Major trends can be under our radar

Many of the major catastrophes in world history probably started with people not knowing the real gravity of what was hitting them. That is because we live day-to-day. Our immediate priority is to get through each day with all the minutiae of our lives. The minutiae consume us while the sweeping nature of something ominous may not register.
People have debated if the German people really wanted National Socialism. Arguments have been strong both ways. German people as victims or acquiescers?

The sequel movie to "Patton," far less known than the 1970 classic - what would that have been like with Rod Steiger? - had the central character arguing "victims." He pulled up to some captured and humiliated German military people in the immediate aftermath of the war. Those people were literally sulking. The scene was striking because Patton - George C. Scott reprised the role - went out of his way to show respect to those guys. He scolded them but in a way a loving family member would tell their own to shape up.
In other words, it was "tough love" from a fellow military man. Nothing subtle in this scene, as the highest ranking prisoner did an about face in his demeanor, no longer sulking but now proudful.
OK it was like the very striking scene at the end of the 1964 classic movie "Zulu" that introduced Michael Caine. Mutual respect among military men can take precedence. Here it's the primitive Zulus who assemble on the ridge overlooking the British encampment in great numbers. The beleaguered British group was certain the enemy forces would sweep down. It was all over.
But no, the Zulus literally broke out in song and made gestures. The Zulu culture specialist in the encampment broke out laughing. Caine did too even though he wasn't yet informed of the import of what was going on. I suppose it was delirious laughter. The culture expert communicated the interpretation: the Zulus were withdrawing and in their behavior were "saluting fellow braves."
The Patton sequel movie indicated that pride among military men was, in the end, more important than political movements. So, it had the effect of minimizing the Germans' behavior of that era.
Surely it is highly tempting to want to forgive people after they have gone astray with a lapse of conscience or dangerous hubris. Forgiveness allows us to move on, the spirit that always trumps everything. It's easy to do once it's clear we are the victor.
Heavens, American society is full of German people. Haven't you always wondered about a particular German friend: How would this person have behaved in Germany of the mid-20th Century? We can certainly wonder about our Japanese friends. The Japanese even more than the Germans are said to have been "brainwashed" into WWII. Is this prejudice? It suggests the Japanese people or perhaps Asians in general are "weak" and susceptible to dangerous forces.
All hell definitely broke loose in the mid-20th Century on a scale we increasingly just grasp in the abstract, because of all the emotional distance that has developed with time, and also with our urge to reconcile and move on with a hopeful lens.
 
Not victims? Listen to Hartmann
What about the "Germans acquiesced" camp? The argument that the German people fundamentally wanted what the Nazis put on their plate? Contemporary commentator Thom Hartmann has made a strong argument for this. "This is what the German people wanted."
Accepting this is disturbing. It is disturbing and disruptive to proceed with conflict. But we must be aware and vigilant about basic human nature. I see the contemporary right wing forces in America and I am genuinely worried about what all could erupt. I mean, if the bottom truly falls out with the U.S. economy.
 
Recognizing Godwin's Law
This post I am writing seeks to promote a healthy and realistic perspective. My nature is to be rather a "permabear." But consider the old saying "if you wait long enough, the bears are always right."
I must draw a line here and assert that I recognize "Godwin's Law." I will not make a direct parallel between the Fascist forces of the 20th Century and the GOP regime we have in Washington D.C. now. We have a president who seems to have little or no alignment with genuine conservative or libertarian philosophy. We have a president who I think cannot articulate a philosophy at all, who hardly even works, reads or prepares himself.
Which is fine if the people's interests are still being served. It seems the proper aims are not being served. But I cannot connect the GOP in power with the dangerous forces cited earlier. History does not literally repeat itself. But history does have a few constants about human nature. Yes we can gravitate to a cult leader type who has learned to manipulate and massage people. The warning lights appear to be flashing now. But the GOPers who have latched on to the Trump cult do not show the signs of humility and fear that would be welcome.
Scarily, it seems to be the opposite. Many years ago I heard a Washington D.C. insider/commentator say of Godwin's Law: "Everyone in this city knows about the rule but it gets violated all the time." So lately we heard Chris Matthews of all people, a D.C. insider's insider, violate the rule by comparing a Bernie Sanders surge to the Nazi invasion of Poland or some country. Holy cow.
The Matthews flub - presumably he wouldn't do it again - was one of a couple that quickly hastened the end of his MSNBC show. The other awkward issue had to do with #MeToo. Looking at how #MeToo has taken down so many important people like a scythe, it makes me thankful I have never even asked a woman on a date. Glory hallelujah. My life has indeed had its blessings.
Joe Biden now has #MeToo hovering over him like a vulture. Fox News will talk about those allegations 24 hours a day if it has to. It could sink Biden and the Democrats. Which means, we'll have more of Trump and his brainless power-seeking sycophants. But I won't violate Godwin's Law. (Do not compare anything happening today to the Nazis because the Nazis were so uniquely evil.)
 
