Tuesday 6 January 2009

a toast to those who are gone


too many too many lost last year it's staggering alton and isaac and norman and levi and bo and eartha and freddie and all so this year we're celebrating the greats still with us shouting it loud and cheering them on whenever we can and being desperately desperately grateful for all the joy they've brung to our hungry souls before it's too late.
germs and jazz have been sweaty sneezy bedfellows these last weeks so here's a last wopping great trumpety thankyou thankyou and goodbye to a big horny genius. thankyou freddie.

freddie hubbard - blue spirits

8 comments:

Simon said...

Yay to that! x

davyh said...

I'm still upset about Oliver Postgate.

ally. said...

oh gawd don't get me started on small films or there'll be floods

davyh said...

I like this man.

Anonymous said...

...and don't forget Esbjorn Svensson or Bheki Mseleku, two really creative and original jazz pianists who both went too soon.

Sad about Freddie Hubbard - but that's a great tune to remember him with. Some of my favourite bits of his are on other people's records like Maiden Voyage or Stolen Moments - I love that thing he does when he suddenly doubles up the tempo and flurries rapidly up and down a little scale or arpeggio or what-have-you - but I'll be digging out my old vinyls of Hub Cap and Hub Tones for a listen this weekend. He wrote some great tunes too, didn't he? As long as people play jazz they'll be covering the likes of Little Sunflower or Red Clay.

Do you remember that Digital Underground track 'Heartbeat Props'? All about celebrating the living before they pop their clogs, with a big roll call of the deserving including '..Miles motherfucking Davis..' only a year or two before he died?

In that spirit, let's give it up for McCoy Tyner, Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Hancock, Carla Bley,Pharoah motherfucking Sanders. All still
around, all still doing it. Especially Pharoah. I saw his London date this time last year and knew that I'd already seen the gig of 2008 with another 11 and a half months to go!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, that 'anonymous' was me.

Which was probably obvious.

Anonymous said...

Spud, I though for a minute that was me -especially about P"mf"S

Dane said...

I hope you're feeling much much better now, Ally. Thanks for the Freddie.