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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/art...er_for_the_dog/ Lawyer for the dog Inside the booming field of animal law, in which animals have their own interests -- and their own lawyers. By Drake Bennett, Globe Staff | September 9, 2007 IN RECENT YEARS, Dr. Amy Marder, a veterinarian practicing in Lexington, has found herself called upon to decide which human "parent" a pet prefers. Pet custody disputes have become an increasingly common fixture in divorce cases and Marder, an animal behavior specialist, has consulted in several. To do a proper evaluation, she likes to spend at least an hour and a half with the couple and the pet. She asks the owners a barrage of questions: which of the two spends more time with the animal, who plays with it more, who feeds it. She asks about the pet's upbringing, its temperament, how much it exercises. Marder frowns on so-called "calling contests," a method used by lawyers in some custody cases, in which the owners stand at opposite ends of a room and call the pet to see which way it will go. She prefers to observe the animal's body language as it interacts with its owners. She looks at whether it sits closer to one or the other, and how it reacts when each pets it. At the end of the session, Marder makes her recommendation, based not only on who she thinks would take better care of the pet, but whom she has decided the pet has a stronger bond with - the same sort of considerations that would go into deciding a child-custody case. Sometimes she recommends joint custody, but only if she thinks the animal can handle it. "Some animals think it's terrific to go live in two homes," she says. "Others have separation anxiety and splitting time would only make it worse." A decade ago, the idea that a divorce would involve "custody" of a pet, much less that the decision would factor in the pet's own predilections, would have been dismissed by most lawyers as absurd. Pets were property, and not very valuable property at that, to be balanced against all of the other stuff that is split up in a divorce - nobody, after all, talks about joint custody of an armoire. But recent years have seen an intensifying effort on the part of animal rights activists, legislators, prosecutors, and legal scholars to change the way the law treats animals. The result has been the beginning of a qualitative shift - not merely the stiffening of animal cruelty laws, though in most states that has happened, but changes that are turning animals into legal beings with their own interests, and, in a few cases, their own enforceable preferences. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia now allow pet owners to endow pet trusts, the kind of legislation that made it possible for New York hotel billionaire Leona Helmsley to bequeath $12 million to her dog, Trouble. In some states, veterinarians are now required to report suspicions of animal abuse in the same way pediatricians have to report child abuse. Courts are starting to take seriously the claim that pet owners are entitled to compensation for pain and suffering in cases involving the death of an animal. And, in a Tennessee case this spring, a court appointed a legal guardian to represent the interests of a dog in a custody dispute. These new laws and decisions have the potential to redefine the age-old legal boundary between people and their property. "For literally thousands of years animals have been part of personal property," says David Favre, a law professor and animal law specialist at Michigan State University, "but in the past five years we're seeing courts take a broader view that animals are not like televisions and computers, that our relationship with them is more complex than that." At the same time, the field of animal law is growing. Nearly half of the 190 accredited law schools in the United States now offer animal law courses, up from a handful 10 years ago, and around 100 now have chapters of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. A rising number of lawyers are dedicating themselves, in whole or in part, to the practice, and the American Bar Association and 13 state bar associations now have animal law committees. For the most part, the lawyers arguing these new sorts of cases avoid the language of animal rights. In the eyes of the law, only people have rights, and even many animal lawyers are unwilling to dissolve the boundary between animal and person. Instead, many argue that animals should be something intermediate, a form of sentient property. Still, a few animal lawyers see the evolution in the law paving the way to a more fundamental rethinking of the legal status of what they call, to emphasize our own connection to the animal world, "nonhuman animals." Steven Wise, a Boston-based animal rights lawyer and a leading animal rights theorist, shares that view. "The idea that nonhuman animals are worthy of anything - that they have some value that's worthy of fighting about in court - that will lay the foundation for litigation that would actually lead to nonhuman animals getting some sort of equal rights," he says. The belief that animals deserve their day in court is not new. In medieval Europe, animals were often held criminally accountable for their actions, in trials complete with defense counsel and character witnesses. According to E.P. Evans's 1906 book, "The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals," still the definitive work on the topic, domestic animals were regularly tried for murder, assault, and even, curiously enough, "bestiality." Pigs were a particular menace, and often publicly hanged - in one case two herds of pigs were condemned as accessories to murder for having egged on three sows that attacked a young boy. In 1545, in a case that dragged on for several years, the residents of a small French wine-making town brought suit against an infestation of weevils. Animal cruelty laws have a more