Williams, Marion

U.S. gospel singer (b. Aug. 29, 1927, Miami, Fla.--d. July 2, 1994, Philadelphia, Pa.), drew on blues, jazz, folk, and calypso music as inspirations for her innovative vocals, which included octave-spanning leaps from contralto to spine-tingling falsetto tones; her exceptional artistry was often compared to that of Mahalia Jackson. As a child Williams began singing with the congregation at her

Profile Records

Hip-hop was scorned by the established music industry as a novelty idiom until 1986, when Run-D.M.C. enrolled Aerosmith's vocalist, Steven Tyler, and guitarist, Joe Perry, to take part in a revival of the hard rockers' hit “Walk This Way” from 10 years earlier. Released on the Profile label, the resultant record was accepted by many radio formats and became the first rap hit to make the

Water Rat

Any of 18 species of amphibious carnivorous rodents. They exhibit many adaptations associated with hunting in water for food and burrowing along streams, rivers, and lakes. The eyes are small, the nostrils can be closed to keep water out, and the external portion of the ears is either small and furry or absent. Highly sensitive whiskers are abundant on the fleshy blunt

Denakil Plain

Also spelled  Danakil,  also called  Dankali,   arid lowland of northern Ethiopia and southeastern Eritrea, bordering Djibouti. It lies at the northern extreme of the Great Rift Valley and the Awash River. Live volcanoes (often called the Denakil Alps) separate it from the Red Sea. Any water that comes into the plain evaporates there; no streams flow out from it. The Kobar Sink, a huge basin in the northern part of the

Wild Mango

Also called  Dika  (Irvingia gabonensis), tropical African tree, of the family Ixonanthaceae (Irvingiaceae), notable for its edible yellow fruit, which somewhat resembles the mango. The seed is rich in a fat used locally to make both bread and a type of butter. The wood is very hard and is used locally in building construction.

Larionov, Mikhail Fyodorovich

Larionov's early work was influenced by Impressionism and Symbolism, but with the painting “Glass” (1909) he introduced

Igor's Campaign, The Song Of

Also translated  Lay of Igor's Campaign , Russian  Slovo o polku Igoreve  masterpiece of Old Russian literature, an account of the unsuccessful campaign in 1185 of Prince Igor of Novgorod-Seversky against the Polovtsy (Kipchak, or Cumans). As in the great French epic The Song of Roland, Igor's heroic pride draws him into a combat in which the odds are too great for him. Though defeated, Igor escapes his captors and returns to his people. The tale was