Passing Notes

4/2/11

PN Video Jukebox - Dave Brubeck

A grand total of 15 clips from the career of pianist and composer Dave Brubeck.

Blackout - The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson's First Spring Training

Jackie Robinson, the African-American baseball player who, in 1947, was the first person of color to play in the modern major leagues, was on the vanguard of desegregation before most people in the country ever heard of him. During Robinson’s time as an Army officer during World War II, he was court-marshaled for refusing to move to the back of a bus, although he was later acquitted of the charges. In 1945, having signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson would still have to face, in 1946, a spring training in Florida with his assigned team for that season, the minor league Montreal Royals. During six weeks 1946, Robinson faced the first wave of racist resistance to his taking the field with white players in Florida communities such as Sanford, Deland, Jacksonville, Miami, and – to a lesser extent – Daytona Beach.

The book Blackout, by College of Charleston professor Chris Lamb, finally tells the often overlooked story of Jackie Robinson’s first spring training.

The color line is baseball was bound to have been broken sooner or later. The conservative, dictatorial first commissioner of baseball – Kenesaw Mountain Landis – had died, a vocal African-American and socialist press corps was demanding desegregation of the national pasttime, and black veterans who had fought racism and political oppression overseas were not going to tolerate it on American soil any longer. Add to these factors the tremendous amounts of money to be made by winning teams in the postwar major leagues – well, the talent of black ballplayers could no longer be ignored by the white baseball establishment. The Dodgers’ general manager Branch Rickey supported segregation in large part because he wanted to win: Jackie Robinson would be but one of the black players that would help the Dodgers to a championship in the 1950s.

Chris Lamb, the author of Blackout, does an tremendous job of depicting the outright suffering Jackie Robinson and his wife Rachel endured in that spring of 1946. Transportation and accommodations were so bad that the young Robinsons were unable to make the full trip by train from Los Angeles to Florida. In the Florida panhandle, they were simply kicked off the train. And, when they finally arrived in Daytona Beach, by bus, several days late, frustrated and humiliated, there was no place for them to stay and few places to eat. The Robinsons could rely only upon the generosity of an informal and inconsistent network of black citizens for their daily needs. Daytona Beach, proud home to the activist Mary McLeod Bethune and to Bethune-Cookman College, was in fact the most hospitable place they could find.

Daytona was marginally tolerant of people of color, but most other communities were not. Across the state, not only were the health care, transportation, and school systems segregated, but so too were restaurants and hotels, the bathrooms and drinking fountains, the beaches and swimming pools, as well as actual baseball fields. In many places, Robinson would suit up and take his position, only to have police officers order him off the field. Some grass and dirt, by law, was for whites only. Often, Robinson wasn’t even allowed to sit next to his white teammates on the bench.

Again and again, author Lamb has unearthed horrifying examples of just how commonplace and brutal jim crow was during the 1930s and 40s, and, balancing that, he finds as well many heartening stories of those now-forgotten heroes who helped Jackie Robinson along the way.

Somehow, although he came as close to quitting that spring as perhaps during any time in his baseball career, Robinson made it through. He played when he could, and when the season started, he was the Montreal Royals starting second baseman, leading them to 100 win and the league championship, leading the league it hitting, baserunning, and fielding. The following year, as many of you may know, he started the season with the major league Brooklyn Dodgers, putting a far more public face on the cause of desegregation.

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PN Archives - Idiots and Fools

3/20/11

PN Archives - 'Django' by Michael Dregni

From the vault, a review of Michael Dregni's biography of innovative French jazz guitarist Django Reinhart.

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Barcalounge Skipper - A Fan of MLB.TV

As much as I try to be in favor of the little guy (the smaller guy?) I have to admit that when it comes to sports, I'm a bit of a corporate shill. Because I hate paying any more money than I must to the wretched cable television providers, on and off for years I've subscribed to Major League Baseball's audio package and made do with the basic cable slate of baseball games available on basic cable -- the national telecasts and regional coverage of both the Marlins and the Rays. That's actually a pretty good range of baseball to watch, and I was able to listen to my team (the Red Sox) with the live audio feed of Boston's radio coverage for all 162 games. It worked for me for several years.

