Great jazz show from 1970 at the Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon featuring the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Prepare to go on a sonic journey.
Not sure why Europe reveres jazz from America seemingly more than Americans themselves, but I’m thankful for all of the Italian recordings, and here, French film of groups like this at that time.
From VPR today:
“A Vermonter has recently returned from West Africa and entered voluntary quarantine. The individual is not currently showing symptoms of Ebola, and will be monitored for 21 days, according to Gov. Peter Shumlin”
And that’s all they know for the moment.
There have been many new users in the last few months, so I thought it might be useful to take a moment to briefly explain iBrattleboro to our relatively new friends. Long-time users of the site are welcome to add additional information in comments.
iBrattleboro was started in February of 2003 as an experiment in do-it-yourself media. It was a reaction to a number of things including big media consolidation, a lack of local reporting, and our personal interest in developing an online community resource.
Time for some magical keyboard playing by master funkateer Bernie Worrell. This show has him playing in Minneapolis with the Bernie Worrell Orchestra, touring after a release of an album of jazz standards.
This show mixes his classics with these new interpretations, and is quite the hour and half of musicianship.
In addition to seeing him with P-Funk many times, I had the pleasure of seeing Bernie play in Boston at the Middle East as a solo artist. It was an embarrassingly small crowd for someone of his musical stature, but he played as if his life depended on it and we were treated to an excellent small show.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And then try one more time.
Such was the unintentional but rewarding path the Brattleboro Selectboard embarked upon almost 16 months ago in a search for a new Town Manager. Along the way, multiple searches were undertaken as selected candidates declined to take the offered position.
The searching has come to an end with a signed contract between the Town of Brattleboro and Peter Elwell, the current Town Manager of Palm Beach, FL being executed Thursday evening by the Selectboard.
Selectboard Chair David Gartenstein said that Elwell has the experience, perspective, vision, and attention to detail that the job requires. Elwell was in town for interviews last Friday and Monday.
While collecting historical notes from old papers, I occasionally come across stories that are a bit too long to condense for the This Day In History feature, but are fun nonetheless. This morning provides a fine axample with a story of a fight between two well-to-do women in town, in 1859.
It jumped out at me for a few reasons. One was the colorful reporting and choice of words to describe the fight in great detail. Another was that it was really quite a brawl if this description is correct. Imagine two of our most notable women going at it like this today. Charges would be pressed!
The Police Fire Facilities Project will move forward with tentative plans to complete the three building projects for the new total of approximately $12.9 million, requiring a return to Representative Town Meeting to request the additional $7.9 million. First, though, there will be a short detour while the committee searches for a new property the police can call home.
The Brattleboro Selectboard approved changes to the Citizen Police Communications Committee mission, heard about upcoming changes as Connecticut River Transit and Deerfield Valley Transit Authority unite to become Southeast Vermont Transit, and voted to continue individual staffing level reviews rather than look at the entire staff structure as a whole. Also of note, a new Town Manager may be proclaimed within days.
How many police officers can be sworn in by a town clerk at once? Almost all of them. Read on for all the details.
This is a 1996 concert film by Laurie Anderson filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey a year earlier. It’s filled with music, stories, vocoded voices, and electric violins. Also keep an eye out for guests Adrian Belew and William S. Burroughs.
It will be Poliice Night at the Brattleboro Selectboard’s next Tuesday meeting. The new police chief, captain, and sargeant will be sworn in, the Police-Fire Facility Project will get another hearing and discussion, and the Citizen Police Communications Committee is revising their mission statement.
The board will also discuss finances and bus services, and buy a truck. You can bring up other items not on the agenda during Public Participation if you attend in person. Watch on BCTV, and read the summary hear on Wednesday.
Here’s a concert featuring the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a roots, bluegrass sort of group that has been playing since 2005, growing in popularity, winning awards, and appearing to have a good time doing it.
This is a well-filmed show at Nancy Jazz Pulsations in October of 2012. It’s a french show, which makes for interesting multilingual stage banter between songs from this very American group.
The reason to watch, though, is for the musical performance. It has an old-timey feel to it, and is a perfect laid back accompaniment to your weekend.
The Police and Fire facilities project was divided and conquered, perhaps, by the Brattleboro Selectboard at Tuesday’s meeting. They heard of Plan F, which divides the project into phases with the fire facilities being completed first, and the police facilities being put on hold for a relocation and redesign. Whether this conquers the issue will be left up to Representative Town Meeting and voters.
