Lyme Disease Pandemic Update - The Truth Begins to Emerge through the work of independent Doctors

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Lyme Disease - The CDC and Western Medical system hiding behind lies and omissions!

As a chronic sufferer of Lyme disease and one who has heard about every lie and distortion about Lyme from Western Doctors, the CDC, and alternative health providers, I can say there might be hope on the horizon for a real cure.

My extensive research and more extensive pain has led me to conclude that no one knows the truth and the Western Medical community including doctors, hospitals, research centers, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies, not to mention testing labs and the CDC, have created a massive deception to avoid being responsible, liable, or culpable in the continuing disaster in response to the health pandemic.

There are so many seemingly unrelated conditions triggered by the Lyme disease the road to recovery will be slow and may require supplemental treatment of the neurological and other consequences such as multiple bacterial infections.

Here are the latest truths I can find in the health care industry.

It will take a combination of Eastern, Western, and alternative medicine to really destroy the Lyme.

A pre-treatment before the antibody treatment must attack parasites protecting the Lyme cells from the antibodies. (Parasite Complex)

Only one antibiotic has actually worked with regularity - Doxycycline - it must be taken as the parasite treatment is ending.  (A typical treatment is 200 mg per day for 10-15 days.)

Drug resistant cells must be treated simultaneously with stefania de cantis to enable them to be killed by the antibody.  For more information on how to use the herb see the work of Stephen Harrod Buhner at his website; 

http://lymeaware.free.fr/lyme/Websave/buhnerhealinglyme/buhnerhealinglyme.com/about/index.html

Do not be surprised if follow up treatments for various infections and other issues still must be resolved.

The latest information on Lyme awareness and treatment comes from Dr. Nevena Zubcevik, attending physician at Harvard Medical School and co-director of Dean Center for Tick Borne Illness at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown.

Here is a 2016 interview with this exceptional and dedicated doctor.

 

Visiting physician sheds new light on Lyme disease

On a visit to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Dr. Nevena Zubcevik challenged conventional diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne diseases.

By  Barry Stringfellow

 -Jul 13, 2016

Dr. Nevena Zubcevik described her findings on Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment, and its effect on the brain, to Martha's Vineyard Hospital physicians and members of the public last week. — Barry Stringfellow

This past Friday, Dr. Nevena Zubcevik, attending physician at Harvard Medical School and co-director of Dean Center for Tick Borne Illness at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown (SRH) traveled to one of the nation’s front lines in the public health battle against Lyme disease to speak to a group of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital physicians. “I wanted to do this presentation by Skype because of all the ticks you have here,” she joked.

Dr. Zubcevik was at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital (MVH) to speak at grand rounds, a weekly meeting of clinicians, which on this day was open to the public, resulting in an overflow crowd at the Community Room just off the hospital lobby.

Over the course of the hour, she shared the most recent findings that she and her colleagues have made on the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, in particular on the 10 to 15 percent of patients who suffer long-term symptoms, defined by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). She discussed the protean nature of tick-borne diseases, the importance of public awareness, and the urgent need for the medical community to step up its game.

“Graduating medical students and doctors really aren’t educated about the gravity of this epidemic,” she said. “There’s a gap there that needs to be filled. We’re all responsible to educate our young doctors about what this entails.”

Dr. Zubcevic said the recent revelation that actor, singer, and songwriter Kris Kristofferson was cured of dementia once he was properly diagnosed with Lyme disease should be a lesson for medical professionals on how pervasive the disease is, and how often it is overlooked.

“Sudden-onset dementia should really be a red flag for Lyme [disease], especially in people with compromised immune systems,” she said.

“Everyone over 50 has a compromised immune system.”

Dr. Zubcevik said that doctors and parents should know that Lyme presents differently in children than it does in adults. “71 percent of the time, headache is the most common symptom in children,” she said. “Mood disturbance, fatigue, and irritability are also frequent symptoms in children. If they are acting out in school all of a sudden, get them tested.”

Dr. Zubcevik cited a particularly compelling example of undiagnosed Lyme disease where a 29-year-old male had been institutionalized four times for schizophrenia. After a series of tests, and in concert with a psychiatrist, Dr. Zubcevik began a course of daily antibiotics on him. “The first month he could remember what he had for breakfast,” she said. “The second month he could read a chapter of a book, and after six months he was back to normal. He could tolerate light and sound again, which he couldn’t before.”

