Good Tuesday morning.
I like to think I have fairly sophisticated taste, but sadly, I’m fairly limited when it comes to music. Maybe the right word actually is “undiscerning”, because I pretty much will listen to anything, but don’t have particularly in-depth knowledge or preferences.
I do trend toward the traditional when it comes to things like opera and classical. I like Beethoven, Brahms, “Madam Butterfly” and “La Boheme.” I once went to Glimmerglass to see a modern opera, which was so discordant and difficult to follow that the whole experience was pretty much lost on me. (It’s an amazing venue, though; if you haven’t had the opportunity to go yet, you should).
Given all this, you won’t be surprised to hear that when it comes to jazz, I like standards – songs that I can easily identify and sing along with. I’m a big fan of Ella, Bille, and Nat. I am embarrassed to admit that beyond “Take the A Train“, I am not terribly familiar with Duke Ellington’s canon.
Since today is Ellington’s birthday – he was born in 1899 in Washington, D.C. – I thought I would take the chance to go down the rabbit hole and learn a little bit about how he became such a legend. He was born Edward Kennedy Ellington to James and Daisy Ellington, both of whom were pianists.
Little Edward started taking piano lessons at the age of seven. His mother was very big on manners and proper appearances. Early on, her son’s friends took notice of his regal bearing and manner and gave him the nickname “Duke.”
Though he would grow up to be the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of his time, young Duke was more interested in baseball than piano – as someone who was forced to practice and take weekly lessons at an early age, I can relate (not to the baseball part, though; sorry, I find the game so tedious). It was only when he started sneaking into a local pool hall and hearing the pianists playing there that he started getting serious about his own music – or so the story goes.
Duke started imitating the ragtime players he admired. He composed his first original song while working as a soda jerk at a place called the Poodle Dog Cafe, he called it – what else? – “The Soda Fountain Rag.” (While he performed the piece live on a few occasions, he never actually recorded it himself).
Aside: As I listened to the recording of Ellington’s first ditty I was reminded that I have actually heard it somewhere before, but where? Oh yeah, when I wrote a post on this very same subject last year – or maybe the year before? Either way, he’s worth it, I’d argue. I mean, the man was a jazz legend and all.
I hate when I do things like this, though. It’s along the same lines of buying a book twice and then getting halfway through the second one only to realize that it is feeling awfully familiar. Why?
Oh, because I’ve READ THE DAMN THING BEFORE. Early onset dementia? God, I hope not. Maybe my brain is just scattered and I need to learn to focus on one thing at a time instead of multi tasking, which science has proven does not actually make you more efficient.
But where was I? Oh, yeah. Sir Duke. He apparently had a less-flattering nickname bestowed on him by his bandmates because of his voracious appetite and love of good food: Dumpy. Ellington went through periods of extreme dieting, reportedly limiting himself to steak, grapefruit juice, hot water and coffee, when he wanted to lose weight quickly, and also employed a good tailor to help hide the excess pounds when he was in an indulgent phase.
Ellington could have gone in an entirely different direction, professionally speaking. He was awarded a scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, but turned it down. Instead, he started performing at the age 17 and never looked back. He had extended residences at the Cotton Club in Harlem, made hundreds of recordings, appeared on the big and little screens, and toured Europe.
If, like me, you need a little education on the Duke’s work, try clicking here, here, or here to get started.
It’s going to be mostly sunny and VERY warm today – like flirting-with-summer territory. Temperatures will be soaring up into the mid-80s! Break out those shorts!
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump signed three more executive orders yesterday, including one targeting local jurisdictions that the administration says are not cooperating with its aggressive immigration crackdown.
One order directs Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that the Trump administration considers “sanctuary cities.”
A second order instructs the Justice Department to launch a program including free legal assistance from law firms to police officers accused of wrongdoing.
The third order seeks to enforce existing rules requiring professional truck drivers to be proficient in English, and requires the Transportation Department to place any driver who cannot speak and read English “out of service.”
The Trump administration has dismissed the hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship report on how global warming is affecting the country.
The move puts the future of the report, which is required by Congress and is known as the National Climate Assessment, into serious jeopardy, experts said.
The Trump administration said it plans to announce measures as early as today to ease the impact of tariffs on imported cars and car parts to give automakers more time to relocate production to the United States.
House Republicans have released legislation that would increase Pentagon spending by $150 billion, pushing the total defense budget in FY-25 to more than $1 trillion if passed.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he believes the House can pass Trump’s tax agenda by Memorial Day, after meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others to discuss where lawmakers were on their “aggressive timetable” to pass the ambitious agenda.
The Take It Down Act, a measure that would criminalize the publication of nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes, passed the House yesterday and now heads to Trump’s desk.
The measure cleared the House in an overwhelming 409-2 vote, with 22 members not voting. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Eric Burilson (R-Mo.) were the sole “no” votes.
U.S. Attorney John Sarcone III called for the widespread use of algorithms to monitor communications on social media platforms to root out users preying on children, and threatened civil actions against telecom companies that fail to enact such a program.
Sarcone III said he has been stunned by cases of sexual exploitation of children and pledged to do everything in his power to stop it. He said since the advent of the internet, sexual exploitation cases have exploded, including in the Northern District of New York.
