Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Official name	Inglewood
Image seal	SealInglewood.jpg
Motto	Harbor of the Air (undated)
Settlement type	City
Map caption	Location of Inglewood in Los Angeles County, California
Coordinates region	US-CA
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	United States
Subdivision type1	State
Subdivision name1	California
Subdivision type2	County
Subdivision name2	Los Angeles
Government type	Council-Manager
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	James Butts
Established title	Established
Established title2	Incorporated
Established date	1888
Established date2	February 14, 1908
unit pref	US
area footnotes
area total sq mi	9.093
area land sq mi	9.068
area water sq mi	0.025
area total km2	23.549
area land km2	23.486
area water km2	0.064
area water percent	0.27
Population as of	2010
Population note	2010 United States Census
Population total	109673
population rank	12th in Los Angeles County55th in California237th in the United States
Population density km2	auto
Population density sq mi	auto
Timezone	PST
Utc offset	-8
Timezone dst	PDT
Utc offset dst	-7
Coordinates display	displayinline,title
Elevation m	40
Elevation ft	131
Website	cityofinglewood.org
Postal code type	ZIP codes
Postal code	90301-90313, 90397-90398
Area code	Area code 310
Blank name	FIPS code
Blank info	06-36546
Blank1 name	GNIS feature ID
Blank1 info	1660799 }}

Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census. The city is in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.

History

Pre-American era

The earliest residents of what is now Inglewood were indigenous people who used the natural springs in today's Edward Vincent Jr. Park (known for most of its history as Centinela Park). Local historian Gladys Waddingham wrote that these springs took the name ''Centinela'' from the hills that rose gradually around them and which allowed ranchers to watch over their herds "(thus the name centinelas or sentinels)."

Waddingham traced the written history of Inglewood back to the original settlers of Los Angeles in 1781, one of whom was the Spanish soldier Jose Manuel Orchado Machado, "a 23-year-old muleteer from Los Alamos in Sinaloa." These settlers, she wrote, were ordered by the officials of the San Gabriel Mission "to graze their animals on the ocean side of Los Angeles in order not to infringe on Mission lands." As a result, the settlers, or ''pobladores,'' drove some of their cattle to the "lush pasture lands near Centinela Springs," and the first construction there was done by one Ygnacio Avila, who received a permit in 1822 to build a "corral and hut for his herders." Later Avila constructed a three-room adobe on a slight rise overlooking the creek that ran from Centinela Springs all the way to the ocean. According to the LAOkay web site, this adobe was built where the present baseball field is in the park. It no longer exists.

In 1834 Ygnacio Machado, one of the sons of Jose Machado, built the Centinela Adobe, which sits on a rise above the present 405 San Diego Freeway and is used as the headquarters of the Centinela Valley Historical Society. Two years later, Waddingham writes, Ygnacio was granted the Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela even though this land had already been claimed by Avila.

American era

Through the years

Inglewood Park Cemetery, a widely used cemetery for the entire region, was founded in 1905, and the city has been home to the Hollywood Park Racetrack since 1938. Fosters Freeze, the first Soft Serve ice cream chain in California, was founded by George Foster in 1946 in Inglewood. Inglewood was named an All-America City by the National Civic League in 1989 and yet again recently in 2009 for its visible progress.

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan activities in Inglewood during the 20th century were highlighted by the 1922 arrest and trial of 37 men, most of them masked, for a night-time raid on a suspected bootlegger and his family. The raid led to the shooting death of one of the culprits, an Inglewood police officer. A jury returned a "not guilty" verdict for all defendants who completed the trial. It was this scandal, according to the ''Los Angeles Times,'' that eventually led to the outlawing of the Klan in California. The Klan had a chapter in Inglewood as late as October 1931.

African-American influence

“No blacks had ever lived in Inglewood,” Gladys Waddingham wrote, but by 1960, “they lived in great numbers along its eastern borders. This came to the great displeasure of the predominantly white residents already residing in Inglewood. In 1960, the census counted only 29 'Negroes' among Inglewood's 63,390 residents. Not a single black child attended the city's schools. Real estate agents refused to show homes to blacks. A rumored curfew kept blacks off the streets at night. Inglewood was a prime target because of its [previous] history of restrictions.” “Fair housing and school busing were the main problems of 1964. The schools were not prepared to handle racial incidents, even though any that occurred were very minor. Adults held many heated community meetings, since the Blacks objected to busing as much as did the Whites.” In 1969, an organization called “Morningside Neighbors” changed its name to “Inglewood Neighbors" "in the hope of promoting more integration.”

On July 22, 1970, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Max F. Deutz ordered Inglewood schools to desegregate in response to a suit filed by 19 parents. At least since 1965, said Deutz, the Inglewood school board had been aware of a growing influx of black families into its eastern areas but had done nothing about the polarization of its pupils into an eastern black area and a western white one. On August 31, he rejected an appeal by four parents who said the school board was not responsible for the segregation but that the blacks "selected their places of residence by voluntary choice."

The first black principal among the 18 Inglewood schools was Peter Butler at La Tijera Elementary, and in 1971, Waddingham wrote, “Stormy racial meetings in 1971” included a charge by “some real estate men in the overflowing Crozier Auditorium” that the Human Relations Commission was acting like “the Gestapo.” In that year, Loyd Sterling Webb, president of Inglewood Neighbors, became the first black officeholder when voters elected him to the school board.

In 1972 Curtis Tucker Sr. was appointed as the first black City Council member. That year composer LeRoy Hurte, an African-American, took the baton of the Inglewood Symphony Orchestra and continued to work with it for 20 years. Edward Vincent became Inglewood’s first black mayor in 1980. In that decade Inglewood became the first city in California to declare the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a holiday.

Rise of Latino population

The 1990 census showed that Hispanics in Inglewood had increased by 134 percent since 1980, the largest jump in the South Bay. Economic factors apparently played a role in where new arrivals settled, said David Heer, a USC professor of sociology and associate director of the university's Population Research Laboratory. "Housing is generally less expensive here than elsewhere . . . and I would say that they receive a warmer welcome here," said Norm Cravens, assistant city manager in Inglewood, where the Anglo population dropped from nearly 21 percent in 1980 to 8.5 percent in 1990.

In the 2000 census, blacks made up 47 percent of the city's residents (53,060 people), and Hispanics made up 46 percent (51,829), but the Census Bureau estimated that in 2007 the percentage of blacks had declined to 41 percent (48,252) and that of Hispanics of any race were at 52.5 percent (61,847). The white population declined from 19 percent (21,505) to 17.7 percent (20,853).

But in that year, only one of the city's five City Council members was Latino, Jose Fernandez. There were no Latinos on the five-member Board of Education.

Geography

Location and area

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.1 square miles (23.5 km²). Downtown Inglewood is from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Neighborhoods

Crenshaw-Imperial

The Crenshaw-Imperial district was a later annexation to Inglewood. It has its own branch public library and an important shopping center for the area.

Morningside Park

Morningside Park is a district in the eastern part of the city. Though the city of Inglewood does not define the district's boundaries, it may be delineated by Hyde Park on the north, South Los Angeles on the east, Century Boulevard on the south and Prairie Avenue on the west. The major streets that run through the area are Manchester and Crenshaw boulevards. It is six miles (10 km) from Los Angeles International Airport and about two miles (3 km) from the Hollywood Park Racetrack and The Forum where for 31 years the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings played.

North Inglewood and Fairview Heights

North Inglewood is the area north of the Santa Fe railroad tracks. In 2009, it was reported to be the site of a "burgeoning arts scene" centered at East Hyde Park Boulevard and La Brea Avenue. Fairview Heights is a signed area north of Florence and east of La Brea.

Demographics

2010 census

The 2010 United States Census reported that Inglewood had a population of 109,673. The population density was 12,062.1 people per square mile (4,657.2/km²). The racial makeup of Inglewood was 25,562 (23.3%) White, 48,164 (43.9%) African American, 751 (0.7%) Native American, 1,484 (1.4%) Asian, 350 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 28,860 (26.3%) from other races, and 4,502 (4.1%) from two or more races. There were 55,449 people classifying themselves as Hispanic or Latino — 50.6% of the population.

The Census reported that 108,171 people (98.6% of the population) lived in households, 987 (0.9%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 515 (0.5%) were institutionalized.

There were 36,389 households, out of which 15,315 (42.1%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,095 (36.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 8,987 (24.7%) had a female householder with no husband present, 2,937 (8.1%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,318 (6.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 234 (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 9,346 households (25.7%) were made up of individuals and 2,776 (7.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.97. There were 25,019 families (68.8% of all households); the average family size was 3.59.

The population was spread out with 29,293 people (26.7%) under the age of 18, 11,853 people (10.8%) aged 18 to 24, 31,650 people (28.9%) aged 25 to 44, 26,621 people (24.3%) aged 45 to 64, and 10,256 people (9.4%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.4 years. For every 100 females there were 90.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males.

There were 38,429 housing units at an average density of 4,226.5 per square mile (1,631.9/km²), of which 13,447 (37.0%) were owner-occupied, and 22,942 (63.0%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.5%. 43,040 people (39.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 65,131 people (59.4%) lived in rental housing units.

2006 survey

''Source for this section is the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2006. Numbers may be rounded to the nearest whole figure.''

Inglewood’s population of 129,900 in 2006 was relatively youthful, with a median age of 31, compared to 36 in the nation as a whole. Eleven percent of its residents were under 5 years of age, as against 7 percent in the rest of the country. Some 8 percent were 65 or older, versus 12 percent elsewhere.

It was a city of renters squeezing into a limited amount of space. Of Inglewood’s 37,562 occupied housing units (houses and apartments), just 39 percent were owned by the people who lived in them (compared to 67 percent in the U.S. as whole). The other units were rented out. Only 5 percent of its housing units were vacant, much less than the 12 percent across the country. The number of people living in each unit was about 3.7 persons, versus 2.7 elsewhere. Family size was 3.9 people, compared to 3.2.

It was estimated that 18 percent of Inglewood families had incomes below the poverty level, about twice that of the country at large (9 percent).

About 17 percent of Inglewood’s residents had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher (versus 27 percent across the country).

Twenty-nine percent of the city's population were foreign-born, compared to 13 percent in the nation as a whole.

Mapping L.A.

In 2009, the ''Los Angeles Times'''s "Mapping L.A." project supplied these neighborhood statistics based on the 2000 census.

The population was 112,482, or 12,330 people per square mile, among the highest densities for the South Bay and among the highest densities for the county. The percentage of black people was high for the county, and the population was moderately diverse. Median household income was $46,574, low for both the South Bay and for the county. The median age was 29, young for the county; the percentage of residents aged 10 or under was among the county's highest. Three people, on the average, lived in each household — high for the South Bay but about average for the county. There was a higher percentage of families headed by single parents than elsewhere in the county. The percentage of veterans who served during 1975-89 and 1990-99 was among the county's highest.

! Inglewoodand nearbyareas	! Inglewood	! Hyde Park	! LaderaHeights	! Westchester	! Hawthorne
Population	112,482	38,635	6,509	41,500	86,265
White	4%	2%	19%	52%	13%
Latino	46%	27%	3%	17%	44%
Asian	1%	1%	3%	10%	8%
Black	46%	66%	71%	17%	32%
Household income	$46,574	$39,460	$117,925	$77,473	$43,602
College degree	13%	12%	53%	42%	13%
Median age	29	31	43	35	27
Single parents	27%	29%	10%	15%	27%
Veteran	8%	9%	13%	9%	7%
Foreign born	30%	20%	7%	21%	33%
Where?	Mexico,El Salvador	Mexico,El Salvador	Trinidad,Canada	Mexico,Philippines	Mexico,Guatemala
Ethnic diversity	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	High	High
Home ownership	36%	47%	77%	52%	26%

Politics

''See also Roosevelt Dorn.''

