Compact archive October 17, 2007

Pee Wee Ellis was born to play music. In Texas Pee Wee got to see blues greats like Bobby “Blue” Bland and Fats Domino. With clarinet and sax lessons in school, he was skilled on reeds as well as piano when his family moved to Rochester, New York at age 16.

Pee Wee joined James Brown in 1965 and soon came up with the first pure hardcore Funk hit, Cold Sweat, followed by 26 others that defined what we think of as Funk to this day. Pee Wee has been called The Man Who Invented Funk.

Pee Wee’s effect on music was huge, leading directly to George Clinton, Sly Stone and, in a circular twist, Miles Davis 70s work.
By 1970 Pee Wee worked as arranger and musical director for CTI-Kudu records, the most popular jazz label of the 70s. He worked with Esther Phillips as well as George Benson, Hank Crawford and dozens of other CTI artists.

The Pee Wee Ellis Assembly regularly tours and he has worked with UK jazz singing sensation Clare Teal. In 2005 he visited Japan with the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and in 2006 they played together again, in South Africa and at Yoshis in Oakland.

The father of Jazz you can see and hear in Prague within the International Jazz Festival 2007, in Lucerna Music bar, Vodickova 36, 25th November, 2007.

Ultra-modern tramways Skoda 14T, or simply ‘Porsche’ as it is called because of its Porsche design, are undergoing some changes, before they come back to track.

Before new 14Ts series will return, the Plzen Fabric has to fix some of its problems. Exemplary would be (if we omit the angry-lizard-design) tiny space for legs, that can be really uncomfortable for longer traveling, and the loud noise, that the undercart does; a noise similar of the Nazgûl from the Lord of the Rings movie.

The undercart hopefully fixed
Marek Herbst from the Skoda Transportation comments, that he has no idea why people complain when they are being persuaded by a noise of a movie wraith – “We are quite surprised by the negative reaction of Prague citizens. We also deliver those tramways to Wroclaw and they just love them.” When asked about the specific noise, he adds: “Prague citizens complained about the hissing sound, but that was because of the poor track quality. We did some measuring, and we found out alteration of the brake system should fix it. So we have fixed that by now.”

There is twelve 14T being fixed, another 15 should be ready at the end of the year. They have approx. 30-years life-span, and they make about 100 thousands kilometers a year.

Concerning the very new model of tramways, which design is kept secret, and should be revealed until the end of 2007, these should come in 30 copies. We are going to inform you about the development. Hopefully, they won’t represent any other kind of a monster.

The daughter of British queen Elizabeth II, The Princess Anne, Princess Royal, visited Czech Republic from 10th to 17th October 2007. As she is famous with her liking of horses, she started her visit at the Velka Pardubicka steeplechase.

The police had a lot of work to do, when they tried to keep the princess’ safety. Especially, when she, after the end of the race, went to congratulate the winner; Dusan Andres on the 7-year old mare Sixteen. To the stadium arrived 30 thousands people that day.

Before she arrived to the Pardubice steeplechase stadium, she visited our National horse-breeding farm, where they breed the special kind of Kladrubsky belous (White Kladruby Horse), which are very popular at the European Courts; i.e. Danish or Swedish Courts use them for the king’s carriage.

On 15th October she opened a new building of English International School in Prague, and on 16th she participated at the opening ceremony of British studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of Charles University.

The Princess Anne flew to the Czech Republic by the Royal jet BAe 146, which is used by the whole royal family.