Chrome

A press release from the State Dept.: Interview on BET JAZZ with Tami Willis-Arasli Secretary Colin L. Powell Washington, DC September 13, 2004 MS. WILLIS-ARASLI: How important is the role of the Department of State as far as spreading the word about jazz and American culture worldwide? SECRETARY POWELL: You know, the Department of State, for many, many years, has been in the forefront of sending jazz musicians and the American jazz experience around the world. And so many nations in the world see jazz as an expression of the American spirit, the American spirit of creativity, of freedom and independence. And it is an important diplomatic tool for me, as Secretary of State, to have this kind of reception for jazz musicians around the world. It tells people what we're all about. And so we will continue to be a strong supporter of the jazz experience through programs like the Thelonius Monk Institute and we very much appreciate what the Institute does for up-and-coming jazz artists, not just American jazz artists but jazz artists around the world. MS. WILLIS-ARASLI: Well, you answered my second question -- SECRETARY POWELL: Good. MS. WILLIS-ARASLI: -- which was the importance of the Monk Institute. SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah, it's vital. And look at the kind of support it has here this evening: corporate support, the support of jazz artists and the support of the State Department. And the simple reason for that is that it reaches out and touches so many people around the world. And I hear about it everywhere I go. When we send a jazz artist over to make a tour or go to a particular country, I hear about it from those foreign ministers, the leaders of those countries, who were raised in the early '60s listening to this stuff, and the '70s. It's formed a connection with them and America through jazz that they've never forgotten. MS. WILLIS-ARASLI: What is it that you like about jazz? SECRETARY POWELL: It captures, to a large extent, the black experience in America. It shows the creativity of African American artists and where we have come from and how we have been able to take that experience of ours and use it for a broader purpose. It gave us inspiration and sustenance during long, dark years, but always was something that was uniquely African American yet it went beyond the African American experience and touched the whole country. It was the African American contribution to the culture of this nation and to this nation. Thank you. MS. WILLIS-ARASLI: Thank you. 2004/984 [End] Released on September 15, 2004

Why would you bother wishing "happy" anything to people you think will burn in hell for not accepting Jesus as their personal savior?

Has anyone actually stopped to think about what honey is? Isn't it pretty much bee cud?

An oldie but a goodie: There once was this guy who was a huge, huge Beethoven fanatic ... he changed his name to Ludwig, saw "Immortal Beloved" hundreds of times, had Beethoven's image tattooed on his back, etc., etc., ... finally, he saves up enough money to go to Vienna to see for himself where Beethoven lived and worked. One night, he decides to take a bottle of wine out to Beethoven's grave and drink a toast to the composer. One thing leads to another, and he gets a little drunk, and he decides to actually dig up Beethoven's body ... so he digs and digs, comes to the casket and opens it up ... and there's Beethoven, with reams of sheet music and a pencil eraser, and he's furiously erasing the music ... the drunk guy says to him: "Beethoven! What are you doing?" Beethoven says: "I'm decomposing!"

I agree with John B ... if you're only exposure to R.L. is his discs with the sampling, etc., you're missing out on something special. And if you like the more "primal" Burnside, you should check out Junior Kimbrough, too.

I just saw the list of nominees for the American Music Awards, and I just realized they don't have any jazz categories (I guess I never paid that much attention to these things) ... kind of odd for the AMERICAN Music Awards. I know Wayne Shorter probably isn't at home crying about this state of affairs, but still ...

For those unfamiliar with the situation: Francisco arrested after Rangers brawl with fans A's official disputes racial slur allegation By T.R. Sullivan Star-Telegram Staff Writer OAKLAND - Rangers reliever Frankie Francisco was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after throwing a chair into the stands during a brawl with fans on Monday night. The chair struck two fans, including an unidentified woman. According to an Oakland Athletics official, she was taken to a local hospital and treated for a facial laceration and broken nose. One source said a fan's racial slur ignited the melee in the ninth inning of the Rangers game against the Oakland Athletics. Francisco and teammate Doug Brocail are expected to be suspended by Major League Baseball for their involvement in the incident. The finger pointing is under way. David Rinetti, the Athletics vice president of stadium operations, laid the blame with players. "A fan was heckling the players, but he was not using profanity and not using racial slurs. The security didn't feel that the heckling was to the extent that is should be stopped," Rinetti said. "The information I received was the fans actions did not constitute an ejection and should not have warranted the players reaction." Rangers general manager John Hart said the incident is unfortunate and does not represent what the Rangers stand for. "No 1, I know Frankie Francisco. This is a great kid. ... He's a nice humble young man," Hart said. "He's going to learn a painful lesson. He's going to get whacked." Hart went on to blast the security at Network Associates Coliseum. "The security there traditionally has been extremely lax. From what I understand, the fans were verbally assaulting our players and nothing was done. Those were the dynamics," Hart said. "There's going to be pointing of fingers at all parties. But it started with lax security and ended with bad judgment from Frankie."

