Author: whskyjack

While last week I found the story of Joseph Boulogne Chavalier de Saint Georges’ life interesting, about 15 min listening to the piece I found my mind wandering as the music seemed a bit dull and repetitious. I suspect he may have been the Pat Boone/Donnie Osmond/KennyG of his era. Nothing wrong with that and we all need background music. But he ain’t no Mozart
So today we get to listen to Mozart
On todays selection I love the intricacies between the music and the instruments that continued to keep my attention. It was as if they were having a deep conversation among themselves.

Enjoy

BTW, I’m not a trained critic, once 40 some years ago I took a music appreciation class, paid little attention, took my C and went home. So the current observations should always be considered in that light.

Jack

Yeah, I know Bennet will be lucky to make the next “debate” but this piece does a good job of making the case for why he should be the choice for our next President

Go here to read the whole piece

Could Michael Bennet Make Us Sane Again?

While Biden suggests that the cure for our paralysis is simply expelling Trump, Bennet’s diagnosis goes deeper. Trump is a symptom: the persistent agents of stasis are interest groups, plutocrats like the Koch brothers, and the provocateurs of cable news and social media who roil a noisy minority of Americans. The result, he told the Washington Post, is “perpetual partisan warfare” wherein “it’s much easier to create a constituency to break the government and to do nothing, than it is to create a constituency for change.”
To counter this, Bennet believes that Democrats “need to galvanize our base and bring other voters to the polls for us to win,” including some of the 7 million people who voted for Obama and then Trump. “You can’t do that just by going on MSNBC every night,” he says. “You [must] have a conversation with people who today don’t support Democrats…” In Bennet’s formulation, it is misguided to dismiss Republican voters as irredeemably wedded to Trump and Mitch McConnell.
This belief separates Bennet from his more ideological competitors. “It is possible to write policy proposals that have no basis in reality,” he told the Atlantic. “You might as well call them candy. … I don’t think people believe that stuff. I think they want to see a serious approach to politics and a serious approach to policy.”

An appropriate title for todays selection. As a student of history and a lover of music. This find was truly serendipitous; not just great music but a great back story as well.

Enjoy, Jack

From Wikipedia

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (December 25, 1745 – June 10, 1799)

A champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, he was the son of George Bologne de Saint-Georges, a wealthy married planter, and Anne dites Nanon, his wife’s African slave.[2]
His father took him to France when he was young, and he was educated there, also becoming a champion fencer. During the French Revolution, the younger Saint-Georges served as a colonel of the Légion St.-Georges,[3] the first all-black regiment in Europe. He fought on the side of the Republic. Today the Chevalier de Saint-Georges is best remembered as the first classical composer of African ancestry; he composed numerous string quartets and other instrumental music, and opera.

George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue says it all.

Enjoy, Jack

“So What”, by Miles Davis, originally released in 1959 on the studio album , Kind of Blue

The album features Davis’ ensemble sextet consisting of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with former band pianist Bill Evans appearing on most of the tracks in place of Kelly.

You can listen to the whole album here

Enjoy, Jack