John K King Used and Rare Books in Detroit, Michigan takes the cake. I love bookstores. Can’t get enough of them. Even if I spend all day in one, I can probably revisit that same shop the next day and still have a great time. To me, a bookstore is a worthy alternative to traveling, …
Take Me to the River – New Orleans
I was born in Miami, lived there till I was about three, then lived in the western end of Broward County outside the Everglades, right on the borderline of that greater swampland running from the southern tip of the peninsula to Lake Okeechobee. New Orleans felt like an extension of that in some way, maybe …
The Only Sin I Ever Committed
The only sin I ever committed was stepping away from who I am as if it was ever necessary in order to love others. We create, express who we are and meet at the overlap The courtyard we call democracy jazz love. -- The world’s customs and perspectives are changing, the resistance to it is …
for Louis
as you march 'long the block through the alleys of your hometown the walls of the battlefield frame the arrival of your song, as the mighty trumpet sounds for Ella Mae Armstrong this young boy a child favorite son of New Orleans leads the choir his first band, hey! off the banks of the Mississippi …
Graveyard Gangster Film
Last night I saw a film A gangster film in a graveyard. no shit, with wild children seeking to be yet still tamed without seeing but knowing. Shall we dance just like this? Liberated and in-step with ahead and behind and top and bottom where all are merely one repeating in breathing, rhyming in its …
Light in the Dark. Impressions and Illuminations in la Ville Lumière
Dear Cal, Man this jazz kick is great. Some album that I’m listening to with Miles Davis and Coltrane. I know they played together a few times before ol’ John blew up and went out on his own, before A Love Supreme and Blue Train. The French, the Parisians in particular have been known to …
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Razzmatazz
There's a moon out tonight that gives this old town more light than I can remember As a drunken cripple walks up a flight of stairs Or maybe I'm just seeing things It wouldn't be the first time I'm working a sweat, got too many clothes to wear Down here everything always feels damp And …
For Charlie Parker
Late in the night tonight, just some minutes ago I wrote a piece for Charlie Parker, after a watching a documentary on him earlier tonight. The influence he had on me creatively, in those early years that I moved out here, and the influence he continues to have on me cannot be overstated and he …
Song for Billie
You sang summertime so sweet, darling Bille Your voice, rich like syrup, delicate lily and they call you Lady Day But to me your just...Billie Angel, your tired eyes, wise magnificent skin, lips like a rose in the state you're in, no I can't approach you I can't touch you for you are holy But …
Ren Michael 