I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled This Land is Your Land: Art and the American Experience is at the Huntington, West Virginia Museum of Art to September 20th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay in the online armed services website Defense One— written by two retired Army officers — addressed as an open letter to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley…. stating that in the event the Trumpster loses, yet refuses to leave office: “the United States military must remove him by force ... and you must give that order”.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay by The Guardian’s always interesting Jonathan Freedland— suggesting that the deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates sounds great at first …. until you analyze who wins and who loses in the end (plus, you-know-who … gets a much needed soup-bone as part of it).
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Palmerston the Cat— whose four-year stint at Britain’s Foreign Office …. has now ended with his retirement.
HISTORY NOTES— fifty years ago, Janis Joplin performed her final concert before 40,000 people at … Harvard Stadium, before her death two months later.
IN RESPONSE to Covid-19, South Africa has officially banned the sale of alcohol — believing it will free-up hospital space rather than treat alcoholics. Yet it has led to a situation where every restaurant table has a teapot…. and “Do you serve specialty teas?” leads to a smile, with some …. rather special teas.
BOOK NOTES— the upcoming book of Michael Cohen has had its entire foreword online, and as I noted in last night’s Top Comments diary: in writing about his testimony before a House committee (in a series of rather dark paragraphs) this was the one transcendent aspect. In referring to the late Rep. Elijah Cummings:
(He) was the lone politician I encountered in all my travails who took an interest in me as a human being. When I reported to serve my sentence, he even took steps to ensure my security in prison. It was a selfless act of kindness for which I will always be grateful.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Beckett the Cat— who accompanied a woman who stayed at a Maryland senior living center (for a year’s recuperation) …. yet the cat had become so much a part of the center, he has stayed on ever since.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the easier, USA-centered New York Times quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at three reporter/journalists I admired in the past (Lara Logan, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi) and why they have seemingly jumped-the-tracks into anti-anti-Trumpers.
SEPARATED at BIRTH— two outlaw country music legends: the late Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe (with a song entitled Merle and Me).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… recently there was the death of one of the founders of an all-female, mixed race big band (from Covid-19) that existed from 1937-1949 that I read at the same time I read about a (relatively new) all-female, international smaller group (seven members) with some names which I recognize and have listened to separately. They both deserve a nod.
Helen Jones Woods was a trombonist who died at the age of ninety-six. She attended the Piney Woods School in Mississippi, one of four remaining historically African-American boarding schools in the US (and where the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi were also founded). Her father heard an all-female jazz band on the radio in the 1930’s, and encouraged her to start one with her classmates.
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm were soon performing across the country, as opening acts for Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, plus USO shows in Europe during WWII (or was that WW-I ….. am so confused right now). They ended in 1949 as many left to begin families.
While many of its members changed over the course of its twelve-year history, the term “international” referred to its integrated status: with Black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American and (later) white performers: the first of whom was alto saxophonist Roz Cron who joined the band in 1943. She needed to wear darker makeup and have permed hair to avoid ‘race-mixing’ charges in the segregated South (and was not always successful). She is one of the survivors of this band (circa age ninety-seven).
For their musical efforts, trumpeter Clark Terry always sang their praises and pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines declared them as ”The first Freedom Riders”.
In 2017, the veteran pianist Renee Rosnes was seeking musicians for a European tour, and when the results were spectacular: decided to explore a working band (while allowing its members to pursue other work as well. They are named ...
… after the Greek goddess Artemis who was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, the twin sister of Apollo, the patron and protector of young girls, and the goddess of hunting, wild nature, and chastity.
This is an international band, performing since then on stages as varied as Carnegie Hall to the Newport Jazz Festival: where Blue Note Records president Don Was — of Was (Not Was) fame— heard them and signed them to a recording contract. Their first album will be released in mid-September.
Drummer Allison Miller (far left) is American, and there are two British Columbians: the aforementioned bandleader Renee Rosnes (2nd) as well as (in the center) trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, who grew-up in the same town (Nanaimo, BC) as Diana Krall. Third-from-left is bassist Noriko Ueda (from Japan), then there is vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant (3rd from right) — born in Miami to parents from Haiti and France — and whom I profiled in this space (two years ago).
2nd from the right is Anat Cohen— a multi-instrumentalist (with her main instrument the clarinet) — from Israel, who I profiled some years ago, with her musical brothers (Avishai and Yuval) who have recorded as the “3 Cohens”. And on the right is tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana from Chile.
On their upcoming album release: five of the six instrumentalists have an original song performed (with saxophonist Aldana contributing her tribute song “Frida” to the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo). Cécile McLorin-Salvant has an arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s If It’s Magic and the band hopes to tour in support of the album next month (with shows in PA, NY, NC and CA). Below is Ingrid Jensen’s arrangement of a Lennon-McCartney classic … intended as a political statement:
Musing on the piece at a moment of pandemic and protest, the trumpeter asserts, “The title is self-explanatory. My idea was to capture an essence of the constant chatter we seem to be living with: the sorrow, the madness, the community support to be tapped into via conversation, and the change ahead”.