   One issue related to baseball and television has always been the sport's arcane blackout rules -- I have attached the blackout map to the left here, but to see a full version of the map, click here. The current blackout map is a leftover from the 1970s, when teams had regional broadcast networks and geographical access to both the signal and the team meant something. The result of this completely silly system is that, if you live in the state of Iowa, you could have games of the Royals, Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Twins, and Brewers blacked out through any media. If you're overseas -- as I was for much of the summer of 2004, when the Red Sox made their championship run -- you can't access the games online, either. The obvious solution, of course, is that everyone, everywhere, should have access to all the games. Period. More viewers and listeners means more revenue; people who want to ballpark experience will still go to the park, even if parking is $20 and a beer is $10.
   This year, I signed myself up for the big leagues' online video service, MLB.TV, and three weeks into spring training, I am thrilled. Even with the basic package, I've been able to choose from about a half dozen spring training games all month, and, during the regular season, over 2000 more games. Not only that, all of those games are archived, so if I miss a good matchup from a few days before, I can always watch a replay on my own time. And, if my eyes need to be busy, I can listen to the radio broadcast as well. The connection is great, the picture is clear, and the controls are very easy to use. The package costs me about $20 a month.
   Even better, for a few more dollars, I can download to my iPhone an app called At Bat 11, which gives me the same package of video and audio on a fully portable device. Although the video on a 3G connection can be a little laggy, WiFi works just fine, and audio is no problem no matter what the connection.
   I hate to rave about MLB.TV and At Bat 11, but I am raving. For the serious baseball fan who might watch a fair amount of out-of-market games, it's worth the money. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to a few innings of the Cardinals-Red Sox in the back yard while the kids play in the pool.

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3/19/11

PN Archives - Other Saints

Reader's Notes - Dwayne McDuffie on Race in Comics

Here's a video of writer Dwayne McDuffie talking about the place of race in comics, and how readers' awareness of his own race made them -- there's no other word for it -- paranoid about their own perceptions of how McDuffie might change some of their favorite titles, among them Justice League and Teen Titans.

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3/17/11

Hardball, Zombies, and Mysteries of Suburbia

Slices of the PN pie for all. . .

Passing Notes is about at the halfway point for this "relaunch year," which, because of the academic calendar by which I live my civilian life, runs from August to August. In terms of traffic, we've moved well past 2000 views a month, which was an initial goal, and downloads on iTunes and listeners on WDNA have been rising steadily. If you do listen to Passing Notes on iTunes from time to time, do me a favor and leave a review -- good or bad!
In order to better serve the different groups of people that have responded to Passing Notes, I'm spinning off a few areas of content, with more mainstream books, film, food, comics, and a variety of musical interests being pursed as usual here at the Notes. Up until August of 2011, however, most content will be cross-posted to both Passing Notes and three new spots.

Barcalounge Skipper will be a new home (but an old name) for writing about baseball and other sports. During the baseball season, the plan is to write about at least one game a week -- eschewing Red Sox-Yankees nonsense as much as possible,
Mort-Vivant will be a new place to find writing about zombies -- movies, comics, books, and television shows about this particular species of undead. The single article I wrote about The Walking Dead comics has proved extremely popular, so it's zombies ahoy!
Mysteries of Suburbia will host short, random things -- some of which might be funny, most of which will be strange or stupid and in questionable taste.

Thanks for reading and listening.

Supporting Public Radio and WDNA

   As I write this morning, debate is happening in Congress as to the funding fate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports, among other things, the independent community radio station, WDNA, which has given me so much great music over the years and which broadcasts these very Passing Notes each week.
   WDNA began its spring membership drive this week, and with the likelihood of almost half of its funding being cut off should the CPB disappear, the need for donations and new members to the station is more serious than ever. Because the station is not an NPR affiliate, nor is it affiliated with any other institution in South Florida (the school board or a university, for instance), WDNA exercises an uncommon degree of independence. The vast majority of its programming is locally produced. To help the station continue its distinctive mission and build for the the future, your support is needed more than ever. If you can donate to the station or become a new member, please do so.
   In the bigger picture, if you can take the time to write your member of Congress and voice your support of public broadcasting and your opposition to cuts and eliminations to such programs, here's a link to follow for taking that step.
   Thanks for reading, listening, and supporting the work of public media in all the ways you do!

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3/16/11

PN Video Jukebox - Sonny Rollins

Today we feature The Colossus himself, Sonny Rollins, in 13 clips from pretty much the full range of his career. If you didn't catch Stanley Crouch's 2005 profile of Rollins in The New Yorker, the first few hundred words alone are worth reading.

3/14/11

Playlist 3/13/2011

And here's the brief playlist from yesterday's substitute host job covering Ed Blanco's Jazz Cafe. I was feeling a little groggy from the daylight savings shift, so this is a conservative list of mostly standards and legends. Easy on the constitution, don't you know. . .

Song, Artist, Album

Take Me Out To The Ballgame, Joey DeFrancesco, Joey D!

