Jazz master Max Roach dies at 83

Sad day

The creatively restless Roach, who debuted with Ellington's band as a self-taught 16-year-old drummer in 1940, challenged his listeners and himself by making music that connected the jazz of the pre-World War II era with the beats of the hip-hop generation.

"I try to show my students the correlation between hip-hop and Louis Armstrong," he once said. "That's how well-rooted hip-hop is, coming out of an environment where people were denied any kind of cultural enrichment."

The North Carolina native was born on Jan. 10, 1924, and moved to Brooklyn with his family four years later. A player piano left by the previous tenants gave Roach his musical introduction.

Feds pay $80,000 over anti-Bush T-shirts

YES!

Revealed: MI5's role in torture flight hell

Your tax dollars at work!

Report details US refusals of foreign aid after Katrin

This is not new but glad it's being documented. Ethnic cleansing went on in New Orleans and it wasn't pretty!

Cause This Is Thriller!

Amazing video! Gotta make the best of your situations, eh?

A president transformed

Wisdom from Terry Jones...

That is why George Bush's act of mercy is so inspiring, especially when one considers that compassion is not something generally associated with him. When he was governor of Texas, for instance, there were quite a number of convicted felons towards whom he didn't show much compassion at all. In fact he insisted they receive the full penalty of the law, which in their case was somewhat more severe than in Libby's. They were executed. When Bush became governor in 1995, the average number of executions in the state was 7.6 a year. During his time in office, he managed to put down a further 24 humans a year, bringing the annual number of executions up to 31.6; it is heartwarming to see how his attitude to convicted criminals has softened.

Poppy, Pooty and Pooch

Quality analysis from BAGnewsnotes.