DDR: Ascension: John Coltrane and his quest by Eric Nisenson

Another first for my Daily Devotional Reading Project: today I'm starting a book that I will be reading online as an ebook from Internet Archive. It is Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest by Eric Nisenson. It's 304 pages long *, so I'm guessing that this will be a two week project. And after that...well, I don't know. I will probably try going back to Miles: The Autobiography before I call my Jazz Project to a close. There are a few other books I'm interested in in this subject area, but I'm also feeling the desire to move on, and I think I'll yield to that.

At any rate, this is what the book cover looks like:

Day 1: Jazz Day 63 (DDRD 1,641) April 29, 2022

Read to page 11. Which is more than 11 pages, but I will still probably go back and read some more later on, as I left the text at a spot where I didn't want to stop reading, but Dad duties prevailed. One complicating factor vis-a-vis reading via Internet Archive: you can only borrow a book for one hour, and when the hour runs out if you don't have internet access--which I often don't, as I am averse to using public internet--you can't continue to read your book. Kind of a pain in the ass. We'll see how that goes. There are some possible work arounds--like screen shotting the text and then reading from them, but that would take more time than I want to devote to such a project.

Anyway....

Several things of interest in these pages.

Nisenson (who I like a lot) talks frankly about how Jazz can seem snobbish, and that Jazz writers  have contributed to this attitude. He then cuts to an incident in the Ken Kesey novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, wherein we find this bit: "Does one ever play Coltrane for the uninitiated without subconsciously hoping for the worst?" It's funny, but it also rings true...and I have to admit that I've been there on some things in the past. (Not so much these days. Now it's more that I'm astonished that everyone doesn't love, say, Roy Harper or the tv show Rubicon.)

There's also this bit of up front clarification early on: "...Coltrane...tr[ied] to discover through music a way toward what Stephen Hawking has called " the mind of God" for modern man." (xviii)

Well...what else is there, really? You're either running from a bear, masturbating, or searching for God.

There's also a reference early on to John Coltrane reading comic books, which made me happy, but then came the detail that he liked Doc Savage comic books. I don't think that could have been true. Coltrane was born in 1926.  The first Doc Savage comic came out in 1940. It's possible that a 14 year old boy would be reading comic books, of course, but the first Doc Savage Magazine came out in March of 1933, and that seems much more likely to have been young John's reading material. I suspect that Mr. Nisenson does not know the difference between the pulps and the comic books.

We are also told that the first Coltrane tenor sax solo was on Dizzy Gillespie's "We Love to Boogie" for Dee Gee Records. Well, I just recently bought the two disc collection of Dizzy's Dee Gee Records material, so that's in hand. If you don't have a copy, it's easily findable on the You Tub.

Later...

Read to bottom of page 20, then couldn't go any farther because I wasn't online. BTW, a Rudy Van Gelder biography would be nice, but so far I can't find any evidence that such a thing exists.

Even later...

Read to the end of Chapter 2 / page 28. Thought this was particularly interesting:

Not only in and of itself, but also in how it relates to what some people say about Black folks' success in sports. I have heard even bleeding heart liberals say things which either directly states or distinctly imply that Black people have superior athletic abilities. Which pretty much ignores all of the hard work and dedication that an athlete puts into becoming a superior athlete. It's nothing but racism...even if it's well intentioned or seemingly complimentary.

* Online booksellers list it as 298 pages long, so I'll have to look into that. I often find that they don't count pages numbered with Roman numerals, though.

Day 2: Jazz Day 64 (DDRD 1,642) April 30, 2022

Read to page 48.

This--

"My music is the spiritual expression of what I am, my faith, my knowledge, my being." (42)

           --pretty much sums up why I love John Coltrane...and why the contrast between him and Miles Davis is so incredibly stark. In fact, the more I read about Coltrane, the less I think I'm going to be able to go back to the Miles Davis autobiography.

