title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In the midst of the American Revolutionary War, U.S. government finances fell into a poor state as Congress lacked the power to raise revenue and the states largely refused to furnish funding. Without a mechanism for raising revenue, Congress repeatedly issued paper money, leading to rampant inflation. By 1781, the U.S. faced an unremitting financial crisis, which was underscored by the January 1781 Pennsylvania Line Mutiny, in which ten poorly fed, unpaid Continental Army regiments demanded better conditions from Congress. Though the mutiny was put down, it convinced Congress to implement reforms that created the departments of war, marine, finance, and foreign affairs, each of which would be led by a departmental executive. By a unanimous vote, Congress selected Morris as the Superintendent of Finance. Morris accepted appointment as the Superintendent of Finance in May 1781, and he appointed Gouverneur Morris as his deputy.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris soon emerged as the key economic official in the country and became a leader of the Nationalist faction, an informal group of American leaders who favored a stronger national government. He also had effective control over foreign affairs until Robert R. Livingston was appointed as Secretary of Foreign Affairs later in the year. In September 1781, Morris reluctantly agreed to serve as the Agent of Marine, giving him civilian leadership of the Continental Navy. Congress filled the last of the executive positions in November, when Benjamin Lincoln accepted appointment as Secretary of War. Along with General Washington and Continental Congress secretary Charles Thomson, the three executives served as the leaders of the de facto first national executive branch in U.S. history; Morris assumed an unofficial role as the leading department secretary. All three executives, as well as Washington, aligned with the Nationalist faction, and they all cooperated to enhance the power of the national government. In mid-1782, Congress established standing committees to provide oversight to the executive departments; Morris supported the congressional reorganization, but to his dismay, his longtime foe Arthur Lee became the chairman of the committee overseeing the finance department.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris pursued an array of reforms designed to boost the economy; many of the reforms were inspired by the laissez-faire economic ideas of Adam Smith. Shortly after taking office, he convinced Congress to establish the Bank of North America, the first bank to operate in the United States. Such a bank had been discussed in the months prior to Morris's appointment, but the bank itself was organized along lines laid out by Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris. It was established as a private institution governed by its investors, but was subject to inspection by the Superintendent of Finance. The bank would take the national government's deposits, provide loans to Congress, and issue banknotes. Morris hoped that the bank would help finance the war, stabilize the nation's currency, and bring the country together under one unified monetary policy. As the bank would take some time to begin functioning, in 1781 Morris presided over the issuing of a new currency, referred to as "Morris notes," backed by Morris's own funds. Morris also convinced Congress to allow him to purchase all supplies for the Continental Army, and Congress required states to furnish funding rather than supplying goods like flour or meat.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: By 1781, the Revolutionary War had become a stalemate between Britain and the United States. The British had concentrated their military operations in the Southern theater of the war, while leaving a large force garrisoned at New York City. In August 1781, Morris met with General Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, who were planning a joint Franco-American operation against the British forces. Morris redirected government funds to purchase supplies for Washington's march against British forces in Virginia, and he pleaded with state governments and the French government for further funding, with the final $20,000 needed coming from Morris's longtime collaborator, Haym Salomon. At the October 1781 Battle of Yorktown, Washington forced the surrender of the British army under the command of General Cornwallis. After the Battle of Yorktown, Britain essentially abandoned its campaign on land, but the naval war continued as Britain sought to cut the United States off from its sources of trade.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Months after the Battle of Yorktown, Morris issued the "Report on Public Credit," an ambitious economic plan calling for the full payment of the country's war debt through new revenue measures. It included a head tax on slaves in the various states, but above all, he pushed for a federal tariff of five percent on all imported goods, which would require an amendment to the recently approved Articles of Confederation. Such an amendment would greatly strengthen the power of the national government, but the amendment process required the consent of each state, and many states were reluctant to alter the balance of power between the states and the national government. The Articles gave Congress the sole power to conduct foreign policy, but the states retained all power over funding; Congress had no independent power to raise funds, and lacked any mechanism to force states provide the funds that they owed to Congress. Writing to the state governors, Morris argued that it was "high time to reliever ourselves from the infamy we have already sustained, and to rescue and restore the national credit. This can only be done by solid revenue." By late 1782, all of the states but Rhode Island had agreed to back an amendment allowing the tariff, but that was enough to block the amendment.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Though he was frustrated in the tariff battle, Morris continued to implement and propose other economic reforms. In January 1782, after receiving its charter from Congress, the Bank of North America commenced operations, and the bank's currency soon achieved wide circulation. Morris sought the establishment of a national mint to provide for a single coinage throughout the United States, and proposed the first decimal currency, but Congress was unwilling to back this project. He appointed several receivers, including Alexander Hamilton, to help circulate banknotes, report on the prices of goods, and perform other functions in places throughout the United States. He also reformed government procurement of supplies, saving money by placing the onus for the storage and transport of supplies on government contractors.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Even after implementing several financial reforms, Morris was unable to pay the soldiers of the Continental Army. The chief issue, aside from the unwillingness of the states to amend the Articles of Confederation, was the unwillingness of the states to supply adequate funding; many states refused to furnish any funds at all. The Bank of North America provided some loans, but eventually refused to furnish more funds until previous loans were paid off. Morris's efforts were further complicated by France's reluctance to extend more loans, as well as a drop-off in American trade, caused in part by British naval operations. In December 1782, shortly after the apparent defeat of the proposed amendment to allow the national government to levy a tariff, General Alexander McDougall led a delegation that presented a petition for immediate payment on behalf of the Continental Army. While Morris helped temporarily defuse the crisis by offering the soldiers one month's pay, the petition reflected widespread unhappiness in the Continental Army at the continued lack of pay. Some Nationalists, including Gouverneur Morris, believed that only the discontent of the army could force the adoption of the amendment authorizing Congress to impose a tariff.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In March, Colonel Walter Stewart delivered the "Newburgh Address," in which he urged members of the Continental Army to rise up against Congress and demand payment. Washington prevented a mutiny by assuring the soldiers that they would eventually be paid. In the aftermath of the near-mutiny, Morris denied that he had played any role in fomenting insurrection. Nonetheless, most historians believe that Morris was one of three leaders of the "Newburgh Conspiracy, along with Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris. Jack N. Rakove emphasizes the leadership of Robert Morris.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Frustrated by his defeat in the tariff battle and the failure of states to provide adequate funding, Morris thought he was being forced to run up debts that the states were unwilling to pay. Writing that he would not be the "Minister of Injustice", he submitted his resignation in early 1783, but Hamilton and other Nationalists convinced him to stay in office.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: As of January 1, 1783, the public debt was $42 million of which 18.77 percent was foreign debt and 81.23 percent was owned at home.<br>In a report to the President of Congress Morris wrote:


