Sources.

Information about Muhammad bin Qasim and the Arab conquest of Sind in the medieval Arabic sources is limited compared to the contemporary Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. The "Futuh al-Buldan" (Conquests of the lands) by al-Baladhuri (d. 892) contains a few pages on the conquest of Sindh and Muhammad's forces, while biographical information is limited to a passage in the work of al-Ya'qubi (d. 898), a few lines in the history of al-Tabari (d. 839) and scant mention in the "Kitab al-aghani" (Book of songs) of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani. A detailed account of Muhammad's conquest of Sind and his death is found in the "Chach Nama", a 13th-century Persian text. The information in the "Chach Nama" purportedly derives from accounts by the descendants of the Arab soldiers of the 8th-century conquest, namely qadis (judges) and imams from the Sindhi cities of Alor and Bhakar who claimed descent from Muhammad's tribe, the Banu Thaqif. The orientalist Francesco Gabrieli holds the accounts likely emerged after and considers the "Chach Nama" to be a "historical romance" and "a late and doubtful source" for information about Muhammad.

Origins and early life.

Muhammad was born in. His birthplace was almost certainly in the Hejaz (western Arabia), either in Ta'if, the traditional home of his Thaqif tribe, or in Mecca or Medina. Following their general embrace of Islam in, members of the Thaqif gradually attained high military and administrative ranks in the nascent Caliphate and played important command and economic roles during and after the early Muslim conquests, particularly in Iraq. The tribe produced effective commanders associated with early Arab military operations against the Indian subcontinent: in the Thaqafite governor of Bahrayn (eastern Arabia), Uthman ibn Abi al-As, dispatched naval expeditions against the Indian ports of Debal, Thane and Bharuch. The tribe's power continued to increase with the advent of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661. Muhammad belonged to the Abu Aqil family of the Banu Awf, one of the two principal branches of the Thaqif. The Abu Aqil family gained prestige with the rise of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the paternal first cousin of Muhammad's father al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hakam. Al-Hajjaj was made a commander by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik () during the Second Muslim Civil War and killed the Umayyads' chief rival for the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, in 692, and two years later was appointed the viceroy of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate. Following his promotion, al-Hajjaj became a patron of the Thaqif and appointed several members to important posts in Iraq and its dependencies. Muhammad's father was appointed the deputy governor of Basra, though his career was otherwise undistinguished. According to a letter between Muhammad and al-Hajjaj cited by the "Chach Nama", Muhammad's mother was a certain Habibat al-Uzma (Habiba the Great). The "Chach Nama" also indicates Muhammad had a similar-aged brother named Sulb and Arabic sources indicate he had a much younger brother named al-Hajjaj, who served as an Umayyad commander during the Alid revolt of 740.  No information is provided by the Arabic sources about Muhammad's childhood and adolescence. The modern historian Nabi Bakhsh Baloch holds that Muhammad most likely grew up partly in Ta'if and then Basra and Wasit, the provincial capital of Iraq founded by al-Hajjaj in 702. Muhammad's time in Basra, a military and intellectual center of the Islamic world at the time, may have widened Muhammad's career horizons, while at Wasit he was likely educated and trained under al-Hajjaj's patronage. Al-Hajjaj was highly fond of Muhammad, and considered him prestigious enough to marry his sister Zaynab, though she preferred the older Thaqafite al-Hakam ibn Ayyub ibn al-Hakam, to whom she was ultimately wed. The "Kitab al-aghani" refers to Muhammad at the age of 17 as "the noblest Thaqafite of his time". In the summation of Baloch, "Muhammad grew up under favorable conditions into an able, energetic and cultured lad of fine tastes".

Governor of Fars.

Muhammad's first assignment was in the province Fars in modern Iran, where he was asked to subjugate a group of Kurds. After the successful completion of the mission, he was appointed as the governor of Fars. He likely succeeded his uncle Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi, a brother of al-Hajjaj, who was previously a governor. The city of Shiraz is said to have been revived by Muhammad. He built a royal villa in the city and a military camp at a short distance from it. He was also given the task of subjugating the area to the south of Shiraz, and the distant area of Jurjan near the Caspian Sea.  Fars might have also had at this time some of the rebels left over from the revolt of Ibn al-Ash'ath, which almost brought down the rule of al-Hajjaj. An aged supporter of rebels and a Shia notable of the time, a disciple of the companion of Prophet Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari and a famous narrator of Hadith, Atiyya ibn Sa'd Awfi was arrested by Muhammad bin Qasim on the orders of Al-Hajjaj and demanded that he curse Ali on threat of punishment. Atiyya refused to curse Ali and was punished. While Maclean doesn't give the details of the punishment, early historians like Ibn Hajar Al-asqalani and Tabari record that he was flogged by 400 lashes and his head and beard shaved for humiliation and that he fled to Khurasan and returned to Iraq after the ruler had been changed.

Background on Sindh.

Early Muslim presence in Sindh.

The connection between the Sind and Islam was established by the initial Muslim missions during the Rashidun Caliphate. Al-Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who attacked Makran in the year 649 AD, was an early partisan of Ali ibn Abu Talib. During the caliphate of Ali, many Jats of Sindh had came under influence of Islam and some even participated in the Battle of Camel and died fighting for Ali. Harith ibn Murrah Al-abdi and Sayfi ibn Fasayl' al-Shaybani, both officers of Ali's army, attacked Makran in the year 658. Sayfi was one of the seven shias who were beheaded alongside Hujr ibn Adi al-Kindi in 660 AD near Damascus. Under the Umayyads (661 - 750 AD), many Shias sought asylum in the region of Sindh, to live in relative peace in the remote area. Ziyad Hindi is one of those refugees.

Umayyad interest in Sindh.

According to Wink, Umayyad interest in the region was galvanized by the operation of the "Meds" (a tribe of Scythians living in Sindh) and others. The Meds had engaged in piracy on Sassanid shipping in the past, from the mouth of the Tigris to the Sri Lankan coast, in their "bawarij" and now were able to prey on Arab shipping from their bases at Kutch, Debal and Kathiawar. At the time, Sindh was the wild frontier region of al-Hind, inhabited mostly by semi-nomadic tribes whose activities disturbed much of the Western Indian Ocean. Muslim sources insist that it was these persistent activities along increasingly important Indian trade routes by Debal pirates and others which forced the Arabs to subjugate the area, in order to control the seaports and maritime routes of which Sindh was the nucleus, as well as, the overland passage. During Hajjaj's governorship, the "Meds" of Debal in one of their raids had kidnapped Muslim women travelling from Sri Lanka to Arabia, thus providing a "casus belli" to the rising power of the Umayyad Caliphate that enabled them to gain a foothold in the Makran, Balochistan and Sindh regions. Also cited as a reason for this campaign was the policy of providing refuge to Sassanids fleeing the Arab advance and to Arab rebels from the Umayyad consolidation of their rule.  These Arabs were imprisoned later on by the Governor Deebal Partaab Raye. A letter written by an Arab girl named Nahed who escaped from the prison of Partab Raye asked Hajjaj Bin Yusuf for help. When Hajjaj asked Dahir for the release of prisoners and compensation, the latter refused on the ground that he had no control over those. Al-Hajjaj sent Muhammad Bin Qasim for action against the Sindh in 711.  The mawali; new non-Arab converts; who were usually allied with Al-Hajjaj's political opponents and thus were frequently forced to participate in battles on the frontier of the Umayyad Caliphate — such as Kabul, Sindh and Transoxania. An actual push into the region had been out of favor as an Arab policy since the time of the Rashidun Caliph Umar bin Khattab, who upon receipt of reports of it being an inhospitable and poor land, had stopped further expeditionary ventures into the region.

The campaign of Muhammad bin Qasim.

Hajjaj had put more care and planning into this campaign than the second campaign. Al-Hajjaj gave Muhammad command of the expedition between 708 and 711, when Muhammad was only 15–17 years old, apparently because two previous Umayyad commanders had not been successful in punishing Sindh's ruler Raja Dahir for his failure to prevent pirates from disrupting Muslim shipping off the coast of Sindh. Al-Hajjaj superintended this campaign from Kufa by maintaining close contact with Muhammad in the form of regular reports for which purpose special messengers were deputed between Basra and Sindh. The army which departed from Shiraz under Muhammad consisted of 6,000 Syrian cavalry and detachments of "mawali" (sing. "mawla"; non-Arab, Muslim freedmen) from Iraq. At the borders of Sindh he was joined by an advance guard and six thousand camel cavalry and later, reinforcements from the governor of Makran were transferred directly to Debal (Daybul), at the mouth of the Indus, by sea along with five "manjaniks" (catapults). The army that eventually captured Sindh would later be swelled by the Gurjars and Meds as well as other irregulars who heard of the Arab successes in Sindh. When Muhammad passed through the Makran desert while raising his forces, he had to subdue the restive towns of Fannazbur and Arman Belah (Lasbela), both of which had previously been conquered by the Arabs.  The first town assaulted in Muhammad's Sindh campaign was Debal and upon the orders of al-Hajjaj, he exacted a retribution on Debal by giving no quarter to its residents or priests and destroying its great temple. From Debal, the Arab army then marched northeast taking towns such as Nerun and Sadusan (Sehwan) without fighting. One-fifth of the war booty including slaves were remitted to al-Hajjaj and the Caliph. The conquest of these towns was accomplished with relative ease; however, Dahir's armies being prepared on the other side of the Indus had not yet been confronted. In preparation to meet them, Muhammad returned to Nerun to resupply and receive reinforcements sent by al-Hajjaj. Camped on the east bank of the Indus, Muhammad sent emissaries and bargained with the river Jats and boatmen. Upon securing the aid of Mokah Basayah, "the King of the island of Bet", Muhammad crossed over the river where he was joined by the forces of the Thakore of Bhatta and the western Jats.  At Ar-rur (Rohri) Muhammad was met by Dahir's forces and the eastern Jats in battle. Dahir died in the battle, his forces were defeated and a Muhammad took control of Sindh. In the wake of the battle enemy soldiers were executed —though artisans, merchants and farmers were spared —and Dahir and his chiefs, the "daughters of princes" and the usual fifth of the booty and slaves were sent to al-Hajjaj. Soon the capitals of the other provinces, Brahmanabad, Alor (Battle of Aror) and Multan, were captured alongside other in-between towns with only light Muslim casualties. Multan was a key site in the Hindu religion. Usually after a siege of a few weeks or months the Arabs gained a city through the intervention of heads of mercantile houses with whom subsequent treaties and agreements would be settled. After battles all fighting men were executed and their wives and children enslaved in considerable numbers and the usual fifth of the booty and slaves were sent to al-Hajjaj. The general populace was encouraged to carry on with their trades and taxes and tributes settled.  The conquest of Sindh, in modern-day Pakistan, although costly, was a major gain for the Umayyad Caliphate. However, further gains were halted by Hindu kingdoms during Arab campaigns. The Arabs attempted to invade India but they were defeated by the north Indian king Nagabhata of the Gurjara Pratihara Dynasty and by the south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty in the early 8th century. After the failure of further expeditions on Kathiawar, the Arab chroniclers conceded that the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi () "gave up the project of conquering any part of India."

