#John Platania

[rpmtrish]

NEOPMA/PMRA PRO MODIFIEDS READY FOR EMPIRE DRAGWAY SHOWDOWN THIS WEEKEND

LEICESTER, NEW YORK (June 17, 2024) – The Pro Modifieds of the Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association (NEOPMA) and Pro Modified Racing Association (PMRA) will return to Empire Dragway in Leicester, NY this weekend in the first of two scheduled weekend shows for 2024. Last year, Pro Modifieds from both series ran successfully on the New York state eighth-mile drag strip and this year’s event promises to provide more action and cars in this popular door-slammer class. "It is always a pleasure to return to Empire Dragway. The facility is first class and Jerry Scaccia, his family and officials go above and beyond to prepare an excellent racing surface," stated John Mazzorana of the NEOPMA. “We hope to have over 20 pro modified cars attending, breaking track records and giving fans one of the best shows ever. Empire Dragway is one of the best tracks in North America and combined with our two associations, it is the perfect formula for an amazing race.” Expected Pro Modifieds for this weekend’s show include James Beadling, Cedrick Beaulieu, Gary Courtier, Mike Decker Jr., Mike (Hollywood) Decker III, John Glekas/Pierre Chicoine Team, Paulo Giust, Jack Grainy, Andy Jensen, Kenny Lang, Louis Ouimette, Chris Russo, Melanie Salemi, Jay Santos, Mike Stawicki, Claude St. Maurice, Dave Texido, John Vergotz and Derek Ward. Along with a strong Pro Modified presence, the Quick 32 Sportsman Series and Pro Bike & Sled Series (PBSS) will also compete at the Empire Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Challenge VI and VII on June 21- 22 and August 16-17, plus a standalone event on September 13-14, 2024. The Quick 32 Sportsman Series includes a Top Sportsman and Top Dragster qualified field of 32 teams and the Pro Bike & Sled Series (PBSS) is comprised of a qualified field of 16 quick motorcycles and snowmobiles. Quick 32 Sportsman Series entries include Tim Antinora, Brett Bennett, Jessica Bennett, Craig Chadderdon, Scott Church, Art Cioffi, Charlie Emler Jr., Buddy Forrest, Dan Germano, Andy Gregoire, Bob Jaus, Don Kiekel, Billy Leber, Doug Lynden, Tony Madonia, Gary O'Connell, Anthony Platania, Cody Reome, Mark Romanofsky, Tyler Rudolph, Tom Simone, Bill Stevens and Ron Szewczyk, who will do battle with Dave Burchell, Luke DeJonge, Jeff Gabel, Brooklyn Noakes, Phil Sampson, Kayden Wicke and Wilson & Grey, all of Ontario.  Included in the Pro Bike & Sled Series (PBSS) entries is Nicole Albin, Lee Burgess, Josh Costra, Ron Dean, Peter Edwards, Dick Nearhoof, Bill Pippard, Mike Puglia and Bob Salerno. Qualifying for all classes will be held Friday, June 21, at 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm and Saturday, June 22, at noon, with eliminations starting at 2:00 pm Saturday. Empire Dragway will also offer a Box and No Box Eliminator program. Spectators can go to EmpireDragway.com for schedule, admission and camping details. Visit the Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association at neoutlawpromods.com, the Pro Modified Racing Association at facebook.com/promodifiedracing, the Quick 32 Sportsman Series at facebook.com/quick32, the Pro Bike & Sled Series (PBSS) at facebook.com/probikeandsledseries and Empire Dragway at EmpireDragway.com for more information and event updates. For more information, please contact Bruce Mehlenbacher at Bruce@JAJentertainment.com   Read the full article

[londranotizie24]

