Davis may refer to:

Davis (surname), a Welsh surname meaning 'son of David'

Davis Bertans (born 1992), a Latvian professional basketball player

Davis Bloome, fictional character in ''Smallville''

Davis Cup, premier international team event in men's tennis

Davis LLP, Canadian law firm

Davis Motomiya, fictional character in ''Digimon''

Davis Quinton, fictional character in ''Corner Gas''

University of California, Davis, also known as "UC Davis"

Georgie Davis, Dutch singer, artist name of Kees Rietveld

;Places:

Antarctica

* Davis Station, Australian base

Canada

* Davis, Saskatchewan

United States

* Davis, California, the largest city with the name

* Davis, Illinois

* Davis, Massachusetts, abandoned mining village

* Davis, Oklahoma

* Davis, South Dakota

* Davis, West Virginia

* Hopeful, Alabama, formerly Davis

* Train stations

**Davis (CTA), elevated public transit station in Evanston, Illinois

**Evanston Davis Street (Metra), commuter railroad station in Evanston, Illinois

**Davis (MBTA station), subway station in Somerville, Massachusetts

See also[link]

Mount Davis (disambiguation)

David (disambiguation)

Category:Place name disambiguation pages

bg:Дейвис cs:Davis es:Davis fa:دیویس fr:Davis ko:데이비스 it:Davis lv:Davis nl:Davis ja:デービス pl:Davis pt:Davis ru:Дэвис fi:Davis zh-yue:戴維斯 zh:戴維斯 simple:Davis

Name	Henry Ford
Birth date	July 30, 1863
Birth place	Greenfield Township, Michigan, U.S.
Death date	April 07, 1947
Death place	Fair Lane, Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Business, Engineering
Spouse	Clara Jane Bryant
Parents	William Ford and Mary Ford
Children	Edsel Ford
Religion	Protestant Episcopal
Networth	$188.1 billion, based on information from Forbes, February 2008.
Signature	Henry Ford Signature.svg }}

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. Ford spent most of his life making headlines, good, bad, but never indifferent. Celebrated as both a technological genius and a folk hero, Ford was the creative force behind an industry of unprecedented size and wealth that in only a few decades permanently changed the economic and social character of the United States. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation but arranged for his family to control the company permanently.

Ford was also widely known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I and for being the publisher of antisemitic texts such as the book ''The International Jew''.

Early years[link]

Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Greenfield Township (near Detroit, Michigan). His father, William Ford (1826–1905), was born in County Cork, Ireland, of a family originally from western England, who were among migrants to Ireland as the English created plantations. His mother, Mary Litogot Ford (1839–1876), was born in Michigan; she was the youngest child of Belgian immigrants; her parents died when Mary was a child and she was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns. Henry Ford's siblings include Margaret Ford (1867–1938); Jane Ford (c. 1868–1945); William Ford (1871–1917) and Robert Ford (1873–1934).

His father gave him a pocket watch in his early teens. At 15, Ford dismantled and reassembled the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch repairman. At twenty, Ford walked four miles to their Episcopal church every Sunday.

Ford was devastated when his mother died in 1876. His father expected him to eventually take over the family farm, but he despised farm work. He later wrote, "I never had any particular love for the farm—it was the mother on the farm I loved."

In 1879, he left home to work as an apprentice machinist in the city of Detroit, first with James F. Flower & Bros., and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Co. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on the family farm, where he became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine. He was later hired by Westinghouse company to service their steam engines. During this period Ford also studied bookkeeping at Goldsmith, Bryant & Stratton Business College in Detroit.

Marriage and family[link]

Ford married Clara Ala Bryant (1866–1950) in 1888 and supported himself by farming and running a sawmill. They had one child: Edsel Ford (1893–1943).

Career[link]

In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company. After his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on gasoline engines. These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of a self-propelled vehicle which he named the Ford Quadricycle. He test-drove it on June 4. After various test-drives, Ford brainstormed ways to improve the Quadricycle.

Also in 1896, Ford attended a meeting of Edison executives, where he was introduced to Thomas Edison. Edison approved of Ford's automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford designed and built a second vehicle, completing it in 1898. Backed by the capital of Detroit lumber baron William H. Murphy, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company on August 5, 1899. However, the automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Ford wanted. Ultimately, the company was not successful and was dissolved in January 1901.

With the help of C. Harold Wills, Ford designed, built, and successfully raced a 26-horsepower automobile in October 1901. With this success, Murphy and other stockholders in the Detroit Automobile Company formed the Henry Ford Company on November 30, 1901, with Ford as chief engineer. In 1902, Murphy brought in Henry M. Leland as a consultant; Ford, in response, left the company bearing his name. With Ford gone, Murphy renamed the company the Cadillac Automobile Company.

Teaming up with former racing cyclist Tom Cooper, Ford also produced the 80+ horsepower racer "999" which Barney Oldfield was to drive to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomson, a Detroit-area coal dealer. They formed a partnership, "Ford & Malcomson, Ltd." to manufacture automobiles. Ford went to work designing an inexpensive automobile, and the duo leased a factory and contracted with a machine shop owned by John and Horace E. Dodge to supply over $160,000 in parts. Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the Dodge brothers demanded payment for their first shipment.

Ford Motor Company[link]

In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced the Dodge Brothers to accept a portion of the new company. Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903, with $28,000 capital. The original investors included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle John S. Gray, Malcolmson's secretary James Couzens, and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson and Horace Rackham. Ford then demonstrated a newly-designed car on the ice of Lake St. Clair, driving 1 mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds and setting a new land speed record at 91.3 miles per hour (147.0 km/h). Convinced by this success, the race driver Barney Oldfield, who named this new Ford model "999" in honor of the fastest locomotive of the day, took the car around the country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford also was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500.

Model T[link]

The Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908. It had the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was very simple to drive, and easy and cheap to repair. It was so cheap at $825 in 1908 ($}} today) (the price fell every year) that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T.

Ford created a massive publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in virtually every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but the very concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and to encourage exploring the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked on the vehicle as a commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed—several years posted 100% gains on the previous year. Always on the hunt for more efficiency and lower costs, in 1913 Ford introduced the moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and its development came from employees Clarence Avery, Peter E. Martin, Charles E. Sorensen, and C. Harold Wills. (See Piquette Plant)

Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000. (Using the consumer price index, this price was equivalent to $7,020 in 2008 dollars.)

By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T's. However, it was a monolithic black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black". Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model T's were available in other colors, including red. The design was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years. This record was achieved in just 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908).

President Woodrow Wilson asked Ford to run as a Democrat for the United States Senate from Michigan in 1918. Although the nation was at war, Ford ran as a peace candidate and a strong supporter of the proposed League of Nations.

Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son Edsel Ford in December 1918. Henry, however, retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed his son. Henry started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.

By the mid-1920s, sales of the Model T began to decline due to rising competition. Other auto makers offered payment plans through which consumers could buy their cars, which usually included more modern mechanical features and styling not available with the Model T. Despite urgings from Edsel, Henry steadfastly refused to incorporate new features into the Model T or to form a customer credit plan.

Model A and Ford's later career[link]

By 1926, flagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Henry to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of technical expertise in design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission.

The result was the successful Ford Model A, introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of more than 4 million. Subsequently, the Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors (and still in use by automakers today). Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned Universal Credit Corporation became a major car-financing operation.

Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of the world's largest fortunes without ever having his company audited under his administration.

Labor philosophy[link]

The five-dollar workday[link]

Ford was a pioneer of "welfare capitalism", designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers.

Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 per day wage ($}} today), which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers. A Cleveland, Ohio newspaper editorialized that the announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression." The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant turnover of employees, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers. It also set a new, reduced workweek, although the details vary in different accounts. Ford and Crowther in 1922 described it as six 8-hour days, giving a 48-hour week, while in 1926 they described it as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week. (Apparently the program started with Saturdays as workdays and sometime later it was changed to a day off.)

Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers. Ford's policy proved, however, that paying people more would enable Ford workers to afford the cars they were producing and be good for the economy. Ford explained the policy as profit-sharing rather than wages. It may have been Couzens who convinced Ford to adopt the $5 day.

The profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and what might today be called "deadbeat dads". The Social Department used 50 investigators, plus support staff, to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing."

Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and of the private conditions for profit-sharing in the past tense, and admitted that "paternalism has no place in industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, oftentimes special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But the broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify industry and strengthen organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment."

Labor unions[link]

Ford was adamantly against labor unions. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of ''My Life and Work''. He thought they were too heavily influenced by some leaders who, despite their ostensible good motives, would end up doing more harm than good for workers. Most wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for any economic prosperity to exist.

He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the larger economy and thus grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a perverse incentive to foment perpetual socio-economic crisis as a way to maintain their own power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their own profits. (Ford did acknowledge, however, that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact.) But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he could fend off the attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing.

To forestall union activity, Ford promoted Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, to head the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to squash union organizing. The most famous incident, on May 26, 1937, involved Bennett's security men beating with clubs UAW representatives, including Walter Reuther. While the Bennett's men were beating the UAW representatives, the supervising police chief on the scene was Carl Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett’s Service Department, and [Brooks] "did not give orders to intervene." The incident became known as The Battle of the Overpass.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel (who was president of the company) thought Ford had to come to some sort of collective bargaining agreement with the unions because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Henry (who still had the final veto in the company on a ''de facto'' basis even if not an official one) refused to cooperate. For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions that were trying to organize the Ford Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir makes clear that Henry's purpose in putting Bennett in charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached.

The Ford Motor Company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the United Auto Workers union (UAW). A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the River Rouge Plant. Sorensen recounted that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up the company rather than cooperate but that his wife Clara told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. She wanted to see their son and grandsons lead it into the future. Henry complied with his wife's ultimatum. Overnight, the Ford Motor Co. went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms. The contract was signed in June 1941.

Ford Airplane Company[link]

Ford, like other automobile companies, entered the aviation business during World War I, building Liberty engines. After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company.

Ford's most successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotor, often called the "Tin Goose" because of its corrugated metal construction. It used a new alloy called Alclad that combined the corrosion resistance of aluminum with the strength of duralumin. The plane was similar to Fokker's V.VII-3m, and some say that Ford's engineers surreptitiously measured the Fokker plane and then copied it. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful U.S. passenger airliner, accommodating about 12 passengers in a rather uncomfortable fashion. Several variants were also used by the U.S. Army. Ford has been honored by the Smithsonian Institution for changing the aviation industry. 199 Trimotors were built before it was discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales during the Great Depression.

Willow Run[link]

Peace and war[link]

World War I era[link]

Ford opposed war, which he thought was a terrible waste. Ford became highly critical of those who he felt financed war, and he tried to stop them. In 1915, the pacifist Rosika Schwimmer gained favor with Ford, who agreed to fund a peace ship to Europe, where World War I was raging. He and about 170 other prominent peace leaders traveled there. Ford's Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, accompanied him on the mission. Marquis headed Ford's Sociology Department from 1913 to 1921. Ford talked to President Wilson about the mission but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.

Ford plants in Britain produced tractors to increase the British food supply, as well as trucks and aircraft engines. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 the company became a major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for airplanes, and anti-submarine boats.

In 1918, with the war on and the League of Nations a growing issue in global politics, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan seat in the U.S. Senate. Wilson believed that Ford could tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson's proposed League. "You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and help bring about the peace you so desire," the president wrote Ford. Ford wrote back: "If they want to elect me let them do so, but I won't make a penny's investment." Ford did run, however, and came within 4,500 votes of winning, out of more than 400,000 cast statewide.

The coming of World War II and Ford's mental collapse[link]

Ford had opposed America's entry into World War II and continued to believe that international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars. Ford "insisted that war was the product of greedy financiers who sought profit in human destruction"; in 1939 he went so far as to claim that the torpedoing of U.S. merchant ships by German submarines was the result of conspiratorial activities undertaken by financier war-makers. The financiers to whom he was referring was Ford's code for Jews; he had also accused Jews of fomenting the First World War (see the section on his anti-Semitism below). In the run-up to World War II and when the war erupted in 1939, he reported that he did not want to trade with belligerents. Like many other businessmen of the Great Depression era, he never liked or entirely trusted the Franklin Roosevelt Administration, and thought Roosevelt was inching the U.S. closer to war. However, Ford continued to do business with Nazi Germany, including the manufacture of war materiel. Beginning in 1940, with the requisitioning of between 100 and 200 French POWs to work as slave laborers, ''Ford-Werke'' contravened Article 31 of the 1929 Geneva Convention. At that time, which was before the U.S. entered the War and still had full diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany, ''Ford-Werke'' was under the control of the Ford Motor Company. The number of slave laborers grew as the war expanded although Wallace made it clear that companies in Germany were not required by the Nazi authorities to use slave laborers.

When Rolls-Royce sought a U.S. manufacturer as an alternative source for the Merlin engine (as fitted to Spitfire and Hurricane fighters), Ford first agreed to do so and then reneged. He "lined up behind the war effort" when the U.S. entered in late 1941." His support of the American war effort, however, was problematic. Once the U.S. entered the war, Ford's Willow Run plant was converted into a B-24 factory. Production, however, was marred by incompetence and bungling.

Following a series of strokes in the late 1930s he became increasingly debilitated and was more of a figurehead; other people made the decisions in his name. After Edsel Ford's premature death, Henry Ford nominally resumed control of the company in 1943, but his mental ability was fading. In reality the company was controlled by a handful of senior executives led by Charles Sorensen, an important engineer and production executive at Ford, and Harry Bennett, the chief of Ford's Service Unit, Ford's paramilitary force that spied, and enforced discipline, on employees. As Ford became increasingly sidelined, he grew jealous of the publicity Sorensen received; Ford forced Sorensen out in 1944. Henry Ford II (Ford's grandson), in a purge of the old guard, forced out Bennett in 1947. Ford's incompetence led to discussions in Washington about how to restore the company, whether by wartime government fiat or by instigating some sort of coup among executives and directors. Nothing happened until 1945, with bankruptcy a serious risk. Edsel's widow led an ouster and installed her son, Henry Ford II, as president; the young man took full control.

''The Dearborn Independent'' and anti-Semitism[link]

Ford in the early 1920s sponsored a weekly newspaper that published (among many non-controversial articles) strongly anti-Semitic views. At the same time Ford had a reputation as one of the few major corporations actively hiring black workers; he was not accused of discrimination against Jewish workers or suppliers.

In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, purchased an obscure weekly newspaper for Ford, ''The Dearborn Independent''. The ''Independent'' ran for eight years, from 1920 until 1927, during which Liebold was editor. Every Ford franchise nation-wide had to carry the paper and distribute it to its customers.

The newspaper published ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'', which was discredited by ''The Times'' of London as a forgery during the ''Independent'''s publishing run. The American Jewish Historical Society described the ideas presented in the magazine as "anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-liquor, and anti-Semitic." In February 1921, the ''New York World'' published an interview with Ford, in which he said: "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on." During this period, Ford emerged as "a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice," reaching around 700,000 readers through his newspaper. The 2010 documentary film ''Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story'' (written by Pulitzer Prize winner Ira Berkow) noted that Ford wrote on May 22, 1920: “If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew.”

In Germany, Ford's anti-Semitic articles from ''The Dearborn Independent'' were issued in four volumes, cumulatively titled ''The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem'' published by Theodor Fritsch, founder of several anti-Semitic parties and a member of the Reichstag. In a letter written in 1924, Heinrich Himmler described Ford as "one of our most valuable, important, and witty fighters." Ford is the only American mentioned in ''Mein Kampf''. Adolf Hitler wrote, "only a single great man, Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] fury, still maintains full independence...[from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions." Speaking in 1931 to a ''Detroit News'' reporter, Hitler said he regarded Ford as his "inspiration," explaining his reason for keeping Ford's life-size portrait next to his desk.

