September 10, 2008
Travis Air Force Base
Crowds welcome home Vietnam Troops at Travis Air Force Base
This is what Phil and Meredith would have witnessed from afar at Travis Air Force Base in ’73.
Vietnam POWs coming home to Travis Air Force Base
Originally named Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, construction began on Travis in 1942. The United States Navy had aircraft at the base for training, but this proved temporary. In October 1942, the War Department assigned the base to the Air Transport Command. The base’s primary mission during World War II was ferrying aircraft and supplies to the Pacific Theater.
The base was renamed Travis Air Force Base in 1951 for Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, who was killed when a B-29 Superfortress crashed on August 5, 1950. The ensuing fire caused the 10,000 pounds of high explosives in the plane’s cargo — a Mark 4 nuclear weapon — to detonate, killing Robert Travis and 18 others.
Operation Homecoming was the mission to return POWs from Southeast Asia. Between February 12th and March 29th in 1973, North Vietnam released 566 American military and 25 civilian POWs and MIAs, many of whom had spent many years in various communist prison camps. Hanoi’s Gia Lam Airport was the main release point where Miliary Airlift Command’s C-141 Starlifters, took off on 18 “Freedom Flights” returning these heroes to their homeland via Clark Air Base in the Philippines.
One POW remembered the North Vietnamese announcer told the prisoners,
“As I call your name, step forward and go home.”
“Free at last!: That C-141 was the most beautiful bird I’d ever seen! I have chills running all though my body—you will just never know how it feels.”
For more info: http://www.travisairmuseum.org/html/vietnam_war.html
Chica Chica Boom Chic and More
Shake what your mama gave you!
Like Nick said, this is what Peg and Jack might be familiar with in terms of Brazilian music…
And this is the more refined sort of thing that Phil in an all caps kind of way JUST WANTS YOU TO APPRECIATE…REALLY GUYS LISTEN!
This was his first break away hit in 1959 – Samba Triste
September 4, 2008
Brazilian Jazz Madness
Learn to play the Samba and Bossa Nova (which means New Trend) with this hip dude!
Hope this helps with the rhythm question.
The Bossa Nova video is here
Brazilian jazz is the term for the style of jazz popular or associated with Brazil. The style is sometimes seen as a Brazilian outgrowth of cool jazz as many of the early populists of jazz in Brazil were associated with that sub-genre. It was noted for the bossa nova, which mixes samba and jazz, and a greater use of guitar than in North American jazz. CD reissue of Daviss 1957 LP Birth of the Cool, collecting much of his 1949 to 1950 work. … Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music created by Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto and first introduced in Brazil by Gilbertos recording of Chega de Saudade, in 1958, a song written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, first released as a single, and shortly thereafter as the album.
Hence it became popular in the United States as a kind of “new sub-genre.” Preparation for that might have been interest in samba shown in the 1942 Disney film Saludos Amigos and in US the popularity of Carmen Miranda. However Brazilian jazz itself gained a following in the early 1960s. In 1962 American tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd had success with Jazz Samba. This album fused jazz with Brazilian music. Brazilian musicians achieved success. The guitarist João Gilberto and his wife, the singer Astrud Gilberto, worked with Getz and on their own albums. The composer Antonio Carlos Jobim played a crucial role in bringing the music a wide and respectable audience. Sergio Mendes helped popularize the music in Japan and became the biggest Brazilian star in the U.S., although later his popularity waned.
Samba is one of the most popular forms of music in Brazil. Samba music is in 2/4 time, which means there are two counts per bar of four beats of music. Each count is two beats long. It is important to learn the proper count in order to maintain an accurate tempo when dancing. Say the count in your head and your feet will follow. Think “one and two, one and two.”
http://www.expertvillage.com/video/56765_drums-beats-bosa-nova.htm
Listen to Brazilian jazz here
Dramaturgy Central 