Addendum: The name of the "Patton" movie sequel was "The Last Days of Patton" and it came out in 1986. It was made for TV. It had such a somber and ponderous tone, it wasn't likely to become a classic.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Health crisis vs. our conditioned optimism

A doomsaying movie: relevant now?

"I can't really remember when I last had any hope, and I certainly can't remember when anyone else did either."
-Clive Owen as "Theo Faron" in the movie "Children of Men" (2006)
 
Our new world of limited activity just persists with no certainty over whether anything resembling normalcy is really on the horizon. (Maybe the precise term is "normality.")
The American people have been an optimistic lot over the recent past. Gone is the defeatism that hovered in my formative years. I grew up in a time when nobody thought the stock market would go surging up on a steady basis.
I mention the dispirited time of my youth as a reminder that sometimes the news and world events can become a bummer. It must have been worse in the '30s and '40s. I was not around then, cannot relate much to that. But look at humanity's background, lots of distress.
In our modern age through the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies, our instincts have tended toward positive spin. We have seen "conflict resolution" implemented. Not that the basis for conflict has faded away, it's just that we now have systems to prevent prolonged discomfort or confusion. My blunt take would be, that winners and losers are identified quickly to promote orderliness, then the losers just have to mosey on and find another gig. There is more pain in the background than we might think.
We don't even want to talk about discord on any level. And it's nice to have a positive and optimistic sheen as a guiding tenor. But issues and problems remain to be confronted. So in the case of the current pandemic crisis, painful as it is, we simply must think about the worst things that can happen. It's not being negative, it's just being realistic. Realism can help us anticipate problems in a sober and albeit fearful way, but it toughens us and can help us adapt.
We have gotten used to a pretty sunny world. As a young person I could not have imagined - I would have been dumbfounded - seeing a world where the common folks had near-total faith in the stock market. A world in which they'd assume far more "up" days than down in the stock market, in which a down day is just written off as "profit-taking" and an assumed upturn will come with the "bargain hunters." Haven't heard the latter term lately, actually. It was standard cliche fare on the business TV channels for a long time. The commentators developed their niche in the media ecosystem where they did and said things according to a formula. All of cable TV news has developed that way, into an ecosystem that took some time to find its legs.
 
After a while, what's the point?
So this morning I might be inclined to tune in the "Morning Joe" program on MSNBC. You would think that most serious news-hungry people would find this show ideal. It is becoming surreal, however. That's because for three hours we're likely to hear in constant unrestrained fashion, all buttressed by facts, about the absolute absurdity of  Donald Trump and his presidency. He is president even though he had no experience in government or the military. So we let him slide into that spot by virtue of his savvy gained in entertainment media.
He gets led along by Fox News and the whole Fox template of grotesque reactionary thought. And he actually proceeds with actions and words not based on a serious background of what he could learn at the highest levels of government. Surely there are sage folks populating the rarefied level of government, yet Trump acts as if they are not his counsel. Instead Trump is a total clown, just bursting forward with the most impulsive thoughts, often for little more reason than to be combative.
And he knows he has a cheerleading section across the nation of people who favor him like they would their favorite professional wrestler. And it is far beyond having any amusing quality any more.
So I could have watched "Morning Joe" this morning with Joe, Mika, Mike Barnicle and others, but I'm wondering if it's a waste of time. Three hours is a long time. I could take it all in, and digest a virtual litany of absurdities that come forward from Trump and his Republican Party in general. Yes it's all so mind-boggling. We see the people on the TV panel expressing disbelief and consternation and literally laughing sometimes, yet we have a pandemic now. Nursing homes are being assaulted by the virus and the stats of the deceased build and build. If nothing else, are you not affronted by the idea of the deceased being statistics? My late mother spent six weeks in a nursing home.
 