On February 1, 1924, Ford received Kurt Ludecke, a representative of Hitler, at home. Ludecke was introduced to Ford by Siegfried Wagner (son of the composer Richard Wagner) and his wife Winifred, both Nazi sympathizers and anti-Semites. Ludecke asked Ford for a contribution to the Nazi cause, but was apparently refused.

While Ford's articles were denounced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the articles explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews (Volume 4, Chapter 80), but blamed the Jews for provoking incidents of mass violence. None of this work was written by Ford, but he allowed his name to be used as author. According to trial testimony, he wrote almost nothing. Friends and business associates have said they warned Ford about the contents of the ''Independent'' and that he probably never read the articles. (He claimed he only read the headlines.) However, court testimony in a libel suit, brought by one of the targets of the newspaper, alleged that Ford did know about the contents of the ''Independent'' in advance of publication.

The libel lawsuit, which was brought by San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer Aaron Sapiro in response to anti-Semitic remarks, led Ford to close the ''Independent'' in December 1927. News reports at the time quoted him as saying he was shocked by the content and unaware of its nature. During the trial, the editor of Ford's "Own Page," William Cameron, testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials even though they were under his byline. Cameron testified at the libel trial that he never discussed the content of the pages or sent them to Ford for his approval. Investigative journalist Max Wallace noted that "whatever credibility this absurd claim may have had was soon undermined when James M. Miller, a former ''Dearborn Independent'' employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro."

Michael Barkun observed,

That Cameron would have continued to publish such anti-Semitic material without Ford's explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a Ford family intimate, remarked that 'I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's approval.'

According to Spencer Blakeslee,

The ADL mobilized prominent Jews and non-Jews to publicly oppose Ford's message. They formed a coalition of Jewish groups for the same purpose and raised constant objections in the Detroit press. Before leaving his presidency early in 1921, Woodrow Wilson joined other leading Americans in a statement that rebuked Ford and others for their anti-Semitic campaign. A boycott against Ford products by Jews and liberal Christians also had an impact, and Ford shut down the paper in 1927, recanting his views in a public letter to Sigmund Livingston, ADL.

Wallace also found that Ford's apology was likely, at least partly, motivated by a business that was slumping as result of his anti-Semitism repelling potential buyers of Ford cars. Up until the apology, a considerable number of dealers, who had been required to make sure that buyers of Ford cars received the ''Independent'', bought up and destroyed copies of the newspaper rather than alienate customers.

Ford's 1927 apology was well received. "Four-Fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to Ford in July 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the Industrialist." In January 1937, a Ford statement to the ''Detroit Jewish Chronicle'' disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as the ''International Jew''."

In July 1938, prior to the outbreak of war, the German consul at Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th birthday, the award of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner. James D. Mooney, vice-president of overseas operations for General Motors, received a similar medal, the Merit Cross of the German Eagle, First Class.

Distribution of ''International Jew'' was halted in 1942 through legal action by Ford, despite complications from a lack of copyright. It is still banned in Germany. Extremist groups often recycle the material; it still appears on antisemitic and neo-Nazi websites.

One Jewish public figure who was said to have been friendly with Ford was Detroit Judge Harry Keidan. When asked about this connection, Ford replied that Keidan was only half-Jewish. A close collaborator of Ford during World War II reported that Ford, at the time over 80 years old, was shown a movie of the Nazi concentration camps and was horrified by the atrocities documented in it.

The damage, however, had been done. Testifying at Nuremberg, convicted Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach who, in his role as military governor of Vienna deported 65,000 Jews to camps in Poland, stated,

The decisive anti-Semitic book I was reading and the book that influenced my comrades was [...] that book by Henry Ford, "The International Jew." I read it and became anti-Semitic. The book made a great influence on myself and my friends because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success and also the representative of a progressive social policy.

International business[link]

Ford's philosophy was one of economic independence for the United States. His River Rouge Plant became the world's largest industrial complex, pursuing vertical integration to such an extent that it could produce its own steel. Ford's goal was to produce a vehicle from scratch without reliance on foreign trade. He believed in the global expansion of his company. He believed that international trade and cooperation led to international peace, and he used the assembly line process and production of the Model T to demonstrate it.

He opened Ford assembly plants in Britain and Canada in 1911, and soon became the biggest automotive producer in those countries. In 1912, Ford cooperated with Giovanni Agnelli of Fiat to launch the first Italian automotive assembly plants. The first plants in Germany were built in the 1920s with the encouragement of Herbert Hoover and the Commerce Department, which agreed with Ford's theory that international trade was essential to world peace. In the 1920s, Ford also opened plants in Australia, India, and France, and by 1929, he had successful dealerships on six continents. Ford experimented with a commercial rubber plantation in the Amazon jungle called Fordlândia; it was one of his few failures. In 1929, Ford accepted Joseph Stalin's invitation to build a model plant (NNAZ, today GAZ) at Gorky, a city now known under its historical name Nizhny Novgorod. He sent American engineers and technicians to the Soviet Union to help set it up, including future labor leader Walter Reuther.

The Ford Motor Company had the policy of doing business in any nation where the United States had diplomatic relations. It set up numerous subsidiaries that sold cars and trucks and sometimes assembled them:

Ford of Australia

Ford of Britain

Ford of Argentina

Ford of Brazil

Ford of Canada

Ford of Europe

Ford India

Ford South Africa

Ford Mexico

Ford Philippines

By 1932, Ford was manufacturing one third of all the world’s automobiles. Ford's image transfixed Europeans, especially the Germans, arousing the "fear of some, the infatuation of others, and the fascination among all". Germans who discussed "Fordism" often believed that it represented something quintessentially American. They saw the size, tempo, standardization, and philosophy of production demonstrated at the Ford Works as a national service—an "American thing" that represented the culture of United States. Both supporters and critics insisted that Fordism epitomized American capitalist development, and that the auto industry was the key to understanding economic and social relations in the United States. As one German explained, "Automobiles have so completely changed the American's mode of life that today one can hardly imagine being without a car. It is difficult to remember what life was like before Mr. Ford began preaching his doctrine of salvation". For many Germans, Ford embodied the essence of successful Americanism.

In ''My Life and Work'', Ford predicted that if greed, racism, and short-sightedness could be overcome, then economic and technological development throughout the world would progress to the point that international trade would no longer be based on (what today would be called) colonial or neocolonial models and would truly benefit all peoples. His ideas in this passage were vague, but they were idealistic.

Racing[link]

Ford maintained an interest in auto racing from 1901 to 1913 and began his involvement in the sport as both a builder and a driver, later turning the wheel over to hired drivers. He entered stripped-down Model Ts in races, finishing first (although later disqualified) in an "ocean-to-ocean" (across the United States) race in 1909, and setting a one-mile (1.6 km) oval speed record at Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911 with driver Frank Kulick. In 1913, Ford attempted to enter a reworked Model T in the Indianapolis 500 but was told rules required the addition of another 1,000 pounds (450 kg) to the car before it could qualify. Ford dropped out of the race and soon thereafter dropped out of racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules, demands on his time by the booming production of the Model Ts, and his low opinion of racing as a worthwhile activity.

In ''My Life and Work'' Ford speaks (briefly) of racing in a rather dismissive tone, as something that is not at all a good measure of automobiles in general. He describes himself as someone who raced only because in the 1890s through 1910s, one had to race because prevailing ignorance held that racing was the way to prove the worth of an automobile. Ford did not agree. But he was determined that as long as this was the definition of success (flawed though the definition was), then his cars would be the best that there were at racing. Throughout the book, he continually returns to ideals such as transportation, production efficiency, affordability, reliability, fuel efficiency, economic prosperity, and the automation of drudgery in farming and industry, but rarely mentions, and rather belittles, the idea of merely going fast from point A to point B.

Nevertheless, Ford did make quite an impact on auto racing during his racing years, and he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996.

Later career[link]

When Edsel, president of Ford Motor Company, died of cancer in May 1943, the elderly and ailing Henry Ford decided to assume the presidency. By this point in his life, he had had several cardiovascular events (variously cited as heart attack or stroke) and was mentally inconsistent, suspicious, and generally no longer fit for such a job.

Most of the directors did not want to see him as president. But for the previous 20 years, though he had long been without any official executive title, he had always had ''de facto'' control over the company; the board and the management had never seriously defied him, and this moment was not different. The directors elected him, and he served until the end of the war. During this period the company began to decline, losing more than $10 million a month ($}} a month today). The administration of President Franklin Roosevelt had been considering a government takeover of the company in order to ensure continued war production,

Sidelights[link]

Interest in materials science and engineering [link]

Henry Ford long had an interest in materials science and engineering. He enthusiastically described his company's adoption of vanadium steel alloys and subsequent metallurgic R&D; work.

Ford long had an interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, especially soybeans. He cultivated a relationship with George Washington Carver for this purpose. Soybean-based plastics were used in Ford automobiles throughout the 1930s in plastic parts such as car horns, in paint, etc. This project culminated in 1942, when Ford patented an automobile made almost entirely of plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame. It weighed 30% less than a steel car and was said to be able to withstand blows ten times greater than could steel. Furthermore, it ran on grain alcohol (ethanol) instead of gasoline. The design never caught on.

Ford was interested in engineered woods ("Better wood can be made than is grown") (at this time plywood and particle board were little more than experimental ideas); corn as a fuel source, via both corn oil and ethanol; and the potential uses of cotton. Ford was instrumental in developing charcoal briquets, under the brand name "Kingsford". His brother in law, E.G. Kingsford, used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquets.

Ford was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents.

Georgia residence and community[link]

Ford maintained a vacation residence (known as the "Ford Plantation") in Richmond Hill, Georgia. He contributed substantially to the community, building a chapel and schoolhouse and employing numerous local residents.

Preserving Americana[link]

Ford had an interest in "Americana". In the 1920s, Ford began work to turn Sudbury, Massachusetts, into a themed historical village. He moved the schoolhouse supposedly referred to in the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a little lamb", from Sterling, Massachusetts, and purchased the historic Wayside Inn. This plan never saw fruition. Ford repeated the concept of collecting historic structures with the creation of Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. It may have inspired the creation of Old Sturbridge Village as well. About the same time, he began collecting materials for his museum, which had a theme of practical technology. It was opened in 1929 as the Edison Institute. Although greatly modernized, the museum continues today.

On the idea that he invented the automobile[link]

Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, as is occasionally believed. Indeed, he began as a race driver of other people's cars. As Ford himself noted, by the 1870s, the notion of a "horseless carriage was a common idea". Many people worked toward the idea, as the history of steam road vehicles and of automobiles shows. Ford was, however, more influential than any other single person in changing the paradigm of the automobile from a very expensive, heavy, hand-built toy for rich people into a lightweight, reliable, affordable, mass-produced mode of transportation for working-class people.

On the idea that he invented the assembly line[link]

Both Ford and Ransom E. Olds are sometimes credited with the invention of the assembly line, although (as is the case with many inventions) the assembly line's development included many inventors. It combined the idea of interchangeable parts (another gradual technological development that is often mistakenly attributed to one individual or another). After 5 years of empirical development, Ford's first moving assembly line (employing conveyor belts) began mass production on or around April 1, 1913. The concept was first applied to subassemblies, and shortly after to the entire chassis. Although it is inaccurate to say that Ford personally invented the assembly line, his sponsorship of its development and use was central to its explosive success in the 20th century.

Miscellaneous[link]

Ford was the winner of the award of Car Entrepreneur of the Century in 1999.

Ford published a book, circulated to youth in 1914, called "The Case Against the Little White Slaver" which documented many dangers of cigarette smoking attested to by many researchers and luminaries.

Ford dressed up as Santa Claus and gave sleigh rides to children at Christmas time on his estate.

Ford was especially fond of Thomas Edison, and on Edison's deathbed, he demanded Edison's son catch his final breath in a test tube. The test tube can still be found today in Henry Ford Museum.

In 1923, Ford's pastor, and head of his sociology department, Episcopal minister Samuel S. Marquis, claimed that Ford believed, or "once believed," in reincarnation. Though it is unclear whether or how long Ford kept such a belief, the ''San Francisco Examiner'' from August 26, 1928, published a quote which described Ford's beliefs:

I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realised that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men’s minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.

Popular culture[link]

In Aldous Huxley's ''Brave New World'' (1932), society is organized on 'Fordist' lines and the years are dated A.F. or Anno Ford ('In the Year of our Ford') - a reference to A.D., Anno Domini ("in the year of our Lord"); and the expression 'My Ford' is used instead of 'My Lord.'

Upton Sinclair created a fictional description of Ford in the 1937 novel The Flivver King.

Symphonic composer Ferde Grofe composed a tone poem in Henry Ford's honor (1938).

Ford is treated as a character in several historical novels, notably E. L. Doctorow's ''Ragtime'' (1975), and Richard Powers' novel ''Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance'' (1985).

Ford, his family, and his company were the subjects of a 1986 biography by Robert Lacey entitled ''Ford: The Men and the Machine''. The book was adapted in 1987 into a film starring Cliff Robertson and Michael Ironside.

In the 2005 alternative history novel ''The Plot Against America'', Philip Roth features Ford as Secretary of Interior in a fictional Charles Lindbergh presidential administration.

The British author Douglas Galbraith uses the event of the Ford Peace Ship as the center of his novel ''King Henry'' (2007). Ford appears as a Great Builder in the 2008 strategy video game Civilization Revolution.

Honors[link]

In December 1999, Ford was among 18 included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, from a poll conducted of the American people.

In 1928, Ford was awarded the Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal.

In 1938, Ford was awarded Nazi Germany's Grand Cross of the German Eagle, a medal given to foreigners sympathetic to Nazism.

The United States Postal Service honored Ford with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) 12¢ postage stamp.

See also[link]

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad

Dodge v. Ford Motor Company

Edison and Ford Winter Estates

Fair Lane

Ford Family Tree

List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s

List of wealthiest historical figures

William B. Mayo

Notes[link]

References[link]

Memoirs by Ford Motor Company principals[link]

| ref = harv | postscript = }}.

Biographies[link]

Bak, Richard (2003). ''Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire''. Wiley ISBN 0-471-23487-7

Brinkley, Douglas G. ''Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress'' (2003)

Halberstam, David. "Citizen Ford" ''American Heritage'' 1986 37(6): 49–64. interpretive essay

Jardim, Anne. ''The First Henry Ford: A Study in Personality and Business Leadership'' Massachusetts Inst. of Technology Press 1970.

Lacey, Robert. ''Ford: The Men and the Machine'' Little, Brown, 1986. popular biography

ACLS e-book ACLS e-book ACLS e-book

Nye, David E. ''Henry Ford: "Ignorant Idealist."'' Kennikat, 1979.

Watts, Steven. '' The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century'' (2005)

Specialized studies[link]

Batchelor, Ray. ''Henry Ford: Mass Production, Modernism and Design'' Manchester U. Press, 1994.

Bonin, Huber et al. ''Ford, 1902–2003: The European History'' 2 vol Paris 2003. ISBN 2-914369-06-9 scholarly essays in English; reviewed in * Holden, Len. "Fording the Atlantic: Ford and Fordism in Europe" in ''Business History '' Volume 47, #Jan 1, 2005 pp 122–127

Brinkley, Douglas. "Prime Mover". ''American Heritage'' 2003 54(3): 44–53. on Model T

Bryan, Ford R. ''Henry's Lieutenants'', 1993; ISBN 0-8143-2428-2

Bryan, Ford R. ''Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford'' Wayne State Press 1990.

