26 / ROUND MIDNIGHT

As my last tribute to jazz for today, I want to share with you, friends, a film I like very much: Round Midnight.

“Round Midnight is a 1986 film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by David Rayfiel and Bertrand Tavernier. It tells the story of an African American tenor saxophone player in Paris in the 1950s who is befriended by an unsuccessful French graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who tries desperately to help him to escape alcohol abuse. The protagonist jazzman, "Dale Turner," was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends Lester Young (tenor sax) and the tortured and enigmatic Bud Powell (piano). While the film is fictionalized, it is drawn directly from the memoir/biographyDance of the Infidels written by Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate days and on whom the character "Francis" is based. The film is a wistful and tragic portrait that captures the Paris jazz scene of the 1950s.

Dexter Gordon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and won a Grammy for the film's soundtrack entitled "The Other Side of Round Midnight" in the category for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Soloist. Herbie Hancock won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight and The Other Side of Round Midnight.” (From the Wikipedia)

25/ SOME JAZZ PEARLS

Scott Joplin, king of Ragtime, plays The Entertainer, performed in 1902.

Louis Amstrong and Ducke Ellington play It Don't Mean a Thing (if it ain't got that swing)

Django Reinhart, the greatest jazz guitar, and Stephen Grapelli, wonderful violinist, play Minor Swing

Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins in jam sesion in 1950

Miles Davis plays Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Keith Jarret and Jam Garbarek, new romantics, play My Song

24/ HAPPY INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY

 Usually, I don´t feel involved in those “international days” which try to make people aware of something. Mainly, I don’t see the usefulness and, even more, the resources invested in those celebrations should be used in the causes they claim for. But this time is different.

Jazz is the universal language of diversity and inspiration. Although Jazz has born in USA it has no nationality, all around the world, people feel jazz, people play jazz. 

Jazz is a great lover, if jazz make love with other tune, a beautiful song will surely born. The essence of jazz is mixture and freedom despite the fact that it came out from slaves. There is no other artistic expression as free as jazz is. Jazz break harmony rules creating a new one. Jazz’s disorder is not a chaos. Many times, Jazz is composing during the performance, so improvisation can became a miracle sometimes.

Perhaps you think you don’t like jazz, well, I suggest you to take a walk through this empire of diversity, because there is a special jazz sound waiting for you.  

"Jazz has been a force for positive social transformation throughout its history, and it remains so today. This is why UNESCO created International Jazz Day. From its roots in slavery, this music has raised a passionate voice against all forms of oppression. It speaks a language of freedom that is meaningful to all cultures. The same goals guide UNESCO in its efforts to build bridges of dialogue and understanding between all cultures and societies." 

Irina Bokova, Director General


A brief history of jazz:

23/ LANGUAGE'S GAMES

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,  subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid. 
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high 
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer. 
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action. 
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. 
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.