Category Archives: Money

Miles Davis Report

“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.”
–Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was born in Alton, Illinois, on May 25, 1926. There were also two other children, an older sister and a younger brother. In 1928 the family moved to St. Louis, Illinois, where Davis’s father became a successful oral surgeon. At the age of thirteen his father gave him a trumpet and soon Davis joined his high school band. While still in high school he met and was coached by his earliest idol, the great St. Louis trumpeter Clark Terry.

Davis fathered two kids in 1944 in New York, City. He studied classical music then. He also enrolled in a school of music. Then in the early 1950′s he became addicted to heroin. But he soon fought the battle and came back to being successful three years later. In the 1970s Miles found that rock had replaced jazz as the music choice for the younger people, kids, generation. In order not to get left behind he started to perform with an electronic band. The sound was bubbling, dark, and dense, and it further decreased some jazz fans and many critics as well. Davis didn’t end it though. He though that that there are other powers music yet to be discovered.

So in the 1970s and between the 80′s he sure did continue group with electronic players. He played the organ instead of his laid back trumpet. He also began to play with his back to the audience. He loved to experiment being on the stage in front of people just to see how they would respond. How funny Davis with the art. At the end of the 70s things started to foreshadow lots of things and the electronic. Miles died on September 28, 1991, but his music, style, will always continue to influence not only jazz music, but popular culture as well.

Miles Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Davis was noted as “one of the key figures in the history of jazz”. On November 5, 2009, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan sponsored a famous piece of work (music) in the US House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the album Kind of Blue on its 50th anniversary. The measure also talks about jazz being a national treasure and pressures the United States government to preserve and advance the art form of jazz musis and to never let it go anywhere. It passed with seceral votes of 409–0 on December 15, 2009.

3/5/2010

Mary Lou William’s Report

“During the years I was with Andy Kirk we starved almost. I remember not eating for practically a month several times. But we were very, very happy because the music was so interesting, and you forgot to eat, anyway.”

–Mary Lou Williams

Mary Lou Williams was born on May 10, 1910, in Atlanta, Georgia, as Mary Elfreda Winn. She never knew her father until she was in her twenties. Her mother drank and worked doing a lot of laundry to support the kids. Her mother also liked to play the reed organ and kept Mary there while she practiced. One day Mary began to play. Her mom was so astonished she dropped Mary and ran to tell the neighbors to watch Mary Play. Williams was able to play by ear. The easiest she could play was Ragtime. What was so amazing about Mary was that she never needed to read music, and she never needed lessons. Since Mary was already good at playing the piano and was able to perform the family thought of it as a ticket out of Atlanta and in 1914 they moved to Pittsburgh. When Marry moved there her first job was in a bar. She earned 20 dollars for playing the piano.

One of Marry’s nicknames was “The little piano girl”.

At the age of 12 she was already in a band. In 1922 after a African American there came to town to play one of the musicians got sick. Business Managers learned of William’s Power and Will to play. Williams didn’t stay in High School. She left in in the 1920′s to be in a famous act. She got married around then. She also started making her own recordings and people around world-wide began to notice her. She even got enough money to have almost a week long engagement.

In a show called the Seymour and Jennette Show she fell in love with a guy named John Williams. A couple years later they got married. Later, she then moved to Oklahoma. Within a couple of years the band moved its base to Kansas City. She became not only a full time pianist but a very nice musical arranger. Williams’ made very well arrangements. Everyone began to here about Mary as the biggest jazz bandleaders of the day. Soon she began working with Duke Ellington. In the 1930s, she was one of the leading Woman in Kansas City jazz scene. In 1940 her marriage and the Kirk band had started to break down. Williams broke up with Kirk and married a trumpet player “baker”.

In the 1970s she toured throughout the U.S. and Europe as both a solo artist and with a trio. Along the way she performed at numerous international jazz festivals on television even the White House. Williams’s made one last recording. The following year at the age of 69 she was diagnosed with cancer. It lasted for about two years. But she didn’t stop. She kept teaching at schools. She died in 1981. In 1990 she became the first woman instrumentalist honored wonderful glory. When she died, Williams left behind a musical legacy that few people of any gender or race can match.

