I Want To Talk About You

I posted the link somewhere on this page on Facebook to a version of Coltrane playing "I Want To Talk About You". (I have had trouble posting this link so I am just printing it directly.) https://youtu.be/ADPm-3JMbwo I guess I will have to find it again to illustrate my catalyst of this idea I am writing which came from looking at that video . It was taken in Stockholm in 1962 . I don't remember if I saw it before or not . I did get a Cd from my public library recently that featured two separate performances by Trane and it well might have been one of them . The link I posted from Youtube had recording marks on it and gave it the illusion that it was filmed at the original site and concert . I don't really know right now about the history of the video but after watching the entire cut , I did have this question spinning around my head of "What happened to America , to music , and to us to send us to the current point we are in history ." Coltrane played that night so relaxed and not like he would play the same song several years later after he was affected by Albert Ayler , his own continued experiments , and the way the music world was turning till he passed . He played the melody with small embellishments and then showed his variations on the theme . His variations could have been played yesterday by one of our friends who had the benefit of hearing and being influenced by Coltrane . His solo was that timeless though the recording was before Kennedy was assassinated . There was another recording a year later that was just days before that terrible event ,one at The Newport Festival and later on Oct. 8th ,1993 live at Birdland .Indeed the tune developed it's own soul and identity over the last years of John's life . The sixty two version with the illusion of a bootleg from Youtube had a relaxed quality about it and I didn't want to hear McCoy play a solo and he didn't , Trane carried the entire vehicle and didn't extend the ending with a cadenza but simply said what he had to say in that simpler time before assignations , betrayals , and the changing of the American identity to a darker character . As I wrote a comment in Facebook , it just slipped off my fingers as I typed but I knew I would have to go back and re-think the enormity of the question ,"What happened to us ?" Jazz had taken a turn with Ornette and classical music began to accept the fringe elements like "Music Concrete" and electronic composers like Stockhausen were opening ears up to other possibilities by 1959 . Trane was finishing up his tour with Miles , sobered from heroin by 1958 and by 1961 or 62' his quartet was taken the form that makes their music together seem timeless . Perhaps the Youtube version I posted was of the young quartet . By the mid-sixties ,Nam was raging , Kennedy was dead , Johnson was losing support , King was achieving recognition , and an entire generation was involved in revolution against the status quo which featured the continued separation of the races and the subjugation of women . When Johnson abdicated his political position and didn't run for office in 1968 , the democrats tried to run the party line down the throats of a nation that wasn't buying it . The separation , the corruption ,and the misuse of power resulted in the breakdown of the democratic Party and a major loss to Nixon in one of the closest elections ever in this country . This split across the country was more than just the anti-war movement because the anti-war movement already had mostly Democrats . Johnson was demoralized , the Democrats were defeated and Nixon claimed the rewards and settled down to running another corrupt Republican administration . By 1972 , McGovern didn't really have a chance but Nixon still employed "Dirty Tricks" to put the icing on the cake which was hidden behind the curtain of "Executive Privilege". In the flurry of those years , Coltrane's death in 1967 became just another name in a long list of tragic endings that went on and on till the Kent State Massacre which proved that the government wasn't afraid to lower it's guns against it's own constituents . Is it any wonder that the seventies brought nothing but coke and disco , money and the lack of aesthetic value . Elvis shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone , just another name in a flow of names like Hendrix and Joplin that had already succumb to self indulgence on the public music trail . The finish of the Teddy Kennedy run for presidency was an ugly murderous deal with undertones of sex and alcohol and the last hope of bringing back that "Camelot" went down the toilet .Perhaps the only great joy of the seventies was "Saturday Night Live" which promised a laugh at the entirety of it though it was a participant in the entirety . If music , art, painting , plays , and even current television shows are a reflection of our times , then perhaps there are no real surprises except we don't really see actual art anymore . Art became what sells instead of art being in demand because it is art .What is art ? Well , art isn't Motown groups being taught to dance like the other groups ;it isn't bands learning cover records or synthetic groups produced by large companies to capitalize on the current moment . It isn't a dance