L.A. Jazz Institute celebrates West Coast Jazz of the 40's through '60's at bi-annual festivals

The Los Angeles Jazz Institute houses and maintains one of the largest jazz archives in the world. All styles and eras are represented with a special emphasis on the preservation and documentation of jazz in Southern California. The overall mission of the Jazz Institute is to preserve, promote and perpetuate the heritage of this important American art form. Autumn Festival: Oct 24-27, 2013 at L.A.X. Marriott Hotel.

Text review of Oct 2011 Festival by Jeff Krow in Audiophile Audition; Video by Scott Jenkins.

Los Angeles Jazz Institute (as part of its bi-annual, 4-day, Jazz festival entitled Modern Sounds: Celebrating the West Coast Sound at Los Angeles Airport Marriott) festival director, Ken Poston, decided this festival’s focus was to be the music and arrangements of West Coast (1950s) jazz masters.

“Modern Sounds” featured more concerts over the weekend than on any prior festival. The bands were led by band leaders who largely reside in the greater Los Angeles area. The festival’s premier band leaders – Gerald Wilson, Bill Holman, Terry Gibbs, Johnny Mandel, and Lanny Morgan have made Los Angeles their home base for years. Their band members, as pointed out in this review, are the cream of the crop of local talent, who make their living in LA.


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Watch clips from the performances and Scott Jenkins' interviews with the artists and curators there.

“Modern Sounds” featured more concerts over the weekend than on any prior festival. The bands were led by band leaders who largely reside in the greater Los Angeles area. The festival’s premier band leaders – Gerald Wilson, Bill Holman, Terry Gibbs, Johnny Mandel, and Lanny Morgan have made Los Angeles their home base for years. Their band members, as pointed out in this review, are the cream of the crop of local talent, who make their living in LA.

Along with panel discussions and rare films offered during the day (and a daily lunch concert by the pool), the evening’s theme concerts were dedicated to Shorty Rogers on Thursday night; Gerry Mulligan on Friday night; Jazz Goes to Hollywood (West Coast jazz used for film scores in the 1950s) on Saturday night; and an evening with jazz masters Bill Holman and Gerald Wilson’s big bands on Sunday night.

Sunday afternoon and evening memories were made by a panel with 93 year old legend Gerald Wilson; followed by David Paich, from Toto fame, leading his father Marty’s arrangements from I Get a Boot Out of You. An added touch was provided Mel Torme’s son, Jamie, vocalizing on three tunes at the end of the set. From father to son…

Sunday night brought an Evening with the Masters: Bill Holman and Gerald Wilson’s Big Bands. Holman’s set had arrangements of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood,” as well as Holman staples, “Sweet Spot,” “Just Friends,” and “Bari Me Not,” a feature for Bob Efford, on the big horn.



Wilson’s big band brought rousing versions of “Blues for the Count” (Basie), bluesy renditions showing Gerald’s fascination with Stravinsky, and Debussy, with familiar melodies blending with big band blow-out power. Gerald showed off family members, son, guitarist, Anthony, and grandson, Eric Otis, who led the band in his own new composition (from Gerald’s latest CD), “September Sky” that was simply sublime.

The Los Angeles Jazz Institute’s weekend festivals are unique in that they celebrate the heyday of West Coast jazz, that being largely the decade of the 1950s into the early ’60s, when many East Coast bands and individuals came out to Los Angeles to experience the balmy LA weather and the cool relaxed scene. Many stayed for the film, TV, and commercial work that they found in Southern California. Howard Rumsey’s Jazz Lighthouse All-Stars found an adoring following, and its members, including Art Pepper, Bob Cooper, Bud Shank, Bill Perkins, and many others made the cool yet swinging sound the trademark of West Coast jazz. Most present day attendees of Poston directed weekend festivals were either residents of LA or long time devotees of the sound that emanated from LA area. They return each year from all over the country and across the pond from England and Europe.

"Yasser Arafat could NOT have been poisoned by polonium!" Russian medical agency chief leaks

"Yasser Arafat could not have been poisoned by polonium," Russian medical agency chief leaks, Russian biologist exposes exhumed Arafat polonium as planted post-humously for political benefit - invalidating new report of polonium on PLO-leader's remains as causing death in 2004.

