157-517: Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut , Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed
314-507: A "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of the Negro with European music" and arguing that it differs from European music in that jazz has a "special relationship to time defined as 'swing ' ". Jazz involves "a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role" and contains a "sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror
471-520: A Sense of Humor , for Verve Records . One continuation from his early career was that Silver recorded his own compositions for his later albums and they were typically new, rather than re-workings of previous releases. Silver performed in public for the first time in four years in 2004, appearing with an octet at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York. He was rarely seen in public after this. In 2005,
628-526: A coherent tradition". Duke Ellington , one of jazz's most famous figures, said, "It's all music." Although jazz is considered difficult to define, in part because it contains many subgenres, improvisation is one of its defining elements. The centrality of improvisation is attributed to the influence of earlier forms of music such as blues , a form of folk music which arose in part from the work songs and field hollers of African-American slaves on plantations. These work songs were commonly structured around
785-513: A couple of families and a few dozen soldiers. The fort was abandoned by 1654, but the area is known today as Dutch Point; the name of the Dutch fort "House of Hope" is reflected in the name of Huyshope Avenue. A significant reason for establishment of the Dutch trading post was to better control the flow of wampum , the de facto currency of New Netherland and portions of New England, to and from valuable Native American fur traders. The Dutch outpost and
942-431: A decade of trying to make his independent label work, Silver abandoned it in 1993, and signed to Columbia Records . This also signalled a return to mostly instrumental releases. The first of these, It's Got to Be Funky , was a rare big band album. Silver came close to dying soon after its release: he was hospitalized with a previously undiagnosed blood clot problem, but went on to record Pencil Packin' Papa , containing
1099-467: A drum made by stretching skin over a flour-barrel. Lavish festivals with African-based dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843. There are historical accounts of other music and dance gatherings elsewhere in the southern United States. Robert Palmer said of percussive slave music: Usually such music was associated with annual festivals, when
1256-439: A flattened fifth]); and the low tone cluster used strictly as a rhythmic punctuation". He also employed blues and minor pentatonic scales . Music journalist Marc Myers observed that "Silver's advantage was pianistic grace and a keen awareness that by resolving dark, minor-passages in airy, ascending and descending major-key chord configurations, the result could produce an exciting and uplifting feeling." In his accompanying of
1413-521: A household in the city was $ 20,820, and the median income for a family was $ 22,051. Males had a median income of $ 28,444 versus $ 26,131 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 13,428. Hartford is a center for medical care, research, and education. Within the city of Hartford itself, hospitals include Hartford Hospital , The Institute of Living , Connecticut Children's Medical Center , and Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center (which merged in 1990 with Mount Sinai Hospital ). Hartford
1570-685: A huge commercial success, and production expanded in the Weed factory, with Weed making every part but the tires. Demand for bicycles overshadowed the failing sewing machine market by 1890, so Pope bought the Weed factory, took over as its president, and renamed it the Pope Manufacturing Company . The bicycle boom was short-lived, peaking near the turn of the century when more and more consumers craved individual automobile travel, and Pope's company suffered financially from over-production amidst falling demand. In an effort to save his business, Pope opened
1727-410: A limited melodic range, sounding like a field holler, and the guitar accompaniment was slapped rather than strummed, like a small drum which responded in syncopated accents, functioning as another "voice". Handy and his band members were formally trained African-American musicians who had not grown up with the blues, yet he was able to adapt the blues to a larger band instrument format and arrange them in
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#17328513927841884-549: A matinee performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus on Barbour Street in the city's north end and became known as the Hartford Circus Fire . After World War II , many residents of Puerto Rico moved to Hartford. Starting in the late 1950s, the suburbs ringing Hartford began to grow and flourish and the capital city began a long decline. Insurance giant Connecticut General (now CIGNA ) moved to
2041-426: A melody in my head, I jump right out of bed before I forget it and run to the piano and my tape recorder. I play the melody with my right hand and then harmonize it with my left. I put it down on my tape recorder, and then I work on getting a bridge or eightbar release for the tune." Silver was among the most influential jazz musicians of his lifetime. Grove Music Online describes his legacy as at least fourfold: as
2198-570: A mission to establish a trading post and fortify the area for the Dutch West India Company . The original site was located on the south bank of the Park River in the present-day Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhood. This fort was called Fort Hoop or the "House of Hope." In 1633, Jacob Van Curler formally bought the land around Fort Hoop from the Pequot chief for a small sum. It was home to perhaps
2355-430: A more colourful style, and a generous good humour gives all his records an upbeat feel." Part of the humor was Silver's predilection for quoting other pieces of music in his own playing. Writer and academic Thomas Owens stated that characteristics of Silver's solos were: "the short, simple phrases that all derive from the three-beat figure ♩ ♩ | ♩, or a variant of it; the pianist's 'blue fifth' (those rapid slurs up to [...
2512-469: A motor carriage department and turned out electric carriages, beginning with the "Mark III" in 1897. His venture might have made Hartford the capital of the automobile industry were it not for the ascendancy of Henry Ford and a series of pitfalls and patent struggles that outlived Pope himself. In 1876, Hartford Machine Screw was granted a charter "for the purpose of manufacturing screws, hardware and machinery of every variety." The basis for its incorporation
2669-460: A multi- strain ragtime march with four parts that feature recurring themes and a bass line with copious seventh chords . Its structure was the basis for many other rags, and the syncopations in the right hand, especially in the transition between the first and second strain, were novel at the time. The last four measures of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) are shown below. African-based rhythmic patterns such as tresillo and its variants,
2826-442: A near-perpetual left-hand rumble. His compositions similarly emphasized catchy melodies, but often also contained dissonant harmonies. Many of his varied repertoire of songs, including " Doodlin' ", " Peace ", and " Sister Sadie ", became jazz standards that are still widely played. His considerable legacy encompasses his influence on other pianists and composers, and the development of young jazz talents who appeared in his bands over
2983-478: A near-perpetual rumble. Silver "always played percussively, rarely suggesting excessive force on the keys but mustering a crisp [...] sound." His fingering was idiosyncratic, but this added to the individuality of his pianism, particularly to the authenticity of the blues facets of his playing. The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the overall assessment that "Blues and gospel-tinged devices and percussive attacks give his methods
3140-546: A new factory adjacent to Weed, where it remained until 1948. On the week of April 12, 1909, the Connecticut River reached a record flood stage of 24.5 feet (7.5 meters) above the low-water mark, flooding the city of Hartford and doing great damage. On July 6, 1944, Hartford was the scene of one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. Claiming the lives of 168 persons, mostly children and their mothers, and injuring several hundred more. It occurred at
