title: Tsardom of Russia

text: Hoping to make profit from Russia's concentration on Livonian affairs, Devlet I Giray of Crimea, accompanied by as many as 120,000 horsemen, repeatedly devastated the Moscow region, until the Battle of Molodi put a stop to such northward incursions. But for decades to come, the southern borderland was annually pillaged by the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate, who took local inhabitants with them as slaves. Tens of thousands of soldiers protected the Great Abatis Belt — a burden for a state whose social and economic development was stagnating.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: During the late 1550s, Ivan developed a hostility toward his advisers, the government, and the boyars. Historians have not determined whether policy differences, personal animosities, or mental imbalance caused his wrath. In 1565, he divided Russia into two parts: his private domain (or oprichnina) and the public realm (or zemshchina). For his private domain, Ivan chose some of the most prosperous and important districts of Russia. In these areas, Ivan's agents attacked boyars, merchants, and even common people, summarily executing some and confiscating land and possessions. Thus began a decade of terror in Russia that culminated in the Massacre of Novgorod (1570).


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: As a result of the policies of the "oprichnina", Ivan broke the economic and political power of the leading boyar families, thereby destroying precisely those persons who had built up Russia and were the most capable of administering it. Trade diminished, and peasants, faced with mounting taxes and threats of violence, began to leave Russia. Efforts to curtail the mobility of the peasants by tying them to their land brought Russia closer to legal serfdom. In 1572, Ivan finally abandoned the practices of the oprichnina.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: According to a popular theory, the oprichnina was started by Ivan in order to mobilize resources for the wars and to quell opposition. Regardless of the reason, Ivan's domestic and foreign policies had a devastating effect on Russia and led to a period of social struggle and civil war, the Time of Troubles ("Smutnoye vremya", 1598–1613).


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: Ivan IV was succeeded by his son Feodor, who was uninterested in ruling and possibly mentally deficient. Actual power went to Feodor's brother-in-law, the boyar Boris Godunov (who is credited with abolishing Yuri's Day, the only time of the year when serfs were free to move from one landowner to another). Perhaps the most important event of Feodor's reign was the proclamation of the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1589. The creation of the patriarchate climaxed the evolution of a separate and totally independent Russian Orthodox Church.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: In 1598, Feodor died without an heir, ending the Rurik Dynasty. Boris Godunov then convened a "Zemsky Sobor", a national assembly of boyars, church officials, and commoners, which proclaimed him tsar, although various boyar factions refused to recognize the decision. Widespread crop failures caused the Russian famine of 1601–1603, and during the ensuing discontent, a man emerged who claimed to be Tsarevich Demetrius, Ivan IV's son who had died in 1591. This pretender to the throne, who came to be known as False Dmitriy I, gained support in Poland and marched to Moscow, gathering followers among the boyars and other elements as he went. Historians speculate that Godunov would have weathered this crisis had he not died in 1605. As a result, False Dmitriy I entered Moscow and was crowned tsar that year, following the murder of Tsar Feodor II, Godunov's son.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: Subsequently, Russia entered a period of continuous chaos, known as "The Time of Troubles" (Смутное Время). Despite the Tsar's persecution of the boyars, the townspeople's dissatisfaction, and the gradual enserfment of the peasantry, efforts at restricting the power of the Tsar were only halfhearted. Finding no institutional alternative to the autocracy, discontented Russians rallied behind various pretenders to the throne. During that period, the goal of political activity was to gain influence over the sitting autocrat or to place one's own candidate on the throne. The boyars fought among themselves, the lower classes revolted blindly, and foreign armies occupied the Kremlin in Moscow, prompting many to accept Tsarist autocracy as a necessary means to restoring order and unity in Russia.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The Time of Troubles included a civil war in which a struggle over the throne was complicated by the machinations of rival boyar factions, the intervention of regional powers Poland and Sweden, and intense popular discontent, led by Ivan Bolotnikov. False Dmitriy I and his Polish garrison were overthrown, and a boyar, Vasily Shuysky, was proclaimed tsar in 1606. In his attempt to retain the throne, Shuysky allied himself with the Swedes, unleashing the Ingrian War with Sweden. False Dmitry II, allied with the Poles, appeared under the walls of Moscow and set up a mock court in the village of Tushino.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: In 1609, Poland intervened into Russian affairs officially, captured Shuisky, and occupied the Kremlin. A group of Russian boyars signed in 1610 a treaty of peace, recognising Ladislaus IV of Poland, son of Polish king Sigismund III Vasa, as tsar. In 1611, False Dmitry III appeared in the Swedish-occupied territories, but was soon apprehended and executed. The Polish presence led to a patriotic revival among the Russians, and a volunteer army, financed by the Stroganov merchants and blessed by the Orthodox Church, was formed in Nizhny Novgorod and, led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, drove the Poles out of the Kremlin. In 1613, a zemsky Sobor proclaimed the boyar Mikhail Romanov as tsar, beginning the 300-year reign of the Romanov family.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The immediate task of the new dynasty was to restore order. However, Russia's major enemies, Poland and Sweden, were engaged in a conflict with each other, which provided Russia with the opportunity to make peace with Sweden in 1617. The Polish–Muscovite War was ended with the Truce of Deulino in 1618, restoring temporarily Polish and Lithuanian rule over some territories, including Smolensk, lost by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1509.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The early Romanovs were weak rulers. Under Mikhail, state affairs were in the hands of the tsar's father, Filaret, who in 1619 became Patriarch of Moscow. Later, Mikhail's son Aleksey (r. 1645–1676) relied on a boyar, Boris Morozov, to run his government. Morozov abused his position by exploiting the populace, and in 1648 Aleksey dismissed him in the wake of the Salt Riot in Moscow.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: After an unsuccessful attempt to regain Smolensk from Poland in 1632, Russia made peace with Poland in 1634. Polish king Władysław IV Vasa, whose father and predecessor was Sigismund III Vasa, had been elected by Russian boyars as tsar of Russia during the Time of Troubles, renounced all claims to the title as a condition of the peace treaty.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The autocracy survived the Time of Troubles and the rule of weak or corrupt tsars because of the strength of the government's central bureaucracy. Government functionaries continued to serve, regardless of the ruler's legitimacy or the boyar faction controlling the throne. In the 17th century, the bureaucracy expanded dramatically. The number of government departments ("prikazy"; sing., "prikaz" ) increased from twenty-two in 1613 to eighty by mid-century. Although the departments often had overlapping and conflicting jurisdictions, the central government, through provincial governors, was able to control and regulate all social groups, as well as trade, manufacturing, and even the Eastern Orthodox Church.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The Sobornoye Ulozheniye, a comprehensive legal code introduced in 1649, illustrates the extent of state control over Russian society. By that time, the boyars had largely merged with the new elite, who were obligatory servitors of the state, to form a new nobility, the dvoryanstvo. The state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military because of permanent warfare on southern and western borders and attacks of nomads. In return, the nobility received land and peasants. In the preceding century, the state had gradually curtailed peasants' rights to move from one landlord to another; the 1649 code officially attached peasants to their home.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The state fully sanctioned serfdom, and runaway peasants became state fugitives. Landlords had complete power over their peasants. Peasants living on state-owned land, however, were not considered serfs. They were organized into communes, which were responsible for taxes and other obligations. Like serfs, however, state peasants were attached to the land they farmed. Middle-class urban tradesmen and craftsmen were assessed taxes, and, like the serfs, they were forbidden to change residence. All segments of the population were subject to military levy and to special taxes. By chaining much of Russian society to specific domiciles, the legal code of 1649 curtailed movement and subordinated the people to the interests of the state.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: Under this code, increased state taxes and regulations altered the social discontent that had been simmering since the Time of Troubles. In the 1650s and 1660s, the number of peasant escapes increased dramatically. A favourite refuge was the Don River region, domain of the Don Cossacks. A major uprising occurred in the Volga region in 1670 and 1671. Stenka Razin, a Cossack who was from the Don River region, led a revolt that drew together wealthy Cossacks who were well established in the region and escaped serfs seeking free land. The unexpected uprising swept up the Volga River valley and even threatened Moscow. Tsarist troops finally defeated the rebels after they had occupied major cities along the Volga in an operation whose panache captured the imaginations of later generations of Russians. Razin was publicly tortured and executed.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The Tsardom of Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century. In the southwest, it claimed the Wild Fields (modern day Eastern Ukraine and South-Western Russia), which had been under Polish–Lithuanian rule and sought assistance from Russia to leave the rule of the Commonwealth. The Zaporozhian Cossacks, warriors organized in military formations, lived in the frontier areas bordering Poland, the Crimean Tatar lands. Although part of them was serving in the Polish army as Registered Cossacks, the Zaporozhian Cossacks remained fiercely independent and staged several rebellions against the Poles. In 1648, the peasants of what is now Eastern Ukraine joined the Cossacks in rebellion during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, because of the social and religious oppression they suffered under Polish rule. Initially, Cossacks were allied with Crimean Tatars, which had helped them to throw off Polish rule. Once the Poles convinced the Tartars to switch sides, the Zaporozhian Cossacks needed military help to maintain their position.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: In 1648, the Hetman (leader) of the Zaporozhian Host, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to ally with the Russian tsar, Aleksey I. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer, which was ratified in the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, led to a protracted war between Poland and Russia. The Truce of Andrusovo, which did not involve the Hetmanate (Cossack Hetmanate) as a participating party of the agreement ended the war in 1667. Cossacks considered it as a Moscow betrayal. As a result, it split Cossack territory along the Dnieper River, reuniting the western sector (or Right-bank Ukraine) with Poland and leaving the eastern sector (Left-bank Ukraine) self-governing under the sovereignty of the tsar. However, the self-government did not last long and Cossack territory was eventually incorporated into the Russian Empire (after the Battle of Poltava) during the 18th century.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: Russia's southwestern expansion, particularly its incorporation of the Wild Fields modern day Eastern Ukraine, had unintended consequences. Most Little Russians were Orthodox, but their close contact with the Roman Catholic Polish also brought them Western intellectual currents. Through the Cossack Academy in Kiev, Russia gained links to Polish and Central European influences and to the wider Orthodox world. Although the Zaporozhian Cossack link induced creativity in many areas, it also weakened traditional Russian religious practices and culture. The Russian Orthodox Church discovered that its isolation from Constantinople had caused variations to appear between their liturgical books and practices.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The Russian Orthodox patriarch, Nikon, was determined to bring the Russian texts back into conformity with the Greek texts and practices of the time. But Nikon encountered opposition among the many Russians who viewed the corrections as improper foreign intrusions. When the Orthodox Church forced Nikon's reforms, a schism resulted in 1667. Those who did not accept the reforms came to be called the Old Believers; they were officially pronounced heretics and were persecuted by the church and the state. The chief opposition figure, the protopope Avvakum, was burned at the stake. The split afterwards became permanent, and many merchants and peasants joined the Old Believers.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: The tsar's court also felt the impact of Little Russia and the West. Kiev was a major transmitter of new ideas and insight through the famed scholarly academy that Metropolitan Mohyla founded there in 1631. Other more direct channels to the West opened as international trade increased and more foreigners came to Russia. The Tsar's court was interested in the West's more advanced technology, particularly when military applications were involved. By the end of the 17th century, Little Russian, Polish, and West European penetration had weakened the Russian cultural synthesis—at least among the elite—and had prepared the way for an even more radical transformation.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: Russia's eastward expansion encountered little resistance. In 1581, the Stroganov merchant family, interested in the fur trade, hired a Cossack leader, Yermak Timofeyevich, to lead an expedition into western Siberia. Yermak defeated the Khanate of Sibir and claimed the territories west of the Ob and Irtysh Rivers for Russia.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: From such bases as Mangazeya, merchants, traders, and explorers pushed eastward from the Ob River to the Yenisei River, then on to the Lena River and the coast of the Pacific Ocean. In 1648, Cossack Semyon Dezhnyov opened the passage between America and Asia. By the middle of the 17th century, Russians had reached the Amur River and the outskirts of the Chinese Empire.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: After a period of conflict with the Qing dynasty, Russia made peace with China in 1689. By the Treaty of Nerchinsk, Russia ceded its claims to the Amur Valley, but it gained access to the region east of Lake Baikal and the trade route to Beijing. Peace with China strengthened the initial breakthrough to the Pacific that had been made in the middle of the century.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: Peter the Great (1672–1725), who became ruler in his own right in 1696, brought the Tsardom of Russia, which had little prior contact with Western Europe, into the mainstream of European culture and politics. After suppressing numerous rebellions with considerable bloodshed, Peter embarked on an incognito tour of Western Europe. He became impressed with what he saw and was awakened. Peter began requiring the nobility to wear Western European clothing and shave off their beards, an action that the boyars protested bitterly. Arranged marriages among the nobility were banned, and the Orthodox Church was brought under state control. Military academies were established to create a modern Western European-style army and officer corps.