In November, 2012, JewTube.Info reported that Dr. Roland Masse, radiopathologist at Paris' Percy hospital which treated the dying Palestinian leader in 2004, had decried the exhumation of Yasser Arafat to test for poloium poisoning.  He declared that "the symptoms of polonium poisoning would have been “impossible to miss,” noting that Percy had tested Arafat for radiation poisoning, and revealed that the hospital specializes in the related field of radiation detection. “A lethal level of polonium simply cannot go unnoticed,” he said, speaking as workers in Ramallah on Tuesday began the process of preparing Arafat’s grave for exhumation. 

Today, Lebanese news site Naharnet (quoted by Yid with Lid and Israel Matzav) 

Earlier today Russian News service Interfax earlier quoted FMBA (Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency) head Vladimir Uiba as saying he did not believe the report published in British Medical Journal, The Lancet over the weekend saying that Swiss radiation experts had found traces of polonium on Arafat's clothing.

"He could not have been poisoned by polonium," Uiba told the Russian news agency.  "The Russian experts who conducted the investigation did not find traces of this substance."

Even without the FMBA, the fact is The Lancet's report of polonium on Arafat’s “tighty whiteys” is an elaborate hoax. Polonium has a half-life of 138 days, which means every four-and-a-half months (give or take a day or two) only half of the radioactive substance would remain. The amount suppossedly found on Arafat’s gown and boxers, eight years after his death translates to levels that would have also infected his doctors and wife during his last days. In other words, the polonium was added more recently than eight years ago. 

As Yaakov Lappin reported in this July 2012 article in The Jerusalem Post: 'Polonium found on Arafat's clothing was planted'

With photo-ops with Netanyahu in the album, Obama denies ally Israel's reasoned requests vis a vis Iran sanctions, ceding strategic land to Palestine, Russia / Syria WMD

Updated: Amos Harel in Ha'aretz || Analysis Oct 9th: When it comes to Iran, Israel is walking a fine line in Washington 

Lobbying Congress for tougher sanctions against Iran risks incurring Obama Administration’s wrath.

Israel is conducting a diplomatic campaign aimed at blunting the success of the so-called charm offensive led by Iranian President Hassan Rohani during his visit to the United Nations last month. After the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive speeches, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who is now in the United States, is focused on persuading the Americans not to allow any relaxation of the sanctions on Iran before Tehran signs a binding agreement that will slam the brakes on its nuclear program. In the background, Israel is canvassing Congress with a more ambitious goal in mind – intensifying the sanctions, a move that could lead to a confrontation with the Obama administration, which opposes doing so at this stage.   . . .

Jerusalem now realizes, perhaps more than at earlier stages, the full ramifications of conducting an independent military strike on Iran against the will of the United States. A former senior defense official, who played a major role in recent years in the relations between the two countries, told Haaretz this week that an Israeli strike after an agreement is reached between Iran and the world powers and against the latter’s will, on grounds that the compromise reached was insufficient, could be likened to “an act of strategic suicide.”

'Don't say I didn't warn you' || Ahead of Iran talks, Netanyahu tries to convince Europe not to ease sanctions by Barak Ravid in Ha'aretz Oct 10 21:04

In a series of press interviews, Netanyahu urges European countries to stop Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb while it’s still possible; insists Israel is not isolated.

 On Thursday, Netanyahu gave interviews to several leading media outlets in the three European powers participating in the talks – France, Britain and Germany. The other members of the P5+1 are the United States, Russia and China. In Britain, he spoke to the Financial Times and the Sky television network, in France to Le Monde and the France 24 network, and in Germany to Frankfurter Allgemeine and the ARD network.

A press statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said that in these interviews, Netanyahu urged European countries to stop Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb while it’s still possible.

“The [Iranian] regime is currently smiling and saying, ‘You know what? Let me continue enriching uranium, let me keep my plutonium plants, and I’ll give you tactical concessions, cosmetic concessions, and you’ll ease the sanctions,’” the Hebrew-language statement said, summarizing Netanyahu’s message.

“But if the sanctions are eased, the sanctions will collapse. They’ll get everything they want, and we, collectively, won’t get anything. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. The Jewish people has been around for 4,000 years. They tried to destroy us over and over, but they didn’t succeed, and we also won’t let people like the ayatollahs succeed. It’s important to stress that this isn’t just an Israeli issue; this issue also affects you.”

