My Introduction . . .

. . . to jazz . . .

. . . occurred during what would have been my senior year of high school if I hadn't waived my 12th year to begin college early.  Further, if I hadn't waived my 12th year, my introduction to jazz would have occurred much differently and most certainly much later.

In addition to sheer boredom with the high-school routine, the impetus for my attending the (then named) Community College of Baltimore was the fact that they had a radio station; as a career in broadcasting was precisely what I had in mind for my future at the time.

The station, which began as a student education facility, was quickly becoming a public radio force of some potency. Soon to be capable of broadcasting a signal of 50,000 watts, the facility was manned by a combination of media professionals, technical experts and a host of students. The format at the time encompassed a variety of programming including talk, community service, ethnic, rock, classical, broadway and showtunes and . . . jazz.  My first concentrated and serious exposure to jazz occurred working at WBJC-FM radio about forty years ago.

The jazz included Gato Barbieri, Chuck Mangione, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Lucky Thompson, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, Lennie Tristano, Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods, Dizzy Gillespie and many, many more and (oh yes) . . . Charlie Parker.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Speaking of . . .

. . . jazz

Spring Jazz Festival
at Elk Run Vineyards
15113 Liberty Rd, Mt Airy, MD 21771
(410) 775-5089

For Tickets Go To:
http://www.elkrun.com/spring-jazz-festival/

The Elk Run Spring Jazz Festival features two days of jazz performances, along with vendors, crafts, hayrides through the Mt. Airy vineyards and wine tastings.

Saturday June 14th
Noon-1:30  Howard Burns Trio
1:45-2:30    Ray Jozwiak
2:30-3:15    Laura Baron
3:30-5:00    Ronny Smith and Friends

Sunday June 15th
Noon-1:30  Time Squared
1:45-3:15    Josh Bayer Trio
3:30-5:00    Darryl Brenzel Quartet

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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School . . .

 . . . of jazz


Jazz originated in the late nineteenth century in the Southern United States combining some European harmony and forms with African musical elements such as blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms and syncopation.

As it spread many distinctive styles evolved such as  New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s, Afro-Cuban jazz, West Coast jazz, ska jazz, cool jazz, Indo jazz, avant-garde jazz, soul jazz, modal jazz, chamber jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, jazz funk, loft jazz, punk jazz, acid jazz, ethno jazz, jazz rap, cyber jazz, M-Base and nu jazz.

Louis Armstrong said to Bing Crosby on the latter's radio show, "Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation, then they called it ragtime, then blues, then jazz. Now, it's swing.  Armstrong also said, "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. In a 1988 interview, jazz musician J. J. Johnson said, "Jazz is restless. It won't stay put and it never will".  Ellington said, "By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with."

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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We Complain . . .

 . . . the floor's uneven . . .

. . . When we simply don't know how to dance

In a sentimental treason

Each word is charged as every glance



My foes approach and I start singing

How do I defend against my friends?

The treasure buried where I fumbled

The ball into the tiger's den



Maddened fingers spar

With the laughing strings

I was very close but no cigar



We were on the corner with our cup

The lad with light feet made the girl light up

Putting the pep back into the step

Where you would leap is now where I have leapt



I'm an easy victim of nostalgia

I was making friends among the blind

The filament was bright at high noon

Radiating from the signs



Maddened fingers spar

With the laughing strings

It was very close but no cigar



Find the low denominator

With a hundred pairs of eyes

Leaning on an arm that failed us

Against the grain it's common life



I was choking on imagination

Still I know I get the gist

Sifting through a tired memory

In Paris turning with the twist


Close But No Cigar
by John P. Graboski
(Oho [Jay Graboski, David Reeve, Ray Jozwiak]
recorded at Band Bash 2014 - “You’re With the Band!” -May 24, 2014)





What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Elections . . .

. . . in Syria??

 “Force is all conquering, but it's victories are short lived.”
― Abraham Lincoln 

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
― Albert Einstein

"Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."
Mahatma Gandhi

“I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“In the present case it is a little inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible to any public office of trust or profit in the Republic. But I do not repine, for I am a subject of it only by force of arms.”
― H.L. Mencken

“. . . the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
― Karl Popper

“I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.”
― Michel de Montaigne

“Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know more.”
― Confucius

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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A Horse Is A . . .

. . . Horse. . .


Are YOU at a loss for a clever name for your horse?  Are you tired of acey-deucy names for your horses? Do words fail you when the situation calls for a snappy equine moniker?  Are the only horse names that come to YOUR mind Fury, Flicka or Wildfire?

Well YOU need worry no more!  Call US- ACME Horse Handles and your horse naming troubles will be over!

We will provide you with a hard-boot, added-weight, head of the stretch horse name of your choosing. . . and we also give you a 30day guarantee where we will replace your horse name absolutely free if you're not satisfied with the first one.

Sweat (horse-sweat?) no long over what you will call YOUR future triple-crown winner.  Suffer embarrassment no longer over your horse's lackluster name.  We come up with odds on horse names across the board.

Call us today at 123-WENAMIT.  That's 123-WENAMIT today.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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A Real Winer . . .

(Thanks to Elizabeth Chuck http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/phony-wine-seller-waits-find-out-how-much-prison-time-n117391)
Hear about Rudy Kurniawan who went from being one of the world's most respected collectors of aged and premier wines to being found guilty last year of fraud for selling counterfeit wines and defrauding a finance company?

Lawyers on both sides are unable to say exactly how much fake wine Kurniawan sold, in part because only one of his victims, billionaire William Koch, has come forward and documented how much he believes was schemed out of.  Kurniawan's attorney said. But, he added, Kurniawan has $3.4 million worth of wine left in his warehouse, leaving about $36 million worth of wine unaccounted for. In a letter to the judge, prosecuters argued there is "reliable evidence" that Kurniawan earned millions more from his scheme, "above and beyond the $20,730,000 that the government seeks in forfeiture."

Kurniawan was once one of the top five wine collectors in the elite world of world of fine vintage wine, according to AFP. Through sales at auctions and directly to collectors, he sold more than 1,000 fake bottles that he blended in his kitchen on the outskirts of Los Angeles. In her 2006 Los Angeles Times article, Brown profiled Kurniawan, his expensive dinner parties, and his collection of cars — a Bentley and a Ferrari were among them — along with his aspirations for continued success in the wine business.

Kurniawan had become "almost compulsive" by 2003 and said he was drawn to selling counterfeit wine because expectations had risen so high about the wine he had, and he wanted to keep the friends he had made through his wine business. "Bringing extraordinary wines brought acceptance and recognition," the filing said. "Rudy liked the feeling of being the center of attention. It gave him a feeling of achievement and belonging that he had never before experienced."

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet