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On Miguel Zenón
The following review appears in the December 2009 issue of All About Jazz-New York. [Update: I’m going to do my best to offer end-of-decade reflections here in the near future, but meanwhile let me note that young jazz artists of Latin descent — such as Zenón, Dafnis Prieto, David Sanchez, Edward Simon, Yosvany Terry, Claudia Acuña, John Benitez, Francisco Mela
Six Picks: December 2009
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, December 2009: Circulasione Totale Orchestra, Bandwidth (Rune Grammofon) Dave Douglas, A Single Sky (Greenleaf) Mika Pohjola, Great Tunes By My Friends (Blue Music Group) Manuel Valera, Currents (MaxJazz) Nelson Veras, Solo Session Vol. 1 (BEE Jazz) Myron Walden, Momentum (Demi Sound)
“A breathtaking piece of dishonor”
Andrew Sullivan on Dick Cheney, who has once again accused our president of giving aid and comfort to the enemy: If you truly use a position of such authority to show contempt for the sitting president, to accuse him of treason, to attack him on the day he addresses the nation in a critical address, to divide him from the
Michael Moore, demagogue
If I were President Obama, and I read an open letter from Michael Moore telling me how to honor the memories of my dead mother and dead grandmother, I’d be pretty offended. As I’ve said, I’m deeply ambivalent about a ramped-up Afghanistan deployment. So is nearly every serious commentator on the issue. Moore is far from serious. He describes Afghanistan
Fair-weather friends
TPM’s Nathan Newman: Polls show the Democratic base is unmotivated to turnout in 2010 — and it’s no wonder given all the rhetoric that Obama hasn’t done much with his 2008 victory. Those attacks from the rightwing are understandable from a partisan position, but many progressives seem to oddly be aping similar rhetoric — wallowing in glass half-empty complaints of
Afghanistan and polling
Steve Coll is always a must-read on Afpak and he sounds a cautionary note on Afghanistan and polling. (See my post from this morning.) Citing a new Oxfam poll, Coll observes that its findings, “like all polling in very poor developing societies, should be received as suggestive, not scientific.” Still, the Oxfam numbers indicate that Afghans regard the Taliban as
Quote of the day
Andrew Sullivan: “If the Catholic church were a secular institution in Ireland and had been found guilty of child abuse to the massive extent the Church has, it would be forced to close. Its top officials would not be issuing statements of apology and regret, but serving sentences in jail.” And yet here in the U.S., the church is injecting
Afghanistan and Obama’s base
There’s a notion gaining ground that President Obama, by opting for a troop increase in Afghanistan, is somehow faltering on campaign promises and thus “betraying his base.” What nonsense. Obama never said he’d withdraw troops from Afghanistan. If anything, he said the opposite. This CNN report is from July 21, 2008, before he had even secured the Democratic nomination: “The