By: Jada Kimbrough

3/5/10

Millionaire High School Dropouts

For some, diplomas are (barely) worth the paper they’re printed on. These star entrepreneurs jumped right in.

While the rest of us were negotiating curfews and cramming for the SATs, some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs ditched high school to start building their fortunes.

Many did it out of necessity; others had a mentor (or at least a backer looking to piggyback on their success). All, however, had a demon drive to build something of their own. Even at a young age, that commitment and passion can win over investors.

“Investors really look at the person and the quality of his or her idea more than their experience,” says Brad Burke, managing director of Rice University’s Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which incubates new companies.

For all the new entrepreneurship programs popping up at business schools, there will always be a slew of born entrepreneurs who prove that high school diplomas, let alone fancy graduate degrees, might well be (barely) worth the paper they’re printed on. Here are just a handful of examples.

Jay-Z (Shawn Carter)

This high-school dropout grew up in one of Brooklyn’s roughest housing projects, dealing drugs before finding salvation in hip hop. In 1995 Carter took his first single to Def Jam Records, the company he ended up running from 2004 until 2007. In 2008 he signed a 10-year, $150 million deal with Live Nation that gave him control over his records, tours and endorsement deals with companies like Dell and Budweiser.

George Foreman

This ubiquitous pitchman grew up poor in Marshall, Texas. Found a mentor, through Lyndon Johnson’s Job Corps program, who encouraged the 15-year-old thug to box. Foreman would eventually win a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics. His big pay day came in 1999, when he bagged $138 million for selling naming rights to grill manufacturer Salton.

He has since pitched brands like Doritos, KFC and Meineke, and has launched a line of environmentally safe cleaning products, a line of personal care products, a health shake, a prescription shoe for diabetics and a restaurant franchise.

Simon Cowell

Caustic judge earned $75 million last year, thanks to his involvement with American Idol, Britain’s Got Talent, musical talent show The X Factor and SyCo records, his production company. The 50-year-old impresario dropped out of school at age 16 and landed a job in the mailroom at EMI. At 23 he left to start his own record label, Fanfare. Post-Idol, Cowell will shift his focus to a U.S. version of the The X Factor, where he’ll serve both as a judge and executive producer.

Giselle Bundchen

When Bundchen was 14 years old a modeling scout discovered her in a Brazilian shopping mall. In 1996 she debuted at Fashion Week in New York City. She earned $25 million last year, thanks to contracts with Versace, Dior and other companies. She also has a line of sandals called Ipanema by Gisele.

Zecco Makes Investing Easy – I Bought Disney Shares

Zecco is a great way to get started in the stock market. 

So, after our trip to Disneyland, my mom said that I could buy my first shares of Disney stock.  This is part of my million dollars by 18.  So I am working to make money and most of the money that I make, I am going to have  my money work for me.

Zecco is a good way to get started rather quickly and easily.  It is only $7 a transaction.  Buy Stocks Online for $0. Trade stocks for free on Zecco.com. The Free Trading Community.The thing about stock is that it can go up and it can go down.  There are no guarantees.  But if I take my money and put it in stock, I can at least have a chance of having money set aside for my future even if I lose money. 

If I choose to do nothing, I will only spend it on McDonald’s food, or clothes, or the movies and none of this will help me when I am 18.

Zecco Holdings

Upromise Helps Struggling Moms and Dads Put Kids Into College

My Mom showed me this cool site called UPROMISE, where you can save money for your kid. Now it may not be much money but every penny counts. What she likes about this place is that you can go to their website and buy anything from travel, cars, buying a home, shopping at Price Chopper, shopping at Wal Mart, eBay and other places. And money is deposited into the upromise account.
She just started and made $10 just for signing up!

Upromise.com

All you need to do is have your parents register. If they have a credit or debit card, they can add this. But they do not have to. They can register their CVS card, their HYVEE card, their Price Chopper card, and more. There are even restaurants that participate too, like McDonald’s which has a gift card program.

So have them click the link and show them that they can save for college by simply registering. Overtime, they could have $5000 or more saved without doing anything but what they are currently doing now!