title: Tsardom of Russia

text: These changes did not win Peter many friends, and in fact caused great political division in the country. These, along with his notorious cruelties (such as the torture murder of his own son for plotting a rebellion) and the immense human suffering that accompanied many of his projects, such as the construction of Saint Petersburg, led many pious Russians to believe that he was the Antichrist. The Great Northern War against Sweden consumed much of Peter's attention for years; however, the Swedes were eventually defeated, and peace was agreed to in 1721. Russia annexed the Baltic coast from Sweden and parts of Finland, which would become the site of the new Russian capital, Saint Petersburg. The Russian victory in the Great Northern War marked a watershed in European politics, as it not only brought about the eclipse of Sweden as a great power, but also Russia's decisive emergence as a permanent European great power. The Russian colonization of Siberia also continued, and war with Persia brought about the acquisition of territory in the Caucasus, although Russia surrendered those gains after Peter's death in 1725.


title: Death on the Nile

text: Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.


title: Death on the Nile

text: The book features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The action takes place in Egypt, mostly on the River Nile. The novel is unrelated to Christie's earlier short story of the same name, which featured Parker Pyne as the detective.


title: Death on the Nile

text: While on holiday in Aswan to board the steamer "Karnak", set to tour along the Nile River from Shellal to Wadi Halfa, Hercule Poirot is approached by successful socialite Linnet Doyle née Ridgeway. She wants to commission him to deter her former friend Jacqueline de Bellefort from hounding and stalking her. Linnet had recently married Jacqueline's ex-fiancé, Simon Doyle, which has made Jacqueline bitterly resentful. Poirot refuses the commission and unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade Jacqueline from pursuing her plans. Simon and Linnet secretly follow Poirot to escape Jacqueline but find she had learned of their plans and boarded ahead of them. The other "Karnak" passengers include Linnet's maid Louise Bourget; her trustee Andrew Pennington; romance novelist Salome Otterbourne and her daughter Rosalie; Tim Allerton and his mother; elderly American socialite Marie Van Schuyler, her cousin Cornelia Robson and her nurse Miss Bowers; outspoken communist Mr Ferguson; Italian archaeologist Guido Richetti; solicitor Jim Fanthorp; and Austrian physician Dr Bessner.


title: Death on the Nile

text: While visiting Abu Simbel when "Karnak" stops there, Linnet narrowly avoids being crushed to death by a large boulder that falls from a cliff. Jacqueline is suspected of pushing the boulder off the cliff, but she was aboard the steamer at the time of the incident. At Wadi Halfa, Poirot's friend Colonel Race boards the steamer for the return trip. Race tells Poirot that he seeks a murderer among the passengers.


title: Death on the Nile

text: The following night in the steamer's lounge, Jacqueline expresses her bitterness toward Simon. She shoots him in the leg with a pistol but immediately breaks down with remorse and kicks the pistol away. She is taken to her cabin by the two other people present, Fanthorp and Cornelia. Simon is shortly brought to Dr Bessner's cabin for treatment for his injury. Fanthorp looks for Jacqueline's pistol but reports that it has disappeared. The following morning, Linnet is found dead, shot in the head, while her valuable string of pearls has disappeared. Jacqueline's pistol is recovered from the Nile; it was wrapped in a velvet stole that Miss van Schuyler had reported missing the day before. Two shots have been fired from the pistol.


title: Death on the Nile

text: While interviewing Louise in the cabin in which Simon is resting, Poirot notes oddness in the words she uses. Miss Bowers returns Linnet's pearl necklace, which was stolen by Miss Van Schuyler, a kleptomaniac. However, Poirot realizes it is merely an imitation of Linnet's genuine necklace. He notes two bottles of nail polish in the victim's room, one of which intrigues him. Louise is then found stabbed to death in her cabin. Mrs Otterbourne later meets with Poirot and Race in Simon's cabin, claiming she saw who killed the maid, to which Simon loudly declares his surprise. Before revealing who it is, she is shot dead from outside the cabin.


title: Death on the Nile

text: Poirot soon confronts Pennington over his attempted murder of Linnet by pushing the boulder off the cliff; Pennington had speculated unsuccessfully with her inheritance and came to Egypt upon learning of her marriage to trick her into signing documents that would exonerate him. However, he claims he did not murder anyone, despite his revolver having been used in Mrs Otterbourne's murder. Poirot recovers Linnet's genuine pearls from Tim, who had substituted an imitation string of pearls for the genuine necklace. Race realizes Richetti is the man he is looking for.


title: Death on the Nile

text: Poirot tells Race, Bessner, and Cornelia that Simon killed Linnet. The murder was planned by Jacqueline; the pair are still lovers. Linnet had deliberately and unashamedly tried to take Simon away from Jacqueline, and Simon decided to go along with it so he could murder her for her money later. Afraid of the none-too-bright Simon being caught and executed, Jacqueline concocted what she thought was a foolproof plan. On the night of the murder, Jacqueline deliberately missed Simon, who faked his leg injury with red ink. While Fanthorp and Cornelia were distracted by Jacqueline, Simon took the pistol, went to Linnet's cabin, and shot her. He placed the nail polish bottle that had contained the red ink on Linnet's washstand, then returned to the lounge and shot himself in the leg. Simon used the stole to silence the pistol, loaded a spare cartridge to make it seem that only two shots were fired, and threw the pistol overboard. Louise had witnessed Simon entering Linnet's cabin that night, and hinted at this to Simon when Poirot was interviewing her, planning to blackmail him. Jacqueline, again in an attempt to protect her lover, stabbed Louise to death. Mrs Otterbourne saw Jacqueline entering Louise's cabin; when she went to tell Poirot, Simon had raised his voice to alert Jacqueline in the next room. She immediately shot and killed Otterbourne before the truth could be revealed. Poirot confronts Simon, who confesses. He is arrested, as are Jacqueline and Richetti. As the steamer arrives back in Shellal and the passengers disembark, Jacqueline shoots Simon and herself with another pistol so they may escape the gallows. When pressed, Poirot reveals he had always known she had a second pistol, but had chosen to allow her to take her own life.


title: Death on the Nile

text: Contemporary reviews of the book were primarily positive. The "Times Literary Supplement" short review concluded by saying "Hercule Poirot, as usual, digs out a truth so unforeseen that it would be unfair for a reviewer to hint at it."""


title: Death on the Nile

text: "The Scotsman" review of 11 November 1937 finished by saying that, "the author has again constructed the neatest of plots, wrapped it round with distracting circumstances, and presented it to what should be an appreciative public."


