Another jazzman from
New Jersey, Trenton this time, another horn player who refined his style in the
military, trumpet player Johnny Coles, is up in the earholes this morning. I’ve been listening to him for a few days
now. I’ve got the 1963 disc “Little
Johnny C”, the title tune blaring now on and I feel like I’m bouncing around in
Lower Manhattan late for something and not really caring about it. Allowing myself to imagine an early morning
Lower East Side, the people, the traffic the early morning garbage, cutting
under the bridge along Bialystoker St. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Coles
I’ve already hosted the brilliant pianist Duke Pearson, and
the drummer turned attorney Pete LaRoca on DustyBrine before. And I don’t know why I haven’t gotten around
to discussing the majestic saxophonist Joe Henderson before, but I will sooner
or later. All those guys round out this
disc to make it sound remarkably familiar to my ears. It was three years before my birth, but
something about the New York cool of that time just feels utterly unassailable.
And something about jazz’ ability to
invoke New York City forever remains, 记忆犹新[1] .
There is a lovely obituary I found of the man, who passed in
Philly in 1997. The British press seems
to treat our jazzmen with greater reverence than our own hometown press does. Steve Voce writing for the Independent
recalled an earlier discussion with Johnny Coles. What a pathway through profundity that man
navigated, from Eddie
"Cleanhead" Vinson, and Earl Bostic, then to contributions on classic
Gil Evans albums, Charles Mingus Workshop, a stint with Herbie Hancock, whose
praise was effusive. Years with Ray
Charles orchestra, and time with the Duke
Ellington’s orchestra as well.
Fascinating to read about what life was like inside that Ellingtonian
university for a time, warts and all.
Shared
the disc just now with my friend who I knew would love it and he did. He lives in L.A. And once we started in we just went on and on
about how we missed New York.
Looking
over yesterday’s “Summary 140”, I
noticed a few things, firstly I was on the road for the majority of the time. Shanghai and Shandong mostly. I had to get myself an on-the-road VPN, as
opposed to the one used in the home, so I could post, as this Google app is
blocked in China. At least eight of the
musical contributions are from the 1960s.
Three more selections, within two years after, by 1971. It is, and remains, I suppose, tera firma. But I did get to spend time with at least
three more contemporary jazz musicians and recordings from within the last ten
years. As usual a disproportionate
usage of Wiki and the New York Times, which speaks to ease and familiarity and
perhaps some intellectual laziness.
To
that end, let me share two bits from other sources: The first is a lovely article of
dust-removed. In a promising example of Zhong-Mei academic cooperation,
Washington University of St. Louis professor T.R. Kidder a self professed “mud
guy” was invited by Chinese researcher Liu Haiwang, to help with the dig in
Henan at the SanYangZhuang site, a
Han Dynasty village that was swamped in silt by a surge in Yellow River, some
2000 years ago. With so little extant
architecture left in China even from the Ming period, let alone the Song, Tang
or Han, it is remarkable when the earth opens up, or is dug into as in this
case, and yields the past with such clarity .
We don’t always see it here in China, but it is certainly there.
The second article was this was this piece by Franz-Stefan Gady, Senior
Fellow at the EastWest Institute, who seeks to discredit the oft-used analogy
of China’s rise with that of Germany in the late 19th century. I’ve used that analogy. I find it useful. I think it was most forcefully employed by
Edward Lutwak in his book which I’ve discussed, “The Rise of China vs. the
Logic of Strategy”. So I’m glad to read
someone challenge the truism.
What was most interesting about Lutwak’s take was the
inevitable quality of Germany’s rise at that time and that if the Germans had
just singled differently, strategically, instead of building a world class navy
as they felt was their inheritance, their rise to economic preeminence would
have been a fait a compli. But because they invested heavily in military
capacity, they sent a signal, which drew other erstwhile foes, like England and
France together. This seems apt for the
China case.
Mr. Gady’s point that no military analyst worth his salt
sees even medium term realistic challenge from China for anything like global
military dominance is well taken.
England had good reason to assume Germany might unseat them. Instead, he suggests the case of late 19th
century Italy, who were not about to unseat anyone, but were feeling boxed in and
made investments to asymmetrically disrupt their immediate surroundings. This, for Gady is the more accurate metaphor.
An old friend just called, while I was trading IM’s with another
old friend, the New Yorker in exile. We’re all best of
friends. I conferenced everyone in
together and we laughed and snickered and guffawed like idiots, talking about
other long lost friends, for the first twenty minutes of the call. I commented and I suppose its true that were
I to be wheeled up next to them in the retirement community forty years hence, ears and mouths
permitting, we’d all likely double over in the same gut-laughs at the same routines. How precious the crystalline humor of
youth. Why does that laughter remain so potent? Oddly, how rare, laughter can
become, as we age and converse with new acquaintances, less and less intimately.
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