Dempsey, Mary A. "Fordlandia," ''Michigan History'' 1994 78(4): 24–33. Ford's rubber plantation in Brazil

Grandin, Greg. ''Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City''. London, Icon, 2010. ISBN 978-1-84831-147-3

Jacobson, D. S. "The Political Economy of Industrial Location: the Ford Motor Company at Cork 1912–26." ''Irish Economic and Social History'' 1977 4: 36–55. Ford and Irish politics

Kraft, Barbara S. ''The Peace Ship: Henry Ford's Pacifist Adventure in the First World War'' Macmillan, 1978

Levinson, William A. ''Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First Ford Motor Plant'', 2002; ISBN 1-56327-260-1

Lewis, David L. "Ford and Kahn" ''Michigan History'' 1980 64(5): 17–28. Ford commissioned architect Albert Kahn to design factories

Lewis, David L. "Henry Ford and His Magic Beanstalk" . ''Michigan History'' 1995 79(3): 10–17. Ford's interest in soybeans and plastics

Lewis, David L. "Working Side by Side" ''Michigan History'' 1993 77(1): 24–30. Why Ford hired large numbers of black workers

McIntyre, Stephen L. "The Failure of Fordism: Reform of the Automobile Repair Industry, 1913–1940: ''Technology and Culture'' 2000 41(2): 269–299. repair shops rejected flat rates

Meyer, Stephen. ''The Five Dollar Day: Labor Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908–1921'' (1981)

Nolan; Mary. ''Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany'' (1994)

Roediger, David, ed "Americanism and Fordism—American Style: Kate Richards O'hare's 'Has Henry Ford Made Good?'" ''Labor History'' 1988 29(2): 241–252. Socialist praise for Ford in 1916

Segal, Howard P. "'Little Plants in the Country': Henry Ford's Village Industries and the Beginning of Decentralized Technology in Modern America" ''Prospects'' 1988 13: 181–223. Ford created 19 rural workplaces as pastoral retreats

Tedlow, Richard S. "The Struggle for Dominance in the Automobile Market: the Early Years of Ford and General Motors" ''Business and Economic History'' 1988 17: 49–62. Ford stressed low price based on efficient factories but GM did better in oligopolistic competition by including investment in manufacturing, marketing, and management.

Thomas, Robert Paul. "The Automobile Industry and its Tycoon" ''Explorations in Entrepreneurial History'' 1969 6(2): 139–157. argues Ford did NOT have much influence on US industry,

Valdés, Dennis Nodin. "Perspiring Capitalists: Latinos and the Henry Ford Service School, 1918–1928" ''Aztlán'' 1981 12(2): 227–239. Ford brought hundreds of Mexicans in for training as managers

Wilkins, Mira and Frank Ernest Hill, ''American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents'' Wayne State University Press, 1964

Williams, Karel, Colin Haslam and John Williams, "Ford versus `Fordism': The Beginning of Mass Production?" ''Work, Employment & Society'', Vol. 6, No. 4, 517–555 (1992), stress on Ford's flexibility and commitment to continuous improvements

Further reading[link]

Baldwin, Neil; ''Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate''; PublicAffairs, 2000; ISBN 1-58648-163-0

Higham, Charles, ''Trading With The Enemy'' The Nazi–American Money Plot 1933–1949 ; Delacorte Press 1983

Kandel, Alan D. "Ford and Israel" ''Michigan Jewish History'' 1999 39: 13–17. covers business and philanthropy

Lee, Albert; ''Henry Ford and the Jews''; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1980; ISBN 0-8128-2701-5

Reich, Simon (1999) "The Ford Motor Company and the Third Reich" ''Dimensions'', 13(2):15–17 online

Wallace, Max ''The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of the Third Reich''; ISBN 0-312-33531-8

External links[link]

Automobile History Online—Henry Ford history and photos

Full text of ''My Life and Work'' from Project Gutenberg

Commentary on Ford's ''My Life and Work''

Notable quotations and speech excerpts

Timeline

Quotes

Nevins and Hill tell the story of Peace Ship in ''American Heritage''

College student reports on the 1915 Peace Ship expedition

The Henry Ford Heritage Association

American Corporations and Hitler

The Washington Post reports on Ford and General Motors response to alleged collaboration with Nazi Germany

Power, Ignorance, and Anti-Semitism: Henry Ford and His War on Jews by Jonathan R. Logsdon, Hanover Historical Review 1999

Review of "Henry Ford and The Jews" by Neil Baldwin

Review of "The People's Tycoon" by Steven Watts. Henry Ford may have regretted his innovation (SF Chronicle)

Ford's middle name is James

}}

References[link]

Category:1863 births Category:1947 deaths Category:19th-century American Episcopalians Category:American Episcopalians Category:American founders of automobile manufacturers Category:Antisemitism Category:Automotive pioneers Category:American people of Belgian descent Category:American steel industry businesspeople Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage Category:Ford executives Henry Ford Category:Georgists Category:History of the United States (1865–1918) Category:International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Land speed record personalities Category:National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Dearborn, Michigan Category:Propagandists Category:Protocols of the Elders of Zion Category:United States presidential candidates, 1916 Category:Chief executives in the automobile industry Category:Elliott Cresson Medal recipients Category:Recipients of the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle Category:Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame inductees Category:Freemasons

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name	Jimmy Vivino
background	solo_singer
birth date	January 10, 1955
Birth place	Paterson, New Jersey United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, keyboards
genre	Rock and roll, jazz, R&B;
occupation	Musician, producer, Music director, Bandleader
associated acts	Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band, The Max Weinberg 7, The Fab Faux, Frankie and the G Strings, The Vivino Brothers, The J-Band, The Black Italians, The Jimmy Vivino Band, Jimmy Vivino and the Rekooperators, Prisoners of 2nd Avenue, The Levon Helm Band
website	jimmyvivino.com
notable instruments	}}

Jimmy Vivino (born January 10, 1955 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American guitarist, keyboard player, singer, producer, and music director. He is best known as the leader of Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, the house band for the TBS late night program ''Conan''. He was also a member of The Tonight Show Band, the house band on ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'' and its predecessor, ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' on NBC. Vivino has also played with many rock bands, which most recently has included being a member of Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux.

He is the younger brother of longtime New Jersey TV host Floyd Vivino, a.k.a. Uncle Floyd, and Basic Cable Band bandmate Jerry Vivino.

Biography[link]

Vivino grew up in Glen Rock, New Jersey, where he attended Glen Rock High School. He had an interest in music from a young age. He began working in New York clubs in the early 1980s and in 1984 was musical director of the play ''Leader of the Pack.'' Later he led "Jimmy Vivino and the Black Italians" and worked with Al Kooper. Kooper considered Vivino to be one of his "discoveries" and had him as musical director for fifteen years. Later Vivino "took over" his "The Rekooperators" which Kooper stated made him proud. Vivino did much of the orchestration for the Max Weinberg Seven from 1993 onward. On the October 19, 2010 Vivino was named bandleader of the Conan show, replacing previous leader Max Weinberg. The group is called The Basic Cable Band.

Partial discography[link]

Live at Lucilles - Michael packer Blues Band (Guitar) (2007)

Live at Sweet Rhythm - Michael packer Blues Band (Guitar) (2007)

Mule-A-Go-Go - New Year's Eve 2005-2006 (special guest) (2006)

Alone Together (2005)

Steaks & Chops: Live at Great Jones, Volume 1 (Guitar) (2005)

Blues In The Blood (Guitar) (2003)

Best of M.C. Records 1996-2002 (Guitar) (2003)

Remedy (Vocals) (2002)

Different Shade Of Red: The Woodstock Sessions (Organ, Guitar, Mandolin, Director, Producer, Horn Arrangement) (2002)

Crazy Kind Of Life (Organ, Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Producer) (2002)

Respond, Volume II (Guitar) (2002)

Live at Manny's Car Wash (Guitar) (2001)

Rare & Well Done: The Greatest And The Most Obscure Recordings (2001)

No Small Wonder (Electric Guitar) (2001)

Fire It Up - Bill Perry (2001) (Vivino co-produced and guested on instruments)

Filmography[link]

Crew[link]

Messengers (2004) (music producer)

Late Night with Conan O'Brien: 10th Anniversary Special (2003) (TV) (co-musical director) (music arranger) (musician: house band)

The First Wives Club (1996) (orchestrator)

Stuart Saves His Family (1995) (additional orchestrator)

Boys on the Side (1995) (production music producer)

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993) (assistant music supervisor)

"Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993) TV Series (assistant musical director)

Sister Act (1992) (music coordinator) (orchestrator: score)

Legendary Ladies of Rock & Roll (1988) (TV) (musical director)

Composer[link]

50 Years of NBC Late Night (2001)

Himself[link]

''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien''

''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''

''Late Night with Conan O'Brien: 10th Anniversary Special'' (2003)

''Comic Relief VIII'' (1998)

''Deja View'' The Cinemax Session With James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett

''Legendary Ladies of Rock and Roll''

''The Uncle Floyd Show'' ("Uncle" Floyd Vivino) is Jimmy's older brother)

See also[link]

Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band (then known as The Max Weinberg 7 and Max Weinberg and the Tonight Show Band)

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

References[link]

External links[link]

jimmyvivino.com

The Max Weinberg 7 - bio on NBC.com

discography at jimmyvivino.com

Category:1955 births Category:American guitarists Category:American male singers Category:People from Paterson, New Jersey Category:The Max Weinberg 7 members Category:Living people Category:Jersey Shore musicians Category:Late Night with Conan O'Brien Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:People from Glen Rock, New Jersey Category:American people of Italian descent Category:The Tonight Show Band members

name	Miles Davis
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Miles Dewey Davis III
birth date	May 26, 1926
birth place	Alton, Illinois, United States
death date	September 28, 1991
death place	Santa Monica, California, United States
instrument	Trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, organ
genre	Jazz, hard bop, bebop, cool jazz, modal, fusion, third stream, jazz-funk, jazz rap
occupation	Bandleader, composer, trumpeter, artist
years active	1944–1975, 1980–1991
label	Capitol Jazz/EMI, Columbia/CBS, Warner Bros.
associated acts	Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis Quintet, Gil Evans
website	}}

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.

Biography [link]

Early life (1926–44) [link]

Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926, to an affluent African American family in Alton, Illinois. His father, Dr. Miles Henry Davis, was a dentist. In 1927 the family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois. They also owned a substantial ranch in northern Arkansas, where Davis learned to ride horses as a boy.

Davis' mother, Cleota Mae (Henry) Davis, wanted her son to learn the piano; she was a capable blues pianist but kept this fact hidden from her son. His musical studies began at 13, when his father gave him a trumpet and arranged lessons with local musician Elwood Buchanan. Davis later suggested that his father's instrument choice was made largely to irk his wife, who disliked the trumpet's sound. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato; he was reported to have slapped Davis' knuckles every time he started using heavy vibrato. Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. He once remarked on its importance to him, saying, "I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass. Just right in the middle. If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything." Clark Terry was another important early influence.

By age 16, Davis was a member of the music society and playing professionally when not at school. At 17, he spent a year playing in Eddie Randle's band, the Blue Devils. During this time, Sonny Stitt tried to persuade him to join the Tiny Bradshaw band, then passing through town, but Davis' mother insisted that he finish his final year of high school. He graduated from East St. Louis Lincoln High School in 1944.

In 1944, the Billy Eckstine band visited East St. Louis. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were members of the band, and Davis was brought in on third trumpet for a couple of weeks because the regular player, Buddy Anderson, was out sick. Even after this experience, once Eckstine's band left town, Davis' parents were still keen for him to continue formal academic studies.

New York and the bebop years begin (1944–48) [link]

In the fall of 1944, following graduation from high school, Davis moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School of Music.

Upon arriving in New York, he spent most of his first weeks in town trying to get in contact with Charlie Parker, despite being advised against doing so by several people he met during his quest, including saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.

Finally locating his idol, Davis became one of the cadre of musicians who held nightly jam sessions at two of Harlem's nightclubs, Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's. The group included many of the future leaders of the bebop revolution: young players such as Fats Navarro, Freddie Webster, and J. J. Johnson. Established musicians including Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke were also regular participants.

Davis dropped out of Juilliard, after asking permission from his father. In his autobiography, Davis criticized the Juilliard classes for centering too much on the classical European and "white" repertoire. However, he also acknowledged that, while greatly improving his trumpet playing technique, Juilliard helped give him a grounding in music theory that would prove valuable in later years.

Davis began playing professionally, performing in several 52nd Street clubs with Coleman Hawkins and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. In 1945, he entered a recording studio for the first time, as a member of Herbie Fields's group. This was the first of many recordings to which Davis contributed in this period, mostly as a sideman. He finally got the chance to record as a leader in 1946, with an occasional group called the Miles Davis Sextet plus Earl Coleman and Ann Hathaway—one of the rare occasions when Davis, by then a member of the groundbreaking Charlie Parker Quintet, can be heard accompanying singers. In these early years, recording sessions where Davis was the leader were the exception rather than the rule; his next date as leader would not come until 1947.

Around 1945, Dizzy Gillespie parted ways with Parker, and Davis was hired as Gillespie's replacement in his quintet, which also featured Max Roach on drums, Al Haig (replaced later by Sir Charles Thompson and Duke Jordan) on piano, and Curley Russell (later replaced by Tommy Potter and Leonard Gaskin) on bass.

With Parker's quintet, Davis went into the studio several times, already showing hints of the style for which he would become known. On an oft-quoted take of Parker's signature song, "Now's the Time", Davis takes a melodic solo, whose unbop-like quality anticipates the "cool jazz" period that would follow. The Parker quintet also toured widely. During a stop in Los Angeles, Parker had a nervous breakdown that landed him in the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for several months, and Davis found himself stranded. He roomed and collaborated for some time with bassist Charles Mingus, before getting a job on Billy Eckstine's California tour, which eventually brought him back to New York. In 1948, Parker returned to New York, and Davis rejoined his group.

The relationships within the quintet, however, were growing tense. Parker's erratic behavior (attributable to his well-known drug addiction) and artistic choices (both Davis and Roach objected to having Duke Jordan as a pianist and would have preferred Bud Powell) became sources of friction. In December 1948, disputes over money (Davis claims he was not being paid) began to strain their relationship even further. Davis finally left the group following a confrontation with Parker at the Royal Roost.

For Davis, his departure from Parker's group marked the beginning of a period in which he worked mainly as a freelancer and as a sideman in some of the most important combos on the New York jazz scene.

Birth of the Cool (1948–49) [link]

In 1948 Davis grew close to the Canadian composer and arranger Gil Evans. Evans' basement apartment had become the meeting place for several young musicians and composers such as Davis, Roach, pianist John Lewis, and baritone sax player Gerry Mulligan who were unhappy with the increasingly virtuoso instrumental techniques that dominated the bebop scene. Evans had been the arranger for the Claude Thornhill orchestra, and it was the sound of this group, as well as Duke Ellington's example, that suggested the creation of an unusual line-up: a nonet including a French horn and a tuba (this accounts for the "tuba band" moniker that was to be associated with the combo).

Davis took an active role in the project, so much so that it soon became "his project". The objective was to achieve a sound similar to the human voice, through carefully arranged compositions and by emphasizing a relaxed, melodic approach to the improvisations.