recent provenance. The first in the world, passed in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641, forbade "Tyranny or Cruelty towards any brute creature which [is] usually kept for man's use," and mandated adequate food and water for such animals. In the agrarian pre-20th-century United States, animal cruelty statutes were understood to apply primarily to work and farm animals. For pets - or "companion animals," the term animal rights activists and most animal lawyers prefer - protections have strengthened considerably in recent years. In the past decade, 42 states have passed felony animal cruelty laws, and in most states it's now possible to serve time in prison solely on an animal cruelty conviction (though most states now exempt farm animals from animal cruelty laws). And in the wake of the dogfighting case of NFL star Michael Vick, three bills were introduced into Congress to strengthen federal anti-dogfighting prohibitions (all 50 states already have laws of their own against it). A few district attorney offices, including Los Angeles County and Arizona's Maricopa County, have gone so far as to set up special task forces dedicated to such cases. And some prosecutors are pushing for a nationwide animal abuser database modeled on the sex offender registries most states maintain. Law enforcement officials and prosecutors describe their concern about animal cruelty in terms that are partly instrumental. They point to research by psychologists like Frank R. Ascione, of Utah State University, and Randall Lockwood, of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, suggesting that people who hurt animals are prone to violence toward people, as well. "Regardless of how you feel about animals, some of these people are so dangerous that you want to know if they're living in your neighborhood," says Diane Balkin, a deputy district attorney in Denver who handles animal cruelty cases. "If they do these sorts of things to an animal, what will they do to children?" Some of the changes in criminal law, however, have little to do with human protection, and consist solely of extending to animals safeguards previously reserved for people. Nine states, including Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont, have passed laws in the past two years allowing animals to be protected by restraining orders. In Massachusetts, a similar law has been introduced into the House of Representatives. Outside the criminal realm, the shift has, if anything, been more dramatic. Estate and divorce lawyers claim to have seen a rise in the number of pet trusts and pet custody disputes. In both, animals are being discussed in legal terms that were previously reserved for children. Trouble, the late Leona Helmsley's temperamental Maltese, won't have a say in how her $12 million is spent - her trustee will - but the trustee will be acting in Trouble's best interests, just as he would for a human heir. The rise in animal law cases, and the changes that are resulting from them, have sparked a discussion beyond legal circles over whether altering the legal status of animals lays the groundwork for giving them the sort of rights that humans have traditionally reserved for themselves. The growth of animal law has mirrored the growing mainstream acceptance of the animal rights movement - in membership and resources, both the Humane Society and PETA have grown dramatically in the past decade, and their influence is felt not only in the strengthening of state animal cruelty laws and the vehemence of the public condemnation of Vick, but the fact that even fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King have felt compelled to address the conditions of the cows and chickens they rely on. Not everyone, though, is enthusiastic about the prospect that animal law might be put to the service of animal rights. Veterinarians tend to be particularly leery of expanding the legal claims of animals - the fact that courts have started awarding non-economic damages in veterinary malpractice cases, vets warn, will only raise the overall cost of care. In many states, such damages apply only in the death of a spouse or parent or child, not a best friend, say, or a fiance. According to Adrian Hochstadt, assistant director of state legislative and regulatory affairs for the American Veterinary Medical Association, allowing pet-related non-economic damages rewards shows that the nation is headed down a slippery slope. "You have this strange phenomenon where we're placing pets above certain people," Hochstadt says. Yet for some legal scholars, like David Favre and Steven Wise, the slippery slope is exactly the point. The current changes in how we protect, provide for, and fight over animals, they argue, are a precursor for urgently needed, and more fundamental, changes in the law, especially concerning highly intelligent animals such as chimpanzees and dolphins. Favre points to several models he'd like to see American animal law follow: the German constitution, which in 2002 gave constitutional rights to animals; New Zealand, which has recognized limited personhood for primates; and the European Parliament, which recently categorized great apes as "beings" and moved to end the use of all primates in scientific research. Other animal lawyers, though, see something less sweeping: a legal system trying to capture the evolving but still deeply ambivalent feelings most people have about animals. In this model the law isn't driving change, but playing catch-up. "I am one that believes courts are always behind society," says Jonathan Rankin, a lawyer who recently left the Boston firm Glickman Turley to start his own animal law practice. "If corporations can be persons in the eyes of law, if ships can be persons in the eyes of the law, then the law should be able to figure out something for animals." Drake Bennett is the staff writer for Ideas. E-mail drbennett@globe.com. © Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

