You Can Call Me Al
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You Can Call Me Al
"You Can Call Me Al" is a song by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the lead single from his seventh studio album, ''Graceland'' (1986), released on Warner Bros. Records. Written by Simon, its lyrics follow an individual seemingly experiencing a midlife crisis. Its lyrics were partially inspired by Simon's trip to South Africa and experience with its culture. Released in August 1986, "You Can Call Me Al" became one of Simon's biggest solo hits, reaching the top five in seven countries. Background The names in the song came from an incident at a party that Simon went to with his then-wife Peggy Harper. French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who was attending the same party, mistakenly referred to Paul as "Al" and to Peggy as "Betty", inspiring Simon to write a song. Composition Jon Pareles noted that the lyrics can be interpreted as describing a man experiencing a midlife crisis ("Where's my wife and family? What if I die here? Who'll be my role model?"); howev ...
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Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel with Art Garfunkel. Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in the Queens, borough of Queens in New York City. He began performing with his schoolfriend Art Garfunkel in 1956 when they were still in their early teens. After limited success, the pair reunited after an electrified version of their song "The Sound of Silence" became a hit in 1966. Simon & Garfunkel recorded five albums together featuring songs mostly written by Simon, including the hits "Mrs. Robinson", "America (Simon & Garfunkel song), America", "Bridge over Troubled Water (song), Bridge over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer". After Simon & Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon recorded three acclaimed albums over the following five years, all of w ...
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Guitar Synthesizer
A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities. Overview Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partnership) such as Hammond Innovex and Ovation, Ludwig, EMS, 360 Systems, Norlin Music and Maestro, Ampeg and Hagström, Arp, Roland Corporation and FujiGen ( GR-500 and GR-300), New England Digital, Electro-Harmonix, Casio, Terratec/Axon, Starr Labs, Ibanez, Holt Electro Acoustic Research, Zeta Systems, and Yamaha. In the early days, there were three main types of guitar-synthesizers: * Multi-effects type * Frequency-to-voltage converter type (using guitar with pickups) * Guitorgan type (using guitar with fretboard switches) Later, the multi-effects type evolved into modeling guitar, and the other two types evolved into current devices. Presently, there are two main groups: * Guitar-synth using guitars: regular guitars equipped with ...
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29th Annual Grammy Awards
The 29th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24, 1987, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Paul Simon won Album of the Year for ''Graceland'', and Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager won Song of the Year for "That's What Friends Are For". Award winners Record of the Year *"Higher Love" – Steve Winwood **Russ Titelman & Steve Winwood, producers *"Sledgehammer" – Peter Gabriel **Peter Gabriel & Daniel Lanois, producers *"Greatest Love of All" – Whitney Houston **Michael Masser, producer *" Addicted to Love" – Robert Palmer **Bernard Edwards, producer *"That's What Friends Are For" – Dionne Warwick & Friends; Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder **Burt Bacharach & Carole Bayer Sager, producers Album of the Year *''Graceland'' – Paul Simon **Paul Simon, producer *'' So'' – Peter Gabriel **Peter Gabriel & Daniel Lanois, producers *''Control'' – Janet Jackson **Janet Jackson ...
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Grammy Award For Album Of The Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales, chart position, or critical reception." Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys, and it is one of the general field awards alongside Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year, presented annually since the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959. Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Taylor Swift have each won this award three times, more than any other artists. Credit rules Over the years, the rules on who was presented with an award have changed: *1959–1965: Artist only. *1966–1998: Artist and producer. *1999–2002: Artist, producer, and recording engineer or mixer. *2003–2017: Artist, featured artist, producer, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer ...
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Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in the United States. The weekly tracking period for sales was initially Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. This tracking period also applies to compiling online streaming data. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming, is readily available on a real-time basis, is also tracked on a Friday to Thursday cycle effective with the chart dated July 17, 2021 (previously Monday to Sunday and before July 2015, Wednesday to Tuesday). A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by ''Billboard'' on Tuesdays but post-dated to the following Saturday. The first number-one song of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 was " Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Ne ...
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Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhythm), or a momentary section. Polyrhythms can be distinguished from irrational rhythms, which can occur within the context of a single part; polyrhythms require at least two rhythms to be played concurrently, one of which is typically an irrational rhythm. Concurrently in this context means within the same rhythmic cycle. The underlying pulse, whether explicit or implicit can be considered one of the concurrent rhythms. For example, the son clave is poly-rhythmic because its 3 section suggests a different meter from the pulse of the entire pattern. In western art music In some European art music, polyrhythm periodically contradicts the prevailing meter. For example, in Mozart's opera ''Don Giovanni'', two orchestras are heard playing toget ...
