Dougy stopped by this morning. He got right to the point.
“How’s Tom and your blog on blogs project going? Just curious…!”
“Of course you are curious, Dougy! You are, after all, a cat!” I joked. Dougy didn’t laugh and not just because he is a cat.
“I see several blogs on your hand-written list I know you follow faithfully, kitty ones. Why is there only one kitty blog on your final list?” Dougy wanted to know….
“You got me there, Dougy. I haven’t seen Tom’s list yet, but I think we pretty much recognize we, as cat bloggers, need to include more than just cat blogs on our lists if we don’t want to cut out dog bloggers, travel bloggers…” Dougy cut me short. He didn’t want to hear it!
“Look, if this goes over well, Tom and I might do it again in future, and the other kitty blogs might show up on future lists. I mean, how can I chose among them? They all are favorites of mine!” Dougy noticed the tear of sincerity on the corner of my eye.
(“I think I won him over,” I chortled to myself!)
“You know I want to believe you…” said Dougy.
“…but Andy warned me you might try to fool me with a tear of sincerity. I’m staying here till you show me a finished blog post!” It’s a side of my kitty I’ve never seen before.
Morning y’all! Even taking the risk of being ignored by Dougy and Andy I will be visiting your blog along the day: http://bit.ly/1AcfPq9 – this way I will get the chance of knowing all of you a little better! Why did I pick you? You long furred black cats know it – you are always steps ahead of what’s happenning! Anyways if my visit becomes unpleasant for you, feel comfortable to express it! 🙂
I’m delighted to have you stop by! I really enjoy your Jazz blog, a connoisseur level review of that musical art form. I don’t have so broad a knowledge of Jazz, by far, but I do enjoy the older Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Hot Sevens ensemble period work, Miles Davis (as the anti-J.S. Bach, another passion), Fats Waller, and more.
My collection is mostly Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic, but Jazz carries on in the tradition, curiously enough, of those earlier forms in that improvisation was a mark of expert musicianship, something they would toss in at indicated spots in a piece to dazzle the audience.
I think the most extreme example I have of this in the collection is something like 17-18 different CDs of performances of Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto”. Though the all contain the basics of the piece, only the Rudolph Serkin performance from 1967 (I believe it is, or maybe 1968) has the majesty and soaring emotionalism that matches (I think) Beethoven’s imagination. It’s all in his cadenzas!
Other performances approach that one, but some are so flat, I keep going back to the Serkin to restore the beauty of the piece in my memory!
Anyway, I sense this same love for Jazz in your blog, and I feel any time spent there is time well spent! You bet, you are welcome to stop by here! (Incidentally, the ginger cat in the photo above Andy in my blog today is my late cat Louie, who was named after Louis Armstrong! He’s in his Captain Me-Ow outfit, courtesy of a New Zealand friend.)
Thank you for your welcoming answer!
Of course jazz is quite different from those days – respecting that tradition, learning from it, musicians mirror their existence – shaping this wonderful art form in creative new ways of expression!
I know it is “a difficult to listen art form” – I´m so used to it that I forget that fact – sorry for that, by all means I don’t want to look pretentious!
I think a love of Gamelan music helped open Jazz to me. (Talk about pretentious, but I had an Indonesian penpal as a kid, and listened to recordings of Gamelan performances before I was much into my teens, and loved it! I still do! It, of course, is highly structured but improvised.) It took me a long time to reach the Miles Davis (1950s-1960s) classics, but I was impressed with how he used the empty spaces to build his music. Whereas Bach fills every possible moment in glorious fugal bliss, when I listened to Davis, he seemed to be playing in between the moments, and the music developed from what wasn’t expressed as much as from what was: I was stunned! It is when I first came to think of him as the anti-Bach, by which I note I see him as as brilliant and amazing in his own way!
Miles was innovation and influence in the history of music – he created not a new language but he invented a whole new vocabulary – that has been inspiring generations of jazz musicians! You are very good with words – you could write about jazz!
Thanks again! I was introduced to Davis through Louis Malle’s 1971 movie “Murmur of the Heart”, which opens with Laurent, the teenager protagonist of the film and Miles Davis fan, stealing a new release Miles Davis LP from a record store. Davis’ music, it seems, played throughout the movie, though it’s been a few years since I saw it.
I believe the music is from Parker and Gillespie – I see you know something about European cinema – that film is about incest isn’t it?
Yes, it is a coming of age story. I like a good movie, no matter where it was made! I’ll have to find a copy and watch it again. You are right about Parker (and Dizzy Gillespie, according to a review, among others), so I may be mistaken about where I first became introduced to Davis. I do recall a lovely Jazz soundtrack to the movie at any rate!
Oh my Dougy you better remember who feeds you and cleans your littler box.
I do have to admit though that you are such a heart stealer and and you, and your brother, are so adorable, no one can stay made at you.
Don’t tell Doug I said this but you two really do rule the roost.
Ah ha! So that’s how it is….! (You aren’t just kidding, Ruth. One or the other is playing with me all the time. Sometimes they gang up on me together…!)
Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Neither can Andy! 😉
Ok, Dougy and Andy, I’ve email my first 5 unedited so you know I’m working on it. (Cats are such demanding taskmasters!) 😉
Well, Dougy told me I needed to tighten up some of my writing, so there are some changes in what I sent before. I’ll send you a copy of the updated text. Geez! I used to like cats, too!