L'opera italiana risuona in Uk grazie a IF Opera

Di Simone Platania @ItalyinLDN @ICCIUK @ItalyinUk @inigoinLND La Fedora di Umberto Giordano apre il 24 agosto If Opera, il prestigioso festival operistico internazionale di Bradford on Avon. L'opera italiana risuona in Uk grazie a IF Opera: Umberto Giordano e la sua Fedora a Bradford Nel tardo, grande repertorio operistico italiano, accanto alle "super-opere", si trovano alcune perle che sono cresciute nella coscienza del pubblico di tutto il mondo. Fedora di Umberto Giordano è una di queste e, sebbene il compositore sia probabilmente più conosciuto per Andrea Chenier, Fedora è comunque annoverata tra i suoi capolavori. L'ensemble di If Opera è orgoglioso di portare questa magnifica opera tutta italiana al pubblico, offrendo una rara (non viene rappresentata nel Regno Unito dal 2006) ma preziosa opportunità di vederla e ascoltarla di nuovo. La nuova produzione di Fedora di If Opera sarà diretta da John Wilkie e dal direttore artistico di If Opera Oliver Gooch. L'opera è basata su un'opera teatrale di Victorien Sardou. La prima rappresentazione fu interpretata da Enrico Caruso. Quattro le rappresentazioni in programma, che si svolgeranno alla Belcombe Court di Bradford on Avon il 24, 26, 31 agosto e 1 settembre (qui il sito per le prenotazioni). I minori di 18 anni possono accedere alla serata gratuitamente. Umberto Giordano e la Giovane Scuola Giordano fu contemporaneo di compositori come Mascagni e Puccini e fece parte di quella che divenne nota come la Giovane Scuola, un gruppo di compositori che comprendeva anche Cilea, Ponchielli, Catalani, Wolf-Ferrari e altri. Essi riprendevano Verdi e i precedenti compositori italiani e volevano creare un linguaggio musicale rinnovato. Tra loro, questi compositori crearono un enorme nuovo repertorio operistico che ha prodotto alcune tra le più popolari opere di sempre. Il loro regno rappresentò quella che fu l'ultima grande fioritura dell'opera italiana. Umberto Giordano è noto soprattutto per l'epopea dell'Andrea Chenier, ma ha scritto molte opere che conservano un posto speciale nel repertorio operistico italiano. Tra queste troviamo opere come Siberia, Madam Sans-Gêne, La cena delle beffe e un grintoso spaccato di verismo chiamato Mala vita. ... Continua a leggere su www. Read the full article

[rainingmusic]

Van Morrison - Into The Mystic 

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Guy Davis - Waiting On The Cards To Fall

[mitjalovse]

I have already mentioned the opus of Ted Templeman consisted of a large amount of credits thanks to him serving as a music producer since the early 70's. For instance, one of his collaborators from the era was Van Morrison. Say all you want about his latest LPs – I would agree with you, by the way –, but we have to admit his 70's remains a strong era for him. The important factor here was definitely Ted Templeman, since he produced three important albums for him during the time, including It's Too Late To Stop Now. I agree, highlighting a live disc might be weird, because you rarely notice who helms them. However, I do think Mr. Templeman had more input into the sound of the platter than the designation of the LP would've lead you to believe.

[odk-2]

Van Morrison - Moondance (1970) Van Morrison from: “Moondance” LP

R&B | Jazz | Jazz Vocal

Tumblr (left click = play | right click = “save as”) (192kbps)

or

Snuhfiles (left click = play | right click = “save as”) (320kbps)

Personnel: Van Morrison: Vocals / Guitar Collin Tilton: Tenor Saxophone / Flute Jack Schroer: Alto Saxophone Jeff Labes: Piano John Platania: Guitar John Klingberg: Bass Gary Mallaber: Drums

Produced by Van Morrison

Recorded: @ A & R Studios in New York City, New York USA August – September 1969

Released: on January 27, 1970

Warner Bros. Records

[tfc2211]

Live performance by Van Morrison at Pacific High Studios on 9/05/1971 in San Francisco CA Van Morrison - Guitar & vocals John Platania – Guitar Alan Hand – Keyboard John Klingberg – Bass Dahaud Shaar – Drums Jack Schroer – Saxophone Collin Tilton – Saxophone & Flute Keith Johnson – Trumpet Ellen Schroer, Janet Planet & Martha Velez – Backing Vocals

[dustinreidmusic]

Van Morrison ~  A Night in San Francisco - 1994 (Incomplete)

A Night in San Francisco is a live album by Van Morrison, released in 1994. Guest artists were Candy Dulfer, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells and Jimmy Witherspoon as well as Morrison's daughter, Shana Morrison. James Hunter and Brian Kennedy helped out with the vocals and Georgie Fame was also present. The album is compiled of live performances at the Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco, California on 18 December 1993 and the Mystic Theater, Petaluma, California, on 12 December 1993. The bonus track "Cleaning Windows/The Street Only Knew Your Name" was recorded on 17 December 1993 at the Masonic Auditorium San Francisco, California.