3297-457: A new technology innovation hub in Hartford, creating up to 1,000 jobs by 2022. The Hartford technology innovation hub will focus on three key sectors- insurance, healthcare and manufacturing. Hartford has continued to attract technology companies including CGI Inc. , Covr Financial Technologies, GalaxE. Solutions, HCL Technologies and Larsen & Toubro . Insurance software provided Insurity
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#17328513927843454-419: A new, modern campus in the suburb of Bloomfield . Constitution Plaza had been hailed as a model of urban renewal, but it gradually became a concrete office park. Once-flourishing department stores shut down, such as Brown Thomson, Sage-Allen , and G. Fox & Co. , as suburban malls grew in popularity, such as Westfarms and Buckland Hills . In 1997, the city lost its professional hockey franchise, with
3611-405: A nineteenth-century palazzo on Asylum Street. Bank of America and People's United Financial have a significant corporate presence in Hartford. In 2009, Northeast Utilities , a Fortune 500 company and New England's largest energy utility, announced it would establish its corporate headquarters downtown. Hartford is a burgeoning technology hub. In March 2018, Infosys announced that opening of
3768-497: A pianist, because his works, many of which are jazz standards , continue to be performed and recorded worldwide. As a composer, he led a return to an emphasis on melody, observed critic John S. Wilson : for a long time, jazz musicians had written contrafacts of great technical complexity, but "Silver wrote originals that were not only actually original but memorably melodic, presaging a gradual return to melodic creativity among writing jazzmen." Bibliography Jazz Jazz
3925-408: A pioneer of hard bop; as a user of what became the archetypal quintet instrumentation of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums; as a developer of young musicians who went on to become important players and bandleaders; and for his skill as a composer and arranger. Silver was also an influence as a pianist: his first Blue Note recording as leader "redefined the jazz piano, which up until then
4082-652: A popular music form. Handy wrote about his adopting of the blues: The primitive southern Negro, as he sang, was sure to bear down on the third and seventh tone of the scale, slurring between major and minor. Whether in the cotton field of the Delta or on the Levee up St. Louis way, it was always the same. Till then, however, I had never heard this slur used by a more sophisticated Negro, or by any white man. I tried to convey this effect ... by introducing flat thirds and sevenths (now called blue notes) into my song, although its prevailing key
4239-633: A quartet date. After about a year, Silver was replaced as pianist in Getz's band and he moved to New York City. There, working as a freelance, he quickly built a reputation, based on his compositions and bluesy playing. He worked for short periods with tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins , before meeting altoist Lou Donaldson , with whom he developed his bebop understanding. Donaldson made his first recording on Blue Note Records in 1952, with Silver on piano, Gene Ramey on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Later that year, another Blue Note quartet session
4396-429: A quintet. Silver himself commented that inspiration came from multiple sources: "I'm inspired by nature and by some of the people I meet and some of the events that take place in my life. I'm inspired by my mentors. I'm inspired by various religious doctrines. [...] Many of my songs are impressed on my mind just before I wake up. Others I get from just doodlin' around on the piano". He also wrote that, "when I wake up with
4553-439: A repetitive call-and-response pattern, but early blues was also improvisational. Classical music performance is evaluated more by its fidelity to the musical score , with less attention given to interpretation, ornamentation, and accompaniment. The classical performer's goal is to play the composition as it was written. In contrast, jazz is often characterized by the product of interaction and collaboration, placing less value on
4710-483: A reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing. Frequent sideman recordings in the mid-1950s helped further, but it was his work with the Jazz Messengers , co-led by Art Blakey , that brought both his writing and playing most attention. Their Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers album contained Silver's first hit, " The Preacher ". After leaving Blakey in 1956, Silver formed his own quintet, with what became
4867-461: A sermon that inspired the writing of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut , which provided a framework for Connecticut's separation for Massachusetts Bay Colony and the formation of a civil government. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were the legal basis for Connecticut Colony until the 1662 royal charter granted to Connecticut by Charles II . The original settlement area contained
Horace Silver - Misplaced Pages Continue
5024-405: A shrinking population base and high pension obligations, a $ 65 million budget gap was projected for the year of 2018. The city had cut budget of public services and gotten union concessions however these measures did not balance the budget. A state bailout later that year kept the city from filing for bankruptcy. Downtown Hartford is busy during the day with commuters, but tends to be quiet in
5181-492: A single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands , Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style), and gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed near
5338-511: A six-piece brass section, in 1994. That year, he also played as a guest on Dee Dee Bridgewater 's album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver . Silver received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award in 1995, and in the following year was added to Down Beat ' s Jazz Hall of Fame and received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music . He moved from Columbia to Impulse! Records , where he made
5495-414: A soloing saxophonist or trumpeter, Silver was also distinctive: "Rather than reacting to the soloist's melody and waiting for melodic holes to fill, he typically plays background patterns similar to the background riffs that saxes or brasses play behind soloists in big bands." Early in his career, Silver composed contrafacts and blues-based melodies (including " Doodlin' " and " Opus de Funk "). The latter
5652-416: A soloist is supported by a rhythm section of one or more chordal instruments (piano, guitar), double bass, and drums. The rhythm section plays chords and rhythms that outline the composition structure and complement the soloist. In avant-garde and free jazz , the separation of soloist and band is reduced, and there is license, or even a requirement, for the abandoning of chords, scales, and meters. Since
5809-619: A year, so that he could spend more time with his son. This also meant that he had to audition for new band members on an annual basis. He continued to write lyrics for his new albums, although these were not always included on the recordings themselves. The song titles reflected his spiritual, self-help thinking; for example, Spiritualizing the Senses from 1983 included "Seeing with Perception" and "Moving Forward with Confidence". The next albums were There's No Need to Struggle (1983) and The Continuity of Spirit (1985). His band for performances in
5966-492: Is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans , Louisiana , in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . Since the 1920s Jazz Age , it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music . Jazz
6123-519: Is a "white jazz" genre that expresses whiteness . White jazz musicians appeared in the Midwest and in other areas throughout the U.S. Papa Jack Laine , who ran the Reliance band in New Orleans in the 1910s, was called "the father of white jazz". The Original Dixieland Jazz Band , whose members were white, were the first jazz group to record, and Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most prominent jazz soloists of
6280-663: Is a fundamental rhythmic figure heard in many different slave musics of the Caribbean, as well as the Afro-Caribbean folk dances performed in New Orleans Congo Square and Gottschalk's compositions (for example "Souvenirs From Havana" (1859)). Tresillo (shown below) is the most basic and most prevalent duple-pulse rhythmic cell in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the music of the African Diaspora . Tresillo
6437-412: Is also the historic international center of the insurance industry, with companies like Aetna , Conning & Company , The Hartford , Harvard Pilgrim Health Care , The Phoenix Companies , and Hartford Steam Boiler based in the city, and companies like Prudential Financial , Lincoln National Corporation , Sun Life Financial Travelers , United Healthcare and Axa XL having major operations in
