Jazz Fest Special Edition.
I mentioned in the last post that I saw Sun Ra at Jazz Fest... his band was brilliant, and decisively odd looking, lots of long colorful robes, perhaps African, but African from outer space... and then at one point, Sun Ra walked onto the stage and sat down at the grand piano and started banging out this stuff that sounded like Duke Ellington had a child by Spike Jones and..., well, it was amazing! Stunning!
Sun Ra always said that he was from another planet, the planet Venus in fact. It wasn't hard to believe after seeing his "Arkestra" (his name for the 20 piece band) on the stage. After hearing a few of the numbers, and then hearing Sun Ra at the piano with the big band, I realized that the man knew more about the spaces between notes than anyone else, ever.
Sometimes, in music, just like in sculpture, it's the bits that you leave out that count...the spaces.
So here's a treat. A QuickTime sound file. Stars Fell On Alabama
It's fairly special song for me. I heard it that day live, but there's a story behind it...
When Bill and I owned the store on Burgundy Street (and lived across the street from it), there was this fabulously wealthy woman who lived next door, and although you might scarcely believe it, her name was Jera. She and her also wealthy husband, used to have this enormous mansion type house in Birrningham, AL. I mean, it was featured in "Architectual Digest"!. So they did all the big charity events there; they had a room on the first floor, just off of the foyer that accomodated a dozen large sofas, two grand pianos and 300 people! (I saw pictures!)
So, for one of these charity events, Joe Namath was the guest of honor. Of course, everyone wanted to see him and as he was moved through the room, he got more and more drunk. (He was apparently no stranger to drink at the time,,hehe). So by the time he got to the back of the room, his handelers wanted to get him out of the crowd. So Jera said, "Just bring him though the library!", and then they could go down the steps to the lawn. Which they did, but on the way out of the library door, Joe fell down, fell on Jera and broke her arm. Well, Joe was swept away by his handlers, and Jera was swept away to the hospital that her husband ran, and I suppose there was very little pain felt by either of them.
Of course, Jera was mortified (that's a southern lady thing..mortified!) that she wasn't at her big society function at the end to bid everybody goodby!
But that very morning there was this HUGE flower arrangement that arrived at her hospital bed side and it was from Joe Namath!
The card said, "Stars Fell On Alabama", signed Joe.
bwahahahaha! Jera thought there weren't enough roses in the arrangement. And, she would have liked a personal apology. Later, after a few martinis, she said, "well, hell, he was just a damn football player!. What! could I have expected!"
Think Jack and Karen from Will and Grace...
She was an amazing woman!
I mentioned in the last post that I saw Sun Ra at Jazz Fest... his band was brilliant, and decisively odd looking, lots of long colorful robes, perhaps African, but African from outer space... and then at one point, Sun Ra walked onto the stage and sat down at the grand piano and started banging out this stuff that sounded like Duke Ellington had a child by Spike Jones and..., well, it was amazing! Stunning!
Sun Ra always said that he was from another planet, the planet Venus in fact. It wasn't hard to believe after seeing his "Arkestra" (his name for the 20 piece band) on the stage. After hearing a few of the numbers, and then hearing Sun Ra at the piano with the big band, I realized that the man knew more about the spaces between notes than anyone else, ever.
Sometimes, in music, just like in sculpture, it's the bits that you leave out that count...the spaces.
So here's a treat. A QuickTime sound file. Stars Fell On Alabama
It's fairly special song for me. I heard it that day live, but there's a story behind it...
When Bill and I owned the store on Burgundy Street (and lived across the street from it), there was this fabulously wealthy woman who lived next door, and although you might scarcely believe it, her name was Jera. She and her also wealthy husband, used to have this enormous mansion type house in Birrningham, AL. I mean, it was featured in "Architectual Digest"!. So they did all the big charity events there; they had a room on the first floor, just off of the foyer that accomodated a dozen large sofas, two grand pianos and 300 people! (I saw pictures!)
So, for one of these charity events, Joe Namath was the guest of honor. Of course, everyone wanted to see him and as he was moved through the room, he got more and more drunk. (He was apparently no stranger to drink at the time,,hehe). So by the time he got to the back of the room, his handelers wanted to get him out of the crowd. So Jera said, "Just bring him though the library!", and then they could go down the steps to the lawn. Which they did, but on the way out of the library door, Joe fell down, fell on Jera and broke her arm. Well, Joe was swept away by his handlers, and Jera was swept away to the hospital that her husband ran, and I suppose there was very little pain felt by either of them.
Of course, Jera was mortified (that's a southern lady thing..mortified!) that she wasn't at her big society function at the end to bid everybody goodby!
But that very morning there was this HUGE flower arrangement that arrived at her hospital bed side and it was from Joe Namath!
The card said, "Stars Fell On Alabama", signed Joe.
bwahahahaha! Jera thought there weren't enough roses in the arrangement. And, she would have liked a personal apology. Later, after a few martinis, she said, "well, hell, he was just a damn football player!. What! could I have expected!"
Think Jack and Karen from Will and Grace...
She was an amazing woman!
posted by durlx at 4/20/2002 09:55:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home