Tick truths challenged

Dr. Zubcevik said recent research debunks several commonly held beliefs about the transmission and treatment of tick-borne diseases.

“The conception that the tick has to be attached for 48 hours to inject the bacteria is completely outdated,” she said. “There are studies that show that an attachment of 15 minutes can give you anaplasmosis,10 minutes for the Powassan virus, and for the different strains of Borrelia burgdorferi, we have no idea.”

Dr. Zubcevic said the notion that children, infants, or pregnant women should not be given doxycycline is also outdated. “Dermatologists have prescribed doxycycline to kids for years to treat acne; why not for such a debilitating disease?”

She also said the two-day course of doxycycline, often prescribed for people who find a tick embedded on their body, has little or no prophylactic value. “It should be 100 to 200 milligrams of doxycycline twice a day for 20 days, regardless of the time of engorgement,” she said. “It is not a two-day thing.”

The blood tests currently used to detect the presence of the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium are the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the Western blot test.

Dr. Zubcevik said research has shown there are 10 different strains of Lyme disease in the United States, and many of them do not test positive on the traditional Western blot or ELISA tests. In a previous email to The Times, she wrote that with current testing, 69 out of 100 patients who have Lyme disease may go untreated.

“The bull’s-eye rash only happens 20 percent of the time,” she said. “It can often look like a spider bite or a bruise. If you get a bull’s-eye it’s like winning the lottery. Borrelia miyamotoi, which we have a lot in Massachusetts, will not test positive on either test. That’s a huge problem, so the CDC is moving toward a different kind of test.”

Borrelia miyamotoi also has the potential to spread rapidly, since it’s transmitted directly from mother to offspring. Nymphal deer ticks need to feed on a mammal, most likely the white-footed mouse, to contract the virulent Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium.

In addition to Lyme disease, Islanders are also vulnerable to coinfections such as babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and tularemia, which can also go undetected. “Babesiosis is a malaria-like disease that can persist for months or even years,” she said. “Patients who can’t catch their breath are a red flag for babesiosis.”

Double whammy

Dr. Zubcevik described deer tick nymphs as “the perfect vector” because of their diminutive size — the size of the “D” on a dime — and because of the analgesic in their saliva that often makes their bite almost undetectable.

The bacteria they inject are equally crafty.

“Borrelia burgdorferi is an amazing organism; I have a lot of respect for it,” she said. “It is a spirochete, meaning it can corkscrew into tissue as well as travel in the bloodstream. It can do whatever it wants. It’s twice the speed of a [white blood cell], which is our fastest cell. It’s so strong it can swim against the flow of the bloodstream.”

Dr. Zubcevik said there are videos that show a white blood cell pursuing a spirochete, which evades capture by drilling into tissue.

“It’s really easy to see why this adaptive bug can avoid the immune system,” she said.

Dr. Zubcevik said doxycycline stops the bacteria from replicating, but it doesn’t kill them. The rest is up to the body’s immune system, which is the reason some people suffer for so long.

“There’s a lot of neurotoxicity, which is why people feel so bad all over. It’s like a toxic warfare going on inside the patient’s body.”

Controversy continues

Last week, Governor Charlie Baker rejected the legislature’s controversial budget amendment that would have required insurance companies to cover the cost of long-term antibiotic treatment which chronic Lyme Disease (CLD) advocates maintain is the most effective treatment for their symptoms. The Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society, representing more than 500 infectious disease specialists, does not recognize CLD, and urged the governor to reject the amendment, asserting that long-term intravenous antibiotic therapy can be dangerous and possibly lead to “superbugs” that are immune to current treatments.

The CDC also does not recognize CLD or the use of long-term antibiotics for PTLDS. “Regardless of the cause of PTLDS, studies have not shown that patients who received prolonged courses of antibiotics do better in the long run than patients treated with placebo,” the CDC website states. “Furthermore, long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease has been associated with serious complications.”

However, the website also says, “Recent animal studies have given rise to questions that require further research.”

Dr. Zubcevik diagnoses the condition with a different name — “persistent symptoms related to Lyme disease.”

“I’m new to this field,” she said. “For me there’s no controversy. We have to innovate, we have to find solutions. [SRH] has connected with top scientists from all around the country. Studies show that after treatment in mice, dogs, and monkeys, Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria are still there. This has also been shown in human tests.”