title: Death on the Nile

text: E R Punshon of "The Guardian" in his review of 10 December 1937 began by saying, "To decide whether a writer of fiction possesses the true novelist's gift it is often a good plan to consider whether the minor characters in his or her book, those to whose creation the author has probably given little thought, stand out in the narrative in their own right as living personalities. This test is one Mrs Christie always passes successfully, and never more so than in her new book."


title: Death on the Nile

text: In a later review, Robert Barnard wrote that this novel is "One of the top ten, in spite of an overcomplex solution. The familiar marital triangle, set on a Nile steamer." The weakness is that there is "Comparatively little local colour, but some good grotesques among the passengers – of which the film took advantage." He notes a change in Christie's novels with this plot published in 1937, as "Spies and agitators are beginning to invade the pure Christie detective story at this period, as the slide towards war begins."


title: Death on the Nile

text: Agatha Christie adapted the novel into a stage play which opened at the Dundee Repertory Theatre on 17 January 1944 under the title of "Hidden Horizon". It opened in the West End on 19 March 1946 under the title "Murder on the Nile" and on Broadway on 19 September 1946 under the same title.


title: Death on the Nile

text: A live television version of the novel under "Murder on the Nile" was presented on 12 July 1950 in the US in a one-hour play as part of the series "Kraft Television Theatre". The stars were Guy Spaull and Patricia Wheel.


title: Death on the Nile

text: An adaptation for the television series "Agatha Christie's Poirot" was made for the show's ninth series in 2004. It starred David Suchet as Poirot. Guest stars included Emily Blunt as Linnet, JJ Feild as Simon Doyle, Emma Griffiths Malin as Jacqueline, James Fox as Colonel Race, Frances de la Tour as Salome Otterbourne, Zoe Telford as Rosalie Otterbourne and David Soul as Andrew Pennington. The episode was filmed in Egypt, with many of the scenes filmed on the steamer PS "Sudan".


title: Death on the Nile

text: The date of the setting is unclear: Ferguson refers to "a lunatic about to take power in Germany", which would appear to set this episode in late 1932, although a shot of Pennington's luggage label shows the date of his having sailed on the as "January 1936", and the "Normandie" itself only entered service in 1935.


title: Death on the Nile

text: The novel was adapted into a 1978 feature film, "Death on the Nile", starring Peter Ustinov for the first of his six appearances as Poirot. Others in the all-star cast included Bette Davis (Miss Van Schuyler), Mia Farrow (Jacqueline de Bellefort), Maggie Smith (Miss Bowers), Lois Chiles (Linnet Doyle), Simon MacCorkindale (Simon Doyle), Jon Finch (Mr Ferguson), Olivia Hussey (Rosalie Otterbourne), Angela Lansbury (Mrs Otterbourne), Jane Birkin (Louise), George Kennedy (Mr Pennington), Jack Warden (Dr Bessner), I. S. Johar (Mr Choudhury) and David Niven (Colonel Race). The screenplay differs slightly from the book, deleting several characters, including Cornelia Robson, Signor Richetti, Joanna Southwood, the Allertons, and Mr. Fanthorp. Tim Allerton is replaced as Rosalie's love interest by Ferguson.


title: Death on the Nile

text: Another film adaptation, also called "Death on the Nile", directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, was released on February 11, 2022. It is the follow-up to the 2017 film "Murder on the Orient Express". Some characters and details are either omitted or differ from the novel, while the elements of the central murder remain unchanged. Bouc replaces the character of Tim Allerton, and he is joined by his mother, Euphemia. Salome Otterbourne is now a jazz singer and no longer a drunk, while Rosalie is her niece whom she adopted. Bouc is the third person killed instead of Salome Otterbourne. Linnet's lawyer Andrew is now also her cousin, and Mrs. Van Schuyler and Miss Bowers are a lesbian couple. Mrs. Van Schuyler is also the godmother of Linnet. All the suspects are friends of the married couple who have invited them to their honeymoon celebration. A World War I romance is invented for Poirot, and it is hinted that Poirot and Otterbourne have romantic feelings for each other.


title: Death on the Nile

text: The novel was adapted as a five-part serial for BBC Radio 4 in 1997. John Moffatt reprised his role of Poirot. The serial was broadcast weekly from Thursday, 2 January to Thursday, 30 January from 10.00 am to 10.30 pm. All five episodes were recorded on Friday, 12 July 1996, at Broadcasting House. It was adapted by Michael Bakewell and directed by Enyd Williams.


title: Death on the Nile

text: "Death on the Nile" was turned into a hidden object PC game, "Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile", in 2007 by Flood Light Games, and published as a joint venture between Oberon Games and Big Fish Games. The player takes the role of Hercule Poirot as he searches various cabins of the "Karnak" for clues, and questions suspects based on information he finds.


title: Death on the Nile

text: "Death on the Nile" was released by HarperCollins as a graphic novel adaptation on 16 July 2007, adapted by François Rivière and Solidor (Jean-François Miniac) (). This was translated from the edition first published in France by in 2003 under the title of "Mort sur le Nil".


