JarJar Nixon's Blues Kitchen

Soul mates: With last CD, Charles shared `Genius'

In a moving set of duets, the late singer radiates joy

By Steve Morse, Boston Globe Staff August 29, 2004

Critics who assume that artists make their best work when they are young
just haven't been paying attention lately. Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon,
and Joe Strummer made exceptional music in the last years of their lives,
and joining that list is Ray Charles.

His final album is a tantalizing collection of duets with old and young admirers, from B.B. King and Willie Nelson to Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, and James Taylor.
Charles's "Genius Loves Company," completed before he died of
complications from liver disease at age 73 on June 10, is a true musical event that
confirms his status as the "Genius of Soul." Due for release Tuesday, it
is his first full-length duets CD, and he sounds positively fabulous with
so many soul mates around him.

Further to the August 18 post about great toy piano music, alert Blog reader Steve Pepper alerted me to this company:

http://www.liveandlearn.com/pianos/background.html

Charlie Waller, whom I once heard sing through the smoke-filled darkness of a Laurel, Maryland night club, passed away last week. This lyric is from www.charliewaller.net:

I think I'd like to come back as a song
If I had a saying going when I'm gone
A simple melody or a lovely sing-a- long
I think I'd like to come back as a song.
Just think of all the far off places I could be
Folks from every walk of life would take to me;
I'd dry a tear of sorrow when hard times come along
If I could only come back as a song.


Associated Press--August 24, 2004
Charlie Waller, Founder of a Popular Bluegrass Band, Dies at 69By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ORDONSVILLE, Va., Aug. 23 - Charlie Waller, a self-taught guitarist and vocalist with Louisiana roots who founded the popular bluegrass band the Country Gentlemen, died on Wednesday at his home here. He was 69.

He died after being in poor health for the last five years or so, family members said.
The 47-year-old band expanded the definition of bluegrass music, making a name for itself by drawing a wide audience, from traditional country and bluegrass fans to folk and soft rock listeners.

Mr. Waller started playing guitar and singing when he was about 12. Born in Joinerville, Tex., he moved with his family to Lake Charles, La., when he was 2. In 1945, at age 10, he followed his mother to Washington, where she ran a boardinghouse.

In 1955 he returned to Louisiana as a guitarist with Buzz Busby and the Bayou Boys, a bluegrass band that performed on the "Louisiana Hayride'' radio show. As other "Hayride" performers like George Jones, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley found fame, Mr. Waller and Busby grew discouraged and decided to try their luck in Washington. The Country Gentlemen formed there in 1957, and Mr. Waller was still playing with the band along with his son Randy up until his death.

The Country Gentlemen is scheduled to release the album "Songs of the American Spirit" next month.

Does anybody remember that Joe "King" Carrasco song, "It's a Party Weekend"? We're going to our friend's son's one-year birthday (a big birthday in Vietnam), and after that we're going to a friend's farewell which will suposedly feature sword-swallowers, fire jugglers and Phred knows what else.

For my US Government students...


Look up these terms in chapter two:

Originalism

Living Constitution

Enduring Constitution


Extra credit to whoever wishes to do brief, one-minute presentations on these concepts next Tuesday! Please tell Mr. Dat.

How many toy piano bands can you name? I can think of NRBQ, Pianosaurus...any others?


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20040815-9999-1m15pianos.html

Heading north for two days, will Blog again soon!

Maybe I can see the Olympics if the Hilton has CNBC. I really feel like I am missing out on a big event!

One of the oddest things is that it has been impossible to find any coverage of the Olympics on either local or satellite TV. Perhaps CNBC has coverage, but our satellite receiver is not tuned into it. ESPN Asia and Star Sports are running the English Premier League soccer tournament and a big Australian rugby tourney. Has anyone else in Vietnam found Olympics coverage? If so, email me at staticvoid@hotmail.com

The Chicago Jazz Quartet blew the doors off the Conservatory of Music in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday night, then they did it again on Sunday night up in Danang. So many people showed up for the Saturday night gig we stacked about a hundred students on the risers behind the band. After the gig on Saturday night we went to a little all-night dim sum place--got into the upper story, air-conditioned area but the ceiling was like that office in 'Being John Malkovich'--Ben Lewis's noggin would have gone right through the roof is he coul dhave stood up straight. For the Sunday night Danang performance we had three Champa dancers performing a South Asian-style dance to an odd, Sun Ra-style tune. I did not make it up to Danang, but my co-organizers Bert and Triet said that the audience had never, ever been exposed to a musical experience like this.

www.ChicagoJazzQuartet.com

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/jazz/ambassadors/

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=CHIJAZQUAR

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/



From the Vietnam News agency...

"The Chicago Jazz Quartet" to perform in Viet Nam 08/09/2004 -- 10:36(GMT+7)

Ha Noi (VNA) -Vietnamese music lovers will enjoy Jazz music as 'The Chicago Jazz Quartet' from the United States will make a performance tour to Viet Nam from August 13-18.

The visit is under the '2004 Jazz Ambassadors' programme sponsored by the US Department of State and the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The quartet will perform in Ho Chi Minh City, the central city of Da Nang, the northern port city of Hai Phong and Ha Noi. It will also meet with Vietnamese students from music schools in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The quartet was selected through a competition involving talented professional musicians from across the United States to represent American music abroad under the ‘Jazz Ambassadors’ program. The Chicago Jazz Quartet comprises vocalist and trumpeter Matt Lewis, pianist Benjamin Lewis, bassist Lorin Cohen, and drummer Michael Raynor.--Enditem

If you students are interested in any activity of the U.S. government in its historical dimension, check out the American Memory Site at the Library of Congress.

My friend M. says: "Just looked at it again and marveled all over again. Really remarkable and enormous collection of digitalized documents, pamphlets and books, photographs, even films -- pertaining to American history."

The address is: http://memory.loc.gov/

http://chronicle.com/jobs/blogs.htm is a listing of many web logs from US scholars, including Sharp Sand, written by a former Vietnam Fulbright grantee.

Thanks, M., for this link.

A nagging question for my students: are you reading the news on the Internet EVERY DAY? I hope so.

Try these links if U R in my government class (and even if you're not):

www.DailyHowler.com

www.RealClearPolitics.com

www.NYtimes.com

www.cnn.com

www.FactCheck.org

And look for stories that deal with issues such as : checks and balances, three branches of government, separation of powers, and Constitutional guarantees. Hint: when you read a news story, ask yourself how it related to concepts we are covering in class. If it is a 9/11 story, for example, you will actually find all of these fundamental concepts lurking behind the story. Ask me in class tomorrow morning--I can explain more.

Hi, JarJarNixon BlogFans...this past week was wild and woolly, as I wrapped up my last few days over at the Main Office. But this Monday I am gong back to my regular workplace, and hopefully I will get back to my daily Blog routine.

And here is a special welcome to my students in Government and Speech. I hope you will find the comments and links that I post here useful to your studies, or at least entertaining to your senses.

From Kevin Haney's primitive skills web site:


www.VintageGunLeather.com


Native American Ten Commandments

The Earth is our Mother, care for her.
Honor all your relations.
Open your heart and soul to the Great Spirit.
All life is sacred; treat all beings with respect.
Take from the Earth what is needed and nothing more.
Do what needs to be done for the good of all.
Give constant thanks to the Great Spirit for each new day.
Speak the truth; but only of the good in others.
Follow the rhythms of nature; rise and retire with the sun.
Enjoy life's journey, but leave no tracks.

These Reuters photos capture the spirit of the first ship visit to Danang since the end of the War:


http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=%22vietnam%22+curtis+wilbur&c=news_photos&ei=UTF-8