Humanism and Jesus Christ
The urgency does not seem sufficient. All the Christians who on Sunday profess to at least pay lip service to (Christ's) humanistic ideals - where are their voices? Oh wait, sometimes the reactionaries weave in "humanism" with a set of undesirable principles. They talk about "the libs." They decry "big government" and assert personal responsibility as they sit idly by while the deficit goes into the stratosphere and the Federal Reserve goes absolutely bonkers with what it is doing, "buying up everything." Money gets printed as if it's Monopoly money.
Were we not conditioned for such optimism in these contemporary times, we'd have a real fear of inflation, yes even hyper-inflation.
We can listen to "Morning Joe" and the nonstop well-informed rants about Trump - the man, his habits and his way of thinking - and what happens? The day goes by, then we rise again the next morning for the same routine, "Groundhog Day" style. On and on it goes with no apparent movement building up across the nation for redress, for a restructuring of government so it is run by capable, learned and humble people, people who do not demand to stand in front of a TV camera for 2-3 hours every day, yes even on Palm Sunday.
And Trump's supporters are the type who believe in "smaller government?" We have never had such an activist government and Federal Reserve. Our leaders pull levers that amount to little more than a sugar rush. They know that a few well-chosen words on a given day can "juice" the stock market a little, stanch the bleeding. And because our U.S. society has been through such an unprecedented epoch of optimism, we are woefully and tragically slow to see what might lie ahead of us. We cannot predict with certainty at all about the virus.
Our optimistic nature wants to suggest the best scenario. It is messy and distracting to have anything truly ominous hover. But our generally rosy state of mind will restrict us, for being able to truly cope if something on the scale of an apocalypse starts happening.
 
Presaging on big screen
I remember a movie of about 15 years ago about a pandemic that resulted in women not being able to give birth to children. So society was literally breaking down. Disorder and panic grew. This visit to the Morris Theater was when Curt Barber was still in charge there. Thanks to Curt for keeping the place going for so long. It became a co-op after his tenure. The marquee is empty today as I write, as social distancing has precluded the activity.
The movie was authentic in the picture it painted, made it seem such a thing could happen. It was sobering and riveting, so it hovers in my mind today. It's the worst that could happen. Let's see, the name of the movie was "Children of Men" and it came out in 2006, my last year with the Morris newspaper. For a long time I attended the movie every Friday night at the Morris Theater regardless of what was playing. A ritual for ending the week I guess, not that I didn't work on Saturday and Sunday too. But Friday was an exhausting time as I would load the Ad-Viser free advertiser into the Morris newspaper van. I could be sweaty! The Ad-Viser no longer exists.
I remember "working" on Curt to try to get the movie "Polar Express" here. It did come and of course I don't know if my lobbying figured in. The passing years have been good to "Polar Express" as it has risen to classic/standard holiday fare, where there's so much competition BTW. At first I was troubled by the movie - seemed too much like a drug-induced fantasy, and the kids seemed prone to having violent things happen to them. Revising such thoughts, we must persuade ourselves it's fantasy and that joy prevails at the end. Today I enjoy it, particularly where the elves sing "Rockin' on Top of the World!"
"Children of Men" was based on the 1992 novel by P.D. James. The cast includes Michael Caine who I will never forget from his role in "Zulu," the riveting historical story from the big screen in 1964. I can't help but think, sadly, that scenes from "Children of Men" might in fact become reality here. Ignoring the possibility will only hamstring us. We need a deadly serious government. We need leaders who don't have to be on TV at all.
 
