Jazz for aficionados
Alex, the year is 1959, the place is Lackland AFB; it's not like you look in the paper and see what's on; it's like you and your jazz running buddy decide how to spend "offduty" time. The movies are a place to go, who cares what's on; it costs next to nothing (base movie theater). By word of mouth, someone said this movie had a boss soundtrack, let's check it out. The West Coast happened to be where they made movies, and it also happened to be where that type of jazz originated in that time frame. Movies had to have some type of music; that meant they had to have musicians. When these musicians were given the chance to strut their stuff, that's what they did. These were not blockbuster movies, they were grade "B" black and white movies. Rok, chime in here and let these people know what going to the base movie theater is about, and what movies you saw that you can't remember seeing. |
| Post removed |
There is something about Grant Green's music that resonates with my sub-conscious; when I hear his music, I hear St. Louis when I was young, when St. Louis was St. Louis. When I freely roamed a fascinating city where you could find like minded people whose company you enjoyed. Grant Green belonged to St. Louis before he belonged to the world, he was one of us before he ever recorded his first LP. Unlike Miles Davis, who left early, and went to New York, and never came back, they had a hard time getting Grant Green to leave. We heard Grant at various small local lounges before he was famous, and it wasn't like he was playing to entertain us, but he was playing his music for Grant Green, and we were there enjoying the music he was playing for himself. As I listen to this music, my mind is flooded with images of nights enjoying Grants music with friends in our most special lounge where Grant appeared professionally on the weekends, and sometime in the middle of the week he dropped in. This lounge was like his home away from home. I recall one such off night, when he came in and just played to himself while we listened; he played awhile and left. That was in 1959, just before I went into the Air Force. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqNhx5TYn-g&list=RDXqNhx5TYn-g&start_radio=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvZl0rreNtw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR9TSccJuAo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDfFjsUN8e4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ugFD8jjAcw |