title: Death on the Nile

text: The book was first serialized in the US in "The Saturday Evening Post" in eight installments from 15 May (Volume 209, Number 46) to 3 July 1937 (Volume 210, Number 1) with illustrations by Henry Raleigh.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Ashleigh Barty (born 24 April 1996) is an Australian former professional tennis player and cricketer. She was the second Australian tennis player to be ranked No. 1 in the world in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), holding the ranking for 121 weeks overall. She was also a top-10 player in doubles, having achieved a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world. Barty is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, and the reigning champion at the Australian Open. She is also a major doubles champion, having won the 2018 US Open with CoCo Vandeweghe. Barty won 15 singles titles and 12 doubles titles on the WTA Tour.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Born in Ipswich, Queensland, Barty began playing tennis at the age of four in nearby Brisbane. She had a promising junior career, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world after winning the 2011 Wimbledon girls' singles title. As a teenager, Barty had early success in doubles on the WTA Tour in 2013, finishing runner-up at three Grand Slam doubles events with veteran Casey Dellacqua, including at the 2013 Australian Open while 16 years old. Late in the 2014 season, Barty decided to take an indefinite break from tennis. She ended up playing cricket during this hiatus, signing with the Brisbane Heat for the inaugural Women's Big Bash League season despite having no formal training in the sport.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty returned to tennis in early 2016. She had a breakthrough year in singles in 2017, winning her first WTA title at the Malaysian Open and rising to No. 17 in the world despite having never been ranked inside the top 100 before her time off. She also had another prolific year in doubles with Dellacqua, culminating in her first appearance at the WTA Finals in doubles. Barty then won her first Premier Mandatory and Grand Slam tournament titles in doubles in 2018 before accomplishing the same feat in singles in 2019, highlighted by her victory at the 2019 French Open. Barty won five more titles in 2021, including a second major singles title at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and two WTA 1000 titles. With her title at the 2022 Australian Open, she won a major in singles on all three surfaces. Barty has also led Australia to a runner-up finish at the 2019 Fed Cup and won a bronze medal in mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty was an all-court player with a wide variety of shots. Despite her short stature for a professional tennis player, she was an excellent server, regularly ranking among the WTA Tour's leaders in aces and percentage of service points won. She serves as the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia. Barty announced her retirement from tennis in March 2022, two months after her Australian Open title and still ranked No. 1 in singles at the time, having held the ranking for all but four weeks between June 2019 and April 2022 when she relinquished the ranking. Her 114 consecutive weeks at No. 1 (not including when rankings were frozen between March and August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) is the fourth-longest streak in WTA history.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty was born on 24 April 1996 in Ipswich, Queensland to Josie and Robert Barty. Her father grew up in the rural North Queensland town of Bowen where he became a Queensland and Australian representative in golf and later worked for the State Library of Queensland. Her mother is the daughter of English immigrants, was a state representative for Queensland in golf in her younger years, and began working as a radiographer after retiring from golf. Through her great-grandmother, Barty is a member of the Indigenous Australian Ngaragu people, the Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and northeastern Victoria. She grew up in Springfield, a suburb of Ipswich, Queensland, and attended Woodcrest State College throughout her upbringing. She has two older sisters named Sara and Ali. Besides tennis, Barty also played netball as a child, but decided to focus on tennis because she "thought netball was a girls' game" and because her sisters were better than her at that sport. She did not play cricket while growing up.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty started working with her longtime junior coach Jim Joyce at the West Brisbane Tennis Centre at the age of four. Joyce remarked that he did not typically train children as young as Barty, but made an exception because of her excellent hand-eye coordination and high level of focus. He recalled a moment from their first lesson, saying, "The first ball I threw to her, bang! She hit it right back.” As a child, Barty also practised at home, remembering, "I used to hit the ball against [the wall exterior to our living room] every day after school, for hours on end." By the time she was nine, she was practising against boys who were six years older. At the age of 12, she was playing against male adults. She first met her mentor, Alicia Molik, at the under-12 national championships in Melbourne.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Former tennis professional Scott Draper later joined Barty's coaching team and worked with her at the National Academy. When she was 15 years old, former top 20 player Jason Stoltenberg took over as her primary coach. Barty's junior schedule took her to Europe and away from her family in Australia for much of the year. The season she turned 17, she was only home for 27 days during the entire calendar year.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty reached a career-high ITF world junior ranking of No. 2, having excelled at both singles and doubles. She started playing low-level events on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2009 at the age of 13 and won her first title at the Grade-4 Australian International before turning 14. Barty continued to play only in tournaments below the higher tiers until the end of 2010, compiling a record of 24–2 in her five events that season while also capturing a Grade 2 title in Thailand. She played her first junior Grand Slam event in 2011 at the Australian Open, where she lost her opening match to third seed Lauren Davis. However, she bounced back from this defeat in the coming months by winning both the singles and doubles events at two high-level Grade 1 events, the Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup in Malaysia in March and the Belgian International Junior Championships in May.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: After a second-round loss at the 2011 French Open, Barty won her only junior Grand Slam title at Wimbledon at the age of 15. She became just the second Australian to win the girls' singles event after Debbie Freeman in 1980, and the first Australian girl to win any junior Grand Slam singles title since Jelena Dokic at the 1998 US Open. Compatriot Luke Saville also won the boys' title to help Australia sweep both singles events. The only set she dropped in the tournament was to Madison Keys in the third round, and her victory in the final was against third seed Irina Khromacheva. In the last major of the year Barty produced another strong singles result, losing to top seed Caroline Garcia in the semifinals of the US Open. Barty also won two more Grade-1 titles in doubles that season, one at Roehampton the week before Wimbledon and the other at the Canadian Open the week before the US Open. She concluded the season by winning the Junior Fed Cup for Australia with teammate Belinda Woolcock. Barty only played in one junior tournament the following year, where she finished runner-up in both singles and doubles at the Torneo International in Italy.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty started her professional career in April 2010 just after turning 14 at an ITF Women's Circuit $25K event in her hometown of Ipswich. She lost her first match to Karolina Wlodarczak. Barty played in one more main draw that year in Mount Gambier, where she reached the semifinals in just her second professional tournament. Her first pro match win came against Ayu Fani Damayanti. In 2011, she entered three more $25K events in Australia, with her best results being two quarterfinals. Following her girls' singles title at Wimbledon, Tennis Australia awarded Barty a wildcard into qualifying at the US Open. In her first WTA Tour-level appearance, she was unable to qualify for the main draw, losing her opening round match to Julia Glushko. Barty closed out the year by competing in a playoff for one of the Australian wildcard berths into the main draw of the 2012 Australian Open. Despite being the youngest player in the competition, she won all five of her matches without dropping a set to earn the wildcard. She swept her round-robin group featuring world No. 133 Casey Dellacqua before defeating No. 239 Arina Rodionova and No. 167 Olivia Rogowska in the knockout stage.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty made her singles and doubles main draw debuts on the WTA Tour in early 2012. Her doubles debut came at the Brisbane International, the first event of the year. After losing in singles qualifying, she partnered with Dellacqua to make the semifinals in doubles while still just 15 years old. Their tournament was highlighted by an upset of the top seeded team of Natalie Grandin and Vladimíra Uhlířová, both of whom were in the top 25 of the WTA doubles rankings. The following week, Barty made her singles debut as a wildcard at the Hobart International, losing her opening round match to Bethanie Mattek-Sands. She then made her Grand Slam main-draw debut the very next week at the Australian Open, where she lost her first round match to Anna Tatishvili. Later in the year, Barty also received wildcards into the main draws of the French Open and Wimbledon, but lost her opening-round matches to Petra Kvitová and Roberta Vinci, respectively, both of whom were seeded.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Besides her first WTA main-draw appearances, Barty also had a break-out year on the ITF Circuit. She compiled a singles record of 34–4 in nine tournaments to accompany a doubles record of 25–5 while frequently partnering with compatriot Sally Peers. She won four ITF titles in both singles and doubles. In particular, her first two singles titles came in back-to-back weeks in February in Sydney and Mildura. She also won both the singles and doubles events at the Nottingham Challenge, a mid-level $50K grass-court event in the lead-up to Wimbledon. Barty ended the season with a doubles title at the $75K event on carpet in Japan, where she partnered with Dellacqua for the second time for her biggest title of the year. Her quarterfinal appearance in singles at the same tournament helped her rise to No. 177 in the WTA singles rankings, having first cracked the top 200 of the WTA singles rankings a few weeks earlier at the age of 16. She also finished the year ranked No. 129 in doubles.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: In 2013, Barty began playing primarily at the WTA Tour level. She only played in eight singles main draws in total after losing in qualifying at five tournaments. Although she stayed outside the top 100 in singles throughout the year, she established herself as one of the world's elite double players despite not turning 17 until the middle of the season.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty was awarded another wildcard into the 2013 Australian Open singles main draw, but lost her opening match. Towards the end of February, she won her first two WTA Tour-level matches at the Malaysian Open against Chanel Simmonds and Zarina Diyas before her run ended in the quarterfinals. Barty's only other two tour-level singles wins of 2013 came at Grand Slam tournaments. She was awarded main draw wildcards into the French Open and US Open, where she won her first round matches at both events.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty began the 2014 season by qualifying for the Brisbane International. She won her opening-round match against No. 33, Daniela Hantuchová, before withdrawing from the tournament due to a left adductor injury. This came to be her only singles main draw win of the year at any level. She played in three Grand Slam main draws, including at the US Open where she had to qualify, but lost all of her first-round matches.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: In doubles, Barty partnered with Dellacqua in eight WTA Tour-level events during the 2013 season, including all four Grand Slam tournaments. The pair finished runner-up in three out of four such events, only failing to reach the final at the French Open, where they lost in the first round. At the age of 16, Barty's Australian Open finals appearance made her the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Tatiana Golovin won the mixed doubles title at the 2004 French Open at the same age. As a team, Barty and Dellacqua became the first Australian duo to reach an Australian Open women's doubles final since Evonne Goolagong and Helen Gourlay in 1977. This success also helped Barty advance nearly 100 spots in the world rankings to No. 46. At Wimbledon and the US Open, Barty and Dellacqua defeated three of the top-ten seeds at both events, including the No. 2 seeds in each case. The closest they came to winning a major title was at the Australian Open and the US Open, where they were up a break with a set in hand in both finals.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty and Dellacqua did win one title together at the Birmingham Classic, where they defeated Cara Black and Marina Erakovic in the final. Without Dellacqua as her partner, Barty had also made two more tour-level semifinals earlier in the year, including at the Premier-level Charleston Open with Anastasia Rodionova. She finished the season as the world No. 12 in the doubles rankings.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Despite her struggles in singles in 2014, Barty had another good year in doubles with Dellacqua as her regular partner. The pair won their second title together at the Internationaux de Strasbourg during the clay season. While they did not repeat their success at the Grand Slam tournaments from the previous year, they still managed to reach the quarterfinals at both the French Open and Wimbledon. However, they were not able to defend their title at the Birmingham Classic, but they made it to the final for the second consecutive year.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: After the 2014 US Open, Barty announced she was "[taking] a break from professional tennis." She later said that she took time off from tennis because "it was too much too quickly for me as I've been travelling from quite a young age... I wanted to experience life as a normal teenaged girl and have some normal experiences." Barty was ranked outside of the top 200 in singles and was No. 40 in doubles at the time.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty became interested in potentially playing cricket after meeting with the Australian women's national team in early 2015 to discuss her experience as a professional athlete. She was intrigued by the opportunity to play a team sport as a change from the individual sport of tennis. At the time, she had no competitive cricket experience, having only played casually with her family. Barty later approached Queensland Cricket about how she could get involved with the sport. Andy Richards, the coach of the Queensland Fire and soon-to-be coach of the Brisbane Heat, was immediately impressed with Barty's skill set, saying, "Her skill from the first time she picked up a bat was outstanding from a coach's perspective... She never missed a ball in her first session... That's what attracted me as a coach to her as a player, her ability to pick up things really quickly."