Citing the work of Dr. Ying Zhang at Johns Hopkins Lyme Center, she said the most likely effective remedy will be a combination of several antibiotics. In a previous interview with The Times, Dr. Zhang said he has worked on an effective PTLDS treatment for six years, and that current Lyme disease treatments may not clear bacterial debris, or “persisters,” which may be one of the possible causes of PTLDS. Dr. Zhang said that his work on tuberculosis (TB) is his primary focus; however, advances in fighting TB, e.g. using new combinations of drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have yielded promising results in the fight against “persisters.”

“There’s also a need to develop a more sensitive test,” he said.

Patient advocate

Although she started out at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital focusing on the neuropathy of concussions, Dr. Zubcevik branched out into treating people with Lyme disease in part because both maladies can cause similar cognitive impairment. “I heard Lyme disease patients say they can’t remember what they had for breakfast, or they get lost driving home,” she said. “It sounded the same as concussion symptoms, so we started doing PET scans.”

Positron emission tomography, or PET scan, is an imaging test that uses a radioactive substance that shows brain functioning. Dr. Zubcevik said PET scan of a patient with persistent Lyme disease symptoms showed a brain colored in blue and purple hues, where a healthy brain presented with shades of yellow and green. She showed an image of the patient’s brain after six months of intravenous antibiotics, which was dominated by shades of yellow and green.

Dr. Zubcevik told the hospital gathering that many patients she sees have been suffering the physical, mental, and emotional effects of the disease for so long, they have lost the will to live. “I literally have patients who were just done,” she said. “They couldn’t go on. The first thing I do is validate their experience, and tell them, ‘I believe you.’ Sometimes they start crying because somebody finally listened. Some patients show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder because they’ve been ignored for so long. Marriages dissolve all the time because one spouse thinks the other is being lazy. Many chronically ill patients end up alone.”

Treatment at SRH borrows from many different disciplines. In addition to medication, it can include nutrition counseling, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language therapy, mental health counseling, and referrals to infectious disease and other specialists as necessary.

Dr. Zubcevik said that the program was initially funded by a donation from a patient who was treated shortly after the clinic opened. “We’re always looking for more funding,” she said.

The current wait list at Spaulding is about four months.  

Prevention, prevention, prevention

“Once patients are doing better, I will call harass them on the weekend to check if they are taking the proper precautions,” Dr. Zubcevik said. “Are they using repellant? Are they doing daily checks? Are they treating their dogs? I don’t want to do another PICC line [intravenous drug access] or PET scan.”

Dr. Zubcevik also said many people need to know proper tick removal — using tweezers to grab the head of the tick, not at the body.

“Don’t don’t squeeze the belly of the tick, it will inject the bacteria into your bloodstream. Do not use oils; it can make the tick vomit the bacteria into the bloodstream. If the tick is deeply embedded, go to the doctor.”

More information on SRH can be found at www.spauldingrehab.org/deancenter

Numerous videos on Lyme disease prevention, including Dr. Zubcevik’s presentation, are available on the MVTV website.

Comments

Maureen Butor • 8 months ago

My daughter was bitten by a tick on the Vineyard three years ago during our annual family vacation at an up-island rental. Her husband removed it & we thought nothing of it. She eventually developed flu-like symptoms, panic attacks, etc. Six months later in South Carolina she had a miscarriage which triggered a myriad of neurological symptoms which dozens of neurologists, ER doctors, Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy doctors & surgeons, psychiatrists who told her it was all in her head & tons of tests could not explain why she was continually becoming sicker everyday! An ER doctor in the midst of this questioned if she'd ever been bitten by a tick, to which we responded yes. But The ELISA test was too late in the game & came back negative. She continued to suffer tremendously. And any other doctor who questioned if she'd been tested for Lyme was given our usual response: Yes she was tested & it was negative. We were not Lyme literate. Well here we are 3 years after the bite. She ended up with double stars on significant bands on a Western Blot. She was treated in AZ by a clinic for 13 weeks with IV antibiotics and many other methods to try and kill the bacteria, costing tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket. She had to quit her successful job as a artistic director for an advertising firm due to this devastating illness. Her husband's a 5th grade teacher. She is still not well & struggling every day let alone every hour. She's now been put on oral antibiotics & supplements. And a new DNA test has recently revealed that she not only still has the Lyme Borrelia bacteria, but also has the co-infections of Bartonella (which we suspected due to the "cat scratches" she develops on her skin periodically), Babesia & Ehrlichia! This has been a very traumatic road she's been down, along with those supporting her. Her symptoms range from seizure-like shocks radiating through her head to hearing fluctuation & sensitivity, tinnitus, visual disturbances, facial paralysis, low grade fever, tingling & numbness to her head & extremities, buzzing in her feet & hands, the list goes on. The medical community through out this country must listen to doctors such as Dr. Zubcevik and begin treatment to individuals asap. When it reaches a chronic state its so difficult for the person to deal with. She struggles facing every new day knowing what she has to battle! So thank you Dr. Zubcevik! I pray the nation listens!