Military and political strategy.

The military strategy had been outlined by Al-Hajjaj in a letter sent to Muhammad bin Qasim: My ruling is given: Kill anyone belonging to the "ahl-i-harb" (combatants); arrest their sons and daughters for hostages and imprison them. Whoever does not fight against us...grant them "aman" (safety) and settle their tribute ["amwal"] as "dhimmah" (protected person)...  The Arabs' first concern was to facilitate the conquest of Sindh with the fewest casualties while also trying to preserve the economic infrastructure. Towns were given two options: submit to Islamic authority peacefully or be attacked by force (), with the choice governing their treatment upon capture. The capture of towns was usually accomplished by means of a treaty with a party from among the enemy, who were then extended special privileges and material rewards. There were two types of such treaties, ""Sulh"" or ""ahd-e-wasiq" (capitulation)" and ""aman" (surrender/ peace)". Among towns and fortresses that were captured through force of arms, Muhammad bin Qasim performed executions of "ahl-i-harb" (fighting men) as part of his military strategy, whose surviving dependents were enslaved.  Where resistance was strong, prolonged and intensive, often resulting in considerable Arab casualties, Muhammad bin Qasim's response was dramatic, inflicting 6,000 deaths at Rawar, between 6,000 and 26,000 at Brahmanabad, 4,000 at Iskalandah and 6,000 at Multan. Conversely, in areas taken by "sulh", such as Armabil, Nirun, and Aror, resistance was light and few casualties occurred. Sulh appeared to be Muhammad bin Qasim's preferred mode of conquest, the method used for more than 60% of the towns and tribes recorded by al-Baladhuri and the "Chach Nama". At one point, he was actually berated by Al-Hajjaj for being too lenient. Meanwhile, the common folk were often pardoned and encouraged to continue working; Al-Hajjaj ordered that this option not be granted to any inhabitant of Debal, yet Qasim still bestowed it upon certain groups and individuals.  After each major phase of his conquest, Muhammad bin Qasim attempted to establish law and order in the newly conquered territory by showing religious tolerance and incorporating the ruling class – the Brahmins and Shramanas – into his administration.

Reasons for success.

Muhammad bin Qasim's success has been partly ascribed to Dahir being an unpopular Hindu king ruling over a Buddhist majority who saw Chach of Alor and his kin as usurpers of the Rai Dynasty. This is attributed to having resulted in support being provided by Buddhists and inclusion of rebel soldiers serving as valuable infantry in his cavalry-heavy force from the Jat and Meds. Brahman, Buddhist, Greek, and Arab testimony however can be found that attests towards amicable relations between the adherents of the two religions up to the 7th century.  Along with this were:

Administration of Sindh.

After the conquest, Muhammad bin Qasim's task was to set up an administrative structure for a stable Muslim state that incorporated a newly conquered alien land, inhabited by non-Muslims. He adopted a conciliatory policy, asking for acceptance of Muslim rule by the natives in return for non-interference in their religious practice, so long as the natives paid their taxes and tribute. In return, the state provided protection to non-Muslim from any foreign attacks and enemies. He established Islamic Sharia law over the people of the region; however, Hindus were allowed to rule their villages and settle their disputes according to their own laws, and traditional hierarchical institutions, including the village headmen () and chieftains () were maintained. A Muslim officer called an "amil" was stationed with a troop of cavalry to manage each town on a hereditary basis  Everywhere taxes ("mal") and tribute ("kharaj") were settled and hostages taken — occasionally this also meant the custodians of temples. Non-Muslim natives were excused from military service and from payment of the religiously mandated tax system levied upon Muslims called Zakat, the tax system levied upon them instead was the jizya - a progressive tax, being heavier on the upper classes and light for the poor. In addition, three percent of government revenue was allocated to the Brahmins.

Incorporation of ruling elite into administration.

During his administration, Hindus and Buddhists were inducted into the administration as trusted advisors and governors. A Hindu, Kaksa, was at one point the second most important member of his administration. Dahir's prime minister and various chieftains were also incorporated into the administration.

Jat clashes with Muhammad bin Qasim.

Significant medieval Muslim chronicles such as the "Chach Nama", "Zainul-Akhbar" and "Tarikh-I-Baihaqi" have recorded battles between the Jats and forces of Muhammad bin Qasim.

Clash of Bappa Rawal with Arabs.

Bappa rawal a hindu rajput ruler from Mewar in 738 Ad attacked Sindh and defeated Mohammad Bin Qasim successor Junaid Ibn Marri, the first attacker of Islam on Bharat and chased Arabs up to Iran. The Guhilot dynasty, to which he belonged, would go on to be one of the most powerful of Mewar in later years. Muhammad Bin Qasim conquests & ambitions were thwarted.Bappa defeated and pursued the fleeing Bin Qasim and his army. The name of rawalpindi is also after this legendary king Bappa rawal and earlier it was known as Ghazni pradesh.

Religion.

Lane-Poole writes that, "as a rule Muslim government was at once tolerant and economic". The preference of collection of jizya over the conversion to Islam is a major economic motivator. Hindus and Buddhists who were classified as Dhimmis had to pay mandatory Jizya, Jizya is normally higher than the zakat to be paid by muslims. Contrastingly preferential treatment was given to a small number of people who were converted to Islam by "exempting them from Jizya in lieu of paying the Zakat". Qasim fixed Zakat at 10% of the agricultural produce. have to pay the mandatory jizya. Dhimmis have to endure more restrictions and lesser rights than muslims. In Al-Biruni's narrative, according to Manan Ahmed Asif – a historian of Islam in South and Southeast Asia, "Qasim first asserts the superiority of Islam over the polytheists by committing a taboo (killing a cow) and publicly soiling the idol (giving the cow meat as an offering)" before allowing the temple to continue as a place of worship.  A religious islamic office, ""sadru-I-Islam al affal"", was created to oversee the secular governors. The native hereditary elites were reappointed with the title of rana. According to Yohanan Friedmann, Qasim declared that the Brahmins of Brahmanabad were good people.  While proselytization occurred, given the social dynamics of areas of Sindh conquered by Muslim, the spread of Islam was slow and took centuries. No mass conversions to islam took place and some temples escaped destruction such as the Sun Temple of Multan on payment of jizya. In the Arab settlers controlled areas of Sindh and Multan, conversion to Islam occurred only slowly, not on a massive scale. Majority of the population continued to remain Hindu who had to pay the jizya imposed by the Muslim state.

Death.

Muhammad had begun preparations for further expansions when al-Hajjaj died in 714, followed a year later by Caliph al-Walid I, who was succeeded by his brother Sulayman. The latter took revenge against the generals and officials who had been close to al-Hajjaj. Sulayman owed political support to al-Hajjaj's opponents and so recalled both of al-Hajjaj's successful generals Qutayba ibn Muslim, the conqueror of Transoxiana (Central Asia) and Muhammad. He also appointed the son of the distinguished general al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra, Yazid, who was once imprisoned and tortured by al-Hajjaj, as the governor of Fars, Kirman, Makran, and Sindh; he immediately placed Muhammad in chains.  There are two different accounts regarding the details of Muhammad's fate:

Aftermath.

After bin Qasim's departure, the next appointed Arab governor died on arrival. Dahir's son recaptured Brahmanabad and c. 720, he was granted pardon and included in the administration in return for converting to Islam. Soon, however, he recanted and split off when the Umayyads were embroiled in a succession crisis. Later, Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri killed Jaisiah and recaptured the territory before his successors once again struggled to hold and keep it. During the Abassid period, c. 870, the local emirs shook off all allegiance to the caliphs and by the 10th century the region was split into two weak states, Mansurah on the lower Indus and Multan on the upper Indus, which were soon captured by Ismailis who set up an independent Fatimid state. These successor states did not achieve much and shrank in size. The Arab conquest remained checked in what is now the south of Pakistan for three centuries by powerful Hindu monarchs to the north and east until the arrival of Mahmud of Ghazni.

Controversy.

There is controversy regarding the conquest and subsequent conversion of Sindh. This is usually voiced in two antagonistic perspectives viewing Qasim's actions:  His conquest, as described by Stanley Lane-Poole, in Medieval India (Published in 1970 by Haskell House Publishers Ltd), was "liberal". He imposed the customary poll tax, took hostages for good conduct and spared peoples' lives and lands. He even left their shrines undesecrated: 'The temples;' he proclaimed,'shall be inviolate, like the churches of the Christians, the synagogues of the Jews and altars of the Magians'. In the same text, however, it is mentioned that "Occasional desecration of Hindu fanes took place... but such demonstrations were probably rare sops to the official conscience...", as destruction of temples and civilian massacres still took place.  Various polemical perceptions of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are also reflected in this debate. The period of Qasim's rule has been called by U.T. Thakkur "the darkest period in Sind history", with the records speaking of massive forced conversions, temple destruction, slaughters and genocides; the people of Sindh, described as inherently pacifist due to their Hindu/Buddhist religious inclinations, had to adjust to the conditions of "barbarian inroad". On one extreme, the Arab Muslims are seen as being compelled by religious stricture to conquer and forcibly convert Sindh, but on the other hand, they can be seen as being respectful and tolerant of non-Muslims as part of their religious duty, with conversion being facilitated by the vitality, equality and morals of the Islamic religion. Citations of towns taken either violently or bloodlessly, reading back into Arab Sindh information belonging to a later date and dubious accounts such as those of the forcible circumcision of Brahmins at Debal or Qasims consideration of Hindu sentiment in forbidding the slaughter of cows are used as examples for one particular view or the other.  Some historians strike a middle ground, saying that Qasim was torn between the political expediency of making peace with the Hindus and Buddhists; having to call upon non-Muslims to serve under him as part of his mandate to administer newly conquered land; and orthodoxy by refraining from seeking the co-operation of "infidels". It is contended that Qasim may have struck a middle ground, conferring the status of Dhimmi upon the native Sindhis and permitting them to participate in his administration, but treating them as "noncitizens" (i.e. in the Caliphate, but not of it).  While Muhammad's warring was clearly at times brutal, he is supposed to have said of Hinduism that 'the idol temple is similar to the churches of the Christians, (to the synagogues) of the Jews and to the fire temples of the Zoroastrians' ("mā al-budd illā ka-kanāʾis al-naṣārā wa ’l-yahūd wa-buyūt nīrān al-madjūs"). This'seems to be the earliest statement justifying the inclusion of the Hindus in the category of "ahl al-dhimma", leading Muhammad to be viewed by many modern Muslims as a paragon of religious tolerance.