Track listing:

All songs written by Van Morrison unless noted.

Disc one:

"Did Ye Get Healed?" – 4:18

"It's All in the Game/Make It Real One More Time" (Charles Dawes, Carl Sigman)/(Morrison) – 4:19

"I've Been Working" – 3:24

"I Forgot That Love Existed/All Along the Watchtower" (Morrison)/(Bob Dylan) – 6:17

"Vanlose Stairway/Trans-Euro Train/A Fool for You" (Morrison)/(Morrison)/(Ray Charles) – 6:55

"You Make Me Feel So Free" – 3:14

"Beautiful Vision" – 4:11

"See Me Through/Soldier of Fortune/Thank You" (Morrison)/(Morrison)/(Sylvester Stewart) – 10:18

"Ain't That Loving You Baby?" (Ivory Joe Hunter, Clyde Otis) – 4:44

"Stormy Monday/Have You Ever Loved a Woman?/No Rollin' Blues" (T-Bone Walker)/(Billy Myles)/(Jimmy Witherspoon) – 6:08

"Help Me" (Sonny Boy Williamson II) – 6:10

"Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" (Sonny Boy Williamson I) – 3:33

"Tupelo Honey" – 4:01

"Moondance/My Funny Valentine" (Morrison)/(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 9:09

Organ solo from "Green Onions" (Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Lewie Steinberg, Al Jackson, Jr.)

Disc two:

"Jumpin' With Symphony Sid" (King Pleasure, Lester Young) – 4:47

"It Fills You Up" – 4:43

"I'll Take Care of You"/It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (Brook Benton) / (James Brown, Betty Newsome) – 16:23

"Lonely Avenue/Be-Bop-A-Lula/4 O'Clock in the Morning (Try for Sleep)/Family Affair/You Give Me Nothing but the Blues/When Will I Become A Man?/Sooner Or Later/Down the Line" (Doc Pomus) / (Gene Vincent, Bill Davis) / (Morrison, John Platania) / (Sylvester Stewart) / (Morrison) / (Erica Ehm, Tim Thorney) / (Vernon, Ross, Shaw) / (Roy Orbison) – 14:51

"So Quiet in Here/That's Where It's At" (Morrison) / (James Alexander, Sam Cooke) – 5:00

"In the Garden/Real Real Gone/Allegheny/You Send Me" (Morrison) / (Morrison) / (trad.) / (Sam Cooke) – 9:41

"Have I Told You Lately" – 3:51

"Shakin' All Over/Gloria" (Johnny Kidd) / (Morrison) – 11:29

Bonus track (2008 CD reissue)

"Cleaning Windows/The Street Only Knew Your Name" – 3:46

Personnel:

Van Morrison – vocals, guitar, alto saxophone, harmonica

Haji Ahkba – flugelhorn, background vocals

Geoff Dunn – drums

Georgie Fame – vocals, organ, background vocals

Ronnie Johnson – guitar

Teena Lyle – vibraphone, percussion, recorder, background vocals

Jonn Savannah – vocals, piano, background vocals

Nicky Scott – bass guitar, background vocals

Kate St John – soprano and tenor saxophones, oboe

With

James Hunter – vocals, guitar, background vocals

Brian Kennedy – vocals, background vocals

Special guests

Candy Dulfer – alto saxophone, background vocals

John Lee Hooker – vocals on "Gloria"

Shana Morrison – vocals on "Beautiful Vision"

Junior Wells – vocals, harmonica on "Help Me" and "Good Morning Little School Girl"

Jimmy Witherspoon – vocals on "Have You Ever Loved a Woman?", "No Rollin' Blues", "When Will I Become a Man?" and "Sooner Or Later"

[altroottv]

'The Weight'_'Bullfrog'_'Rivers of Babylon' - Professor Louie and The Crowmatix - from The Extended Play Sessions from The Extended Play Sessions on Vimeo.

