Admittedly the second photo is in fact a moonlit dusk across the River Swann towards Perth city centre, rather than Scarborough Beach in Perth, but my journey has taken me from Scarborough (N. Yorkshire) two weeks ago to Scarborough (Perth, W. Aus.) this week, with a corresponding shift in climate and sleep patterns. I’ve nearly completed a week of ABRSM exams and am about to move on to Adelaide, where it will be cooler.
I have relinquished my role as Promoter of Wakefield Jazz, having completed six years of booking gigs for Friday nights at the Sports Club (with all the necessary liaising, compering, faffing, emailing, meetings and so on). There have been some astonishingly excellent gigs, which perhaps only I have really enjoyed (eg Alexander Hawkins in various guises, Paul Dunmall 4tet, Trevor Watts/Veryan Weston, Liam Noble Trio) plus others that maybe I and the audience have both enjoyed (eg Pigfoot, Greg Abate, Emily Brown) plus others that the audience will have enjoyed more than me (naming no names) and others best not mentioned at all (naming absolutely no names!) I am very happy no longer to have to feel guilty about not replying soon enough to musicans’ emails looking for gigs (too many nondescript straight-out-of-college bands, too much middle-of-the-road mainstream coffee table jazz) – particularly when my tastes are essentially quite particular, but I feel the need to be reasonably kind to the long-suffering audience. I feel my successor may be more successfully populist.
And I will no longer have to feel guilty about always doing everything at the last minute, listings, flyers, blurbs, basically everything. In theory I will now have more time to focus on my burgeoning career, as I approach my prime years. I will no doubt make some impressive to-do lists, and then go for a walk and perhaps a coffee.
This week I have read an excellent book:
In such a depressing week politically, quite a positive and inspiring book (published 2022), drawing on Black consciousness (versus anti-black racism) and existentialism (lots of Fanon), with discussions of films eg Get Out (seen), Black Panther (not seen), City Of God (seen) and of blues/jazz (see below).
Mr Gordon writes:
…political responsibility looks to the future while learning from past challenges. The decision to launch oneself into a struggle on behalf of the damned of the earth can be regarded only as absurd. History rarely appears to decide for the oppressed. Lacking any assurance of a positive outcome, commitment is the only basic of action against oppression…
…political love is an expression of our capacity to love that which is beyond the self…to act from commitment defies imitation and requires expecting that subsequent generations will receive the gift of not having to be like those who precede them.
…the challenge is…for communities to fight and build new concepts and institutions through which to better the lives of those not yet named.
He’s writing from a Black existentialist perspective (not Marxist), with quite a degree of energy in and hope for a positive version of the future, to be achieved through collective struggle and commitment, with no guarantee or even expectation of immediate results (quite a religious vision, perhaps). I found myself earlier today accidentally sitting next to a group of young leftwing radicals, I assumed students, in a cafe in Perth, who were discussing the patriarchy and the importance of the working class struggle, amongst other stuff. Obviously I felt old and jaundiced and cynical, but I kept quiet!
Finally, Mr Gordon’s words on jazz:
…improvisation is not random; the improviser faces responsibility for each creative riff. It is play as a challenge to the spirit of seriousness…[and also]…openness to continued growth…melody, harmony and rhythm set the stage for what can no longer be expressed with spoken words.
As we know, jazz is the apex of individual self-expression within a collective self-expression – the ultimate model for communism!
NB this is a good book too, I read it on the plane. Timely! Recommended!