The nonet debuted in the summer of 1948, with a two-week engagement at the Royal Roost. The sign announcing the performance gave a surprising prominence to the role of the arrangers: "Miles Davis Nonet. Arrangements by Gil Evans, John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan". It was, in fact, so unusual that Davis had to persuade the Roost's manager, Ralph Watkins, to allow the sign to be worded in this way; he prevailed only with the help of Monte Kay, the club's artistic director.

The nonet was active until the end of 1949, along the way undergoing several changes in personnel: Roach and Davis were constantly featured, along with Mulligan, tuba player Bill Barber, and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, who had been preferred to Sonny Stitt (whose playing was considered too bop-oriented). Over the months, John Lewis alternated with Al Haig on piano, Mike Zwerin with Kai Winding on trombone (Johnson was touring at the time), Junior Collins with Sandy Siegelstein and Gunther Schuller on French horn, and Al McKibbon with Joe Shulman on bass. Singer Kenny Hagood was added for one track during the recording

The presence of white musicians in the group angered some black jazz players, many of whom were unemployed at the time, but Davis rebuffed their criticisms.

A contract with Capitol Records granted the nonet several recording sessions between January 1949 and April 1950. The material they recorded was released in 1956 on an album whose title, ''Birth of the Cool,'' gave its name to the "cool jazz" movement that developed at the same time and partly shared the musical direction begun by Davis' group.

For his part, Davis was fully aware of the importance of the project, which he pursued to the point of turning down a job with Duke Ellington's orchestra.

The importance of the nonet experience would become clear to critics and the larger public only in later years, but, at least commercially, the nonet was not a success. The liner notes of the first recordings of the Davis Quintet for Columbia Records call it one of the most spectacular failures of the jazz club scene. This was bitterly noted by Davis, who claimed the invention of the cool style and resented the success that was later enjoyed—in large part because of the media's attention—by white "cool jazz" musicians (Mulligan and Dave Brubeck in particular).

This experience also marked the beginning of the lifelong friendship between Davis and Gil Evans, an alliance that would bear important results in the years to follow.

Hard bop and the "Blue Period" (1950–54) [link]

The first half of the 1950s was, for Davis, a period of great personal difficulty. At the end of 1949, he went on tour in Paris with a group including Tadd Dameron, Kenny Clarke (who remained in Europe after the tour), and James Moody. Davis was fascinated by Paris and its cultural environment, where black jazz musicians, and African Americans in general, often felt better respected than they did in their homeland. While in Paris, Davis began a relationship with French actress and singer Juliette Gréco.

Many of his new and old friends (Davis, in his autobiography, mentions Clarke) tried to persuade him to stay in France, but Davis decided to return to New York. Back in the States, he began to feel deeply depressed. The depression was due in part to his separation from Gréco, in part to his feeling underappreciated by the critics (who were hailing Davis' former collaborators as leaders of the cool jazz movement), and in part to the unraveling of his liaison with a former St. Louis schoolmate who was living with him in New York and with whom he had two children.

These are the factors to which Davis traces a heroin habit that deeply affected him for the next four years. Though Davis denies it in his autobiography, it is also likely that the environment in which he was living played a role. Most of Davis' associates at the time, some of them perhaps in imitation of Charlie Parker, had drug addictions of their own (among them, sax players Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon, trumpeters Fats Navarro and Freddie Webster, and drummer Art Blakey). For the next four years, Davis supported his habit partly with his music and partly by living the life of a hustler. By 1953, his drug addiction was beginning to impair his ability to perform. Heroin had killed some of his friends (Navarro and Freddie Webster). He himself had been arrested for drug possession while on tour in Los Angeles, and his drug habit had been made public in a devastating interview that Cab Calloway gave to ''Down Beat''.

Realizing his precarious condition, Davis tried several times to end his drug addiction, finally succeeding in 1954 after returning to his father's home in St. Louis for several months and literally locking himself in a room until he had gone through a painful withdrawal. During this period he avoided New York and played mostly in Detroit and other midwestern towns, where drugs were then harder to come by. A widely-related story, attributed to Richard (Prophet) Jennings was that Davis, while in Detroit playing at the Blue Bird club as a guest soloist in Billy Mitchell's house band along with Tommy Flanagan, Elvin Jones, Betty Carter, Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris, Thad Jones, Curtis Fuller and Donald Byrd stumbled into Baker's Keyboard Lounge out of the rain, soaking wet and carrying his trumpet in a paper bag under his coat, walked to the bandstand and interrupted Max Roach and Clifford Brown in the midst of performing Sweet Georgia Brown by beginning to play My Funny Valentine, and then, after finishing the song, stumbled back into the rainy night. Davis was supposedly embarrassed into getting clean by this incident. In his autobiography, Davis disputed this account, stating that Roach had requested that Davis play with him that night, and that the details of the incident, such as carrying his horn in a paper bag and interrupting Roach and Brown, were fictional and that his decision to quit heroin was unrelated to the incident.

Despite all the personal turmoil, the 1950–54 period was actually quite fruitful for Davis artistically. He made quite a number of recordings and had several collaborations with other important musicians. He got to know the music of Chicago pianist Ahmad Jamal, whose elegant approach and use of space influenced him deeply. He also definitively severed his stylistic ties with bebop.

In 1951, Davis met Bob Weinstock, the owner of Prestige Records, and signed a contract with the label. Between 1951 and 1954, he released many records on Prestige, with several different combos. While the personnel of the recordings varied, the lineup often featured Sonny Rollins and Art Blakey. Davis was particularly fond of Rollins and tried several times, in the years that preceded his meeting with John Coltrane, to recruit him for a regular group. He never succeeded, however, mostly because Rollins was prone to make himself unavailable for months at a time. In spite of the casual occasions that generated these recordings, their quality is almost always quite high, and they document the evolution of Davis' style and sound. During this time he began using the Harmon mute, held close to the microphone, in a way that grew to be his signature, and his phrasing, especially in ballads, became spacious, melodic, and relaxed. This sound was to become so characteristic that the use of the Harmon mute by any jazz trumpet player since immediately conjures up Miles Davis.

The most important Prestige recordings of this period (''Dig'', ''Blue Haze'', ''Bags' Groove'', ''Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants'', and ''Walkin''') originated mostly from recording sessions in 1951 and 1954, after Davis' recovery from his addiction. Also of importance are his five Blue Note recordings, collected in the ''Miles Davis Volume 1'' album.

With these recordings, Davis assumed a central position in what is known as hard bop. In contrast with bebop, hard bop used slower tempos and a less radical approach to harmony and melody, often adopting popular tunes and standards from the American songbook as starting points for improvisation. Hard bop also distanced itself from cool jazz by virtue of a harder beat and by its constant reference to the blues, both in its traditional form and in the form made popular by rhythm and blues. A few critics go as far as to call ''Walkin''' the album that created hard bop, but the point is debatable, given the number of musicians who were working along similar lines at the same time (and of course many of them recorded or played with Davis).

Also in this period Davis gained a reputation for being distant, cold, and withdrawn and for having a quick temper. Among the several factors that contributed to this reputation were his contempt for the critics and specialized press and some well-publicized confrontations with the public and with fellow musicians. (One occasion, in which he had a near fight with Thelonious Monk during the recording of ''Bags' Groove'', received wide exposure in the specialized press.)

The "nocturnal" quality of Davis' playing and his somber reputation, along with his whispering voice, earned him the lasting moniker of "prince of darkness", adding a patina of mystery to his public persona.

First great quintet and sextet (1955–58) [link]

Back in New York and in better health, in 1955 Davis attended the Newport Jazz Festival, where his performance (and especially his solo on "'Round Midnight") was greatly admired and prompted the critics to hail the "return of Miles Davis". At the same time, Davis recruited the players for a formation that became known as his "first great quintet": John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

None of these musicians, with the exception of Davis, had received a great deal of exposure before that time; Chambers, in particular, was very young (19 at the time), a Detroit player who had been on the New York scene for only about a year, working with the bands of Bennie Green, Paul Quinichette, George Wallington, J. J. Johnson, and Kai Winding. Coltrane was little known at the time, in spite of earlier collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hodges. Davis hired Coltrane as a replacement for Sonny Rollins, after unsuccessfully trying to recruit alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.

The repertoire included many bebop mainstays, standards from the Great American Songbook and the pre-bop era, and some traditional tunes. The prevailing style of the group was a development of the Davis experience in the previous years—Davis playing long, legato, and essentially melodic lines, while Coltrane, who during these years emerged as a leading figure on the musical scene, contrasted by playing high-energy solos.

With the new formation also came a new recording contract. In Newport, Davis had met Columbia Records producer George Avakian, who persuaded him to sign with his label. The quintet made its debut on record with the extremely well received '''Round About Midnight''. Before leaving Prestige, however, Davis had to fulfill his obligations during two days of recording sessions in 1956. Prestige released these recordings in the following years as four albums: ''Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet,'' ''Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet,'' ''Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet,'' and ''Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet''. While the recording took place in a studio, each record of this series has the structure and feel of a live performance, with several first takes on each album. The records became almost instant classics and were instrumental in establishing Davis' quintet as one of the best on the jazz scene.

The quintet was disbanded for the first time in 1957, following a series of personal problems that Davis blames on the drug addiction of the other musicians. Davis played some gigs at the ''Cafe Bohemia'' with a short-lived formation that included Sonny Rollins and drummer Art Taylor, and then traveled to France, where he recorded the score to Louis Malle's film ''Ascenseur pour l'échafaud''. With the aid of French session musicians Barney Wilen, Pierre Michelot, and René Urtreger, and American drummer Kenny Clarke, he recorded the entire soundtrack with an innovative procedure, without relying on written material: starting from sparse indication of the harmony and a general feel of a given piece, the group played by watching the movie on a screen in front of them and improvising.

Returning to New York in 1958, Davis successfully recruited Cannonball Adderley for his standing group. Coltrane, who in the meantime had freed himself from his drug habits, was available after a highly fruitful experience with Thelonious Monk and was hired back, as was Philly Joe Jones. With the quintet re-formed as a sextet, Davis recorded ''Milestones'', an album anticipating the new directions he was preparing to give to his music.

Almost immediately after the recording of ''Milestones,'' Davis fired Garland and, shortly afterward, Jones, again for behavioral problems; he replaced them with Bill Evans——a young white pianist with a strong classical background——and drummer Jimmy Cobb. With this revamped formation, Davis began a year during which the sextet performed and toured extensively and produced a record (''1958 Miles'', also known as ''58 Sessions''). Evans had a unique, impressionistic approach to the piano, and his musical ideas had a strong influence on Davis. But after only eight months on the road with the group, he was burned out and left. He was soon replaced by Wynton Kelly, a player who brought to the sextet a swinging, bluesy approach that contrasted with Evans' more delicate playing.

Recordings with Gil Evans (1957–63) [link]

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Davis recorded a series of albums with Gil Evans, often playing flugelhorn as well as trumpet. The first, ''Miles Ahead'' (1957), showcased his playing with a jazz big band and a horn section arranged by Evans. Songs included Dave Brubeck's "The Duke," as well as Léo Delibes's "The Maids of Cadiz," the first piece of European classical music Davis had recorded. Another distinctive feature of the album was the orchestral passages that Evans had devised as transitions between the different tracks, which were joined together with the innovative use of editing in the post-production phase, turning each side of the album into a seamless piece of music.

In 1958, Davis and Evans were back in the studio to record ''Porgy and Bess,'' an arrangement of pieces from George Gershwin's opera of the same name. The lineup included three members of the sextet: Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Davis called the album one of his favorites.

''Sketches of Spain'' (1959–1960) featured songs by contemporary Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and also Manuel de Falla, as well as Gil Evans originals with a Spanish flavor. ''Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall'' (1961) includes Rodrigo's ''Concierto de Aranjuez,'' along with other compositions recorded in concert with an orchestra under Evans' direction.

Sessions with Davis and Evans in 1962 resulted in the album ''Quiet Nights,'' a short collection of bossa novas that was released against the wishes of both artists: Evans stated it was only half an album, and blamed the record company; Davis blamed producer Teo Macero, whom he didn't speak to for more than two years. This was the last time Evans and Davis made a full album together; despite the professional separation, however, Davis noted later that "my best friend is Gil Evans."

Kind of Blue (1959–64) [link]

In March and April 1959, Davis re-entered the studio with his working sextet to record what is widely considered his ''magnum opus'', ''Kind of Blue.'' He called back Bill Evans, months away from forming what would become his own seminal trio, for the album sessions, as the music had been planned around Evans' piano style. Both Davis and Evans were personally acquainted with the ideas of pianist George Russell regarding modal jazz, Davis from discussions with Russell and others before the ''Birth of the Cool'' sessions, and Evans from study with Russell in 1956. Davis, however, had neglected to inform current pianist Kelly of Evans' role in the recordings; Kelly subsequently played only on the track "Freddie Freeloader" and was not present at the April dates for the album. "So What" and "All Blues" had been played by the sextet at performances prior to the recording sessions, but for the other three compositions, Davis and Evans prepared skeletal harmonic frameworks that the other musicians saw for the first time on the day of recording, to allow a fresher approach to their improvisations. The resulting album has proven to be both highly popular and enormously influential. According to the RIAA, ''Kind of Blue'' is the best-selling jazz album of all time, having been certified as quadruple platinum (4 million copies sold). .In December 2009, the US House of Representatives voted 409–0 to pass a resolution honoring the album as a national treasure.

The trumpet Davis used on the recording is currently displayed in the music building on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It was donated to the school by Arthur "Buddy" Gist, who met Davis in 1949 and became a close friend. The gift was the reason why the jazz program at UNCG is named the "Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program."

In 1959, the Miles Davis Quintet was appearing at the famous Birdland nightclub in New York City. After finishing a 27 minute recording for the armed services, Davis took a break outside the club. As he was escorting an attractive blonde woman across the sidewalk to a taxi, Davis was told by Patrolman Gerald Kilduff to "move on." Davis explained that he worked at the nightclub and refused to move. The officer said that he would arrest Davis and grabbed him as Davis protected himself. Witnesses said that Kilduff punched Davis in the stomach with his nightstick without provocation. Two nearby detectives held the crowd back as a third detective, Don Rolker, approached Davis from behind and beat him about the head. Davis was then arrested and taken to jail where he was charged with feloniously assaulting an officer. He was then taken to St. Clary Hospital where he received five stitches for a wound on his head. Davis attempted to pursue the case in the courts, before eventually dropping the proceedings in a plea bargain in order to recover his suspended Cabaret Card, enabling him to return to work in New York clubs.

Davis persuaded Coltrane to play with the group on one final European tour in the spring of 1960. Coltrane then departed to form his classic quartet, although he returned for some of the tracks on Davis' 1961 album ''Someday My Prince Will Come.'' After Coltrane, Davis tried various saxophonists, including Jimmy Heath, Sonny Stitt, and Hank Mobley. The quintet with Hank Mobley was recorded in the studio and on several live engagements at Carnegie Hall and the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco. Stitt's playing with the group is found on a recording made in Olympia, Paris (where Davis and Coltrane had played a few months before) and the ''Live in Stockholm'' album.

In 1963, Davis' longtime rhythm section of Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb departed. He quickly got to work putting together a new group, including tenor saxophonist George Coleman and bassist Ron Carter. Davis, Coleman, Carter and a few other musicians recorded half the tracks for an album in the spring of 1963. A few weeks later, seventeen-year-old drummer Tony Williams and pianist Herbie Hancock joined the group, and soon afterward Davis, Coleman, and the new rhythm section recorded the rest of ''Seven Steps to Heaven.''