Professor Louie - vocals, Hammond organ, piano, accordion Miss Marie - vocals, shaking stuff Frank Campbell - bass, vocals John Platania - guitar, vocals Gary Burke - drums

[danbusler]

Professor Louie and The Crowmatix at The Extended Play Sessions 02-11-22

Check out this live music slideshow

“Professor Louie and The Crowmatix at The Extended Play Sessions – Fallout Shelter in Norwood MA on February 11, 2022”. The band features Louie Hurwitz, John Platania, Gary Burke, Miss Marie, and Frank Campbell. https://video214.com/play/IO6BC8V7ZCIV87XIksspzQ/s/dark Professor Louie and The Cromatix The members of this group of seasoned musicians have recorded and toured with Van Morrison, The…

[todayclassical]

April 05 in Music History

1595 Birth of composer John Wilson. 

1698 Birth of composer Georg Gottfried Wagner.

1705 Grand opening of Queens Theatre with the first Italian opera in London, Greber: Gli amori d'Ergasrto. 

1727 Birth of Italian composer Pasquale Anfossi. 

1752 Birth of French piano and harp manufacturer Sebastian Erard. 

1779 FP of Gazzaniga´s "Il disertore" Florence. 

1784 Birth of German violinist and composer Louis Spohr in Brunswick.

1798 Birth of American piano manufacturer Jonas Chickering. 

1799 Birth of composer Vincenzo Fioravanti. 

1803 FP of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Symphony No. 2 at a benefit concert in Vienna. 

1824 Death of Italian bass Francesco Benucci. 

1828 Birth of composer Pietro Platania. 

1839 Birth of composer Stanislaw Pilinski. 

1853 Birth of composer Alfonso Randano. 

1854 Birth of composer Vicente Goicoechea Errasti. 

1859 Birth of composer Wilhelm Harteveld. 

1862 Birth of composer Louis Ganne. 

1866 Death of soprano Louise-Therese Lemonnier. 

1869 Birth of French composer Albert Roussel in Tourcoing, France. 

1870 Birth of German baritone Hermann Gura in Breslau. 

 1874 FP of Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss Jr. in Vienna. 

1876 Birth of Swedish composer, organist Viktor Patrik Vretblad. 

1878 Birth of composer Carl Emil Theodor Ehrenberg.

 1882 Birth of English tenor Joseph Hislop in Edinburgh. 

1885 Birth of composer Dimitrie Cuclin. 

1892 Birth of bass Rudolf Watzke in Niemes.

1898 Birth of soprano Edytha Fleischer in Falkenstein. 

1902 FP of Ravel's Pavanne for a Dead Princess. Ricardo Viñes, pianist, in Paris.

1903 Birth of composer Thomas Baron Pitfield. 

1905 Birth of composer Jef Maes. 

1906 Birth of Italian organist Fernando Germani. 

1908 Birth of Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. 

1911 Birth of English-born American recording executive Goddard Lieberson.

1917 Birth of American composer Richard Yardumian in Philadelphia. 

1921 Death of Dutch composer Alfons Diepenbrock.

1922 Birth of composer Harry Freedman. 

1924 Birth of Italian soprano Onelia Fineschi in Florence. 

1925 Birth of American bass Keith Engen in Frazee, Minnesota. 

1925 Birth of composer Oldrich Flosman. 

1927 Birth of bass-baritone James Milligan in Halifax Nova Scotia. 

1928 Birth of composer David Farquhar Andress. 

1932 Birth of American soprano Mary Costa in Knoxville. 

1933 Birth of Swiss soprano Eugenia Ratti.

1936 Birth of English composer John White in Berlin. 

1946 FP of Samuel Barber's Cello Concerto. 

1948 Birth of Italian tenor Dano Raffanti. 

1949 Birth of Dutch mezzo-soprano Marion Lambrinks. 

1949 FP of Roy Harris's symphonic scherzo Kentucky Spring. 

1959 Birth of English pianist Julius Drake. 

1961 Birth of Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci in Ferrara. 

1967 Death of Russian violinist Mischa Elman. 

1969 Death of Russian soprano Andrjeva von Skilondz. 

 1974 Death of English soprano Jennifer Vyvyan. 

[jazzanews]