Also in today's pages...there was a reference to " the brilliant teenaged trumpet phenom Lee Morgan...." (48) It hit me that a few months ago this name would have meant nothing to me, but now it means the guy who played trumpet on what may now be my favorite Jazz album--Grachan Moncur III's Evolution (1963). * Such a chain of coincidences--I happened to hear an NPR program on Lee Morgan, remembered it, watched a documentary, found an album, read a review of it which mentioned Evolution. All part of the plan, you see.

* Which, by the way, was recorded at the Van Gelder studio, which also now means something to me, whereas it would not have a month ago.

ADDENDUM: Read a little bit more...to page 59 / End of Chapter 4.

Here's a thing that hit me on two levels:

"I...don't understand this talk of Coltrane being difficult," [Miles Davis] told Nat Hentoff. "What he does, for example, is to play five notes of a chord and then keep changing it around, trying to see how many different ways it can sound. It's like explaining something five different ways. And that sound of his is connected with what he's doing with the chords at any given time." (52-53)

On one, it's clear that Mr. Davis knows Coltrane's playing, understands it, and embraces it. On two, it makes me think a bit more kindly towards Davis, on whom I went sour some time ago. It doesn't change his bad qualities one whit, but it does show that there's more to him than when he is at his worst. Which is not much, but is indeed something worth considering.

Day 3: Jazz Day 65 (DDRD 1,643) May 1, 2022

Read to page 83...and had to stop in mid-sentence because I was out of internet range and page 84 wouldn't load. So that's the drawback of the one hour online can't download it borrow. A small price to pay for the privilege of reading hard or impossible to find books for free, though.

Two other things. One, look what I found at Half-Price Books yesterday:

And the price was reasonable...like right around $10. But I decided to pass on it and stick to the virtual read, just to see how it goes.

Two, I started thinking about Ralph Ellison, and how a long time ago I had started reading Shadow and Act a long time ago. I'd never finished it, and I'd forgotten most of what I'd read, but I was pretty sure there was some Jazz writing in there. So I Googled Ralph Ellison and Jazz, and it came up with a book I'd never heard of entitled Living with Music by Ralph Ellison. Google Books gives this description: "Before Ralph Ellison became one of America’s greatest writers, he was a musician and a student of jazz, writing widely on his favorite music for more than fifty years. Now, jazz authority Robert O’Meally has collected the very best of Ellison’s inspired, exuberant jazz writings in this unique anthology." So yes, I did put in a Hold Request at the LFPL...and yes, it is now heading my way. So it looks like Ascension won't be my last Jazz Book after all.

Day 4: Jazz Day 66 (DDRD 1,644) May 2, 2022

Read to page 103 / End of Chapter 7. Along the way, I met drummer Elvin Jones, who sounds like a really interesting fellow. Looked for a biography, but the closest I could find was a chapter in the book The Seekers by John Densmore...who was the drummer for The Doors. Here's a line from Mr. Jones that I particularly liked:

"I never learned any tricks, anything flashy —like juggling sticks or throwing them in the air. That kind of thing stops me inside. After all, Artur Rubinstein Doesn't play runs on piano with his chin. 92)

One of the advantages to reading on my Kindle is that when a song is mentioned I can open a tab, find it on the You Tub, and then play it immediately, no fuss, no muss. Sometimes I let it play as background music, sometimes I just focus on it. So in Today's Twenty I listened to 

"Harmonique" in which Coltrane played two notes at once, "My Favorite Things" in which Coltrane turned the old chestnut inside out, and "Equinox" which Nisenson said was indicative of Coltrane's interest in astrology. Which reminded me that all of the pieces on Interstellar Space are named after planets ("Mars," "Venus," "Jupiter," and "Saturn"; there's also a track that didn't make it to the album entitled "Leo" *) I'd previously always listened to IS as a kind of modern, Jazz, The Planets. I wonder if having an astrological state of mind might change my perceptions of it. Of course, I'd need to learn a bit about the astrological significance of those planets for that to work at all. So...homework, right?

Nisenson made reference to the fact that during live performances, Coltrane's solos were extending, going as long as 2 hours. That's kind of hard to imagine. Apparently Elvin Jones was game for it, though, and stuck with JC through the whole deal. Hard to imagine somebody drumming that long straight...and apparently Mr. Jones had such a loud sound that he sometimes drowned out the bass and piano, so I wonder if they even kept after it.

