Novel (musician)

Alonzo Mario Stevenson, (born September 3, 1981) professionally known as Novel, is an American hip-hop/soul artist based in Los Angeles, California. He is a Grammy Award winning songwriter, singer, rapper and producer with also 5 Grammy nominations. He is the son of Motown's William "Mickey" Stevenson and the grandson of soul pioneer Solomon Burke.

Novel has collaborated with artists such as Lauryn Hill and Talib Kweli, and worked with other musicians including Joell Ortiz, Joss Stone, David Guetta, India.Arie, Tweet, Stacie Orrico and Smokey Robinson and others. He has received over 5 Grammy nominations and 1 win in all different categories and is considered very versatile for writing & producing in the Pop genre, Alternative, Rock, Hiphop, R&B, even Jazz, Dance, Electronic, Including gospel, and currently working on country.

Biography

Alonzo Mario Stevenson was born in Los Angeles, California, son of William "Mickey" Stevenson, Motown singer/songwriter/producer and the label's first A&R executive, and Melanie Burke, a background singer for Chaka Khan. Stevenson, also the grandson of soul music pioneer Solomon Burke, grew up with his mother in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and North Carolina, sometimes staying in shelters because they had no money. A friend of Stevenson's in Philadelphia nicknamed him "Novel" because he always carried a notebook. After running away from home at age 14, Novel returned to California where his father set up a recording studio for him. He released a single, "Peach", on Rawkus Records in 2003. The video for the song features Smokey Robinson, a longtime family friend and Novel's godfather.Vibe called the song's melody "infectious" and Novel's vocals "seductive", but Novel almost didn't release the single because he "felt it was bubble gum". His debut album The Word was set to be released in 2003 but was ultimately cancelled when Rawkus split from MCA Records, which folded that year.

Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend (born 19 May 1945) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead guitarist and songwriter for the rock band The Who. His career with the Who spans more than 50 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 20th century.

Townshend is the main songwriter for the Who, having written well over 100 songs for the band's 11 studio albums, including concept albums and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, plus popular rock and roll radio staples such as Who's Next, and dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilations such as Odds & Sods (1974). He has also written more than 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he also plays keyboards, banjo, accordion, harmonica, ukulele, mandolin, violin, synthesiser, bass guitar and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to an array of other artists' recordings. He is self-taught on all of the instruments he plays and has never had any formal training.

Classical music

Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music, including both liturgical (religious) and secular music. While a similar term is also used to refer to the period from 1750-1820 (the Classical period), this article is about the broad span of time from roughly the 11th century to the present day, which includes the Classical period and various other periods. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period. The major time divisions of classical music are as follows: the early music period, which includes the Medieval (500–1400) and the Renaissance (1400–1600) eras; the Common practice period, which includes the Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), and Romantic eras (1804–1910); and the 20th century (1901–2000) which includes the modern (1890–1930) that overlaps from the late 19th-century, the high modern (mid 20th-century), and contemporary or postmodern (1975–2015) eras.

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize (Norwegian, Danish and Swedish: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Since 1901, it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

Per Alfred Nobel's will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. Since 1990, the prize is awarded on 10 December in Oslo City Hall each year. The prize was formerly awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law (1947–89), the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–46), and the Parliament (1901–04).

Due to its political nature, the Nobel Peace Prize has, for most of its history, been the subject of controversies.

Jaquet-Droz automata

The Jaquet-Droz automata, among all the numerous automata built by the Jaquet-Droz family, refer to three doll automata built between 1768 and 1774 by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis, and Jean-Frédéric Leschot: the musician, the draughtsman and the writer. The dolls are still functional, and can be seen at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland. They are considered to be among the remote ancestors of modern computers.

The automata were designed and built by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz and Jean-Frédéric Leschot as advertisement and entertainment toys designed to improve the sales of watches among the nobility of Europe in the 18th century. They were carried around, and lost at several points. The History and Archeology society of Neuchâtel eventually bought them in 1906, for 75,000 gold francs, and gave them to the museum, where they have been ever since.

The musician

The musician is a female organ player. The music is not faked, in the sense that it is not recorded or played by a musical box: the doll is actually playing a genuine (yet custom-built) instrument by pressing the keys with her fingers. She "breathes" (the movements of the chest can be seen), follows her fingers with her head and eyes, and also makes some of the movements that a real player would do—balancing the torso for instance.