Horace Silver - Misplaced Pages Continue
6594-422: Is approximately 47.05 inches (1,200 mm), which is distributed fairly evenly throughout the year. Hartford typically receives about 51.7 inches (131 cm) of snow in an average winter—about 40% more than coastal Connecticut cities like New Haven, Stamford, and New London. Seasonal snowfall has ranged from 115.2 inches (293 cm) during the winter of 1995–96 to 13.5 inches (34 cm) in 1999–2000. During
6751-469: Is characterized by swing and blue notes , complex chords , call and response vocals , polyrhythms and improvisation . As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles , biguine , ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation . However, jazz did not begin as
6908-486: Is heard prominently in New Orleans second line music and in other forms of popular music from that city from the turn of the 20th century to present. "By and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions," jazz historian Gunther Schuller observed. "Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed." In
7065-552: Is home of the University of Hartford and also houses the largest per capita of residents claiming Jamaican-American heritage in the United States. Other neighborhoods in Hartford include Barry Square, Behind the Rocks, Clay Arsenal, South West, and Upper Albany, which is dotted by many Caribbean restaurants and specialty stores. At the 2010 United States census , there were 124,775 people, 44,986 households, and 27,171 families residing in
7222-404: Is home to Keney Park and a number of the city's oldest and most ornate homes. The South End features "Little Italy" and was the home of Hartford's sizeable Italian community. South Green hosts Hartford Hospital . The South Meadows is the site of Hartford–Brainard Airport and Hartford's industrial community. The North Meadows has retail strips, car dealerships, and Comcast Theatre. Blue Hills
7379-400: Is that jazz can absorb and transform diverse musical styles. By avoiding the creation of norms, jazz allows avant-garde styles to emerge. For some African Americans, jazz has drawn attention to African-American contributions to culture and history. For others, jazz is a reminder of "an oppressive and racist society and restrictions on their artistic visions". Amiri Baraka argues that there
7536-618: Is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut . The city, located in Hartford County , had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 census . Hartford is the most populous city in the Capitol Planning Region and the core city of the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Founded in 1635, Hartford is among the oldest cities in the United States. It is home to the country's oldest public art museum ( Wadsworth Atheneum ),
7693-651: Is the second-largest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the Northeast , behind only Holyoke, Massachusetts , approximately 30 miles (48 km) to the north along the Connecticut River. There are small but recognizable concentrations of people with origins in Mexico, Colombia , Peru , and the Dominican Republic as well. Among the non-Hispanic population, the largest ancestry group is from Jamaica ; in 2014, Hartford
7850-468: Is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm , a slang term dating back to 1860 meaning ' pep, energy ' . The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described a pitch which he called a 'jazz ball' "because it wobbles and you simply can't do anything with it". The use of the word in a musical context
8007-746: The Billboard 200 in 1965, and was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Recordings and personnel changes – sometimes expanding the band to a sextet – continued in the mid-1960s. In 1966, The Cape Verdean Blues charted at No. 130. The liner notes to the album Serenade to a Soul Sister (1968) included lyrics (written but not sung), indicating a new interest for Silver. His quintet, by then including saxophonist Bennie Maupin , trumpeter Randy Brecker , bassist John Williams , and drummer Billy Cobham , toured parts of Europe in October and November 1968, sponsored by
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#17328513927848164-454: The 1938 New England Hurricane , as well as with Hurricane Irene in 2011. The highest officially recorded temperature is 103 °F (39 °C) on July 22, 2011, and the lowest is −26 °F (−32 °C) on January 22, 1961; the record cold daily maximum is −2 °F (−19 °C) on December 2, 1917, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is 80 °F (27 °C) on July 31, 1917. The central business district, as well as
8321-538: The American Civil War . Since 2015, it has been one of the poorest cities in the country, with three out of ten families living below the poverty threshold. In sharp contrast, the Greater Hartford metropolitan statistical area was ranked 32nd of 318 metropolitan areas in total economic production and 8th out of 280 metropolitan statistical areas in per capita income in 2015. Nicknamed the "Insurance Capital of
8478-620: The Atlantic slave trade had brought nearly 400,000 Africans to North America. The slaves came largely from West Africa and the greater Congo River basin and brought strong musical traditions with them. The African traditions primarily use a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, and the rhythms have a counter-metric structure and reflect African speech patterns. An 1885 account says that they were making strange music (Creole) on an equally strange variety of 'instruments'—washboards, washtubs, jugs, boxes beaten with sticks or bones and
8635-582: The Hartford Whalers moving to Raleigh, North Carolina—despite an increase in season ticket sales and an offer from the state for a new arena. In 2005, a developer from Newton, Massachusetts tried unsuccessfully to bring an NHL team back to Hartford and house them in a new, publicly funded stadium. Hartford experienced problems as the population shrank 11 percent during the 1990s. Only Flint, Michigan ; Gary, Indiana ; St. Louis, Missouri ; and Baltimore , Maryland experienced larger population losses during
8792-697: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded him its President's Merit Award. In 2006, Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver , was published by the University of California Press . A 2008 release, Live at Newport '58 , from a Silver concert fifty years earlier, reached the top ten of Billboard' s jazz chart. In 2007, it was revealed that Silver had Alzheimer's disease . He died of natural causes in New Rochelle, New York , on June 18, 2014, aged 85. He
8949-958: The Podunks , mostly east of the Connecticut River; the Poquonocks north and west of Hartford; the Massacoes in the Simsbury area; the Tunxis tribe in West Hartford and Farmington ; the Wangunks to the south; and the Saukiog in Hartford itself. The first Europeans known to have explored the area were the Dutch under Adriaen Block , who sailed up the Connecticut in 1614. Dutch fur traders from New Amsterdam returned in 1623 with
9106-471: The swing era of the 1920s–40s, big bands relied more on arrangements which were written or learned by ear and memorized. Soloists improvised within these arrangements. In the bebop era of the 1940s, big bands gave way to small groups and minimal arrangements in which the melody was stated briefly at the beginning and most of the piece was improvised. Modal jazz abandoned chord progressions to allow musicians to improvise even more. In many forms of jazz,
9263-602: The 12-inch Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers . This album contained Silver's first hit, " The Preacher ". Unusually in Silver's career, recordings of concert performances were also released at this time, involving quintets at Birdland (1954) and the Café Bohemia (1955). This set of studio and concert recordings was pivotal in the development and defining of hard bop , which combined elements of blues, gospel, and R&B, with bebop-based harmony and rhythm. The new, funky hard bop
9420-943: The 1920s. The Chicago Style was developed by white musicians such as Eddie Condon , Bud Freeman , Jimmy McPartland , and Dave Tough . Others from Chicago such as Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa became leading members of swing during the 1930s. Many bands included both Black and white musicians. These musicians helped change attitudes toward race in the U.S. Female jazz performers and composers have contributed to jazz throughout its history. Although Betty Carter , Ella Fitzgerald , Adelaide Hall , Billie Holiday , Peggy Lee , Abbey Lincoln , Anita O'Day , Dinah Washington , and Ethel Waters were recognized for their vocal talent, less familiar were bandleaders, composers, and instrumentalists such as pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong , trumpeter Valaida Snow , and songwriters Irene Higginbotham and Dorothy Fields . Women began playing instruments in jazz in