ADDENDUM: Read a bit more...to page 110. Now I want to read a biography of Eric Dolphy, because it sounds like he was that rarest of creatures: a truly kind, nice, loving guy. Internet Archive has a small book entitled The Importance of Being Eric Dolphy by Raymond Horricks. (Great title there, right?)

* As for this "Leo".... The dates for that sign are July 23 to August 22, and Coltrane was born September 23, 1926. So what's up with that?

Day 5: Jazz Day 67 (DDRD 1,645) May 3, 2022

Read to page 140. And by the way, I'm getting very close to a total of 30,000 pages read during this DDR project...less than 100 to go for that. 

Coltrane believed "That the purpose of music transcends that of mere entertainment, and can actually socially * transform its listeners." (112)

* Not to mention "spiritually." 

ADDENDUM: Read a little more...to page 150. Also, this (which was mentioned in Ascension) just in:

And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on....

Day 6: Jazz Day 68 (DDRD 1,646) May the 4th Be With You, 2022

Read to page 170.

"Religion is the total way of life; it is the understanding of truth, which is not a projection of the mind." (153)

Truth...is not a projection of the mind.

Truth is that which stands outside of the mind, and with which the mind seeks to find union.

Truth is not subjective.

Truth is not relative.

Truth is truth.

And nothing is truer than truth.

And as for that ongoing beat I mentioned the other day...I'm also thinking about 

Notes and Tones by Art Taylor

Black Music by Amiri Baraka 

Living With Music by Ralph Ellison

The Seekers by John Densmore

Something by Nat Hentoff

...all of which were mentioned in this book, and all of which are available at Internet Archive...so it looks like this Jazz Unit of the DDR might go on for a bit longer.

Also, this:

I am not a fan of hyperbole. Every time I hear someone say "countless," my first thought is, "That's definitely NOT countless."  Because, after all, very few things are, you know? But this line from the book is even worse than regular hyperbole, I think. I mean...to say that John Coltrane's music had a effect on the spirt of the Sixties is a perfectly acceptable statement. But to say that he "contributed immeasurably"? Well, that's just bullshit, isn't it? I don't know why writers feel the need to do this. A realistic assessment of Coltrane's importance to the world beyond music is welcomed, but elevating Coltrane to Godhood is just silly...and certainly doesn't add anything to Coltrane's legacy. Quite the opposite, I'd say.

Day 7: Jazz Day 69 (DDRD 1,647) May 5, 2022

Read to page 190.

"When Elvin Jones, who disliked the playing of most of the free jazz players, saw Shepp or Pharoah Sanders stroll onto the bandstand after a long Coltrane solo, he would think, 'Oh, no, here comes another one of those motherfuckers.'" (172)

The more I read about him, the more I like Elvin Jones.

Lots of commentary on Free Jazz in today's reading. I queued up Ascension and Om for background reading (as they were commented on at some length). Reference Coltrane's Ascension, one commenter (from "Empereur Justinien") noted, "One must be an ascended conscience to fully appreciate the beauty of this album." Well. First off, seems to me that one must be a pompous and / or bombastic person to choose a name like Empereur Justinien for him / herself. Second, what's up with the reference to "conscience"? Seems obvious that EJ meant "consciousness," and the error (assuming that I'm right there) is egregious on this count, and indicative of ignorance on the part of the writer. Third, this kind of "I'm superior to you because I like this" is a pretty obnoxious perspective...though I'd have to admit that I have leaned in that direction myself on more than one occasion. But at root it's just a way of dismissing dissenting opinions without bothering to explain, justify, or defend.

Along the same lines (more or less), there are several references to masochistic verbal and intellectual behavior on the part of Whites, suggesting that embracing Free Jazz as a Black militant expression was part of the expiation of White guilt.

So there's that.

On the other hand, there's this:

"If one insists, as some critics do, that playing these furious sounds is catharsis, one has to wonder if an artist's emotional catharsis and release, unreflected through the artistic process, is really art."

