THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."-PERCY SHELLEY
We are gearing up for our regular end-of-Summer trip east, with the final destination being visiting the in-laws in Vermillion, Ohio. There was a time that the trip would be highlighted by days of driving around in Uncle Jim’s Lincoln, a bathtub of a car, listening to the 5 CDs he had inserted into his stereo cartridge in the trunk of the car (remember those set-ups?). Craig, Barb and I….driving around the colorful state where “all things are possible”, visiting Edison’s home of Milan, driving to the Lorain County Fair, junking all the way: listening mostly to Louis Armstrong. Uncle Jim loved the later years of Armstrong’s career, after he had ventured away from the groundbreaking, maniacal sounds of his revolutionary early combos…after finding his singing voice and becoming the most beloved performer in America. And his music provided such a great vibe to the Ohio color we drove through, year after year.
Today would be Armstrong’s 120th birthday and it is incredible that after having been gone for 50 years, that his artistic might is still everywhere in our culture. It makes sense, given his place as one of the founders of what we think of as Jazz…who played so fast and so hard in his early years that he damaged his lips leading to his reemerging as a singer with a slightly smoother style. And then there is rendition of What A Wonderful World which is as timeless as it is ever present.
While there are many critics that saw his second career as less-important…questioning his leaning on his new fame with a white audience, just listening to the music of that period anew (see below), especially through the lens of history, demands that his artistic evolution be reconsidered. The recent podcast Winds Of Change takes a moment to talk about how the US pressured Armstrong to be a foreign cultural diplomat during those years, even though Armstrong had a hard time standing up for a country that did not stand up for racial inequality. Armstrong spoke and sang publicly about this tension, never giving up on the lifelong fight for civil rights and justice.
And in listening to his music from that period again (see below) it shows that his artistry was ever evolving. Happy Birthday to the Ambassador.
Louis Armstrong 1946-'66 Box Set Offers New Insights, Unprecedented Access
A new Mosaic box set of Louis Armstrong’s later period has just been released. The box set contains TONS of never-before-released tracks (and photos)…including many unedited takes of some of his classic songs of that period (since his producer George Avakian often edited performances and sewed together various takes to come up with a master). This article contains a video that gives examples of the unedited discoveries. The set also features Armstrong’s return to small-combo jazz and his early session with Duke Ellington. Critics often say that the big man lost his edge in these later years…and this artifact helps disprove that while also adding to his legacy with the abundance of unearthed material. As Armstrong said: “They don’t realize that I’m playing better now than I’ve ever played in my life.”
My Five Summer Yard Hacks by JEFF VANDERMEER
The author of the Southern Reach Series (note: the film adaptation Annihilation was truly a let-down) gives advice on how to deal with the animals that start coming around when you try to “rewild” the garden. Vandermeer might not live in his fictional Area X, but he does wrestle with real-life issues when nature starts taking over….and you do not want to use pesticides to ruin and mutate your environment.
A Pigs Tale: The Underground Story of the Legendary BOOTLEG Record Label
I cannot wait to read the story behind TRADEMARK OF QUALITY, one of the most nuts-o bootleg labels of all time. Collecting records in Los Angeles in the 90s, it was almost impossible not to meet someone who you would later find out was part of the Trademark web, since the label had a complex structure employing people to perform each link in the manufacturing and distribution chain: one might drive the master to the manufacturer, one might drop off the boots at various stores. If one person was busted along the way, the rest of the group would be able to continue bootlegging. And that is just one part of the story, as it says in the one-pager: “What was the connection between TMQ and the Viet Nam war, revolutionaries, guns, pot and the moon landing? It’s all here!” A great tale before the PIG turned into the RHINO…
Scores of people take part in Horsham poetry-reading ‘Shelleython’
“More than 100 people took part in a poetry reading marathon in Horsham Park at the weekend. The complete poetic works of Percy Bysshe Shelley - who was born at Warnham - were read in the Shelleython aimed at raising funds for a permanent public Horsham memorial to the poet.” HAPPY BIRTHDAY PERCY SHELLEY!!!!!!! (By the way, for those who are interested: “The ancient name Bysshe is a Norman name that would have been developed in England after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. This name was a name given to a a person who habitually dresses in drab or murky colors.”)
Soledad
by Robert Hayden
(And I, I am no longer of that world)
Naked, he lies in the blinded room
chainsmoking, cradled by drugs, by jazz
as never by any lover's cradling flesh.
Miles Davis coolly blows for him:
O pena negra, sensual Flamenco blues;
the red clay foxfire voice of Lady Day
(lady of the pure black magnolias)
sobsings her sorrow and loss and fare you well,
dryweeps the pain his treacherous jailers
have released him from for a while.
His fears and his unfinished self
await him down in the anywhere streets.
He hides on the dark side of the moon,
takes refuge in a stained-glass cell,
flies to a clockless country of crystal.
Only the ghost of Lady Day knows where
he is. Only the music. And he swings
oh swings: beyond complete immortal now.