Muhammad bin Qasim al-Thaqafi (; 715), also known by the "laqab" (honorific epithet) of Imad ad-Din (), was an Arab commander of the Umayyad Caliphate general, who, during the reign of Caliph al-Walid I (), led the Muslim conquest of Sindh and Multan (both in present-day Pakistan) from the third and the last Maharaja of the Brahmin dynasty, Raja Dahir in the battle of Aror. He was the first Muslim to have successfully invaded Sindh.

Muhammad ibn al-Qasim (* 31. Dezember 695; † 18. Juli 715; ) war ein bedeutender arabischer Feldherr unter den Umayyaden zu Beginn des 8. Jahrhunderts.


Plot.

In 1973, sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam "Ace" Rothstein is sent by the Chicago Outfit to Las Vegas, Nevada to run the Teamsters-funded Tangiers Casino, while Philip Green serves as the mob's hotel CEO front man. Sam doubles the casino's profits, which are skimmed by the mafia before taxes are paid. Mafia boss Remo Gaggi sends Sam's childhood friend and mob enforcer Nicky Santoro, Nicky's younger brother Dominick, and Frankie Marino to protect Sam and the skimming operation. Nicky's volatile temper and Chicago criminal background eventually get him placed into the Nevada Black Book, banning Nicky from every casino in Nevada. Dominick and Frankie have gathered their own experienced mob crew and often engage in non-sanctioned shakedowns and elaborate burglaries instead.  Sam meets and soon falls in love with a beautiful hustler, dancer, and former prostitute Ginger McKenna. They soon have a daughter and marry, but their marriage is quickly thrown into turmoil due to Ginger's relationship with her former boyfriend, con artist-turned pimp Lester Diamond. Sam has Nicky and his crew beat Lester when they catch him conning Ginger out of $25,000. Ginger turns to alcohol and develops an increasingly problematic drug addiction.  In 1976, Sam fires slot manager Don Ward for incompetence. When Ward's brother-in-law, county commissioner Pat Webb, fails to convince Ace to rehire Don, Webb arranges for Sam's gaming license to be denied, jeopardizing his position. Sam blames Nicky's recklessness for ongoing police and Nevada Gaming Board pressure, and the two argue furiously in the Mojave desert. Sam has started hosting a local television talk show, and both Nicky and the Chicago bosses are upset that Sam is making himself such a public figure, bringing unwanted attention to their operations.  The Midwest Mafia bosses have put incompetent Kansas City underboss Artie Piscano in charge of overseeing all cash transactions. Piscano writes everything he knows about Las Vegas and the skimming operation in a private notebook, and rants about the cash costs in his grocery store. The FBI have wired Piscano's store and are spurred into investigating Sam's casino.  Sam seeks to divorce Ginger, who then kidnaps their daughter, Amy, planning to flee to Europe with Lester. Sam convinces Ginger to come back with Amy but overhears her talking on the phone about killing him. Sam kicks her out of their home but later relents. Ginger approaches Nicky to get her valuables from Sam's safe deposit box, and the two start an affair. Sam confronts and disowns Ginger, and ends his friendship with Nicky. Nicky finishes with Ginger when she demands he kill Sam. He throws her out instead. Drunk and furious, Ginger crashes her car into Sam's (which is parked in the driveway) and retrieves the key to their deposit box. Although she succeeds in taking the contents of the box, the FBI arrests her as a witness.  In 1979, the FBI closes the casino and CEO Phillip Green eventually cooperates with the authorities. Artie Piscano dies of a heart attack when federal agents discover his notebook. The FBI approaches Sam for help by showing him photos of Nicky and Ginger together, but he turns them down. The bosses are arrested and put on trial, and start to arrange the murders of anyone who might testify against them and prolong their subsequent sentences. Ginger dies of a drug overdose, and Sam barely escapes death by a car bomb, suspecting Nicky to be the culprit. Before Sam can take revenge, however, the bosses, having grown tired of Nicky's ongoing legal issues and angered by his apparent unauthorized attempt on Sam's life, order Frankie and his own crew to ambush Nicky and Dominick. After being taken to an Indiana cornfield under the impression that they are attending a meetup, the two brothers are brutally beaten with baseball bats and buried alive in a shallow grave.  With the mob now out of licensing fronts, the casinos are purchased by big corporations and demolished to make way for new and larger hotel-casino attractions, which Sam laments. He retires to San Diego, and lives as a sports handicapper, in his own words, ending up "right back where I started".

Production.

Development.

The research for "Casino" began when news reporter and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi read a 1980 report from the "Las Vegas Sun" about a domestic argument between Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a casino figure, and his wife Geri McGee, a former topless dancer. This gave him an idea to focus on a new book about the true story of mob infringement in Las Vegas during the 1970s, when filming of "Goodfellas" (whose screenplay he co-wrote with Scorsese) was coming to an end. The fictional Tangiers resort reflected the story of the Stardust Resort and Casino, which had been bought by Argent Corporation in 1974 using loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Argent was owned by Allen Glick, but the casino was believed to be controlled by various organized crime families from the Midwest. Over the next six years, Argent Corporation siphoned off between $7 and $15 million using rigged scales. This skimming operation, when uncovered by the FBI, was the largest ever exposed. A number of organized crime figures were convicted as a result of the skimming.  Pileggi contacted Scorsese about taking the lead of the project, which became known as "Casino." Scorsese expressed interest, calling this an "idea of success, no limits." Pileggi was keen to release the book and then concentrate on a film adaptation, but Scorsese encouraged him to "reverse the order."  Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the script for five months, towards the end of 1994. Real-life characters were reshaped, such as Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, Geri McGee, Anthony Spilotro, and Spilotro's brother. Some characters were combined, and parts of the story were set in Kansas City instead of Chicago. A problem emerged when they were forced to refer to Chicago as "back home" and use the words "adapted from a true story" instead of "based on a true story."  They also decided to simplify the script, so that the character of Sam "Ace" Rothstein only worked at the Tangiers Casino, in order to show a glimpse of the trials involved in operating a Mafia-run casino hotel without overwhelming the audience. According to Scorsese, the initial opening sequence was to feature the main character, Sam Rothstein, fighting with his estranged wife Ginger on the lawn of their house. The scene was too detailed, so they changed the sequence to show the explosion of Sam's car and him flying into the air before hovering over the flames in slow motion—like a soul about to go straight down to hell.

Principal photography.

Filming took place at night in the Riviera casino in Las Vegas, with the nearby defunct Landmark Hotel as the entrance, to replicate the fictional Tangiers. According to the producer Barbara De Fina, there was no point in building a set if the cost were the same to use a real-life one. The opening scene, with Sam's car exploding, was shot three times; the third take was used for the film. Saul Bass did the title sequence, which was his last work. When first submitted to the MPAA, the film received an NC-17 rating due to its depictions of violence. Several edits were made in order to reduce the rating to R.

Release.

Theatrical.

"Casino" was released in the United States on November 22, 1995.

Reception.

Box office.

"Casino" opened in 1,616 theaters and grossed about $10 million in its opening weekend. The film grossed $43 million domestically and $73 million internationally, for a total of $116 million worldwide, on a $40–50 million budget.

Critical response.

Upon its release, the film received mostly positive reviews from critics, although their praise was more muted than it had been for the thematically similar "Goodfellas", released only five years earlier, with some reviewers criticizing Scorsese for retreading familiar territory. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 80% based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Impressive ambition and bravura performances from an outstanding cast help "Casino" pay off in spite of a familiar narrative that may strike some viewers as a safe bet for director Martin Scorsese." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."  Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four, stating that "Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film Casino knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. Like "The Godfather" it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place." He added, "Unlike his other Mafia movies ("Mean Streets" and "Goodfellas"), Scorsese's Casino is as concerned with history as with plot and character." Philip Thomas of the Empire praised the film while highlighting its similarities to "Goodfellas." He gave the film five stars commenting "It may not be Scorsese's greatest work, but this guy feeling a little off-colour is still far, far better than most people on fighting-fit form. It only gets more impressive as time goes on."  The film's critical profile has increased in years after its release, with several critics expressing that, in retrospect, they feel it is a more accomplished and artistically mature work than the thematically similar "Goodfellas."

Casino is a 1995 American epic crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Barbara De Fina and distributed by Universal Pictures. It starred Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci. The film is based on the nonfiction book "" by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The film marks the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and De Niro.

Casino ist ein Kriminalfilm-Drama aus dem Jahr 1995 des Regisseurs Martin Scorsese, der das Drehbuch zusammen mit Nicholas Pileggi schrieb. Dessen gleichnamiges Buch diente als Vorlage.


Physical mechanism.

In order for a boundary layer to be absolutely unstable (have an inviscid instability), it must satisfy Rayleigh's criterion; namely formula_1 where formula_2 represents the y-derivative and formula_3 is the free stream velocity profile. In other words, the velocity profile must have an inflection point to be unstable.  It is clear that in a typical boundary layer with a zero pressure gradient, the flow will be unconditionally stable; however, we know from experience this is not the case and the flow does transition. It is clear, then, that viscosity must be an important factor in the instability. It can be shown using energy methods that  formula_4  The rightmost term is a viscous dissipation term and is stabilizing. The left term, however, is the Reynolds stress term and is the primary production method for instability growth. In an inviscid flow, the formula_5 and formula_6 terms are orthogonal, so the term is zero, as one would expect. However, with the addition of viscosity, the two components are no longer orthogonal and the term becomes nonzero. In this regard, viscosity is destabilizing and is the reason for the formation of T-S waves.