Um...🔥🔥🔥🔥!

Day 8: Jazz Day 70 (DDRD 1,648) May 6, 2022

Read to page 210...which means I have about 70 pages remaining. (It's a little hard to tell because of the strange way this eBook's pages are numbered. On the main page it shows "1 of 308." On the last page of the "introductory" material, it says "26 of 308." But then when you turn the page, it says "4 of 278." Clearly they've re-designated the pages so that they correspond to the book's pagination, but 26 + 278 = 304, so I don't know where those 4 pages got off to...and it means that if I've read to page 210, I've actually read "around" 236 pages. Possibly 240.)

Speaking of, I haven't been reading as much in this book every day because I've been caught up in my latest purchase, Edgar Rice Burroughs Tells All, compiled by Jerry L. Schneider. It's a very interesting collection of "most" of the non-fiction that ERB published ...all of which is apparently now Public Domain. I'd imagine it was a pretty huge task to compile all of this material, though, and hats off to Mr. Schneider for doing it.

In today's reading, I'm sorry to say that I bumped into this:

"...Miles Davis...regularly beat the women--all of whom he called 'bitches'--in his life...." (204)

Just when I was starting to think I might soon be ready to go back to his fuckin' autobiography. Well...we'll see.

Day 9: Jazz Day 71 (DDRD 1,649) 🏇May 7, 2022🏇

Read to page 308. -ish. Because I got my second Covid booster yesterday, and when I woke up all I wanted to do was lay in bed. But that gets boring, so I read and watched The Office.

I'm sorry to say that the last 1/4th or so of this book was really disappointing. For some reason, Eric Nisenson found it necessary not only to heap incredibly lavish praise on Coltrane, but also to denigrate pretty much every modern Jazz artist he could think of. And Jimi Hendrix, too. Check this out: "Long after Hendrix had come and gone, Coltrane continued to influence new generations of rock musicians." (231) What the actual fuck? There are so many things wrong with that sentence that I can't even bring myself to comment on it, so I'm hoping that its faults are obvious.

And he doesn't stop with musicians. Here's his comment on a U2 video: "In one U2 video A Love Supreme is mentioned in the lyrics while Coltrane's face is briefly seen on the screen, undoubtedly bringing blank stares to youthful viewers of MTV." (242) Well, unDOUBTedly. How could any reasonable person argue with that kind of insightful comment?

And Neil Diamond? His music (all of it, apparently) is categorized as "warmed over ditties." (245)

As much as I love Coltrane, I got really tired of Nisenson. After the Epilogue, he had a list of albums he suggested buying if you wanted an introduction to Coltrane's music. There were over 30 albums on the list. 

Yep. This book is worth reading up to about page 200, but I sincerely wish that I had stopped there. The final hundred pages sullied my love for Coltrane (only temporarily, but still...) and made me determined to never read another book by Eric Nisenson...who I had a good opinion of previously.

A last note:

Maybe it's not Nisenson's fault, but it's hard for me not to conclude that if you can't even make sure that Lester Bowie's name is right in your book, you probably aren't a very careful writer.

I mean...LESTER FUCKING BOWIE!

Sheesh. 

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read

DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages 
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages

(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages

(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages

(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages 

2nd 1K Sub-Total: 13,945 pages. So as of Day 578 of The Second 1,000 Days, I've already passed (by a substantial amount) the number of pages I read in all of the first 1,000 Days. Woo-hoo. 

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages

(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages

(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages

(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages

(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages

2nd 1K Sub-Total: 15,547 pages. Grand Total: 28,996 pages. 

(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages

(21) Miles: The Autobiography 445 pages...abandoned at page 229 for violence against women, racism, and unrelenting assholiness.

(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages

(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages

Armorclads #2, Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body #4

Haven't been able to get to the comic book store for a couple of weeks, but I've been checking  hoopla 's new releases faithfully, and finally my vigilance was rewarded: Regarding The Matter Of Oswald's Body #4 (which I'm pretty sure wasn't there until after #5 appeared, but hey, better late than never, right?) and Armorclads #2. 

