https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_LFXNJzNwY Fourteen-year-old Joey Alexander, not playing “Bemsha Swing”, but here shown playing at an all Monk recital at Lincoln Center, now available as a CD, or whatever terminology we use nowadays for recordings. Jazz has never seen a talent as precocious as Joey’s. I feel it is safer not to speculate on what the future…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Tough to be a Republican Jew
Damn straight it is, enough to make this lapsed Episcopalian Democrat chuckle. Back in Dubya’s day, folks like Paul Wolfowitz and “Scooter” Libby walked the corridors of power. Today, not so much. Yes, conservative-leaning Jews have suffered one humiliation after another, but the recent revelations, so to speak, regarding Alabama Judge Roy Moore—revelations that, it…
What is the deal with Rand Paul?
Here is part of the deal: Last Friday night, Sen. Paul was attacked by his neighbor, Rene Boucher. Here’s what Politico had to say on Saturday, based on the police warrant issued for Boucher: ‘Boucher’s altercation with Paul left the senator having difficulty breathing as a result of a “possible rib injury” in addition to…
Republican Tax “Reform”—Lots of little lies on top of one huge one
Who knows what’s going to shake from sieve as the Republican tax “reform” package lurches towards Bethlehem? Well, not me, for sure. I don’t know what kind of last-minute gimcracks and switcheroos old Paulie Ryan will pull out of his ass to paste together a bill that will get through the House, whether he will…
Woody Shaw—“Bemsha Swing”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaoBZHYbuus Woody Shaw-trumpet. Stanley Cowell-piano David WIlliams-bass Terri-Lyne Carrington-drums. Aug. 21, 1985, Cambridge, Mass. Posted by Steve Provizer.
Ramesh Ponnuru explains some of it—but only some of it—for you
Over at Bloomberg, Ramesh Ponnuru, sometime truth-teller on the Republican1 side of the aisle, comes up a little short with his take on the Republican tax “reform” package, headed “Tax Reform’s Losers Can Afford the Loss”. Ponnuru praises the bill because it “caps the tax deduction for mortgage interest at a loan value of $500,000,…
Donald Trump, so awful he scares Josh Rogin
How the time flies! It seems like it was just two days ago that Josh Rogin, perhaps the Washington Post’s most two-fistedest “Global Opinions” opinionator, was coming down hard on the Trump Administration for not providing Ukraine with, you know, “Javelin antitank missiles, anti-battery radar that can see into Russian territory, and state-of-the-art intelligence capabilities…
John Kelly, making us all miss Jim Jones. He only told Jew jokes.
John “Stars n’ Bars” Kelly just won’t shut up, will he? Jennifer Rubin, WashPost “Right Turn” gal turned brilliant and incisive critic of the continuing madness of Donald Trump’s Washington, nails John’s racist, lyin’, Robert E. Lee statue huggin’ four-star ass to the wall, enumerating John’s fœtid inanities in detail and especially remarking on “his…
Jonah Goldberg not quite as bad as I previously suggested but almost
Last week I took a poke at National Review dude Jonah Goldberg, suggesting that erstwhile Trump-hater Jonah was learning to stop worrying and embrace the Borg the Donald. I mean, resistance is useless, so why lose your crease over nothing? Well, I was wrong, slightly. Jonah still finds Donald Trump repulsive, and his followers more…
Matt King—“Bemsha Swing”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juCD6NxcRTw Matt King (piano, Fender Rhodes), Chico Pinheiro (guitar), Itaiguara Brandao (bass), Mauricio Zottarelli (drums). Posted by Matt King From the album “Monk In Brazil”