sharonhansen209  Maureen Butor • 8 months ago

She is very fortunate to have you as her cheerleader! Many others have families that deny there is anything wrong which makes fighting this illness much harder. Thank you for standing by your daughter and sharing with others!

Maureen Butor  sharonhansen209 • 8 months ago

You are very very kind. I honestly wished she would've kept a journal. To have put this into a book would have been so helpful to others suffering while feeling alone. But she is struggling so horrendously that she's been unable to do so. Very hard to see someone suffer day after day and know that you must kill the bacteria but the process makes you unimaginably sicker when you're dealing with neuro Lyme. Thank you, again for your kind words!

                      

James R. Olson  Maureen Butor • 8 months ago

Not kindness, just simple decency to respond to your trials. I completely agree with Sharon hansen, and salute you, until all physicians admit how little we actually know about Lyme, more will suffer. thank you for sharing your story it has educated me.

                                             

Maureen Butor  James R. Olson • 8 months ago

Thank you. I want the world to know the devastation & debilitation this illness can cause. We need Dr. Zubcevik to share her information with the masses! Again, thank you.

heartpursuer  Maureen Butor • 8 months ago

Each summer for several years I got bitten, but was diagnosed and treated with Doxy, which remediated most of the symptoms . Three year ago, however, it went undiagnosed and became disseminated. That's when all hell broke loose. You and others here have described the life-altering changes, neurological and otherwise, so all I'll say is that I'm grateful it didn't happen during the years when I was responsible for supporting my family. That would have been truly devastating for all concerned.

The article didn't really offer much hope for those of us whose "barn door" was unknowingly left open too long, with the horse long gone. Like many others others, I'm now trying to live productively under very challenging circumstances.

As a side note, I have no patience for those in my area who resist and condemn efforts to control the deer population. I used to think the worst impact of having them grazing on my property was the loss of shrubbery. I now know it's more about the loss of life as I knew it.

                      

Peter Souza  heartpursuer • 8 months ago

Its the rodents that bring the ticks so close to us far more than the deer, thats why we needs Coyotes & foxes, 96% of thr diet is rodents

heartpursuer  Peter Souza • 8 months ago

I hear foxes in the backyard at night and always wish them well in their hunting.

                                  

            False negative Lyme tests are very common, doesn't mean anything... Symptoms determine Lyme disease. Good natural treatments are more effective, far less costly, I am cured after having 7 years of chronic Lyme disease! Come join this non-profit group... JimJax: https://groups.yahoo.com/ne...

Arrogate overcomes rain, a bad start, and a slow break in Stunning $10 million Dubai World Cup Victory

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Racing news and tips: Arrogate wins Dubai World Cup in stunning style

• Grey powers through the field after slow start to win at Meydan 
• Bob Baffert: ‘It’s unbelievable, I can’t believe he won’ in Dubai

Saturday 25 March 2017 13.11 EDT

Image Credit: Atiq ur Rehman/Gulf News

Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News

Greg Wood 

Last modified on Saturday 25 March 2017 18.15 EDT

Mike Smith’s first thought after the Dubai World Cup here on Saturday was of Zenyatta, the exceptional horse he rode from a long last to first in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic. But Arrogate is even better than Zenyatta and proved it with an astonishing performance, shrugging off the loss of several lengths at the start to win going away without ever leaving second gear.

Some very good horses have won the Dubai World Cup over the past 21 years, and some very average ones too. The only way Arrogate’s performance is likely to be bettered in the next 21 years, however, is if Bob Baffert’s four-year-old returns for another attempt at the race next year.