Transition phenomena.

Initial disturbance.

In a laminar boundary layer, if the initial disturbance spectrum is nearly infinitesimal and random (with no discrete frequency peaks), the initial instability will occur as two-dimensional Tollmien–Schlichting waves, travelling in the mean flow direction if compressibility is not important. However, three-dimensionality soon appears as the Tollmien–Schlichting waves rather quickly begin to show variations. There are known to be many paths from Tollmien–Schlichting waves to turbulence, and many of them are explained by the non-linear theories of flow instability.

Final transition.

A shear layer develops viscous instability and forms Tollmien–Schlichting waves which grow, while still laminar, into finite amplitude (1 to 2 percent of the freestream velocity) three-dimensional fluctuations in velocity and pressure to develop three-dimensional unstable waves and hairpin eddies. From then on, the process is more a breakdown than a growth. The longitudinally stretched vortices begin a cascading breakdown into smaller units, until the relevant frequencies and wave numbers are approaching randomness. Then in this diffusively fluctuating state, intense local changes occur at random times and locations in the shear layer near the wall. At the locally intense fluctuations, turbulent'spots' are formed that burst forth in the form of growing and spreading spots — the result of which is a fully turbulent state downstream.

The simple harmonic transverse sound of Tollmien–Schlichting (T-S) waves.

Tollmien (1931) and Schlichting (1929) theorized that viscosity-induced grabbing and releasing of laminae created long-crested simple harmonic (SH) oscillations (vibrations) along a smooth flat boundary, at a flow rate approaching the onset of turbulence. These T-S waves would gradually increase in amplitude until they broke up into the vortices, noise and high resistance that characterize turbulent flow. Contemporary wind tunnels failed to show T-S waves.  In 1943, Schubauer and Skramstad (S and S) created a wind tunnel that went to extremes to damp mechanical vibrations and sounds that might affect the airflow studies along a smooth flat plate. Using a vertical array of evenly spaced hot wire anemometers in the boundary layer (BL) airflow, they substantiated the existence of T-S oscillations by showing SH velocity fluctuations in the BL laminae. The T-S waves gradually increased in amplitude until a few random spikes of in-phase amplitude appeared, triggering focal vortices (turbulent spots), with noise. A further increase in flow rate resulted suddenly in many vortices, aerodynamic noise and a great increase in resistance to flow. An oscillation of a mass in a fluid creates a sound wave; SH oscillations of a mass of fluid, flowing in that same fluid along a boundary, must result in SH sound, reflected off the boundary, transversely into the fluid.  S and S found foci of in-phase spiking amplitude in the T-S waves; these must create bursts of high amplitude sound, with high energy oscillation of fluid molecules transversely through the BL laminae. This has the potential to freeze laminar slip (laminar interlocking) in these spots, transferring the resistance to the boundary: this breaking at the boundary could rip out pieces of T-S long-crested waves which would tumble head-over-heels downstream in the boundary layer as the vortices of turbulent spots. With further increase in flow rate, there is an explosion into turbulence, with many random vortices and the noise of aerodynamic sound.  Schubauer and Skramstad overlooked the significance of the co-generation of transverse SH sound by the T-S waves in transition and turbulence. However, John Tyndall (1867) in his transition-to-turbulence flow studies using flames, deduced that SH waves were created during transition by viscosity acting around the walls of a tube and these could be amplified by blending with similar SH sound waves (from a whistle), triggering turbulence at lower flow rates. Schubauer and Skramstad introduced SH sound into the boundary layer by creating SH fluttering vibrations of a BL ferromagnetic ribbon in their 1941 experiments, similarly triggering turbulence at lower flow rates.  Tyndall’s contribution towards explaining the mystery of transition to turbulence 150 years ago is beginning to gain recognition.

In fluid dynamics, a Tollmien–Schlichting wave (often abbreviated T-S wave) is a streamwise unstable wave which arises in a bounded shear flow (such as boundary layer and channel flow). It is one of the more common methods by which a laminar bounded shear flow transitions to turbulence. The waves are initiated when some disturbance (sound, for example) interacts with leading edge roughness in a process known as receptivity. These waves are slowly amplified as they move downstream until they may eventually grow large enough that nonlinearities take over and the flow transitions to turbulence.

Die Tollmien-Schlichting-Welle (nach Walter Tollmien und Hermann Schlichting) ist ein Begriff aus der Strömungslehre im Zusammenhang mit der linearen Stabilitätstheorie.


Early life.

The son of Lloyd Lester Stoner and Billie Morrison, Stoner attended high school in Long Beach and upon graduation worked for the Vega Aircraft Company installing armament.  During World War II, he enlisted for Aviation Ordnance in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the South Pacific and northern China.

Engineer.

In late 1945 Stoner began working in the machine shop for Whittaker, an aircraft equipment company, and ultimately became a Design Engineer.  In 1954 he came to work as chief engineer for ArmaLite, a division of Fairchild Engine & Airplane Corporation. While at ArmaLite, he designed a series of prototype small arms, including the AR-3, AR-9, AR-11, AR-12, none of which saw significant production. Their only real success during this period was the AR-5 survival rifle, which was adopted by the United States Air Force.  In 1955, Stoner completed initial design work on the revolutionary ArmaLite AR-10, a lightweight (7.25 lbs.) select-fire infantry rifle in 7.62×51mm NATO caliber. The AR-10 was submitted for rifle evaluation trials to the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground late in 1956. In comparison with competing rifle designs previously submitted for evaluation, the AR-10 was smaller, easier to fire in automatic, and much lighter. However it arrived very late in the testing cycle, and the army rejected the AR-10 in favor of the more conventional T44, which became the M14. The AR-10's design was later licensed to the Dutch firm of Artillerie Inrichtingen, who produced the AR-10 until 1960 for sale to various military forces.  At the request of the U.S. military, Stoner's chief assistant, Robert Fremont along with Jim Sullivan designed the Armalite AR-15 from the basic AR-10 model, scaling it down to fire the small-caliber.223 Remington cartridge, slightly enlarged to meet the minimum Army penetration requirements. The AR-15 was later adopted by United States military forces as the M16 rifle.  After ArmaLite sold the rights to the AR-15 to the Colt Firearms Company, Stoner turned his attention to the AR-16 design. This was another advanced 7.62 mm rifle but used a more conventional piston and a number of stamped parts to reduce cost. This weapon saw only prototype development but adaptation to.223 resulted in the somewhat successful and often imitated Armalite AR-18.  Stoner left ArmaLite in 1961 to serve as a consultant for Colt. He eventually accepted a position with Cadillac Gage where he designed the Stoner 63 Weapons System. This was a modular weapons system which could be reconfigured to be a standard automatic rifle, a light machine gun, a medium machine gun, or a solenoid-fired fixed machine gun.  The Stoner Weapons System used a piston-operated gas impingement system. Once again, Robert Fremont and Jim Sullivan took a Stoner rifle and redesigned it for the.223 Remington cartridge, to create the Stoner 63 Weapons System. Stoner then worked with TRW by designing the TRW 6425 25 mm "Bushmaster" auto cannon, which was later manufactured by Oerlikon as the KBA.  He co-founded ARES Incorporated of Port Clinton, Ohio, in 1972, but left the company in 1989, after designing the Ares Light Machine Gun, sometimes known as the Stoner 86. It was an evolved version of the Stoner 63. At Ares, he also designed the Future Assault Rifle Concept (FARC).  In 1990, he joined Knight's Armament Company (KAC) to create the Stoner Rifle-25 (SR-25), which currently sees military service as the United States Navy Mark 11 Mod 0 Sniper Weapon System. While at KAC, he also worked on yet another version of the Stoner Weapons System, called the Stoner 96. Among his last designs were the SR-50 rifle and the Colt 2000.

Mikhail T. Kalashnikov.

On May 16, 1990, Eugene M. Stoner and Mikhail T. Kalashnikov would meet for the first time. They would spend the next few days talking, sharing stories, shopping, going out to dinner and touring Washington D.C. They visited the Smithsonian Institution, the NRA’s National Firearms Museum, and a hunting lodge owned by the gun club at Star Tannery, where they went shooting. They would also visit the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where they watched new weapons being tested. During this short visit both men, intimately familiar with the other's work, shared a common bond and became friends, "not needing an interpreter to get their thoughts across."

Death.

Eugene Stoner died as a result of cancer at the age of 74 on April 24, 1997, and was later interred in the Quantico National Cemetery, Quantico, Virginia.  He was survived by his wife, Barbara Hitt Stoner, whom he married in 1965; his first wife, Jean Stoner Mahony of Newport Beach, California, from whom he was divorced in 1962; four children from his first marriage, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Eugene Morrison Stoner (November 22, 1922 – April 24, 1997) was an American firearms designer who is most associated with the development of the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle that was modified by the US military as the M16 rifle.

Eugene Morrison Stoner (* 22. November 1922 in Gosport, Indiana; † 24. April 1997 in Palm City, Florida) war ein US-amerikanischer Ingenieur und Unternehmer. Er wird meist mit dem Gewehr AR-15 in Verbindung gebracht, das vom US-Militär als M16 eingeführt wurde.


Geography.

Geographically, Symi is part of the Dodecanese island chain, located about north-northwest of Rhodes (and from Piraeus, the port of Athens), with of mountainous terrain. Its nearest land neighbors are the Datça and Bozburun peninsulas of Muğla Province in Turkey. Its interior is dotted with small valleys, and its coastline alternates between rocky cliffs and beaches, and isolated coves. Its main town, located on the northeast coast, is also named Symi and consists of the lower town around the harbour, typically referred to as Yialos, and the upper town is called Horio or Ano Symi. Other inhabited localities are Pedi, Nimborio, Marathounda and Panormitis. Panormitis is the location of the island's famous monastery which is visited by people from all over the world, and many Greeks pay homage to St Michael of Panormitis each year. The island has 2,580 inhabitants, mostly engaged in tourism, fishing, and trade. In the tourist season which lasts from Easter until Panormitis Day in early November, tourists and day-trippers increase the number of people on the island to as much as 6000. In addition to its many historical sites, the island's isolated beaches, many reachable only with small boats, are popular with tourists. The Municipality of Sými includes the uninhabited offshore islets of Gialesíno, Diavátes, Kouloúndros, Marmarás, Nímos, Sesklío, and Chondrós. Its total land area is.

