Glass of Dirty Green

Confused.  I conflated the two great threads from jazz history into one.  Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra was the band that Sun Ra thought played so well, they couldn’t be human.  He reckoned they had to be angels.  Coleman Hawkins and Chu Berry and Benny Carter all got their start in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra.  It was the Early Hines orchestra with its evolution into Billy Eckstine’s group in the next decade that was the hatchery, which welcomed the early boppers; launching Dizzy, Bird, Miles, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Sarah Vaughan and countless others to prominence.  Today I spent some time with the handsome mustachioed Mssr. Eckstine who was more famous than Frank Sinatra in Frank Sinatra’s day. 

I was skimming through clips and photos of him and one photo from Life Magazine in 1950 which immediately stands out.  A number of young women surround Eckstine and one has put her head on his shoulder.  They are white.  He is black.  It doesn’t seem especially sexual, rather she appears simply overwhelmed by the engagement with stardom.  The photo had to be approved by Henry Luce himself.   I’m glad he did.  The magazine took a lot of flak for photo back when segregation was still in full flush.  Some wonder if the photo didn’t cost Eckstine his shot at pop stardom. 

The Wiki bio on line suggests that Eckstine appeared in dozens of television shows, but I searched in vain for his appearance on Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson.  He apparently even made an appearance on Sanford and Son, but once again, they were not easily accessible on line.  I did however come across a majestic interview with him on the Dick Cavett show from 1972.  He would have been about fifty-eight years old not so much older than I am today.  Cavett is characteristically nervous and endearingly awkward, when he brings up the topic of segregation for bands that toured.  To me Eckstine manages the thread with commanding dignity, speaking of the injustice of that time, the inaccuracies of how jazz history was rendered and his honest assessment as to just how horrible Al Jolson was.  I found myself annoyed that Cavett who is otherwise a sharp intellect, couldn’t rise to the occasion of this rich discussion.  Rather it ended with a thud, as he broke for a commercial, suggesting that the conversation had somehow been negative. 

I’m staring at a half-filled glass of dirty green water.  From out the glass stand a dozen stems of fleabane.  I’d tried unsuccessfully for the last few bike rides to identify this little yellow and white flower that is blooming all along the trail just now.  Today the proper name appeared and I grabbed a few stalks on a sweaty walk which my wife and I took with our little one and our nephew who was visiting.  Apparently, the dried plant was thought to act as a flea repellent.  These flowers were thirsty.  I’ll get some more water and we’ll see how long they last.

Saturday, 7/11/20