Addendum:  Will history someday judge that humanity took a tragic turn with the re-election of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell over Alison Lundergan Grimes in 2014? Grimes is precisely the type of young caring female leader who ought to come to the fore now. Yet people streamed into polling places to vote for McConnell. "Alice Through the Looking Glass," yes.
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Tech has not smoothed over playing the trumpet

Ingrid Jensen was a UMM Jazz Fest clinician/performer.

Technological advancements with products have been so far-reaching, I inquired with a music friend about whether trumpets are now made so they're not so physically demanding to play. The answer: "no." He said he had felt some curiosity about this himself. Someone had scolded him a little, saying "gee, are you looking for the easy way to do everything?" Well, a nice succinct answer to that would be "yes."
We ought to be unapologetic for this attitude. Maybe the turnaround in our lives was caused by the crashed UFO seized in Roswell NM. Whatever the cause, there's no denying that the digital revolution - a renaissance - has erased many longstanding attitudes about "work," the necessity of it and even the virtue of it.
I remember a conversation I had with a restaurant waitress - fountains of wisdom, they can be, though they're an endangered class now due to the shutdown - and we noted that people have no qualms these days about simply saying they are "not working." Think about that. Quite the shift from the previous norm. In the past we'd judge someone's basic value on the amount of time they spent working, with their "nose to the grindstone" as it were.
I felt proud as I did the labor of sorting newspapers, loading the sacks into the van and then going out and about distributing. I was proud to have the public observing me doing this. I was "working." I'd have to take about four showers a week. My "free time" could feel like a godsend, like stepping outside for some fresh air first thing in the morning.
The nature of work has changed. Basic labor has surely not disappeared. It never will. But we no longer equate it so much with virtue, if at all. Knowledge is what matters today. It's the knowledge to tap into sophisticated and labor-saving systems. Efficiency has become a real currency. You are "productive" today not according to the sheer number of hours you work each week. You are productive by how you add value to resources with an accent on labor-saving technology.
Did this post start out with a reference to playing the trumpet? Well allow me to reminisce that I once had this "ax" as rather a stock-in-trade. For better or worse I picked up some credentials that helped define me as a young person. Few people around our community of Morris have any recollection of that. No matter. Few people remember, also, how I made my rounds in a 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado, purchased from Bill Dripps, for about a decade. Does life get any better than that?
And then when these phases had run their course, that's when I got on board with the Morris newspaper which, for better or worse, became my stock-in-trade. So now I look back.
 
Notes on brass
The trumpet now strikes me as a strange instrument, a rather gross instrument, where you press your lips up against a "mouthpiece" and have to send spit through the horn in order to produce sounds. Anyone who has played brass knows about the practice of emptying spit. Brass instruments present the obstacle of being physically draining to play. The lips part of the whole thing is represented by the term "embouchure."
There's a movie scene with Jimmy Stewart directing an orchestra and being beside a featured trumpet performer. Just before the start of this musical number, Stewart turns to the soloist and says "how's your embouchure?" That cracks me up.
This is strange: the raisin d'etre (not a breakfast cereal) for trumpet players is to play the very high notes. It makes me laugh as I reflect on it - with age comes wisdom. Let's employ simple logic: if the high notes are so important, why not just play a different instrument? My late mother made this precise observation once when she observed a video I was playing of Maynard Ferguson. Maynard Ferguson! My generation of brassers practically lost its mind being mesmerized by M.F., whose stock in trade was the incredibly high notes.

And why should this attribute or talent matter so much? His raw talent with that actually obscured his real music/jazz genius, without which he really would not have gone anywhere. But us testosterone-fueled boys of that earlier time thought the high notes were totally boss, and it got so bad we'd fantasize about being Maynard. Hey, you all remember, don't hang your heads.
 