Inglewood has the highest percentage of registered Democrats of any city in California, with 75.6 percent of its 48,615 voters registered in May 2009 as Democrats. Seven percent were registered as Republicans, and 14.1 percent declined to state a preference.

In 2005, the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, a nonpartisan organization in Berkeley, ranked Inglewood as the sixth-most-liberal city in the United States, after Oakland, California, and just ahead of Newark, New Jersey. Researchers examined voting patterns of 237 American cities with populations over 100,000 and ranked them on liberal and conservative scales.

The city is within California's 35th congressional district, which in February 2008 had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D +33, which meant that recent Democratic presidential candidates received 33 percentage points more votes than the national average. It is represented by Democrat Maxine Waters.

In the California Legislature, Inglewood is in the 25th Senate District, represented by Democrat Rod Wright and in the 51st Assembly District, represented by Democrat Steve Bradford.

Government and infrastructure

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Curtis Tucker Health Center in Inglewood.

The United States Postal Service operates the Hillcrest Inglewood Post Office at 300 East Hillcrest Boulevard, the North Inglewood Post Office at 811 North La Brea Avenue, and the Morningside Park Post Office at 3212 West 85th Street.

The city is a member of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments.

The City of Inglewood has a mayor-council type of government. The mayor is an elected office and is the chief executive officer of the city.

Public libraries

The City of Inglewood operates a main library in the city Civic Center, in addition to a branch in the southeastern corner of the city, near the intersection of Crenshaw and Imperial.

Education

Public and private schools

Most of Inglewood is served by the Inglewood Unified School District. The district has two zoned high schools, Inglewood High School and Morningside High School, and an alternative high school, City Honors High School.

Some of it is in the Los Angeles Unified School District

Public charter schools include: Ánimo Inglewood Charter High School of Green Dot Public Schools Ánimo Leadership Charter High School of Green Dot

Private schools include:

St John Chrysostom Elementary School is a private Catholic school.

St. Mary's Academy, "In 1966 St. Mary's Academy left its home of many years on Slauson Avenue [at Crenshaw Boulevard] in Los Angeles for a new building on Grace Avenue across from [Daniel] Freeman Hospital".

See also

Good Shepherd Lutheran School, 1936–2003

Schools history

In 1888, a school district was organized, trustees were elected and a building was chosen. The school opened on May 21 that year on the second floor of a livery stable on Grevillea Avenue between Regent Street and Orchard (today's Florence Avenue), with 17 boys and 16 girls. The first teacher was Minnie Walker, a graduate of Los Angeles State Normal School. The schoolroom, named Bucephalus Hall, after a horse belonging to town founder Daniel Freeman, was also used for community meetings.

Meanwhile, a permanent school building was erected on Grevillea Avenue a block to the south, between Regent and Queen. It remained Inglewood's only school until 1911. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1920.

The Centinela Valley Union High School District was organized in 1904 to bring secondary education to the town. Inglewood High opened in two rooms of the school building with 15 students taught by Nina Martin, principal, and Anna McClelland. Four years later, a new building rose on of land, and the first graduation of one boy and four girls took place in 1908. Until 1912 there was a new principal every year at the grammar school, but on May 8 of that year George W. Crozier was named principal, and he held the post for 20 years. The school was renamed in his honor in 1932. In 1913, George M. Green was appointed principal of Inglewood Union High School; he retired from that position in 1939.

In 1914 voters approved bonds for high school improvement. Four more buildings and a power plant were erected, "joined by walks and arcades." The improvement included a "five-room model flat in the Home Economics Building." Nine acres of land were bought at Kelso Avenue and Damask (now Inglewood Avenue) for an experimental agricultural statement, thenceforth known as "The Farm." There were gardens, an orchard and an alfalfa field. In 1915 Inglewood High won a first-place Los Angeles County prize for its beautiful ivy-covered brick buildings. These buildings were destroyed in 1953 to make room for new ones.

In the mid-1920s, the high school district stretched all the way south to El Segundo, so two women teachers were asked to live in El Segundo and ride the school buses with the students every day to and from that city — for an extra dollar a day in pay. In 1923 girls adopted a school uniform, "a dark blue skirt with a white middy."

In 1925 a new fine arts building for the high school was erected on the southwest corner of Grevillea and Manchester, replacing the Truax Candy Kitchen, but it was severely damaged by the Long Beach earthquake of 1933. It was "later rebuilt with WPA help but lost its magnificent stairway and all its fireplaces." Temporary classrooms were built on Olive Street, "all too cold in winter and too hot most of the time."

The athletic field on the west side of the campus, later called Badenoch Field, was used for physical education and sporting events. In 1937, agricultural classes were ended at the Farm and Sentinel Field was dedicated there for sports activities. By 1938 there were more than 3,000 students and 141 teachers at the high school.

The "startling news" of 1948 was the dismissal "of the entire administrative staff at Inglewood High School, beginning with Principal James R. Haines." He was replaced by Forrest Murdoch of Everett, Washington, as superintendent and Fred Heisner as principal.

In 1952, another secondary school campus in Inglewood was opened in the east side neighborhood of Morningside Park as Morningside High School. Center Park School of Los Angeles became part of the Inglewood School District in 1961 when its area (Crenshaw-Imperial) was annexed to the city. In the 1970s, its name was changed to Worthington School to honor Frances and William Worthington.

Religion

In 2007 the area served by the Inglewood post office (including Lennox) had 98 churches, temples, mosques, chapels and other houses of worship, according to the AreaConnect.com Web site.

The first church service was held on April 22, 1888, in the Inglewood House hotel on Commercial Street (today's La Brea Boulevard), popularly called Mrs. Belden's Boarding House, when Inglewood had only 300 residents and 112 registered voters. Later services were in Bucephalus Hall, but eventually the congregation moved to Hyde Park, which left Inglewood with no church. On January 19, 1890, Inglewood's first permanent church — Presbyterian — was established on Market Street. A bit later the [United] Brethren constructed a building on South Market Street.

In 1907, a group of Episcopalians began services in a private home, and a few years later the first Catholic services were held in Bank Hall. In 1910 the Presbyterians moved their two buildings, a sanctuary and a manse, to the corner of Grevillea and Nutwood "because the streetcars [on Market Street] were so noisy and threw so much dust and sand fleas in the windows."

In 1923 St. John Chrysostom Catholic Church was founded. The current church at the intersection of Centinela and Florence was built in 1959 and is the tallest point in the city. It is the largest congregation in the city, consisting of almost 10,000 registered families. Next door is St. John Chrysostom School, educating children since 1927 from Pre-K through 8th grade.

By 1940, the Methodists had built a structure at Manchester and La Brea, but in that year they moved to a new building at Kelso and Spruce.

Community resources

D.A.R.E. America, an international education program that seeks to prevent use of controlled drugs, membership in gangs and violent behavior, has its headquarters in Inglewood.

Newspapers

The ''Inglewood News'' and ''Inglewood Today'' circulate in the city.

Sister cities

Bo, Sierra Leone Pedavena, Italy Port Antonio, Jamaica Tijuana, Mexico

Born in Inglewood

Paul Pierce, basketball player for the Boston celtics

Don August, baseball player Tyra Banks, supermodel, television personality, talk show host and actress Dottie Wiltse Collins, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League pitcher

Maureen Flannigan, actress

Tanedra Howard, winner of Scream Queens (TV series) and Saw VI star Flo Hyman, American volleyball player, Morningside High School graduate Comedian Vicki Lawrence Jim Lefebvre, major league baseball manager Mack 10, rapper Philip "Bishop Lamont" Martin, rapper Len Maxwell, voice actor and announcer Scott McGregor, baseball player with Baltimore Orioles Lisa Moretti, professional wrestler Marcel Reece, professional football player Jamal Sampson, professional basketball player

Shade Sheist, recording artist, singer-songwriter, actor

Jazz saxophonist Zoot Sims Esther Williams, swimmer and motion picture actress (August 8, 1923). Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys (June 20, 1942)

Shawn Chrystopher, recording artist, producer

Notable residents

Salvatore (Sonny) Bono, actor and congressman, attended Inglewood High School Jeanne Crain, actress Cali Swag District, hip hop group Lisa Leslie, basketball player Frank D. Parent, municipal court judge Paul Pierce, basketball player Chastin West, football player

Filming locations

The city was a filming location for ''The Wood'', a 1999 movie about three African-American men recalling their childhood in 1980s Inglewood. Scenes from ''Boyz n the Hood'', ''Training Day'' and ''Wayne's World'' were filmed in Inglewood.

References in popular culture

Jules Winnfield, a lead-role gangster played by Samuel Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film'' Pulp Fiction,'' told another character he lived in Inglewood. The lead character in the movie ''Soul Plane'' (Kevin Hart) stated that he grew up in Inglewood. In the 1996 song "California Love", Dr. Dre raps that Inglewood is "always up to no good". A music video from Mack 10 featured Inglewood.

See also

List of Wikipedia articles mentioning Inglewood

List of California public officials charged with crimes, Inglewood

''Los Angeles Times'' suburban sections, for a time capsule placed in the Inglewood City Hall

Notes and references

Further reading

Constance Zillgitt Snowden, ''Men of Inglewood,'' 1924.

Roy Rosenberg, ''The History of Inglewood'', published by Arthur Cawston, 1938.

Lloyd Hamilton, ''Inglewood Community Book,'' 1947.

External links

City of Inglewood official website

"Welcome to Inglewood - Leave Your Aspirations Behind," ''Los Angeles Weekly''

WikiMapia

Images of Inglewood in the Online Archive of California

Category:Cities in Los Angeles County, California Category:Incorporated cities and towns in California Category:Populated places in California with Hispanic majority populations Category:Populated places established in 1888

ar:إنغليووود، لوس أنجليس، كاليفورنيا bg:Ингълуд (Калифорния) ca:Inglewood (Califòrnia) cs:Inglewood de:Inglewood es:Inglewood (California) fr:Inglewood hr:Inglewood, Kalifornija it:Inglewood he:אינגלווד sw:Inglewood, California ht:Inglewood, Kalifòni nl:Inglewood (Californië) ja:イングルウッド (カリフォルニア州) no:Inglewood pnb:انگل ووڈ pl:Inglewood (Kalifornia) pt:Inglewood (Califórnia) ro:Inglewood, California ru:Инглвуд (округ Лос-Анджелес, Калифорния) fi:Inglewood (Kalifornia) sv:Inglewood tl:Inglewood, California vo:Inglewood (California) war:Inglewood, California zh:英格爾伍德 (加利福尼亞州)

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
name	California
fullname	State of California
flag	Flag of California.svg
flaglink	Flag
seal	Seal of California.svg
former	California Republic
map	Map of USA CA.svg
nickname	The Golden State
demonym	Californian
motto	Eureka
mottoenglish	I have found it
capital	Sacramento
borderingstates	Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Baja California
officiallang	English
languages	English (Only) 57.6%Spanish 28.2%
largestcity	Los Angeles
largestmetro	Greater Los Angeles Area
largestcounty	San Bernardino
governor	Jerry Brown (D)
lieutenant governor	Gavin Newsom (D)
legislature	California State Legislature
upperhouse	California State Senate
lowerhouse	California State Assembly
senators	Dianne Feinstein (D)Barbara Boxer (D)
Representative	34 Democrats, 19 Republicans
postalabbreviation	CA
tradabbreviation	Calif.
arearank	3rd
totalarea	423,970
totalareaus	163,696
landarea	403 932
landareaus	155,959
waterarea	20,047
waterareaus	7,737
pcwater	4.7
pcforest	35
pcdesert	25
poprank	1st
2000oldpop	33,871,648
2000pop	37,253,956
2004pop(est)	35,893,799
2003pop	35,484,453
2005pop(est)	36,132,147
densityrank	11th
2000density	90.49
2000densityus	234.4
medianhouseholdincome	US$61,021
incomerank	9th
admittanceorder	31st
admittancedate	September 9, 1850
timezone	Pacific: UTC-8/-7
area code	209 213 310 323 408 415 510 530 559 562 619 626 650 661 707 714 760 805 818 831 858 909 916 925 949
latitude	32° 32′ N to 42° N
longitude	114° 8′ W to 124° 26′ W
width	400
widthus	250
length	1,240
lengthus	770
highestpoint	Mount Whitney
highestelev	4,418
highestelevus	14,494
meanelev	884
meanelevus	2,900
lowestpoint	Death Valley
lowestelev	-86
lowestelevus	-282
isocode	US-CA
electoralvotes	55
website	ca.gov/ }}

boxwidth	25em
name	California
flag	Flag of California.svg
seal	Seal of California.svg
nickname	The Golden State
motto	Eureka
capital	Sacramento
mammal	California grizzly bear (State Animal)
marine mammal	Gray Whale
beverage	Wine
bird	California Quail
colors	Blue & Gold
dance	West Coast Swing
fish	Golden Trout
flower	California Poppy
folkdance	Square dance
fossil	Sabre-toothed cat
rock	Serpentinite
gemstone	Benitoite
grass	Purple Needlegrass
insect	California Dogface Butterfly
marine fish	Garibaldi
mineral	Native Gold
quarter	California quarter, reverse side, 2005.jpg
quarterreleasedate	2005
reptile	Desert Tortoise
tree	California Redwood
wildflower	California Poppy
staterock	Serpentine
song	"I Love You, California"
soil	San Joaquin
tartan	California State Tartan
route marker	California 1.svg }}

California (pronounced ) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.

