A Memorial Day Worth Remembering #memorialday #music

Andy Rooney On How Memorial Day Should Be Celebrated

The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney.

"There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people."



Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day we have set aside to honor by remembering all the Americans who have died fighting for the thing we like the most about our America: the freedom we have to live as we please.

No official day to remember is adequate for something like that. It's too formal. It gets to be just another day on the calendar. No one would know from Memorial Day that Richie M., who was shot through the forehead coming onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, wore different color socks on each foot because he thought it brought him good luck.

No one would remember on Memorial Day that Eddie G. had promised to marry Julie W. the day after he got home from the war, but didn’t marry Julie because he never came home from the war. Eddie was shot dead on an un-American desert island, Iwo Jima.

For too many Americans, Memorial Day has become just another day off. There's only so much time any of us can spend remembering those we loved who have died, but the men, boys really, who died in our wars deserve at least a few moments of reflection during which we consider what they did for us.

They died.

We use the phrase "gave their lives," but they didn’t give their lives. Their lives were taken from them.

There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people.

Because I was in the Army during World War II, I have more to remember on Memorial Day than most of you. I had good friends who were killed.

Charley Wood wrote poetry in high school. He was killed when his Piper Cub was shot down while he was flying as a spotter for the artillery.

Bob O'Connor went down in flames in his B17.

Obie Slingerland and I were best friends and co-captains of our high school football team. Obie was killed on the deck of the Saratoga when a bomb that hadn’t dropped exploded as he landed.

I won’t think of them anymore tomorrow, Memorial Day, than I think of them any other day of my life.

Remembering doesn’t do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way - some new religion maybe - that takes war out of our lives.

That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.

Written By Andy Rooney © MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This segment was originally broadcast on May 29, 2005.

Esperanza Spalding Raises Awareness On Guantánamo Injustice In New Music Video #jazz

Bassist, vocalist, composer and bandleader Esperanza Spalding has just released “We Are America,” a new music video highlighting the injustice of prolonged indefinite detention at the prison at Guantánamo Bay:

 

Spalding says she was motivated by nagging concerns that grew as she was on tour with her band. “It was the first time I heard about the hunger strike. I was touring in Europe, and I was appalled and embarrassed about what was happening. When I returned home, I remember I started researching online to see what I could do about it, and I saw that I could download this action pack. With that you had some important info to use to call your representative. And I did, I did call my representative and Senators. In fact, I got a letter back from one Senator who basically said that she was not going to proactively deal with it but that they would ‘keep my comments in mind', or something like that. But I really wanted to do more. And my band actually came to me first and said they wanted to do something too.”

 

Read Spalding’s guest editorial in the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-guantanamo-esperanza-spalding-20131115,0,4212698.story#axzz2l0ALF5Cv

 

Next week, the U.S. Senate can take a major step toward closing Guantanamo by passing this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). To email your Senators now and tell them to vote “No” on any amendments to the Guantanamo provisions in the NDAA:

https://ssl.capwiz.com/aclu-action/issues/alert/?alertid=62996136&type=CO?ms=web_acluaction_131111_ndaa

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The Grammys and Jazz: Not What You Think

...I think that was enough of a distraction for us to move on to one final observation: all the smooth jazz albums are gathered, under Category 10, Best Pop Instrumental Album. Chris Botti, Hiroshima, The Rippingtons and Spyro Gyra are all represented there. As pop. Not jazz. So stop with the "smooth jazz is not really jazz" rants already. If the Recording Academy says so, it must be true!..

by Felix Contreras

Another year, another Grammy nomination for Bebo Valdes (left) -- pictured here with his son and co-nominee Chucho Valdes. (Pierre-Philippe Marcou / AFP/Getty Images)

First of all, can Bebo Valdes stop making records so others can get nominated?

I'm kidding, of course. But I was not surprised to find Don Bebo's latest disc among the list of nominees for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards. The duo album with his son, Chucho Valdes, Juntos Para Siempre, was among five nominees for Best Latin Jazz Recording.

I'm a huge fan, and I'm always glad to see someone who deserves recognition get it. I mean the guy has spent his 80s collecting and winning Grammys after decades of anonymity playing piano bars in Sweden. He's a genuine pioneer whose creativity continues to burn intensely, and he just celebrated his 91st birthday in October. His new CD is worthy of your attention. So there.

The rest of this post will be more generally about The Grammys and jazz. But before you close this browser tab -- I'm not going to get into the perennial, tired, no-win argument about the value of a Grammy nomination or win. Or whether the Recording Academy rewards innovation or perpetuates a clubby, middle-of-the-road perspective. You can fight amongst yourselves about that somewhere else.