check out 'the great alexandria.'

one of my favorite desmond recordings is brubeck's early 60's columbia recording of 'brandenburg gate' with his classic quartet and symphony orchestra. ..not sure if it was ever put on cd. i have the vinyl. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ the desmond-bickert pairing is magic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- oh, too. jim hall and desmond's quartet recording, 'easy living' is one of the greatest recordings ever made. if i could have just one desmond recording, that would be the one. ...like taking 3 or 4 placidyl at once, or whatever folks take these days.

Jim, you should prepare some speech for the new members, something like: Welcome abord, this is your captain speaking, we are glad you choose Organissimo for your flight to Jazz Land... how about a singing greeting from our host?

Readers will recall that Robert Farnon has dedicated his final work the Bassoon Concerto "Romancing the Phoenix" to Daniel Smith, the eminent American virtuoso on the instrument. Recently Daniel gave this exclusive interview to 'Journal Into Melody, in which he talked about his career and meeting Robert Farnon. Daniel Smith interviewed by David Ades DAVID: Daniel, let's start with how your career in music began. DANIEL: I grew up in a family where there was not any musical background. The reason for my taking up music makes for a rather funny story. I grew up in the Bronx, and when I was sixteen years old, happened to see a show on TV which reunited the original Benny Goodman trio in a New Year's eve special. Seeing Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa and Teddy Wilson was a magical moment which changed my life forever. I knew absolutely nothing about music or instruments and watching them perform left me staring at the screen with these amazing sounds coming from them, and especially Benny Goodman. Shortly after seeing this show, I I went to a music studio where my cousin was studying drums and told the owner that I wanted to take trumpet lessons. He asked me why I wanted to play the trumpet and I told him that I had seen someone on TV play the trumpet and that ( really liked the sound of it. 'What was this person's name' he asked me? 'Benny Goodman' I said. 'And what did his trumpet look like' he further inquired? I said it was long and black. He then of course told me that it was a clarinet. That's how naive I was! So it was actually Benny Goodman who inspired me to want to be a musician. Prior to this I was studying to be an artist and went to a special Arts High School in Manhattan as well as the Arts Student's League. I had always had this artistic bent in me since I was a small child. No one in my immediate family or any of my relatives had such a trait, so I guess it just came sort of out of nowhere. As the saying goes, 'I did not choose it, it chose me'. My first lessons were, on the clarinet with a somewhat inept teacher, I then switched to Bill Sheiner, whose teaching fame was that he taught Stan Getz and other famous artists. I then took up the saxophone with him after the clarinet and also added on flute. Eventually I entered the Manhattan School of Music as a clarinet major and midway through, switched to being a flute major and eventually got my degree from them on flute. DAVID: Where does the bassoon come in? DANIEL: These were the later years of the Vietnam War and of course I had to do whatever I could to avoid getting caught up in this or else run to Canada. Being now of draft age, I chose the best way out by signing up to perform with the West Point Band to fulfill my draft obligation. I auditioned for them on flute and was appointed solo piccolo and flute in what is called 'Special Services' and with the rank of SP5 for a three year tour of duty. Meanwhile, my wife had given birth to my daughter while I was in the service and I was nervous about making a living after I returned to civilian life. I thought it would be prudent to learn a double reed instrument to compliment my already proven skills on saxophone, clarinet and flute. This so I could then have the ability to be a 'doubler' and be able to perform in Broadway show bands and studio work. So this is how I got involved with the bassoon and at this point, had nothing to do with the idea of being a bassoon soloist, just to help make a living. DAVID: So you were always employed as a musician one way or the other? DANIEL: More or less. My parents had hopes of my being an accountant or a dentist like a cousin of mine. My father especially fought tooth and nail that I should not be a musician and I had absolutely no support or understanding from them. It was very traumatic and a very difficult period in my life, but obviously there was something within me that held firm and somehow held onto my desire to be a musician. I always envied anyone who came from a family where there was understanding and support. Recently, before his death Robert Farnon told me of the joy he had coming from such a family where music was an important part of everyone's life DAVID: It made you all the more determined to become a musician. DANIEL: Yes, you are correct. My father had worked in the Post Office and I watched the sort of life he had, and by the time of his retirement, he was a very closed person full of fears about life. His advice to me was to never take risks. So I knew instinctively that this was not for me, a safe and secure life where no risks were involved. Music became my calling, and as I said before, I did not chose it, it chose me. My later background in music is so different from that of a conservatory trained classical bassoonist, although I did study eventually with some of the best players and teachers, including the principal players from the NY Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Boston Symphony and even from Toscannini's NBC symphony. In later years I performed in the bassoon sections as an extra or substitute with the NY Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and several other leading ensembles with some of these very same teachers. However, along the way, I also did many things in music that a strictly classically trained bassoonist would never experience and certainly not which you would associate with someone known as a solo classical or jazz bassoonist. For instance, I played saxophone and flute with Latin bands in New York at clubs where we would be in very dangerous neighbourhoods. These 'gigs' would go to two or three in the morning and I witnessed riots, knife fights, beatings, attempts on my own life, etc... nasty stuff but part and parcel of my musical experiences. DAVID: There are not many bassoon players around; is this why you took up the instrument as you knew there would be plenty of work? DANIEL: Yes, exactly and we sort of covered this earlier. But this had nothing to do with my