Stefan: You should pick up Burnside's "Come on in," too. He did the same kind of thing on that disc, with the same excellent results.

Does anyone know the story behind the Warhol drawing on the cover of Kenny Burrell's "Blue Lights"? Did Warhol do any other BN covers? Was he a friend of Reid Miles?

Thumbs up, Jazzbo! I thought the electric backing helped him kind of stretch what he was doing, if you know what I mean.

As long as we're on the topic of Charlie Haden, can anyone fill me in on the Liberation Music Orchestra (I think that's the name of it)? Some kind of jazz protest music? I can't remember where I saw something about it, and I know I can do the Google thing, but I figured I'd get a better response here ... Thanks in advance!

Good question ... reminds me of something that happened to me recently ... I had just picked up Stan Getz' Captain Marvel and was playing it in the van, and my wife says to me (in a surprised way bc she knows I don't like smooth jazz) "Do you have the smooth jazz station on?" After thinking about it for a while, I've come up with a new definition: Smooth jazz = any melodic jazz that I don't like!

Speaking of current sci-fi, Patricia Anthony's first couple of books (Brother Termite, Cold Allies, Happy Policeman) were very good ... anyone that Richard Morgan book Altered Carbon? Very William Gibson-esque, if you like that kind of thing.

Seems like a natural segue to me ...

Regarding the Magic Bag: I guess that shows you how long it's been since I've actually been to Royal Oak. You're right about it not being a jazzy town, but my hazy recollection was that MMW had played there somewhere ...

You guys ever try getting a gig in, uh, Royal Oak? Maybe the Magic Bag? The "jam band" thing might be a winner there ...

I was a big sci-fi geek growing up, but even then I didn't see what people got out of Heinlein ... it was/is literally unreadable to me. I was more of an Asimov kind of guy!

Ah, yes ... I could never quite be sure if Byrne was dancing or just having some kind of seizure in that. I'm also thumbs up on James Brown - Star Time and that Rhino Box of Soul thing ... and Chess used to put together some nice boxes. I've got them for Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters ... highly recommended.

I've got one of their recent discs, "Satellite Rides," and it's pretty high up on my list of current non-jazz favorites. I never thought about it before, but they do kind of remind me of an alt-country Replacements. Anyway, this one is closer to the "alt" than the "country," but it's a winner. My only caveat is that there's a song called "King of all of the world" on this, and I can't help but think they cribbed the concept from "Titanic."

God how horrible! Hopefully everything will be fine! I've been out of the loop for a couple days, anything new on this? I haven't seen anything much newer this this, from the Detroit Free Press ... not very encouraging: AROUND THE HORN: No leads in Urbina mom's kidnapping September 7, 2004 FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES CARACAS, Venezuela -- The top investigator for Venezuela's federal police said Monday no suspects have been identified in the kidnapping of Maura Villareal, the mother of Tigers pitcher Ugueth Urbina. "There's really nothing new so far," Henry Zerpa told the Associated Press by telephone. Last week, Villareal was kidnapped by four men disguised as police officers. The men took her from a house owned by Urbina in suburban Caracas. Zerpa said the kidnappers have not contacted family members. Urbina left the Tigers last week to go to Venezuela, and manager Alan Trammell said Monday that the team had not heard from him since he departed. "I haven't got a call from him," Trammell said. "It's a scary thought to have one of your parents kidnapped. I'm just praying and keeping my fingers crossed that everything is OK." The Tigers are trying to work with major league baseball and its Venezuelan contacts to assist Urbina.

Speaking of which, here's a nice quote from King George from John Donovan on SI.com: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner equated his team bouncing back from a 22-0 loss to the Indians last week with New York rebounding from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "I wanted to show the fans that we have the same courage and the same attitudes all New Yorkers have had in fighting back from that terrible episode on 9/11," The Boss said in a statement. Ugh.