Blue in Green, Kurt Elling, The Gate

For Spee's Sake, Freddie Hubbard, Hub-Tones

Calcutta Cutie, Horace Silver, Songs for My Father

Alfie's Theme, Sonny Rollins, Alfie

A Shine on Your Shoes, Jane Monheit, Home

From the Heart, Ray Charles, Genius + Soul = Jazz

Fried Pies, Wes Montgomery, Boss Guitar

Nefertiti, Miles Davis, Nefertiti

Green Chimneys, Thelonious Monk, Underground

C Jam Blues, Oscar Peterson Trio, Night Train

Freedom Jazz Dance, Eddie Harris, The In Sound

Anything Goes, Ella Fitzgerald, Sings the Cole Porter Songbook

Jelly Roll, Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um

I've Got You Under My Skin, Dinah Washington, Dinah Washington Sings Standards

Without You, Eddie Harris, Mean Greens

Playlist 3/5/2011

I'm doing a little housekeeping today, so first up here's a playlist from a couple of weekends ago when I covered Skip Lezama's Saturday morning show.

Song, Artist, Album

Caravan, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Inner Voyage

A Night in Tunisia, Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, 40 Acres and a Burro

Moanin', Winard Harper Sextet | Faith

Times Are Hard on the Boulevard, Jared Gold | Supersonic

Berda's Bounce, Terell Stafford | New Beginnings

Juju, Wayne Shorter, Juju

Oumu, Sam Yahel | Hometown

Worried Life Blues, Otis Spann, Otis Spann is the Blues

Farther Up The Road, Bobby Bland, Greatest Hits, Vol. 1

San-Ho-Zay, Luther Allison, Luther's Blues

I Can't Quit You Baby, Otis Rush | The Essential Otis Rushl

I Want a Tall Skinny Poppa, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Gospel of the Blues

Clarksdale Boogie, Charlie Musselwhite, Delta Hardware Company

Don't Bring No Weak Sauce, Stanton Moore, III

Mojo Hand, Lightnin' Hopkins, The Best of

Squeeze Me (But Don't Tease Me), Shirley Scott, Queen of the Organ

Stone Crazy, Buddy Guy, The Very Best of

Ron Carter, Bill Frisell, Blues Dream

52nd Street Theme, Andy Farber Orchestra, This Could Be The Start of Something Big

Fudgesickle Built for Four, Bill Evans, Loose Blues

Gazzeloni, Eric Dolphy, Out To Lunch

Calling All Units to Broccalino, Calibro 35, Rittonrno Quelli Di. . .

Ideofunk, The John Scofied Band, Uberjam

Blind Man Can See, James Brown, In The Jungle Groove

Where's the Music?, Medeski Martin and Wood, Let's Go Everywhere!

Maple Leaf Rag, Marcus Joberts, The Joy of Joplin

Chitlins Con Carne, Kenny Burrell, The Best of

Elation, Mulgrew Miller and Wingspan, The Sequel

Four, Miles Davis Quintet , Workin'

Society Red, Dexter Gordon, Doin' Alright

Cherokee, Joe Pass, Virtuoso

Music, Music, Music (Put Another Nickel In), Ahmad Jamal, But Not For Me (Live at the Pershing)

Soulville, Ben Webster | Soulville

Monk's Dream, Chick Corea | Solo Piano - Standards

3/12/11

Guest Host - Jazz Cafe

It's time once again for me to cover Ed Blanco's Jazz Cafe program on Sunday morning from 7-9 am, and as usual I'll be playing a mix of jazz, blues, and creative backbeats in the first hour, followed by some of the new music that's come to the Passing Notes home office somewhere in suburban South Florida. Also, after a little time away from the blog to devote a yeoman's effort to my civilian job, this week PN returns with a full slate of music reviews, a video jukebox, and whatever else happens to come along.
If I might also make a strong suggestion that you become a member and supporter of WDNA here in the South Florida market. With serious budget cuts coming for public radio on the federal, state, and local level, WDNA, Miami's community radio station, needs your pledges. Basic membership starts at $50 -- and it's tax deductible!

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3/4/11

Guest Host - 88 Jazz Place Weekend

This time it's for real: I'll be filling in for Skip Lezama on Saturday morning from 8 am to noon, playing the usual mix of jazz, blues, and creative backbeats. Now that I've finally figured out what to call that mixture of funk and progressive jazz and whatever else hits the two and four -- creative backbeats -- I'll feel much better about playing more of the stanky stuff. Tune in, listen, and if you want to chat, I'll even give you the number for the studio line. Reasonable requests appreciated.