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Billboard (magazine)
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in different genres of music. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows. ''Billboard'' was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs, and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. ''Billboard'' began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox, phonograph, and radio became commonplace. Many topics it covered were spun-off ...
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Morris Goldberg
Morris Goldberg is a South African saxophonist who is recognised as one of the early pioneers of Cape Jazz, along with Dollar Brand and Chris McGregor. Biography Born in Cape Town, Goldberg grew up in Observatory, a suburb of Cape Town. He left South Africa in the apartheid years to study at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received both bachelor's and master's degrees. Now based in New York City, he is also a virtuoso clarinet and flute player. He has recorded a number of his own albums and is known as a member of the Harry Belafonte band and for his work with Paul Simon. He also played in the band on ''The Rosie O'Donnell Show''. Goldberg has toured and recorded albums with his own band, Ojoyo. He calls their sound ''safrojazz'', presenting the music as a combination of South African and American jazz music. Discography * ''Jazz in Transit'' (2006) * ''Forward Motion'' (2003) * Played on Tony Bird's ''Sorry Africa'' (1990) * ''Uptownship'' (1989) with Hugh Masekela * ...
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Penny Whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. A tin whistle player is called a whistler. The tin whistle is closely associated with Irish traditional music and Celtic music. Other names for the instrument are the flageolet, English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet, or Irish whistle (also ga, feadóg stáin or feadóg). History The tin whistle in its modern form is from a wider family of fipple flutes which have been seen in many forms and cultures throughout the world. In Europe, such instruments have a long and distinguished history and take various forms, of which the most widely known are the recorder, tin whistle, Flabiol, Txistu and tabor pipe. Predecessors Almost all primitive cultures had a type of fipple flute, and it is most likely the first pitched flu ...
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Roy Halee
Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects. Early life He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy Halee, provided the singing voice for Mighty Mouse in late 1940s Terrytoons cartoons, as well as the voices of Heckle and Jeckle from 1951 through 1961. His mother, Rebekah Cauble, was a former stage actress with several Broadway credits. Career Halee started working as a cameraman for CBS Television in the 1950s. He was also studying to be a classical trumpet player.Jackson, Blair"Interview: Roy Halee", ''Mix magazine'', October 1, 2001 He became an audio engineer for CBS Television, working on many shows and the top rated ''The $64,000 Question'' television quiz show. As television shows moved to the West Coast, he lost his job in a union dispute and layoff at CBS Television. He went to work for Columbia Records in New York as an ...
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Palindromic
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panama". The 19-letter Finnish word ''saippuakivikauppias'' (a soapstone vendor), is the longest single-word palindrome in everyday use, while the 12-letter term ''tattarrattat'' (from James Joyce in '' Ulysses'') is the longest in English. The word ''palindrome'' was introduced by English poet and writer Henry Peacham in 1638.Henry Peacham, ''The Truth of our Times Revealed out of One Mans Experience'', 1638p. 123/ref> The concept of a palindrome can be dated to the 3rd-century BCE, although no examples survive; the first physical examples can be dated to the 1st-century CE with the Latin acrostic word square, the Sator Square (contains both word and sentence palindromes), and the 4th-century Greek Byzantine sentence palindrome ''nipson an ...
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Bakithi Kumalo
Bakithi Kumalo (; born 10 May 1956) is a South African bassist, composer, and vocalist. Kumalo is most known for his fretless bass playing on Paul Simon's 1986 album ''Graceland'', in particular the bass run on "You Can Call Me Al". Biography and career Bakithi Kumalo was born in the Soweto township of Johannesburg, surrounded by relatives who loved music and actively performed. He got his first job at the age of seven filling in for his uncle's bass player. Kumalo worked as a session musician in South Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s, eventually becoming a top session bassist and accompanying international performers during their South African tours. In 1985, Kumalo was introduced to Paul Simon by producer Hendrick Lebone during the sessions for Simon's ''Graceland'' album. Kumalo traveled with Simon to New York to finish the sessions, and after the accompanying concert tour, "spent several years commuting between Soweto and New York City" before permanently settling in t ...
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