California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east—from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.

The name ''California'' once referred to a large area of North America claimed by Spain that included much of modern-day Southwestern United States and the Baja California peninsula. Beginning in the late 18th century, the area known as Alta California, comprising the California territory north of the Baja Peninsula, was colonized by the Spanish Empire as part of New Spain. In 1821, Alta California became a part of Mexico following its successful war for independence. Shortly after the beginning of the Mexican-American War in 1846, a group of American settlers in Sonoma declared an independent California Republic in Alta California. Though its existence was short-lived, its flag became the precursor for California's current state flag. American victory in the war led to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States. Western areas of Alta California became the state of California, which was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850.

The California Gold Rush beginning in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic change, with large scale immigration from the U.S. and abroad and an accompanying economic boom. Key developments in the early 20th century included the emergence of Los Angeles as the center of the American entertainment industry, and the growth of a large, state-wide tourism sector. The late 20th century saw the development of the technology and information sectors, punctuated by the growth of Silicon Valley. In addition to California's prosperous agricultural industry, other important contributors to its economy include aerospace, education, and manufacturing. If California were a country, it would be the eighth-largest economy in the world and the 35th most populous nation. At least half of the fresh fruit produced in the United States are cultivated in California, and it also leads in the production of vegatables.

Etymology

The word ''California'' originally referred to the entire region composed of what is today the U.S. state of California, plus all or parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming, and the Baja California peninsula of Mexico.

The name ''California'' is most commonly believed to have derived from a fictional paradise peopled by Black Amazons and ruled by Queen Calafia. The story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work ''The Exploits of Esplandian'', written as a sequel to ''Amadis de Gaula'' by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a remote land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts, and rich in gold.

:

Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with strong passionate hearts and great virtue. The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the bold and craggy rocks.

The name ''California'' is the fifth-oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. and was applied to what is now the southern tip of Baja California peninsula as the ''island of California'' by a Spanish expedition led by Diego de Becerra and Fortún Ximénez, who landed there in 1533 at the behest of Hernán Cortés.|group="note"}}

Geography

California adjoins the Pacific Ocean to the west, Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With an area of , it is the third-largest state in the United States in size, after Alaska and Texas. If it were a country, California would be the 59th-largest in the world in area.

In the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. The Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows approximately one-third of the nation's food.

Divided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento River, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin River; both areas derive their names from the rivers that transit them. With dredging, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers have remained sufficiently deep that several inland cities are seaports.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta serves as a critical water supply hub for the state. Water is routed through an extensive network of canals and pumps out of the delta, that traverse nearly the length of the state, including the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. Water from the Delta provides drinking water for nearly 23 million people, almost two-thirds of the state's population, and provides water to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The Channel Islands are located off the southern coast.

The Sierra Nevada (Spanish for "snowy range") includes the highest peak in the contiguous forty-eight states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 ft (4,421 m). The range embraces Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on Earth, and the deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume.

To the east of the Sierra Nevada are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential migratory bird habitat. In the western part of the state is Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake by area entirely in California. Though Lake Tahoe is larger, it is divided by the California/Nevada border. The Sierra Nevada falls to Arctic temperatures in winter and has several dozen small glaciers, including Palisade Glacier, the southernmost glacier in the United States.

About 45 percent of the state's total surface area is covered by forests, and California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Many of the trees in the California White Mountains are the oldest in the world; one Bristlecone pine has an age of 4,700 years.

In the south is a large inland salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave; to the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in North America, Badwater Basin. The horizontal distance from the lowest point of Death Valley to the peak of Mount Whitney is less than . Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with routine extreme high temperatures during the summer. The southeastern border of California with Arizona is entirely formed by the Colorado River, from which the southern part of the state gets about half of its water.

Along the California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area.

As part of the Ring of Fire, California is subject to tsunamis, floods, droughts, Santa Ana winds, wildfires, landslides on steep terrain, and has several volcanoes. It sees numerous earthquakes due to several faults, in particular the San Andreas Fault.

Climate

California's climate varies from Mediterranean to subarctic.

Much of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with cool, rainy winters and dry summers. The cool California Current offshore often creates summer fog near the coast. Further inland, one encounters colder winters and hotter summers.

Northern parts of the state average higher annual rainfall than the south. California's mountain ranges influence the climate as well: some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.

The east side of California's mountains produce a rain shadow, creating expansive deserts. The higher elevation deserts of eastern California see hot summers and cold winters, while the low deserts east of the southern California mountains experience hot summers and nearly frostless mild winters. Death Valley, a desert with large expanses below sea level, is considered the hottest location in North America; the highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere, , was recorded there on July 10, 1913.

Ecology

California is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities. California is part of the Nearctic ecozone and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions. California's large number of endemic species includes relict species, which have died out elsewhere, such as the Catalina Ironwood (''Lyonothamnus floribundus''). Many other endemics originated through differentiation or adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species develop from a common ancestor to take advantage of diverse ecological conditions such as the California lilac (''Ceanothus''). Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat.

Flora and fauna

California boasts several superlatives in its collection of flora: the largest trees, the tallest trees, and the oldest trees. California's native grasses are perennial plants. After European contact, these were generally replaced by invasive species of European annual grasses; and, in modern times, California's hills turn a characteristic golden-brown in summer.

Because California has the greatest diversity of climate and terrain, the state has six life zones which are the lower Sonoran (desert); upper Sonoran (foothill regions and some coastal lands), transition (coastal areas and moist northeastern counties); and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic Zones, comprising the state's highest elevations.

Plant life in the dry climate of the lower Sonoran zone contains a diversity of native cactus, mesquite, and paloverde. The Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) is found in the Mojave Desert. Flowering plants include the dwarf desert poppy and a variety of asters. Fremont cottonwood and valley oak thrive in the Central Valley. The upper Sonoran zone includes the chaparral belt, characterized by forests of small shrubs, stunted trees, and herbaceous plants. Nemophila, mint, phacelia, viola, and the California poppy (Eschscholtzia californica)- the state flower- also flourish in this zone, along with the lupine, more species of which occur here than anywhere else in the world.

The high elevations of the Canadian zone allow the Jeffrey Pine, red fir, and Lodgepole Pine to thrive. Brushy areas are abundant with dwarf manzanita and ceanothus; the unique Sierra puffball is also found here. Right below the timeberline, in the Hudsonian zone, the whitebark, foxtail, and silver pines grow. At about 10,500 ft (3,200 m), begins the Arctic zone, a treeless region whose flora include a number of wildflowers, including Sierra primrose, yellow columbine, alpine buttercup, and alpine shooting star.

Common plants that have been introduced to the state include the eucalyptus, acacia, pepper tree, geranium, and Scotch broom. The species that are federally classified as endangered are the Contra Costa wallflower, Antioch Dunes evening primrose, Solano Grass, San Clemente Island larkspur, salt marsh bird's beak, McDonald's rock-cress, and Santa Barbara Island Liveforever. As of December 1997, eight-five plant species were listed as threatened or endangered.

In the transition zone, there are Colombian Black-tailed Deer, black bears, gray foxes, cougars, bobcats, and Roosevelt elk. Reptiles such as the garter snakes and rattlesnakes inhabit the zone. In addition, amphibians such as the water puppy and redwood salamander are common too. Birds such as the kingfisher, chickadee, towhee, and hummingbird thrive here as well.

The Canadian zone mammals include the Mountain Weasel, Snowshoe Hare, Sierra chickadee, and several species of chipmunks. Conspicuous birds include the blue-fronted jay, Sierra hermit thrush, water ouzel, and Townsend solitaire. As one ascends into the Hudsonian zone, birds become scarcer. While the Sierra rosy finch is the only bird native to the high Arctic region, other bird species such as the hummingbird and Clark's Nutcracker. Principal mammals found in this region include the Sierra coney, White-tailed Jackrabbit, and the Bighorn Sheep. As of April 2003, the Bighorn Sheep was listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The fauna found throughout several zones are the mule deer, coyote, mountain lion, Northern Flicker, and several species of hawk and sparrow. Also, as of the same year, 178 species of California plants were listed either as endangered or threatened on this federal list.. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain.

Spanish missionaries began setting up 21 California Missions along the coast of what became known as Alta California (Upper California), together with small towns and ''presidios''. In 1821 the Mexican War of Independence gave Mexico (including California) independence from Spain; for the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico. Cattle ranches, or ''ranchos'', emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. After Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government and were secularized by 1832. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) who had received land grants, and traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants.

Beginning in the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the U.S. and Canada began to arrive in Northern California, harbingers of the great changes that would later sweep the Mexican territory. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts surrounding California. In this period, Imperial Russia explored the California coast and established a trading post at Fort Ross.

In 1846 settlers rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterwards, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's first and only president was William B. Ide, who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. His term lasted 22 days and concluded when California was occupied by U.S. forces during the Mexican-American War.

The California Republic was short lived. The same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). When Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay and began the military occupation of California by the United States, Northern California capitulated in less than a month to the U.S. forces. After a series of defensive battles in Southern California, including The Siege of Los Angeles, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho, the Battle of San Pasqual, the Battle of Rio San Gabriel and the Battle of La Mesa, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing American control in California. Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the U.S.; the western territory of Alta California, was to become the U.S. state of California, and Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah became U.S. Territories, while the lower region of California, the Baja Peninsula, remained in the possession of Mexico. In 1848 the non-native population of California was estimated to be no more than 15,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with U.S. citizens, Europeans and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By 1854 over 300,000 settlers had come. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the United States undivided as a free state, denying the expansion of slavery to the Pacific Coast.

The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule was located at Monterey from 1777 until 1835, when Mexican authorities abandoned California, leaving their missions and military forts behind. In 1849 the Constitutional Convention was first held there. Among the duties was the task of determining the location for the new state capital. The first legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1861 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento.

Travel between California and the central and eastern parts of the U.S. was time consuming and dangerous. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad through Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.

Migration to California accelerated during the early-20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. In order to meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.

Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. A couple of decades later, Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is currently regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology and engineering businesses, and as the U.S. center of agricultural production.

Demographics

Population

California's population was counted by the US Census Bureau at 37,253,956 for the 2010 census, making it the most populous state. Between 2000 and 2009, there was a natural increase of 3,090,016 (5,058,440 births minus 2,179,958 deaths). During this time period, international migration produced a net increase of 1,816,633 people while domestic migration produced a net decrease of 1,509,708, resulting in a net in-migration of 306,925 people. The State of California's own statistics show a population of 38,292,687 for January 1, 2009.