Arrogate is used to the standard American practice of putting a handler in the stalls. Without one, he simply fell out of the gate and turned away from the stands with all 13 of his rivals in front of him. Smith waited until they were into the back stretch to unleash Arrogate’s immense stride and start to make some ground, but he was still nearly 10 lengths adrift of the pace halfway around the far turn.

The next few seconds removed any lingering doubt that Arrogate is one of the very best dirt runners for many years. He made ground around the bend with ease and then lengthened again, closing down and then catching Gun Runner, the leader, with a furlong still to cover. As he crossed the line two and a quarter lengths clear of Gun Runner, with Neolithic another five back in third, he became the first horse in history to win $17m in prize money, less than a year after finishing third on his debut at Los Alamitos.

Arrogate is owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah, whose Frankel retired unbeaten after 14 starts in 2012. He has not reached that pinnacle yet, but took a significant stride towards it here in the eighth race of his career and promises to be closer still by the time his career draws to a close.

 “That was very emotional for me,” Baffert said. “I couldn’t believe it. I thought: ‘We’ve come all this way for this, how could he break so poorly?’ I heard the whole crowd, the heavy sigh, even the announcer said: ‘He is dead last,’ or whatever, and I’m thinking: ‘What is this? There is no chance he can win, this is not Hollywood, this is not a script where he comes running at the end.’

“Then on that turn for home, with that tremendous long stride he was gobbling up the ground. I was thinking, no way. I was watching this unfold before me thinking: ‘Where has this horse come from?’ He shows us something spectacular every time he runs.”

Smith is unsure why Arrogate was so slow to stride, but was growing in confidence that his partner was up to the task well before Baffert started to believe. “He’s used to having someone stick their head up in the doors,” Smith said, “but whatever happened, I just think it happened for a reason. It made him much more impressive. It might have been a boring race, it made it an unbelievable race.

 “Once I got away like that, I had to sit there and let him collect himself.

“Zenyatta came from way back, it took her a while to get going. Once we were on the backside, I moved a little and he jumped at them and I thought: ‘We’re still here.’ I called on him heading for home and he just took off, it was incredible. I won the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Zenyatta, people said that was the greatest race but I think this race has topped it.”

Baffert will work backwards from the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar in November when planning the remainder of Arrogate’s campaign and he is unlikely to see a racecourse again for a couple of months at least while he is freshened up for the summer and autumn.

But the memory of this performance will not fade easily. Arrogate’s slow start and electrifying finish advertised his immense talent not just to his home audience in the United States, but around the world.

“He had to establish himself,” Baffert said. “We all knew he was this great horse but he hadn’t had a lot of racing. If anybody wasn’t super-impressed with that, they don’t like horse racing. I still can’t believe he won the race. How did that happen? How did he pull it off?”

His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the Dubai World Cup on Saturday.

Image Credit: Arshad Ali/Gulf News

Dubai World Cup: It's a wrap! 

By Leslie Wilson Jr., Racing & Special Features Writer

Dubai: He came, he saw, he conquered. Arrogate, the highest rated horse in the world overcame a shocking start to win the 22nd running of the $10 million Dubai World Cup (Group 1), sending a crowd of over 40,000 fans into a frenzy at the iconic Meydan Racecourse on Saturday.

After missing the break at the start of the 2,000 metre contest, which left him trailing his 13 rivals, the imposing grey son of Unbridled steadily worked his way back into the race under a super confident Mike Smith, before pulling away in the final furlong to win in glorious fashion.

Fellow American-trained Gun Runner, ridden by Frenchman Florent Geroux for trainer Steve Asmussen, best remembered for training Curlin to victory in the 2008 Dubai World Cup, finished 2 ¼ lengths behind the Arrogate while the Todd Pletcher-trained Neolithic, with John Velazquez in the irons, was third, a further five lengths further back.

South African-trained Mubtaahij, second in this race last year behind California Chrome, finished fourth for Christophe Soumillon.

Mike Smith, Arrogate’s 51-year-old rider and one of the leading jockeys in US thoroughbred racing since the early 1990s, was ecstatic and said: "When I missed the break I immediately thought of Zenyatta. I thought 'I've got so much confidence in this horse I'm going to ride him like Zenyatta' and it paid off.

"I missed the break completely because he's used to having a man in the gate with him, but things happen for a reason and thank the Lord we got the job done.”

Smith rode Zenyatta, who was trained by John Shirreffs, to 14 of his 16 victories between 2008 and 2010.