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: At roughly the same time, Morris and others in Philadelphia learned that the United States and Britain had signed a preliminary peace agreement, bringing an unofficial end to the Revolutionary War. Congress approved a furlough of the Continental Army soldiers, subject to recall in case hostilities broke out once again. Morris distributed "Morris notes" to the remaining soldiers, but many soldiers departed for their homes rather than waiting for the notes. After a mutiny over pay broke out in Pennsylvania, Congress voted to leave Philadelphia and establish a provincial capital in Princeton, New Jersey; the mutiny dissipated shortly thereafter. Nationalists were devastated by this turn of events, and Hamilton resigned from Congress in mid-1783 after his proposal for convention to revise the Articles of Confederation was ignored.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In November 1784, Morris resigned from his government positions. Rather than finding a successor for Morris, Congress established the three-member Board of Treasury, consisting of Arthur Lee, William Livingston, and Samuel Osgood. In 1778–1779 Morris had attempted to strengthen out the accounts of the old Commercial Committee but had to give it up; he stated in answer to Paine "the accounts of Willing and Morris with the committee had been partially settled, but were still partially open, because the transactions could not be closed up." The Treasury Board elected in 1794-1795 those old accounts were brought to a settlement—a June 1796 entry in the Treasury debt against Morris for $93,312.63. Morris would explain in 1800 in debtors' prison that in fact the debt was due not just to himself but also his partners John Ross and Thomas Willing.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: After leaving office, Morris once again devoted himself to business, but state and federal politics remained a factor in his life. After the Pennsylvania legislature stripped the Bank of North America of its charter, Morris won election to the state legislature and helped restore the bank's charter. Meanwhile, the United States suffered a sustained recession after the end of the Revolutionary War, caused by the lingering debt burden and new restrictions on trade imposed by the European powers. Some members of Congress, including those on the Board of Treasury, continued to favor amendments to the Articles of Confederation, but the states still refused to authorize major changes to the Articles.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In 1786, Morris was one of five Pennsylvania delegates selected to attend the Annapolis Convention, where delegates discussed ways to reform the Articles of Confederation. Though Morris ultimately declined to attend the convention, the delegates convinced Congress to authorize a convention in Philadelphia in May 1787 to amend the Articles. The Pennsylvania state legislature sent a delegation consisting of Morris, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Mifflin, Jared Ingersoll, and Ben Franklin to the Philadelphia Convention. With the exception of Franklin (who avoided aligning with either political faction in Pennsylvania), all of the Pennsylvania delegates were closely aligned with Morris's Republican faction, a reflection of Republican strength in the state legislature. Many of Morris's Nationalist allies from other states, including Hamilton, James Madison, John Dickinson, and Washington, would also attend the convention.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: With Franklin ill, Morris opened the proceedings of the Philadelphia Convention on May 25. His motion to nominate Washington as chairman of the convention was backed by a unanimous vote. Morris consistently attended the meeting of the convention, but rarely spoke after the first day, instead allowing lawyers and others more experienced with the law to debate various issues. His primary goals, including a provision ensuring the federal government had the power to lay tariffs and taxes, were shared by the vast majority of delegates at the convention. On September 17, Morris signed the final document produced by the convention which, rather than amending the Articles, was intended to supplant the Articles as the new Constitution of the United States. Morris was one of just six individuals to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Rather than seeking to block the new constitution, Congress simply forwarded it to each state to debate ratification. Morris's Republican faction, along with Federalist groups in other states, sought the ratification of the new federal Constitution. The Constitutionalists, who saw the new federal constitution as a threat to state sovereignty, joined with Anti-Federalists in other states in seeking to prevent the ratification of the Constitution. In elections held in October and November 1787, Morris's Federalist allies retained control of the state legislature and won a majority of the elections held to select delegates for the convention held to debate ratification of the Constitution. Due to a dispute with a business partner, Morris did not attend the ratification convention, which voted to ratify the Constitution in December 1787. By the end of 1788, the Constitution had been ratified by enough states to take effect. In September 1788, the Pennsylvania legislature elected Robert Morris and William Maclay, both of whom were aligned with the Federalists, as the state's first representatives in the United States Senate.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In the country's first presidential election, Washington was elected as the President of the United States. Washington offered the position of Secretary of the Treasury to Morris, but Morris declined the offer, instead suggesting Alexander Hamilton for the position. In the Senate, Morris pressed for many of the same policies he had sought as Superintendent of Finance: a federal tariff, a national bank, a federal mint, and the funding of the national debt. Congress agreed to implement the Tariff of 1789, which created a uniform impost on goods carried by foreign ships into American ports, but many other issues lingered into 1790. Among those issues were the site of the national capital and the fate of state debts. Morris sought the return of the nation's capital to Philadelphia and the federal assumption of state debts. Morris defeated Maclay's proposal to establish the capital in Pennsylvania at a site on the Susquehanna River located several miles west of Philadelphia, but James Madison defeated Morris's attempt to establish the capital just outside of Philadelphia.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris's 1781 "Report On Public Credit" supplied the basis for Hamilton's "First Report on the Public Credit", which Hamilton submitted in 1790. Hamilton proposed to fully fund all federal debts and assume all state debts, and to pay for those debts by issuing new federal bonds. Hamilton argued that these measures would restore confidence in public credit and help to revitalize the economy, but opponents attacked his proposals as unfairly beneficial to the speculators who had purchased many of the government's debt certificates. Morris supported Hamilton's economic proposals, but the two differed on the site of the federal capital, as Hamilton wanted to keep it in New York. In June 1790, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson convinced Morris, Hamilton, and Madison to agree to a compromise in which the federal government assumed state debts, while a new federal capital would be established on the Potomac River; until construction of that capital was completed, Philadelphia would serve as the nation's temporary capital. With the backing of all four leaders, the Compromise of 1790, as it became known, was approved by Congress. That same year, Morris and Maclay helped secure Pennsylvania's control of the Erie Triangle, which provided the state with access to the Great Lakes.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In the early 1790s, the country became increasingly polarized between the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Jefferson and Madison, and the Federalist Party, led by Hamilton. Though Morris was less focused on politics after the Compromise of 1790, he supported most of Hamilton's policies and aligned with the Federalist Party. Morris especially supported Hamilton's proposal for the establishment of a national bank. Despite the opposition of Madison and other Southern leaders, Congress approved the establishment of the First Bank of the United States in 1791. While Morris served in Congress, a new political elite emerged in Philadelphia. These new leaders generally respected Morris, but most did not look to him for leadership. With Morris playing little active role, they called a convention that revised the state constitution that included many of the alterations that Morris had long favored, including a bicameral legislature, a state governor with the power to veto bills, and a judiciary with life tenure.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris refocused on his trading concerns after leaving office as Superintendent of Finance, seeking especially to expand his role in the tobacco trade. He began suffering from financial problems in the late 1780s after a business partner mistakenly refused to honor bills issued by Morris, causing him to default on a loan.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In 1784 Morris was part of a syndicate that backed the sailing of the Empress of China (1783) for the China trade. As part of the effort to repay France for loans that financed the war, Morris contracted to supply 20,000 hogsheads of tobacco annually to France beginning in 1785. Shortly after these contracts were signed, Ambassador Thomas Jefferson took it upon himself to interfere with these arrangements and that brought about the collapse of the tobacco market.Ironically it was James Swan (financier) who on July 9 1795 managed to do something Morris had been unable to do-the entire U.S. National debt to France of $2,024,899 was payed in full.The United States no longer owed money to foreign governments, although it continued to owe money to private investors both in the United States and in Europe. This allowed the young United States to place itself on a sound financial footing.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In 1787, Morris was sued in Virginia by Carter Braxton for £28,257; the lawsuit continued for eight years before commissioners were appointed, then Morris appealed. Finally Virginia's Court of Appeals led by Edmund Pendleton decided mostly in favor of Braxton before Morris was forced into bankruptcy by his own continued land speculations (although Morris as late as 1800 believed he should have won £20,000). Morris became increasingly fixated on land speculation, reaching his first major real estate deal in 1790 when he acquired much of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase in western New York. He realized a substantial profit the following year when he sold the land to The Pulteney Association, a group of British land speculators led by Sir William Johnstone Pulteney. Morris used the money from this sale to purchase the remainder of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, then turned around and sold much of that land to the Holland Land Company, a group of Dutch land speculators. These early successes encouraged Morris to pursue greater profits through increasingly large and risky land acquisitions.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: On March 7, 1791, Morris obtained title to a lot from John Dickinson and wife; on March 9, 1793, the site was surveyed; it wasn't until 1794 he began construction of a mansion on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia designed by architect of Washington, D.C., Pierre Charles L'Enfant; it was to occupy an entire block between Chestnut Street and Walnut Street on the western edge of Philadelphia. The structure was of red brick and marble lining. Besides Land Speculation, Morris founded several canal companies: [Similar to the Potomac Company], two Pennsylvania canal companies were set up to try to link the produce of the western lands with the eastern markets; they were the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company chartered September 29, 1791, and the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal Company chartered April 10, 1792. Morris was president of both companies; he was also involved with a steam engine company, and launched a hot air balloon from his garden on Market Street. He had the first iron rolling mill in America. His icehouse was the model for one Washington installed at Mount Vernon. He backed the new Chestnut Street Theater, and had a greenhouse where his staff cultivated lemon trees. In early 1793, Morris purchased shares in a land company led by John Nicholson, the comptroller general of Pennsylvania, beginning a deep business partnership between Nicholson and Morris.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Later in 1793, Morris, Nicholson, and James Greenleaf jointly purchased thousands of lots in the recently established District of Columbia. They subsequently purchased millions of acres in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas; in each case, they went into debt to make the purchases, with the intent of quickly reselling the land to realize a profit. Morris and his partners struggled to re-sell their lands, and Greenleaf dropped out from the partnership in 1795. Morris realized a profit by selling his lots in the District of Columbia in 1796, but he and Nicholson still owed their creditors approximately $12 million (about $ in ). By Morris's own admission the beginning of his bankruptcy began with the failure of John Warder & Co. of Dublin and Donald and Burton of London in the spring of 1793.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris was deeply involved in land speculation, especially after the Revolutionary War; (See Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1791 above); on April 22, 1794, Morris entered into an association called the Asylum Company with John Nicholson, [who had served as Comptroller-General of the state of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1794] to purchase 1,000,000 acres of Pennsylvania land besides land they already had title to in Luzerne County; Northumberland County and Northampton County. [This was not the first partnership Morris and Nicholson were involved in; in 1792, Nicholson had negotiated the purchase from the federal government of the tract known as the Erie Triangle. Along with an agent of the Holland Land Company, Aaron Burr, Robert Morris, and other individual and institutional investors, he formed the Pennsylvania Population Company. This front organization purchased all 390 parcels of land in the Erie Triangle. Nicholson was impeached in 1794 for his role in the company.] However, Morris severely overextended himself financially. He had borrowed to speculate in real estate in the new national capital, District of Columbia, but signed a contract with a syndicate of Philadelphia investors to take over his obligations there. After that, he took the options to purchase over in the rural south. Unfortunately for Morris, that syndicate reneged on their commitment, leaving him once again liable, but this time with more exposure.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In 1795, Morris and two of his partners, Greenleaf and Nicholson, pooled their land and formed a land company called the North American Land Company. The purpose of this company was to raise money by selling stock secured by the real estate [i.e. to finance their land speculation business]. According to one historian of American land speculation, the NALC was "largest land trust ever known in America". The three partners turned over to the company land throughout the United States totaling more than , most of it valued at about 50 cents an acre. In addition to land in the District of Columbia, there were in Georgia, in Kentucky, in North Carolina, in Pennsylvania, in South Carolina, and in Virginia. NALC was authorized to issue 30,000 shares, each worth $100. To encourage investors to purchase shares, the three partners guaranteed that a 6 percent dividend would be paid every year. To ensure that there was enough money to pay this divided, each partner agreed to put 3,000 of their own NALC shares in escrow. Greenleaf, Morris, and Nicholson were entitled to receive a 2.5 percent commission on any land the company sold. Greenleaf was named secretary of the new company. Other land speculations that Morris was involved in was the Illinois-Wabash Company and the Georgia Yazoo Land Company