that talks about their music as if they created their music . It isn't the "Standard Contract" or ASCAP or BMI or the loss of the copyright or the publishing on original work to people who are little more than identity thieves. We have elevated the "Crook" and raised our glasses to the connivers , the covetous , the flim flam men who have finally come to live in Washington DC ,growing tired of the naked artist who had such a poor fight , anyway . It is hard to continue to write about the downers of modern history to illustrate a question of "What happened?" Dwelling upon this idea might let my guard down , as if I could do anything about what has happened in the past or what is happening right now . This illusion of democracy should be seen as an illusion . The flag waving should stop for a while so we can find out what is wrong here .In the sixties and seventies there was a bad deal where you gave a guy twenty dollars and he told you to wait in the hallway till he got back with the pot . The would be dealer never comes back and it doesn't take you long to realise that he won't be back but that doesn't change the way you feel or the fact that the money is gone . Last September the Bush administration hurried a deal brought forth by an unelected official, Paulson , which ended up costing 750 billion dollars in the waning moments of that administration . This year the Obama administration brought about and continued the same deal . Same deal , different faces , same hallway , the same foolish feeling , the same irate stupid way you feel when you lose money the same way you lost it once before . The government has lost it's checks and balances . ....But it is hard to continue to focus backward . The Trane piece is still vibrant and valid . It shows a simpler time , a more relaxed time . It is a reflection of our time . What happened to out time ? I can't find it all or I can't focus , or I refuse to dwell upon this negative presentation any longer . The current news on television and in blogs involves the resurgence of the "Taliban" with the same kind of abuses of women in the name of Allah as they brought forth in 1996 before the invasion of Afghanistan . The news will bring forth pictures of protesters , many against the war , some against abortion called "Right to Life" or against the right of a woman to control her own body . These two images are not much different than 1962 except we didn't care about what was happening in Afghanistan in 1962 . The current word "Creationism" is yet another word that brings up the arguments decided in the "Scopes" trial well over a hundred years ago . While we continue to look backward philosophically as human beings , the music has been altered and the mood is changed . It won't come back . The relaxed quality of Trane in 1962 was gone before he died in 1967 . Our music shows us the corruption of the "Sacred Cow" capitalism has affected us all . The sophistication of popular music in it's mixes and the production line of singers coming off the press shows us exactly how much the big wheels that are producing , promoting , and profiting from this vehicle have improved since they were taking the publishing rights as producers in the nineteen fifties . It is amazing that such beautiful , sophisticated women who sing in tune and speak clearly represent what is now called "Country Music" which used to be rock and roll . The twang still exist in the men who wear cowboy hats inside the buildings of the city as if insecure that people won't recognise them without their name tag . The rock and roll groups are head bangers wearing make up , cartoons of characters once in comic books much as the "Rappers" are comic book villains , cursing and sneering ,pretending to be a threat to the society they are exploiting . People who continue to play the music of the soul groups of the sixties can't bring back the mood and can't turn the world around with nostalgia , the world can't go backward . Trane once played and some people knew he was valuable and wanted more but the world changed and so did Trane reflect that change as it changed . Looking at a picture , a video of the illusion , an illusion of a video shot ,catching un-posed reality , a concert from over forty years ago in another country , another world , makes me long for simpler times . The advancements over these forty years are magnificent and those complicated turns in events also can't be put back in the bottle . What happened to us ? Tomorrow came . What else is there but today and tomorrow ? Yesterday can't be changed anymore than the video of Trane .It is a painting of time , a few brush strokes with selected colors ,stuck in itself . Enjoy it like an aged wine . I was happy to find the video of Coltrane and hear his painting , from another genii , another bottle that can't be forgotten or re-stopped , the richness of the computer and the interaction and sharing of the Internet . This link to the video which can't be embedded is from Nov 19, 1962 , he just lays it out here . What happened after then ? Gee, I mean from Kennedy on to the current 750 billion dollar plus - drug deal gone wrong . Maybe Trane saw the bad train coming and got off the boat but was screaming about it before he left . Boy , the hits keep on coming.