9577-451: The 1950s, many women jazz instrumentalists were prominent, some sustaining long careers. Some of the most distinctive improvisers, composers, and bandleaders in jazz have been women. Trombonist Melba Liston is acknowledged as the first female horn player to work in major bands and to make a real impact on jazz, not only as a musician but also as a respected composer and arranger, particularly through her collaborations with Randy Weston from
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#17328513927849734-410: The 1980s, relying in part on royalties from his compositions for income. In 1993, he returned to major record labels, releasing five albums before gradually withdrawing from public view because of health problems. As a player, Silver transitioned from bebop to hard bop by stressing melody rather than complex harmony, and combined clean and often humorous right-hand lines with darker notes and chords in
9891-499: The Black middle-class. Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre, which originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from their spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads . The African use of pentatonic scales contributed to
10048-460: The Caribbean. African-based rhythmic patterns were retained in the United States in large part through "body rhythms" such as stomping, clapping, and patting juba dancing . In the opinion of jazz historian Ernest Borneman , what preceded New Orleans jazz before 1890 was "Afro-Latin music", similar to what was played in the Caribbean at the time. A three-stroke pattern known in Cuban music as tresillo
10205-454: The Dutch fort. The settlement was originally called Newtown, but it was changed to Hartford in 1637 in honor of Stone's hometown of Hertford , England. Hooker also created the nearby town of Windsor in 1633. The etymology of Hartford is the ford where harts cross, or "deer crossing." As the Puritan minister in Hartford, Thomas Hooker wielded a great deal of power; in 1638, he delivered
10362-658: The Starlight Roof at the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . He entertained audiences with a light elegant musical style which remained popular with audiences for nearly three decades from the 1930s until the late 1950s. Jazz originated in the late-19th to early-20th century. It developed out of many forms of music, including blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . It also incorporated interpretations of American and European classical music, entwined with African and slave folk songs and
10519-542: The State Capitol, Old State House and a number of museums and shops are located Downtown. Parkville, home to Real Art Ways , is named for the confluence of the north and the south branches of the Park River. Frog Hollow, in close proximity to Downtown, is home to Pope Park and Trinity College , which is one of the nation's oldest institutions of higher learning. Asylum Hill, a mixed residential and commercial area, houses
10676-506: The U.S. government. They also recorded one of Silver's last quintet albums for Blue Note, You Gotta Take a Little Love . The Penguin Guide to Jazz ' s retrospective summary of Silver's main Blue Note recordings was that they were of a consistently high standard: "each album yields one or two themes that haunt the mind, each usually has a particularly pretty ballad, and they all lay back on a deep pile of solid riffs and workmanlike solos." At
10833-476: The UK and elsewhere in 1987 included trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Vincent Herring . Douglas reported that Silver seldom gave direct verbal guidelines about the music, preferring to lead through playing. A revival of interest in more traditional forms of jazz in the 1980s largely passed Silver by, and his albums on Silveto were not critical successes. Its last release was Music to Ease Your Disease , in 1988. By
10990-593: The Weed Sewing Machine Company took over its factory. The invention of a new type of sewing machine led to a new application of mass production after the principles of interchangeability were applied to clocks and guns. The Weed Company played a major role in making Hartford one of three machine tool centers in New England and even outranked the Colt Armory in nearby Coltsville in size. Weed eventually became
11147-685: The World" and "America's filing cabinet", the city holds high sufficiency as a global city , as home to the headquarters of many insurance companies, the region's major industry. Other prominent industries include the services, education and healthcare industries. Hartford coordinates certain Hartford–Springfield regional development matters through the Knowledge Corridor Economic Partnership. Various tribes lived in or around Hartford, all Algonquian peoples . These included
11304-520: The banks of the Connecticut River. These events are held outdoors and include live music, festivals, dance, arts and crafts. Hartford also has a vibrant theater scene with major Broadway productions at the Bushnell Theater as well as performances at the Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks (City Arts). In July 2017, Hartford considered filing Chapter 9 bankruptcy . After years of contending with
11461-453: The beautiful towns it has been my fortune to see this is the chief." Hartford has been the sole capital of Connecticut since 1875. (Before then, New Haven and Hartford alternated as dual capitals, as part of the agreement by which the Colony of New Haven was absorbed into the Colony of Connecticut in 1664.) Hartford was the richest city in the United States for several decades following
11618-505: The birthplace of both the bicycle and automobile industries in Hartford. Industrialist Albert Pope was inspired by a British-made, high-wheeled bicycle (called a velocipede) that he saw at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition , and he bought patent rights for bicycle production in the United States. He wanted to contract out his first order, however, so he approached George Fairfield of Weed Sewing Machine Company, who produced Pope's first run of bicycles in 1878. Bicycles proved to be
11775-552: The blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, whereas the spirituals are homophonic , rural blues and early jazz "was largely based on concepts of heterophony ". During the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized
11932-467: The blues, the pianists Nat King Cole , Thelonious Monk , Bud Powell , Art Tatum , and Teddy Wilson , as well as some jazz horn players. Silver graduated from St. Mary's Grammar School in 1943. From ninth grade, he played Lester Young -influenced tenor saxophone in the Norwalk High School band and orchestra. Silver played gigs locally on both piano and tenor saxophone while still at school. He
12089-407: The boundary between Hartford and East Hartford, and is located on the east side of the city. The Park River originally divided Hartford into northern and southern sections and was a major part of Bushnell Park , but the river was nearly completely enclosed and buried by flood control projects in the 1940s. The former course of the river can still be seen in some of the roadways that were built in
12246-467: The city. At the American Community Survey 's 2019 estimates, the population increased to 123,088. The 2020 United States census tabulated a population of 121,054. Hartford's racial and ethnic makeup in 2019 was 36.0% White, 42.7% Black or African American, 23.7% some other race, 3.4% Asian, 1.2% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.3% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders. 43.4% of
12403-645: The city. Insurance giant Aetna had its headquarters in Hartford before announcing a relocation to New York City in July 2017. However, when CVS acquired Aetna a few months later, they announced Aetna would remain in Hartford for at least four years. The city is also home to the corporate headquarters of CareCentrix, Choice Merchant Solutions, Global Atlantic Financial Group, Hartford Healthcare, Insurity, LAZ Parking, ProPark Mobility, U.S. Fire Arms , and Virtus Investment Partners . In 2008, Sovereign Bank consolidated two bank branches as well as its regional headquarters in
12560-742: The city. This type of event caught on and eventually became a staple of mid-to-late 19th-century campaigning. Hartford was a major manufacturing city from the 19th century until the mid-20th century. During the Industrial Revolution into the mid-20th century, the Connecticut River Valley cities produced many major precision manufacturing innovations. Among these was Hartford's pioneer bicycle and automobile maker Pope . Many factories have been closed or relocated, or have reduced operations, as in nearly all former Northern manufacturing cities. Around 1850, Hartford native Samuel Colt perfected
12717-521: The company expanded into aircraft engine design at its Hartford factory. Just three years after Colt's first factory opened, the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company set up shop in 1852 at a nearby site along the now-buried Park River , located in the present-day neighborhood of Frog Hollow . Their factory heralded the beginning of the area's transformation from marshy farmland into a major industrial zone. The road leading from town to
12874-473: The contribution of the composer, if there is one, and more on the performer. The jazz performer interprets a tune in individual ways, never playing the same composition twice. Depending on the performer's mood, experience, and interaction with band members or audience members, the performer may change melodies, harmonies, and time signatures. In early Dixieland , a.k.a. New Orleans jazz, performers took turns playing melodies and improvising countermelodies . In
13031-483: The course of four decades. Silver was born on September 2, 1928, in Norwalk, Connecticut . His mother, Gertrude, was from Connecticut; his father, John Tavares Silver, was born on the island of Maio, Cape Verde , and emigrated to the United States as a young man. She was a maid and sang in a church choir; he worked for a tire company. Horace had a much older half-brother, Eugene Fletcher, from his mother's first marriage, and
13188-473: The decade. However, the population has increased since the 2000 Census. In 1987, Carrie Saxon Perry was elected mayor of Hartford, becoming the first female African-American mayor of a major American city. Riverfront Plaza was opened in 1999, connecting the riverfront and the downtown area for the first time since the 1960s. A significant number of cultural events and performances take place every year at Mortensen Plaza (Riverfront Recapture Organization) by
13345-541: The development of blue notes in blues and jazz. As Kubik explains: Many of the rural blues of the Deep South are stylistically an extension and merger of basically two broad accompanied song-style traditions in the west central Sudanic belt: W. C. Handy became interested in folk blues of the Deep South while traveling through the Mississippi Delta. In this folk blues form, the singer would improvise freely within
13502-506: The early 1920s, drawing particular recognition on piano. When male jazz musicians were drafted during World War II, many all-female bands replaced them. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm , which was founded in 1937, was a popular band that became the first all-female integrated band in the U.S. and the first to travel with the USO , touring Europe in 1945. Women were members of the big bands of Woody Herman and Gerald Wilson . Beginning in
13659-457: The early 1990s Silver did not often play at jazz festivals, but his need to tour was limited, as he received steady royalties from his songbook. Rockin' with Rachmaninoff , a musical work featuring dancers and narration, written by Silver and choreographed and directed by Donald McKayle , was staged in Los Angeles in 1991. A recording of the work was released on Bop City Records in 2003. After
13816-480: The education of freed African Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide entertainment in dances, minstrel shows , and in vaudeville , during which time many marching bands were formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed. Ragtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African-American musicians such as
13973-588: The emergence of bebop, forms of jazz that are commercially oriented or influenced by popular music have been criticized. According to Bruce Johnson, there has always been a "tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form". Regarding the Dixieland jazz revival of the 1940s, Black musicians rejected it as being shallow nostalgia entertainment for white audiences. On the other hand, traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed bebop, free jazz, and jazz fusion as forms of debasement and betrayal. An alternative view
14130-497: The end of 1970, Silver broke up his regular band, to concentrate on composing and to spend more time with his wife. He had met Barbara Jean Dove in 1968 and married her two years later. They had a son, Gregory. Silver also became increasingly interested in spiritualism from the early 1970s. Silver included lyrics in more of his compositions at this point, although these were sometimes regarded as doggerel or proselytizing. The first album to contain vocals, That Healin' Feelin' (1970),
14287-525: The end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines. The mid-1950s saw the emergence of hard bop , which introduced influences from rhythm and blues , gospel , and blues to small groups and particularly to saxophone and piano. Modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode , or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation, as did free jazz , which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in
14444-556: The entertainer Ernest Hogan , whose hit songs appeared in 1895. Two years later, Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo known as "Rag Time Medley". Also in 1897, the white composer William Krell published his " Mississippi Rag " as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his "Harlem Rag", the first rag published by an African-American. Classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his " Original Rags " in 1898 and, in 1899, had an international hit with " Maple Leaf Rag ",
14601-615: The evenings and weekends. However, more residential and retail development in recent years has begun changing the pattern. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 18.0 square miles (47 km ), of which 17.3 square miles (45 km ) is land and 0.7 square miles (1.8 km ) (3.67%) is water. The city of Hartford is bordered by the towns of West Hartford , Newington , Wethersfield , East Hartford , Bloomfield , South Windsor , Glastonbury , and Windsor . The Connecticut River forms
14758-425: The factory was called Rifle Lane; the name was later changed to College Street and then Capitol Avenue. A century earlier, mills had located along the Park River because of the water power, but by the 1850s water power was approaching obsolescence. Sharps located there specifically to take advantage of the railroad line that had been constructed alongside the river in 1838. The Sharps Rifle Company failed in 1870, and
14915-415: The first written music which was rhythmically based on an African motif (1803). From the perspective of African-American music, the "habanera rhythm" (also known as "congo"), "tango-congo", or tango . can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat . The habanera was the first of many Cuban music genres which enjoyed periods of popularity in the United States and reinforced and inspired
15072-661: The five New England states ( Maine was still part of Massachusetts at that time) gathered at the Hartford Convention to discuss New England's possible secession from the United States. During the early 19th century, the Hartford area was a center of abolitionist activity, and the most famous abolitionist family was the Beechers. The Reverend Lyman Beecher was an important Congregational minister known for his anti-slavery sermons. His daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin ; her brother Henry Ward Beecher
15229-511: The following year, he played on albums by Art Farmer , Miles Davis , Milt Jackson and others. Silver won the Down Beat critics' new star award for piano players in 1954, and appeared at the first Newport Jazz Festival , substituting for John Lewis in the Modern Jazz Quartet . Silver's early 1950s recordings demonstrate that Powell was a major pianistic influence, but this had waned by
15386-532: The habanera rhythm and cinquillo , are heard in the ragtime compositions of Joplin and Turpin. Joplin's " Solace " (1909) is generally considered to be in the habanera genre: both of the pianist's hands play in a syncopated fashion, completely abandoning any sense of a march rhythm. Ned Sublette postulates that the tresillo/habanera rhythm "found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk," whilst Roberts suggests that "the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass". In
15543-409: The hard bop aesthetic." An unusual case is " Peace ", a ballad that prioritizes a calm mood over melodic or harmonic effects. Owens observed that "Many of his compositions contain no folk blues or gospel music elements, but instead have highly chromatic melodies supported by richly dissonant harmonies". The compositions and arrangements were also designed to make Silver's typical line-up sound larger than
15700-656: The headquarters of several insurance companies as well as the historic homes of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe . The West End, home to the Governor's residence, Elizabeth Park , and the University of Connecticut School of Law , abuts the Hartford Golf Club. Sheldon Charter Oak is renowned as the location of the Charter Oak and its successor monument as well as the former Colt headquarters including Samuel Colt 's family estate, Armsmear . The North East neighborhood