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: The Washington DC Lots were not the only land problems for Morris; he began losing everything for nonpayment on interest on loans and taxes: In May 1796, John Barker Church accepted a mortgage on another 100,000 acres of the Morris Reserve in present-day Allegany County and Genesee County, against a debt owed to him by Morris. After Morris failed to pay the mortgage, Church foreclosed, and Church's son Philip Schuyler Church acquired the land in May 1800. Philip began the settlement of Allegany and Genesee counties by founding the village of Angelica, New York. In a letter of September 1797 to his partner Nicholson, Morris begged to be able to find $500.00 to pay two years wages to his servant Mr. Richard; in a subsequent letter October 25, 1797, to Nicholson, Morris moaned that 200,000 acres of North Carolina land which had cost him $27,000.00 had been sold for one year's taxes. In regard to Morris's Philadelphia mansion L'Enfant was paid $9,037.13 between December 1795 and January 1799. Despite the spent amount of £6138 5s 10d it was never completed. The bank of Pennsylvania brought suit against him and a judgement made against him for $20,997.40; an execution against his unfinished Chestnut Street "Morris Folly" mansion was issued in September 1797 to Philadelphia Sherriff Baker; Sherriff Penrose on December 11, 1797, made deed-poll to William Sansom for the building and the lot sold for $25,600 subject to a £7,000 in specie mortgage payable to Messrs Willink of Amsterdam. The last credit for the house was July 2, 1801, and the last charge for it was made July 9, 1801. The unfinished mansion became known as "Morris's folly", and the land eventually became Sansom Street. Marble from this house was purchased by Latrobe; he used it to adorn buildings and monuments from Rhode Island to Charlestown, South Carolina.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: The two canal companies had also failed as well: for example after its incorporation the Schuylkill and Susquehanna was subscribed for 40,000 shares—but only 1000 shares were sold; the Delaware and Schuylkill company was to have been 2000 shares at $200.00 a share. Operations were suspended because "Either on account of errors in plans adopted, failure to procure the necessary means, financial convulsions, or a combination of all these difficulties, they were compelled to suspend their operations after an outlay of $440,000, which was an immense sum in those days". When England and the Dutch declared war on Revolutionary France, an expected loan from Holland never materialized.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: The subsequent Napoleonic Wars ruined the market for American land and Morris's highly leveraged company collapsed. Lastly, the financial markets of England, the United States, and the Caribbean suffered from deflation related with the Panic of 1797. Morris was left "land rich and cash poor". He "owned" more land than any other American at any time, but didn't have enough liquid capital to pay his creditors. Among his creditors was his son-in-law James Marshall for £20,000 sterling; likewise his brother-in-law Bishop White was also a creditor to Morris for $3,000. Gouvenor Morris was owned $24,000 "exclusive of what he paid in Europe on my account, the amount of which I do not know."; Henry Lee III was a creditor for protested bills for $39,446 plus damages and interest; Morris's wife Mary had a sum of credit of $15,860.16 from the sale of two farms left to her by her father;his daughter Esther Morris had a credit of a few hundred pounds left to her by her grandmother received by Morris; as Morris had given her on her marriage nothing but clothes and old wine he assigned to her two quarter chests of tea which he sent to Alexandria, Virginia for sale although he feared this would not amount to principal and interest; his son Robert Morris Jr was a debtor for sums spent in Europe without his father's knowledge; his son Charles while under age had contracted bills without his father's knowledge for $144.94 for a tailor and $24.50 for a shoemaker. The NALC encountered financial difficulty almost immediately. Only of land was turned over to the NALC, which meant it could issue only 22,365 shares. This meant only 7,455 shares were put into escrow (instead of the required 9,000). Rather than paying creditors with cash, the NALC paid them with shares (8,477 shares in 1795 and 1796). On May 15, 1795, the D.C. commissioners demanded their first payment from Greenleaf, Morris, and Nicholson, for the 6,000 lots purchased in 1793. But Greenleaf had misappropriated some of the company's income to pay his own debts. Without the Dutch mortgage income and missing funds, there was no money to make the payment to the commissioners. Furthermore, Greenleaf had co-signed for loans taken out by Morris and Nicholson. When these men defaulted, creditors sought out Greenleaf to make good on the debts—which he could not.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Moris and his partners had failed to both pay the instalments on the Washington D.C. building lots and finished building twenty houses (they had contracted ten houses annually for seven years on said lots); On July 10, 1795, Morris and Nicholson bought out Greenleaf's interest in the December 24, 1793, agreement. The commissioners began legal proceedings to regain title to the 6,000 lots owned by NALC and the 1,115.25 lots owned by Greenleaf personally. The worsening financial problems of Greenleaf, Morris, and Nicholson led to increasingly poor personal relations among the three men. Nicholson, particularly bitter, began making public accusations against Greenleaf in print. Morris attempted to mediate between the two men, but his efforts failed. In an attempt to resolve his financial problems, Greenleaf sold his shares in the NALC to Nicholson and Morris on May 28, 1796, for $1.5 million. Unfortunately, Morris and Nicholson funded their purchase by giving Greenleaf personal notes. Furthermore, they endorsed one another's notes. Morris and Nicholson, themselves nearly bankrupt, agreed to pay one-quarter of the purchase price every year for the next four years. Greenleaf's shares were not to be transferred to Morris and Nicholson until the fourth payment was received. On September 30, 1796, James Greenleaf put 7,455 of his NALC shares in a trust (known as the "391 trust" because it was recorded on page 391 of the firm's accounting book). The "391 trust" was created to generate income (from the 6 percent dividend) to pay a loan given to Greenleaf by Edward Fox. A trustee was assigned to hold on to the shares. The same day, Greenleaf put 2,545 shares into another trust (the "381 trust"), as a guarantee against nonpayment of the dividend by Morris and Nicholson. Morris and Nicholson's made the first payment to Greenleaf for the one-third interest in the NALC by turning over title to several hundred lots in Washington, D.C. On March 8, 1797, Greenleaf executed the 381 trust.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: When the NALC did not issue its 6 percent dividend, Greenleaf transferred one-third of the shares in the "391 trust" to the trustees. The total number of shares transferred to the "381 trust" trustees was now 6,119. On June 24, 1797, Morris, Greenleaf and Nicholson had conveyed their Washington D.C. Lots in trust to Henry Pratt and others in payments of their debts. Poor business practices were now dragging down NALC. For years, Morris and Nicholson had acted as personal guarantors for one another's notes. Now many of these notes were coming due, and neither man could pay them. Creditors began selling the notes publicly, often at heavy discounts. By 1798, Morris and Nicholson's $10 million in personal notes were trading at one-eighth their face value. NALC also discovered that some of titles to the of land it owned were not clear, and thus the land could not be used for security. In other cases, NALC found it had been swindled, and the rich land it thought it owned turned out to be barren and worthless. Morris and Nicholson honestly believed that, if their cash flow problems were fixed, they could make payments on the property they owned and their shares would be returned to them. This proved incorrect. On October 23, 1807, all stock in the company was sold at 7 cents on the dollar to the accountants managing the Aggregate Fund. In 1856, the Trustees of the North American Land Company held $92,071.87. Morris and Nicholson's heirs sued to recover the stock and gain access to the income. The North American Land Company stayed in existence until 1872. An 1880 auditors report called the litigation "phenomenal ... the counsel for Morris and Nickerson pursued the fund for twenty-five years, seeking to obtain it from the trustees of the North American Company and the trusts which had been created from it, and also defending the money from the State in an attempt to sequestrate it. After all counsel fees and expenses, the amount available for division to the Morris interest was $9,692.49."


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: In 1797 Morris conveyed his household furniture to Thomas Fitzsimmons which was sold at public auction. What was left was lent to Mrs. Morris by Fitzsimmons and Morris son-in-law Marshall; all Morris had left in his house was some bedding, clothing, part of a quarter cask of wine; part of a barrel of flour, some coffee, a little sugar and some bottled wine which was the remainder from a cask he had given to his daughter Maria. Morris attempted to avoid creditors by staying outside the city at his country estate "The Hills", located on the Schuylkill River, but his creditors literally pursued him to his gate. Morris was sued by a former partner, James Greenleaf, who had been imprisoned for fraud and was serving time in debtors' prison. Unable to dodge his creditors and their lawyers, Morris was finally arrested. He was imprisoned for debt in Prune Street prison in Philadelphia from February 1798 to August 1801. Morris property Summerseat (Morrisville, Pennsylvania) would be sold in a Sherriff's sale on June 9, 1798, to George Clymer and Thomas Fitzsimmons for $41,000.00. In January 1799 Morris lamented to Nicholson of how a London firm had refused to accept his bill of lading £389 sterling "because the money in the hands of the party upon whom the bill was drawn had been attached by the owner of a bond given for payment of some lands in Georgia". 43 of the 100 acres of Morris estate "The Hills" was purchased in March 1799 by Henry Pratt for $14,654.00 for his country house Lemon Hill after the tearing down of Morris's old mansion; in turn the "Lemon Hill" estate became part of the foundation for Fairmount Park Philadelphia; one part of Morris property which had also been purchased in 1799 by William Cannard became part of the Sedgeley mansion-which in turn ironically became part of Fairmont Park. Of his partners Geenleaf was released after being declared bankrupt in 1798; Nicholson died in prison in 1800.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris was unable to pay his debts, and he remained in debtors' prison for three and a half years. Morris was released from prison in August 1801 after Congress passed its first bankruptcy legislation, the Bankruptcy Act of 1800 in part to get Morris out of prison. At the time of his release, three commissioners found that he had debts of $2,948,711.11; the proceedings were certified October 15, 1801, after 2/3 of his creditors agreed to the discharge of Morris; on December 4, 1801, a certificate of bankruptcy was confirmed. but he remained financially destitute. Gouverneur Morris, who served as Robert Morris's representative to the Holland Land Company, was able to attach a provision to the sale of some land that gave Mary Morris a $1,500 () per year annuity; this annuity allowed Mary to rent a small house in Philadelphia far away from the city's center.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Ironically one of the few assets Morris had left to him was his father's old worn out gold watch which he had inherited at the start of his career; Morris managed to leave this timepiece in his Will to his son Robert Jr. Morris died on May 8, 1806, in Philadelphia. No public ceremonies marked his death. He was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Biographer Charles Rappleye writes that Morris "was too rich to be a folk hero, and the ultimate failure of his personal fortune robbed him of any Midas-like mystique." Some historians have largely ignored Morris's role in founding the United States, while others regard him as the leader of a conservative, anti-democratic faction of the Founding Fathers. Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen describe Morris as a "fallen angel" who "almost single-handedly financed the final years" of the American Revolution before falling into "ignominy" for defaulting on his debts. Historian William Hogeland writes "given his seminal performance to victory in the Revolution, as well as to forming the nation, Robert Morris isn't as well known by Americans as he ought to be."