"This horse can do anything, he can win in the lead, he can come from dead last, he hasn't even taken a breath,” he added.

"I get a lot of the glory, but there's a big team who deserve a lot of credit."

Baffert admitted to being mortified after Arrogate was sluggish out of the stalls but said: "When he missed the break, I gave him no chance at all.

"I was so mad at myself thinking I shouldn't have brought him - that's the greatest horse I've ever seen run, it's unbelievable, I can't believe he won. That is a great horse.

"Mike did a great job, he didn't panic. When he turned for home I said 'If he wins he's the greatest since Secretariat'."

Arrogate has been unbeatable in the United States since finishing third in his debut. He has now has won four straight Grade 1 or Group 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Pegasus Cup earlier this year.

His victory on Saturday has driven his career earning past the $17 million mark making him the highest earning horse in American racing history.

Baffert, who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, previously won the Dubai World Cup with Silver Charm in 1998 and Captain Steve in 2001.

Arrogate races in the colours of Prince Khalid Abdullah, the first cousin and brother-in-law of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabi, who also owned the great Frankel.

He has amassed over $80 million in career prize money.

Abdullah has won more than 150 Group 1 races worldwide with more than 125 by homebreds such as Flintshire, Emollient, Seek Again, Empire Maker, Banks Hill, Dancing Brave, and Frankel. 

He also owns the outstanding Juddmote Farm breeding operation. In 2016, Arrogate gave Juddmonte its fifth career Breeders' Cup win when he outfinished California Chrome to win the $6 million Classic. After the 2016 season, Juddmonte Farms was named the Eclipse Award winner as outstanding owner.

Happy Birthday Byron Janis as you reach 89 years old on March 24

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Byron Janis, world class pianist and legendary musician, turned 89 this week (March 24) and what do you think he did to celebrate, he released his newest classical album of his never before heard live performances.

Now Byron has long denied the many pains and problems of aging and he has personally no clue what retirement might mean.  How many of you spent the weeks before your 89th birthday in the studio editing and mastering an album of your greatest live performances?

Well the Wall Street Journal broke the news of the project in a story on the 22nd that included the following excerpts.

A Classical Maven Who Can Really Swing

By : TERRY TEACHOUT

March 22, 2017 4:57 p.m. ET

Byron Janis, who turns 89 this week, was one of what Gary Graffman, his colleague and contemporary, called the OYAPs—the great generation of “Outstanding Young American Pianists,” as they were customarily described by journalists, who crowded the concert halls of the world in the years immediately following World War II.

Mr. Janis’s musical interests have long ranged beyond the classics. Out Friday, “Byron Janis Live: On Tour” (Janis Eleven Enterprises), a collection of previously unissued live performances of pieces by Chopin, Haydn and Liszt that were recorded between 1979 and 1999, also includes solo-piano arrangements of several of Mr. Janis’ songs, thus reminding us that he is also a highly accomplished popular songwriter who, among other surprising things, has written the score for a musical version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” 

The biggest surprise, however, is the encore, a piano duet called “By and Cy—More Paganini Variations.” On this track, Mr. Janis and Cy Coleman, a classically trained Broadway composer who wrote the score for “Sweet Charity” but started out as a jazz pianist of note, join forces to improvise on Paganini’s A Minor Caprice, the familiar solo-violin piece on which Brahms and Rachmaninoff produced their own sets of variations.

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So if this is how your life started how would you feel?

Born in Pittsburgh, the son of Jewish Russian and Polish immigrants, he became the protégé and first student of perhaps the greatest pianist in the world, some believe in all of history, the great Vladimir Horowitz.

Not a bad start in life for a kid I suspect.  But what was the price tag for such an interesting life? Well, we best give you an overview of the rest of his life before I can tell you the rest of the story.

Byron was one of the greatest concert pianists of the 20th century.

He never got to play his beloved game of baseball.

At age 18 he was the youngest recording artist signed by RCA Victor Records.

At age 20 he made his widely acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut.

He undertook international diplomatic missions for two American presidents.

In fact two presidents asked him to perform in the White House three times (Kennedy twice and Ford).

Unfortunately the Gary Powers U2 incident and Bay of Pigs disrupted the concerts.

Twice he did play for President Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Byron was the last American artist to play in Cuba before the Castro revolution.

He was also the first to play in Cuba at the request of the Castro administration.

