[Trombone-l] Valery Ponomarev

[Chris Tune]

Bad news, indeed.  Unfortunately told with much too much "spin". . .as Kos 
always seems to do (frankly, it is "almost" entertaining how he connects 
dots across the universe from the French airport to a great conspiracy 
somewhere in the Wash. D.C. area. . .hmmmm.).

I somehow doubt that the current administration has somehow influenced 
violent burly FRENCH guards at the CHARLES DEGAULLE airport.   No.  They are 
just your everyday, violent EUROTRASH.  and once Valery Ponomarev pushed 
back . . .that was when things got REALLY UGLY.

I've witnessed situations like this, only here in the U.S. I've never been 
around one where someone takes somebody into an out of the way place and 
does anything violent.  I HAVE had our band manager have to stay behind with 
airport police while he convinces them he is not insane. [he got the news 
Friday that his mom died. ..then he shepherded a band all over Arizona. . 
then he got stopped at the gate by boarding crew. . .then he lost his cool. 
. .rest is history. . .he caught up with us eventually. . .good thing nobody 
hit him. . .he is a lawyer and a litigator]

I also hope Valery litigates to the full extent of French law and wins 
"beaucoup d'or" (much gold).  Maybe brings it all the way to international 
law (:-) hmmmm try the burly French guys in the Hague. . . .hmmmm. . .lets 
see how they like that!)

Lets face it the whole "get on the airliner" thing is hateful and it does 
not examine the political sensibiliites of those who it drives mad.  It is 
just a regular "drag".  To everybody.  I can wish that Koz would 
de-politicize it properly, but he doesn't.

Chris



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Dinwiddie" <billdin at comcast.net>
To: "List Trombone" <TROMBONE-L at server5.samford.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 3:51 PM
Subject: [Trombone-l] Valery Ponomarev


> Has anyone else heard about this one yet? It was sent to me by a friend 
> who
> read it on the website http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/16/72849/4595
>
> I have sanitized it slightly, replacing some of the more colorful language
> with the following symbols ***********
>
>
>
> ###########################################################################################
>
> Let me tell you a story...it won't take very long...about how far the
> doctrine of fear and power has spread.
> How far, how deeply and how dangerously it has spread.
>
> Security people at Charles DeGaulle airport broke the arm of the
> internationally famous jazz trumpet player Valery Ponomarev last week...an
> American citizen for over 30 years...because he argued with the gate 
> people
> at an Air India flight to New York when they demanded that he gate check 
> his
> trumpet rather than bring it onto the plane. A trumpet that:
>
> A...Fits with no problem whatsoever in the overheads.
>
> and
>
> B...Had been properly tagged as carry-on baggage before he got to the 
> gate.
>
> Read on.
>
>
>  a.. roysol's diary :: ::
>  b..
> Now you must know that musicians try very hard to get their instruments 
> onto
> planes whenever they can do so. Baggage handlers are notorious for 
> breaking
> things, and a broken instrument is painful in any number of ways. So is a
> lost or misrouted instrument. It's not like you can just pick up another 
> one
> before the gig and play at your usual level of competence. Even if you are
> lucky enough to FIND one, every instrument has its own quirks and
> personality, and most professional musicians own instruments that are not
> easily replaceable. Older instruments or ones that were custom built or
> modified to their specifications. And since 9/11 and the whole Homeland
> Security/Terrorism scare-scam, if you DO carefully pack an instrument in a
> special ape-proof flight case and allow it to be checked as baggage, the
> minimum wagers that are doing "security" work in the baggage department 
> are
> often capable of opening the case, taking the instrument out to see if 
> it's
> a bomb (Duh...a trumpet or violin REALLY looks bomb-like on an X-ray
> machine.) repacking it backwards and upside down and then forgetting to
> close the latches.
>
> I have SEEN this happen.
>
> So Valery... 63 years old, maybe 5' 5" tall, 140 lbs... pitched a fit at 
> the
> gate when some p******-off functionary at a loading gate decided to pull
> rank on him. They called security and four (as he so colorfully put it to 
> me
> today when he told me the story) "giant ******* cops" took him someplace
> where there were no witnesses, tried to forcibly take his trumpet away and
> when he would not let go of it with his right hand, pulled his left arm
> behind his back and broke it.
>
> And people sniff and moan when the word "fascism" is used to describe what
> is happening in America and in much of Western Europe as well.
>
> Vaslery did not try to fight these people. As he related today (I wish I
> could reproduce his great Russan accent) "I grew up in Soviet Union under
> Stalin and Khruschev. I know enough not to try to hit a cop. Let alone 
> four
> of them. Big, stupid **************." (Here he stands on tiptoe and raises
> his remaining functioning hand as high in the air as he can.) "They were 
> THS
> BIG!!! FOUR of them!!! I am not THAT stupid."
>
> And indeed he is not.
>
> Here is a man who grew up in Russia when playing "jazz" was almost an act 
> of
> open rebellion and got so good that Art Blakey hired him to join the Jazz
> Messengers in the late '60s. And if you do not know how serious THAT
> was...Blakey was possibly the only equal to Miles Davis in terms of 
> hearing
> and hiring the best of the best in the post-bop era.
>
> Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter...that level.
>
> The BEST of the best.
>
> #################################################
>
> So.....comments?
>
> Bill Dinwiddie
>
> billdin at comcast.net
>
>
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