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty began training with the Fire in July, and also started playing for the Western Suburbs District Cricket Club, a local team that competes in Brisbane's Women's Premier Cricket Twenty20 league. She had an impressive second game for the team, scoring 63 from 60 balls to go along with taking 2–13 from four overs. Barty played in 13 matches for Western Suburbs, scoring one century and averaging 42.4 runs while taking eight wickets. Western Suburbs ultimately won the league's grand final, with Barty ending up the team's top scorer in the match after hitting 37 from 39 balls.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: After Barty's performance in her second game with Western Suburbs, she also signed with the Heat for the inaugural Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) Twenty20 season. Barty made her debut in December and hit 39 off 27 balls with one six in a match against the Melbourne Stars, the second highest score on her team.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: She remained a regular member of the team, but only had a double figure score once more during the season. The Heat finished with a 7–7 record, good for sixth out of eight teams in the competition. The WBBL season ended in January, while the local Brisbane league ended in February.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty announced her return to professional tennis in February a few weeks after the end of the WBBL season, and began working with Craig Tyzzer as her coach. Barty initially only competed in doubles events on the ITF Circuit at the $25K-level. In her first two months, she played five tournaments and won three of them, including her first one back where she partnered with Jessica Moore and two in back-to-back weeks in Canberra.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty returned to singles in late May. She qualified for the Eastbourne Trophy, a $50K event, where she made it to the semifinals in both singles and doubles. The following week, Barty returned to the WTA Tour, where she qualified for the Nottingham Open. She made it to the quarterfinals, losing to top seed Karolína Plíšková in a close match. She was happy with her performance, saying, "It's nice to know that straight off the bat I can come in and compete with the best in the world." Barty also received a wildcard into qualifying at Wimbledon, but did not reach the main draw. After a bone stress injury in her arm, she only played in one more event that year, the WTA 125 Taipei Challenger in November.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: At the start of the 2017 season, Barty picked up her first career wins at the Australian Open, reaching the third round. Barty's next tournament was the Malaysian Open, where she had won her first WTA singles match four years earlier. She entered the singles main draw as a qualifier and won both the singles and doubles events. This was her first career WTA singles title and helped her enter the top 100 for the first time. Barty continued to climb the rankings after a quarterfinal showing at the Internationaux de Strasbourg on clay, where she lost to compatriot Daria Gavrilova, and a runner-up at Birmingham on grass, her best result at a Premier tournament.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: During the US Open Series in August, Barty reached back-to-back Premier 5 rounds of 16 at the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open, despite needing to qualify for both events, and notched her first career top-10 victory at the latter defeating world No. 9 Venus Williams. After losing in the opening rounds of the French Open and Wimbledon, Barty took advantage of a slightly better draw at the US Open, as she defeated Ana Konjuh in her first match en route to reaching the third round, where she lost to the eventual champion, Sloane Stephens. This performance brought her to No. 37 in the WTA rankings.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Later in the year, Barty produced her best result of the season by reaching her first Premier 5 final at the Wuhan Open. During the tournament, she defeated three top-ten players in No. 7 Johanna Konta, No. 4 Karolína Plíšková and No. 10 Jeļena Ostapenko, but lost in the final to Caroline Garcia in three sets, despite having two chances to serve for the match. Nonetheless, she rose to No. 23 in the world, setting her up both to become the top-ranked Australian a few weeks later and to qualify for the WTA Elite Trophy at the end of the season. At that event, Barty advanced out of her round-robin group by winning both of her matches, but she was eliminated from the tournament by CoCo Vandeweghe. Barty finished the season at a career-high ranking of No. 17 in the world.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty had a strong start to the 2018 season, reaching the final of the Sydney International and being seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the Australian Open, but was upset in the third round by Naomi Osaka. Barty's best result during the clay-court season was at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, where she was the top seed at a WTA Tour singles event for the first time. She reached her first WTA-level clay-court semifinal, but had to retire due to a back injury. The following week at the French Open, Barty had another tough draw at a Grand Slam event and was defeated by Serena Williams in the second round, despite winning the first set.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Back on her favourite surface, Barty won the Nottingham Open on grass for her second career WTA title. She defeated home favourite and British No. 1 Johanna Konta in the final. She then recorded her first match wins at Wimbledon and reached the third round, matching her best result at a Grand Slam tournament. At the start of the summer hardcourt season, Barty did well at the Premier 5 events, making it to the semifinals at the Canadian Open and the third round at the Cincinnati Open. She lost to world No. 1 Simona Halep at both events. At the US Open, Barty was the 18th seed and reached the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, where she was defeated by Karolína Plíšková.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Towards the end of the season, Barty attempted to defend her previous year's finals appearance at the Wuhan Open. Although she was the only seeded player to make the semifinals, she fell one match short against Aryna Sabalenka. Having maintained her top 20 ranking, she was able to qualify for the year-end Elite Trophy for the second straight season. Barty was grouped with Sabalenka and Caroline Garcia and began play by losing to Sabalenka again, while winning eight games. She then defeated Garcia in straight sets while only conceding seven games, meaning she could only advance if Garcia defeated Sabalenka in straight sets while losing at least eight games. Garcia won the group's final match while dropping precisely eight games to send Barty into the knockout rounds. Barty then defeated defending champion Julia Görges and home favourite Wang Qiang to win the biggest title of her career and end the season at a career-high ranking of No. 15 in the world.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: In 2017, Barty reunited with Dellacqua as her regular doubles partner, and reached the quarterfinals or better at three out of four Grand Slam tournaments during the season. In particular, they made it to the finals at the French Open to become the first Australian women's doubles team to reach all four Grand Slam finals. They lost in the final to the top seeded team of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Šafářová, who had also won the previous two majors. Barty and Dellacqua contested six finals on the year in total, winning half of them. They won the Birmingham Classic, where Barty also made it to the final in singles. This was their second career title at the event after winning it in 2013, and also their first Premier title together.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty and Dellacqua finished the year as the third-highest ranked doubles team, earning them a spot in the WTA Finals. They had narrowly missed qualifying for the event in 2013 when they were the fifth-ranked team and only the top four were accepted instead of eight. In their debut, the duo were upset in the first round by the lowest-seeded team of Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson. Individually, Barty also established a new career-high doubles world ranking of No. 11 towards end of the season.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty and Dellacqua reached the third round at the Australian Open. This was their last WTA tournament together before Dellacqua's retirement. Barty partnered with CoCo Vandeweghe in her next three doubles events, and the pair had their best success in the United States where they won the Miami Open, Barty's first Premier Mandatory title. Although Barty continued to play primarily with Vandeweghe during the rest of the season, she also played two Premier 5 tournaments with Demi Schuurs after her usual partner Elise Mertens withdrew from the Italian Open. Barty and Schuurs won both of their tournaments together, the Italian Open and the Canadian Open. The first also helped Barty climb to a career-best WTA doubles world ranking of No. 5.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Later in the season, Barty reunited with Vandeweghe and won her first career Grand Slam title at the US Open. In the semifinals, the pair defeated the top seeded team of Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková, who were the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champions. In the final, they defeated the second seeded team of Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, who were the reigning Australian Open champions. Barty and Vandeweghe lost the first set and were down two championship points in the second set before coming from behind to win the last two sets in two tiebreaks, saving a third championship point in the final tiebreak. This was the first time ever that a Grand Slam women's doubles final came down to a third-set tiebreak.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Even though Barty and Vandeweghe only played seven tournaments together, their two big titles were enough for them to qualify as the eighth and last seed into the WTA Finals. They upset Barty's other doubles partner Schuurs, who was back with Mertens, in the first round. Their tournament was ended by Babos and Mladenovic in the semifinals in a rematch of the US Open final.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: For the second consecutive year, Barty began the season with a runner-up finish at the Sydney International, this time losing to Petra Kvitová. During the event, she defeated three top 15 players, including Simona Halep for her first career victory over a current world No. 1 player. At her next tournament, Barty made her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open, defeating Maria Sharapova before again losing to Kvitová, becoming the first Australian to make the quarterfinals at the event since Jelena Dokic in 2009. After a fourth round appearance at the Indian Wells Open, Barty won the Miami Open for her first Premier Mandatory title. She defeated three top-10 players in the event, including No. 2 Kvitová in the quarterfinals and No. 7 Karolína Plíšková in the final. With this result, she also made her top-10 debut.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: In the lead-up to the French Open, Barty played only two clay court events. Her best result was a quarterfinal at the Madrid Open, where she lost to Halep. She closed out the clay court season by winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the French Open, defeating Markéta Vondroušová in the final, dropping just four games. With the title, Barty became the first Australian to win the French Open in singles since Margaret Court in 1973 and the first Australian to win a Grand Slam singles title since Sam Stosur at the 2011 US Open. She also rose to No. 2 in the world. Barty then followed up this title with another at her next event, the Birmingham Classic, to become the No. 1 ranked player in the world. She was the second Australian to be No. 1 in the WTA singles rankings after Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Barty's win streak came to an end at 15 matches when she was defeated at Wimbledon by Alison Riske in the fourth round.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty lost the No. 1 ranking to Naomi Osaka in early August after an opening round loss at the Canadian Open. The following week, she fared better at the Cincinnati Open, falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. At the US Open, she was upset in the fourth round for the second time in a row at a Grand Slam tournament, this time to Wang Qiang. Nonetheless, she regained the No. 1 ranking, and rebounded during the Asian hard court season. She reached another semifinal at the Wuhan Open followed by a runner-up finish to Osaka at the China Open. At the end of the season, Barty made her singles debut at the WTA Finals as the top seed. After defeating Belinda Bencic and losing to Bertens, Barty defeated Kvitová to advance out of her group. In the knockout round, she defeated Karolina Plíšková and Elina Svitolina, the latter of which for the first time in six attempts, to win the tour finals. With the title, she won $4.42 million, the largest amount of prize money at a single men's or women's tournament in tennis history to date. Barty finished the season as the year-end world No. 1 and won the WTA Player of the Year award, becoming the first Australian to ever receive this honour.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty started her 2020 season in her hometown, at the Brisbane International, but picked up a disappointing second round loss against qualifier Jennifer Brady. However, she bounced back and captured her first title on home soil at the Adelaide International, defeating Dayana Yastremska in the final. After this, Barty entered the Australian Open as one of the favourites to win the title, and as the first Australian woman to ever play the tournament while being the WTA world No. 1. She lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Sofia Kenin, despite having two set points in each of the sets played. Nevertheless, Barty became the first Australian woman to reach the semifinals since Wendy Turnbull in 1984 and picked up her first top ten win at a major (quarterfinals over Kvitová).


