[AGL] Gerry and Carolyn sound off

[Gerry]

"No guitars, leave 'em in the car"

I appreciated that sign, made me feel safe from wannabe folk singers.
However, in the community in which I reside, they are a dime a dozen. Some
days they are on the public streets (Silver City) dueling it out with one
another. So far I have not heard one who is worth a damn...mostly children
of the Rainbow Tribe persuasion. S.C. is not a good place for live music,
couple of little joints, few if any good musicians among the regulars. But
they do have a little scene and all the trappings. I generally avoid it.
There is no jazz at all, no black people in the county and no tradition
beyond the folk scene...the price one pays for living in the wilderness.
When I first moved here they had the New Mexico Symphony come in every year
for a concert, but no more, just some traveling shows that are usually not
what I would like to see. For awhile there was a faculty jazz group at the
little college which played a few times each year (not so good but it was
jazz) but the leader got caught screwing one of the students and his
replacement is not so gung ho. So part of my reason for the elaborate
personal music habits is that there is nothing live to see.

The stock sound system in the Cressida is quite good, certainly good enough
for my old ears, I can hear the bass and the sticks on the cymbal. But it
was limited to radio and tape. So I had an XM radio installed (bought it on
sale at Walmart) at an auto sound shop in El Paso. They had a 9 CD changer
on sale at the time (Sony) so I had them install one of them in the trunk.
Both new systems are set up to play through the FM, each has a frequency
dedicated to it. I can play CD's or tapes or radio (conventional FM or XM).
With the quiet ride and the nice seats this makes the Cressie an ideal
listening environment. For news I generally tune in BBC. All this takes
miles off my commutes to Silver City and occasionally to El Paso and makes
the trips pleasurable.

We had our annual Cabaret Night last night here in Gila. Interesting how the
times change, performers grow up, appearances change, etc. We've been doing
this for 14 years now. I did a couple of bossa novas, right hand shaking too
much so I couldn't play much guitar but my voice was in good shape. Do you
know "Gentle Rain"? It's a Luiz Bonfa classic, great tune. Also did "Eu nao
existo sem voce", a Jobim tune with a very simple and very beautiful 12 bar
construction. And one original bossa nova called "October". For this area my
music is very exotic. For years I was the drum circle leader but no longer,
ears taking too big a hit. So my reputation has changed from the high energy
drummer to the old man singing pretty songs from Brazil...I am comfortable
with it.

As I recall, Fletcher and gang were products of the Beat coffee houses where
there was a little jazz but not so much. Lopez had visited the LA area in
the mid '50's when the West Coast scene was hot. He was a big fan of Chet
Baker but not of Trane and the Hard Bop era. We went to see Ella once and he
was not enthralled. While I wouldn't call them racists, they were not big
fans of black entertainment either, maybe Odetta. They were definitely anti
Rock and Roll.
G


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Eisenstadt" <mike.eisenstadt at gmail.com>
To: <austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 7:19 AM
Subject: [AGL] Gerry and Carolyn sound off



> When Fletcher was sounding off on how lame jazz was once,

> at his table in his bar, you and I started chanting 'a love supreme,

> a love supreme, a love supreme.' no one else at the table had

> any idea that you and I were doing John Coltranem this to a table

> of the musically illiterate.

>

> remember, Fletcher (g-d bless him) had put a sign above the

> door to the bar 'Leave your guitars in the car.'

>

> so it is interesting that you are still filling your life with music

> as you drive to Silver City to do the groceries.

>

> please explain again how you listen to music in the Cressida.

>

> the Swiss station which id's the classical music AFTER it is

> played, do it first in German then French then English.

>

> this one is a keeper along with WHRB, WKCR and, maybe,

> WBGO. thanks carolyn

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