Lester Won War

Illuminations is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Josh Groban, produced by Rick Rubin. Similar to his previous albums, Illuminations contains songs sung in a variety of languages, including his first take on a Portuguese song, "Você Existe Em Mim", which Groban co-wrote with Lester Mendez and Carlinhos Brown. The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, selling 190,000 copies in its first week and was certified platinum by the RIAA for shipping over a million copies. The album has since sold over 800,000 copies in the US. In Canada, the album debuted at #4 on the Canadian Albums Chart and was certified platinum for shipping over 80,000 copies.

Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados / Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed - by David Trueba (2013)

Spain, 1966, a high-school English/Latin teacher, Antonio, drives to Almeria in hopes of meeting his hero, John Lennon. Along the way, Antonio picks up two runaways. The movie title, Living is Easy With Eyes Closed, comes from a line in Lennon's song Strawberry Fields Forever which he wrote while filming How I Won the War in Almeria.

One of the pre-eminent Chicago harpists of the pre-war era, Bill "Jazz" Gillum was born September 11, 1904 in Indianola, Mississippi. He picked up the harmonica at the age of six, and five years later ran away from home to live with relatives in nearby Charleston; after spending his formative years playing street corners and house parties for spare change, Gillum moved to Chicago in 1923, and before long he hooked up with guitarist Big Bill Broonzy, often playing together as a duo in area clubs. Following a few sideman dates for ARC, he signed with RCA Victor's Bluebird imprint in 1934 to record as a solo artist; his strong relationship with producer Lester Melrose also resulted in a steady stream of session work, and he was a fixture of the "Bluebird Beat" house band.

George Gershwin miraculously melded classical idioms, jazz, blues and spirituals in this quintessentially American masterpiece about a crippled beggar, the headstrong woman he loves, and the community that sustains them both. Eric Owens (Porgy) and Laquita Mitchell (Bess) lead an amazing cast, pulling the audience into the intricate world of Catfish Row. Recorded live in 2009 at the War Memorial Opera House, conductor John DeMain, whose 1976 recording of Porgy and Bess won a Grammy, leads the triumphant cast.