The rhythm players melded together quickly as a section and with the horns. The group's rapid evolution can be traced through the ''Seven Steps to Heaven'' album, ''In Europe'' (July 1963), ''My Funny Valentine'' (February 1964), and ''Four and More'' (also February 1964). The quintet played essentially the same repertoire of bebop tunes and standards that earlier Davis bands had played, but they tackled them with increasing structural and rhythmic freedom and, in the case of the up-tempo material, breakneck speed.

Coleman left in the spring of 1964, to be replaced by avant-garde saxophonist Sam Rivers, on the suggestion of Tony Williams. Rivers remained in the group only briefly, but was recorded live with the quintet in Japan; this configuration can be heard on ''Miles in Tokyo!'' (July 1964).

By the end of the summer, Davis had persuaded Wayne Shorter to leave Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and join the quintet. Shorter became the group's principal composer, and some of his compositions of this era (including "Footprints" and "Nefertiti") have become standards. While on tour in Europe, the group quickly made their first official recording, ''Miles in Berlin'' (September 1964). On returning to the United States later that year, ever the musical entrepreneur, Davis (at Jackie DeShannon's urging) was instrumental in getting The Byrds signed to Columbia Records.

Second great quintet (1964–68) [link]

By the time of ''E.S.P.'' (1965), Davis's lineup consisted of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums). The last of his acoustic bands, this group is often referred to as the second great quintet.

A two-night Chicago performance in late 1965 is captured on ''The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965,'' released in 1995. Unlike their studio albums, the live engagement shows the group still playing primarily standards and bebop tunes. It is reasonable to point out, though, that while some of the titles remain the same as the tunes employed by the 1950s quintet, the speed and distance of departure from the framework of the standards bears no comparison. It could even be said that the listening experience to these standards as live performances is as much of a radical take on the jazz of the time as the new compositions of the studio albums listed below.

The recording of ''Live at the Plugged Nickel'' was not issued anywhere in the 1960s, first appearing as a Japan-only partial issue in the late 1970s, then as a double-LP in the USA and Europe in 1982. It was followed by a series of studio recordings: ''Miles Smiles'' (1966), ''Sorcerer'' (1967), ''Nefertiti'' (1967), ''Miles in the Sky'' (1968), and ''Filles de Kilimanjaro'' (1968). The quintet's approach to improvisation came to be known as "time no changes" or "freebop," because they abandoned the more conventional chord-change-based approach of bebop for a modal approach. Through ''Nefertiti,'' the studio recordings consisted primarily of originals composed by Shorter, with occasional compositions by the other sidemen. In 1967, the group began to play their live concerts in continuous sets, each tune flowing into the next, with only the melody indicating any sort of demarcation. Davis's bands would continue to perform in this way until his retirement in 1975.

''Miles in the Sky'' and ''Filles de Kilimanjaro,'' on which electric bass, electric piano, and electric guitar were tentatively introduced on some tracks, pointed the way to the subsequent fusion phase of Davis's career. Davis also began experimenting with more rock-oriented rhythms on these records. By the time the second half of ''Filles de Kilimanjaro'' had been recorded, bassist Dave Holland and pianist Chick Corea had replaced Carter and Hancock in the working band, though both Carter and Hancock would occasionally contribute to future recording sessions. Davis soon began to take over the compositional duties of his sidemen.

Electric Miles (1968–75) [link]

Davis's influences included 1960s acid rock and funk artists such as Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, and Jimi Hendrix, many of whom he met through Betty Mabry (later Betty Davis), a young model and songwriter Davis married in September 1968 and divorced a year later. The musical transition required that Davis and his band adapt to electric instruments in both live performances and the studio. By the time ''In a Silent Way'' had been recorded in February 1969, Davis had augmented his quintet with additional players. At various times Hancock or Joe Zawinul was brought in to join Corea on electric keyboards, and guitarist John McLaughlin made the first of his many appearances with Davis. By this point, Shorter was also doubling on soprano saxophone. After recording this album, Williams left to form his group Lifetime and was replaced by Jack DeJohnette.

Six months later an even larger group of musicians, including Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira, and Bennie Maupin, recorded the double LP ''Bitches Brew,'' which became a huge seller, reaching gold status by 1976. This album and ''In a Silent Way'' were among the first fusions of jazz and rock that were commercially successful, building on the groundwork laid by Charles Lloyd, Larry Coryell, and others who pioneered a genre that would become known as jazz-rock fusion. During this period, Davis toured with Shorter, Corea, Holland, and DeJohnette. The group's repertoire included material from ''Bitches Brew'', ''In a Silent Way'', and the 1960s quintet albums, along with an occasional standard.

In 1972, Davis was introduced to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen by Paul Buckmaster, leading to a period of new creative exploration. Biographer J. K. Chambers wrote that "the effect of Davis' study of Stockhausen could not be repressed for long... Davis' own 'space music' shows Stockhausen's influence compositionally." His recordings and performances during this period were described as "space music" by fans, by music critic Leonard Feather, and by Buckmaster, who described it as "a lot of mood changes—heavy, dark, intense—definitely space music." Both ''Bitches Brew'' and ''In a Silent Way'' feature "extended" (more than 20 minutes each) compositions that were never actually "played straight through" by the musicians in the studio. Instead, Davis and producer Teo Macero selected musical motifs of various lengths from recorded extended improvisations and edited them together into a musical whole that exists only in the recorded version. ''Bitches Brew'' made use of such electronic effects as multi-tracking, tape loops, and other editing techniques. Both records, especially ''Bitches Brew'', proved to be big sellers. Starting with ''Bitches Brew'', Davis's albums began to often feature cover art much more in line with psychedelic art or black power movements than that of his earlier albums. He took significant cuts in his usual performing fees in order to open for rock groups like the Steve Miller Band, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and Santana. Several live albums were recorded during the early 1970s at these performances: ''Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About That Time'' (March 1970),'' Black Beauty'' (April 1970), and ''Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East'' (June 1970).

By the time of ''Live-Evil'' in December 1970, Davis's ensemble had transformed into a much more funk-oriented group. Davis began experimenting with wah-wah effects on his horn. The ensemble with Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett, and Michael Henderson, often referred to as the "Cellar Door band" (the live portions of ''Live-Evil'' were recorded at a Washington, DC, club by that name), never recorded in the studio, but is documented in the six-CD box set ''The Cellar Door Sessions,'' which was recorded over four nights in December 1970. In 1970, Davis contributed extensively to the soundtrack of a documentary about the African-American boxer heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. Himself a devotee of boxing, Davis drew parallels between Johnson, whose career had been defined by the fruitless search for a Great White Hope to dethrone him, and Davis's own career, in which he felt the musical establishment of the time had prevented him from receiving the acclaim and rewards that were due him. The resulting album, 1971's ''A Tribute to Jack Johnson'', contained two long pieces that featured musicians (some of whom were not credited on the record) including guitarists John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, Herbie Hancock on a Farfisa organ, and drummer Billy Cobham. McLaughlin and Cobham went on to become founding members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971.

As Davis stated in his autobiography, he wanted to make music for the young African-American audience. ''On the Corner'' (1972) blended funk elements with the traditional jazz styles he had played his entire career. The album was highlighted by the appearance of saxophonist Carlos Garnett. Critics were not kind to the album; in his autobiography, Davis stated that critics could not figure out how to categorize it, and he complained that the album was not promoted by the "traditional" jazz radio stations. After recording ''On the Corner'', Davis put together a new group, with only Michael Henderson, Carlos Garnett, and percussionist Mtume returning from the previous band. It included guitarist Reggie Lucas, tabla player Badal Roy, sitarist Khalil Balakrishna, and drummer Al Foster. It was unusual in that none of the sidemen were major jazz instrumentalists; as a result, the music emphasized rhythmic density and shifting textures instead of individual solos. This group, which recorded in Philharmonic Hall for the album ''In Concert'' (1972), was unsatisfactory to Davis. Through the first half of 1973, he dropped the tabla and sitar, took over keyboard duties, and added guitarist Pete Cosey. The Davis/Cosey/Lucas/Henderson/Mtume/Foster ensemble would remain virtually intact over the next two years. Initially, Dave Liebman played saxophones and flute with the band; in 1974, he was replaced by Sonny Fortune.

''Big Fun'' (1974) was a double album containing four long improvisations, recorded between 1969 and 1972. Similarly, ''Get Up With It'' (1974) collected recordings from the previous five years. ''Get Up With It'' included "He Loved Him Madly", a tribute to Duke Ellington, as well as one of Davis's most lauded pieces from this era, "Calypso Frelimo". It was his last studio album of the 1970s. In 1974 and 1975, Columbia recorded three double-LP live Davis albums: ''Dark Magus'', ''Agharta'', and ''Pangaea''. ''Dark Magus'' captures a 1974 New York concert; the latter two are recordings of consecutive concerts from the same February 1975 day in Osaka. At the time, only ''Agharta'' was available in the US; ''Pangaea'' and ''Dark Magus'' were initially released only by CBS/Sony Japan. All three feature at least two electric guitarists (Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey, deploying an array of Hendrix-inspired electronic distortion devices; Dominique Gaumont is a third guitarist on ''Dark Magus''), electric bass, drums, reeds, and Davis on electric trumpet and organ. These albums were the last he was to record for five years. Davis was troubled by osteoarthritis (which led to a hip replacement operation in 1976, the first of several), sickle-cell anemia, depression, bursitis, ulcers, and a renewed dependence on alcohol and drugs (primarily cocaine), and his performances were routinely panned by critics throughout late 1974 and early 1975. By the time the group reached Japan in February 1975, Davis was nearing a physical breakdown and required copious amounts of alcohol and narcotics to make it through his engagements. Nonetheless, as noted by Richard Cook and Brian Morton, during these concerts his trumpet playing "is of the highest and most adventurous order."

After a Newport Jazz Festival performance at Avery Fisher Hall in New York on July 1, 1975, Davis withdrew almost completely from the public eye for six years. As Gil Evans said, "His organism is tired. And after all the music he's contributed for 35 years, he needs a rest." In his memoirs, Davis is characteristically candid about his wayward mental state during this period, describing himself as a hermit, his house as a wreck, and detailing his drug and sex addictions. In 1976, ''Rolling Stone'' reported rumors of his imminent demise. Although he stopped practicing trumpet on a regular basis, Davis continued to compose intermittently and made three attempts at recording during his exile from performing; these sessions (one with the assistance of Paul Buckmaster and Gil Evans, who left after not receiving promised compensation) bore little fruit and remain unreleased. In 1979, he placed in the yearly top-ten trumpeter poll of ''Down Beat''. Columbia continued to issue compilation albums and records of unreleased vault material to fulfill contractual obligations. During his period of inactivity, Davis saw the fusion music that he had spearheaded over the past decade enter into the mainstream. When he emerged from retirement, Davis's musical descendants would be in the realm of New Wave rock, and in particular the styling of Prince.

Last decade (1981–91) [link]

By 1979, Davis had rekindled his relationship with actress Cicely Tyson. With Tyson, Davis would overcome his cocaine addiction and regain his enthusiasm for music. As he had not played trumpet for the better part of three years, regaining his famed embouchure proved to be particularly arduous. While recording ''The Man with the Horn'' (sessions were spread sporadically over 1979–1981), Davis played mostly wahwah with a younger, larger band.

The initial large band was eventually abandoned in favor of a smaller combo featuring saxophonist Bill Evans and bass player Marcus Miller, both of whom would be among Davis's most regular collaborators throughout the decade. He married Tyson in 1981; they would divorce in 1988. ''The Man with the Horn'' was finally released in 1981 and received a poor critical reception despite selling fairly well. In May, the new band played two dates as part of the Newport Jazz Festival. The concerts, as well as the live recording ''We Want Miles'' from the ensuing tour, received positive reviews.

By late 1982, Davis's band included French percussionist Mino Cinelu and guitarist John Scofield, with whom he worked closely on the album ''Star People.'' In mid-1983, while working on the tracks for ''Decoy'', an album mixing soul music and electronica that was released in 1984, Davis brought in producer, composer and keyboardist Robert Irving III, who had earlier collaborated with him on ''The Man with the Horn.'' With a seven-piece band, including Scofield, Evans, keyboardist and music director Irving, drummer Al Foster and bassist Darryl Jones (later of The Rolling Stones), Davis played a series of European gigs to positive receptions. While in Europe, he took part in the recording of ''Aura,'' an orchestral tribute to Davis composed by Danish trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg.

''You're Under Arrest,'' Davis's next album, was released in 1985 and included another brief stylistic detour. Included on the album were his interpretations of Cyndi Lauper's ballad "Time After Time", and "Human Nature" from Michael Jackson. Davis considered releasing an entire album of pop songs and recorded dozens of them, but the idea was scrapped. Davis noted that many of today's accepted jazz standards were in fact pop songs from Broadway theater, and that he was simply updating the "standards" repertoire with new material. 1985 also saw Davis guest-star on the TV show ''Miami Vice'' as pimp and minor criminal Ivory Jones in the episode titled "Junk Love" (first aired November 8, 1985).

''You're Under Arrest'' also proved to be Davis's final album for Columbia. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis publicly dismissed Davis's more recent fusion recordings as not being "'true' jazz", comments Davis initially shrugged off, calling Marsalis "a nice young man, only confused". This changed after Marsalis appeared, unannounced, onstage in the midst of Davis's performance at the inaugural Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 1986. Marsalis whispered into Davis's ear that "someone" had told him to do so; Davis responded by ordering him off the stage.

Davis grew irritated at Columbia's delay releasing ''Aura''. The breaking point in the label-artist relationship appears to have come when a Columbia jazz producer requested Davis place a goodwill birthday call to Marsalis. Davis signed with Warner Bros. Records shortly thereafter.

Davis collaborated with a number of figures from the British new wave movement during this period, including Scritti Politti. At the invitation of producer Bill Laswell, Davis recorded some trumpet parts during sessions for Public Image Ltd.'s ''Album'', according to Public Image's John Lydon in the liner notes of their ''Plastic Box'' box set. In Lydon's words, however, "strangely enough, we didn't use (his contributions)." (Also according to Lydon in the ''Plastic Box'' notes, Davis favorably compared Lydon's singing voice to his trumpet sound.)

Having first taken part in the Artists United Against Apartheid recording, Davis signed with Warner Brothers records and reunited with Marcus Miller. The resulting record, ''Tutu'' (1986), would be his first to use modern studio tools—programmed synthesizers, samples and drum loops—to create an entirely new setting for his playing. Ecstatically reviewed on its release, the album would frequently be described as the modern counterpart of ''Sketches of Spain'' and won a Grammy in 1987.

thumb|left|230px|The grave of Miles Davis in Woodlawn CemeteryHe followed ''Tutu'' with ''Amandla,'' another collaboration with Miller and George Duke, plus the soundtracks to four movies: ''Street Smart,'' ''Siesta,'' ''The Hot Spot'' (with bluesman John Lee Hooker), and ''Dingo.'' He continued to tour with a band of constantly rotating personnel and a critical stock at a level higher than it had been for 15 years. His last recordings, both released posthumously, were the hip hop-influenced studio album ''Doo-Bop'' and ''Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux,'' a collaboration with Quincy Jones for the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival in which Davis performed the repertoire from his 1940s and 1950s recordings for the first time in decades.

In 1988 he had a small part as a street musician in the film ''Scrooged'', starring Bill Murray. In 1989, Davis was interviewed on ''60 Minutes'' by Harry Reasoner. Davis received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

In early 1991, he appeared in the Rolf de Heer film ''Dingo'' as a jazz musician. In the film's opening sequence, Davis and his band unexpectedly land on a remote airstrip in the Australian outback and proceed to perform for the stunned locals. The performance was one of Davis's last on film.

