Blues on a Saturday: B.B. King: I've Got a Mind to Give Up Living

Blues on a Saturday: Louis Armstrong "West End Blues"

It has beena little over 110 years since the birth of Louis Armstrong, perhaps the greatest musician and artist of the 20th century.  Shiraz Socialist has a great essay on appreciating and understanding Armstrong. Here's a great video which analyzes the great "West End Blues" from 1928.




The blog  "Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong" has a great history of the West End Blues. 

Louis Armstrong’s 1928 performance of the tune has probably been the subject of more words and analysis than any other in the history of jazz. Gunther Schuller devoted page after page to it in 1967’s Early Jazz, writing, “The clarion call of “West End Blues’ served notice that jazz had the potential capacity to compete with the highest order of previously known musical expression.” Gary Giddins wrote that this tune “came to symbolize more than any other the ascendancy of a classic American music.” John Chilton called the introduction “a great moment in 20th century music.” Ken Burns devoted an entire segment to it and if you’d like to hear Artie Shaw, Wynton Marsalis and Gary Giddins expound on it, as well as hearing “West End Blues”

And, to close things out, here is a segment of Ken Burns' Jazz devoted to West End Blues

Louis Armstrong’s 1928 performance of the tune has probably been the subject of more words and analysis than any other in the history of jazz. Gunther Schuller devoted page after page to it in 1967’s Early Jazz, writing, “The clarion call of “West End Blues’ served notice that jazz had the potential capacity to compete with the highest order of previously known musical expression.” Gary Giddins wrote that this tune “came to symbolize more than any other the ascendancy of a classic American music.” John Chilton called the introduction “a great moment in 20th century music.” Ken Burns devoted an entire segment to it and if you’d like to hear Artie Shaw, Wynton Marsalis and Gary Giddins expound on it, as well as hearing “West End Blues”

Ken Burn's Jazz devoted a segment to "West End Blues" which is apparently no longer available on YouTube, but it is well worth searching on the Burn's series.

Verizon Mobilization Wichita

45,000 CWA and IBEW members are on strike against Verizon. It has been called the "private sector's Wisconsin."  The striking workers are on the East Coast, but CWA is organizing information and solidarty actions at Verizon stores all across the country .

Yesterday afteroon, Paul Hendrix and myself from the APWU joined members of Wichita's CWA 6402 local outside the Verizon store on North Rock Road.  The temperature here in Wichita peaked at 105.

Here are a few photos from the mobilization. (If the slideshow, doesn't play automatically, hover over the lower left corner and click on the arrow.)



Please take a moment and sign the CWA's petition

Despite record profits, Verizon is refusing to bargain and is demanding that its workers add to those profits from their own pockets. In the last four years alone, Verizon made more than $19 billion in profits and compensated their top five executives more than a quarter of a billion dollars. But apparently that’s not enough.

Now they’re refusing to bargain. Starting on June 22 Verizon pushed proposals that would let them outsource more jobs, including sending jobs overseas, slash sick days, eliminate benefits for workers who get hurt on the job and cut the healthcare benefits they promised retirees. And they haven’t budged.

KOSE Executive Director Jane Carter Responds to Administration’s Proposed Voluntary Retirement Incentive

I am quite disappointed by the Administration’s announcement of the Voluntary Retirement Incentive proposal. To be very clear, KOSE (Kansas Organization of State Employees) is not opposed to voluntary retirement plans in general. However, it is essential that all factors be considered before enacting a Voluntary Retirement Incentive. The State has not, at this point, considered those factors nor met its legal obligations to KOSE. 

KOSE heard rumors of a proposed early retirement incentive weeks ago, and promptly requested meet and confer over the incentive. The State indicated it would meet and confer with KOSE prior to rolling out the Voluntary Retirement Incentive. By mutual agreement, the first meet and confer session was scheduled for August 10, 2011. The State never informed KOSE that a planned rollout was scheduled for the first week of August, nor did the State ever indicate that an earlier meet and confer date would be required, or suggested. The State's rollout of this program, one week in advance of the scheduled meet and confer session, violates both the State's agreement to meet and confer and the legal requirement to meet and confer.

Secretary Taylor's contention that this is not an issue which must be discussed with KOSE is blatantly untrue. Under the Kansas Public Employee/Employer Relations Act, the State is required to meet and confer in good faith with the Union regarding terms and conditions of employment. The statute defines "meet and confer in good faith" as the process where the representative of the public agency and the representative of the employee organization to meet personally and exchange information, opinions, and proposals to try and reach agreement on conditions of employment. K.S.A. 75-4322(m). The statute goes on to define "conditions of employment", in part, as salaries, wages, hours of work, vacation allowances, sick and injury leave, number of holidays, retirement benefits, insurance benefits..." K.S.A. 75-4322(t).

The Voluntary Retirement Program involves both retirement benefits and insurance benefits, two items that by law are subject to meet and confer. Meet and confer is particularly important on this issue because of the potential impact of the Voluntary Retirement Program on State employees, the citizens of Kansas, and the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. The Voluntary Retirement Program, as announced today, contains no limit or cap on how many employees will be allowed to accept the retirement incentive. Some departments across the State, already crippled by budget cuts, are so understaffed employees are working shifts of sixteen hours or more, multiple times during a work week. Removing more employees from the system would create an even greater strain, and endanger the ability of these workers to deliver the services that many citizens depend on every day.

KOSE had hoped to discuss some of these very real concerns with the State during meet and confer, with the objective of developing a program that could meet the State's objectives while also ensuring employees, citizens, and KPERS were not negatively impacted. KOSE has not yet decided how to respond to this early rollout, but we are meeting with our attorneys to discuss all available options.

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The Kansas Organization of State Employees (KOSE) is the largest certified, State recognized employee organization for state employees in the executive branch, representing more than 11,000 state employees.