Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Happy Holidays to one and all!!!
Dan Reynish
December 24, 2007
Jazz great Oscar Peterson dies at 82
TORONTO - Oscar Peterson, whose early talent, speedy fingers and musical genius made him one of the world's best known jazz pianists, has died. He was 82.
Peterson died at his home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga on Sunday, said Oliver Jones, a family friend and jazz musician. He said Peterson's wife and daughter were with him during his final moments. The cause of death was kidney failure, said Mississauga's mayor, Hazel McCallion.
"He's been going downhill in the last few months," McCallion said, calling Peterson a "very close friend."
During an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Peterson played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. He is also remembered for touring in a trio with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar in the 1950s.
Peterson's impressive collection of awards include all of Canada's highest honors, such as the Order of Canada, as well as a Lifetime Grammy (1997) and a spot in the International Jazz Hall of Fame.
His growing stature was reflected in the admiration of his peers. Duke Ellington referred to him as "Maharajah of the keyboard," while Count Basie once said "Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard."
In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said "one of the bright lights of jazz has gone out."
"He was a regular on the French stage, where the public adored his luminous style," Sarkozy said. "It is a great loss for us."
Jazz pianist Marian McPartland called Peterson "the finest technician that I have seen."
McPartland said she first met Peterson when she and her husband, jazz cornetist Jimmy McPartland, opened for him at the Colonial Tavern in Toronto in the 1940s.
"From that point on we became such goods friends, and he was always wonderful to me and I have always felt very close to him," she said. "I played at his tribute concert at Carnegie Hall earlier this year and performed `Tenderly,' which was always my favorite piece of his."
The American jazz pianist Billy Taylor called Peterson one of the finest jazz pianists of his time.
"He set the pace for just about everybody that followed him. He really was just a special player," Taylor said.
Born on Aug. 15, 1925, in a poor neighborhood southwest of Montreal, Peterson obtained a passion for music from his father. Daniel Peterson, a railway porter and self-taught musician, bestowed his love of music to his five children, offering them a means to escape from poverty.
Oscar Peterson learned to play trumpet and piano at a young age, but after a bout with tuberculosis had to concentrate on the latter.
He became a teen sensation in his native Canada, playing in dance bands and recording in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But he got his real break as a surprise guest at Carnegie Hall in 1949, after which he began touring the United States and Europe.
He quickly made a name for himself as a jazz virtuoso, often compared to piano great Art Tatum, his childhood idol, for his speed and technical skill.
He was also influenced by Nat King Cole, whose Nat King Cole Trio album he considered "a complete musical thesaurus for any aspiring Jazz pianist."
Peterson never stopped calling Canada home despite his growing international reputation. But at times he felt slighted here, where he was occasionally mistaken for a football player, standing at 6 foot 3 and more than 250 pounds.
In 2005 he became the first living person other than a reigning monarch to obtain a commemorative stamp in Canada, where he is jazz royalty, with streets, squares, concert halls and schools named after him.
Peterson suffered a stroke in 1993 that weakened his left hand, but not his passion or drive for music. Within a year he was back on tour, recording "Side By Side" with Itzhak Perlman.
As he grew older, Peterson kept playing and touring, despite worsening arthritis and difficulties walking.
"A jazz player is an instant composer," Peterson once said in a CBC interview, while conceding jazz did not have the mass appeal of other musical genres. "You have to think about it, it's an intellectual form," he said.
Peterson leaves behind his wife, Kelly, and their daughter, Celine.
Dr. McDreamy Dempsey named Star of the Year by People magazine
It's a McDreamy year for actor Patrick Dempsey, anointed People magazine's "Star of the Year."
The 41-year-old actor, whose character of the TV hit drama Grey's Anatomy is known as "Dr. McDreamy," is featured on the cover of the celebrity magazine's year-end issue.
"I'm just enjoying life more than I ever have … I'm trying to enjoy the moment while it's here and to be able to provide for my family so that I can step away and enjoy raising them away from all this," Dempsey told the magazine.
The actor, who is also starring in the current box-office hit Enchanted, recently celebrated the birth of twin boys with his second wife.
The issues highlighted eight other celebrities who made a mark in 2007.
Dempsey's TV co-star Katherine Heigl was named "America's New Sweetheart" while his leading lady in Enchanted, Amy Adams, was simply called "The Breakout."
Matt Damon was named "The Sexiest Hero" for his turn in the Jason Bourne spy thrillers and Johnny Depp "Most Versatile Actor" after moving from a swaggering swashbuckler in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy to portraying a serial killing barber in Sweeney Todd.
Country singer Carrie Underwood, winner of the fourth season of American Idol, was named "The Chart Topper" as Will Smith was handed "The Biggest Legend."
TV actress Christina Applegate was "Comeback of the Year." The 36-year-old, who played teenage dimwit Kelly Bundy in Married … with Children, bounced back with this year's acclaimed new TV sitcom Samantha Who?
Not surprisingly, a poll of readers decided that the most talked about star of the year was Britney Spears.
The pop princess's year included a stint in rehab, all-night partying, shaving her hair off, estrangement from her mother and a continuing custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline over their two young sons.
Coming in on the reader's good side was actor and director Ben Affleck, voted as "Best Behaved Star" of 2007. Affleck kept a low profile, flexing his directorial chops with the movie Gone Baby Gone and had a baby with his wife, Jennifer Garner.
"Grey's Anatomy" actress Katherine Heigl marries
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Katherine Heigl, an Emmy-winning star of medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," married her musician boyfriend in Utah on Sunday, US Weekly magazine reported on its Web site.
Heigl, 29, and Josh Kelley, 27, tied the knot under a marquee at a resort in Park City, Utah. Among the guests at the black-tie ceremony were Heigl's co-stars Sandra Oh, Kate Walsh and T.R. Knight, the magazine said.
Heigl won an Emmy in September for her role as an adulterous medic in the ABC network's "Grey's Anatomy," which follows the lives and loves of physicians at a Seattle hospital. She met Kelley in 2005, when she was cast in a music video, and they were engaged the following year after Heigl forced the issue.
Kelley, a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, is due to release a new album in February.