Like Neo said in The Matrix
“This can’t be just coincidence. It can’t be.”
So last night, I’m taking a break from booze and reading
myself to sleep with The Oxford Companion to Jazz, an 850 page book I’m a
little more than halfway through. The book is a collection of essays by jazz
historians, educators, and writers, meant to provide an incisive overview of
jazz, from its late 19th century beginning to when the book was compiled
(2000). Last night, I made it to a chapter called “Jazz Singing Since the 1940’s”,
written by Wall Street Journal contributor, Will Friedwald.
Now keep in mind, I could have been on any of eighty or so
chapters, but I was on Friedwald’s last night. He talks about the influence of
Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, and Mel Torme,
of course, but he also mentioned some other singers I’d vaguely, if ever, heard
of. On page 476 he mentions (along with a number of other singers) Dick Haymes,
and on page 477, Jimmie Lunceford (again, among others). I repeat, I’m vaguely
aware of these names, but learning more about them while reading this book.
To bed and a restless night’s sober version of sleep.
The next morning, I’m driving to work. (Wait for it.) A song
that I don’t like (yes, there are a few jazz tunes I don’t particularly care
for) comes on the usual Sirius XM jazz channel that I listen to, so I go to my
back up plan of listening to the 40’s on (channel) 4. There he is: Dick Haymes
singing “You Make Me Feel So Young.”
Unbelievable.
And right after that. I kid you not: Jimmie Lunceford’s “Blues
in the Night” (I think, I was a bit discombobulated at this point).
I’m just glad it wasn’t 55 degrees and my car hit 55,555 miles at the same time all that happened. I’d’ve rolled the car in a ditch and died on the spot.
1 comment:
Wow, Eric. That's really something. Don't know how that could be a coincidence. Yikes!
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