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: After taking a rest break, Barty returned to court making her debut at the Qatar Open, the first Premier 5 tournament of the year, where she lost to Kvitová in the semifinals. She next headed to Indian Wells, but play was suspended before the tournament began due to the COVID-19 pandemic. WTA tournaments resumed in August, but Barty decided to skip the rest of the year due to concerns related to travelling within the pandemic, which included deciding not to try and defend her French Open crown. She finished as the year-end world No. 1 for the second consecutive season due to the change of criteria in the WTA rankings.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: With CoCo Vandeweghe injured, Barty began to regularly partner with Victoria Azarenka. The pair reached the semifinals at the Miami Open and won their first title together at the Italian Open, a Premier 5 event. They defeated the top seeded team of Krejčíková and Siniaková in both tournaments. During the summer, they reached another Premier 5 semifinal at the Canadian Open, this time losing to Krejčíková and Siniaková who were again the top seeds. Barty came close to defending her title at the US Open. In the quarterfinals, she and Azarenka defeated top seeds Babos and Mladenovic, Barty's opponents in the 2018 final. They made the final, but lost in straight sets to Elise Mertens and Sabalenka. Although they only played eight tournaments during the season, they nearly qualified for the WTA Finals, falling one spot short in ninth place.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: After an 11-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Barty returned to the tennis courts at the Yarra Valley Classic, one of the three lead-up tournaments to the Australian Open, where she defeated Garbiñe Muguruza in two tight sets in the final. After this, Barty entered the Australian Open as the first seed in the draw for the second consecutive year and projected as one of the favourites to claim the title, but was knocked out by Karolína Muchová in the quarterfinals. Barty played her first tournament outside Australia in more than a year at the Miami Open, where she was the defending champion from 2019. She had to save a match point in her opening match, but then recorded her first top-10 wins of the year against Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina to reach her second Miami Open final in a row. Barty defended her title by defeating Bianca Andreescu in the final, after Andreescu retired from the match. She became the first No. 1 seed to win the Miami Open since Serena Williams in 2015. This was also Barty's first time defending a title in singles.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty began the European red clay swing with her debut at the Stuttgart Open, where she won her third title of the year, and continued her clay-court success by posting her best result at the Madrid Open, where she lost to Sabalenka in the final. However, she was forced to retire at both the Italian Open and the French Open due to injuries that prevented her from playing any lead-up grass-court tournaments and delayed her comeback until Wimbledon. There, Barty beat former world No. 1 and 2018 champion, Angelique Kerber, to reach the final, where she defeated Karolína Plíšková, becoming the first Australian woman to win the title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980, and the first top seed to win since Serena Williams in 2016.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: In the Summer Olympics women's singles tournament Barty suffered a surprise first-round loss in straight sets to Sara Sorribes Tormo, but bounced back at the Cincinnati Open, where she won the title without dropping a set, defeating Jil Teichmann in the final. At the US Open, Barty was the main favourite to take the title, but was defeated by Shelby Rogers in the third round. After that, she decided to come back to Australia and skip the rest of the season. Nevertheless, Barty achieved the year-end world No. 1 ranking for the third year in a row, matching the feat of Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams, and received the WTA Player of the Year award for the second time.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty began 2022 at the Adelaide International. She went on to win the title beating defending champion Iga Świątek and Elena Rybakina in straight sets. At the Australian Open, Barty reached the final losing only one service game, and defeated Danielle Collins to become the first Australian woman since Chris O'Neil in 1978 to win the Australian Open. She also became the eighth female player to win a major in three different surfaces, joining Serena Williams as the only two active players at that point to have achieved that feat. Barty did not drop a set during the tournament.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: In 2021, Barty started to partner with Jennifer Brady. They were not able to play many tournaments during the first half of the year, as they had to withdraw from both the Australian Open and the French Open due to injuries, but managed to win the title in Stuttgart. This was Brady's maiden doubles title, and Barty's first one since 2019. At the 2020 Olympics, Barty partnered Storm Sanders in the women's doubles and reached the quarterfinals, where they were beaten by top-seeded Krejčíková and Siniaková, and fellow Grand Slam champion John Peers in the mixed doubles, where they went on to become bronze medalists.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: At the start of the 2022 season, Barty entered the doubles tournament in Adelaide alongside Sanders and won the title, defeating Darija Jurak Schreiber and Andreja Klepač in the final, subsequently completing the Adelaide sweep. It was the third time Barty won the singles and doubles at the same tournament.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: On 23 March 2022, Barty announced her retirement from tennis. In an interview with her friend and former doubles partner, Casey Dellacqua, Barty said, "I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level any more. I am spent." Barty became the second player to retire while holding the No. 1 ranking after Justine Henin (Henin briefly returned to the WTA Tour 20 months after retiring). In her autobiography, "My Dream Time", Barty detailed that after winning Wimbledon, "the one true dream that I wanted in tennis", she started to lose her motivation to keep playing.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty also made her Fed Cup debut for Australia in 2013 at the age of 16, playing in two away ties. In their February defeat to the top-seeded Czech Republic, she lost the dead rubber doubles match with Dellacqua. Two months later against Switzerland, Barty won her only match against No. 56 Stefanie Vögele to clinch the tie for Australia and keep them in the top-level World Group the following year.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty played in two Fed Cup ties for Australia in 2018. In their February tie against Ukraine, she won both of her singles matches as well as the deciding doubles rubber with Dellacqua to carry her team into the World Group playoffs. This turned out to be the last match Barty would play with Dellacqua, as well as the last match of Dellacqua's career before she officially retired in April. In the following round, Barty won both of her singles matches against the Netherlands to help Australia win the tie 4–1 and advance back into the top-tier World Group in 2019 for the first time in four years.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: In the World Group, Barty was instrumental in leading Australia to the 2019 Fed Cup final. She won all six of her rubbers in the first two rounds to help Australia advance against the United States and Belarus, with both ties won by a tight score of 3–2. She partnered with Priscilla Hon in her doubles rubber against the United States, and Samantha Stosur in the doubles against Belarus. Australia faced France in the final, which was played at home at Perth Arena. Barty continued her Fed Cup success in her first singles rubber with a double bagel victory over Caroline Garcia. However, her 15-rubber win streak in Fed Cup came to an end in her next match with a three-set loss to Kristina Mladenovic. Ajla Tomljanović won her second singles rubber to set up a decisive doubles rubber between Barty and Stosur for Australia and Garcia and Mladenovic for France. Garcia and Mladenovic won the match in straight sets to clinch the Fed Cup for France. The final day had 13,842 spectators in attendance.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty represented Australia in the Hopman Cup twice. She made her first appearance at the event in 2013 where she competed alongside Bernard Tomic after Dellacqua withdrew before the tournament due to a foot injury. The Australians finished their round-robin group in second place behind Serbia. They defeated Germany and Italy in their first and last ties, but lost to Serbia in a close tie that was decided by a match tiebreak in the mixed doubles. During the tie against Italy, Barty won a lopsided singles match against former French Open champion and world No. 35 Francesca Schiavone in just 55 minutes, the biggest singles win of her career at the time.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty did not return to the tournament until 2019 where she teamed up with Matthew Ebden. Australia finished runner-up in their round-robin group again. The pair won their first two ties against France and Spain, but lost both of their singles matches in the decisive tie against the German team of Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev who won all of their ties and the group.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty represented Australia at the 2020 Summer Olympics in three events. In singles, Barty was seeded number 1 and lost to Sara Sorribes Tormo in round 1. In doubles, Barty partnered Storm Sanders where they reached the quarter final. In mixed doubles, Barty partnered John Peers where they won bronze. Barty and Peers' bronze was Australia's first ever medal in an Olympic mixed doubles competition.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty had an all-court game and a crafty style of play. Her favourite surface was grass, despite initially not liking that surface because she had limited experience playing on it while growing up. Barty also performed well on hard courts, where she won her first WTA singles title and reached her first Premier 5 level final. She won both singles and doubles titles on all three major surfaces.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty's short stature and diverse array of shots led her to be compared to former world No. 1 and five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis by David Taylor, one of Hingis' former coaches. She had solid groundstrokes from the forehand and backhand sides. In particular, she used her powerful forehand to create sharp angles on cross-court shots. Her kick serve and backhand slice are also two of her better shots. Barty's two-handed backhand was comparatively weaker than her forehand; as such, she utilised her exceptional one-handed backhand slice to create opportunities to attack with her aggressive, powerful topspin forehand. Barty's doubles game translated well to singles, as she frequently came to the net, and excelled at volleying. She used her variety of shots to trouble her opponents. Despite her height, Barty was an excellent server, with her serve being recorded as high as 115 mph (185 km/h). She finished the 2018 season at fourth on the WTA Tour in aces with a total of 297, nearly five per match. She was also second in percentage of service points won that year among players with at least ten matches, behind only Serena Williams.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Thanasi Kokkinakis, one of her compatriot contemporaries as well as one of her mixed doubles partners, has described her game as, "Ash plays different to most girls. She likes to come into the net, she uses her slice very well and she's crafty. Whereas a lot of girls like to hit the ball hard and flat, she plays a little bit differently, she plays with a bit more control... and she makes things awkward for her opponent."


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty took a break from professional tennis from September 2014 until February 2016, and played semi-professional cricket during the second half of that hiatus. Although she gave no reasons at the time, she later said, "I needed some time to refresh mentally more than anything. It became a bit of a slog for me and I wasn't enjoying my tennis as much as I would have liked to." Her family and coaches all supported her decision. Barty had no intention of retiring and continued to play casually during her hiatus, saying, "It was never in mind that I'd retired as such... I'd been coaching and holding a racket pretty much every day so I wasn't completely out of practice." During her time off, she also pursued her hobbies such as fishing, and built a new house close to her family. She ultimately decided to return to the sport, commenting, "After a break and trying other things, I missed tennis and decided that I wanted to come back."