His high energy performances in every major concert hall in the world dazzled the audiences.

At the same time he was hiding a serious case of psoriatic arthritis that was first diagnosed in both hands in the middle of his career.

Still his powerful concerts gave a whole new meaning to Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and all the greatest composers in classical history.

Byron is not just an American legend, nor a world class pianist, he is the embodiment of what happens when the spirit, heart, and soul have merged into the body of one of hardest working, creative, and energetic people walking the Earth.

His life was full of heartache and triumph but he never gave up and to this day never quit. Even after he could no longer meet his concert standards he shifted his interest to composing, teaching, communicating with young talent, and inspiring untold thousands of classical performers throughout the world.  

You owe it to yourself to check out Byron and order his latest album.  You can find him at the web site below. His story is far more extensive, diverse, and compelling than I have hinted but this is really just a birthday card not an autobiography.

Did I mention he married Maria Cooper, the daughter of film icon Gary Cooper?

So....

Happy Birthday Byron and may you never cease to amaze us.

http://byronjanis.com/

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CPT Spirits in the Sky - Chuck Berry at age 90 joins the celestial band in the Heavens

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A Pioneer of the "Bad Boy"

Rock 'n Roll Image

Chuck Berry Dies!

Chuck Berry, Rock & Roll Innovator, Dead at 90

 Rolling Stone 37 minutes ago 

Chuck Berry, whose rollicking songs, springy guitar riffs and onstage duck walk defined rock & roll during its early years and for decades to come, has died. The St. Charles County Police Department confirmed the news on Facebook. Berry was 90 years old.

"St. Charles County police responded to a medical emergency on Buckner Road at approximately 12:40 p.m. today (Saturday, March 18)," the Facebook post reads. "Inside the home, first responders observed an unresponsive man and immediately administered lifesaving techniques. Unfortunately, the 90-year-old man could not be revived and was pronounced deceased at 1:26 p.m." It went on to confirm that the man was Berry and added that his family was requesting privacy at this time.

Starting with his first hit, 1955's "Maybellene," Berry penned a collection of songs that, in both groove and teen-life mindset, became essential parts of the rock canon: "Roll Over, Beethoven," "Rock & Roll Music," and especially "Johnny B. Goode" were witty, zesty odes to the then-new art form—songs so key to the music that they had to be mastered by every fledgling guitarist or band who followed Berry.

As teenagers, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger first bonded over their love of Berry's music, and over the last five decades Berry's songs have been covered by an astounding array of artists: from the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Kinks, the Doors and the Grateful Dead to James Taylor, Peter Tosh, Judas Priest, Dwight Yoakam, Phish, and the Sex Pistols. As Richards said when inducting Berry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, "I've stolen every lick he ever played."

By fusing blues and country, Berry also invented a signature guitar style — like "ringing a bell," as he put it in "Johnny G. Goode" — that was imitated by bands from the Stones and the Beach Boys to punk rockers. His lyrics — largely about sex, cars, music and trouble — introduced an entirely new vocabulary into popular music in the Fifties. In his songs, Berry captured America's newfound post-war prosperity — a world, as he sang in "Back in the U.S.A.," where "hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day." ''I made records for people who would buy them," Berry once said. "No color, no ethnic, no political — I don't want that, 

never did.''

Johnny B Goode

Yet Berry, in his role as rock and roll pioneer, also dealt with racism and bigotry, particularly when he was accused in 1961 of violating the Mann Act (transporting a woman or girl across state lines for purposes of prostitution). Berry claimed he had met Janice Norine Escalanti, a 14-year-old Native American, during a show in Texas and hired her to work at his St. Louis club, Club Bandstand. Imprisoned after a second trial (the first conviction was overturned due to the judge repeatedly using the word "nigra"), Berry, who pleaded not guilty, wound up serving nearly two years in prison and emerged a noticeably changed, bitter man. In recent years, he had mellowed somewhat, thanks in part to receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 1986 and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Born in St. Louis on October 18th, 1926, Charles Edward Anderson Berry learned to play blues guitar as a teenager and first performed at his high school talent show. Music was his first love but not necessarily his first career choice. The son of a carpenter, Berry worked on a General Motors assembly line and studied to be a hairdresser. With pianist Johnnie Johnson (a regular part of his band for years to come), Berry formed a band in 1952. After meeting blues legend Muddy Waters, Berry was introduced to Chess Records founder Leonard Chess in 1955. Berry brought along a song based on the country tune "Ida Red." With a new title and lyrics — and an immediately grabby, grinding opening guitar lick — the song was transformed into "Maybellene." On a return trip, Berry brought his recording of the song and was immediately signed to the label. "[Chess] couldn’t believe that a country tune (he called it a ‘hillbilly song’) could be written and sung by a black guy," Berry later wrote in his 1987 memoir Chuck Berry: The Autobiography.