A timely trumpet showcase
So I'm remembering all this background as I appreciate a fresh recording here in the year 2020 called "A Hope for the Future," presented by 32 of the top trumpeters. It's "a tribute to the true frontline heroes around the globe, health care specialists dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic."
Artistically I think this is super. As a "tribute," well I don't know about that as there are no lyrics to convey anything. We have to take their word for it. Now, maybe you know that trumpet players have a reputation of being vain folks. Music insiders would say "chair conscious" because the players of course all aspire to be "first chair" in the section. Looking back, I see that focus as being so absolutely pointless.
So I'm wondering if the "Hope for the Future" thing was really just a dressed-up vanity project for these trumpet players. You have to understand the trumpet-playing beast. I was on that turf once but I don't think I got sucked into all the norms.
I watch some Maynard Ferguson videos today and part of me wants to say "the emperor has no clothes" as my late mom surely would. I'm happy for all the success he had. But it seems truly perverse that he became a Greek god of sorts by virtue of his gift of simply reaching high notes. Why so important? Seems like an elementary question now.
I'll conclude by sharing two links. First, here's "A Hope for the Future," the elaborate trumpet showcase which is so well worth listening to. Note: Three of these performers were guests for the UMM Jazz Fest through the years: Allen Vizzutti, Wayne Bergeron and Ingrid Jensen. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR_7P5_7kh4&list=RDeR_7P5_7kh4&start_radio=1

 

OK, last but not least, or maybe it's least, here's a link to a TV show from 1973, from the Alexandria MN TV station, on which yours truly is seen playing with the Tempo Kings orchestra. The Sarlette family of Morris is also seen. The quality of the video is archival. It is proof that it's not a tall tale that yours truly once played trumpet. I have photos of my 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado too. A toast to that. Heads-up: I only weigh about 150 pounds in video. I had run cross country in the fall. "Tricky Dick" was our U.S. president.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li0uuVZOXhA&feature=youtu.be
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

A melancholy Easter weekend for 2020

What kind of future for our restaurants?

My late friend Glen Helberg and I agreed that holidays are difficult for unemployed people. Other people enjoy the change of pace, the chance to celebrate family and some free time, while the non-working folks have a surplus of free time.
Easter weekend for me had no special meaning. For nearly my whole life it did, as my family would get together with our Glenwood relatives. We had the Scandinavian tradition of offering coffee as soon as we gathered together. My parents and my uncle and aunt reminisced a lot. As they got up in years this talk would get depressing for a younger generation person like me. That's because so many of their contemporaries were fighting the effects or ravages of age. I'd hear about people dying, becoming mentally crippled of being put in nursing homes.
My aunt Vi was in a nursing home for a fairly short time after my uncle died. Then she too passed away. One day my family visited her, and Dad recognized another resident from very long ago. The resident became very excited in a surprised sort of way and then regurgitated.
You can only spin so much happiness from what you observe in a nursing home. God created us so our breakdowns can be quite major with age. And this we notice more and more as medical science extends our lifespans. We end up with chronic conditions. Costs accelerate. People need relief in some way from the financial pressures of it all. Eventually the political process will see that something is done.
The quiet and uneventful nature of my life hovered around me as I experienced Easter weekend. I took a long walk on both Saturday and Sunday, partly in the country and partly through town. On Sunday especially the atmosphere was dead in a haunting sort of way. And yet people were behind all the shuttered doors. I can just imagine the exasperation coming out in their conversations. How might this exasperation start to be vented through the political process?
In one sense I am lucky: by not being part of a family, I am relieved of the pressure other family members might impose on me, pressures relating to financial stability and security. People have been idled, businesses forced to close their doors. I was absolutely astounded that my accountant/tax office had its doors closed right smack-dab in tax season. Any customer is going to want to go back and forth with those people, an occasional question to be answered, right? I was denied that, forced instead to work through a ridiculous "drop box" system. I had to rap on the door and get someone's attention to simply make clear how I had submitted some material. It felt stupid. Someone should have been seated by the door, at least.
 
