What do those four letters, that word, mean to you?
Say it ... like a smoke-filled horn player. Like a bassist with a blues and mean streak ... a chord progressionist, stiff-fingered note dancer, porkpie eponymous soaring lover, man!
Spinning Afro-Cuban top ... An ah's flat, e flat, beepin' bop, a ballad ... songs that never stop ...
Say JAZZ.
That word ... means what, to you?
To some -- to most -- "jazz" just means tired. It's become like classical music, or broccoli: it's supposed to be good ... but I don't taste anything!
To others, Jazz plays b-ball (sort of).
To forty or so more -- this small but rabid core of devoted jazz music diggers -- it absolutely is the Word ...
Jazz -- the music, The Word -- is sacrosanct.
Django Gold found this out the hard way. While touring his Onion-esque act in the big city, Django got into a cutting session with still-living legend, Saxxy Colossus ... you know who I mean, or would, if you knew ...
But if you're not so imbued, allow me to hip you to that purty one ... the magnificent one ... the one and ONLY one ...
Mr. ... Sonny Rollins.
(Whatever!)
Then Django proceeded to light up the page with this solo he said was played by Sonny ... except it wasn't Sonny, it was Django, dig? And he ("Sonny"/Django) said he hated The Word ... felt he'd wasted his long life working to spread it ... and never knew what suit to wear!
Man, you shoulda heard the audience howl! Those forty people, right? "JUDAS!" one yelled - this cat, Howie Doodat ... hands all clenched in fists of rage, demanding support from the 39 others ... He got some.
"I don't believe you," I finally said. "You're a LIAR!"
... Took my axe, and went home.
I have to say, I get it: the piece IS funny. Non-sequiturs ('I hate music. I wasted my life.') placed in an absurdist context (Sonny Rollins uttering them) … is funny. Absurdity is a foundation of satire, which of course is an element of humor … and humor is comedy.
Lighten up, people!
... (U)ntil ‘Sonny gets blue’ about it, why should we?"
Then I traded with Payton, who got all riled up and made terrible noise. His bars had "race cards littering the table.
"Not at all what the original 'offending' piece was about."
I was disappointed to hear Payton blowing that way! Not surprised though - it's out there, and always will be.
Anyway, the set ended for me when this cat, Howie Doodat, kept putting people down, man. Thanking people for agreeing with him ... Otherwise, "Learn about life," he'd smirk. "No wonder you're confused," he teased. "'Django'" (in quotes), he kept chiding Django ... suggesting that can't be the cat's real name!