Sorry, but I still need a few days to come back to life after Semana Santa before I can return to writing irrelevant digressions. In the meantime, here is something else, Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else with Miles Davis on trumpet (even though “Autumn Leaves” is not so appropriate for spring). Actually, I had almost completely forgotten about this album until my friend, Waya, reminded me of it the other day. Enjoy or wait for the next grave error coming soon to a digression near you.
Filed under Jazz
It’s been raining almost everywhere in Spain during this Easter week. So far, though, I have made it through the rain, and I’m in Asturias where it is generally rainy and cold. Today, it was another nice day, and I went to visit Diego C.’s (el Fichaje) home town Gijón.
Filed under Digressions, Living la vida española
I am in Salinas in Asturias, spending a few days with my friends Santi and Clara, their 2 year old son, Javier and with Javier’s grandmother Amparo.
Filed under Friends / Family
One thing that has always impressed me about World Football is how professional teams’ locker rooms are so multicultural and the players work together in apparent harmony. Take Real Madrid, for example, where you have players from Spain, England, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and Mali. Of course, the players compete with each other for a starting position, but still they appear to “get along”. The same could be said of US professional sports such as baseball, American football and basketball. Over time, fans stop identifying players as being of a certain race or ethnicity and see them only as there heroes.
Thus, when something happens like on Wednesday night when English and Italian fans attacked each other, I am always shocked at how provincial people can be. Continue reading
Sorry about boring you all with so much Jazz, but Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas” from his album Saxophone Colossus always puts me in a good mood. There’s nothing like happy music.
Filed under Jazz
I know I am talking too much about Jazz, but after listening to “Stolen Moments” again just now, I couldn’t get enough of Bill Evans‘ piano (he is from Plainsfield, NJ, right next door to where my mother is from). In any event, I thought I would also share with you some of my other favorite jazz pieces as well: Continue reading
Filed under Jazz
This afternoon I was randomly listening to music in my Radio Blog Club playlist without paying much attention, and out of the blue I heard a flute and thought: hey, that’s Eric Dolphy. Then, I listened carefully and remembered that it was “Stolen Moments” from Oliver Nelson’s most celebrated album The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Not only does it in fact feature Eric Dolphy on flute, Nelson also showcases one of the best casts of jazz musicians all together: Bill Evans (one of my favorite pianists), Roy Haynes on drums, Paul Chambers on bass, and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. They are all out of this world on this piece.
If you’ve ever read Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, you’ll recognize the song “Stolen Moments” which features in the story. Unfortunately, Fitch gets it wrong by attributing the pounding and liberating trumpet sound to Oliver Nelson. I don’t mean to be pedantic or nitpicky, but you got to give the credit to Freddie Hubbard. Nelson is the band leader and plays the sax.
Filed under Jazz
On March 10, 2007, I was very fortunate to attend the Safe Democracy International Conference (along with my Bro) as a panelist. Here is the video of the Conference’s conclusions. In watching the video, I am reminded of the fantastic group of experts with whom I shared the round table discussion on the challenges that Europe faces in terms of immigration. The conclusions from this round table can been seen from minutes 12-16 (and I can be seen scratching my nose around minute 15). My Bro partook in the round table on Africa seen from minutes 20-30.
The video here is in Spanish, but the general conclusions in written form can also be found in English on the Safe Democracy website. The specific conclusions for my round table on immigration were wonderfully drawn up by Esteban Ibarra and can be found in Spanish here.
Regardless of my spring time allergies that are slowing me down these days, you can see from my past two posts that I am very Pro-Flower.
Filed under Digressions
Enough is enough. I think I’ve had it. I don’t mind giving advice or helping people out with their personal problems, but what I can’t stand are people who are possessive. And here we are once again with my friend who was breaking up with her boyfriend. I have even given my long explanation about how only self-centeredness and vanity keep people from breaking up when they know they it’s over. So, why won’t her boyfriend get the picture?
It isn’t love that he is fighting to hang onto, it’s something else, and I’ve seen it a thousand times before. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions
Grave Error 