In an exclusive interview with France 24, Netanyahu urged France to take a tough stance on Iran and look past Prime Minister Hassan Rohani’s “smile campaign.”

“I don’t have any problem telling the truth even if it’s not popular. It so happens that I’m not isolated - Israel is not isolated,” Netanyahu said.

“Just about every country in the Arab world agrees with our position; some say so openly, some say that less openly. There’s one country who doesn’t agree with us: Syria’s Assad, of course, because he supports Iran’s regime that continues to help him in the mass murder of women and children.”

Benjamin Netanyahu navigates liberal press to present challenge to Iran/Obama-nuclear-ruse directly to fellow "infidel" targets - American citizens

Did Netanyahu's UN speech quash US optimism over Iran?

Israel may be willing to be the spoiler of US-Iranian rapprochement because in its leadership's eyes, the alternative is extermination.

By Ariel Zirulnick, Christian Science Monitor  / October 2, 2013

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly warned world leaders not to be taken in by Iran's beneficent overtures in an address to the United Nations Tuesday. His bellicose speech stood in sharp contrast to a week of conciliatory words and optimism about US-Iranian rapprochement, and has weighed on US efforts to sustain the sense of hope that pervaded the UN last week.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to CBS' Charlie Rose about Iran: "They're not developing those ICBMs for us"

The Wall Street Journal wrote that he "castigated" the US outreach to Iran, while The New York Times carried the headline "Israeli leader excoriates new president of Iran" and its editorial board described the speech as "aggressive." Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper,called it "combative."

Mr. Netanyahu gave his now-familiar refrain that the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is a "wolf in sheep's clothing," warned that the US is at risk of being duped by the new leadership's moderate facade, urged that sanctions not be eased, and said Israel was not convinced by the new leadership's assertion that it was not pursuing nuclear weapons, the Journal reports.

"I want there to be no confusion on this point. Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said in the address. "If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone."

Israeli Prime Minister to NBC's Andrea Mitchell: "Don't be fooled by Rouhani's charm"

Netanyahu addresses U.N. General Assembly; Decries Iran's Rouhani as 'wolf in sheep's clothing'

Netanyahu tells U.N. General Assembly, "He (Iranian President Rouhani) fooled the world once. Now he thinks he can fool it again. You see, Rouhani thinks he can have his yellowcake and eat it too!  . . . But I will never compromise on the security of my people and of my country of the one and only Jewish state."

Remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu During General Debate of the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, October 1, 2013

"I feel deeply honored and privileged to stand here before you today representing the citizens of the State of Israel.

We are an ancient people. We date back nearly 4,000 years to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have journeyed through time, we've overcome the greatest of adversities, And we reestablished our sovereign state in our ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel.

The Jewish people's odyssey through time has taught us two things: Never give up hope. Always remain vigilant.  Hope charts the future. Vigilance protects it.



Today, our hope for the future is challenged by a nuclear-armed Iran that seeks our destruction. But I want you to know: that wasn't always the case. Some 2500 years ago, the great Persian King Cyrus ended the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people. He issued a famous edict in which he proclaimed the right of the Jews to return to the Land of Israel and rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. That's a Persian decree, and thus began an historic friendship between the Jews and the Persians that lasted until modern times.

But in 1979, a radical regime in Tehran tried to stamp out that friendship. As it was busy crushing the Iranian people's hopes for democracy, it also led wild chants of "Death to the Jews!" Now, since that time, Presidents of Iran have come and gone. Some presidents were considered moderates, others hardliners. But they've all served that same unforgiving creed, that same unforgetting regime – that creed that is espoused and enforced by the real power in Iran, the dictator known in Iran as the Supreme Leader, first Ayatollah Khomeini and now Ayatollah Khamenei. President Rouhani, like the presidents who came before him is a loyal servant of the regime. He was one of only six candidates the regime permitted to run for office. Nearly 700 other candidates were rejected.  So what made him acceptable? 

House Oversight Democrats walk-out as Benghazi-victim families' testify Obama Cabinet lied, State keeps them in the dark

Mother of Sean Smith testifies Obama, Hilary, Biden, Panetta, and Rice, lied by knowingly scapegoating cause of attacks which killed Yanks on Americans' blaspheming of Islam. Since then, she claims, State Dept keeps her in the dark.

During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods. Ms. Smith is the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack. Charles Woods is the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed.



