Al Downing

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Al Downing may refer to:

Alvin Joseph Downing American musician

Alvin "Al" Joseph Downing was the founder of the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association. An influential jazz musician and teacher, Downing made significant contributions to the African-American jazz community in Florida. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen and became the first African-American Commissioner of the St. Petersburg Housing Authority in Florida, as well as the first African American to play in the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.

Al Downing (baseball) baseball player

Alphonso Erwin Downing is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1961 through 1977. Downing was an All Star in 1967 and the National League's Comeback Player of the Year in 1971. Downing allowed Hank Aaron's record breaking 715th home run on April 8, 1974.

Al Downing (musician) American musician

Al Downing, later known as Big Al Downing, was an American entertainer, singer, songwriter, and pianist. He received the Billboard's New Artist of the Year and the Single of the Year Award in 1979. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and was a frequent performer at the Grand Ole Opry. Downing was nominated as Best New Artist by the Academy of Country Music and appeared on Hee Haw, Nashville Now, and Dick Clark's American Bandstand television programs.

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Da capo is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning". It is often abbreviated as D.C. The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is an easier way of saying to repeat the music from the beginning.

Wynton Marsalis American jazz musician

Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has been awarded nine Grammy Awards and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the son of jazz musician Ellis Marsalis Jr. (pianist), grandson of Ellis Marsalis Sr., and brother of Branford (saxophonist), Delfeayo (trombonist), and Jason (drummer). Marsalis is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in jazz and classical during the same year.

The music of Iraq or Iraqi music,, also known as the Music of Mesopotamia encompasses the music of a number of ethnic groups and musical genres. Ethnically, it includes Arabic music, Assyrian, Kurdish and the music of Turkmen, among others. Apart from the traditional music of these peoples, Iraqi music includes contemporary music styles such as pop, rock, soul and urban contemporary.

The music of Mauritania comes predominantly from the country's largest ethnic group: the Moors. In Moorish society musicians occupy the lowest caste, iggawin. Musicians from this caste used song to praise successful warriors as well as their patrons. Iggawin also had the traditional role of messengers, spreading news between villages. In modern Mauritania, professional musicians are paid by anybody to perform; affluent patrons sometimes record the entertainment, rather than the musicians themselves, and are then considered to own the recording.

Music of Kuwait

Kuwait is well known in the region for its exploration of many different and new forms of music and dance. Kuwait is the birthplace of various popular musical genres such as sawt. Kuwait is widely considered the centre of traditional music in the Persian Gulf. The Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre is the largest opera house in the Middle East.

<i>Shut Down Volume 2</i> 1964 studio album by The Beach Boys

Shut Down Volume 2 is the fifth album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on March 2, 1964 on Capitol. Produced by Brian Wilson, it was the first of three studio albums that the band would release in 1964. The album is the first not to feature rhythm guitarist David Marks, who departed from the band following disagreements with manager Murry Wilson.

Al Hibbler American baritone vocalist

Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of Hibbler's singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best seen as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music. According to one authority, "Hibbler cannot be regarded as a jazz singer but as an exceptionally good interpreter of twentieth-century popular songs who happened to work with some of the best jazz musicians of the time."

The music of Qatar is based on sea folk poetry, song and dance. Traditional dances in Doha are performed on Friday afternoons; one such dance is the Ardah, a stylized martial dance performed by two rows of dancers who are accompanied by an array of percussion instruments, including al-ras, tambourines and cymbals with small drums. Other folk instruments include the oud and rebaba, both string instruments, as well as the ney.

Albert J. Jackson Jr. was an American drummer, producer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, a group of session musicians who worked for Stax Records and produced their own instrumentals. Jackson was affectionately dubbed "The Human Timekeeper" for his drumming ability. He was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Habib, sometimes written as Habeeb, is an Arabic masculine given name and occasional surname with the meaning "beloved".

Ziryab Arabic musician

Abu l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Nafi' or Ziryab was a singer, oud player, composer, poet, and teacher who lived and worked in Iraq, Northern Africa, and Andalusia of the medieval Islamic period. He was also known as a polymath, with knowledge in astronomy, geography, meteorology, botanics, cosmetics, culinary art and fashion. His nickname Ziryab comes from the Persian word for jay-bird زرياب, pronounced "Ziryab"; he is also known as Pájaro Negro (blackbird) in Spanish. He was active at the Umayyad court of Córdoba in Islamic Iberia. He first achieved notoriety at the Abbasid court in Baghdad, Iraq, his birthplace, as a performer and student of the great Persian musician and composer, Ishaq al-Mawsili. The Mawsili family was originally from the city of Kufa, Iraq.

Anthony C. "Tony" Bongiovi is an American record producer and recording engineer. He has produced records by Gloria Gaynor, Talking Heads, Aerosmith, and the Ramones. Early in his career, as an engineer, he worked the console for a number of sessions with Jimi Hendrix, as well as some of Hendrix's posthumous releases under producer Alan Douglas.

Mukhannathun was a term used in Classical Arabic to refer to men who were perceived as effeminate. Mukhannathun, especially those in the city of Medina, are mentioned throughout the ahadith and in the works of many early Arabic and Islamic writers. During the Rashidun era and first half of the Umayyad era, they were strongly associated with music and entertainment. During the Abbasid caliphate, the word itself was used as a descriptor for men employed as dancers, musicians, or comedians.

<i>Aria</i> (Asia album) fifth studio album by rock band Asia

Aria is the fifth studio album by British rock band Asia, released in April 1994 in the United Kingdom by Bullet Proof Records and in 1995 in the United States by Mayhem Recordings. Unlike its predecessor, which was recorded with the help of several guest musicians, Aria features a stable line-up consisting of vocalist and bassist John Payne, keyboard player Geoff Downes, guitarist Al Pitrelli and drummer Michael Sturgis.

<i>Informal Jazz</i> 1956 studio album by Elmo Hope

Informal Jazz is an album by jazz musician Elmo Hope, released in 1956 on Prestige Records, catalogue 7043. It has been reissued in 1969 as Two Tenors under the billing of Hope's sidemen for the session, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley.

Al Sears American jazz tenor saxophonist

Albert Omega Sears was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and bandleader, sometimes credited as Big Al Sears.

"Weird Al" Yankovic American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, satirist, film producer, and author. He is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, original songs that are style pastiches of the work of other acts, and polka medleys of several popular songs, featuring his favored instrument, the accordion.

Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi (779–839) was an Abbasid prince, singer, composer and poet. He was the son of the third Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi and thus the half-brother of the poet and musician ‘Ulayya bint al-Mahdī. He was not a full brother of Al-Mahdi's sons Al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid, since his mother was not Al-Khayzuran but rather an Afro Iranian princess named Shikla or Shakla. Historian Ibn Khallikan reported that Ibrahim was consequently "of dark complexion."

<i>Soul Trombone</i> album by Curtis Fuller

Soul Trombone is an album by American jazz trombonist Curtis Fuller featuring performances recorded in 1961 for the Impulse! label.

<i>Gettin Down to It</i> album by James Brown

Gettin' Down to It is the 28th studio album by American musician James Brown. The album was released in May 1969, by King Records. A pet project of Brown's, the album consists of standards sung in the jazz ballad style of Frank Sinatra, whom Brown greatly admired. In addition, two of Brown's own compositions, "Cold Sweat" and an instrumental version of "There Was a Time", are included, reinterpreted in the same style.