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#jazzlives
Howard Mandel is spearheading a Twitter campaign to document live jazz around the country/world. There’s a scrolling feed at his site. Join in!
Philadelphia haps, cont’d.
In the current Philadelphia Weekly: Knu Gmoon Wed., Aug. 26, 8-11pm. $12. Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St. 215.568.3131 www.chrisjazzcafe.com Noah Jarrett happens to be the son of legendary pianist Keith Jarrett, but in Brooklyn he’s one of the cats, a compelling bassist and composer in the trenches, steering through the labyrinth of modern jazz on terms of his own
Torture and health care
Re the blizzard of torture-related documents in the news in the last few days, Andrew Sullivan offers the essential commentary (even while on leave): Understanding the current right’s embrace of total state power against the individual takes time to absorb. But liberal democracy has no more dangerous enemies than these. [Update: More here and here.] And I’d add that the
Afghanistan carnage
If it’s true that horrific terrorist attacks are the inevitable and understandable result of violence perpetrated by the U.S. and its allies against Muslims, then someone needs to reconcile that with events like these: A huge bomb detonated in the center of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday night, flattening a two-story building and destroying 20 homes in
The week on disc (50)
In case you missed the last one… Southern Excursion Quartet, Trading Post (ARC) Terence Blanchard Group, Choices (Concord) Oran Etkin, Kelenia (Motéma) Sean Nowell, The Seeker (Posi-Tone) Eldar, Virtue (Sony) Roy Hargrove Big Band, Emergence (Groovin’ High/Emarcy)
Devil in details
One of the more interesting aspects of this whole Libya-Scotland affair is thoroughly buried: The Foreign Office said Friday that it was reconsidering plans for the Duke of York to attend the 40th anniversary celebrations in Tripoli…. A member of Britain’s royal family was planning to attend a commemoration of Qaddafi’s 1969 seizure of power in a coup, four decades
Hentoff?
Didn’t see this coming. Nat Hentoff, dean of American jazz commentators and civil libertarians, my fellow Jazz Times contributor, buys into the “death panels” nonsense. How sad. He’s better than that. I thought.
Health care and fringe politics
Which is to say, mainstream Republican politics. Let me explain. About that now-famous Barney Frank clip, in which a maniac health-reform opponent accused the (Jewish) congressman of supporting “a Nazi policy” and was rebuked and humiliated by Frank in turn: It turns out that this woman is a Lyndon LaRouche cultist. And so now, right-wing pundits like Michelle Malkin are