eventually becoming a soloist on the instrument. At first, it was purely pragmatic, to make a living so I could support my family. As the years went by, and for various reasons. It evolved into a strong desire to become a soloist and also to plunge into areas of music where the bassoon had never gone before crossover, ragtime, popular music, and of course jazz. And along the way to record a lot of musical gems written for the instrument, especially the complete 37 bassoon concertos of Antonio Vivaldi. DAVID: Tell us of your time on Broadway. DANIEL: I can answer this in a 'broad way' in fact. I was at one point doing so many different things in music and on so many different instruments, that I would almost say I was going through multiple musical lives. I played in Broadway show bands, off Broadway show bands, Latin bands, resort show bands (where I played lead alto for big headliners such as Vic Damone, Steve Lawrence, Billy Eckstine, Billy Daniels, Buddy Greco, Carmen Macrae, etc.) ... I was a very good sax player on all the saxes as well as the other woodwinds. I played with such bands as Billy May, Les Elgart, and even one summer with Guy Lombardo where I had to execute that outrageous wide vibrato to fit in with his sax section. Then a Latin band phase where I played with or opposite on the bandstand with the likes of Tito Rodriguez, Tito Puente, Xavier Cugat, Machito and others. A lot of this sort of stuff was overlapping such as where I would perform as principal flute with an orchestra north of New York city, jump into my car, and drive to Manhattan where I would dash into a night club to perform that same night with a Latin band on saxophone. As my bassoon playing started to improve, I kept on taking lessons with those teachers I referred to earlier and was granted a scholarship to Tanglewood. I also spent four seasons on scholarship with the National Orchestral Association under Leon Barzin. And then started to perform on bassoon and contra bassoon with a lot of orchestras and ensembles. So as you can see, I wound up for a variety of reasons doing a lot of different things in music, including and excluding the bassoon. DAVID: So most of your work was in New York in the early days? DANIEL: Yes, I did not go to California or Hollywood, just around New York. Somewhere along the way, I was starting to get this desire to become a solo bassoonist and started to perform concertos with various orchestras. I also had the good fortune of performing for ten years as principal bassoonist and as soloist many times during summers in Rome, Italy with the Rome Festival Orchestra. And then I started to plunge in with making my early recordings mostly concertos with string ensembles on a variety of labels. My biggest break then came when on a trip to London with my wife; we were at a friend's home in Richmond where the subject of my recordings and musical career came up. This couple were close friends with Jose Luis Garcia, leader of the English Chamber Orchestra, and they asked me if I would like to record with them. I thought I was dreaming but she was obviously serious. She picked up the phone and rang Garcia. We spoke for a while and he instructed me to send him some of those recordings I had already made so the powers that be at the ECO could hear them and judge if I was up to recording with them. They liked what they heard and before I knew it, I was sitting in a chair at Rosslyn Hill Chapel in Hampstead with the ECO and recording an album of mixed bassoon concertos. I also at that time made an album of English Music for Bassoon and Piano with Roger Vignoles, so my foot was now in the door with recording in this country. At the suggestion of the producer of these two albums, Brian Culverhouse, I took the masters to ASV which had recently started up thanks to the leadership of Jack Boyce. I got to know Jack very well and he was keen on my doing further albums for ASV. When I mentioned to him that Antonio Vivaldi had written 37 concertos for bassoon and nobody had ever recorded them all, he said to me 'why don't you do them for US' I thought he was kidding but he was quite serious about this. It was a huge undertaking, and over a period of six years, half accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra and the other half with the Zagreb Soloists, we eventually completed the entire series which went on to win several awards. Including the MRA award as 'Best Concerto of the Year', The Penguin Guide *** rating, and four times on Fanfare magazine's 'Want List'. Along the way there were other albums including crossover music with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, music for bassoon and string quartet, others involving ragtime and so forth. DAVID: How did you become aware of Robert Farnon? DANIEL: In November of 2004, the phone rang at my flat in London. It was someone by the name of David O'Rourke who was phoning me from New Jersey. David indicated he was glad to have finally located me and asked if I knew who Robert Famon was. I said I had heard of Robert Famon and asked why he was phoning me. David told me that there was a network of people trying to hunt me down on both sides of the ocean. Apparently, Robert Famon wanted to write a concerto for bassoon which involved jazz improvising and my name kept coming up as other bassoonists were approached about this project. He had fallen in love with the sound of the instrument and now knew I could perform both the virtuostic concerto parts as well as improvise where needed in the piece. But he only knew of my first name ...'Daniel' and could not locate me. Eventually through a broad network of people, they found me via my UK manager. David O'Rourke and I had a wonderful conversation about this project and left me with Robert Farnon's Guernsey phone number. He said that I should phone him and that Robert Famon would likely be contacting me shortly as well. Within ten minutes the phone rang again and this time it was the voice of Robert Farnon that I now heard. I will never forget his deep booming and friendly voice with his cheerful introduction...' Hello Danny', how are you?' There was an immediate connection between us and as I later found out, many others had experienced the same sort of thing over the years. Robert and I had a long conversation that day and went over the concept of the bassoon concerto. In the next weeks, we had many further conversations on the phone and I then flew to Guernsey a few weeks later in December to visit with him and go over the piece, this after having earlier sent him samples of my recordings to listen to. He was full of praise for my playing and was very open about any ideas I might have for the concerto. On his music stand was the first page of the bassoon concerto score.... that was all he had at this point. I asked him how long before the full concerto would be finished