Miles Davis died on September 28, 1991 from the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure in Santa Monica, California at the age of 65. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

Legacy and influence [link]

Miles Davis is regarded as one of the most innovative, influential and respected figures in the history of music. He has been described as “one of the great innovators in jazz”. ''The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll'' noted "Miles Davis played a crucial and inevitably controversial role in every major development in jazz since the mid-'40s, and no other jazz musician has had so profound an effect on rock. Miles Davis was the most widely recognized jazz musician of his era, an outspoken social critic and an arbiter of style—in attitude and fashion—as well as music". His album ''Kind of Blue'' is the best-selling album in the history of jazz music. On November 5, 2009, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan sponsored a measure in the United States House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the album on its 50th anniversary. The measure also affirms jazz as a national treasure and "encourages the United States government to preserve and advance the art form of jazz music." It passed, unanimously, with a vote of 409–0 on December 15, 2009.

Many well-known musicians rose to prominence as members of Davis's ensembles, including saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, Branford Marsalis and Kenny Garrett; trombonist J. J. Johnson; pianists Horace Silver, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Kei Akagi; guitarists John McLaughlin, Pete Cosey, John Scofield and Mike Stern; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones; and drummers Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, and Al Foster.

As an innovative bandleader and composer, Miles Davis has influenced many notable musicians and bands from diverse genres. These include Wayne Shorter, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Cassandra Wilson, Lalo Schifrin, Tangerine Dream, Brand X, Mtume, Benny Bailey, Joe Bonner, Don Cherry, Urszula Dudziak, Sugizo, Bill Evans, Bill Hardman, The Lounge Lizards, Hugh Masekela, John McLaughlin, King Crimson, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Nile Rodgers, Duane Allman, Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Lydia Lunch, Talk Talk, Michael Franks, Sting, Lonnie Liston Smith, Jiří Stivín, Tim Hagans, Julie Christensen, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Vassar Clements, Snooky Young, Prince, and Christian Scott.

Miles' influence on the people who played with him has been described by music writer and author Christopher Smith as follows:

Miles Davis' artistic interest was in the creation and manipulation of ritual space, in which gestures could be endowed with symbolic power sufficient to form a functional communicative, and hence musical, vocabulary. [...] Miles' performance tradition emphasized orality and the transmission of information and artistic insight from individual to individual. His position in that tradition, and his personality, talents, and artistic interests, impelled him to pursue a uniquely individual solution to the problems and the experiential possibilities of improvised performance.

His approach, owing largely to the African American performance tradition that focused on individual expression, emphatic interaction, and creative response to shifting contents, had a profound impact on generations of jazz musicians.

In 1986, the New England Conservatory awarded Miles Davis an Honorary Doctorate for his extraordinary contributions to music. Since 1960 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) has honored him with eight Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. In 2010, Moldejazz premiered a play called ''Driving Miles'', which focused on a landmark concert Davis performed in Molde, Norway, in 1984.

Awards [link]

Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1955

Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1957

Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1961

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Composition Of More Than Five Minutes Duration for ''Sketches of Spain'' (1960)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group for ''Bitches Brew'' (1970)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for ''We Want Miles'' (1982)

Sonning Award for Lifetime Achievement In Music (1984; Copenhagen, Denmark)

Doctor of Music, ''honoris causa'' (1986; New England Conservatory)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for ''Tutu'' (1986)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for ''Aura'' (1989)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for ''Aura'' (1989)

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990)

Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score for ''Dingo'', shared with Michel Legrand (1991)

Knighted into the Legion of Honor (July 16, 1991; Paris)

Grammy Award for Best R&B; Instrumental Performance for ''Doo-Bop'' (1992)

Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance for ''Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux'' (1993)

Hollywood Walk of Fame Star (February 19, 1998)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction (March 13, 2006)

Hollywood's Rockwalk Induction (September 28, 2006)

RIAA Quadruple Platinum for ''Kind of Blue''

St. Louis Walk of Fame

Discography [link]

Filmography [link]

Year	Film	Credited as			Role	Notes
		Composer	Performer	Actor
1958	''Elevator to the Gallows''				—
1972					Himself	Cameo, uncredited
1985	''Miami Vice''				Ivory Jones	TV series (1 episode - "Junk Love")
1986					Jazz musician	Cameo, TV series (1 episode - "The War")
1987					—
1988	''Scrooged''				Street musician	Cameo
1992					Billy Cross	One of Davis' last performances on film

Only one song is composed by Miles Davis in cooperation with Marcus Miller ("Theme For Augustine").

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Carr, Ian. ''Miles Davis''. ISBN 0-00-653026-5.

Chambers, Jack. ''Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis''. ISBN 0-306-80849-8.

Cole, George. ''The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis 1980–1991''. ISBN 1-904768-18-0.

Cook, Richard (2007). ''"It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record"''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532266-8

Cook, Richard, and Brian Morton. Entry "Miles Davis" in ''Penguin Guide to Jazz'', Penguin, ISBN 0-14-017949-6.

Davis, Miles & Troupe, Quincy. ''Miles: The Autobiography''. ISBN 0-671-63504-2.

Davis, Gregory. ''Dark Magus: The Jekyll & Hyde Life of Miles Davis''. ISBN 978-0-87930-875-9.

Early, Gerald. ''Miles Davis and American Culture''. ISBN 1-883982-37-5 cloth, ISBN 1-883982-38-3, paper.

Szwed, John. ''So What: The Life of Miles Davis''. ISBN 0-434-00759-5.

Tingen, Paul. ''Miles Beyond: The Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967–1991''. ISBN 0-8230-8360-8.

Mandel, Howard (2007). ''Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz''. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96714-7.

External links [link]

Web sites dedicated to Miles Davis:

Miles Davis – official website.

Miles Davis – official Sony Music website.

Miles From India review

Miles Davis – European website with detailed discography.

Miles Davis's '70s: The Excitement! The Terror! — Robert Christgau, ''The Village Voice''

Category:African American musicians Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz trumpeters Category:Songwriters from Illinois Category:Bebop trumpeters Category:Cool jazz trumpeters Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Deaths from respiratory failure Category:People with sickle-cell disease Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Warner Bros. Records artists Category:Prestige Records artists Category:Savoy Records artists Category:Hard bop trumpeters Category:Musicians from Illinois Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Modal jazz trumpeters Category:People from Madison County, Illinois Category:People from St. Clair County, Illinois Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Music of St. Louis, Missouri Category:Third Stream trumpeters Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx) Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:1926 births Category:1991 deaths Category:Avant-garde jazz trumpeters Category:Performing arts pages with videographic documentation

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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (), born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn (3 February 18094 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.

The grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family, although initially he was raised without religion and was later baptised as a Lutheran Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent.

Early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, was followed by travel throughout Europe. Mendelssohn was particularly well-received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig), which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook.

Mendelssohn's work includes symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His most-performed works include his Overture and incidental music for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', the ''Italian Symphony'', the ''Scottish Symphony'', the overture ''The Hebrides'', his Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and anti-Semitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has now been recognised and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

Life[link]

Childhood[link]

Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg, at the time an independent city-state, in the same house where, a year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, Ferdinand David, was to be born. Mendelssohn's father was the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His mother was Lea Salomon, a member of the Itzig family and the sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy. Mendelssohn was the second of four children; his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional and precocious musical talent.

The family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise fearing French revenge for the Mendelssohn bank's role in breaking Napoleon's Continental System blockade. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul and Rebecka – the best education possible. Fanny became a well-known pianist and amateur composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. However, at that time, it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to have a career in music, so Fanny remained an active, but non-professional musician. Abraham was also disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he intended seriously to dedicate himself to it.

Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the salon organised by his parents at the family's home in Berlin included artists, musicians and scientists, amongst them Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, and the mathematician Gustav Dirichlet (whom Mendelssohn's sister Rebecka would later marry). Sarah Rothenburg wrote of the household that "Europe came to their living room".

Felix's surname[link]

Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion; he and his wife deliberately decided not to have Felix circumcised, in contravention of the Jewish tradition. Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, and were baptised as Lutherans in 1816, at which time Felix took the additional names Jakob Ludwig. Abraham and his wife Lea were baptised in 1822, formally adopting the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy (which they had used since 1812) for themselves and their children. The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Lea's brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, who had inherited a property of this name in Luisenstadt and adopted it as his own surname. Abraham later explained this decision in a letter to Felix as a means of showing a decisive break with the traditions of his father Moses: "There can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a Jewish Confucius". On embarking on his musical career, Felix did not entirely drop the name Mendelssohn as Abraham requested, but in deference to his father signed his letters and had his visiting cards printed using the form 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. In 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of "Bartholdy [...] this name that we all dislike".

Career[link]

Musical education[link]

Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before him, Mendelssohn was regarded as a child prodigy. He began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. After the family moved to Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, who was himself a former student of Muzio Clementi. From at least May 1819 Felix (and his sister Fanny) studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. This was an important influence on his future career. Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach. Sarah Levy was a talented keyboard player in her own right, often playing with Zelter's orchestra at the Berlin Singakademie, of which she and the Mendelssohn family were leading patrons. Sarah had formed an important collection of Bach family manuscripts which she bequeathed to the Singakademie; Zelter, whose tastes in music were conservative, was also an admirer of the Bach tradition. This undoubtedly played a significant part in forming Felix Mendelssohn's musical tastes. His works show his study of Baroque and early classical music. His fugues and chorales especially reflect a tonal clarity and use of counterpoint reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach, by whose music he was deeply influenced.

Early maturity[link]

Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at age nine, when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo. He was also a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin. Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 12 string symphonies for such concerts. These works were ignored for over a century, but are now recorded and occasionally played in concerts. He wrote his first published work, a piano quartet, by the time he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of Mendelssohn's early piano quartet by the house of Schlesinger. In 1824, the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra, (op. 11 in C minor).

At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his String Octet in E-flat major, the first work which showed the full power of his genius. This Octet and his ''Overture'' to Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', which he wrote a year later in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (He later also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous Wedding March, in 1842). The ''Overture'' is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture – that is, a piece not written deliberately to accompany a staged performance, but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became a popular form in musical Romanticism.

In 1824 Mendelssohn studied under the composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles, who however confessed in his diaries that he had little to teach him. Moscheles became a close colleague and lifelong friend. 1827 saw the premiere – and sole performance in his lifetime – of Mendelssohn's opera, ''Die Hochzeit des Camacho''. The failure of this production left him disinclined to venture into the genre again.

Besides music, Mendelssohn's education included art, literature, languages, and philosophy. He had a particular interest in classical literature and translated Terence's ''Andria'' for his tutor Heyse in 1825; Heyse was impressed and had it published in 1826 as a work of "his pupil, F****" [i.e. "Felix" (asterisks as provided in original text)]. This translation also qualified Mendelssohn to study at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where from 1826 to 1829 he attended lectures on aesthetics by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, on history by Eduard Gans and on geography by Carl Ritter.

Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach[link]

In 1821 Zelter introduced Mendelssohn to his friend and correspondent, the elderly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison with Mozart in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter:

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Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions, and set a number of Goethe's poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture ''Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt'' (''Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage'', Op. 27, 1828) and the cantata ''Die erste Walpurgisnacht'' (''The First Walpurgis Night'', Op. 60, 1832).

In 1829, with the backing of Zelter and the assistance of actor Eduard Devrient, Mendelssohn arranged and conducted a performance in Berlin of Bach's ''St Matthew Passion''. Four years previously his grandmother, Bella Salomon, had given him a copy of the manuscript of this (by then all-but-forgotten) masterpiece. The orchestra and choir for the performance were provided by the Berlin Singakademie. The success of this performance – the first since Bach's death in 1750 – was an important element in the revival of J. S. Bach's music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe. It earned Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of 20. It also led to one of the few references which Mendelssohn made to his origins: "To think that it took an actor and a Jew's son to revive the greatest Christian music for the world!"

Over the next few years Mendelssohn traveled widely, including making his first visit to England in 1829, and also visiting amongst other places Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome and Naples, in all of which he met with local and visiting musicians and artists. These years proved the germination for some of his most famous works, including the ''Hebrides Overture'' and the ''Scottish'' and ''Italian'' symphonies.

Düsseldorf[link]

On Zelter's death in 1832, Mendelssohn had hopes of succeeding him as conductor of the Berlin Singakademie. However, at a vote in January 1833 he was defeated for the post by the less distinguished Karl Friedrick Rungenhagen. This may have been because of Mendelssohn's youth, and fear of possible innovations; it was also suspected by some to be attributable to his Jewish ancestry. Following this rebuff, Mendelssohn divided most of his professional time over the next few years between Britain and Düsseldorf, where he was appointed musical director (his first paid post as a musician) in 1833.

In the spring of that year Mendelssohn directed the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf, beginning with a performance of Handel's oratorio ''Israel in Egypt'' prepared from the original score which he had found in London. This precipitated a Handel revival in Germany, similar to the reawakened interest in J. S. Bach following his performance of the ''St Matthew Passion''. Mendelssohn worked with dramatist Karl Immermann to improve local theatre standards, and made his first appearance as an opera conductor in Immermann's production of Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' at the end of 1833, where he took umbrage at the audience's protests about the cost of tickets. His frustration at his everyday duties in Düsseldorf, and the city's provincialism, led him to resign his position at the end of 1834.

Mendelssohn in Britain[link]

In 1829 Mendelssohn paid his first visit to Britain, where his former teacher Ignaz Moscheles, already settled in London, introduced him to influential musical circles. In the summer he visited Edinburgh, where he met among others the composer John Thomson, whom he later recommended to be Professor of Music at Edinburgh University. On his eighth visit in the summer of 1844, he conducted five of the Philharmonic concerts in London, and wrote:

[N]ever before was anything like this season – we never went to bed before half-past one, every hour of every day was filled with engagements three weeks beforehand, and I got through more music in two months than in all the rest of the year.

On subsequent visits he met Queen Victoria and her musical husband Prince Albert, who both greatly admired his music.

In the course of ten visits to Britain during his life, totalling about 20 months, Mendelssohn won a strong following, sufficient for him to make a deep impression on British musical life. He composed and performed, and he edited for British publishers the first critical editions of oratorios of Handel and of the organ music of J.S. Bach. Scotland inspired two of his most famous works: the ''Hebrides Overture'', (also known as ''Fingal's Cave''); and the ''Scottish Symphony'' (Symphony No. 3). Mendelssohn also worked closely with his protégé, the British composer and pianist William Sterndale Bennett, (whom he had first heard in London in 1833 when Bennett was 17), both in London and Leipzig, where Bennett appeared throughout the 1836/37 season. Mendelssohn's oratorio ''Elijah'' was premiered in Birmingham at the Triennial Music Festival on 26 August 1846, using an English translation by William Bartholomew, who served as his text author and translator for many of his works during his time in England. On his last visit to Britain in 1847, Mendelssohn was the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and conducted his own ''Scottish'' Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Queen and Prince Albert.

Leipzig and Berlin[link]

In 1835 Mendelssohn was named conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He chose this position although he had also been offered direction of the opera house in Munich and the editorship of the prestigious music journal, the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung''. Mendelssohn concentrated on developing the musical life of Leipzig, working with the orchestra, the opera house, the Choir of St. Thomas Church, and the city’s other choral and musical institutions. Mendelssohn's concerts included, in addition to many of his own works, three series of "historical concerts" and a number of works by his contemporaries. He was deluged by offers of music from rising composers and would-be composers; amongst these was Richard Wagner, who submitted his early Symphony, which to Wagner’s disgust Mendelssohn lost or mislaid. Mendelssohn also revived interest in Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann discovered the manuscript of Schubert's 9th Symphony and sent it to Mendelssohn, who promptly premiered it in Leipzig on 21 March 1839, more than a decade after Schubert's death.