Our restaurants' plight
Jim Morrison expressed a frustration I have felt greatly: restaurants being shut down. Increasingly I think the restaurant owners are just being screwed. Oh, but isn't the forced closure a matter of public health and safety? You can make an argument "yes," obviously. So maybe it's prudent but how do you square this with other categories of businesses that are left to operate more or less as normal?
On Saturday of Easter weekend, I was struck by the sight of the Town and Country parking lot being nearly full. DeToy's informed me that Town and Country is considered "essential." What? So people can get some gardening supplies for spring? The usual junk you see in the flyers that arrive in your mailbox? That's "essential?" Meanwhile restaurants like DeToy's are being oppressed, probably destroyed in many cases. A sense of unfairness builds. This is why industry groups have lobbyists.
Much of the time if you go into Willie's these days, you'd hardly suspect anything was up - seems normal except for a couple face masks you might see. It would seem the checkout clerks are literally risking their lives. But the doors have to be closed at the accounting businesses during tax season? If it's an essential step, fine, but why are there exceptions? Because people "need" certain things. Like lawn and gardening supplies at Town and Country? "Need" is a laughably fungible term.
Poor DeToy's. Poor customers of Detoy's for whom the visits there serve a social purpose. Don't underestimate the value of that. I am alone in my life and restaurants serve a nice purpose. They are getting clubbed while people still roam the aisles at Town and Country and Willie's. There is a basic unfairness about it all.
I am concerned about our future because of the extremely drastic actions taken by government and the Federal Reserve, actions that - believe me - could lead to hyper-inflation. Yes, and the specter of that could literally destroy this country.
Our government "bailouts" have filled the trough for the "one percent." We neglected this issue after the 2008 "financial crisis" which was not even an act of God, for crying out loud. Let people fail. Failure is an essential, a defining part of capitalism. Also, any capitalistic system has a downturn or recession, roughly every seven years. The problem now is that our political leaders led by Trump pull all possible strings to try to avoid that, in Trump's case mainly because if he loses re-election, he'll be vulnerable to our legal system and could well end up in prison. I mean, he should end up in prison if our system is allowed to operate unimpeded. It appears unlikely.
So heaven help us all if the government keeps stroking the "one percent" and the floodgates of "monopoly money" stay open as the Fed just prints. "Creative destruction" is a good thing. "Adapt or die" is a wise axiom. Don't bet on the right things being done now.
How much longer will our Morris restaurants even exist? Don't worry, at least we can get our lawn/garden stuff at Town and Country.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

From Minneapolis to Morris: sing, sing, sing!

Ralph E. Williams in 1962 here in Morris

"When he put on a full dress suit, he was the best looking guy you ever saw." 
- Edward Crepeau, writing about the late Ralph E. Williams, founder of UMM music, when Ralph directed the Apollo Male Chorus, Minneapolis
 
Well, how am I doing with my brown corduroys?
I have been blogging about family lately, more than usual, because of the void caused by the pandemic shutdown. No high school sports as a background in our lives. The lights were turned on at our softball/baseball fields in Motown Monday night, as a gesture of "keeping the faith" with our prep sports. This too shall pass, or something like that. It was a nice gesture even if puzzling for some observers.
It was logical for my late father to be inclined toward forming a male-only chorus when he came to our Motown in 1960. The UMM men's chorus became quite ballyhooed. Consider Dad's background with the heralded Minneapolis-based men's ensemble in the 1950s. I have no memory of my father directing the Minneapolis Apollo Male Chorus. That's because this stint ended in 1955, the year I was born.
Dad already had a full and exciting music resume by the time yours truly came into the world. Hope my birth was not a complication for him, but it may have been. He continued teaching music at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul School of Agriculture. I do have some foggy but pleasant memories of that. I was preschool. I was watching the Loretta Young TV show at our rented place in St. Paul.
A genealogy website informs me I was born in Ramsey MN on the east end of the Twin Cities. We shopped at the Applebaum's Grocery Store. There was a sledding hill close to where we lived. UMM had not yet been born. Our campus here was humming along in its final days of its own ag school chapter.
The West Central School of Agriculture is a cornerstone of Morris history, most revered. UMM and the WCSA functioned side by side for a time. Dad directed a mass unit that included students of both. Del Sarlette recently had framed a large photo of that significant group from the 1961-62 year.
 
A headliner for UMM
But most of all, Dad's men's chorus got attention in UMM's heady early chapters. The days of that were probably numbered. Unless there was an equal opportunity for women in terms of the overall experience and attention gained, it was not going to fly indefinitely. I'm not sure Dad was adequately aware of that. He grew up in different times when maybe society set aside advantages for the male gender - do you suppose?
Dad directed the UMM pep band at the old P.E. Annex in a time when there were no college women's sports teams. None! Lordy. People his age had notions ingrained about gender roles, to an extent. Society had to be coached out of all that. And like all major societal change, it can advance like a glacier. I know Dad was enlightened on race and peace issues.
 
