Hello and welcome to Morganchem, the home of all things NErDy at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School and the official web presence of Michael Morgan.
I take your child's education very seriously. It is with that intention that I have provided this webpage for you and your child to help get a better understanding of what goes on in their Chemistry class. Here you will find our weekly and semester long schedules, copies of all the homework assignments and laboratories, daily announcements, and important information to help parents keep their children on track.
To learn more about my academic activities and the success of my students view my biography under the "about" menu. For those interested in the many different academic activities that my students are involved in on a daily basis outside normal class hours look at the Chem Club page on the "about" menu.
Over the past twenty years music education has disappeared from our schools. This becomes obvious when listening to new music on the radio only to hear music that is unoriginal or even bad. Most of today's so called artists do not write their own music or even play their own instruments.
So in the spirit of teaching you everything we can, this page features an Album of the Week. These are not ordinary albums in the history of music. These are the groundbreaking pieces of music that truly shaped how music was presented, recorded, and how it influenced other musicians and the public.
A few notes about the choices. They are albums and not collections of single songs thrown together willy-nilly. They were meant to be played in order. They often told a story or set a mood. Some of them defined a genre and some defined a generation. I strongly recommend that you ask your Parents/Grandparents to dig through their record collections and find their old copies of these and put them on the turntable and experience them the way they were meant to be experienced.
Well this week we are going in a totally different direction. Miles Davis was a preeminent Jazz Trumpet player. Last semester we looked at his classic album Kind of Blue. This time we will take a look at a much edgier and harder piece called Bitches Brew. Released in 1970 Miles released what would be his first million selling album with what is quite possibly the invention of a new genre called “Jazz Fusion” or “Jazz Rock”. If you listen to funk you can thank Miles for this album. If you listen to rap you can thank funk. So put two and two together!
This was a double album consisting of only 6 pieces. They were quite long and very complex. His band included John McLaughlin who is now considered on the greatest guitar players of his age that you have never heard of. The album opened up many people to the world of jazz and helped revive it. Many loved the album and praised it as jazz record of the year. But it is not without its detractors. Some found it very hard to listen to.
I strongly recommend you start with the track “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” and then go back and play the whole thing...(continued)
Well this week we are going in a totally different direction. Miles Davis was a preeminent Jazz Trumpet player. Last semester we looked at his classic album Kind of Blue. This time we will take a look at a much edgier and harder piece called Bitches Brew. Released in 1970 Miles released what would be his first million selling album with what is quite possibly the invention of a new genre called “Jazz Fusion” or “Jazz Rock”. If you listen to funk you can thank Miles for this album. If you listen to rap you can thank funk. So put two and two together!
This was a double album consisting of only 6 pieces. They were quite long and very complex. His band included John McLaughlin who is now considered on the greatest guitar players of his age that you have never heard of. The album opened up many people to the world of jazz and helped revive it. Many loved the album and praised it as jazz record of the year. But it is not without its detractors. Some found it very hard to listen to.
I strongly recommend you start with the track “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” and then go back and play the whole thing straight through. You may only hear it once in your life, you may love it or hate it, but you need to hear it. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it as one of the top 500 albums of all time and one that you need to hear before you die. So open up your minds to something new!