Benjamin O. Davis

Duke Ellington’s Past: Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 into a middle-class family that lived in Washington D.C. Growing up Duke was a very talented boy. He began learning the piano at the age of 7 age and he was also interested in art. Because of his gentlemanly ways he was nicknamed “Duke”. When he was 15 he wrote his first composition which was called “Soda Fountain Rag”. At the age of 17 Duke was awarded an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in New York but he denied…

Jessika Grindstaff October 3, 2014 History of Jazz The Evolution of Free Jazz Free Jazz is a form of jazz that involves collective improvisation without a set chord or rhythm structure. This type of jazz was born during the social, political and civil movements’ era, the sixties. There are many reasons that free jazz was formed, the main one being the limitations in other forms such as bebop, big band and swing. Free jazz was influenced by the works of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and John…

trio Power Tools with bassist Melvin Gibbs and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. In 2001, Pete started a group called Children of Agharta to explore the electric Miles Davis repertoire (WHE, 2001). In 2007-08, Cosey contributed to the CD Miles from India, which celebrates the music of Miles Davis. As history shows, the music of Miles Davis was always part of Pete's life, evidenced in his recordings and professional career; he always went back to the interpretation and exploration of Miles's music.…

“Above all, I believe every child, no matter their ZIP code or their parents’ jobs, deserves access to a quality education.” -Betsy Devos. Waiting for Superman is a film directed by Davis Guggenhiem, and was released in 2010. Waiting for Superman is about the struggle of getting a quality education for children from low-income families. These children featured in the documentary have shown very enthusiastic attitudes towards school, but unfortunately are prevented from doing so because of where…

Canadian jazz quartet Peripheral Vision is known for breaking off into modern sound-shapes and bringing influences from a variety of genres, with predominance of jazz and rock. Co-led by guitarist Don Scott and bassist Michael Herring, who often have art, literature, and standup comedy inspiring their compositions, the band is rounded out with saxophonist Trevor Hogg and drummer Nick Fraser. Their fourth outing, More Songs About Error and Shame, comprises seven well-worked compositions (Herring…

Duke Ellington was born on April 25, 1899 in Washington, D.C. Dukes parents were James Ellington and Daisey Ellington. They were both pianists. Duke Ellington’s inspiration was probably his parents because he was playing piano as a child and focused more on music than his education. Since his parents played piano he was playing piano. What made him famous was that he was pretty much the first one to conduct and make a big-band jazz group. He also led his band for more than a century. Every in…

Bones”, recorded in 1966, has a combination of Latin, Bop, and Free Styles. More Bebop oriented tunes are recorded on his 1968 classic, “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs”. Further, when Miles Davis embracing rock with jazz, he introduces a new direction for the development of jazz and Corea became a member of Miles Davis' band. He participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In 1971, Corea founded his own group, “Return to Forever,” one of the most influential groups of the Jazz Rock…

Michael Moore’s 2010 film, “Waiting for Superman,” illustrated that the ‘lemon dance’ continues to plague districts across the country. ‘The Lemon Dance’ refers to schools swapping their worst performing teachers at the end of the school year with another school’s lemon in hopes that he or she is not quite as bad. Some argue that it is time to throw away the rotten lemons and begin searching for more qualified and/or higher performing teachers. Due process is procedural enough in nature that…

This bond that the soldiers formed helped them to survive, and helped the men of Alpha Company to cope with the war after they returned to the United States. "The bond that men form with each other in the heat of battle is incomprehensible to those who have not experienced warfare for themselves...You make close friends. You become part of a tribe and you share the same blood - you give it together, you take it together." (O'Brien, 192) This bond of friendship helps the men of Alpha…

“If you lose military people during a military operation; it’s sad and it’s tragic, but they’re professionals doing a job… But you’re taking someone who’s not a professional and it happened to be that mission that got lost- it added to the shock.” said Chiao, a former astronaut. The shuttle Challenger had gone into space nine times before this mission. All nine of those missions had launched and landed properly without any trouble, so they were not expecting this shock. The Challenger shuttle…