I have not forgotten my commitment to delivering some Jazz info every few days, it's just been a hectic couple of weeks. I am consumed with my upcoming move (yes, the saga of me and my horrible roommates ends Friday!) and, as you can tell, the passing of the King of Pop. I wanted to share one of my favorite internet thing things with you: Jazz On The Tube. It's a great search engine for Jazz clips on the web. You can also sign up to have a video (sometimes two) sent you your email addy each day- it's a real treat and great way to discover new tunes.
Last week, JOTT introduced me to Miles Davis' cover of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" live at the Monreaux Jazz Festival:
Love it! I'd also like to share one of my longtime faves, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman's "Lush Life":
Sometimes when I listen to Coltrane, I feel like I'm in love with him and we just have a very low key relationship. Is that weird? It was, forget I said it. But seriously, portraying Alice in a 'Trane biopic that I wrote=life goal, for real.
Charles Mingus-"Moanin"
This ish is amazing. Just think about it: Black folks, this is your history. And the present aint always a gift.Anyway, this is a crazy tune and it makes me think of Michele Obama's recent quote about Jazz being like democracy: "individual freedom with responsibility to the group." RESPONSIBILITY TO THE GROUP IS NOT BRINGING YOUR KIDS ON STAGE WHEN YOU TALKING ABOUT FUCKIN ALL THE GIRLS IN THE WORLD, btw. Shame on alla y'all involved!
I'll leave y'all with one of my favorite contemporary Jazz musicians, Roy Hargrove and his RH Factor. Not *technically* a Jazz song, but definitely worth presenting, this is their cover of Parliament's "I'll Stay". I think I have posted it before, but like my favorite NKOTB song, it bears repeating. Featuring D'Angelo, ftw.
Peace to all you cool cats and nappy sweets!
Sister Toldja
Friday, July 03, 2009
Who Gets The Jazz?
Monday, June 29, 2009
There's No Thinking About Anything Else Right Now, So Quit Deluding Yourself
And if you thought the BET Awards was gonna provide some sort of closure, well then maybe you should stop thinking all together and go take a nap.
As you can see, I took the pilgrimage up to Harlem's Apollo Theatre this weekend to pay my respects to dear Michael as best as I could.
I like how the sun hit the flowers in this picture. I couldn't get close enough to show how much stuff there was out there! And there was an "Off The Wall" tribute, where fans could sign their condolences. There were THOUSANDS of messages. I went late Saturday afternoon and about 200 people were out there singing:
I was only able to stay out there a couple minutes, I got pretty emotional. My eyes welled up and I wanted to cry, but I went by myself and decided to just keep it moving. When they got to "Ben", a song that makes me cry on a regular day, I left. Some people handle death well, some don't. I've never felt so emotional about a celebrity's passing. That could be due to the fact that no other artist who I felt so strongly about has left us yet. The only others who could bring me to that level...I don't even want to speak it in to existence. *Shudders* I'll just say both of them are closely associated with Michael and you will literally have to come pick my ass up off the ground if one of them passes before age 70.
How did you all feel this weekend? Michael barely left my thoughts except when I got kicked out the club for something I didn't do, don't even get me started, ugh. I heard his music everywhere I went, from the dollar store to the club to just walking down the street. And since I love his music so much and hate what I usually hear in those places, I almost felt happy. Michael was in my life space so much, it was almost exciting. There was an eerie feeling that something was gonna happen or that he was going to emerge and react to all of this. I know it sounds weird, but I am alone here? It just felt like this was the anticipation of him doing something, not him being funeralized. If love could raise someone from the great beyond, then MJ would have tapped Jamie Foxx on the shoulder last night and said "Thank you, I got it from here."
I went to one MJ tribute party and it took me a minute to actually enjoy myself. I kept thinking "We are here because Michael Jackson is dead." A friend gave me a little pep talk and reminded me that Michael is finally at peace and that we should be glad for that. And I loosened up, but there is still some pain and even denial on my part. Janet Jackson's brief apperance on the BET Awards really took me over the edge. I look at how I'm feeling and I'm just a fan. I can't even imagine the family's pain right now.
I should be able to though, I lost an uncle last week. Somewhat guiltily, I'll admit the obvious: his death didn't touch me nearly as much as that of a man I never met. We just didn't have much of a relationship, which is the case with most of my mother's side of the family. I hurt mostly for my mother's pain and since there was so little of my own, I was able to support her without falling apart. He was a good man, my uncle. He called me "Cabbage Patch" when I was a kid and it got shortened to "Cabbage". It didn't tickle me at the time, but I have to laugh now thinking about a 5-year-old being called "Cabbage". He also made me some great fried chicken once and I put ketchup on it, because kids are disgusting that way. Good times.
MJ's death has brought people together in a way I have only seen once before: the Obama election. It's amazing how people are grieving and celebrating Michael's life together and how social networks like Twitter and Facebook have facilitated that on a whole new level. How do we channel all this collectivism in to something good? What can we do with all this feeling that we're feeling? I've been "living Off The Wall" for almost 25 years, that's definitely a recommendation. What else? My heart hurts.
Posts