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris's portrait appeared on US$1,000 notes from 1862 to 1863 and on the $10 silver certificate from 1878 to 1880. Institutions named in honor of Morris include Robert Morris University and Robert Morris University Illinois. Mount Morris, New York, the location of a large flood control dam on the Genesee River, is named in his honor. A number of ships in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard have been named USS "Morris" or USRC "Morris" for him. Morrisville, Pennsylvania, was named in his honor. The Morris-Taney-class cutter was named for Morris and Roger Taney. A statue of Morris stands at Independence National Historical Park, and a monument to Morris, Washington, and Haym Salomon stands at Heald Square in Chicago, Illinois.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Summerseat, Morris's former estate in Morrisville, is listed as a National Historic Landmark. Lemon Hill, a Federal-style estate listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located on a parcel of land formerly owned by Morris. Part of the Liberty Bell Center is on land that was formerly part of the estate known as the President's House. Robert Morris holds the curious distinction as the only Founding Father whose house is a national memorial, but his life is not interpreted at the site.


title: Robert Morris (financier)

text: Morris is included in the Washington, D.C., Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence.


title: Art Tatum

text: Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. From early in his career, Tatum's technical ability was regarded by fellow musicians as extraordinary. In addition to being acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, Tatum extended the vocabulary and boundaries of jazz piano far beyond his initial stride influences, and established new ground in jazz through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where he began playing piano professionally and had his own radio program, rebroadcast nationwide, while still in his teens. He left Toledo in 1932 and had residencies as a solo pianist at clubs in major urban centers including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In that decade, he settled into a pattern that he followed for most of his career – paid performances followed by long after-hours playing, all accompanied by prodigious consumption of alcohol. He was said to be more spontaneous and creative in such venues, and although the drinking did not negatively affect his playing, it did damage his health.


title: Art Tatum

text: In the 1940s, Tatum led a commercially successful trio for a short time and began playing in more formal jazz concert settings, including at Norman Granz-produced Jazz at the Philharmonic events. His popularity diminished towards the end of the decade, as he continued to play in his own style, ignoring the rise of bebop. Granz recorded Tatum extensively in solo and small group formats in the mid-1950s, with the last session occurring only two months before the pianist's death from uremia at the age of 47.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's mother, Mildred Hoskins, was born in Martinsville, Virginia, around 1890, and was a domestic worker. His father, Arthur Tatum Sr., was born in Statesville, North Carolina, and had steady employment as a mechanic. In 1909, they made their way from North Carolina to begin a new life in Toledo, Ohio. The couple had four children; Art was the oldest to survive, and was born in Toledo on October 13, 1909. He was followed by Arline nine years later and by Karl after another two years. Karl went to college and became a social worker. The Tatum family was regarded as conventional and church-going.


title: Art Tatum

text: From infancy, Tatum had impaired vision. Several explanations for this have been posited, most involving cataracts. As a result of eye operations, by the age of 11 Tatum could see objects close to him and perhaps distinguish colors. Any benefits from these procedures were reversed, however, when he was assaulted, probably in his early twenties. The attack left him completely blind in his left eye and with very limited vision in his right. Despite this, there are multiple accounts of him enjoying playing cards and pool.


title: Art Tatum

text: Accounts vary on whether Tatum's parents played any musical instruments, but it is likely that he was exposed at an early age to church music, including through the Grace Presbyterian Church that his parents attended. He also began playing the piano from a young age, playing by ear and aided by an excellent memory and sense of pitch. Other musicians reported that he had perfect pitch. As a child he was sensitive to the piano's intonation and insisted it be tuned often. He learned tunes from the radio, records, and by copying piano roll recordings. In an interview as an adult, Tatum denied the story that his playing ability developed because he had attempted to reproduce piano roll recordings that, without his knowing, had been made by two performers. His interest in sports was lifelong, and he displayed an encyclopedic memory for baseball statistics.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum first attended Jefferson School in Toledo, then moved to the School for the Blind in Columbus, Ohio, late in 1924. After probably less than a year there, he transferred to the Toledo School of Music. Overton G. Rainey, who gave him formal piano lessons in the classical tradition at either the Jefferson School or the Toledo School of Music, was also visually impaired, did not improvise, and discouraged his students from playing jazz. Based on this history, it is reasonable to assume that Tatum was largely self-taught as a pianist. By the time he was a teenager, Tatum was asked to play at various social events, and he was probably being paid to play in Toledo clubs from around 1924–25.


title: Art Tatum

text: Growing up, Tatum drew inspiration principally from Fats Waller and James P. Johnson, who exemplified the stride piano style, and to some extent from the more modern Earl Hines, six years Tatum's senior. Tatum identified Waller as his biggest influence, while pianist Teddy Wilson and saxophonist Eddie Barefield suggested that Hines was one of his favorite jazz pianists. Another influence was pianist Lee Sims, who did not play jazz, but did use chord voicings and an orchestral approach (i.e. encompassing a full sound instead of highlighting one or more timbres) that appeared in Tatum's playing.


title: Art Tatum

text: In 1927, after winning an amateur competition, Tatum began playing on Toledo radio station WSPD during interludes in a morning shopping program and soon had his own daily program. After regular club dates, Tatum often visited after-hours clubs to be with other musicians; he enjoyed listening to other pianists and preferred to play after all the others had finished. He frequently played for hours on end into the dawn; his radio show was scheduled for noon, allowing him time to rest before evening performances. During 1928–29, the radio program was re-broadcast nationwide by the Blue Network. Tatum also began to play in larger Midwestern cities outside his home town, including Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit.


title: Art Tatum

text: As word of Tatum spread, national performers passing through Toledo, including Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson, visited clubs where he was playing. They were impressed by what they heard: from near the start of the pianist's career, "his accomplishment [...] was of a different order from what most people, from what even musicians, had ever heard. It made musicians reconsider their definitions of excellence, of what was possible", his biographer reported. Although Tatum was encouraged by comments from these and other established musicians, he felt that he was not yet, in the late 1920s, musically ready to relocate to New York City, which was the center of the jazz world and was home to many of the pianists he had listened to while growing up.


title: Art Tatum

text: This had changed by the time that vocalist Adelaide Hall, touring the United States with two pianists, heard Tatum play in Toledo in 1932 and recruited him: he took the opportunity to go to New York as part of her band. On August 5 that year, Hall and her band recorded two sides ("I'll Never Be the Same" and "Strange as It Seems") that were Tatum's first studio recordings. Two more sides with Hall followed five days later, as did a solo piano test-pressing of "Tea for Two" that was not released for several decades.


title: Art Tatum

text: After his arrival in New York, Tatum participated in a cutting contest at Morgan's bar in Harlem, with the established stride piano masters – Johnson, Waller, and Willie "The Lion" Smith. Standard contest pieces included Johnson's "Harlem Strut" and "Carolina Shout" and Waller's "Handful of Keys". Tatum played his arrangements of "Tea for Two" and "Tiger Rag". Reminiscing about Tatum's debut, Johnson said, "When Tatum played 'Tea for Two' that night I guess that was the first time I ever heard it really "played"." Tatum thus became the pre-eminent piano player in jazz. He and Waller became good friends, with similar lifestyles – both drank excessively and lived as lavishly as their incomes permitted.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's first solo piano job in New York was at the Onyx Club, which was later reported to have paid him "$45 a week and free whiskey". The Onyx was one of the first jazz clubs to open on 52nd Street, which became the city's focal point for public jazz performance for more than a decade. He recorded his first four released solo sides, for Brunswick Records, in March 1933: "St. Louis Blues", "Sophisticated Lady", "Tea for Two", and "Tiger Rag". The last of these was a minor hit, impressing the public with its startling tempo of approximately 376 (quarter note) beats per minute, and with right-hand eighth notes adding to the technical feat.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's only known child, Orlando, was born in 1933, when Tatum was twenty-four. The mother was Marnette Jackson, a waitress in Toledo; the pair were not married. It is likely that neither parent had a major role in raising their son, who pursued a military career and died in the 1980s.


title: Art Tatum

text: During the hard economic times of 1934 and 1935, Tatum mostly played in clubs in Cleveland, but also recorded in New York four times in 1934 and once in the following year. He also performed on national radio, including for the "Fleischman Hour" broadcast hosted by Rudy Vallee in 1935. In August of the same year, he married Ruby Arnold, who was from Cleveland. The following month, he began a residence of about a year at the Three Deuces in Chicago, initially as a soloist and then in a quartet of alto saxophone, guitar, and drums.


title: Art Tatum

text: At the end of his first Three Deuces stint, Tatum moved to California, travelling by train because of his fear of flying. There, he followed the same pattern that he had adopted early in his career: paid performances followed by long after-hours sessions, all accompanied by prodigious drinking. A friend from his early days in California observed that Tatum drank Pabst Blue Ribbon beer by the case. This lifestyle contributed to the effects of the diabetes that Tatum probably developed as an adult, but, as highlighted by his biographer, James Lester, the pianist would have faced a conflict if he wanted to address the diabetes problem: "concessions – drastically less beer, a controlled diet, more rest – would have taken away exactly the things that mattered most to him, and would have removed him from the night-life that he seemed to love more than almost anything (afternoon baseball or football games would probably come next)".