A landmark event during Mendelssohn’s Leipzig years was the premiere of his oratorio ''St. Paul'', given at the Lower Rhenish Festival in Düsseldorf in 1836, shortly after the death of the composer’s father, which much affected him; Felix wrote that he would "never cease to endeavour to gain his approval [...] although I can no longer enjoy it". ''St. Paul'' seemed to many of Mendelssohn’s contemporaries to be his finest work, and sealed his European reputation.

When Friedrich Wilhelm IV came to the Prussian throne in 1840 with ambitions to develop Berlin as a cultural centre (including the establishment of a music school, and reform of music for the church), the obvious choice to head these reforms was Mendelssohn. He was however reluctant to undertake the task, especially in the light of his existing strong position in Leipzig. Mendelssohn did however spend some time in Berlin, writing some church music, and, at the King’s request, music for productions of Sophocles’s ''Antigone'' (1841) and ''Oedipus at Colonus'' (1845), Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1843) and Racine's ''Athalie'' (1845). But the funds for the school never materialised, and various of the court's promises to Mendelssohn regarding finances, title, and concert programming were broken. He was therefore not displeased to have the excuse to return to Leipzig.

thumb|right|upright|alt=lrage white cross of stone, inscribed with Mendlessohn's full baptised name and dates |Felix Mendelssohn's grave In 1843 Mendelssohn founded a major music school – the Leipzig Conservatory, now the ''Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy"'' or (in its own English self-designation) the ''Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre'' – where he persuaded Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann to join him. Other prominent musicians, including string players Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim and music theorist Moritz Hauptmann, also became staff members. After Mendelssohn's death in 1847, his conservative tradition was carried on when Moscheles succeeded him as head of the Conservatory.

Death[link]

Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous problems and overwork. The death of his sister Fanny on 14 May 1847 caused him great distress. Less than six months later, on 4 November, Mendelssohn himself died in Leipzig after a series of strokes. He was 38. His grandfather Moses, his sister Fanny and both his parents had died from similar apoplexies. The details of the moment of his death are quite poetic. As he lay unconscious in bed surrounded by friends and doctors, a marching band passed by outside his home. A servant absentmindedly threw open the front door and the brass music flooded into his bedchamber. Mendelssohn sat bolt upright in bed with his hands ready to conduct, and then collapsed back on his pillow and was dead. His funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, and he was buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery No. 1 in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The pallbearers included Moscheles, Schumann and Niels Gade. Mendelssohn had once described death, in a letter to a stranger, as a place "where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings".

Personal life[link]

Personality[link]

thumb|left|alt= watercolour sketch of lakeside scene in springtime, water taking up right hand side of sketch, church and small town at left, hills in background|View of Lucerne – watercolour by Mendelssohn, 1847Although the image was cultivated, especially after his death in the detailed family memoirs by his nephew Sebastian Hensel, of a man always equable, happy and placid in temperament, this was misleading. The nickname "discontented Polish count" was given to Mendelssohn because of his aloofness, and he referred to the epithet in his letters. Mendelssohn was frequently given to alarming fits of temper which occasionally led to collapse. On one occasion in the 1830s, when his wishes had been crossed, "his excitement was increased so fearfully ... that when the family was assembled ... he began to talk incoherently, and in English, to the great terror of them all. The stern voice of his father at last checked the wild torrent of words; they took him to bed, and a profound sleep of twelve hours restored him to his normal state". Such fits may be related to his early death.

Mendelssohn was a fine and enthusiastic artist in pencil and watercolour, a skill which he used throughout his life for his own amusement and that of his friends. His enormous correspondence shows that he could also be a witty writer in German and English – sometimes accompanied by humorous sketches and cartoons in the text.

Religion[link]

Although Mendelssohn was a conforming (if not over-zealous) Lutheran by confession, he was both conscious and proud of his Jewish ancestry and notably of his connection with his grandfather Moses Mendelssohn. He was the prime mover in proposing to the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus a complete edition of Moses's works, which continued with the support of his uncle Joseph Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn was notably reluctant, either in his letters or conversation, to comment on his innermost beliefs; his friend Devrient wrote that "[his] deep convictions were never uttered in intercourse with the world; only in rare and intimate moments did they ever appear, and then only in the slightest and most humorous allusions". Thus for example in a letter to his sister Rebecka, Mendelssohn rebukes her complaint about an unpleasant relative: "What do you mean by saying you are not hostile to Jews? I hope this was a joke [...] It is really sweet of you that you do not despise your family, isn't it?". Some modern scholars have devoted considerable energy to demonstrate that Mendelssohn was either deeply sympathetic to his Jewishness or sincere to his Lutheran beliefs (though there is in fact no reason to suppose these attitudes to be incompatible).

Mendelssohn and his contemporaries[link]

Throughout his life Mendelssohn was wary of the more radical musical developments undertaken by some of his contemporaries. He was generally on friendly, if sometimes somewhat cool, terms with the likes of Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but in his letters expresses his frank disapproval of their works, for example writing of Liszt that his compositions were "inferior to his playing, and [..] only calculated for virtuosos"; of Berlioz's overture ''Les francs-juges'' "the orchestration is such a frightful muddle [...] that one ought to wash one's hands after handling one of his scores"; and of Meyerbeer's opera ''Robert le diable'' "I consider it ignoble", calling its villain Bertram "a poor devil". When his friend the composer Ferdinand Hiller suggested in conversation to Mendelssohn that he looked rather like Meyerbeer – they were actually distant cousins, both descendants of Rabbi Moses Isserlis – Mendelssohn was so upset that he immediately went to get a haircut to differentiate himself.

In particular, Mendelssohn seems to have regarded Paris and its music with the greatest of suspicion and an almost puritanical distaste. Attempts made during his visit there to interest him in Saint-Simonianism ended in embarrassing scenes.

It is significant that the only musician with whom he remained a close personal friend, Ignaz Moscheles, was of an older generation and equally conservative in outlook. Moscheles preserved this outlook at the Leipzig Conservatory until his own death in 1870.

Marriage and children[link]

150px|thumb|right|alt= portrait, against blank pale background, of woman in late twenties, dark hair in ringlets, in dark silk dress with pelisse, holding a rose, three-quarters turned to viewer|Mendelssohn's wife Cécile (1846) by Eduard MagnusMendelssohn married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (10 October 1817 – 25 September 1853), the daughter of a French Protestant clergyman, on 28 March 1837. The couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lilli and Felix. The second youngest child, Felix August, contracted measles in 1844 and was left with his health impaired; he died in 1851. The eldest, Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (7 February 1838 – 23 February 1897), became a distinguished historian, and professor of history at Heidelberg and Freiburg universities, dying in 1897 in a psychiatric institution in Freiburg. Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880) was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye. Marie married Victor Benecke and lived in London. Lili married Adolph Wach, later Professor of Law at Leipzig University. The family papers inherited by Marie and Lili's children form the basis of the extensive collection of Mendelssohn manuscripts, including the so-called 'Green Books' of his correspondence, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy died less than six years after her husband, on 25 September 1853.

Jenny Lind[link]

thumb|150px|left|alt= photograph of lady in dress and shawl, pearl necklace, body facing right, smiling face facing viewer|Jenny LindIn general Mendelssohn's personal life seems to have been fairly conventional compared to his contemporaries Wagner, Berlioz, and Schumann – except for his relationship with Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whom he met in October 1844. An affidavit from Lind's husband, Otto Goldschmidt, which is currently held in the archive of the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation at the Royal Academy of Music in London, reportedly describes Mendelssohn's 1847 written request for Lind, who was then not married, to elope with him to America. The affidavit, though unsealed, is currently unreleased by the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, despite requests to make it public.

Mendelssohn met and worked with Lind many times, and started an opera, ''Lorelei'', for her, based on the legend of the Lorelei Rhine maidens; the opera was unfinished at his death. He is said to have included a high F-sharp in his oratorio ''Elijah'' ("Hear Ye Israel") with Lind's voice in mind, although she did not sing this part until after his death, at a concert in December 1848. In 1847 Mendelssohn attended a London performance of Meyerbeer's ''Robert le diable'' – an opera which musically he despised – in order to hear Lind's British debut, in the role of Alice. The music critic Henry Chorley, who was with him, wrote "I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn, whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind's talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if a load of anxiety had been taken off his mind. His attachment to Mlle. Lind's genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success".

Upon Mendelssohn's death Lind wrote, "[He was] the only person who brought fulfillment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again". In 1869 Lind erected a plaque in Mendelssohn's memory at his birthplace in Hamburg; in 1849 she established the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, which makes an award to a British resident young composer every two years in Mendelssohn's memory. The first winner of the scholarship was Arthur Sullivan, then aged 14, in 1856.

Mendelssohn as musician[link]

Composer[link]

Richard Taruskin points out that, although Mendelssohn produced works of extraordinary mastery at a very early age,

he never outgrew his precocious youthful style. [...] He remained stylistically conservative [...] feeling no need to attract attention with a display of 'revolutionary' novelty. Throughout his short career he remained comfortably faithful to the musical status quo – that is, the "classical" forms, as they were already thought of by his time. His version of romanticism, already evident in his earliest works, consisted in musical "pictorialism" of a fairly conventional, objective nature (though exquisitely wrought).

In these ways he differed substantially from his contemporaries such as Wagner and Berlioz, even from Schumann and Chopin. The absence of real stylistic 'development' during Mendelssohn's career makes it appropriate to consider his works by genre, rather than in order of composition.

Early works[link]

The young Mendelssohn was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart and traces of these can all be seen in the 12 early string symphonies – mainly written for performance in the Mendelssohn household, and not published or publicly performed until long after his death. He wrote these from 1821 to 1823, when he was between the ages of 12 and 14 years old.

Mendelssohn's first published works were his three piano quartets, (1822–1825; Op. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 in F minor and Op. 3 in B minor); but his astounding capacities are especially revealed in a group of works of his early maturity:

the String Octet (1825)

the Overture ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1826), which in its finished form also owes much to the influence of Adolf Bernhard Marx, at the time a close friend of Mendelssohn.

the two early quartets: Op. 12 (1829), and Op.13 (1827), which both show a remarkable grasp of the techniques and ideas of Beethoven's last quartets, which Mendelssohn had been closely studying

These four works show an intuitive grasp of form, harmony, counterpoint, colour, and compositional technique, which justify claims frequently made that Mendelssohn's precocity exceeded even that of Mozart in its intellectual grasp.

Symphonies[link]

The numbering of Mendelssohn's mature symphonies is approximately in order of publishing, rather than of composition. The order of actual composition is: 1, 5, 4, 2, 3. Because he worked on it for over a decade, the placement of No. 3 in this sequence is problematic; Mendelssohn started sketches for it soon after starting No. 5, but completed it following both Nos. 5 and 4.

The Symphony No. 1 in C minor for full-scale orchestra was written in 1824, when Mendelssohn was aged 15. This work is experimental, showing the influences of Beethoven, and Carl Maria von Weber. Mendelssohn conducted this symphony on his first visit to London in 1829, with the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society. For the third movement he substituted an orchestration of the Scherzo from his Octet. In this form the piece was a success, and laid the foundations of his British reputation.

During 1829 and 1830 Mendelssohn wrote his Symphony No. 5, known as the ''Reformation''. It celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Lutheran Church. Mendelssohn remained dissatisfied with the work and did not allow publication of the score.

The ''Scottish Symphony'' (Symphony No. 3 in A minor) was written and revised intermittently between 1829 (when Mendelssohn noted down the opening theme during a visit to Holyrood Palace) and 1842, when it was given its premiere in Leipzig, the last of his symphonies to be performed in public. This piece evokes Scotland's atmosphere in the ethos of Romanticism, but does not employ any identified Scottish folk melodies.

Mendelssohn's travels in Italy inspired him to write the Symphony No. 4 in A major, known as the ''Italian Symphony''. Mendelssohn conducted the premiere in 1833, but he did not allow this score to be published during his lifetime as he continually sought to rewrite it.

Mendelssohn wrote the choral Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, entitled ''Lobgesang'' (''Hymn of Praise''), to mark the celebrations in Leipzig of the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press; the first performance took place on 25 June 1840.

Other orchestral music[link]

Mendelssohn wrote the concert ''Hebrides Overture'' (''Fingal's Cave'') in 1830, inspired by visits he made to Scotland around the end of the 1820s. He visited Fingal's Cave, on the Hebridean isle of Staffa, as part of his Grand Tour of Europe, and was so impressed that he scribbled the opening theme of the overture on the spot, including it in a letter he wrote home the same evening.

Throughout his career he wrote a number of other concert overtures. Those most frequently played today include an overture to ''Ruy Blas'', commissioned for a charity performance of Victor Hugo's drama, which Mendelssohn hated; ''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'' (''Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt'') inspired by a pair of poems by Goethe; and ''The Fair Melusine''.

The incidental music to ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (Op. 61), including the well-known ''Wedding March'', was written in 1843, seventeen years after the overture.

Opera[link]

Mendelssohn wrote some Singspiels for family performance in his youth. His opera ''Die beiden Neffen'' (''The Two Nephews'') was rehearsed for him on his 15th birthday. 1829 saw ''Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde'' (''Son and Stranger'' or ''Return of the Roamer''), a comedy of mistaken identity written in honor of his parents' silver anniversary and unpublished during his lifetime. In 1825 he wrote a more sophisticated work, ''Die Hochzeit des Camacho'' (''Camacho's Wedding''), based on an episode in ''Don Quixote'', for public consumption. It was produced in Berlin in 1827, but coolly received. Mendelssohn left the theatre before the conclusion of the first performance, and subsequent performances were cancelled.

Although he never abandoned the idea of composing a full opera, and considered many subjects – including that of the Nibelung saga later adapted by Wagner – he never wrote more than a few pages of sketches for any project. In Mendelssohn's last years the opera manager Benjamin Lumley tried to contract him to write an opera from Shakespeare's ''The Tempest'' on a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and even announced it as forthcoming in 1847, the year of Mendelssohn's death. The libretto was eventually set by Fromental Halévy. At his death Mendelssohn left some sketches for an opera on the story of the Lorelei.

Concertos[link]

The Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844), written for Ferdinand David, has become one of the most popular of all of Mendelssohn's compositions. David, who had worked closely with Mendelssohn during the piece's preparation, gave the premiere of the concerto on his Guarneri violin.

Mendelssohn also wrote two piano concertos; a lesser-known, early violin concerto (D minor); two concertos for two pianos and orchestra when he was 15 and 17 years old; and a double concerto for piano and violin. In addition, there are several single-movement works for soloist and orchestra. Those for piano are the ''Rondo Brillante'', Op. 29, of 1834; the ''Capriccio Brillante'', Op. 22, of 1832; and the ''Serenade and Allegro Giocoso'' Op. 43, of 1838. He also wrote two concertinos (''Konzertstücke''), Op. 113 and Op. 114, originally for clarinet, basset horn and piano; Op. 113 was orchestrated by the composer.

Chamber music[link]

Mendelssohn's mature output contains many chamber works, many of which display an emotional intensity lacking in some of his larger works. In particular his String Quartet No. 6, which is the last of his string quartets and last major work – written following the death of his sister Fanny – is both powerful and eloquent. Other mature works include two string quintets; sonatas for the clarinet, cello, viola and violin; and two piano trios. For the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Mendelssohn uncharacteristically took the advice of his fellow composer, Ferdinand Hiller, and rewrote the piano part in a more romantic, "Schumannesque" style, considerably heightening its effect.