History.

In Greek mythology, Symi is reputed to be the birthplace of the Charites and to take its name from the nymph Syme (in antiquity the island was known as Aigli and Metapontis), though Pliny the Elder and some later writers claimed that the name was derived from "scimmia" "a monkey". In Homer's "Iliad" the island is mentioned as the domain of King Nireus, who fought in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks and was described as the handsomest man in the Achaean forces, after Achilles. Thucydides writes that during the Peloponnesian War there was a Battle of Syme near the island in January, 411 BC, in which an unspecified number of Spartan ships defeated a squadron of Athenian vessels. Little was known about the island until the 14th century, but archaeological evidence indicates that it was continuously inhabited, and ruins of citadels suggest that it was an important location. It was first part of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire, until its conquest by the Knights of St. John in 1309.

Early modern: Hospitalier and Ottoman eras.

This conquest, fueled by the Knights' interest in shipping and commerce, launched what was to be a period of several centuries of prosperity for Symi, as its location amidst the Dodecanese made it an important waypoint for trade until the advent of steam-powered shipping in the 19th century. The island was conquered from the Knights by the Ottoman Empire in 1522 (along with nearby Rhodes) but it was allowed to retain many of its privileges, so its prosperity continued virtually uninterrupted. Under the Ottomans the island was called "Sömbeki". Symi was noted for its sponges which provided much of its wealth. It attained the height of its prosperity in the mid 19th century, and many of the peculiarly colorful neoclassical mansions covering the slopes near the main city date from that period. Although Symiots took part in the Greek War of Independence of 1821–1829, it was left out of the new Greek state when its borders were drawn up and so remained under Ottoman rule.

Modern era.

The island, along with the rest of the Dodecanese, changed hands several times in the 20th century: in 1912 the Dodecanese declared independence from the Ottomans as the Federation of the Dodecanese Islands, though they were almost immediately occupied by Italy. The island was formally ceded to Italy in 1923, and on 12 October 1943 it was occupied by the Nazis. At the end of World War II, the surrender of German forces in the region took place on Symi to the British and the island was subject to three years of occupation by them as a result. Symi was finally rejoined with Greece in 1948.  The island has become a haven for tourists from abroad, especially British and Italians, and is now the permanent home of about 120 non-Greek residents, some 50 of whom are British. The influx of tourists has led to the restoration of a great number of homes (many of which were destroyed during World War II); these restorations, by law, have to conform to "guidelines laid down by the Greek culture ministry's Archaeological Service." Between 1998 and 2006, it is estimated that the price of a "ruin" on Symi increased fivefold. The growing population of British and other expatriates has led to demographic as well as political changes, since EU citizens are allowed to vote in local elections and have attempted to exert influence on the island's politics. Opinions on whether this is a sign of growing integration differ.  There has been considerable restoration of many houses in Symi in the past decade, by architects including Haris A. Kalligas and Anastasia Papaioannou, both winners of the Europa Nostra Awards for their work on Symi and elsewhere in Greece.

Culture.

Festival.

Since 1995, Symi has hosted the Symi Festival during the months of July to September. This festival was founded by Greek political journalist, Ioannis (John) Diakogiannis, who established it in the birthplace of his father Eleftherios C. Diakogiannis. Since its inception it has attracted many Greek musicians (Katy Garbi, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Glykeria, Alkistis Protopsalti, Dimitra Galani, Miltos Pasxahildis etc.) to perform at free open-air concerts in the main square of Yialos, and also consists of many dance and theatre events.

Sister cities.

In 2008, Tarpon Springs, Florida, a town with a high percentage of Greek Americans located on the Gulf Coast of the United States, established a sister city-relationship with Symi, which had sent many sponge fishermen to Florida for the "sponge rush" at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Local media.

There is one local FM radio station broadcasting on the island, Star Radio Symi 104.6 FM. In addition, the island boasts one web radio station, Magic Star.

Symi, also transliterated as Syme or Simi (), is a Greek island and municipality. It is mountainous and includes the harbor town of Symi and its adjacent upper town Ano Symi, as well as several smaller localities, beaches, and areas of significance in history and mythology. Symi is part of the Rhodes regional unit.

Symi ( [], ) ist eine 57,865 km2 große griechische Insel des Dodekanes in der Ägäis und gehört zur Gruppe der Südlichen Sporaden. Zusammen mit einigen unbewohnten Inselchen bildet sie eine Gemeinde ("dimos" δήμος) in der Region Südliche Ägäis.


Career.

Ridley was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England. Early in his career he played under the name Dino as guitarist for "Dino & the Danubes" before joining bands such as the Ramrods. Ridley and Mike Harrison formed The V.I.P.'s in 1963, playing blues based music. The band added guitarist Luther Grosvenor and organist/pianist Keith Emerson, who stayed for a brief period of time before leaving and forming The Nice. After they changed their name to Art and published an album "Supernatural Fairy Tales", and then to Spooky Tooth in 1968. Spooky Tooth signed to Island and recorded two albums "It's All About" (1968) and "Spooky Two" (1969).  In January 1969 Ridley was approached by Steve Marriott from the Small Faces - who was forming a new band, called Humble Pie. The line up also included guitarist Peter Frampton from The Herd and drummer Jerry Shirley. Humble Pie's first album As Safe As Yesterday Is was released and a second album "Town and Country" was also released in the same year. A contract with A&M Records and a re-working of their sound into a harder brand of music, coupled with extensive touring of United States followed. A double album "Performance Rockin' the Fillmore", featuring a now historic recording of a raw performance of rare quality, catapulted Humble Pie into rock history. Ridley's powerful bass playing anchored the band's performance and was at the centre of their sound. Together, Ridley and drummer Jerry Shirley comprised one of the most respected rhythm sections in Rock music during this period. Although Ridley rarely sang lead vocals, his deep baritone was frequently used to provide contrast with the higher tenors of Marriott and Frampton. Ridley made several songwriting contributions, including "Sucking on the Sweet Vine" on Humble Pie, "The Light of Love" on Town and Country, and "Big George" on Rock On.  This incarnation of Humble Pie continued until 1975 and Ridley left the music business, after finishing an unreleased album with Marriott and abortive attempts with bands such as Mike Patto and Ollie Halsall's band Boxer. Ridley moved to Gloucestershire and lived in a stone cottage in the Forest of Dean with his girlfriend. He found the peace and quiet of country life a pleasant and refreshing change to touring and recording. He became involved in the antique furniture business and throughout the 80's he was a low-key antique trader and he stripped pine furniture for other traders as a business.  On 14 April 2001 he appeared with Jerry Shirley, Peter Frampton and Clem Clempson, billed as a one off Humble Pie re-union, at a "Steve Marriott Tribute Concert". Earlier that year, he had also become involved with a Humble Pie project initiated by Jerry Shirley's reactivation of the group. and the enlisting of another former Humble Pie guitarist and vocalist Bobby Tench. This resulted in the album Back on Track, released by Sanctuary in 2002 and a short tour of Germany with Company of Snakes during the early part of 2003. The project was cut short when Ridley became ill.

Death.

On 19 November 2003, Ridley died in Alicante, Spain, of pneumonia and resulting complications. He was 56. His funeral was paid for by a concert organised by harmonica player Dave Hunt.

Alfred Gregory "Greg" Ridley (23 October 1947 – 19 November 2003) was an English rock bassist and a founding member of Humble Pie.

Greg Ridley, geboren als "Alfred Gregory Ridley" (* 23. Oktober 1947 in Aspatria im heutigen Bezirk Allerdale, Cumbria; † 19. November 2003 in Alicante, Spanien), war ein britischer Rockmusiker, der bekannt wurde als Bassgitarrist der Gruppen Spooky Tooth und Humble Pie.


Signs and symptoms.

The way CML presents depends on the stage of the disease at diagnosis as it has been known to skip stages in some cases.  Most patients (~90%) are diagnosed during the chronic stage which is most often asymptomatic. In these cases it may be diagnosed incidentally with an elevated white blood cell count on a routine laboratory test. It can also present with symptoms indicative of hepatosplenomegaly and the resulting upper quadrant pain this causes. The enlarged spleen may put pressure on the stomach causing a loss of appetite and resulting weight loss. It may also present with mild fever and night sweats due to an elevated basal level of metabolism.  Some (<10%) are diagnosed during the accelerated stage which most often presents bleeding, petechiae and ecchymosis. In these patients fevers are most commonly the result of opportunistic infections.  Some patients are initially diagnosed in the blast phase in which the symptoms are most likely fever, bone pain and an increase in bone marrow fibrosis.

Cause.

In most cases no obvious cause for CML can be isolated.

Risk factors.

CML is more common in males than in females (male to female ratio of 1.4:1) and appears more commonly in the elderly with a median age at diagnosis of 65 years. Exposure to ionising radiation appears to be a risk factor, based on a 50 fold higher incidence of CML in Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombing survivors. The rate of CML in these individuals seems to peak about 10 years after the exposure.

Pathophysiology.

CML was the first cancer to be linked to a clear genetic abnormality, the chromosomal translocation known as the Philadelphia chromosome. This chromosomal abnormality is so named because it was first discovered and described in 1960 by two scientists from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: Peter Nowell of the University of Pennsylvania and David Hungerford of Fox Chase Cancer Center.  In this translocation, parts of two chromosomes (the 9th and 22nd) switch places. As a result, part of the BCR ("breakpoint cluster region") gene from chromosome 22 is fused with the ABL gene on chromosome 9. This abnormal "fusion" gene generates a protein of p210 or sometimes p185 weight (p210 is short for 210 kDa protein, a shorthand used for characterizing proteins based solely on size). Because abl carries a domain that can add phosphate groups to tyrosine residues (a tyrosine kinase), the "bcr-abl" fusion gene product is also a tyrosine kinase. The fused BCR-ABL protein interacts with the interleukin 3beta(c) receptor subunit. The BCR-ABL transcript is continuously active and does not require activation by other cellular messaging proteins. In turn, BCR-ABL activates a cascade of proteins that control the cell cycle, speeding up cell division. Moreover, the BCR-ABL protein inhibits DNA repair, causing genomic instability and making the cell more susceptible to developing further genetic abnormalities. The action of the BCR-ABL protein is the pathophysiologic cause of chronic myelogenous leukemia. With improved understanding of the nature of the BCR-ABL protein and its action as a tyrosine kinase, targeted therapies (the first of which was imatinib) that specifically inhibit the activity of the BCR-ABL protein have been developed. These tyrosine kinase inhibitors can induce complete remissions in CML, confirming the central importance of bcr-abl as the cause of CML.

