…
„Practise, practise, young Harold!
You’ll be a fine musician some day.
In sixty years time
You’ll go round and round Germany
In a tiny bus!“
„Sounds kinda farfetched to me, Dad.“
…
Chicago! Chicago! Big band madness.
With a hefty cue from Hampton,
we blast the walls
out the fraternity houses.
Summers on the bus with
Swing bands
Sweet bands
Mickey Mouse bands
Backing tap dancers
plate-spinners
so-called comedians
Vaudeville, yes vaudeville
(can’t seem to shake the influence)
Out of the distance
Way beyond that Little Grass Shack
Bop was calling…
Five sets a night in the Burlesque house
Jamming behind the screens
As the big girls shimmy and
shake it on down
Dropping bombs like they were
Going out of style..
What do you mean
You can’t dance to it?
…
Me and my trumpet player
hah! strange but true
backing Billie
at the Regal.
Unforgettable
…
Milred Bailey, rocking chair gal
Heart big as Yankee Stadium
Girdle like the Sydney Suspension Bridge
What a voice!
Best of times and the worst of times
Victims of all the
occupational hazards
high on whatever you got
We fired up on the after hours session
and pumped the paycheck
into the collective arm
Wheeling and dealing
on the dog-eat-dog scene.
And that’s jazz!
Shoot the pianist!
1960 with the Daley Three
Russell Thorne and Joe and me
Finding out what it means to be free.
Ornette barely a rumour in the wind city
we’re out there on our own
beyond the barlines
beyond the changes
beyond the time
tiptoeing in some wild and lonely space.
Then along came Ayler
Holy shit!
Brash and bold
Total confirmation
of the taken road.
Wailing, parading
Albert Ayler –
Psalm-swinging
Song singing to you.
Free at last, free at last
Thank God Almighty free at last.
…
No happy endings outside Hollywood?
The camera pans to a circus tent
in a German field and
a crowd of five thousand, so help me.
Ovations
Encores
Hats in the air
Worth the wait?
Oh yeah!
For Christ’s sake, Sandstrom
will you you put down that bass and
take a picture of this…
Land ho! Land ho!
Pinch me, mama
This old ship’s a coming in…
~ The Hal Russell Story
--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #164: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv, 10.6., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba