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A busy day in the world, this April 24th in 1998. Fourteen years ago on this day you probably woke up and heard the news that Boris Yeltsin, after a month of political wrangling and arm-twisting, finally succeeded in installing his pick for Prime Minister, Sergei Kiriyenko. Opposed by the Communist minority in the Russian Parliament, Kiriyenko was touted by Yeltsin as part of his plan for economic rejuvenation of the sagging Russian economy.

In other parts of the world. A festive atmosphere greeted the public execution of the first four convicted of perpetrators of the horrific genocide in Rwanda. The Soccer Stadium in Kigali filled to capacity to witness the firing squad take aim at the three men and one woman who were part of wave of mass killings that had gone on for so long in the beleaguered African nation.

With the recent death of James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, plans were still underway to open an investigation on the murder of the Civil Rights leader. Despite a 1978 Senate Subcommittee hearing that concluded Ray acted alone, there was pressing evidence that Ray had been funded by a group of St. Louis bigots who reportedly offered Ray $50,000.00 for the assassination.

Mergers and Unions in the Airline Industry were big news on this day. With talk of a merger between United and Delta Airlines, promises of a potential windfall, similar to the promises of a windfall from the previous days merger of American Airlines and U.S. Airways had many expressing doubts about how much of a windfall this really was and an investigation of this new merger was called for.

Meanwhile, over at Northwest Airlines - The labor dispute was deepening with Northwest reportedly firing two mechanics, one for wearing a clown costume to work, and suspending four others for a reported work slowdown at its Minneapolis hub. Six other unions were prepping for a confrontation with stockholders and NWO's annuan meeting in New York. A federal mediator called for resumption of talks before the ugliness got started.

Whitewater figure Susan McDougal was sitting it out in a Little Rock jail on this day, as the result of refusing to answer questions for the Grand Jury hearing.

The cost of Health Insurance premiums were going to be going up, with a reported increase of as much as 15% in some cases.

The Senate narrowly approved legislation on Tax-free savings accounts for school expenses. President Clinton threatened a veto.

And daughter of OJ Simpson, Arnell was arrested for Drunk Driving in Beverly Hills.

Some day.

That and lots more via the CBS World News Roundup for a Friday, April 24th, 1998.

Since it's Christmas and we' re on a Holiday schedule of sorts I thought I would add a concert that was long thought non-existent but which has proven to be something of a classic for holiday concert recordings.

This one features the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet with the equally legendary Alto sax player Paul Desmond in what became known as the only appearance of the two giants of Jazz together in concert.

The recordings for this concert were long thought not to have existed, and it wasn't until they were unearthed in John Lewis' collection did this concert see the light of day for collectors in the early 1980's.

The disc (from what I understand) has been reissued by several labels over the years, and from what I gather is once again out of print. It's a memorable concert with both MJQ and Desmond complimenting each other perfectly.

If you haven't heard it or missed getting it the first time around, here's the complete concert and best wishes from Newstalgia for a great and high-voltage year.

Sadly, the name Lurlean Hunter has been overlooked lately, as an entry in the vast catalog of Jazz singers from the 1940's to today.

Hunter, born in Mississippi, raised in Chicago and migrating to New York where she landed a contract with RCA in the early 1950's and turned in four highly regarded albums for the RCA and subsidiary VIK labels.

Publicized primarily as a "torch singer", Hunter had a very good following on the club and lounge circuit throughout the 1950's and early 1960's.

But as tastes and venues changed, and as the vagaries of the music business did what they usually do, Hunter slowly faded from public view. Surfacing only occasionally, such as this guest spot on the Pre-PBS, NET-TV program Jazz Alley, broadcast on June 4, 1970.

A wonderful singer performing to a very appreciative audience, Lurlean Hunter certainly deserves some re-evaluation. At least some serious re-discovery of a memorable back catalog.

In the meantime though, here she is in a live setting.

Technical note: the transmitter for this broadcast got a little crazy about two minutes into the first song and it gets noisy for about 20 seconds. It goes away and the rest of the broadcast sounds fine. Worry not.

Dig, you must.

As an adjunct to the news of this day from Prague and the Czech crisis, there was also significant news regarding the very first Air Raid drill to take place in the U.S. on the night of May 16, 1938.

The site was a small rural community in New York State, which also housed an aircraft plant. The Air Raid, part of a new concept in War, was designed to better acquaint the public with the distinct possibilities that war could come just as easily from the air as anywhere else.

And since Radio was pretty new at this sort of on-the-spot reporting, it was an exciting evening for all parties concerned, and rather festive to the inhabitants of Farmingdale, New York.

So here is that broadcast, complete as it happened over WOR, New York on that night of May 16, 1938 - seventy-four years ago.

A lot has changed since then, to be sure.