Diagnosis.

CML is often suspected on the basis of a complete blood count, which shows increased granulocytes of all types, typically including mature myeloid cells. Basophils and eosinophils are almost universally increased; this feature may help differentiate CML from a leukemoid reaction. A bone marrow biopsy is often performed as part of the evaluation for CML, and CML is diagnosed by cytogenetics that detects the translocation t(9;22)(q34;q11.2) which involves the ABL1 gene in chromosome 9 and the BCR gene in chromosome 22. As a result of this translocation, the chromosome looks smaller than its homologue chromosome, and this appearance is known as the Philadelphia chromosome chromosomal abnormality. Thus, this abnormality can be detected by routine cytogenetics, and the involved genes BCR-ABL1 can be detected by fluorescent in situ hybridization, as well as by PCR.  Controversy exists over so-called "Ph-negative" CML, or cases of suspected CML in which the Philadelphia chromosome cannot be detected. Many such patients in fact have complex chromosomal abnormalities that mask the (9;22) translocation, or have evidence of the translocation by FISH or RT-PCR in spite of normal routine karyotyping. The small subset of patients without detectable molecular evidence of BCR-ABL1 fusion may be better classified as having an undifferentiated myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative disorder, as their clinical course tends to be different from patients with CML.  CML must be distinguished from a leukemoid reaction, which can have a similar appearance on a blood smear.

Classification.

CML is often divided into three phases based on clinical characteristics and laboratory findings. In the absence of intervention, CML typically begins in the "chronic" phase, and over the course of several years progresses to an "accelerated" phase and ultimately to a "blast crisis". Blast crisis is the terminal phase of CML and clinically behaves like an acute leukemia. Drug treatment will usually stop this progression if started early. One of the drivers of the progression from chronic phase through acceleration and blast crisis is the acquisition of new chromosomal abnormalities (in addition to the Philadelphia chromosome). Some patients may already be in the accelerated phase or blast crisis by the time they are diagnosed.

Chronic phase.

Approximately 85% of patients with CML are in the chronic phase at the time of diagnosis. During this phase, patients are usually asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms of fatigue, left side pain, joint and/or hip pain, or abdominal fullness. The duration of chronic phase is variable and depends on how early the disease was diagnosed as well as the therapies used. In the absence of treatment, the disease progresses to an accelerated phase. Precise patient staging based on clinical markers and personal genomic profile will likely prove beneficial in the assessment of disease history with respect to progression risk.

Accelerated phase.

Criteria for diagnosing transition into the accelerated phase are somewhat variable; the most widely used criteria are those put forward by investigators at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, by Sokal et al., and the World Health Organization. The WHO criteria are perhaps most widely used, and define the accelerated phase by the presence of ≥1 of the following haematological/cytogenetic criteria or provisional criteria concerning response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy  The patient is considered to be in the accelerated phase if any of the above are present. The accelerated phase is significant because it signals that the disease is progressing and transformation to blast crisis is imminent. Drug treatment often becomes less effective in the advanced stages.

Blast crisis.

Blast crisis is the final phase in the evolution of CML, and behaves like an acute leukemia, with rapid progression and short survival. Blast crisis is diagnosed if any of the following are present in a patient with CML:

Treatment.

The only curative treatment for CML is a bone marrow transplant or an allogeneic stem cell transplant. Other than this there are four major mainstays of treatment in CML: treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, myelosuppressive or leukopheresis therapy (to counteract the leukocytosis during early treatment), splenectomy and interferon alfa-2b treatment. Due to the high median age of patients with CML it is relatively rare for CML to be seen in pregnant women, despite this, however, chronic myelogenous leukemia can be treated with relative safety at any time during pregnancy with Interferon-alpha hormones.

Chronic phase.

In the past, antimetabolites (e.g., cytarabine, hydroxyurea), alkylating agents, interferon alfa 2b, and steroids were used as treatments of CML in the chronic phase, but since the 2000s have been replaced by Bcr-Abl tyrosine-kinase inhibitors drugs that specifically target BCR-ABL, the constitutively activated tyrosine kinase fusion protein caused by the Philadelphia chromosome translocation. Despite the move to replacing cytotoxic antineoplastics (standard anticancer drugs) with tyrosine kinase inhibitors sometimes hydroxyurea is still used to counteract the high leukocyte counts encountered during treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors like imatinib; in these situations it may be the preferred myelosuppressive agent due to its relative lack of leukemogenic effects and hence the relative lack of potential for secondary hematologic malignancies to result from treatment. IRIS, an international study that compared interferon/cytarabine combination and the first of these new drugs imatinib, with long-term follow up, demonstrated the clear superiority of tyrosine-kinase-targeted inhibition over existing treatments.

Imatinib.

The first of this new class of drugs was imatinib mesylate (marketed as Gleevec or Glivec), approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2001. Imatinib was found to inhibit the progression of CML in the majority of patients (65–75%) sufficiently to achieve regrowth of their normal bone marrow stem cell population (a cytogenetic response) with stable proportions of maturing white blood cells. Because some leukemic cells (as evaluated by RT-PCR) persist in nearly all patients, the treatment has to be continued indefinitely. Since the advent of imatinib, CML has become the first cancer in which a standard medical treatment may give to the patient a normal life expectancy.

Dasatinib, nilotinib, radotinib and bosutinib.

To overcome imatinib resistance and to increase responsiveness to TK inhibitors, four novel agents were later developed. The first, dasatinib, blocks several further oncogenic proteins, in addition to more potent inhibition of the BCR-ABL protein, and was initially approved in 2007 by the US FDA to treat CML in patients who were either resistant to or intolerant of imatinib. A second new TK inhibitor, nilotinib, was also approved by the FDA for the same indication. In 2010, nilotinib and dasatinib were also approved for first-line therapy, making three drugs in this class available for treatment of newly diagnosed CML. In 2012, Radotinib joined the class of novel agents in the inhibition of the BCR-ABL protein and was approved in South Korea for patients resistant to or intolerant of imatinib. Bosutinib received US FDA and EU European Medicines Agency approval on 4 September 2012 and 27 March 2013 respectively for the treatment of adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) with resistance, or intolerance to prior therapy.

Treatment-resistant CML.

While capable of producing significantly improved responses compared with the action of imatinib, neither dasatinib nor nilotinib could overcome drug resistance caused by one particular mutation found to occur in the structure of BCR-ABL1 known as the T315I mutation (in other words, where the 315th amino acid is mutated from a threonine residue to an isoleucine residue). Two approaches were developed to the treatment of CML as a result:  In 2007, Chemgenex released results of an open-label Phase 2/3 study (CGX-635-CML-202) that investigated the use of a non BCR-ABL targeted agent omacetaxine, administered subcutaneously (under the skin) in patients who had failed with imatinib and exhibited T315I kinase domain mutation. This is a study which is ongoing through 2014. In September 2012, the FDA approved omacetaxine for the treatment of CML in the case of resistance to other chemotherapeutic agents.  Independently, ARIAD pharmaceuticals, adapting the chemical structures from first and second-generation TK inhibitors, arrived at a new pan-BCR-ABL1 inhibitor which showed (for the first time) efficacy against T315I, as well as all other known mutations of the oncoprotein. The drug, ponatinib, gained FDA approval in December 2012 for treatment of patients with resistant or intolerant CML. Just as with second generation TK inhibitors, early approval is being sought to extend the use of ponatinib to newly diagnosed CML also.

Vaccination.

In 2005, encouraging but mixed results of vaccination were reported with the "BCR/ABL1" p210 fusion protein in patients with stable disease, with GM-CSF as an adjuvant.

Prognosis.

Before the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, the median survival time for CML patients had been about 3–5 years from time of diagnosis.  With the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, survival rates have improved dramatically. A 2006 followup of 553 patients using imatinib (Gleevec) found an overall survival rate of 89% after five years.  A 2011 followup of 832 patients using imatinib who achieved a stable cytogenetic response found an overall survival rate of 95.2% after 8 years, which is similar to the rate in the general population. Fewer than 1% of patients died because of leukemia progression.

Epidemiology.

United Kingdom.

CML accounts for 8% of all leukaemias in the UK, and around 680 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2011.

United States.

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2014, about 5,980 new cases of chronic myeloid leukemia were diagnosed, and about 810 people died of the disease. This means that a little over 10% of all newly diagnosed leukemia cases will be chronic myeloid leukemia. The average risk of a person getting this disease is 1 in 588. The disease is more common in men than women, and more common in whites than African-Americans. The average age at diagnosis is 64 years, and this disease is rarely seen in children.

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), also known as chronic myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumulation of these cells in the blood. CML is a clonal bone marrow stem cell disorder in which a proliferation of mature granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils) and their precursors is found. It is a type of myeloproliferative neoplasm associated with a characteristic chromosomal translocation called the Philadelphia chromosome. CML is largely treated with targeted drugs called tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) which have led to dramatically improved long-term survival rates since 2001. These drugs have revolutionized treatment of this disease and allow most patients to have a good quality of life when compared to the former chemotherapy drugs. In Western countries, CML accounts for 15–25% of all adult leukemias and 14% of leukemias overall (including the pediatric population, where CML is less common).

Die chronische myeloische Leukämie (CML), auch chronisch-myeloische Leukämie und (seltener) chronische Myelose genannt, ist eine chronische Leukämie, die mit einer starken Vermehrung von Leukozyten (weißen Blutkörperchen), speziell von Granulozyten und ihren Vorstufen, im Blut und im blutbildenden Knochenmark einhergeht. Die Erkrankung ist in der Anfangsphase häufig symptomlos.