Book Burning and the Public Library

The public library used to be a place where reference books and other material was stored . You might find obscure ideas there as well as opinion and directions on ideas one wouldn't necessarily have in you own home . Here in Maryland I was fortunate to be able to check out vinyl records from my library by the late fifties . The jazz and classical sides that I wasn't spending money on unless I thought I just had to have a copy were another luxury item taken for granted especially by me , a denizen of the library. Today my public library has "Pop" Cds , videos,as well as expensive comic books .While they still have reference books , in fact a reference section , they tend to become more and more generic instead of introspective into the diverse subjects of the world .I have spoken with the buyers for the systems of two local counties and the reasoning behind this trend and the general answer is that "Circulation" brings more funds to buy and support the library system . The quick circulation of popular music CDs brings attention to the entire system even though the circulation drops off and dies as that CD loses popularity to another "Pop" side . This ,unfortunately, has gone the same way with printed matter .

In the early eighties I bumped into a book by an obscure archaeologist , Barbara Thiering , called "The Qumran Origins of the early Christian Church" . After reading her book and having it out for the limit , I went to a drug store and copied it page for page because I was so impressed and books published in Australia weren't found on the shelves of the mall unless it involved Olivia Newton John . I tried to get more books by "Thiering" as years went by and she produced more and they were available for a while through the library system . It wasn't long before her books became "Reference" material and then I had to send away to specific library systems available across the United States . Her books ,ironically, could still be found in seminaries and Christian Colleges ,for instance "Oral Roberts University " had copies for a while but eventually they became totally unavailable through the system .

I knew that Barbara Thiering now had a London publisher and had ,what might seem , a greater world wide accessible product . In today's world of "Amazon" and the Internet , in fact , her books are buy-able but not available to kids coming into the library anymore . I have joked about it being in the "Book Burning" section but I am afraid that joke is very close to where it actually is hidden . I have been fortunate to have found Barbara Thiering online and have had some correspondence with her and have been flippant enough to suggest that if she published a book as fiction , she might get better response . I also suggested this wise crack to another brilliant writer I met here in Cyberspace , Ahmed Osman , whose books "Stranger in the Valley of the Kings" and "Moses , Pharaoh of Egypt" also used to be on the local library shelves .

The fact is that we really aren't too far away from "Book Burning" as a human race . When John Lennon remarked that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus the response to some people was to have a Beatles record burning . In recent years controversy about Samuel Clemens has come to fore in the attempt of changing the language of an era , our history found between the lines in fiction like "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn". It is ironic that Clemens might be controversial today for the use of the word "Nigger"when , at the time, it might have been controversial in the suggestion that all men in America should be and free .I don't think that Clemens will achieve "Book Burning" status (except in a few towns). I now appears that the "Taliban" are coming back to power and in fact the United States is willing to bargain with them right now .The Taliban are supposedly the lesser of the two evils in Afghanistan . "Taliban" over "Al Caeda" and Bin Laden in spite of their history of the abuse of women in the name and guise of Allah . It's almost as if we forgot about the football fields of Afghanistan where women were shot in the back of the head for not wearing a "Burka". It is unbelievable .

Diplomacy might cover a multitude of sins yet we , as a democratic people , still are looking back at Roe Vs. Wade and are willing to debate an idea like the right of a woman to abort an unwanted child . This right to life or right of choice would seem without question except for the fact that we also seem to equivocate around the "Scopes" trial and "Darwinism". Religious mythology versus science takes too much attention in a government that was supposedly designed to separate religion from government because of what the founding founders learned from their own closer history with the "Church of England". Can we not remember anything ?

It was last year that the question arose in this country about weather "Torture" should be used on prisoners . I thought that the "Spanish Inquisition" had proven than people will confess or say anything to get out of torture . People said that they could fly and implicated their neighbors to be killed instead of them . It is incredible that we can go backward and forget so easily . "Book burning" is a lot gentler than "People burning" so you might say ,"Don't complain!" That is don't complain till they start burning you .

I miss the library of old though not too long ago . America once was a country that was open to ideas and theories beyond the conservative line . The word "Liberal" has become a dirty word in popular radio . The demonetization of the media as "The Liberal Press" is meant to discredit politically and is an opinion and is obviously not a reality in every case ,for instance "Fox News" or the stations that support Rush Limbaugh and his broadcast. The free press is missing in the library , at least the pressing ideas and theories that are contrary to the religious mythology that is prevalent in this country . I wish I could believe that this is a place of religious freedom but I am afraid that when you scratch the surface of America you come out with a "Theocracy" founded in Judaism . It is ironic to me that Judaism might be founded in a Theocracy that was invented in Egypt by a Pharaoh who attempted to dictate monotheism to a country that all ready had freedom of religion . "Thou Shalt Have No Other God Before ME" , the first commandment of Akhnaton , the self professed son of Aten , whom you can only access through him , certainly seems familiar somehow . I wish I could find out more about him but a lot of the theories are in the "Book Burning" section and no longer available because Brittany Spears has a new CD out this month and the funding has been cut in favor of circulation .

