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Francis Davis
Francis Davis (born August 30, 1946) is an American author and journalist. He is best known as the jazz critic for ''The Village Voice'', and a contributing editor for ''The Atlantic Monthly''. He has also worked in radio and film, and taught courses on Jazz and Blues at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a 1994 recipient of the Pew Fellowships in the Arts. Life and career Davis was born in Philadelphia. He attended Temple University (1964–69); he emerged in the early 1980s as the jazz critic for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. Along with his jazz writing he has tackled a wide variety of subjects, such as '' Seinfeld'' and Johnny Cash, for whom he published what many fans consider the definitive appreciation, in ''The Atlantic Monthly''. Davis is characterized by his keen insights into the development of American style and culture, with asides in the first person who balance his theoretical certainty and a witty, human element. His articles and essays on figures such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Davis (composer)
Anthony Davis (born February 20, 1951) is an American pianist and composer. He incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesian gamelan, and experimental music. He has played with several groups and is also professor of music at University of California, San Diego. Davis is perhaps best known for his operas; he has been called "the dean of African-American opera composers." His better known compositions include '' X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X'', which was premiered by the New York City Opera in 1986; ''Amistad'', which premiered with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997; and '' Wakonda's Dream'', which premiered at Opera Omaha in 2007. His opera '' The Central Park Five'' premiered on June 15, 2019 at the Long Beach Opera Company in California. It won him a Pulitzer Prize for Music on May 4, 2020. Biography Davis was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1951. He has a 1975 degree from Yale University, and ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dave Douglas (trumpeter)
Dave Douglas (born March 24, 1963) is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator. His career includes more than fifty recordings as a leader and more than 500 published compositions. His ensembles include the Dave Douglas Quintet; Sound Prints, a quintet co-led with saxophonist Joe Lovano; Uplift, a sextet with bassist Bill Laswell; Present Joys with pianist Uri Caine and Andrew Cyrille; High Risk, an electronic ensemble with Shigeto, Jonathan Aaron, and Ian Chang; and Engage, a sextet with Jeff Parker, Tomeka Reid, Anna Webber, Nick Dunston, and Kate Gentile. He has won a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland award, and received Grammy Award nominations. As a composer, Douglas has received commissions from the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Essen Philharmonie, The Library of Congress, Stanford University and Monash Art Ensemble, which premiered his chamber orchestra piece ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz Times
''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth in subscriptions, deepening of writer pools, and internationalization, ''Radio Free Jazz'' expanded its focus and, at the suggestion of jazz critic Leonard Feather, changed its name to ''JazzTimes'' in 1980. Sabin's Glenn joined the magazine staff in 1984. In 1990, ''JazzTimes'' incorporated exclusive cover photography and higher quality art and graphic design. The magazine reviews audio and video releases concerts, instruments, music supplies, and books. It also includes a guide to musicians, events, record labels, and music schools. David Fricke, whose writing credits include ''Rolling Stone'', ''Melody Maker'' and ''Mojo'', also contributes to the magazine. Web traffic JazzTimes.com was redesigned in 2019. Among its most popular st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Crouch
Stanley Lawrence Crouch (December 14, 1945 – September 16, 2020) was an American poet, music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, novelist, and biographer. He was known for his jazz criticism and his 2000 novel ''Don't the Moon Look Lonesome?'' Biography Stanley Lawrence Crouch was born in Los Angeles, the son of James and Emma Bea (Ford) Crouch. He was raised by his mother. In Ken Burns' 2005 television documentary ''Unforgivable Blackness'', Crouch said that his father was a "criminal" and that he once met the boxer Jack Johnson. As a child he was a voracious reader, having read the complete works of Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many of the other classics of American literature by the time he finished high school. His mother told him of the experiences of her youth in east Texas and the black culture of the southern midwest, including the Kansas City jazz scene. He became an enthusiast for jazz in both the aesthetic and historical senses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kind Of Blue
''Kind of Blue'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Columbia Records. For the recording, Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track – "Freddie Freeloader" – in place of Evans. Influenced in part by Evans, who had joined the ensemble in 1958, Davis departed further from his early hard bop style in favor of greater experimentation with musical modes, as on his previous album ''Milestones'' (1958). Basing ''Kind of Blue'' entirely on modality, he gave each performer a set of scales that encompassed the parameters of their improvisation and style, and consequently more creative freedom with melodies; Coltrane later expande ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Williams (writer)
Martin Tudor Hansford Williams (9 August 1924 – 11 or 12 April 1992) was an American jazz critic and writer. Education and service in the armed forces Williams was born in Richmond, Virginia. He attended St. Christopher's School, Richmond, St. Christopher Episcopal Preparatory School, then entered the U.S. Army during World War II. After his military service during World War II, which included Battle of Iwo Jima, Williams first studied law, then literature at the University of Virginia (Bachelor of Arts, BA 1948), at the University of Pennsylvania (Master of Arts, MA 1950) and at Columbia University. Career Williams, beginning in the early 1950s, became a prolific jazz critic, contributing articles to ''Saturday Review (U.S. magazine), The Saturday Review,'' ''The New York Times,'' ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Down Beat'', and ''The Jazz Review'', which he founded in November 1958 with Nat Hentoff, which often featured contributions by jazz musicians, including Gunther Schuller, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grammy Award
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 Phonograph, gramophone. The Grammys are the first of the Big Three television networks, Big Three networks' major music awards held annually, and is considered one of the EGOT, four major annual American entertainment awards, alongside the Academy Awards (for films), the Emmy Awards (for television), and the Tony Awards (for theater). The 1st Annual Grammy Awards, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadcasters, and digital streaming services (music stores). ASCAP collects licensing fees from users of music created by ASCAP members, then distributes them back to its members as royalties. In effect, the arrangement is the product of a compromise: when a song is played, the user does not have to pay the copyright holder directly, nor does the music creator have to bill a radio station for use of a song. In 2021, ASCAP collected over US$1.335 billion in revenue and distributed $1.254 billion in royalties to its members. ASCAP membership included over 850,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, with over 16 million registered works. History ASCAP was founded by Victor Herbert, together with composers George Botsford, Silvio Hein, I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation issues awards in each of two separate competitions: * One open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada. * The other to citizens and permanent residents of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Latin America and Caribbean competition is currently suspended "while we examine the workings and efficacy of the program. The U.S. and Canadian competition is unaffected by this suspension." The performing arts are excluded, although composers, film directors, and choreographers are eligible. The fellowships are not open to students, only to "advanced professionals in mid-career" such as published authors. The fellows may spend the money as they see fit, as the purpose is to give fellows "b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions often ran contrary to those of her contemporaries. One of the most influential American film critics of her era, she left a lasting impression on the art form. Roger Ebert argued in an obituary that Kael "had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades." Kael, he said, "had no theory, no rules, no guidelines, no objective standards. You couldn't apply her 'approach' to a film. With her it was all personal." Owen Gleiberman said she "was more than a great critic. She reinvented the form, and pioneered an entire aesthetic of writing." Early life and education Kael was born to Isaac Paul Kael and Judith Kael ( Friedman), Jewish emigrants from Poland, on a chicken farm a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up. Born and raised in Alabama, Blount became involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian god of the Sun). Claiming to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, he developed a mythical persona and an idiosyncratic credo that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. Throughout his life he denied ties to his prior identity saying, "Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym." His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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