and he said that he would have the whole piece ready no later than the beginning March of 2005, just two months later! I arranged with him to fax me the bassoon parts in New York where my wife and I would be from December through February of 2005. Within a very short time, the faxes started to arrive courtesy of his copyist and by mid February, I had the entire solo bassoon part in my hands. I could not believe the speed at which this all happened. I practised and learned the solo part in New York and in February returned to the UK and then flew to Guernsey to actually play it for Robert Farnon. At this point, he was recuperating from a leg operation and receiving therapy at a nursing home in Guernsey. We spent a wonderful day together going over the concerto and sharing lots of laughs and stories. He was so excited about this music and said it was the best thing he ever wrote and that it's premieres would be huge successes. His wish was to be able to conduct it himself, to have the UK premiere at the Proms, to have Andre Previn involved in Oslo, Canadian orchestras involved, and much more. He wanted to devote his energies to having all this accomplished as soon as his Third Symphony was premiered in Edinburgh later that month. And as we all sadly now know, he was not to be alive much longer after that day. DAVID: Could you describe the work to us? DANIEL: I will try to some degree. I actually never saw the score until that second trip to Guernsey in February, about a month before he passed on. I had at that time with me the solo bassoon part, but did not understand where everything fitted in or how the piece was constructed. When he showed me the completed score, I knew almost instantly that I was looking at something very special and unusual. Robert told me that all his life he wanted to compose something that had no restraints on it and which would include everything he could muster up from a lifetime of composing and arranging. As with his Third Symphony, his last two pieces including the bassoon concerto were not bound by any commissions, deadlines, financial obligations, or anything else, just to fully express himself as a composer. And as I mentioned before, he told me it was the best piece of music he ever wrote and was very excited about seeing it brought to life. In the actual score, you can see passages where the bassoon plays the role of a lead saxophone with three bassoons underneath in the scoring, just as in a saxophone section. There is also a lot of percussion used and in many sections, the winds of the symphony act as a sort of wind band within the full orchestra Farnon described this as , a big band within a full symphony orchestra'. Naturally there are gorgeous moments in the second and lyrical movement as per what everyone knows of the music of Robert Famon. And then as we arrive at the third and final movement of the concerto, Robert made full use of some of my suggestions where he pulls out all stops. At one point, the full symphony orchestra and big band fade back and the bassoon opens up with a rhythm section of piano, bass and drums in an up tempo blues (which Farnon composed himself) allowing for unlimited choruses to be played and at the moment of choosing of the soloist, the conductor then brings in the orchestra, starting with percussion first and then adding on instruments. And then after a few more spots which also have improvisation involved, a really startling ending which simply flies all over the place and ends on a bang. It is hard to describe and hopefully we will see all this incredible music brought to life in the near future when everyone can hear what Robert Farnon achieved in his final work. DAVID: Robert called it 'Romancing the Phoenix'. Do you know why? DANIEL: Sort of. I asked him but don't remember his exact words. Robert apparently had the concept of the phoenix as an elusive legendary bird that rises up again and again in unexpected ways. I suggested 'Flight of the Phoenix' which he liked even better but after checking this name out on the Internet, he discovered that this title was the same as a recent movie and so he went back to his original title idea. The concerto, without any doubt, is a one of a kind piece, and I am sure that when it is heard, it will have quite an impact in the musical world. DAVID: So is it with a jazz band and also a symphony orchestra? Roughly how many instruments are involved? DANIEL: It is with a full symphony orchestra, and once again as Robert Famon described it. ' a big band within a full symphony orchestra'. When I finally saw the score, I was a bit confused as I thought he meant a big band including a saxophone section, but apparently what he had in mind was a big wind band using the resources of the wind players of the symphony being involved in passages that stand out from the full symphony in various passages. DAVID: Isn't it costly to stage with so many musicians? DANIEL: Not really because it involves a symphony orchestra which already has the wind players within it. The only instruments to be added would be a piano, bass and drums for the jazz rhythm section DAVID: Have you any idea where the premiere might take place? DANIEL: At this point we are following up on various possibilities. As already said, Robert's wish was to see it premiered at the Proms and wanted to work towards this goal and other premieres, not knowing of course that his recent illness would become worse. He was so upbeat and so excited about this music and looking to hearing it performed. In any event. I am sure that in the coming months we will know a lot more about premieres. Unfortunately, we will never know what doors he would have opened but there are other people now working on this. I am sure there will be a big demand to have it premiered in various venues and countries. DAVID: You have the honour of having his very last work. DANIEL: Yes, he was very generous about it for many reasons, not only that he wrote it for me but that he arranged for it to be printed by Warner/Chappell and with a dedication to , The American virtuoso Daniel Smith'. He also had the opportunity for one movement to be premiered with the BBC Concert Orchestra but turned it down because they would use their own bassoonist (he would have had to write out any improvised solos of course) and he would not allow this to happen until I did the actual premiere. Which was very kind of him. When I last met him at the nursing home in Guernsey, and also prior in some phone conversations. Robert had asked me if I could bend notes on the bassoon like the clarinet does at the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue. I said I was not sure but would play for him when we next met and show him what I can do. So when we did meet, I told him I had an idea about this query. I played Duke Ellington's ' In A Sentimental Mood' . Several measures into the piece. the melody swoops down to an Ab, which I seriously bent as per Johnny Hodges would have done. 