Saxophonist Jimmy Greene’s moving tribute to the daughter he lost at Newtown
Can something beautiful come out of pain? Not just a recollection, but real art? Or are some tragedies too searing to share with the public?
That’s what New York Times music reviewer Nate Chinen wrestled with when he reviewed jazz saxophonist Jimmy Greene’s “Beautiful Life,” a tribute to the five-year-old daughter he lost in the Newtown shootings:
There’s a calmly heartbreaking moment near the close of “Beautiful Life,” a poignant new album by the saxophonist Jimmy Greene. It arrives in “Little Voices,” an original poem read by the actress Anika Noni Rose. “All those precious little voices,” she says over a fluttery gospel groove. “Brightening our day, stealing our hearts, shaping our lives.” Then: “In the blink of an eye, they’re gone. Now there’s just silence where those little voices used to be.”
The context behind these words is wrenchingly clear. Mr. Greene, a substantial figure in the modern jazz mainstream, was among the parents who lost a child in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn. His daughter, Ana Márquez-Greene, was 6.
“Beautiful Life,” out this week on Mack Avenue, is his attempt to reclaim her memory from the grip of tragedy. “Much attention has been paid to the way in which my precious Ana died,” he writes in the liner notes, “but this album attempts to paint the picture of how she lived — lovingly, faithfully and joyfully.” Featuring an array of notable singers and instrumentalists with ties to the Greene family, the album wears its purpose plainly. Its opening track segues from a ruminative duet between Mr. Greene and the guitarist Pat Metheny, playing “Come, Thou Almighty King,” to an audio clip of Ana singing that hymn at home with her older brother, Isaiah, on piano.
What possible evaluative response can there be to a work of art so painfully personal, so inexorably shaped by calamity?
I’ve been struggling with that question since I learned of Mr. Greene’s effort to make this album, more than a year ago. Enough, perhaps, to let the world know that it exists, and applaud the earnest fortitude behind it. That approach has guided most of the coverage around the album, often with thoughtful commentary from Mr. Greene himself.
I can’t explain why my instincts registered so strongly in favor of some other tact: a respectful distance, an observant silence, the tentative wait and see that ultimately led me here.
I wondered, too. Would the album be a sentimental piece of ephemera?
As it turns out, my fears were ungrounded. “Beautiful Life” recalls some of the soaring musical eloquence of the ’70s Stevie Wonder, with impeccable backing supplied by jazz all-stars like Pat Metheny, Javier Colon, Cyrus Chestnut and Christian McBride There are certain kinds of jazz I love, and some that puts me to sleep. I was wide awake for this one.
So many of the songs are standouts, especially “Ana’s Way” in the above video. But I was especially moved by his powerful version of the Broadway standard “Where Is Love?”, performed with Kenny Barron.
If you have any jazz fans on your Christmas list (or want a nice gift for yourself), this is one you should get.
Bernie unveils his economic plan
Bernie Sanders revealed his economic plan on the floor of the Senate yesterday:
Sen. Sanders said, “Are we prepared to take on the enormous economic and political power of the billionaire class or do we continue to slide into economic and political oligarchy?…Today, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the median male worker earned $783 less last year than he made 41 years ago. The median female worker made $1,337 less last year than she earned in 2007. Since 1999, household income for the median middle-class family is less than it was a quarter century ago. We once led the world in terms of the percentage of our people who graduated college, but we are now in 12th place. Our infrastructure, once the envy of the world, is collapsing. Real unemployment today is not 5.8 percent, it is 11.5 percent if we include those who have given up looking for work or who are working part time when they want to work full time. Youth unemployment is 18.6 percent and African-American youth unemployment is 32.6 percent.”
Sanders detailed a 12-point economic program to,
– Invest in our crumbling infrastructure with a major program to create jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools.– Transform energy systems away from fossil fuels to create jobs while beginning to reverse global warming and make the planet habitable for future generations.
– Develop new economic models to support workers in the United States instead of giving tax breaks to corporations which ship jobs to low-wage countries overseas.
– Make it easier for workers to join unions and bargain for higher wages and benefits.
– Raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour so no one who works 40 hours a week will live in poverty.
– Provide equal pay for women workers who now make 78 percent of what male counterparts make.
– Reform trade policies that have shuttered more than 60,000 factories and cost more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs.
– Make college affordable and provide affordable child care to restore America’s competitive edge compared to other nations.
Continue reading “Bernie unveils his economic plan”
This is not a picture of Mike Brown
You may have seen it on your friends’ Facebook feeds, with comments ranging from “thug” to “piece of shit.”
It is not Mike Brown.
Although the picture displayed above continued to circulate on sites like Facebook and Twitter after August
2014, it had been exposed as inaccurate almost immediately after it began spreading. The circulation of the photo was traced back to Kansas City, Missouri, officer Marc Catron, who posted the photograph to Facebook in August 2014 and stated, “I’m sure young Michael Brown is innocent and just misunderstood. I’m sure he is a pillar of the Ferguson community.”The photograph was not one of Michael Brown, but of Joda Cain, a young man who was arrested and charged in Oregon with a murder unrelated to any of the events in Ferguson. It’s not clear whether Catron mistook Cain for Brown or whether the misidentification was deliberate.
Immediately after Catron posted the image of Joda Cain to Facebook with the claim that the photo was of Mike Brown, a local CBS affiliate reported Catron’s actions were under “internal review.” It’s unknown whether Catron faced any disciplinary action as a result, but the officer removed his Facebook page at the time of the initial controversy back in August 2014.
If you see it anywhere, please comment with this information. Don’t let this lie go unanswered.
Little Saint Nick
She & Him:
All I want for Christmas (is you)
It’s just not Christmas without this gaudy, insanely over-the-top rendition of one of my favorite Christmas songs, performed at Ground Zero of corporate excess, Disney World! Please, no matter what rare fatal disease I get, please don’t take me there. Mariah Carey:
http://youtu.be/6vgdxpbLcKg
Happy Xmas (war is over)
John and Yoko:
Christmas list
I don’t really expect a response, but thought I’d ask, just in case: I’d love to have a full-size digital SLR camera. (I can’t take pictures with my camera phone in full sunlight, I can’t see a thing.) And I really miss the through-the-lens framing experience. So if anyone is upgrading for Christmas, and has an old one they don’t want anymore, let me know.
A couple of years ago, I saved up and bought a used Canon Rebel (like the one pictured), but it was an older model and didn’t work with my version of Windows. There were some other problems I don’t remember now.
Anyway, it seems like anytime I mention that I wish I had something, someone says to me, “Oh, I wish you’d told me before, I just gave one of those away!” So I’m saying something.
Happy Hour… Hank Mobley – Remember…
http://youtu.be/wylto0E63Q8
