Happy Birthday, Nat Cole

The Power Line crew reminded me that today is the 101st anniversary of the birth of the great Nat 'King' Cole. Although Cole himself lived in times of serious racial, he and the other great jazz musicians of that era managed to transcend it and produce some of the greatest music ever recorded. Read the whole thing.

Here is a recording of Cole's 'Mona Lisa', one of my favorite songs by the great vocalist/pianist.

Farewell, Luciano

Lucaino Pavarotti, one of the greatest operatic tenors of all time, passed away early this morning at his villa in Italy, according to the Associated Press. Pavarotti was known as the king of operatic showmen, and was blessed both with a glorious voice and a winning personality, by all accounts. As the AP wrote,

Pavarotti's charismatic personna and ebullient showmanship - but most of all his creamy and powerful voice - made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since the great Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar.
"He has been, of course, one of the greatest tenors ever, one of the most important singers in the history of opera," colleague Jose Carreras told reporters in Germany. "We all hoped for a miracle ... but unfortunately that was not possible, and now we have to regret that we lost a wonderful singer and a great man."

While I myself spend the majority of my time playing jazz, I have played in a number of operatic productions, and have had the honor to hear Pavarotti in concert as well. He was a true superstar, and his talent will be sorely missed.

Thank you for everything and rest in peace, Luciano Pavarotti.

A Moment of Harmony

President Bush is excoriated and ridiculed by his political opponents and much of the Press on a daily basis. he has the most pressurized job in the enituire nation, and possibly thee world. So it is nice when he has a chance to indulge in activites that are entirely without partisan rancor. And it is even more pleasing when the President, who to his enemies is either a complete incompetent or an evil mastermind, can perform successfully in arenas in which he has no formal training.

A case in point occurred at the 400th anniversary celebrations for Jamestown, Virginia this past weekend. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra was performing John Philip Sousa'a great march "Stars and Stripes Forever" when the conductor handed the baton to the President, who conducted the remainder of the march. And by the musicians' accounts, he performed admirably. The conductor, JoAnn Falletta said of the President,

"We didn't expect him to know the score so well," Falletta said afterward. "He was not shy about conducting at all. He conducted with a great deal of panache."
...

The musicians were impressed by how musical Bush was, Falletta said. "He was cueing the brass, he was cueing the percussion, he kept the tempo going," she said.

Sometimes one needs a release from the stresses of the job, and it pleases me that the President was able to indulge in simpler pleasures, at least for a moment. And I would like to applaud the symphony conductor and the musicians for the professional courtesy. As a former professional musician myself, it is not easy to perform under a non-professional guest conductor- especially at a moment's notice. It seems that all involved performed with courtesy and professionalism. A fitting moment for the 400th anniversay of the first permanent English-speaking settlement in what would become the United States of America, which is in my opionion the greatest nation on Earth.

Hat tips to Power Line and Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus.

Some Light (Noise) Relief

As in this article posted today in the BBC. Seems that maybe trombones DO qualify as lethal weapons. Now if the BBC wouold spend as much time worrying about real weapons of mass destruction in the hands of our enemies as they do about noisy trombones, maybe we could all sleep a little more securely at night. Of course, that would require the BBC to actually commit to to reporting the news accurately instead of always spinning things so as to reflect badly on their own countries.....

Slippery Rumour-mongering

I was informed at a rehearsal recently that one of the Bay Area's better trombonists had passed away, and so posted earlier this evening. However, I have just been informed by a very reliable source that rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated. That being said, I am deleting the original post from this site. Good to hear that the individual in question is still with us- hopefully for many more years! Moral of the story- never trust news from a trombonist- they are slippery fellows! (Must be all that slide work....)