'That's it!' he exclaimed with a big smile on his face. I think he wanted to go back to the piece and incorporate this effect in the music but of course we will never know what he had in mind. DAVID: Will other bassoon players be able to play this piece do you think, or is it a bit too technical? DANIEL: Probably not. A highly skilled virtuoso bassoon player could execute the melodic material but would not be able to improvise in those places which require this unusual skill. And for the handful of jazz players on the instrument, I would have serious doubts they could execute the written parts which are quite difficult. I would like also to bring up the subject of unusual and different music which can be performed on the bassoon and also jazz. Ragtime if executed with the right feeling can sound very natural on the instrument, as does a large amount of 'crossover' material including transcriptions of music normally performed on other instruments as well as orchestral pieces. As for playing jazz on the bassoon several years ago, Steve Gray composed a work for me entitled 'Jazz Suite' which I had the honour of performing with the Welsh Chamber Orchestra. The piece contained improvisational spots and which forced me to plunge in and get serious about playing real jazz on the instrument. I was already a virtuoso so to speak but all of my technical skills were of no help whatsoever in learning how to play jazz in a serious way. I had to methodically learn to play extended chords and scales from top to bottom on the instrument and in all keys. This included many scales and chords which do not appear in classical music. And then to place all ideas exactly where the underlying chords are heard and of course to 'hear' musical ideas many measures before you execute them. This took me about four years to accomplish and along the way my arms became very sore and stiff from the effort. But then suddenly the ideas flowed and the soreness stopped... everything just flowed! All the musical ideas made sense and can now perform a full two hour jazz concert without using any music and with a repertoire of nearly one hundred jazz pieces to pick from including bebop, swing, Latin, blues, ballads, etc. Finally, the bassoon must be amplified when performing jazz, otherwise it would not be heard above a rhythm section, let along a full symphony orchestra. I have a special microphone attached to my crook/bocal which makes this possible. When Robert Farnon found this out, he was much relieved knowing that his music would be clearly heard above the orchestra in his bassoon concerto, And as for developing a jazz style on the instrument, there are no real role models from the past to learn from such as Armstrong, Gillespie or Davis on trumpet or Parker, Getz or Rollins on saxophone. It is all pioneering stuff and I am very pleased to be involved in such ground breaking efforts and of course with the bassoon concerto of Robert Farnon as a fitting memorial to his memory and talent. Daniel Smith was speaking to David Ades on Tuesday 24 May, 2005. The Editor thanks Adam Endacott for transcribing the recorded interview for Journal Into Melody'. IN MEMORIAL ROBERT FARNON 1917-2005 I was deeply honoured that Robert Farnon chose me for what is now his final musical composition. Over the past months, we had been in touch frequently as the music took shape. Robert expressed often to me his enthusiasm and excitement about his new bassoon concerto and for him it represented a new lease on life and renewed purpose at a time when he took ill. I flew twice to Guernsey to discuss and go over the music with him, and along with working on the music, we spoke of many other things; his friends and colleagues over the years, his beloved wife, children and grandchildren, the importance of music and the arts, my own life experiences and along the way had a lot of good laughs. To me he seemed like someone 87 years old going on 35, full of enthusiasm and hope. There was never a moment of pessimism or negativity, just a great need to move forward and create something beautiful for the world to experience. I was initially contacted by a friend of Robert Farnon in November of 2004 with news that he was trying to locate me and wanted to have me premiere his new bassoon concerto. I made contact and we then had several initial phone conversations about the music before I flew to Guernsey to meet with him. When I arrived, all that was ready was a single page of the score containing the opening measures of the concerto. He told me that the piece had already been worked out in his head (as Mozart often did) and not to worry, the entire piece would be finished, scored and sent to me no later than March of 2005. I left the UK two weeks later and flew to NY where I would be in Brooklyn for several weeks. And sure enough as promised, the music started to come through via fax at an unbelievable speed. By mid-February, the piece was completed and I was now learning the solo bassoon part from the faxed pages. He had more than met his own deadline by several weeks! I have since met many people who knew Robert Farnon during his lifetime, including members of the Robert Farnon Society. I had the honour of speaking to them at their 50th Anniversary meeting in London the very day after I last saw him in Guernsey. I met many friends and admirers who had known him for many years, some for decades. I only knew him for a brief few months, but immediately recognized that he was someone from a time and place where a very different set of values existed from what we often see in today's world, where generosity, honesty, integrity and genuine talent were prized and respected. Where one's word is kept and values, whether in regard to family or profession or ethics, are important. Robert told me at our last meeting in Guernsey that his bassoon concerto was the best piece of music he had ever composed and that he was excited about seeing it premiered in the UK, Europe and North America. The fact that he composed the piece in less than three months bears testimony to his dedication to seeing it brought to life, and of course his tremendous talent. This was an incredible feat for any composer, let alone someone of his age. Having been presented with a full score at our final meeting in Guernsey, I now realize even more how amazing the piece is. His dream of composing a concerto full of passion, excitement, fun and the unexpected was achieved. Let us hope that in the coming year we will see this music brought to life at concert halls throughout the world and as a testimonial and memorial to the talents of a truly great and unique person and musician, one whose presence will be sorely missed by countless fans, family and friends. Daniel Smith