title: Art Tatum

text: In California, Tatum also played for Hollywood parties and appeared on Bing Crosby's radio program late in 1936. He recorded in Los Angeles for the first time early the following year – four tracks as the sextet named Art Tatum and His Swingsters, for Decca Records. Continuing to travel by long-distance train, Tatum settled into a pattern of performances at major jazz clubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, interspersed with appearances at minor clubs where musicians of his standing did not normally play. Thus, in 1937 he left Los Angeles for another residence at the Three Deuces in Chicago, and then went on to the Famous Door club in New York, where he opened for Louis Prima. Tatum recorded for Brunswick again near the end of that year.


title: Art Tatum

text: In March 1938, Tatum and his wife embarked on the "Queen Mary" for England. He performed there for three months, and enjoyed the quiet listeners who, unlike some American audiences, did not talk over his playing. While in England, he appeared twice on the BBC Television program "Starlight". Four of his very limited number of compositions were also published in Britain. He then returned to the Three Deuces. The overseas trip appeared to have boosted his reputation, particularly with the white public, and he was able to have club residencies of at least several weeks at a time in New York over the following few years, sometimes with stipulations that no food or drink would be served while he was playing.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum recorded 16 sides in August 1938, but they were not released for at least a decade. A similar thing happened the following year: of the 18 sides he recorded, only two were issued as 78s. A possible explanation is that the increasing popularity of big band music and vocalists limited the demand for solo recordings. One of the releases, a version of "Tea for Two", was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1986. One recording from early in 1941, however, was commercially successful, with sales of perhaps 500,000. This was "Wee Baby Blues", performed by a sextet and with the addition of Big Joe Turner on vocals. Informal performances of Tatum's playing in 1940 and 1941 were released decades later on the album "God Is in the House", for which he was posthumously awarded the 1973 Grammy for Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist. The album title came from Waller's reaction when he saw Tatum enter the club where Waller was performing: "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house."


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum was able to earn a more than adequate living from his club performances. "Billboard" magazine suggested that he could make at least $300 a week as a soloist in 1943; when he formed a trio later that year, it was advertised by booking agents at $750 a week. The other musicians in the trio were guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart. They were a commercial success on 52nd Street, attracting more customers than any other musician, with the possible exception of vocalist Billie Holiday, and they also appeared briefly on film, in an episode of "The March of Time". As a solo pianist up to that point, Tatum was praised by critics, but the paying public had given him relatively little attention; with the trio, he enjoyed more popular success, although some critics expressed disappointment. Nevertheless, Tatum was awarded "Esquire" magazine's prize for pianists in its 1944 critics' poll, which led to his playing alongside other winners at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.


title: Art Tatum

text: All of Tatum's studio recordings in 1944 were with the trio, and radio appearances continued. He abandoned the trio in 1944, possibly at an agent's behest, and did not record with one again for eight years. Early in 1945, "Billboard" reported that Tatum was being paid $1,150 a week as a soloist by the Downbeat Club on 52nd Street to play four sets of twenty minutes each per night. This was described much later as an "unheard-of figure" for the time. The "Billboard" reviewer commented that "Tatum is given a broken-down instrument, some bad lights and nothing else", and observed that he was almost inaudible beyond the front seating because of the audience noise.


title: Art Tatum

text: Aided by name recognition from his record sales and reduced entertainer availability because of the World War II draft, Tatum began to play in more formal jazz concert settings from 1944 – appearing at concert halls in towns and universities all around the United States. The venues were much larger than jazz clubs – some had capacities in excess of 3,000 people – allowing Tatum to earn more money for much less work. Despite the more formal concert settings, Tatum preferred not to adhere to a set program of pieces for these performances. He recorded with the Barney Bigard Sextet and cut nine solo tracks in 1945.


title: Art Tatum

text: A fellow pianist from the years after World War II estimated that Tatum routinely drank two quarts (1.9 L) of whiskey and a case of beer over the course of 24 hours. Almost all reports are that such drinking did not negatively affect his playing. Rather than being deliberately or uncontrollably self-destructive, this habit was probably a product of his being careless about his health, which was a common characteristic of jazz musicians, and his enthusiasm for life.


title: Art Tatum

text: Performances at concert settings continued in the second half of the 1940s, including participation in Norman Granz-produced Jazz at the Philharmonic events. In 1947, Tatum again appeared on film, this time in "The Fabulous Dorseys". A 1949 concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles was recorded and released by Columbia Records as "Gene Norman Presents an Art Tatum Concert". In the same year, he signed to Capitol Records and recorded 26 pieces for them. He also played for the first time at Club Alamo in Detroit, but stopped when a black friend was not served. The owner subsequently advertised that black customers were welcome, and Tatum went on to play there frequently in the following few years.


title: Art Tatum

text: Although Tatum remained an admired figure, his popularity waned in the mid- to late 1940s. This was because of the advent of bebop – a musical style that Tatum did not embrace.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum began working with a trio again in 1951. The trio – this time with bassist Stewart and guitarist Everett Barksdale – recorded in 1952. In the same year, Tatum toured the United States with fellow pianists Erroll Garner, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis, for concerts billed as "Piano Parade".


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's four-year absence from the recording studios as a soloist ended when Granz, who owned Clef Records, decided to record his solo playing in a way that was "unprecedented in the recording industry: invite him into the studio, start the tape, and let him play whatever he felt like playing. [...] At the time this was an astonishing enterprise, the most extensive recording that had been done of any jazz figure." Over several sessions starting late in 1953, Tatum recorded 124 solo tracks, all but three of which were released, spread over a total of 14 LPs. Granz reported that the recording tape ran out during one piece, but Tatum, instead of starting again from the beginning, asked to listen to a playback of just the final eight bars, then continued the performance from there on the new tape, keeping to the same tempo as on the first attempt. The solo pieces were released by Clef as "The Genius of Art Tatum", and were added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978.


title: Art Tatum

text: Granz also recorded Tatum with a selection of other stars in seven more recording sessions, which led to 59 tracks being released. The critical reception was mixed and partly contradictory. Tatum was, variously, criticized for not playing real jazz, the choice of material, and being past his best, and praised for the enthralling intricacy and detail of his playing, and his technical perfection. Nevertheless, the releases renewed attention on the pianist, including for a newer generation; he won "DownBeat" magazine's critics' poll for pianists three years in a row from 1954 (he never won a "DownBeat" readers' poll).


title: Art Tatum

text: Following a deterioration in his health, Tatum stopped drinking in 1954 and tried to control his weight. That year, his trio was part of bandleader Stan Kenton's 10-week tour named "Festival of Modern American Jazz". The trio did not play with Kenton's orchestra on the tour, but they had the same performance schedule, meaning Tatum sometimes travelled long distances by overnight train while the others stayed in a hotel and then took a morning flight. He also appeared on television in "The Spike Jones Show" on April 17, to promote the then imminent release of "The Genius of Art Tatum". Black American musicians were not often filmed at this time, so very few visual recordings of Tatum exist, but his solo performance of "Yesterdays" on the show has survived as a video recording.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum and Ruby divorced early in 1955. They probably did not travel much together and she had become an alcoholic; the divorce was acrimonious. He married again later that year – Geraldine Williamson, with whom he had probably already been living. She had little interest in music, and did not normally attend his performances.


title: Art Tatum

text: By 1956, Tatum's health had deteriorated due to advanced uremia. Nevertheless, in August of that year he played to the largest audience of his career: 19,000 gathered at the Hollywood Bowl for another Granz-led event. The following month, he had the last of the Granz group recording sessions, with saxophonist Ben Webster, and then played at least two concerts in October. He was too unwell to continue touring, so returned to his home in Los Angeles. Musicians visited him on November 4, and other pianists played for him as he lay in bed.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum died the following day, at Queen of Angels Medical Center in Los Angeles, from uremia. He was buried at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, but was moved to the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California, in 1992 by his second wife, so she could be buried next to him. Tatum was inducted into the "DownBeat" Jazz Hall of Fame in 1964 and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum was independent-minded and generous with his time and money. Not wanting to be restricted by Musicians' Union rules, he avoided joining for as long as he could. He also disliked anything that drew attention to his blindness: he did not want to be physically led and so planned his independent walk to the piano in clubs if possible.


title: Art Tatum

text: People who met Tatum consistently "describe him as totally lacking in arrogance or ostentation" and as being gentlemanly in behavior. He avoided discussing his personal life and history in interviews and in conversation with acquaintances. Although marijuana use was common among musicians during his lifetime, Tatum was not linked to the use of illegal drugs.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum was said to be more spontaneous and creative in free-form nocturnal sessions than in his scheduled performances. Whereas in a professional setting he would often give audiences what they wanted – performances of songs that were similar to his recorded versions – but decline to play encores, in after-hours sessions with friends he would play the blues, improvise for long periods on the same sequence of chords, and move even more away from the melody of a composition. Tatum also sometimes sang the blues in such settings, accompanying himself on piano. Composer and historian Gunther Schuller describes "a night-weary, sleepy, slurry voice, of lost love and sexual innuendos which would have shocked (and repelled) those 'fans' who admired Tatum for his musical discipline and 'classical' [piano] propriety".


title: Art Tatum

text: In after-hours performances, Tatum's repertoire was much wider than for professional appearances, for which his staples were American popular songs. During his career, he also played his own arrangements of a few classical piano pieces, including Dvořák's "Humoresque" and Massenet's "Élégie", and recorded around a dozen blues pieces. Over time, he added to his repertoire – by the late 1940s, most of the new pieces were medium-tempo ballads but also included compositions that presented him with harmonic challenges, such as the simplicity of "Caravan" and complexity of "Have You Met Miss Jones?" He did not add to the classical pieces he had used earlier.


