Jazz it does something to the head. It makes me want to just talk without
actually thinking about how the words interact with each other. I want to concentrate on the sensation of the
words rather than there meaning – don’t lose track I am still talking about
Jazz music. I want to focus on the word’s
immediate meaning without regard to how it relates or correlates with each
subsequent or previous word, truly appreciating the immediate sensation of
now. That is what jazz does to the head.
Does that mean it is an abomination to man? Is it only good for promoting ignorance and
temporal, carnal pleasure? Did black people playing jazz eventually lead to
black people playing ‘rap music’? The
answer is Yes.
So now I am just sitting in my venetian arm chair blowing
bubbles out of my plastic cob pipe, lazily snapping my fingers to an eccentric
beat. With each flick on the high-hat there is a slight flick at the wrist as
if I am passing bread crumbs to pigeons out on time square, or maybe it is like
passing small coins to bums on dank street corners. Anyway, the pseudo-eccentric drummer bangs
away, and all the while Cannonball Adderley eats everybody alive. Still I just sit.
I guess Miles Davis didn’t like Cannonball. He used to call
him cannibal Adderley, on account of the whole eat-people-alive thing. Jazz
pianists, drummers, saxists (maybe that’s not a word), bassists and whoever
else had soul enough to play with good ol’ Cannibal Adderley would, well, you
can guess what happened to them. Basically, Adderley would take their limbs off
their body, use their own instruments to crush their vital organs (heart, brain,
kidneys, and intestines) and then eat them, figuratively of course.
He was noted for “swallowing people with his solos”. He said he couldn’t stop soloing because he
didn’t know how. To this Miles said “pull
the damn horn out of your mouth, that’s how you stop”. I think, kids, there is a good lesson in all
this.
No comments:
Post a Comment