Van Morrison feat Georgie Fame - Live at London BBC's Radio Theatre - 2008

Van Morrison - vocals/guitar/alto sax Tony Fitzgibbon - violin/mandoline Sarah Jory - steel guitar John Platania - lead guitar Paul Moore - bass Neil Wilkinson - drums Robbie Ruggerio - percusion Crawford Bell- backing vocals Karen Hamill - backing vocals Katie Kissoon - backing vocals Special guests : Georgie Fame - organ Mick Green - guitar

[londranotizie24]

L’uomo con le radici in cielo: presentazione del libro all’Iic di Londra

Di Simone Platania @ItalyinLDN @ICCIUK @ItalyinUk @inigoinLND L’ultima opera di Alessandro Scafi arriva in Uk, L’uomo con le radici in cielo, sarà presentato all’Iic di Londra il 20 febbraio. L’uomo con le radici in cielo: il libro presentato all’Iic di Londra La letteratura italiana continua ad appassionare i lettori del Regno Unito. Tra i numerosi eventi letterari di questo mese dedicati alla presentazione o discussioni di opere italiche spicca l’appuntamento atteso per il 20 febbraio a Belgrave Square, sede dell’Istituto Italiano di Cultura a Londra. L’ultima opera di Alessandro Scafi infatti, sbarca in Uk. L’uomo con le radici in cielo: presentato all’Iic di Londra attende gli ospiti alle 6 p.m. di lunedì. Presente all’evento l’autore Alessandro Scafi pronto a disquisire con numerosi ospiti. Attesi alla tavola rotonda il professore John Took, la storica dell’arte Martina Mazzotta e l’autore Leon Conrad.  Il focus della conversazione verte sul libro di Scafi (edizione Sem), pubblicato un anno fa a febbraio. L’ultima fatica dello scrittore è stata candidata all’edizione 2022 del Premio Strega da parte di Laura Bosio.  Ma di cosa tratta “L’uomo con le radici in cielo”? La storia segue le vicende del protagonista Alessandro, insegnante di storia e scrittore. Esperto di cartografia dell'Eden, per anni ha studiato le immagini del luogo perduto descritto nella Bibbia. Scoperto di avere un tumore al cervello, in seguito alla diagnosi Alessandro cambia la propria vita, il modo di approcciarsi a essa e inizia una riflessione più profonda sull’esistenza, sull’amore, sulla vita di coppia e riguardo i valori dell’amicizia e dei rapporti umani. Tutte queste tematiche e molto altro verranno trattate dall’autore e dagli ospiti d’eccezione durante la serata del 20 febbraio. L’evento è gratuito e prenotabile qui. L’uomo con le radici in cielo: chi sono gli ospiti della serata A dialogare con Alessandro Scafi durante la presentazione e talk presso l’Iic troviamo numerosi ospiti di rilievo. Martina Mazzotta  una storica dell’arte. Curatrice di mostre, è Associate Fellow presso il Warburg Institute dell’Università di Londra. John Took è professore emerito di studi danteschi presso l’University College di Londra. Autore di numerosi liri su Dante, ha recentemente pubblicato “Dante” e “Why Dante Matters” nel 2020. Leon Conrad è un polimatico con sede a Londra. Tutor, editor e narratore, è anche autore del libro “Story and Structure: A complete guide”, vincitore di numerosi premi letterari. ... Continua a leggere su www. Read the full article

[hellofastestnewsfan]

The photographs of the beating show DeAndre Harris curled up in a ball on the floor of a parking lot trying to protect his face and body as the men around him, some armed with boards or pipes, strike him repeatedly. The men beating Harris were there to attend the white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville last August, where one counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed when a car drove into the crowd. Harris, who survived the beating with eight staples in his skull, might have been the second.