I was particularly interested in Armorclads, so I started with that. And you know...I wouldn't have been upset if I'd put down my hard earned $3.99 for this issue. It's not groundbreaking or even particularly original, but I found it interesting, and there were a couple of twists on the old Warriors in Mechanized Suits schtick. For one thing, the so-called Warriors are children...like 14 to 17 years old. For another thing, they seem to be pretty much slaves to some other dudes, who seem to be more typical Armored Warriors. Except bitchier. Anyway...by the end of the issue (no spoilers) everything has been pretty much upended, and I actually have no idea what will happen next issue. And that's the way (unh-huh, unh-huh) I like it. 

Also a thrill for me was this advertisement at the end of the issue:

I've never been interested in X-O Manowar before, but with Liam Sharp on the credits list...and that figure's composition indicates he's doing at least a large portion of the artwork...I might have to be in on this one. Not to mention that truly awesome coloring job here. 

Unless, of course, it appears on  hoopla  before I get to the comic book store.

As for Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body #4...well, you know, I actually wasn't excited about reading this at all, since I'd already read issue #5. But I figured what the hell, it's free, let's just do it for the Gipper. And you know what? It was a really awesome issue. The long (VERy long) monologue by Lee Harvey Oswald was a hoot, as were the reactions (and lack thereof) we saw on the faces of the other characters. And by the time he gets his comeuppance, I as a reader was pretty much begging for what happened to happen. Also, the whole thing kind of went from a story about some losers who got roped into doing dirty deeds for a corrupt government to a commentary on how all of the Little People are treated by the government, the world, etcetera. Yep, really good issue. And, sorry to say, that's it for this comic book, and it's not really possible to have a sequel, is it? But I will most certainly have an eye out for more work by artist Luca Casalunguida and writer Christopher Cantwell.

DDR: A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album by Ashley Kahn

 

After reading Miles Davis's "anecdote" about beating Frances Taylor multiple times...because he loved her and was jealous of her doing anything that wasn't focused on him...I had to put down Miles: The Autobiography at page 229. To be honest, it was hard for me to put it down. On the one hand, I was revolted by Miles Davis. So far as I can see, he was a piss poor excuse for a human being, a nasty, violent, racist man. A man who is not worthy of any respect whatsoever. (I don't know if that "should" make me averse to his music as well, but I can tell you that for right now I have no interest in listening to him anymore.) But I've never dropped a Daily Devotional Reading before, and that regimen means a lot to me. And beyond that, there are not very many books that I've read over two hundred pages of and then quit. But I most certainly have no interest in reading another word right now. 

So I'm going to take a Coltrane break. At the end of that, maybe I'll go back and see if I can finish M:TA. I kind of doubt that that will happen, though.

For now, though, it's A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album by Ashley Kahn. 287 pages total. 

NOTE: This is coming to you from Day 2, actually, but just in case you want to know...there are endnotes for this book, but there's no indication of their placement in the text itself, so if you want to read them alongside the chapter, you've got to keep your eyes peeled. Or do what I'm going to do, and read them before or immediately after each chapter (so that they don't pile up too much).  Okay? Okay.

Day 1: Jazz Day 55 (DDRD 1,633) April 21, 2022 *

Step One: Remove the Sacred Bookmarker 

(a picture I took of The Boxer at Rest at the MOMA when I took Jacqueline to NYC in 2013) from Miles: The Autobiography.

Step Two: Prepare The Music.

Step Three: Cue the vinyl and commence to read.

And...read to page 15...which was more than 15 pages, since it included all of the preliminary stuff. Speaking of which, the writing on the endpapers was the handwritten (by John Coltrane) version of the album notes which Mr. Coltrane wrote for the A Love Supreme album. I discovered this when I finally took the plastic off of the album cover (I'd opened it and played it several times, but left the plastic on, not realizing that it had a gatefold cover) and saw said notes.

