THE HANDSTAND

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006

 Five For Trane

An evening of live music and spoken word with Gilad Atzmon and Martin Smith. Featuring five John Coltrane pieces and a set from Gilad and his new band
Tickets £8/£4 from 020 7637 1848

Tuesday 14 March, 7.30pm

Bar 101, Tottenham Court Road (next to Centre Point)

London

 To Buy John Coltrane: Jazz, Racism and Resistence by Martin Smith
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1872208223/qid=1141285003/sr=8-1/ref=
sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-9671363-2333259

To Buy Gilad's Music and Books

http://www.jazzcds.co.uk/store/commerce.cgi?product=GiladAtzmon

John Coltrane Jazz, Racism And Resistance

Martin Smith
Redwords, 2003 (extended version)
Paperback. 126pp. b&w illustrations
£6.99

This is a book about the music of John Coltrane. He arrived at that point in history, where his innovations within the music called jazz coincided with the struggle for civil rights and real change in the United States. As he developed his musical voice it became the voice of resistance to racism for the Afro-American.

This book is one of the first in a series of Revolutionary Portraits from the Marxist publisher Redwords. The artist is reviewed in a historical context, and the focus is on the relationship between individual artists and larger historical forces, and how each influences and shapes the other.

CONTENTS: The Early years; Bebop; Cool; Hard Bop & Coltrane's Big Break; Standing Out Against the Stream; The 'Classic' Quartet; Rise of the Avant-Garde; Jazz After Coltrane; Notes.

"This book is a welcome addition to the John Coltrane story. It delivers a modern look on an old but timless story. Devotees and newcomers to music will find true knowledge in these pages. The John Coltrane story lives on..." - COURTNEY PINE


exclusive webcast preview of Film on Katrina

From: FCN News
To: sendmeyournews@earthlink.net
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 2:12 AM
Subject: FCN Exclusive Webcast Preview


FinalCall.com News Announces Exclusive Preview
of Upcoming Hurricane Katrina Documentary


Filed CHICAGO - March 1, 2006 -- The lungs of 68-year-old Israel White are now burdened beyond the emphysema that he has suffered with for years. With a brown wooded cane to hold him up and the help of his wife Kim to keep him going, he works diligently during daylight hours to clean and gut his home of shriveled, blackened, broken and disintegrating property destroyed by the floodwaters that overran the levee by his home in New Orleans. Determined to reclaim their residence, the couple travel one-and-a-half hours to their home every day to complete the cleanup without any protective clothing or respirators over their mouths and noses. This is one of the poignant and troubling stories captured on film by The Final Call that reveal the condition of our people still suffering in New Orleans in the continuing tragedy beset by Hurricane Katrina, a compromised levee system, negligent policies and an incompetent government. Their stories are being swept away from the minds of the public as swiftly as the floodwaters washed away properties and lives when the levee breached. The world must not be allowed to ignore the conditions and concerns that still plague the poor struggling to return, be respected and restore their lives. FinalCall.com News is now providing an exclusive preview via webast of the upcoming feature documentary on the tragedy of hurricane Katrina.

To view the feature webcast, go to:
http://www.finalcall.com/absolutenl/t.aspx?n=18&l=11/absolutenl/t.aspx?n=18&l=8

Your comments can be sent by going to:
http://www.finalcall.com/absolutenl/t.aspx?n=18&l=11/absolutenl/t.aspx?n=18&l=10

HAD A HARD WEEKEND ?
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Sabra & Shatila Film Shocked The French & The Germans, But Not The Arabs 

BY Ali Al-Hail

Al-Jazeerah, February 26, 2006

The Film in Summary:

Yesterday, was an abnormal day for the French and German Cinema audience. So, also was it for the contemporary history of French & German Odeon cinemas. The joint French, German, and Lebanese producers of the Sabra & Shatela massacre film had, extraordinarily, succeeded to show live testimonies, by 6 officers from the Lebanese Christian militiamen.

So many French & German members of the audience felt so appalled, and shocked, by the notorious given testimonies, that they couldn’t bear watching, according to Al-Arabiya TV (Saturday, February 25). A woman told Al-Arabiya reporter, “ I have never even imagined that a human being can cut a dead human body into slices. It was too absurd and too obscene to watch”. The film had evidently, proved that, history is hard to die, and truth is bound to come out, sooner or later.

The film, meant to send many messages to so many people. Particularly, it had attempted to remind the ‘democratic’people of‘freedom of speech’, the ‘right of expression’, and the ‘human rights’ slogans of the ‘free World’, of this forgotten holocaust, should it want to understand this history.

The film has, undoubtedly, indicted the West for rewarding Sharon for the massacre, and then welcoming his year 2000 win as the Prime Minister of Israel ; although, he had the prime role in the forgotten holocaust of Sabra & Shatela. Sharon’s role was so blatant that an Israeli court had accused him of supporting the killers.

The film had exceptionally succeeded to raise, at least, French and German awareness about the right of Palestinians to have their own sovereign, and independent state, instead of living in rundown camps in the diasporas.

Above all however, the film had a message to the Arab rulers; which is, ‘on the day of judgment, Allah, will ask you: What did you do for the people of Sabra & Shatela, on September 16, 1982?

Professor, Dr. Ali Al-Hail, Professor of Mass Communication, Twice Fulbright Award Winner, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, and Board Member of AUSACE ASC, IABD, NEBAA, BEA, IMDA and EAJMC American Associations.

Can be Contacted on: pdaah90@hotmail.com