a fine game, indeed.

EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK Alex the Parrot By Verlyn Klinkenborg Thinking about animals — and especially thinking about whether animals can think — is like looking at the world through a two-way mirror. There, for example, on the other side of the mirror, is Alex, the famous African Grey parrot who died unexpectedly last week at the age of 31. But looking at Alex, who mastered a surprising vocabulary of words and concepts, the question is always how much of our own reflection we see. What you make of Dr. Irene Pepperberg's work with Alex depends on whether you think Alex's cognitive presence was real or merely imitative. A truly dispassionate observer might argue that most Grey parrots could probably learn what Alex had learned, but only a microscopic minority of humans could have learned what Alex had to teach. Most humans are not truly dispassionate observers. We're too invested in the idea of our superiority to understand what an inferior quality it really is. I always wonder how the experiments would go if they were reversed — if, instead of us trying to teach Alex how to use the English language, Alex were to try teaching us to understand the world as it appears to parrots. These are bottomless questions, of course. For us, language is everything because we know ourselves in it. Alex's final words were: "I love you." ..

my cable company today added tbs hi-def, which will be carrying the league championship series, and i am loving it. interesting game, too. into inning 8, the makings of a classic game.

i recently put up a beautiful obit from the economist for mr. marceau.

thank you for sharing this tribute to alex and the best of mankind, as well

http://economist.com/obituary/displaystory...tory_id=9861554

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle

Hello everybody, I hope you’re all enjoying the temperate climate. I figure we’ll have two weeks of nice weather, and then approximately 7 months of bitter cold. You gotta love Chicago! This coming Saturday, October 6, we’ll be presenting the 12th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, featuring JASC Tsukasa Taiko (Japanese drumming) and stalwarts of the Chicago Asian American Music scene, the Funkadesi Trio. That show will be at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater at 2p (78 E. Washington in downtown Chicago). Free admission! The AAJF continues on Saturday, October 13 with the Jeff Chan Trio plus One plus Two at the Hyde Park Art Center (5020 S. Cornell). I’ll be performing with leading Chicago artists Jimmy Ellis, Tatsu Aoki, Ed Wilkerson and guests from San Francisco Lewis Jordan and Francis Wong. There will be an opening panel discussion exploring the importance of musician-run recording labels. The program starts at 1p. Also free admission! The festival closes on the evening of Saturday Oct 13 with a performance at the Velvet Lounge featuring Fred Anderson, Francis Wong, Chad Taylor and Tatsu Aoki. The Velvet’s at 67 E. Cermak. The show starts at 9p and admission is $15. For a complete schedule/program, visit www.aajazz.org Hope to see you at the Fest! Jeff Asian Improv aRts Midwest presents The 12th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival October 6-13, 2007 The Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival has been called “a crowning event on the city’s cultural calendar” by the Chicago Tribune and this year’s 12th season continues that tradition! The AAJF is dedicated to highlighting new and relevant music that represents the Asian American experience. This year’s AAJF is proud to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Asian Improv Records, the only international recording label dedicated to presenting Asian American creative music. Founded by San Francisco musicians Francis Wong and Jon Jang, Asian Improv Records is a Grammy-nominated recording label with a catalog of over 70 titles that represent the diversity of Asian American musical expression. Asian Improv Records now bases its operations out of Chicago. This year’s Asian American Jazz Festival lineup will feature artists who have recorded on Asian Improv Records, their collaborators and artists who have made contributions to the Asian American music scene of Chicago and the nation. The AAJF is also expanding its geographic reach and we are pleased to be working with a new collaborator, The Hyde Park Art Center, not to mention our familiar friends at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Velvet Lounge. Schedule: Opening Day! OLD AND NEW - Roots with a twist Saturday, October 6, 2007 2pm The Claudia Cassidy Theater at The Chicago Cultural Center 78 E. Washington Free Admission • JASC Tsukasa Taiko • The Funkadesi Trio featuring Navraaz Basati - vocals, Rahul Sharma - bass guitar, sitar, tabla, acoustic guitar, Rich Conti – vibes and percussion The 4-Time Winner of The Chicago Music Awards, Funkadesi has been hailed by Time Magazine, and even caught the attention of U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who notes: “Funkadesi really knows how to get a crowd going. I can't say enough how energizing this band is. There's a lot of funk in that desi!” This smaller ensemble of Funkadesi members will highlight Punjabi folk music fused with reggae, funk, and jazz themes. ______________________________________________________________ WINDS OF CHANGE - The More the Merrier Saturday, October 13, 2007 1pm The Hyde Park Art Center 5020 S. Cornell Avenue Free Admission • The Jeff Chan Trio plus One plus Two featuring Hyde Park's own Jimmy Ellis - saxophone, Jeff Chan - winds, Tatsu Aoki – contrabass, Ed Wilkerson - winds and special guests from the West Coast, Lewis Jordan and Francis Wong – winds Preceding the performance will be a panel discussion with Asian Improv Records founder, Francis Wong and its current President, Tatsu Aoki plus special guests, who will talk about the significance and impact of musician-run recording labels. Moderated by Daniel Melnick of the Jazz Institute of Chicago. ______________________________________________________________ Closing Night! BY POPULAR DEMAND - An encore presentation of last year’s critically acclaimed quartet Saturday, October 13, 2007 Sets starting at 9pm The Velvet Lounge 67 E. Cermak $15 • Fred Anderson – tenor saxophone and Tatsu Aoki – contrabass, New-York-resident-but-Chicago-native Chad Taylor – drums and San Francisco’s Francis Wong – saxophone.