Reading about Coltrane...who was not only a very serious musician determined to transcend the limitations of himself, his instrument, and music itself...a man who had dedicated his life to a spiritual quest...and (so far as I can tell at this point, anyway) a very Good man...is what I needed after biting down on that bad shit about Miles Davis. I'm going to try to take my time and enjoy this book, give time a chance to leach the Miles Davis poisons out of my brain, and then see if I have it in me to go back to the autobiography. Let's see...229 - 424 = 195 pages to go, so at 20 pages per day that = 10 more days of Miles Davis. I don't know. Right now I'd have to say that that is not something I want to do, but we'll see where I am when I finish the A Love Supreme book. Which, ironically--though not unexpectedly--has already mentioned Miles Davis several times. 

One of the most startling bits of information that I found in these first pages was that all of the tracks of A Love Supreme were recorded in a single day.

Although I got a little puzzled when I went to look at the details (and yes, to verify...because Wikipedia doesn't always get it right, you know), because the next day...

But hey, if Ashley Kahn says the album was recorded in one session, then I take his word for it. Hmmm. Does this also imply that all of the tracks are first takes? Details as they happen.

BTW...the information above comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_John_Coltrane_recording_sessions...and a little more reading on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Love_Supreme reveals that the 12/10 recording of "Part I Acknowledgement" was an alternate take without the vocal, and Coltrane decided that he didn't like it and used the version from 12/09. No further information found on the second "Part II Resolution" recording yet...but hey...Details as they happen there, too.

P.S. Just had a thought which led to a look, and according to https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Rifugium/best-selling-jazz-albums-of-all-time-riaa-or-theres-no-money-in-jazz/, A Love Supreme is the 27th best selling album of all time. Not bad for a day's work, huh? **

* Which, by the way, is the same Jazz Day, DDRD, and date as my last reading in M:TA, since I didn't finish my reading goal of 20 pages in it.

** I know, I know. I tried to find another source for Best Selling Jazz Albums of All Time, but came up with nada. Still looking, though, so ...well, you know what kind of eyes she got.

Day 2: Jazz Day 56 (DDRD 1,634) April 22, 2022

Read to page 40.

On the one hand, this book is proving to be a most excellent antidote to the bitter negativity of Miles: The Autobiography, and I'm glad that I put the brakes on that. Coltrane has his problems, for sure, but he is foremost and essentially a good man, which Miles Davis clearly is not. On the other hand, there's just no escape from Davis. One telling story is when he is berating Coltrane for a poor performance, and he slaps Coltrane in the face and then punches him in the stomach. Coltrane does not strike back. Kind of sums it up, doesn't it?

Also, in his comments about Blue Train, Kahn mentioned that one of the session players was...

Yes, that Lee Morgan...to whom I've been listening obsessively for the past couple of months. (Hmmm...I still haven't gotten around to finishing that blog entry, have I?) So that was a little thrill for me.

It was also at this point that I realized that Kahn's notes for the book were all invisible...tucked away at the end and with no indication that there even were notes...just as he had done in his Kind of Blue book. I wish that I had remembered that. It really frustrates me, because I actually want to read the notes, but I don't want to read the whole pile of them at the end of the chapter...or at the end of the book, for that matter. So I'm going to stop and catch up, then either read them before starting each chapter or immediately upon finishing the chapter. It would be really awkward to read them alongside the chapter, since I would have to spend a lot of time concentrating on where a note was likely to be (since there is literally no indication that a note has been made in the text itself). Sigh. What's wrong with footnotes, for fuck's sake?

Day 3: Jazz Day 57 (DDRD 1,635) April 23, 2022

Read to page 62.

First, there's No Escape from Miles Davis's Autobiography:

But to balance it out, look who else I ran into:

Also cool to think that Ashley Kahn was actually talking TO Grachan Moncur III as he put this book together.

Day 4: Jazz Day 58 (DDRD 1,636) April 24, 2022

Read to page 82. Looks like I'm going to need to listen to Crescent. It's the album which preceded A Love Supreme, features the same main players, and, according to Kahn, is a kind of pre-figuration of ALS.