Testifying on Sept 19, 2013 about the events of Sept. 11, 2012, Sean Smith told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Obama's cabinet members failed their promises to keep her informed as info became known, saying the State Dept has endeavored to withhold information from her- keeping her in the dark.

Bookworm recaps the Benghazi imbroglio (with  tongue-in-cheek) on Jim Hoft's Gateway Pundit :

Apparently, Libyan fighters, coincidentally affiliated with Al Qaeda, took umbrage at a poorly made seven minute YouTube trailer promoting a movie that was never actually made about Muhammad’s life. Since Libya has no popcorn to throw at the screen, these same outraged movie critics inadvertently managed to overwhelm our under-guarded diplomatic mission in Benghazi, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens (and perhaps torturing him before doing so), as well as U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer, Sean Smith.

The same crazed movie reviewers then shifted their attack to the nearby CIA Annex where they engaged in a several-hour-long firefight with former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Both men died at their stations.
Meanwhile, back at home, some unknown person, but definitely not Barack Obama (even though he had sole authority to do so), told nearby troops to stand down. Also, after a single phone call early in the attack, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was sufficiently well informed about everything to vanish from the scene entirely. (And really, what difference at that point, did it make?) As for Barack Obama, well, he really did need his beauty sleep before an upcoming Las Vegas campaign stop. 

The administration later assured us that, despite a slew of increasingly desperate emails from Ambassador Stevens about security concerns, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had absolutely no idea whatsoever that an American embassy outpost in a war-torn land riddled with al Qaeda operatives might need more than a couple of local guards at the front door. That’s why the Marines weren’t there to fire any of those “shots across the bow” that Obama suddenly loves so much.
In sum, the incompetence of a Democrat administration left a U.S. outpost vulnerable to a terrorist attack; that same Democrat administration could not be bothered to rouse itself to protect Americans fighting for their lives in a tiny outpost of America on foreign soil; and the Democrat administration then tried to cover-up its gross dereliction of duty by lying consistently in the days and weeks following the attack. Other than that, of course, the Democrats have nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to events in Benghazi.

The Democrats’ sordid Benghazi history may explain a shocking tweet that Rep. Darryl Issa sent out two hours ago right before Patricia Smith, who is Sean Smith’s mother, and Charles Woods, who is Tyrone Woods’ father, were to have testified about their sons’ lives and deaths:  PHOTO: @OversightDems excuse themselves from testimony of #Benghazi heroes' family members #PJNet pic.twitter.com/NP9u2I2noC

The far side of the room, shown empty in the photo, belongs to the Democrats. The only Democrats who stayed for the testimony of the parents were Ranking Member Elijah Cummings and Rep. Jackie Speier.  The Democrats who walked-out before the testimony are:

1. Rep Carolyn Maloney (NY-14)
2. Rep Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.)
3. Rep John Tierney (MA-6)
4. Rep William Lacy Clay (MO-1)
5. Rep Stephen Lynch (MA-9)
6. Rep Jim Cooper (TN-5)
7. Rep Gerald Connolly (VA-11)
8. Rep Matt Cartwright (PA-17)
9. Rep Mark Pocan (WI-2)
10. Rep Tammy Duckworth (IL-8)
11. Rep Danny K. Davis (IL-7)
12. Rep Peter Welch (VT)
13. Rep Tony Cardena (CA-29)
14. Rep Steve Horsford (NV-4)

Update: Kerry Picket reports on Breitbart's Big Government BENGHAZI 'INNOCENCE OF MUSLIMS' FILMMAKER TO BE RELEASED MONDAY

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the filmmaker falsely blamed by for 2012's terrorist attack in Benghazi, tells Breitbart News he will be released from prison Monday 23 Sept, and will finish his sentence at a half-way house facility. Nakoula is not going back to his original home, as he has privacy and safety concerns. 

“I’m still okay. I’m better, but I’m worried, because I’m afraid," says Nakoula, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian from Southern California. "Anything can happen—not from Muslim people. I’m not afraid of them, but from something else. I just don’t want to go back to jail again.” 

Nakoula, who will immediately begin his probation, says he looks forward to seeing his children again and has aspirations to visit Washington, D.C. In the meantime, he plans to look for a job and apparently find stability in his life.  

While serving his sentence, he wrote a book entitled Innocence; it is currently available on Amazon.