looking forward giants-eagles tonight always a war.

hoping there would be some old dylanites in here. dylan, incidentally made one of the crappiest albums ever. bob and johnny cash live.

beginning to feel college football more interesting than nfl.

http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/content.c...mp;Entry=Extras

just watched a really fine game between two really talented well coached football teams, michigan state and wisconsin. i dont expect to see a better game all year. the state football program is certainly on the way up.

2007 mlb team payrolls. 2 teams, among the very lowest in payrolls, will be in playoffs, cleveland and arizona. http://rubechat.kfan.com/forums/thread/1667648.aspx

'song for' is a great classic and not to missed and is one of the first delmark recordings. a very unusual, and one of my favorite jarman led groups is 'out of the mist,' on ocean records, with jarman on perhaps a dozen different instruments, leroy jenkins on several instruments, jeffrey schanzer on guitar, myra melford playing piano and prepared piano, and lindsey horner playing bass and pennywhistle. this 1997 recording is at once one of the most creative, meditative, and beautiful recordings i own. here's a review from the all music guide: Free blowing often inspires traffic and automotive metaphors -- all those horns -- and these 14 cuts suggest one more: five musicians playing as if respecting a four-way stop. This album was released on a Vermont label, and is the packaging ever misleading. Melanie Powell's cover painting is as serenely vague upside down as it is right side up, while the album title (in large type) evokes the new age racks or a movie soundtrack. But before you pass it by, check the fine print for the artists' names. Joseph Jarman's tenor saxophone and Leroy Jenkins' violin are better known from two important jazz outfits, respectively, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Revolutionary Ensemble. This time, Jarman's other axes include ceramic flutes, bass flute, "hands" (sic), some rather useless chimes and gongs, and the mysterious Isan. Jenkins swaps his violin for a harmonica on a few cuts, as well as playing kalimba, but that violin makes a great foil for the rather stiff timbre of Jarman's ceramic flutes. And a little stiffness proves to be a virtue this time. For one instance, the long cut "Rain Forest" is both more insidious and more pleasing than mere hypnotic, mellow, ethnic jazz. There's a ceremonial feel to the playing; a stateliness that focuses the improvisations as surely as a handy stopwatch, cordiality co-exists with chaos. There's no woodwind squawking from Jarman, no behind-the-bridge squeaking from Jenkins, and even the prepared piano played by fellow jazz workshopper Myra Melford's is pretty. Elsewhere, bassist Lindsay Horner doubles on the fleshiest-sounding penny whistle ever heard. Jeffrey Schanzer's guitar contributes gentle plucked harp dischords to "Prayer at Sea," though he's surprisingly underused even there. The closing "Chanting" sounds like Georgi Lygeti's vocal work "Atmospheres" performed at the humble level of a barbershop quartet, with everyone joining the chant. Melford, Jarman, and Jenkins have since recorded under the name of Equal Interest, releasing a self-titled album in 1999. ~John Young, All Music Guide

NYTimes.com Re-Brands With 'All The News That's Fit To Click' Theme By E&P Staff Published: September 28, 2007 4:15 PM ET CHICAGO Playing off the well-known -- and zealously protected slogan -- of print newspaper, NYTimes.com launches a re-branding campaign Sunday with the theme "All the News That's Fit to Click." "The campaign capitalizes on the familiar New York Times slogan, 'All the News That's Fit to Print,' with a subtle update: 'All the News That's Fit to Click' - or Blog, Stream, Archive, Digitize, E-Mail, Personalize, etc.," the Times Co. said in a statement. The different verbs are intended to point users to its numerous blogs, video, and other multimedia offerings. "Each campaign message promotes a different online function, with the reference to the original slogan tying it all back to the quality journalism of the Times," the company said in its announcement Friday. Ads will run in advertising trade publications, TV and radio spots, outdoors on digital taxi cab tops, and as house ads in the Times. "Our core audience -- affluent, educated and curious -- demands their news and information in a variety of formats, and we are committed to meeting, and exceeding, their expectations," Murray Gaylord, NYTimes.com's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "This campaign illustrates all the different ways we do that." NYTimes.com is the most popular newspaper site in the United States, according to Nielsen//Net Ratings. E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com) Links referenced within this article letters@editorandpublisher.com http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...ndpublisher.com Find this article at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1003648799

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1190937043...a_editors_picks

applause!

would that she were a baseball or basketball player or race car driver. seeing that name across a back could be orgasmatic.

turning the aloc into a nirapath