Lost and Found
Life is good. Sitting here listening to an old lost tape I just came across -- Sade, on her album called Diamond Life, while drinking a few Coronas. And yes, with a slice of lime, naturally.
Remember the first space shuttle explosion? Back then, I had a job with a union shop, and had been assigned as a union painter to help finish a new building down in Naperville, Illinois. Good pay for little work. We, the wife and I, had a nifty little Mercury, a red one, and I did the 45-minute commute daily listening to this new singer. She still has that effect on me. Goose-bumps, you understand.
Jazz is cool. Well, some of it, anyway, and hers does get to me down deep. What ever happened to her, I wonder? Did her brief brush with fame ruin her life?
posted by Harry | 6:51 PM
18 Comments:
a) No, I don't really remember the explosion. I was 5. We later did projects on it in school, and most of my memories are after the fact.
b) You started off in such a nice headspace what with drinking Coronas the right way and all, but you ended it so pesimistically (well, that may not be a word, but you know what I mean).
I hope spring comes soon to wash all of this away.
If you like Sade, try Cassandra Wilson. Superb~
Now, Jay. You should know by now that I am a hard-core optimistic pessimist.
Thanks for the heads-up, Lady. I'll have to do a search on Cassandra...
Sade is one of the very few points at which jazz and I can meet without detesting each other...
Jazz can be pretty good (e.g., Bill Evans) or pretty silly (who's the guy who came out and played one note, and then got up and left the stage? Is he the same one who came out, played the same note 30 times, and then left? That may be worth a post.). Beer is pretty much always good.
Sade still gives me goosebumps.
The Challenger seems like a lifetime ago. If someone had told me then that I'd be a nurse, I'd have thought they were crazy.
I don't believe I've ever had a Corona. :D
Lazy minx is a great combo..Ta, Keeef
That cat sounds like someone Steve Allan might have had on his show, Palinurus. And sorry that I missed him.
Coronas are a Mexican product, Jodie, so if they are in Chicago... :D
This is probably where I go wrong. Nobody ever told me I should listen to smooth jazz while driving. I tend to listen to much more aggressive music while battling the traffic. Still, I think it is a matter of self-defense, can't afford to be mellow in rush hour traffic.
This may be one of a few areas the male can handle multi-tasking better than the other breed, Ned, or at least handle two opposing things well -- listening to relaxing jazz, while at the same time vying expertly for a better position in the third lane over. You know -- the one that slows down as soon as you get in.
I had to think hard, Gone, but I came up with only two more -- Dave Brubeck's Take Five and Peggy Lee's Fever. Damn, I am shallow.
I prefer swing and bebop to jazz generally, but some jazz can be very cool. I am not usually one for smooth jazz and Kenny G in particular cannot be listened to without hearing the sound of the dentist's drill in the background. And no one can possibly fault anything the late, great Peggy Lee did on any grounds for any reason in any genre.
That name does ring a bell, Ned. But then so does the BeeGees, who I never liked, but just heard of. And of course, we never end a sentence with of.
Agreed on both counts, Harry. Peggy Lee was, of course, without compare but I often wonder about Dave Brubeck. How come, after the astounding success of Take Five, he and his band never did anything so smooth and listenable again?
Good question, Gone. That happened to lots of other artists too, like Bobbi Gentry and her Ode to Billy Joe. True, she went on to have more hits, but none ever had that same spark. Doing some fast fact-checking here, I discovered she did a TV series in the UK, as well as marrying singer Jim Stafford. Now that soldier had a knack for fooling my ears; every song sounded so completely different that it took some time figuring out that he was the same guy doing them all.
Dave, however, the quintessential experimentalist that he was, took this view on his music: 'What's more important -- to play the way you want to play? Or play the way they want you to play? For me it was more important to play the way I wanted to play. Often it got me fired.'
I like that.
I came to you via No One's Child. Sade is one of the best, that's for sure.
Both are cold, Keeef, so...
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