Mike Duke

Saxophonist Odean Pope delighted the audience with fabulous arrangements of acknowledged tunes with his expansive Saxophone Choir. The sparkling harmonic sequences led to soulful approaches and the balance between the improvised and the arranged was awesome. They kicked in with “To the Roach”, a piece dedicated to the drummer Max Roach, and proceeded with bubbling sax improvisations on “Coltrane Time”, Pope’s ballad “Cis” and an Afro-Latin piece packed with baritone fills whose title I couldn’t…

Marc Copland is a tremendous jazz pianist with a special ability to create stunning atmospheres with unrugged textures. Having collaborated in the recent years with the virtuous bassist Gary Peacock (Now This and Tangents) and the late guitarist John Abercrombie (39 Steps and Up and Coming), Copland never turned his back to his personal projects, which usually overflow with melodic sensibility and strong rhythmic discernment. The compositions included in Better By Far, his newest work, were…

The Miracle Worker is a play during the 1960’s written by Will Gibson and revolves around Annie Sullivan and the struggles she must go through while having to teach Helen Keller the art of language. As the story progresses, several different types of conflicts are introduced to us through Annie. Examples of this would include man vs. man and man vs. himself. Helen Keller, as a growing six year old girl without the ability to see, her or talk is also having a difficult time with adjusting to…

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…

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…

“She’s a dreamer. A doer. A thinker. She sees possibility everywhere.” - Anonymous. For the past week I’ve done a lot of thinking about the American dream and what that means to me. This semester in school we read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald which is set in the 1920’s ; the American dream back then was all about money, who could throw the biggest party, have the best clothes, drive the best car rather than morals values such as hope and the pursuit of happiness. Now, almost a century…

The American Dream: A Fairytale The play, "Death of a Salesman" was written by Arthur Miller in 1949. In his work Miller expressed the multitude of ways how men were able to achieve the American Dream. Miller worked hard to convey the roles of men, and women during the time just before the end of the 1940’s. Times were getting better after the Great Depression, and Willy Loman had set his course to success. The American Dream is seen as a pathway that is lit with the aspirations of many…

To commence, the industrial revolution was a process where new inventions were produced and several milestones were achieved in the period from 1760 to 1820. However, as the industrial revolution originated capitalism also formed. Therefore, numerous people were being neglected and even exterminated. There were various diverse groups involved with this process, such as Minorities and Immigrants. Higher classes would accumulate wealth with the profit they made. Using unscrupulous methods they are…

Duke Energy’s strengths according to The Street are in multiple areas, such as its expanding profit margins, good cash flow from operations, solid stock price performance and notable return on equity. They also feel that even though Duke Energy has had sub-par growth in net-income the pros far outweigh the cons. The Street’s final rating for Duke energy Stock was a 5/5 must buy. Duke Energy Stock in my opinion is a great stock to invest in…

In 1997, Duke Power made its first big merger that would set the future of Duke Energy. Duke Power purchased PanEnergy Corp for $7.4 billion in order to help the utility company branch out nationally. After this buyout Duke Power changed its name to Duke Energy Corporation in order to set a new platform for expansion and growth. At the time Duke Energy had net assets of $13.5 billion while PanEnergy had $7.6 billion. The merger was a necessity for both companies because the gas and electricity…