Pietro Annigoni's Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II

ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION

Jorge Vistel Trumpet Solo - Havana

Jorge Vistel Solo - Havana Cuba from mycompass on Vimeo.

Trumpet solo by Jorge Vistel, recorded May 2006 at the Hotel Ambos Mundos, in Havana Cuba. In the early 1930's Ernest Hemingway stayed in room 511 and wrote the first chapter of, "For Whom The Bell Tolls."

Buena Vista Social Club

Eliades Ochos, lead singer and guitarist of the Buena Vista Social Club plays in Tunisia at the Tabarka International Jazz Festival in the summer of 2004.

The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s. In the 1990s, nearly 50 years after the club was closed, it inspired a recording made by Cuban musician Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder with traditional Cuban musicians, some of whom were veterans who had performed at the club during the height of its popularity.

The recording, named Buena Vista Social Club after the Havana institution, became an international success, and the ensemble was encouraged to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film, followed by a second concert in Carnegie Hall, New York City for a documentary that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders's film, also called Buena Vista Social Club, was released to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards.

The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of international interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with international stars from different musical genres.

The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s.

The new success was fleeting for the most recognizable artists in the ensemble: Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died at the ages of ninety-five, eighty-four, and seventy-eight respectively; Segundo and González in 2003, then Ferrer in 2005.

video: Stephen Smith
http://www.mycompass.ca
http://twitter.com/mycompasstv
http://mycompasstravel.blogspot.com/

Sweet Sugar Cane - Rockit 88 Band

Rockit 88 Band recorded on July 25, 2010 at the Beaches International Jazz Festival. The song "Sweet Sugar Cane" is written and composed by band leader Bill King from their new album of the same title.

King describes: When I started writing for this album I was thinking the blues - then the words began to dictate a broader picture. I can't escape my roots the music that played in the background of my youth. Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King were the music icons of Louisville, Kentucky. Together they penned the greatest song of all 'Tennessee Waltz.' To this day the melody clings to the bones like the best travel companion on earth. I write, I sing and play according to the rhythms and harmonies of a land once unspoiled by strip malls and fast food outlets - the South! 'You can smell the sweet grass burn while the raven sings his southland song.'

'Sweet Sugar Cane' evolved from my many excursions to Barbados over the years and the long drives in the countryside where the sweet smell of cane cooling under a long day under the blistering sun overwhelms the senses. I remember reading Austin Clarke's 'The Polished Hoe' and the poetic descriptions of life in and around the cane fields. It's back breaking work yet the fields are refuge for lovers lost in passion who hide away at night amongst the broad stalks and slicing leaves. These fields existed in greater numbers in the southern states before sugar farming was outsourced. Florida still has the same vibe going for it.

Guitarist Neil Chapman and drummer Jim Casson and I came together to basically play a bit of the blues and see where all of this would lead. Once funding was in place it became clear an opportunity to write new music free of cover songs or common pop expectations presented itself. Neil and I went our separate ways and spent a couple months writing and re-writing. At each rehearsal a new song or songs were played until a unifying sound presented itself.

Through this decade Neil and I have recorded three Saturday Nite Fish Fry albums and now two Rockit 88 sides. It's always about the blues yet a few miles in a variety of directions a place where country and southern rock intersect.

Bill King - 7 Arts Entertainment

Buy music @reverbnation

Bill King piano/vocal/composer
Neil Chapman - guitar
Stacey Bulmer - vocals
Jay Speziale - bass/vocals
Anne Lindsay violin

mycompass
mycompasstv
mycompasstravel
billkingblog
ejazznews

Folks in Louisiana holding their breath

Just returned from Louisiana where I spent time talking to folks around St. Tammany Parish. Life isn't easy here especially now. Faced with arduous hardships and many a hurricane that have left a path of destruction, these people for the most part, have a strong resilience toward disasters and seem to dust themselves off each time they face one.

Read my story in the Philadelphia Inquirer on how they are now holding their breath over the BP oil spill.

How to avoid a holiday from hell

Don't we all hate holidays from hell? A leading financial publication recently interviewed me on this important topic. Find out what I said.

Read more

What's the future of Louisiana's shrimping and tourism industries?

Darren Frickey, a fifth-generation shrimper, has been out all night fishing and is now preparing for his umpteenth shrimping mission before things get real bad. Thing is he says, scooping up a handful of medium brown shrimps known as “golden boys,” this year’s yield has never been better.

“There’s so much shrimp out in those waters. I was real busy before the oil spill hit the Gulf. Now we’re trying to catch as much shrimp as we can before the oil comes,” he explains aboard his boat, the Halania Juna, docked at the Rigolets Marina about the shrimp surge in Lake Borgne.

The big question is how long will the shrimping last?

Folks along Louisiana’s Northshore in St. Tammany Parish are nervous. A 45-minute drive north from New Orleans along the Causeway Bridge, this largely bedroom community of the Big Easy ain’t so easy these days with the imminent threat of oil spilling into Lake Pontchartrain, the US’s second largest saltwater lake.

