I was
cranking work all night long. And
I was aided in this by a drummer whom I’ve mentioned before, Mr. Idris
Muhammad. None of the later work
of his I came across as a leader maintained the sound he had on that Reuben
Williams album from the same year.
But I stumbled upon a live Grant Green album from 1970 called “Grant
Green Alive.” On this he once
again sounds remarkable like some kind of Meters Ziggy Modeliste meets Max
Roach. But Mr. Green, like Mr.
Muhammad himself has already been featured on these pages.
So whom else did he play with in those days? Turns out he was rather busy. And in 1969 he recorded on an
interesting album by George Benson called “Tell It Like it Is.” I’ve never been a big fan of Mr. Benson
popular work. But I really knew
next to nothing about his sound during the years when he was coming up. Born in Pittsburgh in 1943, he got his
start playing ukulele in a corner store and played early on some Jack McDuff
albums before he solo career took off. And this album is a period piece with
Latin and Soul and pop all fused into bite-sized numbers with abrupt studio
fade outs of otherwise interesting leads. And while he solos beautifully at
points, I have yet to find a number where Mr. Muhammad really takes off. I’ll dig around a bit later with Mr.
Benson as well and see what else I can find of his work. But the search for sessions where
Mr. Muhammad really opens up must continue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Benson
My younger daughter and I sat down to play chess this
afternoon. She was playing well,
and at one point took my queen, when I was concentrating elsewhere. “Hey! Good for you.” And instinctively I began looking
aggressively for a come back. And she said something that reminded me,
unflatteringly of the movie “The Great Santini,” as she said, tasting possible
victory, that in all the years of playing chess I’ve never beat you without you
giving me piece or switching sides or in some other way you giving me a
break. Now I may really beat you.
It is perhaps, harder to suppress the urge to “win” than we
think. To start the game is to
enter a zero-sum, dynamic. To make
the first move is to want to 功成名就[1].
And, going forward, I politely pointed out to her a move or two of hers where
she would have lost her queen for example, but simultaneously, I was pushing
forward with a plan to corner her king.
And if your going to do that, you either do it or you don’t. One could play deceitfully and pretend
to make absent-minded moves and loose on purpose. Or one can defend ones color and try to win. Artfully switching between the two
isn’t easy.
Before long I’d turned the tide and as her defenses crumbled.
I offered her to switch
sides. She didn’t take me up on
it. I clumsily offered her up a
chance to win, but she knew it and pointed my oversight out to me. Turns out she wanted a real game, as
well. And now her King has no
where to go. My older one has already whooped me and I’m sure it won’t be long
before this one does as well.
Now she is in the small kitchen making syrup. This caught me off guard. She was running around with a box of
frozen raspberries, pulling out the honey. What got in to your mind to make “syrup”, darling? It’s obviously sweet, but don’t you
need something like pancakes to put it on. “No, I’m going to put it on a sponge cake.” Huh? Oh, I see. Her
and her mother were watching a foodie program on recipes last night and this
must have got into her head. We
don’t usually have sponge cake lying around.
She boiled the raspberries for about three or four minutes
with some honey and said “It’s done!”
I suggested she might want to put a lid on it and let it simmer for a
while, to really get the juices flowing.
This was not well received.
I’ve just been given a cup to sip.
It tastes like some kind of strong raspberry tea. Alas, there will need to be more
honey. And much longer stewing
time . . .
Per Idris Mohamad, he’s on a half a dozen classic Lou Donaldson
albums that I’ve put on in the meantime, while writing this. I’ve had many of these on another disc
for years, but still, I was never really cognizant of the line up. Sometime, we’ll talk about Mr. Donaldson. But again, Muhammad’s playing is good,
but I’m still searching for more of these sessions where he’s at his
improvisational prime.
I’ve got all these myriad tunes syncing to my iPhone for a
long flight to the US tomorrow.
Over to San Francisco, and then up to Reno on Monday. I’ve only been there once, and was not
left with a strong sense of wanting to go back. But that’s where the conference is so that’s where I’ll be
for Monday through Wednesday. If I
had some time, which I won’t, I’d head over to Virginia City which isn’t far
from Reno. That, conversely was a
place I’d enjoy being able to return to.
I wonder if I still have that fascinating history of the place, where
elevators down into the Comstock Lode silver mine were first invented, which I
bought at the time, on the shelves, downstairs. I must remember to have a look.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_City,_Nevada
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