It's also totally available on the You  Tub at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQPfv0Fyqhc. So that's where I'll be going now.

Side One
"Crescent" – 8:41
"Wise One" – 9:00
"Bessie's Blues" – 3:22

Side Two
"Lonnie's Lament" – 11:45
"The Drum Thing" – 7:22

And you know what...even my tin ear on its first listen can hear some hints of A Love Supreme here. 

Later...

Went back and read a bit more, to page 104, which was the end of the section on "Acknowledgement," which is the first song on A Love Supreme. There were enough interesting details to make me want to give it a listen immediately, but that wasn't possible, so I'll have to try to remember the details. The thing I most want to listen for is Kahn's assertion that Coltrane's vocal (chanting the words "A love supreme") is multi-tracked. I'm sure it's true, since (1) Kahn knows his shit and (2) the recording information for the day after the tracks were recorded specifies that overdub vocals for this track were taped. But I've never noticed it before, so I want to hear it.

News as it happens.

As it happens: Even though I have a copy of A Love Supreme...on vinyl...on BLUE vinyl...I bopped over to  hoopla  to see what I could see. And yes indeed, they had the album. But they also had another version of the album which included the whole thing live in Juan-les-Pins, France AND four alternate takes (two each of Parts I and II). And I was about to borrow that when I saw that there was another version sub-entitled "The Complete Masters" which had the album plus 13 other recordings from the sessions. And then I saw another "The Complete Masters" which had 17 other recordings from the sessions plus a live version of Part I. And then I saw the sub-entitled "The Platinum Collection" which had

I think you actually have to listen to at least two of these to get all of the tracks, but I haven't got the patience to do a line by line comparison right now. Just sayin'...if you a big fan of the album, there's a lot of extra stuff out there waiting for you.

Addendum: Well, that ⬆ was before the red boxes. I went through and compared all of the versions, and it looks like The Platinum Version actually does includes all of the tracks from all of the previous versions...with the possible exception of 

But after lots of thinking it over, I decided that this track from The Complete Masters 2015 must be Track 23 from The Platinum Collection...even though the title is slightly different and the time is a tad bit off. Of course, the only way to know for sure would be to listen to both of them. Am I OCD enough to go there? Maybe. But for now, I'm going to say that if you really need to hear every track recorded for the A Love Supreme album, then The Platinum Collection is what you're looking for. All 4 hours of it.

Day 5: Jazz Day 59 (DDRD 1,637) April 25, 2022

So with that ⬆ in mind, I checked out A Love Supreme: The Platinum Collection (2021). I started with Track 18, "A Love Supreme Part III - Pursuance - Original Mono Reference Master"...and ended up going through Track 19 as well, which is the Original Mono Reference Master for Part IV.  I have to admit that I don't know what "Original Mono Reference Master" means. It clocks in at 10:40, which is almost the same length as the final album version (10:45 there). So I did what any self-respecting Anal Retentive / OCD / On The Spectrum person would do: I played the Platinum version through my computer and the album version through my stereo. I couldn't get the timing exactly right (since they're in different rooms), but I got it pretty close...and the strange echo-y sound which this produced was actually kind of cool. Worth a try if you happen to have two music playing devices close at hand. And after listening to both Parts III and IV "Original Mono Masters" alongside the album versions, I can say that I am 99% confident that these are the exact same recordings. Which makes me wonder why they put these Mono Masters onto this record. There is a little studio talk at the beginning of the one for III, but hey, could've done that with like a four second thing. 

As long as I was there, I went ahead and listened to tracks 20 through 25.

Track 25 ("Part I  - Acknowledgement - Take 1 / Alternate") was interesting, as it has a seriously different sounding horn added into the mix. (Presumably both were played by Coltrane.)  This second horn is  very blurry sounding, almost like a comic effect, close to a raspberry. I'm really glad that this take didn't make the cut so far as the final album went. In fact, I had to take a long pause halfway through because it was really getting on my nerves.