Read more

French Dirt

Bestselling author Peter Mayle's book A Year in Provence, about a man's quest to grow a garden in a small French village, spawned a movement of urbanites who fled to the countryside in search of a simpler rural lifestyle. Now the French Tourism Office makes it easy for visitors to connect with their inner Mayle.

Read more

Why tourism matters in LA more than ever

These days there’s no getting around talking about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Mention Louisiana and you’re most likely to envision oil and gooey black tar balls making their way up the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge.

Well I can tell you it ain’t so. I just returned a few days ago from Shreveport, LA and St. Tammany Parish and the folks down there want your clients to visit.

Tourism is a big industry here, and right now this state is desperate to keep its local economies afloat.

Read more

Robben Island, South Africa

Patrick Matanjana talks of Nelson Mandela and the inspiration he gave to fellow prisoners. At the age of 18 Matanjana was imprisoned on Robben Island. He spent 20 years in the cell next to Mandela. Interview by Ilona Kauremszky.

video: Stephen Smith
www.mycompass.ca

Basket weavers unite

A demonstration of 18th century traditional Acadian basket making done by historical interpreter craftswomen at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The weaving technique was adapted from Brittany France.

Ciarán MacGillvray at Fortress Louisbourg

May 27, 2010 — Musician and actor Ciaran MacGillvray performs at Fortress Louisbourg in Cape Breton Nova Scotia.

mycompass.ca
video: Stephen Smith

The French came to Louisbourg in 1713, after ceding Acadia and Newfoundland to the British by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. France's only remaining possessions in what is now Atlantic Canada were the islands of Cape Breton and Prince Edward, which were then called Isle Royale and Isle Saint-Jean. The French used these islands as a base to continue the lucrative cod fishery off the Grand Banks. In 1719 they began to construct at Louisbourg a fortified town which was only completed on the eve of the first siege in 1745. The town and settlement along the harbour shore soon became a thriving community.

The cod fishery accounted for most of Isle Royale's prosperity. Dried before export, the fish was salted and laid on stages which lined the beaches of Louisbourg and its outports. Louisbourg became a hub of commerce, trading in manufactured goods and various materials imported from France, Quebec, the West Indies and New England.

One might think that the fortress would be prepared for any onslaught. Yet, while the harbour was well defended, the main landward defences were commanded by a series of low hills, some dangerously close to the fortifications. All provided excellent locations for siege batteries.

The first attack came in 1745 following a declaration of war between Britain and France. Charged with the fervour of a religious crusade, and informed that the fortress was in disrepair with its poorly supplied troops on the verge of mutiny, the New Englanders mounted an assault on Louisbourg. Within 46 days of the invasion the fortress was captured. To the chagrin of the New Englanders, only three years later the town was restored to the French by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle . In 1758 Louisbourg was besieged a second time. Without a strong navy to patrol the sea beyond its walls, Louisbourg was impossible to defend. Attacking with 13,100 troops supported by a 14,000 crew on board 150 ships, a British army captured the fortress in seven weeks. Determined that Louisbourg would never again become a fortified French base, the British demolished the fortress walls.

Memories of The Beach

Lorraine O'Donnell Williams reads from her best selling book, MEMORIES OF THE BEACH: Reflections on a Toronto Childhood. Recorded at her book launch on April 28, 2010 at the Beaches Library in Toronto.

mycompasstv
video: Stephen Smith

Groove to Havana's Coco Taxi

Coco Taxis are purpose built three wheel motorcycles with fiberglass covering that are a must do while visiting old Havana.

mycompass.ca
video: Stephen Smith

Healthy and Happy at FITCuba

FITCuba 2010, Cuba’s international travel fair, had some 2,000 reps from 30 countries descend on the biggest Caribbean island last week. Just in time to be a part of the country’s new entry policy requiring all foreign travellers to purchase travel medical insurance.

So what happened?

Read more

mycompass.ca

Think Florida is hot in summer?

We love Florida. Even the Toronto Blue Jays think so. Dunedin Stadium is their home for spring training and it’s stocked with Labbatt’s Blue – that, and hearing the Canadian anthem sung before a game, makes it feel like a bit of Canada along Florida’s coast.

While you might not have Florida on your radar over the summer months the incredible summer discounts and the dollar at par could change that.

Read more

Havana Artists Market

One on One with CTC Prez

So what makes the president and CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission tick? Find out in my new column.

Canada on Centre Stage

While most viewers who sat transfixed in front of the TV last February watched the winter Olympic games, it turns out the Canadian Tourism Commission was watching them.

“Our strategy was not to focus on spectators but the 3 billion viewers who watched The Games,” said Michele McKenzie, president and CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

McKenzie shared insights on the Olympics at a new exciting speaker series for ad execs and media planners hosted by the Institute of Communication Agencies and Ad Women of Toronto, a new group worth checking out for those in sales and marketing.

So how do you get those clients?

Read more

Soprano Sax - Jazz Havana Cuba

Sax solo recorded in Cuba in May 2006 at CASA DEL JAZZ ZORRA Y EL CUERVO CUBAN, in Havana City, Cuba, Calle 23 no. 155.

video: Stephen Smith
mycompass.ca