"Fight, fight, fight for Morris U"
Perhaps I had a permanent defensiveness ingrained in my nature due to Dad's UMM fight song being retired. One can hash over these things - I have suggested the song might have one lyrical deficiency which I have suggested could be remedied - but to hear an instrumental version is 100 percent satisfying, I assure you. I don't think there was an introduction, either for the fight song or the Hymn which Dad also wrote. This can be remedied for any tune by just playing the last few bars.
No intro? All creators of music have their particular traits, like Neil Diamond starting out his songs with the title of the song. One of mine is to use "ya" instead of "you" in order to get a rhyme! My father had a great many compositions commercially published. I have had none, so the comparison ends there. But I have the right to embrace the pastime and to dream a little.
Dad's sacred music continues to be performed at churches across the USA. Dad's time at UMM was when society was going through some tumult, where I feel academic and Christian messages had to be separated. I'm not one for "pushing" Christian messages. I made peace with the Christian faith after Dad passed away. It's getting harder again - quite hard - as so much of the faith has become intertwined with Donald Trump. It defies understanding IMHO.
But I attend church where my parents went, First Lutheran, and try to hang in there. Don't worry: First Lutheran of the ELCA will never bow down and pay homage to Trump. Let the Apostolics and others do that, too many others. I pray for an awakening, a renaissance.
How humble my life is, compared to my father's. Here's a paragraph from a retrospective publication re. the Minneapolis Apollo Club:
 
In 1951 Williams because the seventh director of the Apollo Club. Melvin Burlingame, former historian of the Club wrote in 1964: "His term of directorship was highlighted by his interpretation of the Club's music, his brilliant showmanship, stage presentation and personality. With the introduction of his own compositions and arrangements into the programs of the Apollo Club, the Club produced a new sound that was excitingly different from the usual choral fare."
 
All very good, but consider my brown corduroys too.
  
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com 

Ralph rehearses the UMM orchestra, 1970s

No tour or Jazz Fest but we have hope for future

The UMM concert choir was holding out hope of making its Peru Tour, right up to the night of the send-off concert which yours truly attended. Naturally it was inspiring. It was held on Saturday, March 7, at the HFA. Then on Sunday morning, I visited with Ana Miller who felt the chances of the trip were 50/50. My response was on the skeptical side.
Unfortunately I was right, or fortunately if you look at it from the standpoint of staying totally on the safe side.
As I write this, we would normally be experiencing another UMM Jazz Festival. The event has been an early-April staple on this community's calendar for so long. No, it isn't as big as it once was but let's not weigh size or duration as the only criterion.
I heard UMM Jazz Ensemble I directed by Jonathan Campbell on March 8. The jazz group concluded the Celebration of Women Composers concert at the recital hall. The show covered lots of ground and was the kind of brilliant showcase for talent we'd expect. Jazz Ensemble I performed "Choro Dancado" by Maria Schneider. Featured soloists were Josh Engelkes on tenor saxophone and Jack Campbell on piano. The pandemic came along and prevented jazz from having its annual biggest showcase.
Jim Carlson was the director who established and built up the Jazz Fest. We don't see much of Jim any more, if at all. I think he "escaped" to warmer climes in Florida where I'm sure the pastime of golf is accommodated very well! At least under normal circumstances it is. Just about every facet of our lives is affected by the current health specter with the virus.
When all this is over, if it ever truly ends, will UMM land on its feet and operate in the normal way? When you look at government bailouts and radical Federal Reserve actions, you must wonder if our normal economy and way of life can return any time in the foreseeable future. So many people are going to need help. But you cannot create wealth out of nothing.
 