title: Art Tatum

text: Saxophonist Benny Green wrote that Tatum was the only jazz musician to "attempt to conceive a style based upon all styles, to master the mannerisms of all schools, and then synthesize those into something personal". Tatum was able to transform the styles of preceding jazz piano through virtuosity: where other pianists had employed repetitive rhythmic patterns and relatively simple decoration, he created "harmonic sweeps of colour [...and] unpredictable and ever-changing shifts of rhythm".


title: Art Tatum

text: Musicologist Lewis Porter identified three aspects of Tatum's playing that a casual listener might miss: the dissonance in his chords; his advanced use of substitute chord progressions; and his occasional use of bitonality (playing in two keys at the same time). There are examples on record of the last of these going back to 1934, making Tatum the furthest harmonically out of jazz musicians until Lennie Tristano. On occasion, the bitonality was against what another musician was playing, as in "Lonesome Graveyard Blues" with guitarist Oscar Moore. Prior to Tatum, jazz harmony was mainly triadic, with flattened sevenths and infrequent ninths; he went beyond this, influenced by the harmonies of Debussy and Ravel. He incorporated upper intervals such as elevenths and thirteenths, and added tenths (and greater intervals) to the left-hand vocabulary of the earlier stride piano style.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum had a different way of improvising from what is typical in modern jazz. He did not try to create new melodic lines over a harmonic progression; instead, he implied or played the original melody or fragments of it, while superimposing countermelodies and new phrases to create new structures based around variation. "The harmonic lines may be altered, reworked or rhythmically rephrased for moments at a time, but they are still the base underneath Tatum's superstructures. The melodic lines may be transformed into fresh shapes with only a note or a beat or a phrase particle retained to associate the new with the original, yet the melody remains, if only in the listener's imagination." This flexibility extended to his use of rhythm: regardless of the tempo, he could frequently alter the number of notes per beat and use other techniques at the same time to alter the rhythmic intensity and shape of his phrasing. His rhythmic sense also allowed him to move away from the established tempo of a piece for extended periods without losing the beat.


title: Art Tatum

text: For critic Martin Williams, there was also the matter of the pianist's sly humor when playing: "when we fear he is reaching the limits of romantic bombast, a quirky phrase, an exaggerated ornament will remind us that Tatum may be having us on. He is also inviting us to share the joke and heartily kidding himself as well as the concert hall traditions to which he alludes."


title: Art Tatum

text: Prior to the 1940s, Tatum's style was based on popular song form, which often meant two bars of melodic development followed by two more melodically static bars, which he filled with rapid runs or arpeggios. From the 1940s, he progressively lengthened the runs to eight or more bars, sometimes continuing them across the natural eight-bar boundaries within a composition's structure, and began to use a harder, more aggressive attack. He also increased the frequency of harmonic substitutions and the variety of musical devices played by his left hand, and developed a greater harmonic and contrapuntal balance across the piano's upper and lower registers. Schuller argues that Tatum was still developing towards the end of his life – he had greater rhythmic flexibility when playing at a given tempo, more behind the beat swing, more diverse forms of expression, and he employed far fewer musical quotations than earlier in his career.


title: Art Tatum

text: Critic Whitney Balliett commented on the overall form of Tatum's style: "his strange, multiplied chords, still largely unmatched by his followers, his laying on of two and three and four melodic levels at once [...] was orchestral and even symphonic." This style was not one that could be adapted to the form of bebop: "the orchestral approach to the keyboard [...] was too thick, too textured to work in the context of a bebop rhythm section."


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's approach has also been criticized on other grounds. Pianist Keith Jarrett objected to Tatum playing too many notes, and a criticism of him in a band setting was that he often did not modify his playing, overwhelming the other musicians and appearing to compete with any soloist that he was ostensibly supporting. Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco said that playing with Tatum was "like chasing a train", and the pianist himself said that a band got in his way.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum had a calm physical demeanor at the keyboard, not attempting crowd-pleasing theatrical gestures. This accentuated the impact of his playing on observers, as did his seemingly effortless technique, as pianist Hank Jones observed – the apparently horizontal gliding of his hands across the keys stunned his contemporaries. Tatum's relatively straight-fingered technique, compared to the curvature taught in classical training, contributed to this visual impression: a critic wrote in 1935 that, when playing, "Tatum's hand is almost perfectly horizontal, and his fingers seem to actuate around a horizontal line drawn from wrist to finger tip."


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum was able to use his thumbs and little fingers to add melody lines while playing something else with his other fingers; drummer Bill Douglass, who played with Tatum, commented that the pianist would "do runs with these two fingers up here and then the other two fingers of the same hand playing something else down there. Two fingers on the black keys, and then the other two fingers would be playing something else on the white keys. He could do that in either hand". His large hands allowed him to play a left-hand trill with thumb and forefinger while also using his little finger to play a note an octave lower. He was also capable of reaching twelfth intervals in either hand, and could play a succession of chords such as the illustrated examples at high speed. He was able to play all of his chosen material in any key.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's touch has also attracted attention: for Balliett, "No pianist has ever hit notes more beautifully. Each one [...] was light and complete and resonant, like the letters on a finely printed page. Vast lower-register chords were unblurred, and his highest notes were polished silver." Tatum could maintain these qualities of touch and tone even at the quickest tempos, when almost all other pianists would be incapable of playing the notes at all. Pianist Chick Corea commented that "Tatum is the only pianist I know of before Bill [Evans] that also had that feather-light touch – even though he probably spent his early years playing on really bad instruments."


title: Art Tatum

text: Among the musicians who said that Tatum could make a bad piano sound good were Billy Taylor and Gerald Wiggins. The latter revealed that Tatum was able to identify and avoid using any keys on a bad piano that were not working, while guitarist Les Paul recounted that Tatum sometimes resorted to pulling up stuck keys with one hand, mid-performance, so that he could play them again.


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's improvisational style extended what was possible on jazz piano. The virtuoso solo aspects of Tatum's style were taken on by pianists such as Adam Makowicz, Simon Nabatov, Oscar Peterson, and Martial Solal. Even musicians who played in very different styles, such as Bud Powell, Lennie Tristano, and Herbie Hancock, memorized and recreated some of his recordings to learn from them. Although Powell was of the bebop movement, his prolific and exciting style showed Tatum's influence. Mary Lou Williams said, "Tatum taught me how to hit my notes, how to control them without using pedals. And he showed me how to keep my fingers flat on the keys to get that clean tone."


title: Art Tatum

text: Tatum's influence went beyond the piano, however: his innovations in harmony and rhythm established new ground in jazz more broadly. He made jazz musicians more aware of harmonic possibilities by changing the chords that he used with great frequency; this helped lay the foundations for the emergence of bebop in the 1940s. His modern chord voicing and chord substitutions were also pioneering in jazz.


title: Art Tatum

text: Other musicians sought to transfer elements of Tatum's pianistic virtuosity to their own instruments. When newly arrived in New York, saxophonist Charlie Parker worked for three months as a dishwasher in a restaurant where Tatum was performing and often listened to the pianist. "Perhaps the most important idea Parker learned from Tatum was that any note could be made to fit in a chord if suitably resolved." Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was also affected by Tatum's speed, harmony, and daring solos. Vocalist Tony Bennett incorporated aspects of Tatum into his singing: "I'd listen to his records almost daily and try to phrase like him. [...] I just take his phrasing and sing it that way." Saxophonist Coleman Hawkins changed his playing style after hearing Tatum play in Toledo in the 1920s: Hawkins's "arpeggio-based style and his growing vocabulary of chords, of passing chords and the relationships of chords, were confirmed and encouraged by his response to Art Tatum." This style was hugely influential on the development of saxophone playing in jazz, and put it on course to becoming the dominant instrument in the music.


title: Art Tatum

text: Some musicians were negatively affected by exposure to Tatum's abilities. Many pianists tried to copy him and attain the same level of ability, hindering their progress towards finding their own style. Others, including trumpeter Rex Stewart and pianists Oscar Peterson and Bobby Short, were overwhelmed and began to question their own abilities. Some musicians, including Les Paul and Everett Barksdale, stopped playing the piano and switched to another instrument after hearing Tatum.


title: Art Tatum

text: There is little published information available about Tatum's life. One full-length biography has been published – "Too Marvelous for Words" (1994), written by James Lester. This lack of detailed coverage may be attributable to Tatum's life and music not fitting any of the established critical narratives or frameworks for jazz: many historians of the music have marginalised him for this, so "not only is Tatum underrepresented in jazz criticism but his presence in jazz historiography seems largely to prompt no particular effort in historians beyond descriptive writing designed to summarize his pianistic approach".


title: Art Tatum

text: Critics have expressed strong opinions about Tatum's artistry: "Some applaud Tatum as supremely inventive, while others say that he was boringly repetitive, and that he barely improvised." Gary Giddins suggested that Tatum's standing has not been elevated to the very highest level of jazz stars among the public because he did not employ the expected linear style of improvisation, and instead played in a way that listeners have to listen to with concentration, so he "becalms many listeners into hapless indifference".


title: Art Tatum

text: In 1989, Tatum's hometown of Toledo established the Art Tatum African American Resource Center in its Kent Branch Library. It contains print and audio materials and microfiche, and organizes cultural programs, including festivals, concerts, and a gallery for local artists.


title: Art Tatum

text: In 1993, Jeff Bilmes, an MIT student in the field of computational musicology coined the term "tatum", which was named in recognition of the pianist's speed. It has been defined as "the smallest time interval between successive notes in a rhythmic phrase", and "the fastest pulse present in a piece of music".


