Having been suitably blown away the first time I heard Esperanza Spalding a few years ago, I have been completely thrilled to see her meteoric rise to fame in the Jazz community, and to see her music reaching out to a much wider audience.

I managed to locate this concert, featuring Esperanza Spalding and The Chamber Music Society from the 2010 JazznoJazz Festival in Zurich Switzerland from October 28, 2010 and recorded live by Radio Suisse Romande for their Espace 2 channel. It's a little under 90 minutes and it's a wonderful concert, jammed with reasons why Esperanza Spalding is getting the notoriety and accolades she's been getting the past few years.

And, lucky for us, there looks like no end in sight.

Enjoy.

Since we've been knee-deep in debates the past several weeks, I ran across this rather local debate from 1965. The occasion was the Mayoral election for New York City and it was a three-way race between Abraham Beame, John Lindsay and William F. Buckley (yes, that William F. Buckley).

One of the more fascinating hours in local politics, to be sure. I forgot that Buckley had political aspirations and was the candidate of the Conservative Party of New York in this election. From the sound of it, Abraham Beame, the Democrat, was being ganged up on by his two conservative opponents, with Lindsay the Republican challenger.

Moderated by WCBS anchor Joseph Denbo and running on a tight schedule, this is a rare glimpse into local elections, particularly big city local elections.

Enjoy and marvel at Mr. Buckley.

As the Cuban Missile Crisis reached a fever-pitch, news came on October 28th that Soviet ships, bound for Cuba, were turning back and that an agreement had been tentatively reached to dismantle missile sites and remove the offensive weapons. In this half-hour wrap-up from NBC Radio, reports come in from all over the world in reaction to the move and expressions of cautious optimism that the crisis had been averted and its dreaded outcome would not be a reality after all.

Although not entirely over, the point at which there was no return had been avoided for now.

News on this day in 1941 was all about saber rattling. FDR delivered his annual Navy Day Address the previous day and it was met with wild enthusiasm in Britain and wild disdain in Germany. In either case, it signified a rapidly advancing state of open war between the U.S. and the Axis powers and one which would soon enough become a reality within weeks.

But the war was going on with or without U.S. involvement. The German Army was reported on this day to be within 30-40 miles of Moscow, although neither Radio Moscow or Berlin Radio were giving any details.

Meanwhile Syria, the former French colony, had now declared its independence and was quickly recognized by Great Britain with the hopes of gaining another ally in the rapidly deteriorating Middle East.

All in all a rather anxiety-driven day in history, as reported on NBC's News Of The World edition for October 28, 1941.