15857-507: The individuality of the performing jazz musician". A broader definition that encompasses different eras of jazz has been proposed by Travis Jackson: "it is music that includes qualities such as swing, improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being open to different musical possibilities". Krin Gibbard argued that "jazz is a construct" which designates "a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of
16014-424: The influences of West African culture. Its composition and style have changed many times throughout the years with each performer's personal interpretation and improvisation, which is also one of the greatest appeals of the genre. By the 18th century, slaves in the New Orleans area gathered socially at a special market, in an area which later became known as Congo Square , famous for its African dances. By 1866,
16171-455: The instruments of jazz: brass, drums, and reeds tuned in the European 12-tone scale. Small bands contained a combination of self-taught and formally educated musicians, many from the funeral procession tradition. These bands traveled in black communities in the deep south. Beginning in 1914, Louisiana Creole and African-American musicians played in vaudeville shows which carried jazz to cities in
16328-567: The late 1950s into the 1990s. Jewish Americans played a significant role in jazz. As jazz spread, it developed to encompass many different cultures, and the work of Jewish composers in Tin Pan Alley helped shape the many different sounds that jazz came to incorporate. Jewish Americans were able to thrive in Jazz because of the probationary whiteness that they were allotted at the time. George Bornstein wrote that African Americans were sympathetic to
16485-455: The late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music 's rhythms, electric instruments, and highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in the 21st century, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz . The origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history
16642-553: The line that they agreed on was more than 50 miles (80 km) west of the original settlement. The English began to arrive in 1636, settling upstream from Fort Hoop near the present-day Downtown and Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhoods. Puritan pastors Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone , along with Governor John Haynes , led 100 settlers with 130 head of cattle in a trek from Newtown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Cambridge ) and started their settlement just north of
16799-924: The many top players he employed, such as George Brunies , Sharkey Bonano , and future members of the Original Dixieland Jass Band . During the early 1900s, jazz was mostly performed in African-American and mulatto communities due to segregation laws. Storyville brought jazz to a wider audience through tourists who visited the port city of New Orleans. Many jazz musicians from African-American communities were hired to perform in bars and brothels. These included Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton in addition to those from other communities, such as Lorenzo Tio and Alcide Nunez . Louis Armstrong started his career in Storyville and found success in Chicago. Storyville
16956-427: The middle of the decade. In New York, Silver and Blakey co-founded the Jazz Messengers , a cooperatively-run group that initially recorded under various leaders and names. Their first two studio recordings, with Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and Doug Watkins on bass, were made in late 1954 and early 1955 and were released as two 10-inch albums under Silver's name, then soon thereafter as
17113-679: The music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. In the mid-1800s the white New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted slave rhythms and melodies from Cuba and other Caribbean islands into piano salon music. New Orleans was the main nexus between the Afro-Caribbean and African American cultures. The Black Codes outlawed drumming by slaves, which meant that African drumming traditions were not preserved in North America, unlike in Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere in
17270-578: The music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans "clavé", a Spanish word meaning "code" or "key", as in the key to a puzzle, or mystery. Although the pattern is only half a clave , Marsalis makes the point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. Jelly Roll Morton called the rhythmic figure the Spanish tinge and considered it an essential ingredient of jazz. The abolition of slavery in 1865 led to new opportunities for
17427-606: The north. The white population forms a majority in only two census tracts: the downtown area and the far northwest. Nevertheless, many areas in the middle of the city, in Asylum Hill, and in West End, have a significant white population. More than three-quarters (77%) of the Hispanic population was Puerto Rican (with more than half born on the island of Puerto Rico) and fully 33.7% of all Hartford residents claimed Puerto Rican heritage. This
17584-460: The northeastern United States, a "hot" style of playing ragtime had developed, notably James Reese Europe 's symphonic Clef Club orchestra in New York City, which played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. The Baltimore rag style of Eubie Blake influenced James P. Johnson 's development of stride piano playing, in which the right hand plays the melody, while the left hand provides
17741-596: The northern and western parts of the U.S. Jazz became international in 1914, when the Creole Band with cornettist Freddie Keppard performed the first ever jazz concert outside the United States, at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg , Canada. In New Orleans, a white bandleader named Papa Jack Laine integrated blacks and whites in his marching band. He was known as "the father of white jazz" because of
17898-630: The oldest publicly funded park ( Bushnell Park ), the oldest continuously published newspaper (the Hartford Courant ), the second-oldest secondary school ( Hartford Public High School ), and the oldest school for deaf children ( American School for the Deaf ), founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet in 1817. It is the location of the Mark Twain House , in which the author Mark Twain wrote his most famous works and raised his family. He wrote in 1868, "Of all
18055-495: The period 1820–1850. Some of the earliest [Mississippi] Delta settlers came from the vicinity of New Orleans, where drumming was never actively discouraged for very long and homemade drums were used to accompany public dancing until the outbreak of the Civil War. Another influence came from the harmonic style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals . The origins of
18212-539: The period from April through October is warm to hot in Hartford, with the hottest months being June, July, and August. In the summer months there is often high humidity and occasional (but brief) thundershowers. The cool to cold months are from November through March, with the coldest months in December, January, and February having average highs of 35 to 38 °F (2 to 3 °C) and overnight lows of around 18 to 23 °F (−8 to −5 °C). The average annual precipitation
18369-572: The piano as the sweat poured out, with his forelock brushing the keys and his feet pounding." After more than a dozen sideman recording sessions in 1955 and a similar number in 1956–57, Silver's appearance on Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 in April 1957 was his last for another leader, as he opted to concentrate on his own band. For several years from the late 1950s, this contained Junior Cook (tenor saxophone), Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Gene Taylor (bass), and either Hayes or Roy Brooks (drums). Their first album
18526-487: The plight of the Jewish American and vice versa. As disenfranchised minorities themselves, Jewish composers of popular music saw themselves as natural allies with African Americans. The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson is one example of how Jewish Americans were able to bring jazz, music that African Americans developed, into popular culture. Benny Goodman was a vital Jewish American to the progression of Jazz. Goodman
18683-446: The population were Hispanic or Latino, chiefly of Puerto Rican origin. Non-Hispanic Whites were 15.8% of the population in 2010. The city's Hispanic and Latino population primarily consisted of Puerto Ricans (33.63%), Dominicans (3.0%), Mexicans (1.6%), Cubans (0.4%) and other Hispanic or Latinos at 5.63%. The Hispanic and Latino population is concentrated on the city's south side, while African Americans are concentrated in
18840-459: The post-Civil War period (after 1865), African Americans were able to obtain surplus military bass drums, snare drums and fifes, and an original African-American drum and fife music emerged, featuring tresillo and related syncopated rhythmic figures. This was a drumming tradition that was distinct from its Caribbean counterparts, expressing a uniquely African-American sensibility. "The snare and bass drummers played syncopated cross-rhythms ," observed
18997-672: The pre-jazz era and contributed to the codification of jazz through the publication of some of the first jazz sheet music. The music of New Orleans , Louisiana had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. In New Orleans, slaves could practice elements of their culture such as voodoo and playing drums. Many early jazz musicians played in the bars and brothels of the red-light district around Basin Street called Storyville . In addition to dance bands, there were marching bands which played at lavish funerals (later called jazz funerals ). The instruments used by marching bands and dance bands became
19154-550: The precision manufacturing process that enabled the mass production of thousands of his revolvers with interchangeable parts. A variety of industries adopted and adapted these techniques over the next several decades, and Hartford became the center of production for a wide array of products, including: Colt , Richard Gatling , and John Browning firearms; Weed sewing machines ; Columbia bicycles; Pope automobiles; and leading typewriter manufacturers Royal Typewriter Company and Underwood Typewriter Company which together made Hartford
19311-420: The record label Silveto, "dedicated to the spiritual, holistic, self-help elements in music", he commented. Silver also formed Emerald at the same time, a label for straight-ahead jazz, but it was short-lived. The first Silveto release was Guides to Growing Up in 1981, which contained recitations from actor and comedian Bill Cosby . Silver stated in the same year that he had reduced his touring to four months
19468-410: The rhythm and bassline. In Ohio and elsewhere in the mid-west the major influence was ragtime, until about 1919. Around 1912, when the four-string banjo and saxophone came in, musicians began to improvise the melody line, but the harmony and rhythm remained unchanged. A contemporary account states that blues could only be heard in jazz in the gut-bucket cabarets, which were generally looked down upon by
19625-634: The river's place, such as Jewell Street and the Conlin-Whitehead Highway . The Köppen climate classification categorizes Hartford as the hot-summer humid continental climate ( Köppen Dfa ) bordering on Cfa humid subtropical under the 0 °C isotherm. Winters are moderately cold, with periods of snow, while summers are hot and humid. Spring and fall are normally transition seasons, with weather ranging from warm to cool. The city of Hartford lies in USDA Hardiness zone 6b-7a. Seasonally,
19782-455: The septet The Hardbop Grandpop (1996) and the quintet A Prescription for the Blues (1997). The former was nominated for two Grammy Awards: as an album for best instrumental performance, individual or group; and for Silver's solo on "Diggin' on Dexter". He was again unwell in 1997, so was unable to tour to promote his records. His final studio recording was made in the following year – Jazz Has
19939-411: The site of the Charter Oak , an old white oak tree in which colonists hid Connecticut's Royal Charter of 1662 to protect it from confiscation by an English governor-general. The state adopted the oak tree as the emblem on the Connecticut state quarter. The Charter Oak Monument is located at the corner of Charter Oak Place, a historic street, and Charter Oak Avenue. On December 15, 1814, delegates from
20096-795: The standard small group line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. Their public performances and frequent recordings for Blue Note Records increased Silver's popularity, even through changes of personnel. His most successful album was Song for My Father , made with two iterations of the quintet in 1963 and 1964. Several changes occurred in the early 1970s: Silver disbanded his group to spend more time with his wife and to concentrate on composing; he included lyrics in his recordings; and his interest in spiritualism developed. The last two of these were often combined, resulting in commercially unsuccessful releases such as The United States of Mind series. Silver left Blue Note after 28 years, founded his own record label, and scaled back his touring in
20253-424: The summer, temperatures reach or exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on an average of 17 days per year; in the winter, overnight temperatures can dip to a range of 5 to −5 °F (−15 to −21 °C) on at least one night a year. Tropical storms and hurricanes have also struck Hartford, although the occurrence of such systems is rare and is usually confined to the remnants of such storms. Hartford saw extensive damage from
20410-455: The tiny contingent of Dutch soldiers who were stationed there did little to check the English migration, and the Dutch soon realized that they were vastly outnumbered. The House of Hope remained an outpost, but it was steadily swallowed up by waves of English settlers. In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant met with English representatives to negotiate a permanent boundary between the Dutch and English colonies;
20567-500: The twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera "reached the U.S. twenty years before the first rag was published." For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk , ragtime , and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music. Habaneras were widely available as sheet music and were
20724-566: The use of tresillo-based rhythms in African-American music. New Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk 's piano piece "Ojos Criollos (Danse Cubaine)" (1860) was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba: the habanera rhythm is clearly heard in the left hand. In Gottschalk's symphonic work "A Night in the Tropics" (1859), the tresillo variant cinquillo appears extensively. The figure was later used by Scott Joplin and other ragtime composers. Comparing
20881-498: The writer Robert Palmer, speculating that "this tradition must have dated back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, and it could have not have developed in the first place if there hadn't been a reservoir of polyrhythmic sophistication in the culture it nurtured." African-American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in the 19th century when the habanera (Cuban contradanza ) gained international popularity. Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take
21038-493: The year's crop was harvested and several days were set aside for celebration. As late as 1861, a traveler in North Carolina saw dancers dressed in costumes that included horned headdresses and cow tails and heard music provided by a sheepskin-covered "gumbo box", apparently a frame drum; triangles and jawbones furnished the auxiliary percussion. There are quite a few [accounts] from the southeastern states and Louisiana dating from
21195-589: The “Typewriter Capitol of the World” during the first half of the 20th century. The Pratt & Whitney Company was founded in Hartford in 1860 by Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney. They built a substantial factory in which the company manufactured a wide range of machine tools, including tools for the makers of sewing machines, and gun-making machinery for use by the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1925,
21352-481: Was Finger Poppin' , in 1959. Silver's tour of Japan early in 1962 led to the album The Tokyo Blues , recorded later that year. By the early 1960s, Silver's quintet had influenced numerous bandleaders and was among the most popular performers at jazz clubs. They also released singles, including "Blowin' the Blues Away", "Juicy Lucy", and " Sister Sadie ", for jukebox and radio play. This quintet's sixth and final album
21509-475: Was Silver's Serenade , in 1963. Around this time, Silver composed music for a television commercial for the drink Tab . Early in 1964, Silver visited Brazil for three weeks, an experience he credited with increasing his interest in his heritage. In the same year, he created a new quintet, featuring Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Carmell Jones on trumpet. This band recorded most of Silver's best-known album, Song for My Father , which reached No. 95 on
