Arnold Jay Smith Jazz Vent

LOTS TO CHEER ABOUT IN 2012, SOME OLD SOME NEW 

in a standout –and sold out Blue Note Club in N.Y.C.– presentation coordinated & choreographed by Prez Howard Mandel and JoAnn Kawell, there were many of the usual musicians who were winners, and a happily growing smattering of newbies.

not undeservedly, and certainly not a bad thing, more new names are coming up behind the biggies such as perennial multiple wnners Sonny Rollins and Joe Lovano.

MORE BROKEN RULES: SETTING THE SCENE 

thus far NYT Guy and i avoided CubaTour.  walked unescorted from the Daphne pier to a main road.  hailed a cab.  offered the driver a tip.  spoke to a Communist aparatchik, at her headquarters.  and refused an invitation to remain in Cuba and report back to the U.S.  and i’m still here reporting.

the recurring thought of should we be allowed to walk these streets alone was gnawing at me.  we had just left Havana’s Red Square HQ after tossing a serous invitation back at them and here we are marching towards we-didn’t-know-where.

MILES DAVIS/EDITH PIAF STAMPS CELEBRATED IN TWO CEREMONIES

he was known as “the Dark Prince.”  she “the Little Sparrow.”  (“Piaf” means “sparrow;” songwriter Randy Newman might call her a “short person.”)  they never sang together.  they never met.  he saw her perform in Paris.  she liked jazz.  yet there they were being honored jointly on U.S. and French Postage stamps pictured below (courtesy USPS), Miles Davis, an icon of America’s musical artform, and Edith Piaf a tragic national French symbol.

WONDER WOMAN

she didn’t have an invisible airplane, yet she flew.  no bulletproof bracelets, yet she fended off any brickbats thrown at her clients.  her couture, while always fashionable, was her disguise, as was her smile and demeanor.  but her magical powers were seemingly endless.  there will be no comic books, movies, radio shows, television series about Phoebe Jacobs.  she was a publicist.  having been there, done that, i know we are supposed to stay in the shadows and let our clients shine through.