Among the 20 elementary school children killed in Friday’s mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was Ana Greene, the 6-year-old daughter of saxophonist Jimmy Greene. She is on the right in the photograph with her father, her mother Nelba Marquez-Greene and her brother Isaiah, also a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Isaiah is reported unharmed. Six adults also died in the onslaught.
A relative said that the Greenes moved to Newtown last summer after Greene accepted a teaching position in the music program at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. A Connecticut native who grew up in Hartford, he had been teaching at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. He is a veteran of the bands of Horace Silver, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Barron, among others. Greene has also led his own groups and recorded extensively. Here is a piece from his 2009 album Mission Statement. It is named for his daughter, “Ana Grace.”
Today at the memorial service for the 26 victims of the murderous rampage, president Obama told their families and other members of the Newtown community,
No single law, no set of laws, can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society,” he said. “But that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this.
But there must be laws, including those to restore official responsibility for the mentally ill. Will Newtown be the incident that, at last, gives politicians the courage to say no to the National Rifle Association and the rest of the gun lobby and pass laws to establish meaningful regulation over availability of firearms? “No single law, no set of laws,” perhaps, but we must start somewhere. Under our form of democracy, state legislatures and the congress are the starting places. Tell your elected representatives. If they won’t do the job, replace them with people who will. It’s going to be a tough fight.
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
For parents there is no worse grief than to lose a child. Today I lighted the candle in memory of Ana Grace and all the children killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School and to express my most sincere sympathy for their families.
This tragic event reminded me of the children (186) who were killed by the terrorists in Beslan school (North Osetia-Alania, Russia) on Sept.1, 2004. It’s unbearable for a normal human being when young innocent children die at the hands of inhumans!.
It is always tempting to want a political solution to every bad thing that happens in this life, but sadly many of them are ineffective at best. Gun control punishes ordinary law-abiding gun owners, not criminals or madmen. The statistics show that the rate of violent crime is highest in states with tough gun control, and as writer John Fund just noted, “With just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.” And I say this as someone who neither owns a gun or feels the need to.
Thank you for posting Jimmy Greene’s beautiful tribute to his daughter.