To an uninformed observer, the picture may look like an image of mob violence. But to many of the men beating Harris and their attorneys, it shows something else: Men acting in self defense.

“To be honest, I was terrified,” Jacob Scott Goodwin, one of the men arrested for beating Harris told the jury during his trial. “I’d probably perish or be sent to the hospital and be terribly hurt.”

If a claim of self defense as justification for brutally attacking an unarmed man sounds familiar, Harris’s attorney, S. Lee Merritt, thinks it should.

“It works for cops, that’s what I thought when I heard it. It sounds very familiar from police brutality cases,” Merritt told me. “Unfortunately, in our culture, black men are often seen as threatening even when they’re the victims, as Mr. Harris clearly was.”

The jury didn’t buy it. Goodwin was convicted last week in a Charlottesville court of malicious wounding, which could carry up to 20 years in prison. But others arrested in connection with the rally are likely to try a similar defense. The attorney for Daniel Borden, a 19-year-old who prosecutors say struck Harris with a board three times, said he would argue for “third-person self-defense” because the attack started after Harris used his maglight to strike a flagpole that a participant in the march was using as a weapon.

Harris was charged with assault but  acquitted, and the judge determined that Harris “did not intend to harm” the man with the flag. In April, Matthew Engle, an attorney for Tyler Davis Watkins, said that Harris was attacked “through his own conduct,” and that his client “was responding to what he perceived to be a threat.” Watkins reacted “reasonably and proportionately” by striking Harris while he was getting up, Engle argued, not while Harris was lying on the ground. In a separate case, Richard Wilson Preston, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to a firearms charge after he fired his gun at a black counter-protester at the rally, also initially tried to argue he acted in self-defense.

Only Alex Michael Ramos, who bragged on Facebook after the beating that “We stomped some ass … getting some was fucking fun,” did not attempt to argue that he had acted in self defense. Instead, his attorney, Jake Joyce, argued that Ramos was guilty of the lesser charge of assault and battery. The jury convicted him of the more serious charge of malicious wounding.

For police, the fear defense has been effective—but not merely because police officers occasionally find themselves in quickly escalating, life-threatening situations. The Supreme Court has held that police can use lethal force if they have a “reasonable” belief that a suspect might hurt them or others, and through the warped prism of America, any fear of a black male can seem “reasonable” to a jury, especially if that jury is all-white. Grand juries consistently fail to indict cops who kill unarmed black people, even when those killed are children, like Tamir Rice. And those officers that do go to trial often prevail on the grounds that they were simply scared, like when the Chicago police officer Dante Servin was acquitted after he fired five shots into an alleyway at four people who had their backs turned to him, killing Rekia Boyd. Servin said he feared for his life. The first attempt to prosecute Michael Slager, the South Carolina officer who was recorded on video shooting Walter Scott in the back, ended in a mistrial. In perhaps the most famous example, the Los Angeles officers shown beating Rodney King senseless on video in 1991 were acquitted.

No wonder that the men caught on video attacking Harris believed that a jury might side with them if they insisted that they were afraid. In the racist imagination, black men are capable of superhuman feats of strength and stamina; it would only take one juror who shared that perception to produce a mistrial.

Virginia state laws only contain hate-crime enhancements for lesser charges, which means that in pursuing the more serious malicious wounding charge, prosecutors had to avoid discussing Goodwin and Ramos’s ideological leanings—that is, their motive for showing up at a racist rally in the first place. “We charged the most serious offense that we could under state law with the highest maximum penalty,” Joseph Platania, the Commonwealth’s attorney for the city of Charlottesville, told me after Goodwin was convicted. “We are appreciative of the careful attention the jury paid to the facts and are satisfied with the result.”