Being frank about our interests
If in the future we find we can backpedal out of this, how much support can a public liberal arts institution command for itself? I have always been an outlier in this community, saying the day may come when we have to accept an adjustment away from the liberal arts mantra that has characterized the campus. You might say I've been an outlier on some other subjects too.
But regarding the campus, the bottom line is the support, vitality and numbers. There is no doubt the liberal arts have virtue. How can one argue otherwise? Maybe the Trump crowd would, but let's not be distracted by that now. Trump himself distracts us every day through the TV screen.
People of sound mind and reason support academics across the spectrum. However, the drastically evolving nature of our universe with its unending avalanche of information online, must be recognized. We must adjust.
 
Music is relevant everywhere
I do know this: regardless of how our Morris campus progresses in the future, it will have to have music! That is my family's priority which is why the Ralph and Martha Williams Fund exists. Jim Carlson was in my father's vocal group that symbolized UMM in the earliest days when PR was so vital. Carlson and Ralph Williams are among the cornerstone people in the institution's background. My father retired in 1978 and Carlson started the Jazz Festival the next year.
I still remember the first visiting jazz clinicians: Randy Purcell and Rick Cornish. Randy was an "alum" of the Maynard Ferguson orchestra which was a catalyst in getting so many kids turned on to jazz. I remember attending the Jazz Fest party at Jim's home and getting to hear a Maynard story or two from Mr. Purcell. My parents and I attended many Fest parties there through the years.
An assortment of fascinating musicians/personalities came to UMM for the Jazz Festival. Needless to say, jazz presents a kaleidoscope of personalities. There were ups and downs. A trumpet player tried getting out of his contract because he'd just gotten an offer from (as I recall) Oprah Winfrey, but he was told "no." Legend has it he came here in a sullen frame of mind. A female brass player was reportedly not as nice or tactful with the high school musicians, as she should have been. She needed to remember that many small high schools have jazz programs that are modest, seeming almost an extension of pep band - they are worthy of respect.
 
Reminding of a virtue of Morris!
There was a clinician who was offered a ride from the party to his overnight accommodations and said "no," on the basis that he so appreciated being in a town where it was safe to walk after dark, he just wanted to walk! Bless him.
The heyday of Jazz Fest was when you'd see orange school buses from the visiting towns around Morris. For a number of years I had a nitpick with how we didn't get to hear enough of Jazz Ensemble I, as I felt the other groups took up too much. In particular I thought the combos got over-emphasized. In the early years I felt the combos could be a little, well, "non-descript" (a term I learned from high school band director John Woell). Carlson seemed to remedy the alleged deficiency as time went on: a combo would go on stage with a specific artistic niche or mission, for example Dixieland.
I'm sure Jim Morrison would agree with what I'm saying about the combos. And if people don't wish to respect my views, you'll listen to a Morrison (wink wink). Really you should listen to me too, as I too have opened my checkbook. I really don't know how the Williams $ contributions compare to the Morrisons. I do know that when in Morris, do as the Morrisons do.
Carlson brought "Tonight Show" drummer Ed Shaughnessy to the Fest one year. If my memory is correct, we had some bad wintry weather for that Fest. I also remember photographing the drummer and Jim at the party, for publication in the Morris paper, with a container or two of alcoholic beverages visible. Our culture was different then: we could feel rather amused at such a photo: jazz musicians who enjoy their mind-altering substances! True to stereotype I guess. A lot of that was probably just myth anyway. You must be of sound mind to create superb art. Sometimes I think the artists prod the myth because they find it makes them relatable?
My father Ralph launched UMM music by doing more than he was technically required to, according to Williams family legend. Don't tell the union. UMM really had to show all the oomph it could in the early times. Frankly there was some sense of desperation - no exaggeration. Those early days are fading into the mists of time. The Ralph and Martha Williams Fund is there to impress on everyone the wide breadth of UMM music history.
Just did a check on the web to confirm that church choirs continue to perform my father's compositions. I always confirm that it's Ralph E. Williams and not Ralph Vaughn Williams. The latter is the "other" Williams (LOL). Here I present a link to a choir performance from a UCC church in Corvallis, Oregon. Please listen and enjoy. Dad gained a little immortality doing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OORL3osEPdo

 

Will there be a Jazz Festival next year? Or, an exciting choir trip like to Peru? Let's close our eyes and hope.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

The above is a page from the first UMM yearbook, "Venture."