21666-592: Was "a typical Silver creation: advanced in its harmonic structure and general approach but with a catchy tune and finger-snapping beat." His innovative incorporation of gospel and blues sounds into jazz compositions took place while they were also being added to rock 'n' roll and R&B pieces. Silver soon expanded the range and style of his writing, which grew to include "funky groove tunes, gentle mood pieces, vamp songs, outings in 3/4 and 6/8 time, Latin workouts of various stripes, up-tempo jam numbers, and examples of almost any and every other kind of approach congruent with
21823-456: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.33. In the city, the population distribution skews young: 30.1% under the age of 18, 12.6% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 18.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.0 males. The median income for
21980-465: Was Mobley (tenor saxophone), Farmer (trumpet), Watkins (bass), and Louis Hayes (drums). The quintet, with various line-ups, continued to record, helping Silver to build his reputation. He wrote almost all of the material the band played; one of these, " Señor Blues ", "officially put Horace Silver on the map", in the view of critic Scott Yanow . In concert, Silver "won over the crowds through his affable personality and all-action approach. He crouched over
22137-489: Was a noted clergyman who vehemently opposed slavery and supported the temperance movement and women's suffrage. The Stowes' sister Isabella Beecher Hooker was a leading member of the women's rights movement . In 1860, Hartford was the site of the first " Wide Awakes ", abolitionist supporters of Abraham Lincoln . These supporters organized torch-light parades that were both political and social events, often including fireworks and music, in celebration of Lincoln's visit to
22294-453: Was booked for Donaldson, with Art Blakey replacing Taylor, but the saxophonist withdrew and producer–owner Alfred Lion offered Silver the studio time for a trio recording. Most of the tracks recorded at it were Silver originals, and he went on to stay with Blue Note as a leader for the following 28 years. Silver was also busy recording as a sideman. In 1953, he was pianist on sessions led by Sonny Stitt , Howard McGhee , and Al Cohn , and,
22451-517: Was commercially popular, and helped to establish Blue Note as a successful business. Silver's final recordings with the Jazz Messengers were in May 1956. Later that year, he left Blakey after one and a half years, in part because of the heroin use prevalent in the band, which Silver did not want to be involved in. Soon after leaving, Silver formed his own long-term quintet, after receiving offers of work from club owners who had heard his albums. The first line-up
22608-559: Was commercially unsuccessful and Silver had to insist on the support of Blue Note executives to continue releasing music of the same, new style. They agreed to a further two albums that contained vocals and Silver on an RMI electric keyboard ; the three were later compiled as The United States of Mind , but were soon dropped from the catalog. Silver reformed a touring band in 1973. This contained brothers Michael and Randy Brecker. Around this time, according to saxophonist Dave Liebman , Silver's reputation among aspiring young jazz musicians
22765-488: Was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune . Its first documented use in a musical context in New Orleans was in a November 14, 1916, Times-Picayune article about "jas bands". In an interview with National Public Radio , musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying: "When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z'. It wasn't called that. It
22922-461: Was home to an estimated 11,400 Jamaican Americans , as well as another 1,200 people who identified otherwise as West Indian Americans . There were 44,986 households, out of which 34.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 25.2% were married couples living together, 29.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.6% were non-families. 33.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.6% had someone living alone who
23079-468: Was largely modeled on the dexterity and relentless attack of Bud Powell", in Myers' words. As early as 1956, Silver's piano playing was described by Down Beat as "a key influence on a large segment of modern jazz pianists." This went on to include Ramsey Lewis , Les McCann , Bobby Timmons , and Cecil Taylor , who was impressed by Silver's aggressive style. Silver's legacy as a composer may be greater than as
23236-433: Was major ... , and I carried this device into my melody as well. The publication of his " Memphis Blues " sheet music in 1912 introduced the 12-bar blues to the world (although Gunther Schuller argues that it is not really a blues, but "more like a cakewalk"). This composition, as well as his later " St. Louis Blues " and others, included the habanera rhythm, and would become jazz standards . Handy's music career began in
23393-563: Was rejected for military service by a draft board examination that concluded that he had an excessively curved spine, which also interfered with his saxophone playing. Around 1946 he moved to Hartford, Connecticut , to take up a regular job as pianist in a nightclub. Silver's break came in 1950, when his trio backed saxophonist Stan Getz at a club in Hartford: Getz liked Silver's band and recruited them to tour with him. The saxophonist also gave Silver his recording debut, in December 1950, for
23550-412: Was shut down by the U.S. government in 1917. Cornetist Buddy Bolden played in New Orleans from 1895 to 1906. No recordings by him exist. His band is credited with creating the big four: the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm. Hartford, Connecticut Hartford
23707-647: Was spelled 'J-A-S-S'. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn't say it in front of ladies." The American Dialect Society named it the Word of the 20th Century . Jazz is difficult to define because it encompasses a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years, from ragtime to rock -infused fusion . Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, such as European music history or African music. But critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that its terms of reference and its definition should be broader, defining jazz as
23864-493: Was survived by his son. Silver's early recordings displayed "a crisp, chipper but slightly wayward style, idiosyncratic enough to take him out of the increasingly stratified realms of bebop". In contrast to the more elaborate bebop piano, he stressed straightforward melodies rather than complex harmonies, and included short riffs and motifs that came and went over the course of a solo. While his right hand provided cleanly played lines, his left added bouncy, darker notes and chords in
24021-577: Was that he was "a little – not commercial, but not quite the real deal [in jazz]." Silver and his family decided to move to California around 1974, after a burglary at their New York City apartment while they were in Europe. The couple divorced in the mid-1970s. In 1975, he recorded Silver 'n Brass , the first of five Silver 'n albums, which had other instruments added to the quintet. The personnel in his band continued to change, and continued to contain young musicians who made telling contributions. One of these
24178-401: Was the invention of the first single-spindle automatic screw machine. For its next four years, the new firm occupied one of Weed's buildings, milling thousands of screws daily on over 50 machines. Its president was George Fairfield, who ran Weed, and its superintendent was Christopher Spencer, one of Connecticut's most versatile inventors. Soon Hartford Machine Screw outgrew its quarters and built
24335-529: Was the leader of a racially integrated band named King of Swing. His jazz concert in the Carnegie Hall in 1938 was the first ever to be played there. The concert was described by Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history". Shep Fields also helped to popularize "Sweet" Jazz music through his appearances and Big band remote broadcasts from such landmark venues as Chicago's Palmer House , Broadway's Paramount Theater and
24492-481: Was the third child for his parents, after John, who lived to six months, and Maria, who was stillborn. Silver began playing the piano in his childhood and had classical music lessons. His father taught him the folk music of Cape Verde . At the age of 11, Silver became interested in becoming a musician, after hearing the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra. His early piano influences included the styles of boogie-woogie and
24649-407: Was trumpeter Tom Harrell , who stayed from 1973 to 1977. Silver's pattern in the late 1970s was to tour for six months a year. His final Blue Note album was Silver 'n Strings , recorded in 1978 and 1979. His stay was the longest in the label's history. By Silver's account, he left Blue Note after its parent company was sold and the new owners were not interested in promoting jazz. In 1980, he formed
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