title: Art Tatum

text: In 2003, a historical marker was placed outside Tatum's childhood home at 1123 City Park Avenue in Toledo, but by 2017 the unoccupied property was in a state of disrepair. In 2021, Art Tatum Zone, a non-profit organization, was awarded grants to restore the house and improve the neighborhood. Also in Toledo, the Lucas County Arena unveiled a 27-feet-high sculpture, the "Art Tatum Celebration Column", in 2009.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: Ideal Jawa (India) Ltd was an Indian motorcycle company based in Mysore which sold licensed Jawa motorcycles beginning in 1960 under the brand name Jawa and from 1973 as Yezdi. The name Yezdi was established by a phonetic transcription of Czech language verb "jezdí" (rides). The catchphrase for the bikes sold by the firm was "'Forever Bike, Forever Value". Relaunched in 2022, the new catchphrase is "'Not for the saint hearted".


title: Ideal Jawa

text: Jawa motorcycles were introduced in India in 1960 and they have a cult following to this present day. Production was carried out directly in India by Ideal Jawa India Ltd based out of Mysore . The Yezdi factory was located along the railway line which heads to Mysore Junction. The factory was inaugurated by the then Governor of Mysore State, Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, Maharaja of Mysore in 1961.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: The Jawa 250 Type 353/04 designated as 'A' Type, Yezdi 250 'B' Type, Yezdi 250 Roadking, Yezdi 350 Twin (type 634) and Yezdi 250 Monarch models are driven to this day in various parts of the country. Jawa and Yezdi bikes, especially the ones with fuel tank paddings and ignition systems on the fuel tank are now collectors items. The company stopped production in 1996.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: There are still several bike enthusiasts in the country. There are several bike clubs across the country, some of them even organizing long distance rallies.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: In January 2022, Yezdi was relaunched by Mahindra & Mahindra through their Classic Legends subsidiary. Three model were introduced, the Roadster, Scrambler and Adventure. Yezdi motorcycles will be sold alongside Jawa motorcycles in India.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: Ideal Jawa also exported many of the above models to over 61 countries around the world including Turkey, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Egypt and others. Guatemala was supplied with custom White Yezdi Roadkings for their Police forces. Some Yezdi 175s were supplied to an oil company in Ghana.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: When the company was forced to shut down, it was producing the 175, Monarch, Deluxe, Road Kings and CL II. The main reason for the company's collapse was labor trouble and increasing levels of pollution control norms which were making the two stroke bikes that the company produced obsolete. With the advent of Yamaha and Honda in India, these bikes lost their status as Yezdi's were heavier and in some cases slower with lower fuel efficiency.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: Ideal Jawa had factory teams for both road races at Sholavaram and the National Motorcycle Rally Championships. Yezdi's were preferred rally bikes in the 80s and 90s.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: Though the Yezdi factory is closed and Yezdi bikes are vintage to the present day many people in India are having a craze for these bikes and own them. Yezdi bike clubs have been created where members show off their Yezdi bikes and by doing so, are trying to revive the craze for these bikes.


title: Ideal Jawa

text: Starting 13 January 2022 the Yezdi brand has been reintroduced in the Indian market by Classic Legends, after a gap of 25 years. There are three models which have been launched - Scrambler, Roadster and Adventure.


title: Southern blot

text: A Southern blot is a method used in molecular biology for detection of a specific DNA sequence in DNA samples. Southern blotting combines transfer of electrophoresis-separated DNA fragments to a filter membrane and subsequent fragment detection by probe hybridization.


title: Southern blot

text: The method is named after the British biologist Edwin Southern, who first published it in 1975. Other blotting methods (i.e., western blot, northern blot, eastern blot, southwestern blot) that employ similar principles, but using RNA or protein, have later been named in reference to Edwin Southern's name. As the label is eponymous, Southern is capitalised, as is conventional of proper nouns. The names for other blotting methods may follow this convention, by analogy.


title: Southern blot

text: Hybridization of the probe to a specific DNA fragment on the filter membrane indicates that this fragment contains DNA sequence that is complementary to the probe.


title: Southern blot

text: The transfer step of the DNA from the electrophoresis gel to a membrane permits easy binding of the labeled hybridization probe to the size-fractionated DNA. It also allows for the fixation of the target-probe hybrids, required for analysis by autoradiography or other detection methods.


title: Southern blot

text: Southern blots performed with restriction enzyme-digested genomic DNA may be used to determine the number of sequences (e.g., gene copies) in a genome. A probe that hybridizes only to a single DNA segment that has not been cut by the restriction enzyme will produce a single band on a Southern blot, whereas multiple bands will likely be observed when the probe hybridizes to several highly similar sequences (e.g., those that may be the result of sequence duplication). Modification of the hybridization conditions (for example, increasing the hybridization temperature or decreasing salt concentration) may be used to increase specificity and decrease hybridization of the probe to sequences that are less than 100% similar.


title: Southern blot

text: Southern blotting transfer may be used for homology-based cloning on the basis of amino acid sequence of the protein product of the target gene. Oligonucleotides are designed so that they are complementary to the target sequence. The oligonucleotides are chemically synthesized, radiolabeled, and used to screen a DNA library, or other collections of cloned DNA fragments. Sequences that hybridize with the hybridization probe are further analysed, for example, to obtain the full length sequence of the targeted gene.


title: Southern blot

text: Southern blotting can also be used to identify methylated sites in particular genes. Particularly useful are the restriction nucleases "MspI" and "HpaII", both of which recognize and cleave within the same sequence. However, "HpaII" requires that a C within that site be methylated, whereas "MspI" cleaves only DNA unmethylated at that site. Therefore, any methylated sites within a sequence analyzed with a particular probe will be cleaved by the former, but not the latter, enzyme.


title: Çaykur Rizespor

text: Çaykur Rizespor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Rize. The club play in the TFF First League. The club was founded on May 19, 1953, with green-yellow as club colours, but later changed to blue-green. Since 1990, the team has been sponsored by the Turkish tea company Çaykur, hence the name and the image of a tea leaf on the club's logo. The club plays its home games in Yeni Rize Şehir Stadium.


title: Çaykur Rizespor

text: A committee of five people—Yakup Temizel, Atıf Taviloğlu, İsmet Bilsel, Yaşar Tümbekçioğlu and Muharrem Kürkçü—founded the club on 19 May 1953 at the 34th anniversary year of the start of Independence War. The intention was to enhance the physical and cultural talents of the youth as well as to contribute to the developments of Rize. Domestic cultivation of lemon citruses and oranges labeled the club colour to be yellow and being Rize's symbol, tea gardens, represented the colour green. One of the founding members, Yaşar Dömlekçioğlu was chosen the first president of the club. During the amateur league years through 1953 to 1968, local-born players such as Ahmet Durmuş, Kenan Tiryaki, Mustafa Erol, İrfan Akaslan, Mahmut Salih Yavuz, Salih Kazancı, Ahmet Kemal Yavuz, Hamil Kazancı, Mustafa Veziroğlu, Yılmaz Özkan, Yılmaz Balta, Ahmet Fenci, Ekif Fence, Oktay Arayıcı, Abdullah Kıtır, Mustafa Kazdal, Abdullah Şeker and Ömer Çakır played for Rizespor.


title: Çaykur Rizespor

text: With the regulation changes in 1968, the club formed a professional club structure by the association of two clubs, "Rize Güneşspor" and "Fenergençlik". The club started from the third division with the colours blue and green. At the end of a competitive season, as a result of a fight inside the game the club got punished with a forfeit as well as a deduction of 2 points which bereaved Rizespor from promotion that season. The punishment was the first time in the Turkish football history. In the coming period, the club did not get relegated and in 1978–1979, Rizespor won the title and qualified to play in the Turkish Süper Lig for the first time in the club history.