I'd like to use this post to point out how many jazz musicians were recognized for their work beyond the nominees in six jazz-specific categories (Best Contemporary Jazz Album, Best Jazz Vocal Album, Best Improvised Solo, Best Instrumental Album, Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Best Latin Jazz Album). Like Colombo in his wrinkled coat, I poked around, looked at the evidence from different angles, chomped on my cigar, looked under every rock and found: 27 artists nominated in 13 categories that were not under Field 10 -- Jazz.

Here are some highlights:

Jazz arrangers share the spotlight with film folks in three categories for composers and arrangers. Keep in mind, jazz arrangers usually get paid for the arrangements and nothing else. No royalties, no CD sales, no money from gigs. And jazz arrangers usually make less than the post office counter workers who put stamps on the large envelopes with their work. So give it up for the arrangers and composers who dominated Category 85, Best Instrumental Arrangement, leaving just one of the five nominations to a film composer. Special shout out to veteran arranger Vince Mendoza who was nominated twice in two different categories.

Many jazz fans are late to the digital download, or even resistant, because we like to read liner notes. It's an old habit we hate to give up. Which is why there is almost always at least one jazz nominee in Best Album Notes. This year it's noted jazz historian, archivist and all-around nice guy Dan Morgenstern for his notes in a Louis Armstrong box set.

Jazz is represented among the nominees for Producer of the Year: the ever-prolific Larry Klein's work for vocalist Luciana Souza's album Tide is standing tall among albums by Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, The Bird and the Bee, Ray LaMontagne and Pearl Jam.

Now, I'm sure our friends in the classical world don't see a reason to celebrate jazz moving onto their turf. But we do. (Snicker.) Paquito D'Rivera was nominated in Category 107, Best Classical Crossover Album, which also featured the Quartet San Francisco playing the music of Dave Brubeck, and Kneebody with Theo Bleckmann playing the music of Charles Ives. And: hey classical people, BELA FLECK IS IN UR NOMINACHUNS, INVADING UR CATEGOREEZ!!!!!

I think that was enough of a distraction for us to move on to one final observation: all the smooth jazz albums are gathered, under Category 10, Best Pop Instrumental Album. Chris Botti, Hiroshima, The Rippingtons and Spyro Gyra are all represented there. As pop. Not jazz. So stop with the "smooth jazz is not really jazz" rants already. If the Recording Academy says so, it must be true!

Here, again, is the link to the Grammy website. Do your own investigative work and see how much jazz is woven into the awards. And let me know if I missed anything.

Congrats to all the jazz men and women who were nominated in all categories!

This article originally posted by Felix Contreras, NPR A Blog Supreme

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A Memorial Day Worth Remembering

Andy Rooney On How Memorial Day Should Be Celebrated

The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney.

"There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people."



Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day we have set aside to honor by remembering all the Americans who have died fighting for the thing we like the most about our America: the freedom we have to live as we please.

No official day to remember is adequate for something like that. It's too formal. It gets to be just another day on the calendar. No one would know from Memorial Day that Richie M., who was shot through the forehead coming onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, wore different color socks on each foot because he thought it brought him good luck.

No one would remember on Memorial Day that Eddie G. had promised to marry Julie W. the day after he got home from the war, but didn’t marry Julie because he never came home from the war. Eddie was shot dead on an un-American desert island, Iwo Jima.

For too many Americans, Memorial Day has become just another day off. There's only so much time any of us can spend remembering those we loved who have died, but the men, boys really, who died in our wars deserve at least a few moments of reflection during which we consider what they did for us.

They died.

We use the phrase "gave their lives," but they didn’t give their lives. Their lives were taken from them.

There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people.

Because I was in the Army during World War II, I have more to remember on Memorial Day than most of you. I had good friends who were killed.

Charley Wood wrote poetry in high school. He was killed when his Piper Cub was shot down while he was flying as a spotter for the artillery.

Bob O'Connor went down in flames in his B17.

Obie Slingerland and I were best friends and co-captains of our high school football team. Obie was killed on the deck of the Saratoga when a bomb that hadn’t dropped exploded as he landed.

I won’t think of them anymore tomorrow, Memorial Day, than I think of them any other day of my life.

Remembering doesn’t do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way - some new religion maybe - that takes war out of our lives.

That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.

Written By Andy Rooney © MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This segment was originally broadcast on May 29, 2005.

Why The Kennedy Center Hates Jazz

It seems the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has made another honest mistake. I say "honest," because I assume the folks down in Washington, D.C., who head up the Kennedy Center are well educated and cultured. How else can one explain the decision by an organization of this national standing to repeatedly ignore jazz and jazz musicians when handing out its most prestigious annual award?

Upon opening the newspaper over the weekend, I was dismayed to read that once again, not one jazz artist was among the six individuals who were awarded the Kennedy Center's Honors for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. Instead, ribbons and medals adorned the necks of Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Twyla Tharp, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey...

..Continue reading this article by Marc Myers at JazzWax

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