The board agreed that Human Services funding requests should be limited to $120,000 this year, waded into the waters of asking non-profits for payment for town services, and accepted and ratified grants. Read on for all the details.
This isn’t exactly a concert, but it does contain live performances by the Firehouse Five.
Who are the Firehouse Five? It is a dixieland band (comprised chiefly of Disney animators) that was most popular in the 1950’s. They released 13 records, are a lot of fun, and are thus is deserving of another look.
The leader is Ward Kimball, trombone player and animator of characters such as Jimminy Cricket and the Mad Hatter. Harper Goff is on banjo. He did concept drawings for Disney World, and art direction for the original film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Frank Thomas, on piano, is animator of such characters as Bambi and Thumper on the ice, the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins, and King Louie in Jungle Book.
The Brattleboro Selectboard plans to discuss Human Services Funding at their next regular Tuesday meeting. They will be exploring options to increase, reduce, level-fund, or eliminate the payments entirely in an effort to keep taxes down.
There will be an update on the status of the Police & Fire facility project, a discussion of charging non-profits for emergency services, a look at Town Manager evaluation forms, and more.
Watch on BCTV or attend in person. You can speak to any issue, or bring up something that isn’t on the agenda during Public Participation.
Brilliance is back in the Brooks House. The frozen yogurt place is a new establishment next door, opening just in time for fall and winter. They’ll need some love to get them to a hot summer day.
Duo, the restaurant at the corner of the Brooks House, has been active. They are likely open by the time you read this. I saw a training session going on through the window the other night.
Shall we just say the Brooks House is back?
For many decades, Brattleboro was home to the annual Valley Fair at this time of year. It was a two day, town-wide celebration of livestock, farming, craftsmanship, sport, and entertainment. Brattleboro literally shut down so that everyone could participate. Imagine the Stroll merged with the Guilford Fair, on steroids.
The newspapers would hype the event for months, giving details of various fair committees and their decisions. After the fair, they would run multi-page accounts with full details, and pages with lists of every winner of every competition – from best pumpkin pie to the cow that can produce the most milk.
Let’s go to Valley Fair, 1893! I’ve combed through the reports to recreate a visit for us.
Ahh, Styx. Make me think of my high school neighbor, Jack. He and I used to have arguments over the best bands. I tended toward Beatles and Stones. He insisted Kiss and Van Halen were the true rulers of rock. We’d each take turns playing songs for each other in an attempt to convince the other.
Jack liked Styx while they were rocking hard with albums such as Cornerstone, Pieces of Eight, and Grand Illusion. He wasn’t so sure about Paradise Theater, their 1981 release. It was a rock opera and a new direction. Still, it was Styx and it eventually won him over.
We’ve featured them before, but why not take another look at the Talking Heads? Here they are performing at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin Texas on September 15, 1979.
Fear of Music was the 1979 album from the band, their second with Brain Eno and third overall. It was released in August, just prior to this show.
The Pay As You Throw Working Group is leaning toward high fees for Act 148 compliance, the Brattleboro Selectboard learned Tuesday evening. The “necessary fee” isn’t yet calculated, but is suggested to be calibrated to cover the costs of all tipping fees, program costs, and program materials, and no sliding scale for low income residents is planned.
The board also contemplated cuts to human service funding, and asked for citizen input on the question. The Police received a grant to improve their abilities to unlock and look at everything on your phone, tablet, or GPS device. (Your silly passwords are useless.)
Other grants were received and community members stepped up to serve on town committees and boards. All this and more, below.
1978 was the year that the Blondie took the world by storm. Sure, they had been around for a while and had even released a couple of albums, but it was their third record, Parallel Lines that gave us Heart of Glass, One Way or Another, and Hanging on the Telephone.
A bit of disco, a bit of punk and new wave, a bit of rock and rap, and a lot of Debby Harry made them a unique and lasting staple of radio and dance floors ever since.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hear a preliminary report from the Pay As You Throw working group at their next regular Tuesday meeting. The police and fire departments will receive grants and a number of people will be appointed as delegates and committee members.
Tune in and watch on BCTV, or attend in person. You can bring up items not otherwise on the agenda during Public Participation, and you can read all about the meeting the next day right here.
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