History.

The origins of gypsy jazz can be traced to the Manouche gypsy Django Reinhardt, who after serving his musical "apprenticeship" playing in musette bands with accordionists, and also accompanying popular singers of the day, became acquainted with jazz music and began incorporating this into his repertoire and playing style. After initially hearing ragtime and Dixieland music, Reinhardt listened to Duke Ellington, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, and especially Louis Armstrong via the record collection of painter Émile Savitry in Toulon, France, in 1931. After Reinhardt met violinist Stéphane Grappelli, they played together informally when they were not playing dance music with a small orchestra at the Hôtel Claridge in Paris during the summer of 1934. According to an account in a book by Michael Dregni, Grappelli played a chorus, then Reinhardt began to improvise. Sometimes they were accompanied on double bass by Louis Vola, the band's leader, and on rhythm guitar by Roger Chaput. This was the core of Reinhardt's band. The addition of Reinhardt's brother Joseph on rhythm guitar made it the Quintette du Hot Club de France.  This classic lineup, with occasional changes in membership on double bass and rhythm guitar, entered the recording studio later that year. They recorded extensively until the outbreak of war in 1939 when the Quintette was on tour in England. Reinhardt returned to Paris while Grappelli remained in London for the duration of the war. After the war, they reunited in London and recorded with an English rhythm section. The days of the "hot club" sound were over, as both men had pursued independent musical paths. Reinhardt had moved to an electric guitar sound influenced by bebop. His sons, Lousson and Babik, played in a style influenced by American jazz. The classic gypsy swing style (acoustic, all strings, no drums) was conserved among gypsies in Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands as a folk style in homage to Django Reinhardt. This style appeared again during the 1960s in the German band Schnuckenack Reinhardt and beginning in the 1970s in the music of Belgian group Waso and guitarist Fapy Lafertin, French musician Raphaël Faÿs, Dutch guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg, and Alsatian guitarist Biréli Lagrène. It can be seen in the Ferré (a.k.a. Ferret) family. Matelo Ferret and his brother Baro had played with Reinhardt. Matelo's sons Boulou and Elios Ferré are also musicians in the gypsy jazz tradition.  After years of playing cafe-style jazz with a pianist and conventional rhythm section, in 1973 violinist Grappelli returned to the "hot club" style once more with the support of acoustic guitars and double bass at the instigation of guitarist Diz Disley. Grappelli's popularity sparked an interest in gypsy jazz among musicians who were too young to have experienced the prewar Quintette of Django Reinhardt. Starting in the 1930s, the Quintette also inspired imitators, such as the 1939 recordings by Svenska Hotkvintetten in Sweden. In the 2010s and 2020s, as in the past, the gypsy jazz style is passed on from one generation to the next in gypsy communities, children learning from their relatives at an early age, able to master the basics almost before they can hold a normal-sized guitar in their hands.  What today is called "gypsy jazz" was not played exclusively by gypsies even from the start: of the original Quintette, only Django and his brother Joseph were gypsies (although later, various other gypsy players were called upon to perform rhythm guitar duties), and Django himself played in a straight (non "gypsy") jazz context on many occasions with other artists. Similarly, late-era Reinhardt recordings are generally closer to bebop and well away from the classic "hot club" sound, and arguably do not fall under the term "gypsy jazz" as generally used today. In addition, many gypsy guitarists of the 1950s and decades immediately following—including Django's own sons Lousson and Babik—did not generally play gypsy jazz in the hot club style, although they were indeed gypsies who were playing jazz. Likewise, a number of today's "gypsy jazz" exponents are non-gypsies, in addition to the more well known gypsy players. Thus, the term has become attached to the style of playing rather than strictly reflecting the ethnic affiliation of the players. Django himself would not have known the term "gypsy jazz" in any case; for him he was simply playing jazz, and the Quintette was simply a popular jazz (or dance band) outfit of the day, albeit with the virtuoso soloing of its lead instrumentalists (on guitar and violin) taken to a new level.

Instrumentation and lineup.

The Quintette du Hot Club de France played acoustically without a drummer, facilitating the use of the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument. Guitar and violin are still the main solo instruments, although clarinet, saxophone, mandolin, and accordion are sometimes used. The rhythm guitar is played using a distinct percussive technique, "la pompe", which essentially replaces the drums. Most gypsy jazz guitarists, lead and rhythm, play a version of the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar design favored by Reinhardt. Ensembles aim for an acoustic sound even when playing amplified concerts, and informal jam sessions in small venues such as the annual Django Reinhardt festival at Samois-sur-Seine are part of the scene. Reinhardt and his band used a range of guitar models available in France, but dominant among them was the Selmer guitar (a.k.a. Selmer-Maccaferri or Maccaferri guitar) designed and signed by Mario Maccaferri; Maccaferri parted company with Selmer in 1933 and later models were just known as "Selmer". These guitars were made in two first versions, the earliest with a large "D" shaped sound hole, and later models with a smaller "O" shaped sound hole. The later models are considered most suited to lead guitar playing. In the 2010s, designs based on this model are popular enough to be marketed as "gypsy jazz guitars" and are the guitars of choice for most practitioners of the style on account of their responsiveness and particular tonal characteristics.  The double bass is the low-pitched instrument in gypsy jazz. The bass is mostly used for a rhythm section, accompaniment role, playing walking basslines, "two-feel" parts where the root and the fifth (or sometimes another chord tone) are played as quarter notes on the first and third beats, respectively, and for ballads, a mix of whole notes and half notes. It is mostly plucked with the fingers, but on some songs, the bow is used, either for stacatto roots and fifths in "two-feel" or, on a ballad, for sustained low notes. On some songs, bass players may be given an improvised solo. Some gypsy jazz bass players strike the fingerboard with the fingers between plucked notes, creating a perrcussive style called slap bass (this is different from the 1970s bass guitar style of the same name).  In Eastern European gypsy music (which may sometimes include a jazz element), the rhythm section is most likely covered by one or two cymbaloms, or (less frequently) a cymbalom and/or drums and an acoustic guitar (the cymbalom accompaniment technique is called in Romanian "ţiitură"). A double bass fills out these Eastern European ensembles.

Techniques.

Rhythm.

Rhythm guitar in gypsy jazz uses a special form of strumming known as "la pompe", i.e. "the pump". This form of percussive rhythm is similar to the "boom-chick" in bluegrass styles; it is what gives the music its fast swinging feeling, and it most often emphasizes beats two and four; a vital feature of swing. The strumming hand, which never touches the top of the guitar, must make a quick up-down strum followed by a down strum. The up-down part of la pompe must be done extremely fast, regardless of the tempo of the music. It is very similar to a grace note in classical music, albeit an entire chord is used. This pattern is usually played in unison by two or more guitarists in the rhythm section.

Harmony.

Another important aspect of this style of playing is based on the chord shapes Django was forced to use due to his injury. Standard barre chords are not as common in gypsy jazz. Standard major and minor chords are almost never played, and are instead replaced by major 7th chords, major 6th chords, and 6/9 chords. Gypsy reharmonisation is often aimed at giving a minor feel even where a song is in a major key, for instance the substitution of a minor 6th chord for a dominant seventh. Dominant seventh chords are also altered by lowering the 9th and 13th scale degree. Gypsy jazz songs use half diminished chords to precede dominant seventh chords in minor keys.

Lead.

Lead playing in this style has been summarised as ornamented or decorated arpeggio. Decorations often introduce chromaticism—for instance, mordents and trills. Particularly characteristic is a figure where successive notes of an arpeggio are each preceded by an appoggiatura-like grace note one semitone below. Other decorations include tremolo and string bends on the guitar, staccato (or pizzicato on the violin), ghost notes, harmonics, octaves, double stops etc.  Arpeggios on the guitar are typically executed as patterns running diagonally from the lower frets on the lower strings to the upper frets on the upper strings. Such patterns tend to have no more than two stopped notes per string, relating to the fact that Django could only articulate two fingers on his fretting hand.  Commonly used scales, in addition to arpeggios, include the chromatic scale, melodic minor scale, dorian mode, and diminished scale.  Chromatic runs are often executed very quickly over more than one octave. A particularly characteristic technique is the glissando, in which the guitar player slides a finger along a string, with a precisely timed tremolo picking out individual notes, in order to get a fast, virtuosic sound. Diminished runs, in which the shape of a diminished seventh chord is played in all inversions, one after the other, is another widespread gypsy jazz technique. Diminished 7th arpeggios are also used over dominant 7th chords. (Example: If an A7 is being played, a diminished run starting on C# would be played, creating an A7b9 sound over the dominant chord.) Guitarists often intersperse melodic playing with flamenco-esque percussive series of chords to create a varied solo.  The plectrum technique of gypsy jazz has been described as similar to economy picking. Notes on the same string are played alternately, but when moving from string to string, the traditional technique is to use a down stroke. For instance, on switching from the G to the B string, the plectrum will move in the same direction and come to rest on the E string. The down stroke is preferred because of volume and tone. While this technique of doubling down strokes varies among players, Stochelo Rosenberg's technique is a prime example.

Repertoire.

Gypsy jazz has its own set of frequently played standards, which are fairly distinct from the standards tunes of mainstream jazz. However, contemporary ensembles may adapt almost any type of song to the style. Gypsy swing standards include jazz hits of the '20s and '30s, such as "Limehouse Blues", and "Dinah"; Bal Musette numbers, often waltzes; original compositions by Django Reinhardt, such as "Nuages" and "Swing 42"; compositions by other notable gypsy swing players; and jazzed-up versions of gypsy songs, such as "Dark Eyes". Much of the repertoire is in minor keys, and the dorian and harmonic minor modes are frequently heard, lending a distinctively dark and modal sound to the tunes which contrasts with the uptempo and spirited performance style. One popular example is Django's tune "Minor Swing", perhaps the most well-known gypsy jazz composition. Slower ballads and duets may feature rubato playing and exotic harmonies.

Teaching and learning.