Choral works[link]

thumb|left|alt=eleven-staved music manuscript sheet written in black ink, headed 'Secondo'|Part of the overture to 'Elijah' arranged by Mendelssohn for piano duet (manuscript in the Library of Congress)Mendelssohn's two large biblical oratorios, ''St Paul'' in 1836 and ''Elijah'' in 1846, are greatly influenced by Bach. His unfinished oratorio, ''Christus'', consists of a recitative, a chorus "There Shall a Star Come out of Jacob," and a male trio; the chorus is sometimes performed.

Strikingly different is the more overtly romantic ''Die erste Walpurgisnacht'' (''The First Walpurgis Night''), a setting for chorus and orchestra of a ballad by Goethe describing pagan rituals of the Druids in the Harz mountains in the early days of Christianity. This remarkable score has been seen by the scholar Heinz-Klaus Metzger as a "Jewish protest against the domination of Christianity".

Mendelssohn also wrote many smaller-scale sacred works for unaccompanied choir and for choir with organ. Most are written in or translated into English, and remain highly popular. Amongst the most famous is ''Hear My Prayer'', with its second half containing "O for the Wings of a Dove," which became extremely popular as a separate item. The piece is written for full choir, organ, and a treble or soprano soloist who has many challenging and extended solo passages. As such, it is a particular favourite for choirboys in churches and cathedrals, and has frequently been recorded as a treble solo. Mendelssohn's biographer Todd comments 'The very popularity of the anthem in England [...] later exposed it to charges of superficiality from those contemptuous of Victorian mores'.

The hymn tune ''Mendelssohn'' – an adaptation by William Hayman Cummings of a melody from Mendelssohn's cantata ''Festgesang'' (''Festive Hymn'') – is the standard tune for Charles Wesley's popular hymn ''Hark! The Herald Angels Sing''. This extract from an originally secular 1840s composition, which Mendelssohn felt unsuited to sacred music, is ubiquitous at Christmas.

Songs[link]

Mendelssohn wrote many songs, both for solo voice and for duet, with piano. Many of these are simple, or slightly modified, strophic settings. Some, including ''Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (On Wings of Song)'', became popular. Seven of Mendelssohn's songs, including ''Auf Flügeln des Gesanges'' and ''Neue Liebe'' (''New Love'', set to a poem by Heinrich Heine) were transcribed for piano solo, in a virtuoso style, by Franz Liszt.

A number of songs written by Mendelssohn's sister Fanny originally appeared under her brother's name; this may have been partly due to the prejudice of the family, and partly to her own retiring nature.

Piano music[link]

Mendelssohn's ''Songs Without Words'' (''Lieder ohne Worte''), eight cycles each containing six lyric pieces (two published posthumously), remain his most famous solo piano compositions. They became standard parlour recital items even during the composer's lifetime, and their overwhelming popularity has itself caused many critics to underrate their musical value. Other composers who were inspired to produce similar pieces of their own included Charles-Valentin Alkan (his five sets of ''Chants'', each ending with a barcarole), Anton Rubinstein, Ignaz Moscheles, and Edvard Grieg.

Other notable piano pieces by Mendelssohn include his ''Variations sérieuses'', Op. 54 (1841), the ''Rondo Capriccioso'', the set of six ''Preludes and Fugues'', Op. 35 (written between 1832 and 1837), and the ''Seven Characteristic Pieces'', Op. 7 (1827).

Organ music[link]

Mendelssohn played the organ and composed for it from the age of 11 to his death. His primary organ works are the ''Three Preludes and Fugues'', Op. 37 (1837), and the ''Six Sonatas'', Op. 65 (1845), of which Eric Werner wrote "next to Bach's works, Mendelssohn's Organ Sonatas belong to the required repertory of all organists".

Performer[link]

Mendelssohn was renowned during his lifetime as a keyboard performer, both on the piano and on the organ. One of his obituarists noted:

First and chiefest we esteem his pianoforte-playing, with its amazing elasticity of touch, rapidity, and power; next his scientific and vigorous organ playing [...] his triumphs on these instruments are fresh in public recollection.

In his concerts and recitals Mendelssohn performed both his own works and those of his predecessor German composers, notably works of Weber, Beethoven and (on the organ) J.S. Bach.

Both in private and public performances, Mendelssohn was also renowned for his improvisations. On one occasion in London, when asked by the soprano Maria Malibran after a recital to extemporise, he created a piece which included the melodies of all the songs she had sung. The music publisher Victor Novello who was present remarked 'He has done some things that seem to me impossible, even after I have heard them done.'. At another recital in 1837, where Mendelssohn played the piano for a singer, Robert Schumann ignored the soprano and wrote 'Mendelssohn accompanied like a God'.

Conductor[link]

Mendelssohn was a noted conductor, both of his own works and of other composers. At his London debut in 1829, he was noted for his innovatory use of a baton (then a great novelty). But his novelty also extended to taking great care over tempo, dynamics and the orchestral players themselves – both rebuking them when they were recalcitrant and praising them when they satisfied him. . It was his success at conducting at the Lower Rhine music festival of 1836 that led to him taking his first paid professional position as director at Düsseldorf. Amongst those who appreciated Mendelssohn's conducting was Hector Berlioz, who in 1843, invited to Leipzig, exchanged batons with Mendelssohn, writing "When the Great Spirit sends us to hunt in the land of souls, may our warriors hang our tomahawks side by side at the door of the council chamber". At Leipzig, Mendelssohn led the Gewandhaus orchestra to great heights; although concentrating on the great composers of the past (already becoming canonised as the 'classics') he also included new music by Schumann, Berlioz, Gade and many others (including of course his own music). One critic who was not impressed however was Richard Wagner; he accused Mendelssohn of using tempos in his performances of Beethoven symphonies that were far too fast.

Editor[link]

Mendelssohn's interest in baroque music was not limited to the Bach ''St Matthew Passion'' which he had revived in 1829. He was concerned in preparing and editing such music, whether for performance or for publication, to be as close as possible to the original intentions of the composers, including wherever possible a close study of early editions and manuscripts. This could lead him into conflict with publishers; for instance, his edition of Handel's oratorio ''Israel in Egypt'' for the London Handel Society (1845) evoked an often contentious correspondence, with Mendelssohn refusing for example to add dynamics where not given by Handel, or to add parts for trombones. Mendelssohn also edited a number of Bach's works for organ, and apparently discussed with Robert Schumann the possibility of producing a complete Bach edition.

Teacher[link]

Although Mendelssohn attributed great importance to musical education, and made a substantial commitment to the Conservatoire he founded in Leipzig, he did not greatly enjoy teaching and undertook only a very few private pupils; these he took only if he believed they had notable qualities or potential. Amongst such students were composer William Sterndale Bennett, the pianist Camille Stamaty, the violinist and composer Julius Eichberg, and Walther Goethe (grandson of the poet). At the Leipzig Conservatoire Mendelssohn taught classes in composition and ensemble playing.

Reputation and legacy[link]

The first century[link]

In the immediate wake of Mendelssohn's death, he was mourned both in Germany and England. However, the conservative strain in Mendelssohn, which set him apart from some of his more flamboyant contemporaries, bred a corollary condescension amongst some of them toward his music. Mendelssohn's relations with Berlioz, Liszt and others had been uneasy and equivocal. Listeners who had raised questions about Mendelssohn's talent included Heinrich Heine, who wrote in 1836 after hearing the oratorio ''St. Paul'' that his work was "characterized by a great, strict, very serious seriousness, a determined, almost importunate tendency to follow classical models, the finest, cleverest calculation, sharp intelligence and, finally, complete lack of naïveté. But is there in art any originality of genius without naïveté?"

Such criticism of Mendelssohn for his very ability – which could be characterised negatively as facility – was taken to further lengths by Richard Wagner. Mendelssohn's success, his popularity and his Jewish origins irked Wagner sufficiently to damn Mendelssohn with faint praise, three years after his death, in an anti-Jewish pamphlet ''Das Judenthum in der Musik''.

[Mendelssohn] has shown us that a Jew may have the amplest store of specific talents, may own the finest and most varied culture, the highest and tenderest sense of honour – yet without all these pre-eminences helping him, were it but one single time, to call forth in us that deep, that heart-searching effect which we await from art [...] The washiness and the whimsicality of our present musical style has been [...] pushed to its utmost pitch by Mendelssohn's endeavour to speak out a vague, an almost nugatory Content as interestingly and spiritedly as possible.

This was the start of a movement to downgrade Mendelssohn's status as a composer which lasted almost a century, the echoes of which still survive today in critiques of Mendelssohn's supposed mediocrity. Even the comment of Friedrich Nietzsche that Mendelssohn was "a lovely interlude" in German music (i.e. biding time between Beethoven and Wagner) is condescending. In the 20th century the Nazi regime and its ''Reichsmusikkammer'' cited Mendelssohn's Jewish origin in banning performance and publication of his works, even asking Nazi-approved composers to rewrite incidental music for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. (Carl Orff obliged.) Under the Nazis, 'Mendelssohn was presented as a dangerous “accident” of music history, who played a decisive role in rendering German music in the 19th century “degenerate” .' The German Mendelssohn Scholarship for students at the Leipzig Conservatoire was discontinued in 1934 (and not revived until 1963). The monument dedicated to Mendelssohn erected in Leipzig in 1892 was removed by the Nazis in 1936. A replacement was erected in 2008.

Mendelssohn's reputation in England remained high throughout the 19th century. Prince Albert inscribed (in German), a libretto for the oratorio ''Elijah'' in 1847:

To the noble artist who, surrounded by the Baal-worship of false art, has been able, like a second Elijah, through genius and study, to remain true to the service of true art.

In 1851 an adulatory novel by the teenaged Sarah Sheppard was published, entitled ''Charles Auchester''. The book features Mendelssohn as the "Chevalier Seraphael", and remained in print for nearly 80 years. In 1854 Queen Victoria requested that the Crystal Palace include a statue of Mendelssohn when it was rebuilt. Mendelssohn's ''Wedding March'' from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' was played at the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Victoria, The Princess Royal, to Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia in 1858, and it remains popular at marriage ceremonies. Mendelssohn's sacred choral music, particularly the smaller-scale works, remains popular in the choral tradition of the Church of England. However many critics, including Bernard Shaw, began to condemn Mendelssohn's music for its association with Victorian cultural insularity; Shaw in particular complained of the composer's "kid-glove gentility, his conventional sentimentality, and his despicable oratorio-mongering". In the 1950s the scholar Wilfrid Mellers complained of Mendelssohn's "spurious religiosity which reflected the element of unconscious humbug in our morality".

A contrasting opinion came from the pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni, who considered Mendelssohn "a master of undisputed greatness" and "an heir of Mozart". Busoni and other pianists such as Anton Rubinstein and Alkan all regularly included Mendelssohn's piano works in their recitals.

Modern opinions[link]

Charles Rosen in a chapter on Mendelssohn in his 1995 book ''The Romantic Generation'' both praises and criticizes the composer, calling him a "genius" with a "profound" comprehension of Beethoven and "the greatest child prodigy the history of Western music has ever known". Although Rosen feels that in his later years, without losing his craft or genius, the composer "renounced ... his daring", he calls Mendelssohn's relatively late Violin Concerto in E minor "the most successful synthesis of the Classical concerto tradition and the Romantic virtuoso form". Rosen calls the ''Fugue in E minor'' (later included in Mendelssohn's Op. 35 for piano) a "masterpiece"; but in the same paragraph calls Mendelssohn "the inventor of religious kitsch in music".

Such opinions are evidence of how a more nuanced appreciation of Mendelssohn's work has developed over the last 50 years, together with the publication of a number of modern biographies placing his achievements in context. Mercer-Taylor comments on the irony that "this broad-based reevaluation of Mendelssohn's music is made possible, in part, by a general disintegration of the idea of a musical canon", an idea which Mendelssohn "as a conductor, pianist and scholar" had done so much to establish.

About 750 of Mendelssohn's works still remained unpublished in the 1960s, but most of them have now been made available. A complete scholarly edition is now (2010) in preparation of Mendelssohn's works and correspondence but is expected to take many years to complete, and will be in excess of 150 volumes. All of Mendelssohn's oeuvre – including the most popular works such as the E minor Violin Concerto and the ''Italian Symphony'' – has been explored more deeply, and prior concepts about the Victorian conventionality of the oratorio ''Elijah'' have been shed. The frequently intense and dramatic world of Mendelssohn's chamber works has been more fully recognized. Virtually all of Mendelssohn's published works are now available on CD, and his works are frequently heard in the concert hall and on broadcasts. As the critic H. L. Mencken concluded, if Mendelssohn indeed missed true greatness, he missed it "by a hair".

Notes and references[link]

;Notes ;References

Sources[link]

Barenboim, Lev Aronovich (1962). ''Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein'' (2 vols.) (in Russian). Leningrad: State Musical Publishing House

(Edited by Ernest Newman).

Conway, David, ''"Short, Dark and Jewish-Looking": Felix Mendelssohn in Britain'', in ''The Jewish Year Book 2009'', ed. Stephen Massil, London, 2009. ISBN 9780853038900 downloadable here

(Translator: N.MacFarren). (in German).

Articles in Grove Music Online (subscribers only):

Hansen, Jōrg and Gerald Vogt, ''"Blut und Geist" : Bach, Mendelssohn und ihre Musik im Dritten Reich'', Eisenach, 2009

2 volumes. Edited by Felix's nephew, an important collection of letters and documents about the family. (Translator: M.E.von Glehn). . Edited by Camilla Cai. Edited by F. Moscheles Edited by R. Elvers, translated by C. Tomlinson.

Sanders, L.G.D. ''Jenny Lind, Sullivan and the Mendelssohn Scholarship'', in The Musical Times, vol 97, no.1363 (September 1956)

Sterndale Bennett, R., ''The Death of Mendelssohn'', in 'Music and Letters' vol. 36 no. 4, Oxford, 1955

(Translated: Andrew Grey) (Translated: W. Ashton Ellis)

There are numerous published editions and selections of Mendelssohn's letters.

The main collections of Mendelssohn's original musical autographs and letters are to be found in the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, the New York Public Library, and the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. His letters to Moscheles are in the Brotherton Collection, University of Leeds.

A ''Thematic-systematic Catalogue of the Musical Works (MWV)'' has been prepared by Ralph Wehner.

External links[link]

''Leipzig Edition of the Works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy'' edited by the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig (in German)

The Lied and Art Song Texts Page edited and mantained from Emily Ezust Original Texts of the Lied of Mendelssohn translated in various languages.

Complete Edition: Leipzig Edition of the Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (in German)

Felix Mendelssohn House and Foundation, Leipzig

The Mendelssohn Project A project with the objective of "recording of the complete published and unpublished works of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn".

A Renaissance Man Among the Romantics: Felix Mendelssohn at 200 A virtual exhibit of Mendelssohn manuscripts and early editions held at the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University.

;Recordings ''See also articles on individual works for links to recordings''

BBC Radio 3 Classical Study and musical links

;Music scores

Mendlessohn editions of Julius Rietz

Category:1809 births Category:1847 deaths Category:People from Hamburg Category:German composers Category:Romantic composers Category:Opera composers Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:Child classical musicians Category:German conductors (music) Category:German Lutherans Category:German Jews Category:German pianists Category:German organists Category:German music educators Category:Musicians from Berlin Category:Musicians from Hamburg Category:Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre faculty Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:Music in Leipzig Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Mendelssohn family Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:19th-century German people Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Category:Jewish classical composers Category:Jewish classical pianists Category:19th-century conductors (music) Category:19th-century composers Category:Composers for piano Felix

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