Rep. Gerry Connolly said he will step aside “soon” as ranking Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee due to a setback in his cancer battle, a move that will leave open a key spot that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez previously made a bid for.
The conclave to elect the next pope will start on May 7, the Vatican said yesterday, setting up a vote that will decide the future of the Roman Catholic Church after the death of Pope Francis last week at the age of 88.
The date was decided after cardinals held the first daily congregation since the funeral. General congregations are closed-door meetings which have been held frequently since Francis’ death to discuss church matters and preparations for conclave.
Four people, all of them children or teenagers, were killed, and several others were injured yesterday when a car crashed through an after-school center in Chatham, Ill., a village just south of Springfield, the State Police said.
The victims are believed to be 18 years old and younger, the Illinois State Police Department said in a news release. Three of those killed were struck outside the building while another person was hit inside, authorities said.
The crash is the latest instance of people driving vehicles into groups of people across the globe. Only two days earlier, a car plowed through a crowded street during a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, killing 11.
State police said the driver of the vehicle was not hurt, but was taken to a hospital for evaluation. It’s not clear if the person is facing charges or what caused the crash.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats in the state Legislature have reached a weeks-late agreement on New York’s state budget, which includes billions in new spending and changes to laws on criminal justice, mental health and more.
Hochul announced what she called a “general agreement” on the new spending plan nearly a month after its April 1 due date, though she acknowledged there were specifics left to be worked out before lawmakers being putting it to a vote later this week.
However, the deal might not last long; Hochul and lawmakers have acknowledged that if Congress approves cuts to programs for which New York receives funding, they’ll likely reconvene to assess if they can soften the blow.
Although the $254 billion budget represents a record high, it’s only $2 billion bigger than what Hochul had originally proposed in her January executive budget pitch. Both the Assembly and state Senate had made the case to go even higher.
The deal includes changes to make it easier to remove people in psychiatric crisis from public spaces to be evaluated for treatment, and eases so-called discovery requirements for how prosecutors hand over evidence to criminal defendants in the pretrial phase.
Hochul and state lawmakers have also agreed to create a new charge for people who wear a mask while committing certain crimes or fleeing the scene, according to a top legislator.
State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal is considering introducing a bill to ban public buildings from being named after convicted felons — in a move to stop Penn Station from being renamed after President Trump.
GOP North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik would be the clear front-runner in a Republican primary for governor next year and be the strongest candidate to take on Hochul in a general election should she run, a new poll released yesterday found.
The Legal Aid Society is suing the company that has taken over administration of CDPAP, alleging in a federal lawsuit that tens of thousands of workers have faced a “dizzying array” of technical problems that have resulted in widespread wage violations.
Mayor Eric Adams plans to revamp a major city initiative to create supportive housing for vulnerable New Yorkers by producing nearly 6,000 additional congregate apartments with on-site health and social services.
Adams remains confident after a ruling blocking his order to allow ICE agents into Rikers Island Prison, telling Fox News Digital it’s “all part of the process.”
In a rare, no-questions-barred interview, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sat down with News 12 Senior Political Reporter Tara Rosenblum to discuss his bid to become New York City’s next mayor.
Cuomo is pledging to recuse himself, if elected, from potential conflicts of interest stemming from his recent legal consulting business. Yet he refuses to disclose his clients — making his guarantee impossible to verify.
The MTA plans to replace subway turnstiles with modern gates at 20 subway stations later this year, part of a push to crack down on fare evasion that officials say costs the agency more than $700 million every year.
MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper said the agency plans to use artificial intelligence technology to detect “potential trouble or problematic behavior on our subway platforms.”
A recent rash of violent Big Apple subway attacks has straphangers riding in fear again — even as MTA brass blames the Trump administration for fanning the flames.
Several Democratic candidates for mayor have shown interest in freezing rent increases for stabilized tenants, Adams declined to do the same and also challenged his rivals to pair their proposals with plans to protect small landlords from taking a financial hit.
Following the lead of other mayoral candidates, Andrew Cuomo pledged to kill the Adams administration’s stalled effort to move New York City’s 250,000 municipal retirees into a privatized Medicare plan that many fear would dilute their health insurance.
A small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, shadowed by a heavy police presence, rallied in Brooklyn last night to condemn the actions of a crowd of pro-Israel counter protesters who verbally and physically assaulted a woman there last week.
The Belmont Stakes won’t come to Saratoga Race Course until June 7, but The Bel-Mint Stakes burst out of the starting gate yesterday.
An Iraqi citizen who allegedly voted in the 2020 election was charged on Friday with illegally casting a ballot in South Glens Falls, according to U.S. Attorney Sarcone III.
An Albany County judge earlier this month dismissed a lawsuit from Protect the Adirondacks seeking to force state agencies to study how much boating and other activities the Saranac chain of lakes can handle.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation is making permanent a reservation system designed to ease parking problems at a key entrance to the Adirondack High Peaks.
A significant artifact was added to an exhibit marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Germany’s Dachau Concentration Camp: Hitler’s hat is now on display at the New York State Military Museum and Research Center at 61 Lake Ave., Saratoga Springs.
A former Rensselaer City School District Board of Education vice president and her husband filed a lawsuit against the school district on Sunday alleging staff at the elementary school improperly restrained her autistic son in an act amounting to assault.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