The prosecution didn’t raise Goodwin’s ideology at trial, but that didn’t stop Goodwin’s attorney, Elmer Woodard, from raising the issue to garner sympathy from the jury. “They want you to convict this man because he’s white, and DeAndre is a black man,” Woodard told the jury in his closing arguments. That appeal echoes what Goodwin has told his comrades on the outside—in one letter from Goodwin featured in an NBC documentary on Goodwin’s family, he declares, “my crime is being unapologetically white.” (Reached by phone, Woodard said he wouldn’t comment on the trial).

In a bygone Virginia, that appeal might have worked. In July 1898, John Henry James was dragged from a train station in Charlottesville by a mob and hung from a tree while he professed his innocence, after being accused of assaulting a white woman. Onlookers “emptied their revolvers into his body” and left it there for two hours, as “hundreds” of passersby gathered souvenirs from his corpse, according to one black Richmond paper. A local editor for a different newspaper noted that while he “feared mobs with the most upright intentions,” in the case of James, “the provocation was very great.” The local sheriff briefly threatened to charge the mob responsible for murdering James, which the editor described as the sheriff being “temporarily unbalanced” by the incident. Threatening to charge white people for mob violence against a black man was, in his view, a kind of temporary insanity.

Police killings of black men still exist in a kind of legal nether-region, where almost no set of circumstances can lead to prosecution or conviction. All over America, but particularly in the South, and in Virginia, that exception once applied not just to police, but to any white man who sought to bloody his hands against his black neighbors. The men who outnumbered and brutally attacked Harris, and have portrayed their celebratory beating of a black man at a white-supremacist rally as a kind of heroism, are seeking a return to that era, to that peculiar form of “justice.” For them, that was when America was truly great.

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/2wqhbEt

[stevesmusicmonday]

Van Morrison - Domino, from It’s Too Late to Stop Now...

Van Morrison is widely acknowledged to be a temperamental and erratic live performer. But in 1973, after playing a successful engagement at Carnegie Hall, something happened. Things clicked, he turned a corner, and felt like he was getting back into performing form. So he embarked on one of the most successful and consistent live tours of his career. Accompanying him was a ten piece band he put together specifically for the occasion. An amalgam of jazz, rock, and classical musicians dubbed The Caledonia Soul Orchestra, they gelled into a cohesive and responsive vehicle well suited to carry Van Morrison anywhere he cared to go and beyond. Anchored by David Hayes on bass, David Shaw on drums, John Platania on guitar, and Jef Labes on piano/organ, they added a horn section and a small string section to round out the sound.

Over the course of the tour, they amassed an arsenal of forty songs. The resultant double live album “It’s Too Late to Stop Now” immortalizes fourteen performances, and is frequently included in lists of the greatest live albums of all time. Of the original Van Morrison songs on the album, I would argue that every single one of them is better than it’s studio counterpart. The arrangements are better, the instrumentation is better, and the execution is better.

What makes the album all the more remarkable is that Van would not allow any overdubbing after the fact. (Regardless of what I said in the introduction to this month’s theme, post-production overdubbing and effects are frequently used to clean up a live album.) This policy resulted in the exclusion of Moondance (reportedly because of a misplaced guitar note), but makes you appreciate even more the incredible performances on the album.

You should listen to the whole album, it’s all worth listening to, but I’ll just highlight one song in this article. Take a listen to the dynamic performance of Domino captured here:

You can compare it to the original studio recording here:

Resources, Extra Credit

Here is a link to the entire album on youtube as a playlist. Quality not vouched for.

Here is a link to the album on Google Play Music. Quality vouched for.

For completists (guilty!), a few years ago, the entire set of recordings from the tour were released as It’s Too Late to Stop Now Volumes II, III, IV & DVD. It’s available on youtube or Google Play Music (and probably others.) The quality of the performances here are not as consistent, but there’s some great stuff on there, as well. You can hear Brown Eyed Girl and Moondance (not to mention a fantastic version of Bein’ Green – yes that Bein’ Green) here.

[kathleencoleman-blog]

12-28 Chip Taylor performs at The Cutting Room in New York City on June 29, 2016. (L-R) John Platania, Tony Leone, Chip Taylor and Tony Mercadante). (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns) #platania http://dlvr.it/Q7vG2h