title: Çaykur Rizespor

text: The club hosts their home games at Yeni Rize Şehir Stadium since 2009–10 season. The opening game of the stadium was held on 12 August 2009, when Çaykur Rizespor hosted Fenerbahçe for an exhibition game.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Eduardo Jesús Vargas Rojas (; born 20 November 1989) is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Brazilian Série A club Atlético Mineiro and the Chile national team.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Emerging as a top talent at Cobreloa, Vargas moved to Universidad de Chile where he won three titles, including the 2011 Copa Sudamericana, where he was named player of the tournament. In 2011, he was co-awarded the Chilean Footballer of the Year and also finished as runner-up for the South American Footballer of the Year. Following an £11.5 million move to Napoli, Vargas had subsequent loan spells at Grêmio, Valencia and Queens Park Rangers before moving to 1899 Hoffenheim in 2015.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: A full international since 2010, Vargas has earned over 100 caps for Chile, scoring 40 goals. He was part of their squad at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the Copa América in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021. He would finish as top scorer in Chile's title-winning 2015 and 2016 Copa América campaigns.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Born in Santiago, Vargas grew up in Renca, and began his career playing for Internacional de Renca's youth setup. He also had trials at Universidad Católica and Palestino before taking part of Deportes Puerto Montt's youth categories. In 2005, he was invited to a reality show headed by Adidas, called "Adidas Selection Team", and despite not winning the competition, he impressed enough to start the 2006 pre-season trialling with Puerto Rico Islanders, as the club was in Chile.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: In 2006, Vargas was signed by Cobreloa after impressing in a ten-day trial. Initially assigned to the B-team in the Tercera División, he scored twice during his stay, netting against Universidad Arturo Prat and San Marcos de Arica in August.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Vargas made his first team debut on 23 July 2006, aged just 16, playing the last 20 minutes in a 4–1 away loss against Puerto Montt. He appeared in three more matches during the season, all from the bench. After only five further appearances in 2007, he became a regular starter in 2008, scoring his first professional goal on 16 March in a 3–2 home defeat of Palestino. On 30 August, he scored a brace in a 4–3 away win against the same opponent.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 7 January 2010, Vargas joined Universidad de Chile for a US$700,000 transfer fee. He made his debut for the club on 25 January, replacing Gabriel Vargas and scoring the last in a 5–1 home routing of Cobresal.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Vargas only broke into the first team during the 2011 campaign, and had a brilliant performance during the year, scoring 29 goals and providing in 51 matches. He also won both league semestral tournaments (Torneo Apertura and Torneo Clausura), as well as the Copa Sudamericana, where he was the edition's top-scorer and netted goals in both final legs against LDU Quito, scoring the only goal at Casa Blanca and twice in the 3–0 win at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Vargas was chosen as a candidate for South American Footballer of the Year in November 2011, eventually placing as runner-up to Neymar. Then in December, Vargas was con-decorated as the Chilean Footballer of the Year.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: In December 2011, Italian club Napoli purchased the player for a reported US$17.9 million (£11.5 million). On 23 December 2011, Napoli club president Aurelio De Laurentiis, announced Vargas would arrive at the club: "I would like to inform you officially that we purchased Vargas, a few minutes ago I received a call from Dr. De Nicola, who visited the footballer and gave his okay under medical and athletic profile. We signed the contract and we also won the competition by strong Club who wanted the player. This is the testimony that our observatory is always open and we are continuously looking for young talents in the world that can make the case of Napoli and for the growth of our team." Vargas arrived at Napoli on 6 January 2012 and signed on 9 January. He made his debut in a 2–1 Coppa Italia defeat of Cesena at the Stadio San Paolo on 12 January. On 20 May, he was an unused substitute as Napoli defeated Juventus in the Coppa Italia Final at the Stadio Olimpico.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 20 September 2012, in the first match of Napoli's UEFA Europa League campaign, Vargas scored his first Napoli goals, netting three in a 4–0 victory against AIK. This was the first time that a Chilean player had scored a hat-trick in a continental competition in Europe.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 17 January 2013, Vargas agreed to go on loan to Brazilian side Grêmio. He made his first appearance six days later in a Copa Libertadores match against LDU Quito. He scored his first goal on 21 February against Fluminense in the Copa Libertadores. On 31 March, he scored his first goal in the Campeonato Gaúcho, converting a penalty at the Arena do Grêmio in a 1–1 draw with Passo Fundo.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 23 January 2014, Vargas joined La Liga club Valencia on loan for the rest of the 2013–14 season. Vargas played his first official match for "Los Che" in a 3–2 away win at Camp Nou against champions Barcelona on 1 February 2014. He scored his first La Liga goal against Real Betis, in a 5–0 home win.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Vargas recorded two goals and three assists in eight appearances as Valencia reached the semi-finals of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 21 August 2014, Vargas joined Queens Park Rangers on loan until the end of the 2014–15 Premier League season. He made his debut for the club on 14 September against Manchester United, replacing Charlie Austin for the last 31 minutes at Old Trafford. On 19 October, in a 2–3 loss against Liverpool at Loftus Road, Vargas scored twice after coming on as a substitute for Bobby Zamora in the 78th minute. On 26 December, in a 2–1 loss to Arsenal, Vargas helped his goalkeeper Robert Green save an early penalty from Alexis Sánchez by pointing out which way his fellow Chilean was likely to shoot the ball.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 22 March 2015, Vargas scored his first goal in five months in QPR's 1–2 home defeat to Everton. He also scored in the team's 4–1 victory at West Bromwich Albion on 4 April, but injured his knee ligament in that match, ruling him out for the remainder of the season. The season ended with QPR finishing bottom of the league, resulting in their relegation to the Championship.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 24 August 2015, Vargas joined German Bundesliga club 1899 Hoffenheim on a four-year deal, for a reported fee of €5 million, plus an additional percentage of any sell-on fee.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 27 January 2017, Liga MX club Tigres UANL announced Vargas would be joining the club. On 16 July 2017, he scored in the 1–0 victory over Guadalajara in the 2017 Campeón de Campeones.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Vargas played the final against Tigres' archrival: CF Monterrey. In the first leg the teams drew 1–1 at the Estadio Universitario. In the Estadio BBVA Bancomer, Tigres beat Monterrey 2–1. Vargas and Francisco Meza scored.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: In 2009, Vargas participated in the Toulon Tournament with the Chile under-23 national team, where he was champion and the team's second top goalscorer. On 5 November 2009, he made his full international debut for the senior team in a 2–1 win over Paraguay at the Estadio CAP.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: In 2011, Vargas was recalled and scored his first goal in a 3–2 friendly defeat to Spain on 2 September. On 12 October, he scored his first competitive international goal in a 4–2 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying win over Peru at the Estadio Monumental.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: In September 2013, Vargas broke the Chile national team record for goals in consecutive matches – previously held jointly by Marcelo Salas and Carlos Caszely – by scoring twice in a 2–2 friendly draw with Spain. During 2013, he scored in six consecutive matches and nine times overall for "La Roja".


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 1 June 2014, Vargas was named by Jorge Sampaoli in Chile's 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In Chile's second group match, against defending champions Spain at the Maracanã Stadium, Vargas scored the team's opening goal as they mathematically eliminated Spain and secured qualification to the knockout stage.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 11 June 2015, Vargas scored for Chile in the opening match of the 2015 Copa América, a 2–0 win over Ecuador at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago. In the team's next fixture, Vargas scored his second goal of the tournament, heading an equalizer as the hosts drew 3–3 with Mexico on 15 June. In the semi-final against Peru, Vargas scored both goals in a 2–1 victory for Chile, the second of which was a long-distance effort, to send "La Roja" to the final. Although Vargas was substituted out in extra time, Chile won in a penalty shootout against Argentina to win their first major international honour. Vargas' four goals made him the competition's joint top scorer alongside Peruvian Paolo Guerrero, and he was named in the Team of the Tournament.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: On 14 June 2016, at the Copa América Centenario, Vargas and Alexis Sánchez scored twice each in a 4–2 win over Panama in Philadelphia to qualify for the quarter-finals of the tournament. Four days later, he added four more goals at Levi's Stadium in a 7–0 rout of Mexico. Chile retained their title with another win on penalties against Argentina, and Vargas was again the top scorer with six goals.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Despite his previous successes with the national team, Vargas, along with Marcelo Díaz, fell out of favour following the appointment of Reinaldo Rueda in 2018 and made only a single friendly appearance for Chile in the year.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Vargas was included in Chile's 23-man squad for the 2019 Copa América in Brazil. He scored twice against Japan in a 4–0 win for Chile's opening match.


title: Eduardo Vargas

text: Vargas scored two goals in the 2021 Copa América, one each against Argentina and Uruguay, which both ended in a 1–1 draw. On 2 July 2021, Vargas played his 100th match for Chile in a 1–0 defeat against Brazil in the quarter-finals.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: Devendra Obi Banhart (born May 30, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Texas, and raised in Venezuela and California. In 2000, he dropped out of the San Francisco Art Institute to pursue a musical career. In 2002, Banhart released his debut album and is best known for his albums in the late 2000's such as Cripple Crow and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. He has since expanded his career to incorporate his interest and training in the visual arts.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: Banhart was born in Houston, Texas to a Venezuelan mother, María Eugenia Rísquez, and an American father, Robert Gary Banhart. His given name is a synonym for Indra, suggested by Indian religious leader Prem Rawat (whom Banhart's parents followed), and his middle name Obi takes after Obi-Wan Kenobi, a "Star Wars" character.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: His parents divorced in 1983, after which Rísquez and he moved to Caracas, Venezuela. Rísquez later remarried and when Banhart was 14, his stepfather moved the family to Los Angeles, California.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: In 1998, Banhart began studying at the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship while living in The Castro, San Francisco's "gay" district, though he would often busk instead of attending class. He played his first musical show in a church at a gay wedding, performing Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" and the hymn "How Great Thou Art".


title: Devendra Banhart

text: Banhart dropped out of college in 2000 and left San Francisco after the dot-com bubble bust worsened the city's economy. That summer, he moved to Paris, France and began opening shows for indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Banhart returned to the United States that fall and played music in San Francisco and Los Angeles, until he was discovered by Michael Gira, owner of Young God Records, after Siobhan Duffy, Gira's wife, bought a copy of Banhart's demo CD "The Charles C. Leary" and gave it to Gira.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: Banhart and Gira compiled an album from Banhart's recordings, and in 2002, "Oh Me Oh My", which was made up of short fragments, was published by Young God Records and received favorable reviews. He recorded two other albums and an EP for the label: "Rejoicing in the Hands", "Niño Rojo", and "The Black Babies"; the releases had a simple acoustic sound. Banhart changed to XL Recordings in 2005 and released "Cripple Crow", which was recorded in Bearsville Studios, New York and had a more elaborate sound.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: Banhart's albums offer a variety of musical sounds, and he is often called the leader of the musical movement termed "Freak Folk." His lyrics are fantastical, idealistic, and poetic with the occasional trace of innuendos.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: In 2005 Banhart collaborated with Antony and the Johnsons on the album "I Am a Bird Now". He sings the introduction to the song "Spiraling" and plays guitar on "You Are My Sister" in which Boy George also appears.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: Banhart was the first artist to design a T-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project, in 2006. He chose to donate the profits from the sale of his T-shirt to the Teenage Cancer Trust.


title: Devendra Banhart

text: From 2007 to 2008, Banhart was romantically linked to actress Natalie Portman, who is featured in the video for Banhart's song "Carmensita".


title: Devendra Banhart

text: He recorded his second album for XL Records, "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon", at his home studio in Topanga, California. The album charted on the "Billboard" 200 at number 115. The album's song "Lover" was featured in the soundtrack of the movie "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist", which included a cameo appearance by Banhart.