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty is the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia. The goal of this position is to promote more Indigenous participation in the sport of tennis. Barty has embraced her heritage and her role as an ambassador, saying, "I'm a very proud Indigenous woman and I think that for me taking on this role is something very close to my heart. I'm very excited." She was recognised as the Female Sportsperson of the Year at the National Dreamtime Awards, a ceremony that honours Indigenous Australians, in both 2017 and 2018, the first two editions of the awards. Barty was honoured as the Young Australian of the Year in 2020.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty is a supporter of the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League and Manchester United in the English Premier League. She presented the premiership cup to Richmond when they won the 2020 AFL Grand Final.


title: Ashleigh Barty

text: Barty has been in a relationship with Australian professional golfer Garry Kissick since 2017, and announced their engagement in November 2021. In September 2020, Barty won the championship at the Brookwater Golf Club, where she had originally met Kissick in 2016. Barty married Kissick on 23 July 2022.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: The Equalizer 2 (sometimes promoted as The Equalizer II or EQ2) is a 2018 American vigilante action film directed by Antoine Fuqua. It is the sequel to the 2014 film "The Equalizer", which was based on the TV series of the same name. The film stars Denzel Washington in the lead role, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman, and Orson Bean in his final film role. It follows retired U.S. Marine and former DIA officer Robert McCall as he sets out on a path of revenge after one of his friends is murdered. The film is the fourth collaboration between Washington and Fuqua, following "Training Day" (2001), "The Equalizer" (2014), and "The Magnificent Seven" (2016).


title: The Equalizer 2

text: Talks of an "Equalizer" sequel began seven months prior to the release of the first film. The project was officially announced in April 2015. Filming began in September 2017, and took place in Boston as well as other areas around Massachusetts. It also marks the first time Washington has starred in a sequel to one of his films.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: "The Equalizer 2" was released in the United States on July 20, 2018, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It received mixed reviews, with critics praising Washington's performance and the film's action sequences, but criticizing the pacing and number of subplots. Nevertheless, the film was a commercial success, grossing $190 million worldwide on a production budget of $62 million.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: A sequel, titled "The Equalizer 3", is scheduled to be released on September 1, 2023, with Washington to reprise his starring role and Fuqua returning to direct.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: Former Marine and DIA operative Robert McCall still lives in Boston. He works as a Lyft driver and assists the less fortunate with the help of his close friend and former DIA colleague, Susan Plummer. McCall travels to Istanbul to retrieve the nine-year-old daughter of a bookstore owner, Grace Braelick, who was kidnapped by her abusive Turkish father. He also helps Sam Rubinstein, an elderly Holocaust survivor looking for a painting of his sister who died in the Nazi death camps.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: McCall returns home to find that his apartment's courtyard has been vandalized. He accepts an offer from Miles Whittaker, a troubled teen resident with an artistic background, to paint a mural on the walls. Susan and DIA officer Dave York, McCall's former partner, are called to investigate the murder-suicide of an agency affiliate and his wife in Brussels. At their hotel, Susan is accosted in her room and killed, presumably during a robbery.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: McCall determines that the expertly delivered fatal stab suggested that Susan was targeted, and that the murder-suicide was staged, informing York of his findings. During one of his Lyft runs, McCall is attacked by an assassin posing as a passenger. McCall kills the man and retrieves his mobile phone, discovering York's number on the phone's call list. He confronts York at his home, and York admits that he became a mercenary after feeling used and discarded by the government and confesses that he killed Susan, as she would have figured out that he was behind the Brussels killings. McCall leaves the house where the rest of McCall's former squad and York's current teammates—Kovac, Ari, and Resnik—are waiting. McCall promises to kill the entire team before departing.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: Resnik and Ari head to Susan's house to kill her husband Brian, but McCall helps him escape. York and Kovac break into McCall's apartment, where Miles is painting the walls. Monitoring the apartment via webcams, McCall directs Miles to a secret passage, then calls York, who leaves the apartment with Kovac. Miles emerges from hiding, but is captured by York and Kovac as he exits the apartment.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: York deduces that McCall has gone to his seaside hometown, which has been evacuated as a hurricane approaches. Kovac, Ari, and Resnik begin searching the town in gale-force winds, while York situates himself on the town's watchtower.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: McCall kills the team one by one, dispatching Kovac with a harpoon gun, Ari with knives, and Resnik in a flour explosion, set off by Resnik's own stun grenade. Now alone, York reveals that he has Miles tied up in the trunk of his car and begins shooting at it to lure McCall out. McCall confronts York atop the tower and kills him.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: Back in Boston, Susan's information about Sam's painting helps McCall reunite Sam with his long lost sister. Miles finishes painting the mural on the apartment complex's brick wall, returns to school and focuses on his art. Having moved back into his old house, McCall looks out towards the calm sea.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: On February 24, 2014, seven months before the release of "The Equalizer", it was announced that Sony Pictures and Escape Artists were planning a sequel, with Richard Wenk penning the script again. In early October 2014, Antoine Fuqua stated that there would be a sequel to the film only if audiences and Denzel Washington wanted it. He said it was an interesting character, and that the sequel could have more of an international flavor.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: On April 22, 2015, Sony officially announced a sequel, with Washington returning to his role as vigilante Robert McCall. Fuqua's returning was not yet confirmed. In September 2016, producer Todd Black revealed that the script of the film was complete, and that Fuqua would return to direct, with shooting set to begin in September 2017.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: On August 21, 2017, Pedro Pascal was cast in an unspecified role. Two days later, Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman were confirmed to reprise their roles from the first film, as Susan and Brian Plummer, and it was reported that the film would be produced by Jason Blumenthal, Black, Washington, Steve Tisch, Mace Neufeld, Alex Siskin and Tony Eldridge. On August 24, 2017, Ashton Sanders joined the film to play a character who comes to consider Washington's McCall a father figure. On March 25, 2018, it was revealed that Sakina Jaffrey had also been added to the cast.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: Principal photography on the film began in the South End area of Boston, Massachusetts, on September 14, 2017. Filming also took place on Lynn Shore Drive in Lynn, Massachusetts, the Powder Point Bridge in Duxbury, Massachusetts, as well as in Brant Rock, Massachusetts. The final action scene was filmed here. Interior scenes were filmed in a studio in Randolph, Massachusetts.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: While Sony and other publications reported the film was made on a net production budget of $62 million, "Deadline Hollywood" stated their sources insisted the cost was "in the high [$70 million]" range after Massachusetts tax credits.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: "The Equalizer 2" was released on July 20, 2018, by Sony Pictures. Sony had originally scheduled the film for a September 29, 2017, release, but on November 3, 2016, the film got pushed to September 14, 2018, and then on September 28, 2017, the release date brought it forward to August 3, 2018, but then on February 13, 2018, it got settled on its July 20, 2018 release.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: "The Equalizer 2" grossed $102.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $88.3 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $190.4 million, against a production budget of $62 million.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: In the United States and Canada, "The Equalizer 2" was released alongside 2 other sequels, "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" and "", and was projected to gross $27–32 million from 3,388 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3.1 million from Thursday night previews, double the $1.45 million earned by the original film in 2014, and $13.5 million on its first day. It went on to debut to $35.8 million, finishing first at the box office. It also bested the opening of the first film ($34.1 million) and was the third-best domestic start for Washington. It fell 61% to $14 million in its second weekend, finishing third behind newcomer "" and "Mamma Mia!", and in its third weekend the film grossed $8.8 million, dropping to fifth place.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: ""The Equalizer 2" delivers the visceral charge of a standard vigilante thriller, but this reunion of trusted talents ultimately proves a disappointing case study in diminishing returns." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 86% overall positive score and a 69% "definite recommend", while CinemaScore reported filmgoers gave it an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, up from the first film's "A−".


title: The Equalizer 2

text: David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "C−", saying: "The good news is that fans of Antoine Fuqua's "The Equalizer"—a bland and pulpy 2014 riff on the '80s TV series of the same name—are in for more of the same. The bad news is the rest of us are too."


title: The Equalizer 2

text: In August 2018, Fuqua announced his plans to continue the film series, expressing interest in the plot taking place in an international setting.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: By January 2022, a third "Equalizer" film was confirmed to be in development, with Washington to return in the titular role. Fuqua is slated to direct the film. Principal photography was scheduled to commence sometime in 2022, with Washington announcing that the film would be the next he makes.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: In April 2022, Sony confirmed that the film was set to be released on September 1, 2023. Filming began in October 2022 on the Amalfi Coast in Italy.


title: The Equalizer 2

text: In November 2019, a television series adaptation was announced to be in development with Queen Latifah cast in lead role as Robyn McCall. Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller were announced as co-showrunners/executive producers, with Latifah also serving as an additional executive producer. In January 2021, when asked about the show's connection to the "Equalizer" film series, Marlowe stated that while the television series is intended to stand on its own, the opportunity is being left open for a future crossover between the show and the films.


title: John Coltrane

text: John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.


title: John Coltrane

text: Born and raised in North Carolina, Coltrane moved to Philadelphia after graduating high school, where he studied music. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was one of the players at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. Over the course of his career, Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension, as exemplified on his most acclaimed album "A Love Supreme" (1965) and others. Decades after his death, Coltrane remains influential, and he has received numerous posthumous awards, including a special Pulitzer Prize, and was canonized by the African Orthodox Church.


title: John Coltrane

text: His second wife was pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane. The couple had three children: John Jr. (1964–1982), a bassist; Ravi (born 1965), a saxophonist; and Oran (born 1967), a saxophonist, guitarist, drummer and singer.


title: John Coltrane

text: Coltrane was born in his parents' apartment at 200 Hamlet Avenue in Hamlet, North Carolina, on September 23, 1926. His father was John R. Coltrane and his mother was Alice Blair. He grew up in High Point, North Carolina and attended William Penn High School. While in high school, Coltrane played clarinet and alto horn in a community band before switching to the saxophone by the fall of 1940, after being influenced by the likes of Lester Young and Johnny Hodges. Beginning in December 1938, his father, aunt, and grandparents died within a few months of one another, leaving him to be raised by his mother and a close cousin. In June 1943, shortly after graduating from high school, Coltrane and his family moved to Philadelphia, where he got a job at a sugar refinery. In September that year, his 17th birthday, his mother bought him his first saxophone, an alto. From 1944 to 1945, Coltrane took saxophone lessons at the Ornstein School of Music with Mike Guerra. From early to mid-1945, he had his first professional work: a "cocktail lounge trio" with piano and guitar.


title: John Coltrane

text: An important moment in the progression of Coltrane's musical development occurred on June 5, 1945, when he saw Charlie Parker perform for the first time. In a "DownBeat" magazine article in 1960 he recalled: “the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.”


