Red Hot Jazz

Sometimes friends can be helpful. This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to have my good friend Kristen drag me out to see some jazz.

I ended up seeing the best live jazz in my life. I was 8 feet from a man on saxophone, whistling away under blue lights, and I could feel a revolution stir inside me. The sweet harmonies of the the quartet made my blood boil with glee. I started blushing at the thought of what it must have been like to see someone like Charlie Parker play live. I decided that other than architects, jazz musicians are the people I idol the most.

The jazz musician sees the city as an oceanic orchestra, with every step and building an act of rhythm and sustain. I'm jealous of this underlying pattern they seem to have the ability to evoke. I'm not saying that everything in the world fits together in a sweet harmony (in fact I resent people that believe this). But it's the improvisation they can capture; somehow it all seems to fit together. I don't know how they do it but I know it's good and I like it.

Songs I could die to

1. The Whale - J.B. Lenoir  Biblical story with a tinge of despair
2. The Many and the Few -  Woody Guthrie  Another biblical story chronicling mankind, makes me feel small
3. Embraceable You - Charlie Parker I remember sitting on a rug as a little boy and trying to imagine what Charlie Parker might look like
4. You're Mine, You - Art Tatum This is one of those songs that I can listen to on repeat and hear something different every time
5. Turn Your Money Green - Furry Lewis & Frank Stokes Some of the best lines of the blues are in here

I'm attracted to Mother Maybelle

I think I'm starting to fall for Maybelle Carter, better known as "Mother Maybelle" in the famous folk group, The Carter Family.

Just look at her... she can be my wildwood flower any day.

Spoonfuls and Jellyrolls

I was listening to some blues the other night and there was one verse that shined above the others: "A hand full of gimme and a mouth full of much obliged". The lyric comes from a song by axe-murderer/musician, Jimmie Strothers. No joke, this guy really was an axe-murderer and all the recordings of him were made in a prison in Richmond, Virginia.

I don't know what it was exactly about the verse that struck me so, but I couldn't get it out of my head the whole day. I kept guessing at what the metaphor might mean and nothing occurred to me until I wrote it down. I realized that it might stand for something a little less poignant and a little more sexual. The image is in fact quite pornographic.

Now one might accuse me of just having a sick mind, but this is not the first time sex and/or its fruits have appeared in blues music. Have a listen to Mississippi John Hurt's "Lovin' Spoonful" or Charley Patton's "Shake it and Break it".  Patton moans about missing the taste of his sweet jellyroll, and I'll let you guess what he might referring to.  Even the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, mentions how the rusty springs in her bed could use a good pushin'.

Similar to the spirituals sung by their ancestors, blues musicians had to use metaphor to get across their ideas about love and sex. One could argue that all genres of music follow this implicit rule of self-censorship, but none are as creative with it as the Delta blues musicians. If you pay close enough attention to what they are singing, you'll start to pick up on these deviant references.