Before I get started on anything else, I would just like to explain something. I’m not one of those people who is perpetually in a good mood. I have my bad moods and dammit, I like it that way. I wouldn’t feel remotely well-balanced if I didn’t get pissed off or in a funk like I do. And there’s something very important to keep in mind with all of this. If I’m in a bad mood, deal with it, go somewhere else, ignore it, etc. But do NOT try to fix it. Leave me alone, and I’ll get over it. Try to make me feel better or something, and you only prolong the mood. Seriously – if you try and interfere and make me cheer up or something, and especially if you do it in an even remotely peppy or annoying manner, you not only put yourself at risk for being chewed out, but you will almost certainly make the bad mood last substantially longer than it would have otherwise.
You have all been warned.
There’s nothing like live jazz. Especially good live jazz. I went to a small performance by Spontaneous Combustion III on New Year’s Eve and I was reminded of this. They were good. Not mind-blowing, but good. Piano, drums, and vibes. A good combination, though I would have liked a single trumpet in there, too. But then I’m biased. I played in jazz band back in high school and loved to play jazz so much more than anything else in the world. Just the feel of it. You just blow and blow and scream and put your soul into the notes you play. And at the right performances, listening can be just as involved and intense an experience as playing. When I saw Wynton Marsalis and his septet play at the Bluenote in Columbia, MO, on spring break in 2002, I felt, breathed, and bled jazz. It comes out of your pores when you sweat. It rises and permeates like ammonia fumes into your sinuses.
Right now two things are striking me as being particularly beautiful. One is the extended version of the song The Diamond Sea by Sonic Youth, as found on the The Diamond Sea/My Arena single. It’s just under 26 minutes long and as I see it as near a perfect example of the beauty that art rock can be as anything I’ve ever heard. The other thing is the poem Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes. It was written in the early part of the last century during the Harlem Renaissance and yet speaks so much so clearly about America today. It says what I feel so strongly about America. It says what America is not, but also what it should, and more importantly will be. I will reproduce it here in its entirety after I post this.
I hope you will get something out of it, as I certainly have. I’ll also post Ginsberg’s poem America, a recording of which just came up on shuffle on iTunes. Also an excellent piece.