California is the second-most-populous sub-national entity in the Western Hemisphere and the Americas, with a population second to that of State of São Paulo, Brazil. California's population is greater than that of all but 34 countries of the world. Also, Los Angeles County has held the title of most populous U.S. county for decades, and it alone is more populous than 42 U.S. states. In addition, California is home to eight of the 50 most populous cities in the United States: Los Angeles (2nd), San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), San Francisco (13th), Fresno (34th), Sacramento (35th), Long Beach (36th), and Oakland (47th). The center of population of California is located in the town of Buttonwillow, Kern County.. |group="note"}}

In 2010, illegal aliens constituted an estimated 7.3 percent of the population, the third highest percentage of any state in the country, totaling nearly 2.6 million. More than half originate from Mexico.

Starting in the year 2010, for the first time since the California Gold Rush, California-born residents make up the majority of the state's population.

Racial and ancestral makeup

Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:

57.6% White (40.1% Non-Hispanic White)

13.0% Asian (3.4% Chinese, 3.2% Filipino, 1.6% Vietnamese, 1.4% Indian, 1.2% Korean, 0.7% Japanese, 0.2% Hmong, 0.2% Cambodian, 0.2% Laotian, 0.1% Thai, 0.1% Pakistani)

6.2% Black or African American

1.0% Native American

4.9% Multiracial (1.3% White and "Some Other Race", 1.2% White and Asian, 0.6% White and Native American, 0.5% White and Black, 1.3% Other)

0.4% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (0.1% Samoan, 0.1% Guamanian or Chamorro, 0.1% Native Hawaiian, 0.2% "Other Pacific Islander")

37.6% are Hispanic or Latino (of any race) (30.7% Mexican, 1.5% Salvadoran, 0.9% Guatemalan, 0.5% Puerto Rican, 0.3% Nicaraguan, 0.2% Honduran, 0.2% Cuban, 0.2% Colombian, 0.2% Peruvian)

With regard to demographics, California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., an estimated 22,189,514 residents, although most demographic surveys do not measure actual genetic ancestry. The state has the fifth-largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,250,630 residents. California's Asian American population is estimated at 4.4 million, approximately one-third of the nation's 13.1 million Asian Americans. California's Native American population of 285,162 is the most of any state.

According to estimates from 2008, California has the largest minority population in the United States by numbers, making up 57% of the state population. In 2000, Hispanics comprised 32% of the population; that number grew to 37% in 2008. Non-Hispanic whites decreased from 80% of the state's population in 1970 to 42% in 2008.

Approximately 27% of California's public school students in the 2009–10 school year identified themselves as white, and almost 50.4% of the state's students identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. While the population of minorities accounts for 102 million of 301 million U.S. residents, 20% of the national total live in California.

Armed forces

In California, as of 2002, the US Department of Defense had

123,948 active-duty military personnel

*7,932 US Army personnel

*96,047 US Navy (including 20,000+US Marines)

*19,969 Air Force

58,076 DOD civilian personnel

In California, as of 2000 there were 2,569,340 veterans of US military service: 504,010 served in World War II, 301,034 in the Korean War, 754,682 during the Vietnam War, and 278,003 during 1990–2000 (including the Persian Gulf War).

California's military forces consist of the Army and Air National Guard, the naval and state military reserve (militia), and the California Cadet Corps.

Languages

As of 2005, 57.6% of California residents age five and older spoke English as a first language at home, while 28.2% spoke Spanish. In addition to English and Spanish, 2.0% spoke Filipino, 1.6% spoke Chinese (which included Cantonese [0.6%] and Mandarin [0.4%]), 1.4% spoke Vietnamese, and 1.1% spoke Korean as their mother tongue. In total, 42.4% of the population spoke languages other than English. California was historically one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, and is home to more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in 6 language families. About half of the indigenous languages are no longer spoken, and all of California's living indigenous languages are endangered. There are some efforts toward language revitalization, such as for the Karuk language. The official language of California has been English since the passage of Proposition 63 in 1986. However, many state, city, and local government agencies still continue to print official public documents in numerous languages. For example, the California Department of Motor Vehicles offers the written exam for the standard C Class driver's license in 31 languages along with English, and the audio exam in 11 languages.

Culture

The culture of California is a Western culture and most clearly has its modern roots in the culture of the United States, but also, historically, many Hispanic influences. As a border and coastal state, Californian culture has been greatly influenced by several large immigrant populations, especially those from Latin America.

California has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a kind of paradise. In the early 20th Century, fueled by the efforts of state and local boosters, many Americans saw the Golden State as an ideal resort destination, sunny and dry all year round with easy access to the ocean and mountains. In the 1960s, popular music groups such as The Beach Boys promoted the image of Californians as laid-back, tanned beach-goers.

In terms of socio-cultural mores and national politics, Californians are perceived as more liberal than other Americans, especially those who live in the inland states. In some ways, California is the quintessential Blue State-- accepting of alternative lifestyles, not uniformly religious, and preoccupied with environmental issues.

The gold rush of the 1850s is still seen as a symbol of California's economic style, which tends to generate technology, social, entertainment, and economic fads and booms and related busts.

Religion

The largest religious denominations by number of adherents as a percentage of California's population in 2008 were the Catholic Church with 31 percent; Evangelical Protestants with 18 percent; and Mainline Protestants with 14 percent. Those unaffiliated with any religion represented 21 percent of the population.

The first priests to come to California were Roman Catholic missionaries from Spain. Roman Catholics founded 21 missions along the California coast, as well as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. California continues to have a large Roman Catholic population due to the large numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans living within its borders. California has twelve dioceses and two archdioceses, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the former being the largest archdiocese in the United States.

A Pew Research Center survey revealed that California is somewhat less religious than the rest of the US: 62 percent of Californians say they are "absolutely certain" of the belief in God, while in the nation 71 percent say so. The survey also revealed 48 percent of Californians say religion is "very important," compared to 56 percent nationally.

Economy

thumb|350px|Were California an independent country, its gross domestic product would be ranked [[Comparison between U.S. states and countries by GDP (PPP)|between eighth and eleventh in the world.]]

As of 2007, the gross state product (GSP) is about $1.812 trillion, the largest in the United States. California is responsible for 13 percent of the United States gross domestic product (GDP). As of 2006, California's GDP is larger than all but eight countries in the world (all but eleven countries by Purchasing Power Parity).

In terms of jobs, the five largest sectors in California are trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality. In terms of output, the five largest sectors are financial services, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; government; and manufacturing.

California currently has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation at 12.5% as of January 2010 and had continued to rise, up significantly from 5.9% in 2007.

California's economy is very dependent on trade and international related commerce accounts for approximately one-quarter of the state’s economy. In 2008, California exported $144 billion worth of goods, up from $134 billion in 2007 and $127 billion in 2006. Computers and electronic products are California's top export, accounting for 42 percent of all the state's exports in 2008.

Agriculture is an important sector in California's economy. Farming-related sales more than quadrupled over the past three decades, from $7.3 billion in 1974 to nearly $31 billion in 2004. This increase has occurred despite a 15 percent decline in acreage devoted to farming during the period, and water supply suffering from chronic instability. Factors contributing to the growth in sales-per-acre include more intensive use of active farmlands and technological improvements in crop production. In 2008, California's 81,500 farms and ranches generated $36.2 billion products revenue.

Per capita GDP in 2007 was $38,956, ranking eleventh in the nation. Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The Central Valley is the most impoverished, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. Recently, the San Joaquin Valley was characterized as one of the most economically depressed regions in the U.S., on par with the region of Appalachia. Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, have emerged from the economic downturn caused by the dot-com bust.

In 2010, there were more than 663,000 millionaires in the state, more than any other state in the nation.

State finances

California levies a 9.3 percent maximum variable rate income tax, with six tax brackets, collecting about $40 billion per year (representing approximately 51% of General Fund revenue and 40% of tax revenue overall in FY2007). California has a state sales tax of 8.25%, which can total up to 10.75% with local sales tax included. All real property is taxable annually, the tax based on the property's fair market value at the time of purchase or completion of new construction. Property tax increases are capped at 2% per year (see Proposition 13).

However, California is facing a $26.3 billion budget deficit for the 2009–2010 budget year. While the legislative bodies appeared to address the problem in 2008 with the three-month delayed passage of a budget they in fact only postponed the deficit to 2009 and due to the late 2008 decline in the economy and the credit crisis the problem became urgent in November 2008.

One potential problem is that a substantial portion of the state's income comes from income taxes on a small proportion of wealthy citizens. For example, it is estimated that in 2004 the richest 3% of state taxpayers (those with tax returns showing over 200K USD yearly income) paid approximately 60% of state income taxes. The taxable income of this population is highly dependent upon capital gains, which has been severely impacted by the stock market declines of this period. The governor has proposed a combination of extensive program cuts and tax increases to address this problem, but owing to longstanding problems in the legislature these proposals are likely to be difficult to pass as legislation.

State spending increased from $56 billion in 1998 to $131 billion in 2008, and the state was facing a budget deficit of $40 billion in 2008. California is facing another budget gap for 2010, with $72 billion in debt.

In 2009 the California economic crisis became severe as the state faced insolvency. In June 2009 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said "Our wallet is empty, our bank is closed and our credit is dried up." He called for massive budget cuts of $24 billion, about of the state's budget. Due to the high electricity demand, California imports more electricity than any other state, primarily hydroelectric power from states in the Pacific Northwest (via Path 15 and Path 66) and coal- and natural gas-fired production from the desert Southwest via Path 46.

As a result of the state's strong environmental movement, California has the some of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the United States, with a target for California to obtain a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020. Currently, several solar power plants such as the Solar Energy Generating Systems facility are located in the Mojave Desert. California's wind farms include Altamont Pass, San Gorgonio Pass, and Tehachapi Pass. And a number of dams across the state also provide hydro-electric power.

The state’s crude oil and natural gas deposits are located in the Central Valley and along the coast, including the large Midway-Sunset Oil Field. Natural gas-fired power plants typically account for more than one-half of State electricity generation.

California is also home to two major nuclear power plants: Diablo Canyon and San Onofre. However, voters banned the approval of new nuclear power plants since the late 1970s because of concerns over radioactive waste disposal. In addition, several cities such as Oakland, Berkeley and Davis have declared themselves as nuclear-free zones.

Transportation

California's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of controlled-access highways ('freeways'), limited-access roads ('expressways'), and highways. California is known for its car culture, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion. Construction and maintenance of state roads and statewide transportation planning are primarily the responsibility of the California Department of Transportation, nicknamed "Caltrans". The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks, and California has some of the worst roads in the United States. The Reason Foundation's 19th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems ranked California's highways the third-worst of any state, with Alaska second, and Rhode Island first.

One of the state's more visible landmarks, the Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937. With its orange paint and panoramic views of the bay, this highway bridge is a popular tourist attraction and also accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists. It is simultaneously designated as U.S. Route 101, which is part of the El Camino Real (Spanish for Royal Road or King's Highway), and State Route 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway. Another of the seven bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area is the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (often abbreviated the "Bay Bridge"), completed in 1936. This bridge transports approximately 280,000 vehicles per day on two-decks, with its two sections meeting at Yerba Buena Island.

Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state.

California also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland, fourth largest in the nation, handles trade from the Pacific Rim and delivers most of the ocean containers passing through Northern California to the entire USA.

The California Highway Patrol is the largest statewide police agency in the United States in terms of employment with over 10,000 employees, and perhaps the most legendary, especially because they have been featured in their own sitcom, CHiPs. They are responsible for providing any police-sanctioned service to anyone on California's state maintained highways and on state property.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is by far the largest in North America. By the end of 2009, the California DMV had 26,555,006 driver's licenses and ID cards on file. In 2010, there were 1.17 million new vehicle registrations in force.

Intercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak California, which manages the three busiest intercity rail lines in the U.S. outside the Northeast Corridor, all of which are funded by Caltrans. This service is becoming increasingly popular over flying and ridership is continuing to set records, especially on the LAX-SFO route. Integrated subway and light rail networks are found in Los Angeles (Metro Rail) and San Francisco (MUNI Metro). Light rail systems are also found in San Jose (VTA), San Diego (San Diego Trolley), Sacramento (RT Light Rail), and Northern San Diego County (Sprinter). Furthermore, commuter rail networks serve the San Francisco Bay Area (ACE, BART, Caltrain), Greater Los Angeles (Metrolink), and San Diego County (Coaster).

The California High-Speed Rail Authority was created in 1996 by the state to implement an extensive 700 mile (1127 km) rail system. Construction was approved by the voters during the November 2008 general election, a $9.95 billion state bond will go toward its construction. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own bus lines as well. Intercity bus travel is provided by Greyhound and Amtrak Thruway Coach.

In March 2011, California ranked as a top BEST state in the American State Litter Scorecard for overall effectiveness and quality of its public space cleanliness—-primarily roadway litter—from state and related debris removal efforts.

Government and politics

State government

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government — the executive branch consisting of the Governor and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification. California allows each political party to choose whether to have a closed primary or a primary where only party members and independents vote. The state's capital is Sacramento.

The Governor of California and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The California State Legislature consists of a 40-member Senate and 80-member Assembly. Senators serve four-year terms and Assembly members two. Members of the Assembly are subject to term limits of three terms, and members of the Senate are subject to term limits of two terms.

California's legal system is explicitly based upon English common law (as is the case with all other states except Louisiana) but carries a few features from Spanish civil law, such as community property. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country (though Texas is far more active in carrying out executions). California's "Death Row" is in San Quentin State Prison situated north of San Francisco in Marin County. Executions in California are currently on hold indefinitely as human rights issues are addressed. California's prison population grew from 25,000 in 1980 to over 170,000 in 2007.

California's judiciary is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). It is supervised by the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years.

Politics

+ Presidential elections results
! Year	Republican Party (United States)>Republican	Democratic Party (United States)>Democratic
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California has an idiosyncratic political culture compared to the rest of the country, and is sometimes regarded as a trendsetter. It was the second state to recall their state governor, the second state to legalize abortion, and the only state to ban marriage for gay couples twice by voters (including Proposition 8 in 2008). Voters also passed Proposition 71 in 2004 to fund stem cell research, and Proposition 14 in 2010 to completely change the state's primary election process. California has also experienced disputes over water rights; and a tax revolt, culminating with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, limiting state property taxes.

What has been consistent in the last few decades is that California politics has trended towards the Democratic Party and away from the Republican Party. From 1899 to 1939, California had Republican governors. Once very conservative, having elected Republicans until 1958, California is now a reliable liberal, Democratic state. Since 1990, California has generally elected Democratic candidates to federal, state and local offices, including current Governor Jerry Brown; however, the state has elected Republican Governors, though many of its Republican Governors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, tend to be considered "Moderate Republicans" and more centrist than the national party.

The Democrats also hold a majority in both houses of the state legislature. There are currently 52 Democrats and 27 Republicans in the Assembly; and 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans in the Senate.

The trend towards the Democratic Party is most obvious in presidential elections; the Democratic Party candidate has won California's electoral votes in the last five elections. Additionally, both the state's current Democratic U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein, a native and former mayor of San Francisco, and Barbara Boxer, a former congresswoman from Marin County, have held onto their seats since they were first elected in 1992.

In the U.S. House, the Democrats have held a 34–19 edge since the seating of the 110th United States Congress in 2007. As the result of gerrymandering, the districts in California are usually dominated by one or the other party with very few districts that could be considered competitive.

In general, Democratic strength is centered in coastal regions of Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Republican strength is still greatest in eastern parts of the state. Orange County also remains mostly Republican. One study ranked Berkeley, Oakland, Inglewood and San Francisco in the top 10 most liberal American cities; and Bakersfield and Orange in the top 10 most conservative cities.

Cities, towns and counties

:''For lists of cities, towns, and counties in California, see List of California counties, List of largest California cities by population, List of incorporated cities and towns in California, List of California urban areas, and California locations by per capita income.''

The state's local government is divided into 58 counties and 482 incorporated cities and towns; of which 460 are cities and 22 are towns. Under California law, the terms "city" and "town" are explicitly interchangeable; the name of an incorporated municipality in the state can either be "City of (Name)" or "Town of (Name)".

Sacramento became California's first incorporated city on February 27, 1850. San Jose, San Diego and Benicia tied for California's second incorporated city, each receiving incorporation on March 27, 1850. Jurupa Valley became the state's most recent and 482nd incorporated municipality on July 1, 2011.

The majority of these cities and towns are within one of five metropolitan areas. Sixty-eight percent of California's population lives in its three largest metropolitan areas, Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Riverside-San Bernardino Area. Although smaller, the other two large population centers are the San Diego and Greater Sacramento metro areas.

The state recognizes two kinds of cities: charter and general law. General law cities owe their existence to state law and are consequentially governed by it; charter cities are governed by their own city charters. Cities incorporated in the 19th century tend to be charter cities. All ten of the state's most populous cities are charter cities.

Education

Public secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages, and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires a minimum annual funding level for grades K-12 and community colleges that grows with the economy and student enrollment figures.

California had over 6.2 million school students in the 2005–06 school year. Funding and staffing levels in California schools lag behind other states. In expenditure per pupil, California ranked 29th (of the 50 states and the District of Columbia) in 2005–06. In teaching staff expenditure per pupil, California ranked 49th of 51. In overall teacher-pupil ratio, California was also 49th, with 21 students per teacher. Only Arizona and Utah were lower.

A 2007 study concluded that California's public school system was "broken".

California's public postsecondary education offers a unique three tiered system:

The research university system in the state is the University of California (UC), a public university system. There are ten general UC campuses, and a number of specialized campuses in the UC system.

The California State University (CSU) system has almost 450,000 students, making it the largest university system in the United States. It is intended to accept the top one-third of high school students. The 23 CSU schools are primarily intended for undergraduate education. The California Community Colleges System provides lower division coursework as well as basic skills and workforce training. It is the largest network of higher education in the US, composed of 110 colleges serving a student population of over 2.9 million.

California is also home to such notable private universities as Stanford University, the University of Southern California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Claremont Colleges. California has hundreds of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions.

Sports

California hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley Ski Resort, the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The NFL Super Bowl has been hosted in California 11 times at four different stadiums.

California has nineteen major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state. The San Francisco Bay Area has seven major league teams spread in three cities, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. While the Greater Los Angeles Area is home to ten major league franchises, it is also the largest metropolitan area not to have a team from the National Football League. San Diego has two major league teams, and Sacramento has one.

Home to some of the most prominent universities in the United States, California has long had many respected collegiate sports programs. California is home to the oldest college bowl game, the annual Rose Bowl, among others.

California has also long been a hub for motorsports and auto racing. The city of Long Beach holds an event every year in the month of April, which is host to IndyCar Series racing through the streets of downtown. Long Beach has hosted Formula One events there in the past, and also currently hosts an event on the American Le Mans Series schedule. Auto Club Speedway is a speedway in Fontana, and currently hosts one to two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races a year, and used to host CART Indycar races. Infineon Raceway in Sonoma is a multi-purpose facility, featuring a road course and a drag strip. The road course is home to a NASCAR event, an IndyCar event, and used to host an International Motor Sports Association sports car event. The drag strip hosts a yearly NHRA event. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a roadcourse that currently hosts an ALMS event, and formerly hosted CART events. The Auto Club Raceway at Pomona has hosted NHRA drag racing for over 50 years.

Below is a list of major sports teams in California:

! Club	! Sport	! League
Oakland Raiders	American football	National Football League
San Diego Chargers	American football	National Football League
San Francisco 49ers	American football	National Football League
Sacramento Mountain Lions	American football
Los Angeles Dodgers	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Oakland Athletics	Baseball	Major League Baseball
San Diego Padres	Baseball	Major League Baseball
San Francisco Giants	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Golden State Warriors	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Los Angeles Clippers	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Los Angeles Lakers	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Sacramento Kings	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Anaheim Ducks	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
Los Angeles Kings	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
San Jose Sharks	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
		Major League Soccer
Los Angeles Galaxy	Soccer	Major League Soccer
San Jose Earthquakes	Soccer	Major League Soccer
Los Angeles Sparks	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association
California Cougars	Soccer	Professional Arena Soccer League
FC Gold Pride	Soccer	Women's Professional Soccer
San Jose SaberCats	American football	Arena Football League

See also

List of National Register of Historic Places in California

List of people from California

List of places in California

Pacific Ocean

U.S. state

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

State of California

1973 documentary featuring aerial views of the California coastline from Mt. Shasta to Los Angeles

Time-Lapse Tilt-Shift Portrait of California by Ryan and Sheri Killackey

Category:Former Spanish colonies Category:States and territories established in 1850 Category:States of the United States Category:West Coast of the United States

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__NOTOC__

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Name	James Durbin
Residence	United Kingdom
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Field	statistics, econometrics
Work institutions	London School of Economics
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge
Known for	time series analysis, serial correlation
Prizes	Guy Medal in Gold (2008)
Signature	}}

James Durbin (born 1923) is a British statistician and econometrician, known particularly for his work on time series analysis and serial correlation.

He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge where his contemporaries included David Cox and Denis Sargan. He joined the London School of Economics in 1950 and was appointed professor of statistics in 1961, a post he held until his retirement in 1988.

He served as president of the International Statistical Institute in 1983–5 and of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) in 1986–7. In 2008 he was awarded the highest distinction of the RSS, the Guy Medal in Gold (having previously been awarded both the Silver and Bronze medals). The citation read: }}

See also

Durbin–Watson statistic

Durbin test

Notes

References

External links

James Durbin at Portraits of Statisticians

ISI Honorary Member Interviews: Professor James Durbin

Category:1923 births Category:Living people Category:British statisticians Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association Category:Winners of the Guy Medal in Gold Category:Winners of the Guy Medal in Silver Category:Winners of the Guy Medal in Bronze Category:Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society

pt:James Durbin

Charles Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Parker, with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, is widely considered to have been one of the most influential jazz musicians. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career and the shortened form "Bird" remained Parker's sobriquet for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology" and "Bird of Paradise."

Parker played a leading role in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuoso technique, and improvisation based on harmonic structure. Parker's innovative approaches to melody, rhythm, and harmony exercised enormous influence on his contemporaries. Several of Parker's songs have become standards, including "Billie's Bounce", "Anthropology", "Ornithology", and "Confirmation". He introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including a tonal vocabulary employing 9ths, 11ths and 13ths of chords, rapidly implied passing chords, and new variants of altered chords and chord substitutions. His tone was clean and penetrating, but sweet and plaintive on ballads. Although many Parker recordings demonstrate dazzling virtuosic technique and complex melodic lines – such as "Ko-Ko", "Kim", and "Leap Frog" – he was also one of the great blues players. His themeless blues improvisation "Parker's Mood" represents one of the most deeply affecting recordings in jazz. At various times, Parker fused jazz with other musical styles, from classical to Latin music, blazing paths followed later by others.

Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat generation, personifying the conception of the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual, rather than just a popular entertainer. His style – from a rhythmic, harmonic and soloing perspective – influenced countless peers on every instrument.

Biography

Childhood

Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Charles and Addie Parker. Charles, an alcoholic, was often absent. Parker attended Lincoln High School. He enrolled in September 1934 and withdrew in December 1935 about the time he joined the local Musicians Union.

Parker displayed no sign of musical talent as a child. His father presumably provided some musical influence; he was a pianist, dancer and singer on the T.O.B.A. circuit, although he later became a Pullman waiter or chef on the railways. His mother worked nights at the local Western Union. His biggest influence however was a young trombone player who taught him the basics of improvisation.

Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11 and at age 14 joined his school's band using a rented school instrument. One story holds that, without formal training, he was terrible, and thrown out of the band. Experiencing periodic setbacks of this sort, at one point he broke off from his constant practicing.

Early career

It has been said that, in early 1936, Parker participated in a cutting contest that included Jo Jones on drums, who tossed a cymbal at Parker in impatience with his playing. However, in the numerous interviews throughout his life, Jones made no mention of this incident. At this time Parker began to practice with great diligence and rigor, learning the blues, "Cherokee" and "rhythm changes" in all twelve keys. In this woodshedding period, Parker mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas of be-bop. In an interview with Paul Desmond, he said he spent 3–4 years practicing up to 15 hours a day. It has been said that he used to play many other tunes in all twelve keys. The story, though undocumented, would help to explain the fact that he often played in unconventional concert pitch key signatures, like E (which transposes to C# for the alto sax).

Groups led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten were the leading Kansas City ensembles, and undoubtedly influenced Parker. He continued to play with local bands in jazz clubs around Kansas City, Missouri, where he perfected his technique with the assistance of Buster Smith, whose dynamic transitions to double and triple time certainly influenced Parker's developing style.

In 1938, Parker joined pianist Jay McShann's territory band. The band toured nightclubs and other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago and New York City. Parker made his professional recording debut with McShann's band. It was said at one point in McShann's band that he "sounded like a machine", owing to his highly virtuosic yet nonetheless musical playing.

As a teenager, Parker developed a morphine addiction while in hospital after an automobile accident, and subsequently became addicted to heroin. Heroin would haunt him throughout his life and ultimately contribute to his death.

New York City

In 1939, Parker moved to New York City. There he pursued a career in music, but held several other jobs as well. He worked for $9 a week as a dishwasher at Jimmie's Chicken Shack where pianist Art Tatum performed. Parker's later style in some ways recalled Tatum's, with dazzling, high-speed arpeggios and sophisticated use of harmony.

In 1942, Parker left McShann's band and played with Earl Hines for one year. Also in the band was trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, which is where the soon to be famous duo met for the first time. Unfortunately, this period is virtually undocumented because of the strike of 1942–1943 by the American Federation of Musicians, during which no official recordings were made. Nevertheless, we know that Parker joined a group of young musicians in after-hours clubs in Harlem such as Clark Monroe's Uptown House and (to a much lesser extent) Minton's Playhouse. These young iconoclasts included Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian, and drummer Kenny Clarke. The beboppers' attitude was summed up in a famous quotation attributed to Monk by Mary Lou Williams: "We wanted a music that they couldn't play" – "they" being the (white) bandleaders who had taken over and profited from swing music. The group played in venues on 52nd Street including the Three Deuces and The Onyx. In his time in New York City, Parker also learned much from notable music teacher Maury Deutsch.

Bebop

According to an interview Parker gave in the 1950s, one night in 1939, he was playing "Cherokee" in a jam session with guitarist William 'Biddy' Fleet when he hit upon a method for developing his solos that enabled him to play what he had been hearing in his head for some time, by connecting harmony using the diminished relationship of dominants. Still with McShann's orchestra, Parker at this time realized that the twelve tones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing.

Early in its development, this new type of jazz was rejected by many of the established, traditional jazz musicians who disdained their younger counterparts with comments like Eddie Condon's putdown: "They flat their fifths, we drink ours." The beboppers, in response, called these traditionalists "moldy figs". However, some musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Goodman, were more positive about its development, and participated in jam sessions and recording dates in the new approach with its adherents.

Because of the 2-year Musicians' Union recording ban on all commercial recordings from 1942 to 1944 (part of a struggle to get royalties from record sales for a union fund for out-of-work musicians), much of bebop's early development was not captured for posterity. As a result, the new musical concepts only gained limited radio exposure. Bebop musicians had a difficult time gaining widespread recognition. It was not until 1945, when the recording ban was lifted, that Parker's collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and others had a substantial effect on the jazz world. One of their first (and greatest) small-group performances together was rediscovered and issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Bebop began to grab hold and gain wider appeal among musicians and fans alike.

On November 26, 1945, Parker led a record date for the Savoy label, marketed as the "greatest Jazz session ever." The tracks recorded during this session include "Ko-Ko" (based on the chords of "Cherokee"), "Now's the Time" (a twelve bar blues incorporating a riff later used in the late 1949 R&B; dance hit "The Hucklebuck"), "Billie's Bounce", and "Thriving on a Riff".

Shortly afterwards, the Parker/Gillespie band traveled to an unsuccessful engagement at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles. Most of the group returned to New York, but Parker remained in California, cashing in his return ticket to buy heroin. He experienced great hardship in California, eventually being committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital for a six month period.

Addiction

Parker's addiction to heroin, which began in his late teens, caused him to miss gigs and to be fired for being high. To satisfy his habit, he frequently resorted to busking on the streets for drug money, receiving loans from fellow musicians/admirers, pawning his own horn and borrowing other sax players' instruments as a result. Parker's situation was typical of the strong connection between drug abuse and jazz at the time.

Although he produced many brilliant recordings during this period, Parker's behavior became increasingly erratic due to his habit. Heroin was difficult to obtain after he moved to California for a short time where the drug was less abundant, and Parker began to drink heavily to compensate for this. A recording for the Dial label from July 29, 1946, provides evidence of his condition. Prior to this session, Parker drank about a quart of whiskey. According to the liner notes of ''Charlie Parker on Dial Volume 1'', Parker missed most of the first two bars of his first chorus on the track, "Max Making Wax." When he finally did come in, he swayed wildly and once spun all the way around, going badly off mic. On the next tune, "Lover Man", producer Ross Russell physically supported Parker in front of the microphone. On "Bebop" (the final track Parker recorded that evening) he begins a solo with a solid first eight bars. On his second eight bars, however, Parker begins to struggle, and a desperate Howard McGhee, the trumpeter on this session, shouts, "Blow!" at Parker. McGhee's bellow is audible on the recording. Charles Mingus considered this version of "Lover Man" to be among Parker's greatest recordings despite its flaws. Nevertheless, Parker hated the recording and never forgave Ross Russell for releasing the sub-par performance (and re-recorded the tune in 1951 for Verve, this time in stellar form, but perhaps lacking some of the passionate emotion in the earlier, problematic attempt).

During the night following the "Lover Man" session, Parker was drinking in his hotel room. He entered the hotel lobby stark naked on several occasions and asked to use the phone, but was refused on each attempt. The hotel manager eventually locked him in his room. At some point during the night, he set fire to his mattress with a cigarette, then ran through the hotel lobby wearing only his socks. He was arrested and committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where he remained for six months.

Coming out of the hospital, Parker was initially clean and healthy, and proceeded to do some of the best playing and recording of his career. Before leaving California, he recorded "Relaxin' at Camarillo", in reference to his hospital stay. He returned to New York – and his addiction – and recorded dozens of sides for the Savoy and Dial labels that remain some of the high points of his recorded output. Many of these were with his so-called "classic quintet" including trumpeter Miles Davis and drummer Max Roach.

Charlie Parker with strings

A longstanding desire of Parker's was to perform with a string section. He was a keen student of classical music, and contemporaries reported he was most interested in the music and formal innovations of Igor Stravinsky, and longed to engage in a project akin to what later became known as Third Stream Music, a new kind of music, incorporating both jazz and classical elements as opposed to merely incorporating a string section into performance of jazz standards. On November 30, 1949, Norman Granz arranged for Parker to record an album of ballads with a mixed group of jazz and chamber orchestra musicians. Six master takes from this session comprised the album ''Bird With Strings'': "Just Friends", "Everything Happens to Me", "April in Paris", "Summertime", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and "If I Should Lose You". The sound of these recordings is rare in Parker's catalog. Parker's improvisations are, in comparison to his usual work, more distilled and economical. His tone is darker and softer than on his small-group recordings, and the majority of his lines are beautiful embellishments on the original melodies rather than harmonically based improvisations. These are among the few recordings Parker made during a brief period when he was able to control his heroin habit, and his sobriety and clarity of mind are evident in his playing. Parker stated that, of his own records, ''Bird With Strings'' was his favorite. Although using classical music instrumentation with jazz musicians was not entirely original, this was the first major work where a composer of bebop was matched with a string orchestra.

Some fans thought this record was a sell out and a pandering to popular tastes. It is now seen to have been artistically as well as commercially successful. While ''Charlie Parker with Strings'' sold better than his other releases, Parker's version of "Just Friends" is regarded as one of his best performances. In an interview, Parker said he considered it to be his best recording to that date.

Prominence

thumb|right|Right side view of a [[C. G. Conn|Conn 6M "Lady Face" alto sax with highly distinctive underslung octave key, a model that Parker is known to have used. ]]

By 1950, much of the jazz world had fallen under Parker's spell. Many musicians transcribed and copied his solos. Legions of saxophonists imitated his playing note-for-note. In response to these pretenders, Parker's admirer, the bass player Charles Mingus, titled a tune "Gunslinging Bird" (meaning "If Charlie Parker were a gunslinger, there would be a whole lot of dead copycats") featured on the album ''Mingus Dynasty''. In this regard, he is perhaps only comparable to Louis Armstrong: both men set the standard for their instruments for decades, and few escaped their influence.

In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Bud Powell and Max Roach. Unfortunately, the concert clashed with a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott and as a result was poorly attended. Thankfully, Mingus recorded the concert, and the album ''Jazz at Massey Hall'' is often cited as one of the finest recordings of a live jazz performance, with the saxophonist credited as "Charlie Chan" for contractual reasons.

At this concert, he played a plastic Grafton saxophone (serial number 10265); later, saxophonist Ornette Coleman used this brand of plastic sax in his early career. There is a story that says Parker had sold his alto saxophone to buy drugs, and at the last minute, he, Dizzy Gillespie and other members of Charlie's entourage went running around Toronto trying to find Parker a saxophone. After scouring all the downtown pawnshops open at the time, they were only able to find a Grafton, which Parker proceeded to use at the concert that night. This account however is totally untrue. Parker in fact owned two of the Grafton plastic horns. At this point in his career he was experimenting with new sounds and new materials. Parker himself explains the purpose of the plastic saxophone in a May 9 of 1953 broadcast from Birdland and does so again in subsequent May 1953 broadcast.

Parker was known for often showing up to performances without an instrument, necessitating a loan at the last moment. There are various photos that show him playing a Conn 6M saxophone, a high quality instrument that was noted for having a very fast action and a unique "underslung" octave key.

Some of the photographs showing Parker with a Conn 6M were taken on separate occasions. because Parker can be seen wearing different clothing and there are different backgrounds. However, other photos exist that show Parker holding alto saxophones with a more conventional octave key arrangement, i.e. mounted above the crook of the saxophone e.g. the Martin Handicraft and Selmer Model 22 saxophones, among others. Parker is also known to have performed with a King 'Super 20' saxophone, with a semi-underslung octave key that bears some resemblance to those fitted on modern Yanagisawa instruments. Parker's King Super 20 saxophone was made specially for him in 1947.

Death

Parker died in the suite of his friend and patron Nica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City while watching ''The Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show'' on television. The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had had a heart attack. Any one of the four ailments could have killed him. The coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parker's 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age.

It was well known that Parker never wanted to return to Kansas City, even in death. Parker had told his common-law wife, Chan, that he did not want to be buried in the city of his birth; that New York was his home and he didn’t want any fuss or memorials when he died. At the time of his death, though, he had not divorced his previous wife Doris, nor had he officially married Chan, which left Parker in the awkward post-mortem situation of having two widows. This complicated the settling of Parker's inheritance and would ultimately serve to frustrate his wish to be quietly interred in his adopted hometown. Dizzy Gillespie was able to take charge of the funeral arrangements that Chan had been putting together and organised a ‘lying-in-state’, a Harlem procession officiated by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and a memorial concert before Parker's body was flown back to Missouri to be buried there in accordance with his mother's wishes. Parker was buried at Lincoln Cemetery, 8604 E. Truman Road, Kansas City, Missouri.

