"Swattin' at the flies 'round my old rockin' chair...."
And I'm listening to Louis Armstrong from way back when...
When music was like a baby snake crawlin' 'round on a waxed dance floor...
of fast-stepping dreams...
dreams full of youth...
condemned by the reality of age...
"You young'uns'll git yurs one fine day"
and by God they do.
Louis Armstrong is so strong...
biting with his blues...
jabbin' that trumpet and that little cornet straight into your dancin' heart.
A big, fat, fartin' trum-bone...
damn that son of a bitch is fartin' his slidin' ass off...
shut up there's ladies present...
that's no lady, that's the queen...
that's Louis's wife...
cute...
no touch...
wait'll she's pissed at Louis and maybe...
just maybe...
but don't get a hard on about...
but you can sure dig her wailin'...
and you can sure shuffle your ass to the raggedy moon and back to her rockin'...
And I'm listening to Louis Armstrong...
Is that the world I hear whirring out of control?
Reading Count Basie's autobiography and the Count keeps talking about how the guys in his band were so close they had good eyes out for each other...
and I remember the irritating sound of a parent thinking they're hip at a Little League baseball game..."Good eye, Little Willie! Good eye."
Count was talking about how Herschel Evans got sick on stage in Hartford, Connecticut, one night, and the Count sent him back to New York City to the hospital...and then they heard in Chicago that Herschel had passed and how it affected the band and especially Lester Young who would refuse to play without his pal Herschel challenging him--he just wouldn't show up for the gigs--or when he did he'd refuse to sit next to Herschel's empty chair--Herschel played a different tenor than Lester and they countered each other, working off each other's solos in a battling sort of way--when one was on, the other got further on...and vice versa.
And I'm listening to old, old, old, old Louis Armstrong...with Perry Bradford for God's sake...
Does God drink saki?
Ohhhh, damn, and this is so far back in the past long-gone corners of my life...
My dad played these kind of old records by my baby bed when I was a swee' pea right fresh out of the pod and I remember the lilting swing of those old records--those cakewalkin' babies of mine--and those old records being played right by my baby head made me a cakewalkin' baby...
Those dusty corners that haven't been swept out in years...
Count said he didn't like arrangements that got "webby" fast...
He didn't like webby music...
Webby anything...
When I was an alert 10-year-old I appeared on the Webster Webfoot teevee show in Dallas, by God, Texas...me and a kid named Eugene went down to the WFAA-TV studios in downtown Dallas in the Santa Fe Building by ourselves...on the city bus, then on the streetcar down to the Santa Fe Building area. I was pitted in this quiz-show--I represented my grade school--against a worthy constituent from another Dallas Public School and I was pitted against this beautiful 10-year-old named Mary...and I had a bone on as I went up to join Mary behind a little podium area that was situated where when you stood there you could look over and see Officer Jimmy with his hand up Webster Webfoot's butt working old Webster's duck bill a mile-a-minute as poor old Officer Jimmy had to play both cop and duck at the same time--it was hilarious--got me to giggling--giggling to the point where Officer Jimmy said a curse word at me...
The question I got was, "What's the world's largest island?" I quickly said, in my little wiseass way, "Australia...." The minute I said it...dammit to hell...I knew...and sure 'nuff Mary said, more wiseass than I had been, "Greenland"--looking at me as she smartass answered, as if to say, "Get your little prick back in your pants, this cutie don't want a dumbass for a lover." My first teevee appearance and I lost out to a girl! I did get an autographed photo of Webster Webfoot and Officer Jimmy...
And years later, I was an adult, and I was sittin' watchin' teevee out in L.A. one afternoon and son of a bitch, from out Anaheim way, or somewhere rightwing like that, came the Webster Webfoot Show--son of a bitch, I kid you not, and there was a sagging but still kicking Officer Jimmy and the same old Webster. He hadn't aged a bit--some of his feathers looked a little moldy's all.
Somewhere in the background of the city air there's music wafting loudly through the air...
I can't call music noise...
These cats are good, too, but they are seeming to make every Monday night theirs in this neighborhood, playing last Monday night from 7 pm to past 10--and they are very loud and irritating and for that reason they are disruptive...
They could be rehearsing...
I can't imagine where they are...
There's a trendy very expensive twentyish restaurant in the max-tacky tower up toward Fifth Avenue but surely it's too cold for a band to be playing outdoors...they sound like they're playing outdoors...they could be rehearsing...it's hard to rehearse when you're a musician here in New York City...in fact, music has turned into just so much noise to a lot of New York Citians these days--
I was just looking at a listing of all the jazz clubs here in New York City...this dude has run a jazz Website since back in the nineties--he's OK, except I got pissed as I read his review of one of the last remaining blues clubs in NYC--he said he knew a jazz Website was no place for blues...Whaaaaaaaaaaaa! There'd be no jazz without the blues, you dumbass Euro bastards...
And most of today's recording jazz musicians are white guys...
well educated guys...
do they know jazz though?
jazz according to Wynton Marsalis...
Let me duckwalk out of here...