Anyone familiar with a new Chick Corea disc called "To the Stars"? He's seems to have picked an interesting venue at which to release it ... Legendary Jazz Great Chick Corea and Rock Producer Eddie Kramer Host National Press Conferences at Atlanta's Dragon*Con this Labor Day Weekend Friday September 3, 12:57 pm ET ATLANTA, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Dragon*Con (www.dragoncon.org), America's largest annual science fiction and pop-culture event kicks off Labor Day Weekend with a press conference and Album Release Party of "To The Stars" for legendary jazz great Chick Corea, hosted by Kill Bill actor and fellow musician David Carradine, followed by a pre-release conference of the Norwegian rock foursome Hangface, hosted by veteran rock producer and engineer Eddie Kramer. The back-to-back programs begin 4:00 pm in the Woodruff Suite at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Atlanta. *** The music of the Chick Corea album is a spellbinding and masterfully innovative tone poem inspired by one of the most powerful novels in the history of science fiction -- L. Ron Hubbard's "To the Stars." According to Corea, "I came across a part in the beginning that describes the Captain of the spaceship playing a hypnotic melody on the piano in a dive of a spaceport bar in what is called 'New Chicago' and I thought to myself, 'I hear that music.'" The album brought the Elektric Band back into the recording studio for the first time in a decade with Chick, on piano and synthesizers, reuniting with original band members; bassist John Patitucci, drummer Dave Weckl, guitarist Frank Gambale and saxophonist Eric Marienthal. Twelve-time Grammy Award winning musician, Chick Corea and his world-famed Elektric Band will perform passages from their groundbreaking new album, "To the Stars," on Saturday, September 4, 2004 at 10:00 pm in the Centennial Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Atlanta Hotel at Dragon*Con. Corea will also participate in a live audio theatre performance of "To The Stars" on Sunday, September 5, 2004 at the Atlanta Civic Center, also featuring Carradine and fantasy Grandmaster Anne McCaffrey.

I was curious what they might be saying in Russia about the school disaster, and found my way to the English-language Pravda site ... this is from their "Fun Story" section ... kind of like Reuters "Oddly Enough": Women's sexual character determined by shape of their pubic hair Japanese professor Asaki Geino claims that the type of pubic hair a woman has affects her sexuality. He classifies women into five types, the most likely of which to be unfaithful being the type whose hair resembles the mouth of a river. "Usually female pubic hair grows in the form of an upside down triangle, but some women's is oblong or elliptical in shape," the professor explained. "It's not that rare for women with oblong-shaped pubic hair to fall in love at first sight or fall head-over-heels with passion. They also don't like sitting at home on their own. The combination of these characteristics causes men to go wild over them." The majority of eastern women have pubic hair that looks like an inverted triangle: "This type is characterized by faithfulness and fitness for family life. Women of this type are good mothers, faithful wives and caring daughters. I don't think I'm wrong when I say that precisely this type of woman helped Japan become the glorious country it is," Geino said triumphantly. There's no doubt the professor's findings are very interesting, but nevertheless they're impossible to apply in practice: the majority of women today wax their bikini line clean. Having said this, if a man has serious intentions, it might be worth his while asking to participate in the process in order to see what his future holds.

Anyone know what's up with this? It was on MLB.com. Urbina's mother kidnapped Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela -- Four unidentified men disguised as police officers kidnapped the mother of Detroit Tigers pitcher Ugueth Urbina in his native Venezuela, police said Thursday. The men took Maura Villareal from a house owned by Urbina in a Caracas suburb on Wednesday, said Joel Rengifo, the director of the country's anti-kidnapping police force. The men have not contacted family members, he said. The Tigers, in a statement released Thursday, said: "Ugueth Urbina has left the club to return to his native Venezuela to attend to the kidnapping of his mother. The Detroit Tigers organization is working with Major League Baseball and its contacts in Venezuela to assist Ugueth."

I've got a 45-minute commute each way to work, and my drive time is about the only time I get for anything like concentrated listening, so I like to just listen to single discs and get a feel for an album as a whole. I do mix CDs for the occasional family vacation road trip, but that's a mix that usually goes from Lee Morgan (me) to Avril Lavigne (my 11-year-old-daughter) to Bob Marley (wife) ... gotta keep everyone happy!