Erata: Shitmydadsays, Sonny Rollins

Sooooo lets take a break from ranting about what is wrong with government, Obama, our political system, the Christian right/big business (unholy alliance), the medical industrial complex, our legal system...and of course me. The Diner Review has lost it’s way with no Diner Reviews in...well a long, long time. Very sad. I had intended to watch the Lutheran South Lancers battle there perennial enemy the Lutheran North Crusaders. Normally over the last 30 years or so North has romped but this year North is 0-4 and South is 1-2 and well.... who knows? But it rained so I am home watching “Jerry Mc Guire”. The movie that asks the fundamental question “did you shoplift the pootie”.

Speaking of excellent quotes I am insisting that everyone who cares about me go to the Twitter site http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays . The feed is just this guy named Justin who lives with his dad and posts things that his dad says on his feed. I will not steal the brilliance too much but I will give you this:
"I'm sitting in one of those TGI Friday's places, and everyone looks like they want to shove a shotgun in their mouth."
This is my gift to you.

***
So last week my wife left me (it happens more and more frequently and for greater and greater duration) to go work at a charity auction. Feeling sorry for myself (another typical state) and I saw that Sonny Rollins was coming to The Blanche Touhill performing arts center. I had never seen Sonny Rollins and I had never seen the Touhill. I have an excellent (if deeply troubled friend) who has three talented children who are all musicians and he is a jazz aficionado and so I inquired whether he was going which led to:

1. Him paying for me to go
2. Him driving
3. Him offering me his umbrella
4. Him purchasing really expensive first row seats; and
5. A reallyunbelievable night.

The Touhill is unbelievable. I felt like I was at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. They did the right thing and instead of making it like “The Family Arena” they made it like “The Fox”. The place seats about 1600 people. http://www.touhill.org/building.html Very cool and we were ushered to these first row seat and the only microphone on stage is 5 feet in front of me. The crowd was inspiring all in itself. We always talk about diversity in this town but I was amazed at the age and racia diversity in the front row and looking around it was more of the same. You do not see a lot of this in St. Louis (none in my experience).

I do not have a great appreciation for Jazz. I like almost all music (Really have no appreciation for classical and opera) but Jazz has eluded me to a large part. In college and shortly thereafter I had a Sonny Rollins CD, several Thelonius Monk CD’s, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, some Coletrain but most of it is just for show. Very few songs made a mix CD and rarely were played other then background music in my house. It is for me an embarrassment because I know how important Jazz is to all the music I like and it is cool and I should like it more.

Rollins occupies a rare place in the pantheon. He is 79 years old. Started playing professionally when he was 18 and played with everyone. Developed a nice heroin habit, got arrested in 1950 for armed robbery, went to Rikers and cleaned up in methadone program and since then he (other then a couple of 10 year sabbaticals has been playing ever since. He is a bucket list musician for me (there are still several on the list like Van Morrison and Tom Waits) but I want to see guys like this before they die. I did some homework, (checked his Wikipedia page) and listened to “A Night At The Village Vanguard” and went.
He waddles out... or more kindly shuffled. I had been prepared for this. He said a few words and started. I think he played 8 or 9 songs but played for well over 2 hours. He had an awesome band consisting of a conga player, drummer, guitarist, bassist and trombone. It was awesome watching them each take turns on the lead and take solos and he was with them the whole way and lead for most of it. I cannot imagine having the wind to play that long at my age. It was kind of like going to church for me. I focused, I grooved, I zoned in and out, I occasionally got antsy and bored but for the most part it washed over me. It was an awesome experience.

It was another chance to focus on how blessed I am. T think about all the beauty and fun I have not even found yet. Thinking about having nice friends and spending a significant bit of time thinking about all the shit Sonny Rollins has seen in his 79 years. I will not see as much. That might be a good thing. But boy could be play.