"Maybellene" hit Number Five in 1955 and established Berry's career and sound. By the end of the 1950s, he had logged seven more top 40 hits: "Roll Over Beethoven" (Number 29), "School Day" (Number Three), "Rock & Roll Music" (Number Eight), "Sweet Little Sixteen" (Number Two), "Johnny B. Goode" (Number Eight), "Carol" (Number 28) and "Back in the U.S.A." (Number 37). Although he was already in his early thirties by the time he scored those hits, Berry was unabashed about why he wrote for a younger audience. "Whatever would sell was what I thought I should concentrate on," he wrote in his memoir, "so from 'Maybellene' on, I mainly improvised my lyrics toward the young adult and some even for the teeny boppers, as they called the tots then."

Each song was defined by the Berry trademarks: that blend of propulsive beat, rueful charm, and ringing guitar. "The beautiful thing about Chuck Berry's playing was it had such an effortless swing," Keith Richards wrote in his memoir, Life. "None of this sweating and grinding away or grimacing, just pure, effortless swing like a lion." During a concert in 1956, Berry was so self-conscious about only having brought one suit that he invented a new stage move "to hide the wrinkles," as he told RS in 1969. That move, the duck walk, also became part of the rock & roll lexicon.

Intentionally or not, Berry also set the template for the rock and roll bad boy beyond his Mann Act conviction. Early in his life, Berry spent three years in reform school for an armed robbery attempt. In 1979, he was indicted for tax evasion and filing false income tax returns and spent three months in jail. (At his sentencing, he burst into tears.) In 1990, he was sued by several women who claimed Berry had videotaped them in the ladies' room in his restaurant in St. Louis. (Berry reached an out-of-court settlement.)

When he was released from a Missouri prison in October 1963 after his Mann Act conviction, Berry was embittered, but he also saw his footprint all over a new generation of bands. The Beach Boys had released their first single, the Berry-influenced "Surfin' Safari," while a new band from England, the Rolling Stones, released Berry's "Come On" as their first single in 1963. At first, Berry picked up where he left off, writing fine new songs like "You Never Can Tell" and "No Particular Place to Go" that held onto his devil-may-care attitude.

In 1966, Berry left Chess, his longtime home, for another label, Mercury, but the result was a series of sub-par albums and weak re-recordings of his hits. (One notable exception: a jam with the Steve Miller Band captured on the 1967 album, Live at the Fillmore Auditorium). In 1969, he returned to Chess — and returned to form — on harder-edged songs like "Tulane," a drug-dealer romp that showed his newfound relevance. In 1972, he scored his first and only Number One pop hit with the novelty song, "My Ding-a-Ling." His last album of original songs, Rock It, was released in 1979.

Berry was a notoriously tough and irascible character offstage. On tour, he long traveled alone, using backup bands hired by the promoters. He demanded payment in advance, a specific kind of amplifier, and a limousine (with no driver) for his shows. In 1986, Richards assembled an all-star backup band (including Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and sax player Bobby Keys) to play behind Berry in the documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. Even then, Berry intimidated Richards onstage and off and only showed up on the first day of filming after he demanded an extra cash payment of $25,000. Despite those difficulties, the 1987 movie, directed by Taylor Hackford, became one of rock's most acclaimed concert films.

Up until his death, Berry (who is survived by his wife Themetta "Toddy" Suggs, whom he married in 1948, and four children) continued to perform at clubs and casinos. Once a month, he played at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and bar in St. Louis. He lived in St. Louis but often spent time at Berry Park, a 155-acre property in nearby Wentzville, Missouri. (As he told Rolling Stone in 2010, he even still mowed the lawn there.) Asked by RS in 1969 about rock's role, Berry said, "Like any music, it brings you together, because if two people like the same music, they can be standing beside each other shaking and they wind up dancing, and that’s a matter of communication ... so I say it's a means of communication, more so than other music, to the kids."

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