorn said that his grandmother was his primary influence during the first ten years of his life. He became interested in music while living with her, playing hymns on her piano, and playing records on her Victrola record player. Return to Pittsburgh and meeting Ellington S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B or C trumpet. Trumpet-like instruments have historically been used as signaling devices in battle or hunting, with examples dating back to at least 1500 BC. They began to be used as musical instruments only in the late 14th or early 15th century. Trumpets are used in art music styles, for instance in orchestras, concert bands, and jazz ensembles, as well as in popular music. They are played by blowing air through nearly-closed lips (called the player's embouchure), producing a "buzzing" sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century, trumpets have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, usually bent twice into a rounded rectangular shape. There are many distinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snooky Young
Eugene Edward "Snooky" Young (February 3, 1919 – May 11, 2011) was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known for his mastery of the plunger mute, with which he was able to create a wide range of sounds. Biography Young was lead trumpeter of the Jimmie Lunceford band from 1939 to 1942. He played with Count Basie (three stints totalling eight years), Gerald Wilson and Lionel Hampton, among others, and was an original member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. His longest engagement was with NBC, where, as a studio trumpeter, he joined The Tonight Show Band, ''The Tonight Show'' Band in 1967 and remained with them until 1992, when the band was replaced by a new, smaller group. He was part of the touring ensemble, the "Now Generation Brass" that traveled with Doc Severinsen, an ensemble that included other jazz greats such as reed man Lew Tabackin, drummer Ed Shaughnessy, saxophonist & arranger Tommy Newsom as well as singer Robert Ozn. Young went on to performing live concert d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thad Jones
Thaddeus Joseph Jones (March 28, 1923 – August 20, 1986) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists". Biography Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, United States, to Henry and Olivia Jones, a musical family of 10 (an older brother was pianist Hank Jones and a younger brother was drummer Elvin Jones). A self-taught musician, Thad began performing professionally at the age of 16. He served in U.S. Army bands during World War II (1943–46). After his military service, which included an association with the U.S. Military School of Music and working with area bands in Des Moines and Oklahoma City, Jones became a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in May 1954. He was featured as a soloist on such well-known tunes as " April in Paris", "Shiny Stockings", and "Corner Pocket". However, his main contribution to Basie's organization was nearly two dozen arrangements and compositions, which incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Cohn
George Thomas Cohn (March 14, 1925 – November 7, 2006), known professionally as Sonny Cohn, was an American jazz trumpeter whose career spanned over six decades. After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders (1945–1960), Cohn went on to spend another twenty four years in Count Basie's trumpet section (1960–1984). Life and career Cohn was born in Chicago, Illinois. Cohn started playing in small groups around the city with King Fleming while he was still a teenager.Campbell, Robert L.; Pruter, Robert and Büttner, Armin "King Fleming Discography" Cohn joined Red Saunders' group in 1945, while Saunders was out of the and wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Nance
Ray Willis Nance (December 10, 1913 – January 28, 1976) was an American jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He is best remembered for his long association with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. Early years Nance was the leader of his own band in Chicago from 1932 to 1937. Then, he worked with Earl Hines from 1937 to 1939; and from 1939 to 1940 he worked with Horace Henderson. Ellington tenure Ellington hired Nance to replace trumpeter Cootie Williams, who had joined Benny Goodman, in 1940. Nance's first recorded performance with Ellington was at the Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live, Fargo, North Dakota ballroom dance. Shortly after joining the band, Nance was given the trumpet solo on the earliest recorded version of "Take the "A" Train", which became the Ellington theme. Nance's "A Train" solo is one of the most copied and admired trumpet solos in jazz history. Indeed, when Cootie Williams returned to the band more than twenty years later, he would play Nance's sol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie Cook
Willie Cook (November 11, 1923 – September 22, 2000) was an American jazz trumpeter. Cook was born in Tangipahoa, Louisiana, on November 11, 1923.Hogan, E"Willie Cook" AllMusic. Retrieved July 13, 2017. He grew up in Chicago and learned to play violin before settling on trumpet as a teenager. He joined King Perry's band in the late 1930s, then joined Jay McShann's band early in the 1940s. His later credits include performing and recording with Johnny Hartman, Earl Hines, Jimmie Lunceford, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, B.B. King, and Count Basie. He joined Ellington's band in October 1951 as lead trumpeter and stayed for a decade. He moved to Sweden in 1982 after spending time in the country touring. He died of heart failure in Maria Regina Hospice in Stockholm on September 22, 2000.Ratliff, Ben (October 21, 2000"Willie Cook, 76, Lead Trumpeter with Gillespie and Ellington" ''The New York Times''. Discography With The Young Swedes *''Christl Mood'' ( Phont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cat Anderson
William Alonzo "Cat" Anderson (September 12, 1916 – April 29, 1981) was an American jazz trumpeter known for his long period as a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra and for his wide range, especially his ability to play in the altissimo register. Biography Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Anderson lost both parents when he was four years old, and was sent to live at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, where he learned to play trumpet. Classmates gave him the nickname "Cat" (which he used all his life) based on his fighting style. He toured and made his first recording with the Carolina Cotton Pickers, a small group based at the orphanage. After leaving the Cotton Pickers, Anderson played with guitarist Hartley Toots, Claude Hopkins' big band, Doc Wheeler's Sunset Orchestra (1938–1942), with whom he also recorded, Lucky Millinder, the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, Sabby Lewis's Orchestra, and Lionel Hampton, with whom he recorded the classic "Flying Home No. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and ''fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CBS 30th Street Studio
CBS 30th Street Studio, also known as Columbia 30th Street Studio, and nicknamed "The Church", was an American recording studio operated by Columbia Records from 1948 to 1981 located at 207 East 30th Street, between Second and Third Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. Actually containing two Columbia sound rooms — “Studio C” and “Studio D” — the facility was considered by some in the music industry to offer the best-sounding recording venue of its time, while others considered it to have been the greatest recording studio in history. Numerous recordings were made there in all genres, including Ray Conniff's '' 'S Wonderful'' (1956), Miles Davis' ''Kind of Blue'' (1959) and ''In A Silent Way'' (1969), Leonard Bernstein's ''West Side Story'' (Original Broadway Cast recording, 1957), Percy Faith's ''Theme from A Summer Place'' (1959), Chicago's ''Chicago Transit Authority'' (1969), ''Chicago'' (1970), and ''Chicago III'' (1971), Pink Floyd's ''The Wall'' (1979), as well as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Foster (jazz Musician)
Frank Benjamin Foster III (September 23, 1928 – July 26, 2011) was an American tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, arranger, and composer. Foster collaborated frequently with Count Basie and worked as a bandleader from the early 1950s.Profile AllMusic; accessed June 21, 2017. In 1998, Howard University awarded Frank Foster with the Benny Golson Jazz Master Award. Early life and education Foster was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and educated at Wilberforce University. In 1949, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he joined the local jazz scene, playing with musicians such as Wardell Gray. Career Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951, Foster served in Korea with the 7th Infantry Division where he fought alongside (although unknowingly) future collaborator Shawn ‘Thunder’ Wallace. Upon finishing his military service in 1953 he joined Count Basie's big band. Foster contributed both arrangements and original compositions to Count Basie's band including the stan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