The first generations of gypsy jazz musicians learned the style by the 'gypsy method', involving intense practice, direct imitation of older musicians (often family members) and playing and learning "by ear", with little formal musical study (or, indeed, formal education of any kind). Since about the late 1970s, study materials of a more conventional kind such as workshops, etude and method books and videos have become available, allowing musicians worldwide to learn the style and its idiomatic ornaments and musical language. As well, fake books containing lead sheets with the chord progression and melodies of gypsy jazz standards have become available, both in book form and on websites, with the latter being sometimes only the chords. Fake books make it easier to learn songs, because you do not need to be able to figure out the chords and melodies by ear.  Since the 1990s, software such as Power Tab Editor and Band-in-a-Box files have become available. Prominent gypsy-style guitarists who are not ethnically Roma include John Jorgenson, Andreas Öberg, Frank Vignola, George Cole. Touring gypsy jazz musicians often include workshops with performances. Players who have written study guides include Martin Norgarrd, Tim Kliphuis, Andreas Öberg, Ian Cruickshank, Robin Nolan, Denis Chang, Michael Horowitz, Daniel Givone and Patrick "Romane" Leguidcoq.

Contemporary forms.

The largest audiences and highest number of musicians are still found in Europe as this is where the style originates. Contemporary gypsy jazz musicians include Gonzalo Bergara, George Cole, Angelo Debarre, Pearl Django, John Jorgenson, Tim Kliphuis, Biréli Lagrène, Robin Nolan, Stochelo Rosenberg, Paulus Schäfer, Joscho Stephan, and Frank Vignola.

Canada.

In Canada, gypsy jazz bands include Denis Chang, Justin Duhaime's Gypsy Muse, Gypsophilia, Mishra's Dream, The Lost Fingers, Django Libre and Les Petits Nouveaux. Christine Tassan et les Imposteures is a Gypsy Manouche jazz band founded in 2003 in Montreal. For several years it was an entirely feminine quartet. It still includes four musicians around lead guitarist and lead singer Christine Tassan.

France.

Contemporary Manouche instrumentalists in the Django Reinhardt and Jazz Hot Tradition, as heard annually at the Festival Django Reinhardt at Samois-sur-Seine, France, include Django's grandson David Reinhardt, Dorado Schmitt, Tchavolo Schmitt, Jon Larsen, Angelo Debarre, Babik Reinhardt, John Jorgenson, Samson Schmitt, Stephane Wrembel, Biréli Lagrène and Florin Niculescu. Former regulars also included the late Mondine Garcia and Didi Duprat. Jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée has roots based in gypsy jazz. French jazz vocalist Tatiana Eva-Marie performs gypsy-jazz music combined with swing music in Brooklyn, New York.

Malta.

Violinist George Curmi l-Puse along with accordionist Yuri Charyguine, guitarists Joshua Bray and Steve Delia d-Delli, and bassist Anthony Saliba l-Fesu created the Hot Club Of Valletta in 2014. They have played gigs in and around Valletta into 2015, sometimes referring to the music they play as jazz manouche.

Netherlands.

Dutch Sinti guitar players of gypsy jazz employ a style of singing and tone, vibrato, and melodic improvisation, known as the Dutch school of Gypsy Jazz.

Romania.

Gypsy jazz came into prominence in Romania around 1980 by means of the pop-folk subgenre known as "muzică bănăţeană" (i.e. music in the Banat style), still practised to date. It has a different approach to lăutari (gypsy folk) music. In "muzica bănăţeană", some traditional instruments (kobza, cimbalom) are replaced by electric guitars and synthesizers, while others are kept (fiddle, accordion, alto saxophone, taragot), thus creating an eclectic type of sound (beside the unexpected timbre combinations, contrasting textures from these instruments are also featured.) The repertoire mixes together café concert, old-school jazz standards, folk and pop-folk music. The Western manouche style is reinterpreted mostly through the sârbă rhythm, actually very close to it, but syncopated differently in lead instruments. Throughout the years, "muzica bănăţeană" has gradually become fond of the manea rhythm, which sounds more like the twist when played in the Banat style; however the swung sârbă was not abandoned.  "Muzica bănăţeană" was politically censored throughout the 1980, so that only bootleg recordings survive of those years. According to the Romanian Ministry of Culture, the reason for banning it was its impure nature, threatening the national folk music. However, other lăutari music was widely recorded and performed in Communist Romania. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, numerous musicians who were not previously permitted to record on the national record label Electrecord, saw their debuts released; but that eclectic characteristic of Romanian gypsy music changed into what is now called "manele" – a music that is not entirely from gypsy folk origin, nor is it jazz or another defined genre. There are many manele performers creating hybrid genres mixing different notes and rhythms.  Damian Draghici, born in Bucharest in 1970, is a player of the Romanian pan pipes. In 2006, Draghici formed the band "Damian & Brothers – Filarmonika Rromanes". On 20 March 2009, he was designated by the President of Romania as Romania's Ambassador for the Roma minority in the European Year of Equal Opportunities for all. On December 17, 2009, after 3 years and 600 concerts in Europe, Damian and Brothers held their last concert in Bucharest in front of an audience of 4000.

Scandinavia.

There is a yearly Django festival in Norway and Jon Larsen's Hot Club de Norvège is based there. Gypsy guitarists Andreas Öberg and Gustav Lundgren are based in Sweden. Gypsy guitar builder Ari-Jukka Luomaranta (AJL-Guitars) is based in Finland and runs his own group Hot club de Finlande, performing with soloists from Europe.

Spain.

Since the 2010s, Gypsy Jazz has been growing very fast in Spain with guitarists as Biel Ballester, Albert Bello and David Regueiro. There is also a yearly Django festival: Festival Django L'H.

United States.

"Django in June" is a weeklong gypsy jazz music camp ("Django Camp"), with weekend clinics and concerts. Inaugurated in 2004, the event is held on the campus of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts offers a gypsy jazz ensemble instructed by Jason Anick, the leader of the Rhythm Future Quartet. DjangoFest NW is held each September at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley, Washington, which typically features such performers as John Jorgenson, The Rosenberg Trio, Dan Hicks, and Pearl Django. In conjunction with the first DjangoFest event, Jazz Gitan guitarist Don Price started the first American Gypsy Jazz Guitar Group to facilitate the popularity and spread of this style in the United States. Every year, in August, New York's Lincoln Center holds a concert at Rose Hall, and the jazz club Birdland in New York holds a weeklong gypsy jazz concert series in June and November.  In Minnesota, guitarist and composer Reynold Philipsek performs gypsy jazz as a solo musician and with Minnesota gypsy jazz acts East Side, The Twin Cities Hot Club, and Sidewalk Café. Also in the Twin Cities area, the singer Connie Evingson has recorded three manouche albums: "Gypsy in My Soul" (2004) with Pearl Django, the Clearwater Hot Club, and Parisota Hot Club, "Stockholm Sweetnin'" (2006) with The Hot Club of Sweden, and "All the Cats Join In" (2014) with the John Jorgenson Quintet. George Cole and his group Vive Le Jazz have been touring nationally, most recently playing at Carnegie Hall in 2008. His gypsy jazz inspired music was chosen for a Grammy's showcase. He plays an original Selmer 520 that Django Reinhardt used on tour in France in the 1940s.  In Brooklyn, New York, musicians from France including vocalist Tatiana Eva-Marie of the Avalon Jazz Band have been performing a gypsy-jazz mixed with American swing.

External links.

Those informations are also available in French with French specialized site on Gispy Jazz

Gypsy jazz (also known as gypsy swing or hot club jazz) is a style of jazz developed by the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in Paris during the 1930s. Because its origins are in France, and Reinhardt was from the Manouche Sinti clan, gypsy jazz is often called by the French name "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz" in English language sources.

Der Gypsy-Jazz (von englisch "Gypsy jazz"; kurz Gypsy), auch Jazz Manouche oder Sinti-Jazz genannt (ältere, teils heute noch verwendete Bezeichnung "Zigeuner-Jazz"), ist eine Variante des Swing.


Two-digit prefixes.

The first two digits of a Spanish postal code identify the province or autonomous city it belongs to. The numbers were assigned to the 50 provinces of Spain ordered alphabetically at the time of implementation. The official names of some of the provinces have since changed, either to the regional language version of the name (e.g. from the Spanish to the Basque ) or to adopt the name of the autonomous community instead of the provincial capital (e.g. Santander to Cantabria). In these cases, the originally assigned code has been maintained, resulting in some exceptions to the alphabetical order. In addition, Ceuta and Melilla were originally included within the postal areas of Cádiz and Málaga respectively; in 1995 they were assigned their own codes and hence ended up at the end of the list.  The list below includes all 52 two-digit prefixes assigned to the 50 provinces and two autonomous cities. Included in brackets are the names of the provinces that were used for alphabetical sorting at the time of implementation, if different from the current name used in English.

Following digits.

The third digit of a Spanish postal code is used to identify major cities or basic itineraries. A zero denotes a provincial capital, e.g. San Sebastián, as capital of the province of Gipuzkoa, uses the postal code 200xx.  The fourth and fifth digits are used to identify delivery areas, route itineraries or rural link itineraries.  Some codes are reserved for special use at the province capital:

Postal codes.

35000–35999: Las Palmas.

The province of Las Palmas includes the islands of Gran Canaria, Lanzarote (postal codes 355xx) and Fuerteventura (postal codes 356xx). The island of La Graciosa is administratively included within Lanzarote.

38000–38999: Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife includes the islands of Tenerife, La Palma (postal codes 387xx), La Gomera (postal codes 388xx) and El Hierro (postal codes 389xx).

Spanish postal codes were introduced on 1 July 1984, when the introduced automated mail sorting. They consist of five numerical digits, where the first two digits, ranging 01 to 52, correspond either to one of the 50 provinces of Spain or to one of the two autonomous cities on the African coast.

Eine Postleitzahl in Spanien ist fünfstellig. Die ersten zwei Ziffern stehen für die Provinz. Ursprünglich wurden die Provinzen alphabetisch durchnummeriert. Diese Reihenfolge ist durch zwischenzeitliche Umbenennungen bzw. Anpassungen der amtlichen Schreibweise der Provinznamen an die Regionalsprachen nicht mehr konsequent eingehalten. Die Nummern 51 und 52 für die Autonomen Städte Ceuta und Melilla wurden erst nachträglich angefügt. Zuvor war Ceuta mit den Postleitzahlen 11701 bis 11705 postalisch der Provinz Cádiz, Melilla mit den Postleitzahlen 29801 bis 29806 der Provinz Málaga zugeordnet.