title: John Coltrane

text: To avoid being drafted by the Army, Coltrane enlisted in the Navy on August 6, 1945, the day the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. He was trained as an apprentice seaman at Sampson Naval Training Station in upstate New York before he was shipped to Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed at Manana Barracks, the largest posting of African American servicemen in the world. By the time he got to Hawaii in late 1945, the Navy was downsizing. Coltrane's musical talent was recognized, and he became one of the few Navy men to serve as a musician without having been granted musician's rating when he joined the Melody Masters, the base swing band. Because the Melody Masters was an all-white band, Coltrane was treated as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation in the band. He continued to perform other duties when not playing with the band, including kitchen and security details. By the end of his service, he had assumed a leadership role in the band. His first recordings, an informal session in Hawaii with Navy musicians, occurred on July 13, 1946. He played alto saxophone on a selection of jazz standards and bebop tunes. He was officially discharged from the Navy on August 8, 1946. He was awarded the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.


title: John Coltrane

text: After being discharged from the Navy as a seaman first class in August 1946, Coltrane returned to Philadelphia, where he "plunged into the heady excitement of the new music and the blossoming bebop scene." Coltrane used the G.I. Bill to enroll at the Granoff School of Music, where he studied music theory with jazz guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole. Coltrane would continue to be under Sandole's tutelage from 1946 into the early 1950s. Coltrane also took saxophone lessons with Matthew Rastelli, a saxophone teacher at Granoff once a week for about two or three years, but the lessons stopped when Coltrane’s G.I. Bill funds ran out. After touring with King Kolax, he joined a band led by Jimmy Heath, who was introduced to Coltrane's playing by his former Navy buddy, trumpeter William Massey, who had played with Coltrane in the Melody Masters. Although he started on alto saxophone, he began playing tenor saxophone in 1947 with Eddie Vinson.


title: John Coltrane

text: Coltrane called this a time when "a wider area of listening opened up for me. There were many things that people like Hawk [Coleman Hawkins], and Ben [Webster] and Tab Smith were doing in the '40s that I didn't understand, but that I felt emotionally." A significant influence, according to tenor saxophonist Odean Pope, was the Philadelphia pianist, composer, and theorist Hasaan Ibn Ali. "Hasaan was the clue to...the system that Trane uses. Hasaan was the great influence on Trane's melodic concept." Coltrane became fanatical about practicing and developing his craft, practicing "25 hours a day" according to Jimmy Heath. Heath recalls an incident in a hotel in San Francisco when after a complaint was issued, Coltrane took the horn out of his mouth and practiced fingering for a full hour. Such was his dedication it was common for him to fall asleep with the horn still in his mouth or practice a single note for hours on end.


title: John Coltrane

text: Charlie Parker, who Coltrane had first heard perform before his time in the Navy, became an idol, and he and Coltrane would play together occasionally in the late 1940s. He was a member of groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hodges in the early to mid-1950s.


title: John Coltrane

text: In 1955, Coltrane was freelancing in Philadelphia while studying with Sandole when he received a call from trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis had been successful in the 1940s, but his reputation and work had been damaged in part by heroin addiction; he was again active and about to form a quintet. Coltrane was with this edition of the Davis band (known as the "First Great Quintet"—along with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums) from October 1955 to April 1957 (with a few absences). During this period Davis released several influential recordings that revealed the first signs of Coltrane's growing ability. This quintet, represented by two marathon recording sessions for Prestige in 1956, resulted in the albums "Cookin'", "Relaxin'", "Workin'", and "Steamin'". The "First Great Quintet" disbanded due in part to Coltrane's heroin addiction.


title: John Coltrane

text: During the later part of 1957, Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York's Five Spot Café, and played in Monk's quartet (July–December 1957), but, owing to contractual conflicts, took part in only one official studio recording session with this group. Coltrane recorded many sessions for Prestige under his own name at this time, but Monk refused to record for his old label. A private recording made by Juanita Naima Coltrane of a 1958 reunion of the group was issued by Blue Note Records as "Live at the Five Spot—Discovery!" in 1993. A high quality tape of a concert given by this quartet in November 1957 was found later, and was released by Blue Note in 2005. Recorded by Voice of America, the performances confirm the group's reputation, and the resulting album, "Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall", is very highly rated.


title: John Coltrane

text: "Blue Train", Coltrane's sole date as leader for Blue Note, featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, bassist Paul Chambers, and trombonist Curtis Fuller, is often considered his best album from this period. Four of its five tracks are original Coltrane compositions, and the title track, "Moment's Notice", and "Lazy Bird", have become standards.


title: John Coltrane

text: Coltrane rejoined Davis in January 1958. In October of that year, jazz critic Ira Gitler coined the term "sheets of sound" to describe the style Coltrane developed with Monk and was perfecting in Davis's group, now a sextet. His playing was compressed, with rapid runs cascading in very many notes per minute. Coltrane recalled: "I found that there were a certain number of chord progressions to play in a given time, and sometimes what I played didn't work out in eighth notes, sixteenth notes, or triplets. I had to put the notes in uneven groups like fives and sevens in order to get them all in."


title: John Coltrane

text: Coltrane stayed with Davis until April 1960, working with alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley; pianists Red Garland, Bill Evans, and Wynton Kelly; bassist Paul Chambers; and drummers Philly Joe Jones and Jimmy Cobb. During this time he participated in the Davis sessions "Milestones" and "Kind of Blue", and the concert recordings "Miles & Monk at Newport" (1963) and "Jazz at the Plaza (1958)".


title: John Coltrane

text: At the end of this period, Coltrane recorded "Giant Steps" (1960), his issued album as leader for Atlantic which contained only his compositions. The album's title track is generally considered to have one of the most difficult chord progressions of any widely played jazz composition, eventually referred to as Coltrane changes. His development of these cycles led to further experimentation with improvised melody and harmony that he continued throughout his career.


title: John Coltrane

text: Coltrane formed his first quartet for live performances in 1960 for an appearance at the Jazz Gallery in New York City. After moving through different personnel, including Steve Kuhn, Pete La Roca, and Billy Higgins, he kept pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Steve Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. Tyner, a native of Philadelphia, had been a friend of Coltrane for some years, and the two men had an understanding that Tyner would join the band when he felt ready. "My Favorite Things" (1961) was the first album recorded by this band. It was Coltrane's first album on soprano saxophone, which he began practicing while with Miles Davis. It was considered an unconventional move because the instrument was more associated with earlier jazz.


title: John Coltrane

text: In May 1961, Coltrane's contract with Atlantic was bought by Impulse!. The move to Impulse! meant that Coltrane resumed his recording relationship with engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who had recorded his and Davis's sessions for Prestige. He recorded most of his albums for Impulse! at Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.


title: John Coltrane

text: By early 1961, bassist Davis had been replaced by Reggie Workman, while Eric Dolphy joined the group as a second horn. The quintet had a celebrated and extensively recorded residency at the Village Vanguard, which demonstrated Coltrane's new direction. It included the most experimental music he had played, influenced by Indian ragas, modal jazz, and free jazz. John Gilmore, a longtime saxophonist with musician Sun Ra, was particularly influential; after hearing a Gilmore performance, Coltrane is reported to have said, "He's got it! Gilmore's got the concept!" The most celebrated of the Vanguard tunes, the 15-minute blues "Chasin' the 'Trane", was strongly inspired by Gilmore's music.


title: John Coltrane

text: In 1961, Coltrane began pairing Workman with a second bassist, usually Art Davis or Donald Garrett. Garrett recalled playing a tape for Coltrane where "I was playing with another bass player. We were doing some things rhythmically, and Coltrane became excited about the sound. We got the same kind of sound you get from the East Indian water drum. One bass remains in the lower register and is the stabilizing, pulsating thing, while the other bass is free to improvise, like the right hand would be on the drum. So Coltrane liked the idea." Coltrane also recalled: "I thought another bass would add that certain rhythmic sound. We were playing a lot of stuff with a sort of suspended rhythm, with one bass playing a series of notes around one point, and it seemed that another bass could fill in the spaces." According to Eric Dolphy, one night: "Wilbur Ware came in and up on the stand so they had three basses going. John and I got off the stand and listened." Coltrane employed two basses on the 1961 albums "Olé Coltrane" and "Africa/Brass", and later on "The John Coltrane Quartet Plays" and "Ascension". Both Reggie Workman and Jimmy Garrison play bass on the 1961 Village Vanguard recordings of "India" and "Miles' Mode".


title: John Coltrane

text: During this period, critics were divided in their estimation of Coltrane, who had radically altered his style. Audiences, too, were perplexed; in France he was booed during his final tour with Davis. In 1961, "DownBeat" magazine called Coltrane and Dolphy players of "anti-jazz" in an article that bewildered and upset the musicians. Coltrane admitted some of his early solos were based mostly on technical ideas. Furthermore, Dolphy's angular, voice-like playing earned him a reputation as a figurehead of the "New Thing", also known as free jazz, a movement led by Ornette Coleman which was denigrated by some jazz musicians (including Davis) and critics. But as Coltrane's style developed, he was determined to make every performance "a whole expression of one's being".


title: John Coltrane

text: In 1962, Dolphy departed and Jimmy Garrison replaced Workman as bassist. From then on, the "Classic Quartet", as it came to be known, with Tyner, Garrison, and Jones, produced searching, spiritually driven work. Coltrane was moving toward a more harmonically static style that allowed him to expand his improvisations rhythmically, melodically, and motivically. Harmonically complex music was still present, but on stage Coltrane heavily favored continually reworking his "standards": "Impressions", "My Favorite Things", and "I Want to Talk About You".