Theatrics

I had a vision , a theatrical vision of a presentation as it might be presented . Thinking about this idea I realized that the occurrence had already happened without the theatrics . In 1972 the New York Free Jazz Festival had "Happenings" at all the major parks where there might be sixty men on the central stage playing at once . The free idea and cacophony were there but there was no direction . As a bassist in the sixties at jazz sessions with tunes that went on for days it seemed , I thought to myself , "These horn players are coming out of the woodwork ," as my fingers bled on the strings and my hands got cramps . Horns are really wonderful instruments that represent each individual clearly yet they often stand or sit in a row , moving together in big bands , moving rhythmically in soul or pop bands . In the free atmosphere I can see horn players draped across the stage , standing on a spiral staircase stage right , hanging one foot off the stage ,stage center , sitting at a stool at a bar ,stage left , hanging around the drum set and the bassist near the center backstage and all playing different ,floating free parts .

The Coltrane recording called "Ascension" is a similar sound , also the Ornette piece "Free Jazz" has that feeling yet both also have a desperate quality to them that isn't necessary . Players can play free without screaming to get attention and they should be directed theatrically in a presentation instead of being fenced in to positions that inhibit instead of freeing their minds and attitudes. The picture of the tenor player blowing upward in an approximation of response to his own music is theatrical as is the trumpet player playing with his horn raised into the air . In this day of extensive miking and amplification , the projection of the sound isn't necessary yet the theatrics get passed over except by the front man who actually gets more attention because of his theatrics .

The "air guitar" has actually become a modern computer game . People are perfecting their theatrics without even learning how to play the instrument at all . This does say something about the importance of theatrical presentation and how much attention it demands . Chuck Berry managed to play his blues and still "Duck-walk" and this was a stage act that brought him more attention . The continuation of guitar theatrics with Peter Townsend and his eventual theatrical destruction of his instrument brought excitement to the audience almost like a wrestling event . Jimi Hendrix also capitalized on "Real" guitar theatrics with his sensational burning of his instrument and even masturbatory movements . The current game abut rock guitar ,using a simulated instrument uses the choreography of these actual performers to bring the illusion of performance to an amateur gamer.

Louis Jordan used his horn to amplify points during his show . Louis Armstrong also used his own version of theatrics to cover his loose improvisational skills . Sam Butera had a classic line for his solos with the "Louis Prima Show". The point of bringing up all these "Louies" is that theatrics are missing in most serious jazz presentations . Free jazz ,generally, isn't given any direction at all .

The vision I had was of cyber friends , at a distance , contributing to my own free music . Recently , playing loose and leaving space , I could imagine everyone adding parts by recording with one of my cuts and sending me a MP3 to mix into the whole . The more I thought of it , the more I could see Noah Howard hanging a foot offstage , John Desalm . leaning against a wall with his horn up , Marshall Keys blowing center , right stage ,looking directly at the audience , Pete Barembregge leaning on a bar stool ,stage left , Doc Holbert playing his trumpet ,looking toward the second row center , Vince McCool playing with his horn down next to the drummer and bass player . Larry Guggenheim is playing his guitar next to his amp looking toward the drums .The vision is of music being played separately yet together , freely , yet choreographed for this production . I know that the individual calling of the musicians , some big band , some soul bands, some free jazz , and some rock , are diverse yet I still insist that they play together freely , whatever comes will be . The picture of the event is also part of the event much as noise can be part of modern music . There is no life without airplanes , trains, cars , and the cacophony of people talking , one man whistling a different tune than you , a radio in a car going by , the sound of wheels traveling from one direction to the next in the rain covered surface of the road . This is modern sound and music , the fuzz tone guitar with a phase shifter is a jet going by high above .

The cacophony of noise , of different musics are the music of free jazz , of ears opened to the possibilities of the future sounds and what the future will bring . I still would like to bring forth an event of this nature yet , in a way , I am afraid to present the idea . I know that in this machine there are different worlds in every person . The aesthetic idea is hard to present in a serious context to other serious musicians who are involved in their own worlds . We must remember that once there was a time when we all were inspired with music and not in our little boxes that became "Jobs" . Perhaps this is also the state of modern man , that is isolation in the face of such intense communications . Cell phones , computers , telephone answering machines , and music yet this takes us apart as well as much as it brings us together . The irony of the music of our times , not "Theo-phony" as in hurricanes , earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions ,but "Theo-Funny" as God laughs at our futile attempts to find reason in all this . Musical ideas can only be written about for so long because it has to be played and listened and experienced . The painting is still in my minds eye waiting to be brought to fruition .