Since 1938 was a Mid-Term election year, President Roosevelt embarked on a 28 day tour of the U.S., bringing his message of the accomplishments of his second term and a few words about The New Deal and the Recovery taking place in the country. The NRA had undergone a challenge in the Supreme Court and many of the programs initiated during FDR's first term were in jeopardy. So in an effort to bolster support and to campaign for incumbents, FDR did a series of whistle-stop appearances.

This one, on July 7, 1938 was from an appearance in Covington, Kentucky and was broadcast nationwide to a capacity audience.

Here is the complete address.

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News on this day in 1945 was entirely about the historic linkup of Soviet and Western-Allied forces at the Elbe River, effectively cutting Germany in half and sealing the fate of Hitler's "Thousand year Reich". It would be a matter of days, and with bulletins racing in, with reports cutting in and flying on top of each other, it was clear the war in Europe would be over soon. Still, there was caution, and it was stressed over and over in the course of the newscasts that this was not to be considered the end of the war in Europe. Fighting was still intense. With overwhelming numbers of displaced, refugees and former Nazi officials fleeing to safety managing to clog the roads leading to Berlin.

As the reports kept coming in, the later bulletins placed Russian troops, within blocks of the Chancery in Berlin, seizing the Deutches Bank building. So there were conflicting reports with some saying the allies were 75 miles away from the heart of Berlin, and later reports of fighting going on in the streets of Berlin. No one knew for sure and Allied censorship of news reports made it difficult to get an accurate picture of just far along everything was going.

And that's what the news sounded like from 11:00pm-12:00 midnight via NBC and WEAF in New York for April 27th, 1945.

Traditional Jazz this week from the great Louis Armstrong, recorded live at Basin Street on New York's famed 52nd Street on May 7, 1955.

For those of you interested in the great "Mouldy Fig vs. Chinese Music" controversy (i.e. Dizzy Gillespie, high priest of Be-Bop, once proclaimed Louis Armstrong's Traditional Jazz as Mouldy Fig music and Armstrong fired back saying Gillespie was playing Chinese Music), Armstrong gets in a not-so-subtle dig at Gillespie mid-way through the broadcast.

All good fun and all good musical history via the weekly All-Star Parade Of Bands broadcasts.

The great Louis Armstrong tonight, recorded live at Basin Street in New York on May 28, 1956 as part of the weekly NBC Radio Series All Start Parade Of Bands.

Not too much to add other than this probably hasn't been reissued anywhere and may or may not have made the circles of radio collectors of live Jazz.

In any event, it's here and you get to enjoy it.

Since New York City is at the epicenter of this latest political upheaval, I noticed that on this day (October 20, 1937) a member of the Communist Party of the U.S. was running for a seat in the City Council. Although no longer recognized as a legitimate political party (not since the Red Scare days of the early 1950's), it's interesting to see that in 1937 a member of the Communist Party ran for public office and won handily. The problems that beset New York were the same then as does the rest of the country now. And even though the Communist Party in the U.S. ran aground shortly after the Hitler/Stalin Pact in 1939, it was considered a viable alternative to the two-party system by enough people that he easily won his seat in the City Council.

Peter V. Cacchione was elected to the City Council, representing Brooklyn from 1937 to his death in 1947. And although not much is remembered about him, and even less heard about him, I thought this campaign speech for a Municipal election was an interesting glimpse into the times and circumstances of a country hot in the grips of social change.

Peter V. Cacchione: “In the last four years food prices in New York City have gone up 42%, Rents 38%. In the City Council I shall fight to curb meat, milk and rent profiteers and demand that they be forced to reduce their prices. I shall fight for municipally owned and operated Power Plants. In Jamestown New York, where they have a city owned plant, the rates are less than half what you and I pay for electricity in New York City. The unemployed and those on relief are the greatest sufferers in the high cost of living. Although there have been great increases in food prices, allotments for relief are the same today as they were three and four years ago. Mr. Davis, President of the United States Chamber of Commerce has stated that 50% of our unemployed can never hope to find employment in private industry. This means that we must extend, not decrease WPA and Work Relief jobs. In the City Council, I shall fight to see that this is done.”

I am, of course not advocating that we drag out and dust off the American Communist Party. But it's an interesting parallel to see the social conditions during that time echo the conditions we're currently in. How it's being gone about now is poles apart different than the solution posed by the Communist Party in 1937. But the basic premise is the same - Corporate entities are monopolizing our political climate and influencing policy and practices that are, by all intents and purposes, not in the best interests for those whom they're meant to serve.

An interesting slice of history by a figure you may not be at all familiar with. Not to mention an accurate depiction of Nazism. Contrary to all the misinformation you're hearing.

Please read your history books.

Back to the classics in concert. This week it's the inimitable Erroll Garner and his Trio, live at Basin Street in "The heart of Manhattan" on May 12, 1956 and broadcast by CBS Radio to the rest of the country on that particular Sunday afternoon in May.

Well, you get to have that Sunday Afternoon with Erroll Garner too - Fifty-five years later and in June.

Better late than never, I suppose.

Enjoy.