Charlie Parker was survived by both his legal wife, Doris (née Doris June Snyder, August 16, 1922 – January 17, 2000), and his partner, Chan; a stepdaughter, Kim, who is also a musician; and a son, Baird; their later lives are chronicled in Chan Parker's autobiography, ''My Life in E Flat''.

Parker's estate is managed by CMG Worldwide.

Music

Parker's style of composition involved interpolation of original melodies over pre-existing jazz forms and standards, a practice still common in jazz today. Examples include "Ornithology" ("How High The Moon") and "Yardbird Suite" ("What Price Love"). The practice was not uncommon prior to bebop; however, it became a signature of the movement as artists began to move away from arranging popular standards and began to compose their own material.

While tunes such as "Now's The Time", "Billie's Bounce", and "Cool Blues" were based on conventional 12-bar blues changes, Parker also created a unique version of the 12-bar blues for his tune "Blues for Alice". These unique chords are known popularly as "Bird Changes". Like his solos, some of his compositions are characterized by long, complex melodic lines and a minimum of repetition although he did employ the use of repetitive (yet relatively rhythmically complex) motifs in many other tunes as well, most notably "Now's The Time".

Parker also contributed a vast rhythmic vocabulary to the modern jazz solo, one in which triplets and pick-up notes were used in (then) unorthodox ways to lead into chord tones, affording the soloist with more freedom to use passing tones, which soloists would have previously avoided. Within this context, Parker was admired for his unique style of phrasing and innovative use of rhythm. Via his recordings and the popularity of the posthumously published ''Charlie Parker Omnibook'', Parker's uniquely identifiable vocabulary of "licks" and "riffs" dominated jazz for many years to come. Today his ideas are routinely analyzed by jazz students and are part of any player's basic jazz vocabulary.

Awards and recognitions

;Grammy Award {| class=wikitable |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| Charlie Parker Grammy Award History |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Result |- align=center | 1974 | Best Performance By A Soloist | ''First Recordings!'' | Jazz | Onyx | Winner |}

;Grammy Hall of Fame Recordings of Charlie Parker were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;"| Charlie Parker: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Year Inducted |- align=center | 1945 | "Billie's Bounce" | Jazz (Single) | Savoy | 2002 |- align=center | 1953 | ''Jazz at Massey Hall'' | Jazz (Album) | Debut | 1995 |- align=center | 1946 | "Ornithology" | Jazz (Single) | Dial | 1989 |- align=center | 1950 | ''Charlie Parker with Strings'' | Jazz (Album) | Mercury | 1988 |}

;Inductions {| class=wikitable |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| |- ! Year Inducted ! Title |- align=center | 2004 | Jazz at Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame |- align=center | 1984 | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award |- align=center | 1979 | Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame |}

;National Recording Registry

In 2002, the Library of Congress honored his recording "Ko-Ko" (1945) by adding it to the National Recording Registry.

;U.S. Postage Stamp

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"| |- ! Year Issued ! Stamp ! USA ! Note |- align=center | 1995 | 32 cents Commemorative stamp | U.S. Postal Stamps | Photo (Scott #2987) |}

Musical tributes

Lennie Tristano's overdubbed solo piano piece "Requiem" was recorded in tribute to Parker shortly after his death. It begins with a classically-tinged introduction, and then turns into a slow blues that gradually accumulates layers of overdubbing – one of the earliest experiments in jazz with multiple overdubbing.

Deeply touched by Charlie Parker's death, street musician Moondog wrote his famous "Bird's Lament" in his memory. Moondog affirmed that he had met Charlie Parker in the streets of New York and that they had planned to jam together.

The Californian ensemble Supersax harmonized many of Parker's improvisations for a five-piece saxophone section, which to many listeners bring new life to them, whereas others consider the arrangements as somewhat constructed.

Saxophonist Phil Woods recorded a tribute concert for Parker, and in an interview stated that he thought Parker had said everything he needed to say.

Weather Report's jazz fusion track and highly acclaimed big band standard "Birdland", from the ''Heavy Weather'' album (1977), was a dedication by bandleader Joe Zawinul to both Charlie Parker and the New York 52nd Street club itself. The piece featured Jaco Pastorius playing electric fretless bass. (Pastorius had made a name for himself when he included on his debut solo album an astounding rendition of the Charlie Parker and Miles Davis standard "Donna Lee".) The Manhattan Transfer made a vocalese cover version of the composition with lyrics by Jon Hendricks.

In 2003 various artists including Serj Tankian and Dan the Automator put out Bird Up: The Charlie Parker Remix Project. This album created new songs by remixing Charlie Parker's originals.

The biographical song "Parker's Band" was recorded by Steely Dan on its 1974 album ''Pretzel Logic''.

British jazz-rock band If paid tribute to Parker in the title track of their last album, ''Tea Break Over, Back on Your 'Eads'' (1975), including a Parker-styled saxophone solo and the lyrics "The Bird was the man to be heard" and "The music was the word".

The avant-garde trombonist George Lewis recorded ''Homage to Charles Parker'' (1979), an album that offers a unique combination of electronic music and the blues.

TISM's ''The White Albun'' (2004) contains the song "Tonight Harry's Practice Visits the Home of Charlie 'Bird' Parker". The song focuses on celebrity resentment and the possibility that taking drugs will make the otherwise dull celebrities more interesting. The title of the song refers to Australian television show Harry's Practice and, more specifically, the segment where Dr. Harry Cooper would visit a celebrity, in this case, the visit is to Charlie "Bird" Parker's house.

Sparks released the song "(When I Kiss You) I Hear Charlie Parker Playing" on their 1994 album ''Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins'', which prominently features Charlie Parker's name in the lyrics and makes references to his saxophone playing.

Duane Allman devised a unique slide guitar technique that enabled him to mimic the sounds of chirping birds, stating in at least one interview that this was his tribute to Parker. This can be heard in numerous live recordings, most notably "Mountain Jam" on The Allman Brothers Band's CDs ''Eat a Peach'' and ''The Fillmore Concerts'' (shortly before the drum interlude). Another, more delicate, version is in the song "Finding Her" on Boz Scaggs' self-titled debut album, first released in 1969. This technique can also be heard at the end of Derek & the Dominos 1970 hit "Layla" on which Allman played.

''The Only World'' by poet Lynda Hull includes the poem "Ornithology" about Charlie Parker.

The poem "Song for Bird and Myself" by Jack Spicer was written in memory of Charlie Parker.

The song Jack & Neal/California, Here I Come, on the album Foreign Affairs by Tom Waits has a line that goes: with charlie parker on the bandstand not a worry in the world.

In the song "Can't Stop" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, the lyrics refer to Parker with the line "birds that blow the meaning into bebop."

Richard Thompson references Charlie Parker in his song "Outside of the Inside" on the album ''The Old Kit Bag'' (2005).

Charlie Parker is referenced in the song "Rothko Chapel" by David Dondero on the album ''Simple Love'' (2007).

Harry Chapin references Charlie Parker in the song 'There Only Was One Choice' from the 'Dance Band On The Titanic' album.

Refused included live recordings of Parker at the end of the song "Liberation Frequency" and transitioned it into "The Deadly Rhythm" on the album ''The Shape of Punk to Come''.

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
name	Charlie Parker Residence
nrhp type	nrhp
locmapin	New York City
lat degrees	40
lat minutes	43
lat seconds	36
lat direction	N
long degrees	73
long minutes	58
long seconds	50
long direction	W
coord parameters	region:US-NY_type:landmark
location	151 Avenue BManhattan, New York City
built	c.1849
architecture	Gothic Revival
added	April 7, 1994
designated nrhp type	April 7, 1994
refnum	94000262
governing body	private
designated other2 name	NYC Landmark
designated other2 date	May 18, 1999
designated other2 abbr	NYCL
designated other2 link	New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
designated other2 color	#ff0000 }}

Charlie Parker Residence

From 1950 to 1954, Parker and his common-law wife, Chan Richardson, lived in the ground floor of the townhouse at 151 Avenue B, between East 9th and 10th Streets across from Tompkins Square Park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The Gothic Revival building, which was built c.1849, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and was designated a New York City landmark in 1999. In addition, in 1992, Avenue B between East 7th and 10th Streets was renamed Charlie Parker Place in 1992.

Other tributes

In 1949, the New York night club Birdland was named in his honor. Three years later, George Shearing wrote "Lullaby of Birdland", named for both Parker and the nightclub.

A memorial to Parker was dedicated in 1999 in Kansas City at 17th Terrace and The Paseo, near the American Jazz Museum located at 18th and Vine, featuring a tall bronze head sculpted by Robert Graham.

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is a free two-day music festival which takes place every summer on the last weekend of August in Manhattan, New York City at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and Tompkins Square Park in the Lower East Side, sponsored by the non-profit organization City Parks Foundation. The festival marked its 17th anniversary in 2009.

Every August, the Tribes Gallery in New York's Lower East Side sponsors a Charlie Parker Festival that includes musical performances, art exhibits, poetry readings.

Every weekday morning, disc jockey Phil Schaap plays Parker's music on WKCR in New York. His show, called ''Birdflight'', is devoted to Parker's music and has been running since 1981.

In one of his most famous short-story collections, ''Las armas secretas'' (The Secret Weapons), Julio Cortázar dedicated "''El perseguidor''" ("The Pursuer") to the memory of Charlie Parker. This piece examines the last days of Johnny, a drug-addict saxophonist, through the eyes of Bruno, his biographer. Some qualify this story as one of Cortazar's masterpieces in the genre.

A biographical film called ''Bird'', starring Forest Whitaker as Parker and directed by Clint Eastwood, was released in 1988.

In 1984, legendary modern dance choreographer Alvin Ailey created the piece ''For Bird – With Love'' in honor of Parker. The piece chronicles his life, from his early career to his failing health.

In 2005, the Selmer Paris saxophone manufacturer commissioned a special "Tribute to Bird" alto saxophone, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Charlie Parker (1955–2005). This saxophone will be built until 2010, each one featuring a unique engraving and an original design.

Parker's performances of "I Remember You" and "Parker's Mood" were selected by Harold Bloom for inclusion on his short list of the "twentieth-century American Sublime", the greatest works of American art produced in the 20th century.

Parker is referenced in Jack Kerouac's ''On the Road'' as being a major influence of the Bop movement, at the time, Kerouacs character watches a performance of Parker at a club in downtown Chicago

The Oris Watch Company created a limited edition timepiece in Charlie Parker's name. The watch features the word "bird" at the 4 o'clock hour, in honor of Parker's nickname and signifying "Jazz, until 4 in the morning".

Jean-Michel Basquiat created many pieces to honour Charlie Parker, including ''Charles the First'', ''CPRKR'' and ''Discography I''.

The main character in Jim Jarmusch's ''Permanent Vacation'' is an avid Parker fan.

In 1995, ''Live Bird'', a one-man play about Charlie Parker, written and performed by actor/saxophonist Jeff Robinson, made its premier at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts.

A ''Far Side'' cartoon published on Parker's birthday in 1990 titled "Charlie Parker's private hell" shows him locked in a recording booth, screaming, while a whistling devil pipes in nothing but new age music.

Charley Parker, the real name of comic book character Golden Eagle, is a reference to Parker.

In an episode of ''Cowboy Bebop'', Jet Black dreams that Parker tells him, "Only hands can wash hands. If you want to receive, you have to give."

In an episode of ''Metalocolypse'' William Murderface of the band Dethklok is heard to be singing his own tribute to Charlie Parker while drunk in a bar in the opening minutes of an episode. The lyrics included "Stand up U.S.A, stand up like Charlie Parker stood up, stand up Charlie Parker style..."

Owen Dodson wrote a poem whose title itself indicates the tribute. It is called "Yardbird's Skull".

On the Del Close recording ''How to Speak Hip'', John Brent's character, Geets Romo, says it is "uncool to claim you used to run with Bird, or that you have Bird's ax, and you know, it's even less cool to ask, 'Who is Bird?'" This is also sampled in the 1994 Hans Dulfer song "Jazz Disaster (Cool)".

Parker plays at a night club in ''The Subterraneans'' by Jack Kerouac. He appears in other works by Kerouac as well.

In episode 16 of ''The Mighty Boosh'', Charlie Parker's rare "Yardbird" LP can be seen on one of the racks in the Nabootique.

The protagonist in John Connolly's series of crime novels is named Charlie Parker and even shares the nickname "Bird."

Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, wrote a children's book entitled "Ode to a High Flying Bird" as a tribute to Parker. Watts has cited Parker as a major influence in his life as a young man learning to play jazz.

Spanish Rock Band Saratoga wrote a song named "Charlie se fue"(Charlie is gone) as a tribute to Charlie Parker. It is included in its 1999 album ''Vientos de Guerra''. In the beginning of the song it says: ''"Antes que Malcom y King, que Lennon, en Kansas City surgio la estrella."'' ("Before Malcolm and King, before Lennon, in Kansas City arose the Star")

Notes

References

Aebersold, Jamey, editor (1978). ''Charlie Parker Omnibook''. New York: Michael H. Goldsen.

Giddins, Gary (1987). ''Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker''. New York: Beech Tree Books, William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-05950-3.

Koch, Lawrence (1999). ''Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker''. Boston, Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55555-384-1.

Reisner, George (1962). ''Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker''. New York, Bonanza Books.

Russell, Ross (1973). ''Bird Lives! The High Life & Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker''. New York:Charterhouse. ISBN 0-306-80679-7.

Woideck, Carl (1998). ''Charlie Parker: His Music and Life''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08555-7.

Woideck, Carl, editor (1998). ''The Charlie Parker Companion: Six Decades of Commentary''. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-864714-9.

Yamaguchi, Masaya, editor (1955). ''Yardbird Originals''. New York: Charles Colin, 2005. Originally published in 1955.

External links

Charlie Parker discography at Discogs

Charlie Parker discography

Charlie Parker Sessionography

The Official Site of Charlie "Yardbird" Parker

Clips and notes about Parker

Charlie Parker at Find A Grave

Camarillo State Mental Hospital History (Parker was a patient there)

Category:1920 births Category:1955 deaths Category:People from Kansas City, Kansas Category:African American musicians Category:American buskers Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz saxophonists Category:Bebop saxophonists Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York Category:Jazz alto saxophonists Category:Musicians from Missouri Category:Savoy Records artists

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Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
name	Chet Baker
background	solo_singer
birth name	Chesney Henry Baker, Jr.
born	December 23, 1929Yale, Oklahoma, U.S.
died	Amsterdam, Netherlands
instrument	TrumpetVocalsFlugelhornPiano
genre	West Coast Jazz
occupation	TrumpeterJazz singer
years active	1949–1988
associated acts	Gerry MulliganArt Pepper
notable instruments	}}

Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer. Though his music earned him a large following (particularly albums featuring his vocals, such as ''Chet Baker Sings''), Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit." He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Biography

Early days

Baker was born and raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma; his father was a professional guitar player. Baker began his musical career singing in a church choir. His father introduced him to brass instruments with a trombone, which was replaced with a trumpet when the trombone proved too large.

Baker received some musical education at Glendale Junior High School, but left school at age 16 in 1946 to join the United States Army. He was posted to Berlin where he joined the 298th Army band. Leaving the army in 1948, he studied theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles. He dropped out in his second year, however, re-enlisting in the army in 1950. Baker once again obtained a discharge from the army to pursue a career as a professional musician. Baker became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, but was soon spending time in San Francisco jazz clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk.

Career breakthrough

Baker's earliest notable professional gigs were with saxophonist Vido Musso's band, and also with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, though he earned much more renown in 1951 when he was chosen by Charlie Parker to play with him for a series of West Coast engagements.

In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which was an instant phenomenon. Several things made the Mulligan/Baker group special, the most prominent being the interplay between Mulligan's baritone sax and Baker's trumpet. Rather than playing identical melody lines in unison like bebop giants Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the two would complement each other's playing with contrapuntal touches, and it often seemed as if they had telepathy in anticipating what the other was going to play next. The Quartet's version of "My Funny Valentine", featuring a memorable Baker solo, was a major hit, and became a song with which Baker was intimately associated.

The Quartet found success quickly, but lasted less than a year because of Mulligan's arrest and imprisonment on drug charges. In 1953, Pacific Jazz released ''Chet Baker Sings'', a record that increased his profile but alienated traditional jazz fans; he would continue to sing throughout his career. Baker formed quartets with Russ Freeman in 1953-54 with bassists Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, and Jimmy Bond and drummers Shelly Manne, Larry Bunker, and Bob Neel. The quartet was successful in their three live sets in 1954. In that year, Baker won the ''Downbeat'' Jazz Poll. Because of his chiseled features, Hollywood studios approached Baker and he made his acting debut in the film ''Hell's Horizon'', released in the fall of 1955. He declined an offer of a studio contract, preferring life on the road as a musician. Over the next few years, Baker fronted his own combos, including a 1955 quintet featuring Francy Boland, where Baker combined playing trumpet and singing. He became an icon of the West Coast "cool school" of jazz, helped by his good looks and singing talent. Baker's 1956 recording, released for the first time in its entirety in 1989 as ''The Route'', with Art Pepper helped further the West Coast jazz sound and became a staple of cool jazz.

Drug addiction and decline

Baker was a heroin user from the 1950s for the remainder of his life, and eventually saw his musical career decline as a result. At times, Baker pawned his instruments for money to maintain his drug habit. In the early 1960s, he served more than a year in prison in Italy on drug charges; he was later expelled from both West Germany and the UK for drug-related offenses. Baker was eventually deported from West Germany to the United States after running afoul of the law there a second time. He settled in Milpitas in northern California where he played in San Jose and San Francisco between short jail terms served for prescription fraud.

In 1966, Baker was savagely beaten (allegedly while attempting to buy drugs) after a gig in San Francisco, sustaining severe cuts on the lips and broken front teeth, which ruined his embouchure. He stated in the film ''Let's Get Lost'' that an acquaintance attempted to rob him one night but backed off, only to return the next night with a group of several men who chased him. He landed finally in a car where he was surrounded. Instead of rescuing him, the people inside the car pushed him back out onto the street where the chase by his attackers continued, and subsequently, he was beaten to the point that his teeth, never in good condition to begin with, were knocked out, leaving him without the ability to play his horn. He took odd jobs, among them pumping gas. Meanwhile he was fitted for dentures and worked on his embouchure. Three months later he got a gig in New York.

Between 1966 and 1974, Baker mostly played flugelhorn and recorded music that could mostly be classified as West Coast Jazz.

Comeback and later career

After developing a new embouchure resulting from dentures, Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career, relocating to New York City and began performing and recording again, notably with guitarist Jim Hall. Later in the seventies, Baker returned to Europe where he was assisted by his friend Diane Vavra, who took care of his personal needs and otherwise helped him during his recording and performance dates.

From 1978 until his death, Baker resided and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA roughly once per year for a few performance dates. Baker's most prolific era as a recording artist was 1978-88. However, as his extensive output is strewn across numerous, mostly small European labels, none of these recordings ever reached a wider audience, even though many of them were well-received by critics, who maintain that the period was one of Baker's most mature and rewarding. Of particular importance are Baker's quartet featuring the pianist Phil Markowitz (1978–80) and his trio with guitarist Philip Catherine and bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse (1983–85). He also toured with saxophonist Stan Getz during this period.

In 1983, British singer Elvis Costello, a longtime fan of Baker, hired the trumpeter to play a solo on his song "Shipbuilding", from the album ''Punch the Clock''. The song was a top 40 hit in the UK, and exposed Baker's music to a new audience. Later, Baker often featured Costello's song "Almost Blue" (inspired by Baker's version of "The Thrill Is Gone") in his live sets, and recorded the song on ''Let's Get Lost'', a documentary film about his life.

The video material recorded by Japanese television during Baker's 1987 tour in Japan showed a man whose face looked much older than he was; but his trumpet playing was alert, lively and inspired. Fans and critics alike agree that the live album ''Chet Baker in Tokyo'', recorded less than a year before his death and released posthumously, ranks among Baker's very best. "Silent Nights", another critically acclaimed release, and Baker's only recording of Christmas music, was recorded with Christopher Mason in New Orleans in 1986 and released in 1987.

Chet Baker's compositions included "Chetty's Lullaby", "Freeway", "Early Morning Mood", "Two a Day", "So Che Ti Perderò" ("I Know I Will Lose You"), "Il Mio Domani" ("My Tomorrow"), "Motivo Su Raggio Di Luna" ("Tune on a Moon Beam"), "The Route", "Skidadidlin'", "New Morning Blues", "Blue Gilles", "Dessert", and "Anticipated Blues".

Death

At about 3:00 am on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on Prins Hendrikkade, near Zeedijk, on the street below his second-story room (Room 210) of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room, and an autopsy also found these drugs in his body. There was no evidence of a struggle, and the death was ruled an accident.

Baker's body was brought home for interment in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. A plaque outside the Hotel Prins Hendrik now memorializes him.

Legacy

Jeroen de Valk has written a biography of Baker which is available in several languages: ''Chet Baker: His Life and Music'' is the English translation, ''Chet Baker: Herinneringen aan een lyrisch trompettist'' (remembrances of a lyrical trumpet player) is the Dutch edition (updated and expanded in 2007), and it is also published in Japan and Germany. James Gavin has also written a biography: ''Deep In A Dream — The Long Night of Chet Baker''. Baker's "lost memoirs" are available in the book ''As Though I Had Wings'', which includes an introduction by Carol Baker. A new biography, "Funny Valentine", will be published in the summer of 2012. Written by Hong Kong-based author, Matthew Ruddick, it will be published by Melrose Books.

Baker was immortalized by the photographer William Claxton in his book ''Young Chet: The Young Chet Baker''. An Academy Award-nominated 1988 documentary about Baker, ''Let's Get Lost'', portrays him as a cultural icon of the 1950s, but juxtaposes this with his later image as a drug addict. The film, directed by fashion photographer Bruce Weber, was shot in black-and-white and includes a series of interviews with friends, family (including his three children by third wife Carol Baker), associates and women friends, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life, and with interviews with Baker from his last years.

''Time after Time: The Chet Baker Project'', written by playwright James O'Reilly, toured Canada in 2001 to much acclaim. The musical play ''Chet Baker - Speedball'', explores aspects of his life and music, and was premiered in London at the Oval House Theatre in February 2007, with further development of the script and performances leading to its revival at the 606 Club in the London Jazz Festival of November 2007.

Baker was reportedly the inspiration for the character Chad Bixby, played by Robert Wagner in the 1960 film ''All the Fine Young Cannibals''. Another film, to be titled ''Prince of Cool'', about Baker's life, was cancelled as of January 2008.

Honors

In 1987 he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

In 1989 he was elected to Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame by that magazine's Critics Poll.

In 1991 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.

In 2005 Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and the Oklahoma House of Representatives proclaimed July 2 as “Chet Baker Day”.

A group of musicians from Northern Norway performed a 'Chet Baker Tribute' at the Jazz Utsav in Bandra, Mumbai.

Wordpress 2.8 version, released on 10 June 2009, has been called "Baker" in honor of the trumpeter.

Discography

References

External links

Chet Baker Foundation

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Baker, Chet

Category:1929 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Cool jazz musicians Category:Cool jazz trumpeters Category:American jazz singers Category:American jazz trumpeters Category:Musicians from Oklahoma Category:Accidental deaths in the Netherlands Category:Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery Category:SteepleChase Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Enja Records artists Category:Prestige Records artists Category:Timeless Records artists Category:EmArcy Records artists Category:Verve Records artists Category:Galaxy Records artists Category:Riverside Records artists

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