"I ain't gonna play no second fiddle, poppa's gotta play the lead...."
__________________________________________________
Raise a Toast in Belated Memory of...
Jimmy Knepper...1928-2003
I just read where Jimmy Knepper had died...
Back in 2003...
And I remember Jimmy Knepper...
with Mingus..."Mingus Ah-Um"--
a trombonist who reminded me of Peewee Russell when he played...
or like another trombonist of his day...
Willie Dennis...
And Mingus loved both 'bones...
Willie Dennis's and Jimmy Knepper's...
"Blues for Some 'Bones."
Jimmy Knepper...yep the white guy...with Bird...and who dat? Roy Haynes?
Here's an excerpt from Jimmy's NYTimes obit:
The jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote that Mr. Knepper's ''solos with Mingus are intricate, beautifully structured and complete statements.''
But relations between the plain-spoken Mr. Knepper and the notoriously volatile Mingus were often tense, and they came to an abrupt and violent turning point during preparations for a New York concert in 1962. Mr. Knepper recalled in a 1981 interview with Lee Jeske of Down Beat magazine that in the course of an argument about Mr. Knepper's role as music copyist for the concert, Mingus ''just kind of slapped me in the mouth,'' and the blow ''just happened to break off my incisor.''
The injury seriously affected Mr. Knepper's embouchure; it took him several years to regain his full range on the trombone.
Mingus was convicted of third-degree assault (his sentence was suspended), and a fruitful collaboration was seemingly ended forever. Surprisingly, though, Mr. Knepper worked with Mingus again in the 1970's, appearing on the album ''Let My Children Hear Music'' in 1971, at a Carnegie Hall concert in 1976 and on the last three albums Mingus recorded before his death in 1979.
Mr. Knepper characterized his return to the Mingus fold as a kind of grim inevitability.
''It was very depressing to think that I'm linked with this guy for the rest of my life,'' he told Down Beat in 1981, referring to his earlier days with Mingus. ''And now I feel the same way.''
By Peter Keepnews, NYTimes, 2003___________________________________________________________
In case you doubt my memory:
Check It Out! It's Webster Webfoot and there's that god-damn Jimmy...and look what the camera says...I found this on Google after I'd written the above...
Here's more Webster and Jimmy: www.jimmyweldon.com
"Old rockin' chair got me, daddy...with my cane by my side..."
thefliesbuzzin''roundthegrowlingwolf
for The Daily Growler
5 comments:
Hey, babe, Jimmy Knepper was a Staten Island legend. Every horn player on the Island knew him (and his trumpet playing wife Maxine). I didn't know he passed. Fucking shame. Thanks for the post.
By the way, sweetie, Australia IS bigger than Greenland by a factor of about three. Australia has a land mass of 7,686,850 square miles and Greenland has a land mass of 2,166,086 square miles. Greenland looks bigger than Australia on flat maps because flat maps lay out the lines of longitude as PARALLEL, which they aren't. The world is a sphere and the lines of longitude converge at the poles. Look at a globe of the earth rather than a flat map and you will see that YOU answered the question correctly, unless this story of yours is a fiction.
And then again, another way of looking at the world would show you that every land mass is ultimately an island and the Europe-Asia-Africa land mass of three conjoined continents is the biggest island on earth, although that's not what people mean by an island.
What the fuck, you should have won goddamnit! Your answer was more correct than the girl's. See, if I had been the judge, you would have won, and not just 'cause I like you.
MB,
Neigh-neigh: You made the same mistake the little smartass Wolfie Boy made...Australia is a continent not an island...
Greenland is the largest island in the world...
Mr. Ed, the editing horse
I thought Australia was the "Island-Continent", but what the fuck do I know. A continent can't be an island? Well hell.
Further musings on the "island-continent" from the web:
Dear Yahoo!:
Why is Australia considered an island and a continent, but Greenland is not?
Aussie Osbourne
Brooklyn, Iowa
Dear Aussie:
A Yahoo! Search on the keywords "Australia," "Greenland," "island," and "continent" resulted in this excellent comparative analysis by Joshua Calder, who hosts an extremely informative site dedicated to island geography. The primary reason for granting Australia continental status seems to be geological.
Australia, which is often called the "island continent," sits on its own tectonic plate, while Greenland is geologically part of North America. Australia also has completely unique flora and fauna, while Greenland's wildlife is shared with North America.
That being said, there's no final answer on this one. Geologically, Madagascar could be defined as a continent. And when you think about it, Europe might seem like just a group of peninsulas extending westward from Asia. The dictionary simply defines Australia as a continent and an "island" as anything surrounded by water that's smaller than a continent.
There's a wonderfully civil debate in the message boards of Greenland's official tourism site. And Jeff Probst's stern reprimand to "Survivor: Outback" losers to "leave quickly and reflect about your time on the island" sparked a rash of indignant postings to SlipUps.Com, a site dedicated to chronicling broadcast goofs.
The crap I learn from you Mr. Growly-pants! Ever refining my understanding of so many things.
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