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PN 128 (Rebroadcast) - I Was A Teenage Jazz Curmudgeon

I catch my breath this week while WDNA offers a rebroadcast of a piece from the fall, "I Was A Teenage Jazz Curmudgeon," an apology of sorts to Kenny G. What do I need to apologize for? There was this blog entry from several years ago, "Why Kenny G Sucks," that's probably a good place to start, as well as some more crankiness about the idea of authenticity. A long-winded audio review of Charlie Parr's excellent album Rooster should do the trick. But much of my earlier, grumpier thinking about music and criticism has arrived at a point of balance, brought about by the always-reliable Wynton Marsalis. Tune in today at 11:05 am on 88.9 FM WDNA in South Florida or online at wdna.org.

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2/26/11

Listener's Notes - Sammy Figueroa

Monica Uszerowicz of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times has an excellent article about Sammy Figueroa's playing here and there with a number of music legends, and what his musicianship brings to a performance. The piece features five videos for your viewing and listening pleasure, and is, in part, advance notice of Sammy's March 5 performance at Pineapple Groove.

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2/25/11

PN 147 - No More Money

2/24/11

PN Video Jukebox - Horace Silver

This week's jukebox gathers performances by Horace Silver from 1958 to 1974, including a full hour of the WNET program Soul!

For you readers out there, you can check out my review of Silver's 2006 autobiography, Let's Get To The Nitty Gritty.

2/23/11

Reader's Notes - There's No Money Left for NEA, NEH, and CPB?

     You won't find many people as appreciative of federal funding for the arts and humanities as me. I took part in two National Endowment for the Humanities summer programs for teachers -- experiences that changed the way I think about my work as a teacher and the world in general. I work in public radio. And much of the music I love, jazz, is kept vital by the regular support its masters receive from the National Endowment for the Arts. But the nation has to face it -- until the general public rethinks its priorities on a grand scale, there's no money left for anything.
     In the midst of The Great Stagnation, 44 states face budget shortfalls for the 2012 fiscal year, much of the the equity of the middle class is upside down, and the job market remains a question mark. I can tell you of at least three families I know who, despite two people in the household working full-time, have had to go through bankruptcy because of lagging wages and overall inflation. So, despite my own reliance on and appreciation for federal funding for the arts and culture, I have to step out and say that the time has come for a serious assessment of priorities.
     Much protest has flooded my inbox of late about the Obama Administration's proposed cuts of 12 to 33 percent of funding to the NEA, NEH, and grants to libraries and museums. Those are steep cuts, but keep in mind that there are those in Congress who want to do away with those programs (and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) altogether. In terms of the budget compromises to be made, what the Obama people are proposing is a negotiating position; in the end, the cuts will probably be much deeper, but need to be made in order to save the programs. Frankly, if you ask me, it seems more important to save funding for things like education, health care, unemployment benefits, and other essential social services. The arts are an essential part of life, of course, but in my view, when I drive down some streets in Miami and see all the overgrown, dingy foreclosed and abandoned homes, I have to wonder what happened to the people who lived in those homes. Something tells me they're not worrying about their tickets to the opera or their annuals membership to the museum.
     But really, in the bigger picture, what the nation needs to do is rethink priorities. Can we be content with a more efficient way of living, with conservation and green living, and with making do with less of everything? Can we agree that some business make too much money at too high a public cost, and they should be regulated and taxed accordingly? Can we raise the minimum wage, as well as provide health care and educational opportunity to all people? Can we stop believing in the American myths that keep people voting again and again against their own interests?
     If that's a progressive agenda, then so be it. And if we can start moving in the direction of progress, then maybe we'd feel more comfortable about funding the arts and other cultural institutions. For now, I suspect we might need to do a more effective job of taking care of the basics. When there's no money left, you do what you have to do to survive.

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2/22/11

Eater's Notes - Feet Long Debate

At the intersection of sandwiches, language, and copyright law we find the debate about Subway's claim that the corporation should have exclusive license to the phrase "footlong." Grammar and spelling aside, the Sandwich Experts (for whom I once worked, in 1991-1992) are not likely to win in this case. Partly, it's because their food really tastes bad, when you get right down to it. But mostly, who hasn't walked into a mom-and-pop hoagie/grinder/sub shop sometime in the past five decades and ordered a foot-long turkey-and-swiss with the works, toasted? Outside of the context of sandwiches, as well, would Subway contest the right of others to use the term foot-long to describe hot dogs or cheeseburgers or a part of the human anatomy. Here's an editorial from a Connecticut newspaper taking the Milford-cased Subway to task over all this nonsense.