Read to page 130, which got me through all of the notes on the recording day. Turns out that Coltrane went back into the studio to re-record the album, adding in some additional people, but ended up deciding that the first version was better. At this point it seems that the tapes for this material has been lost. In fact, Kahn said something along the lines of "all the material for A Love Supreme, including false starts, would fit on one hour of tape." Also noted that the three session men were paid $122 each for this project, and Coltrane made $244. Hard to imagine, isn't it?

Day 6: Jazz Day 60 (DDRD 1,638) April 26, 2022

Read to page 180. 

Hey, did you know that Rick James and Neil Young were in a band together? Neither did I. The band was The Mynah Birds, and the actually recorded three singles, one of which was released 1965. The other two had to wait until 2006 and 2016. All are easily found on the internet.

Thinking about Rick James reminded me that I'd never gotten around to noting what Carlos Santana had to say about A Love Supreme (from way back in the introductory material), so here it is now:

"The first time I heard A Love Supreme, it really was an assault. It could have been from Mars as far as I was concerned, or another galaxy. I remember the album cover and name, but the music didn't fit into the patterns of my brain at that point. It was like someone trying to tell a monkey about spirituality or computers, you know, it just didn't compute." Carlos Santana page xviii

I think I also forgot to note this detail about the recording of the album: "a four hour recording session...running from 8:00 p.m. until midnight." (84)

Day 7: Jazz Day 61 (DDRD 1,639) April 27, 2022

Read to page 201.

So, how dedicated am I to my Daily Devotional Reading? Well, I had a busy day. It started with a 5 am wake up, and I was fixing breakfasts and lunches until 6, when #2🌞 got up and wanted to watch a show he'd taped. By the time that was over I had to get going to take him to his day center, then take #1daughter to her day center, then went to #1🌞's house to babysit granddaughter. She went down for her nap late, so I only got a little bit of reading in A Love Supreme until it was time to leave and pick up #1daughter. We got home just a moment before #2🌞, and then it was time to start dinner. After that it was a whirl of dad duties (including reading from three books for each of my kids) and before I knew it I was nodding off and dragged myself to bed. And just as I was about to go to sleep I thought, "I didn't finish my twenty pages for the day!" So yes, I got up, got my book, went back to bed, and read to page 201. Then closed the book, closed my eyes, and was gone in seconds.

BTW, here's a quote I want to preserve:

"I want to be a force for real good." John Coltrane,1966. (192)

What a contrast between John Coltrane and Miles Davis, hmmm?

Speaking of, instead of going back to Miles: The Autobiography when I finish this book, I think I am going to go for John Coltrane: His Life and Music by Lewis Porter. It's still possible that I'll go back to the Miles Davis book...but I'm definitely not ready yet.

Day 8: Jazz Day 62 (DDRD 1,640) April 28, 2022

Read to page 260...The End.

This was a very satisfying book, filled with great details about John Coltrane in general and A Love Supreme in particular. Lots of good photographs, too. And Kahn's writing here was tighter than it was in the Kind of Blue book. 

Here's what I consider to be the final word on the album: 

"I actually had to stop listening to A Love Supreme - I think it was very dangerous for me as a musician," confesses Joshua Redman." There was no way I was ever going to be able to play like that, so I had to say, "Look, this is so overwhelming as a musical statement, that if I keep listening to it, I won't be able to find any meaning and what I'm trying to do as a musician." (211)

So...think it's going to be more Coltrane tomorrow.

Coda: Listened to Tracks 26 through 30 of The Platinum Collection. Track 26 was another two horn take on Part I, and it was about as unbearable as Take 1...though the bass did some interesting things I hadn't noticed in previous takes--some bowing sounds towards the end among other things. Take 27 was just a minute before it broke down, and 28 was petty much the same as 26, and equally unpleasing to me. The two horn approach just seems to muddy up the waters to me. And I'm guessing that Coltrane felt the same way, since he ditched these and went back to the first versions of the songs for the album. And the rest of the tracks...well, they were interesting, but you know, I'm glad that I didn't pay for the privilege of listening to them, as I don't think I'll ever want to hear any of them again. No, it's back to the original album for me, thank you.

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read

DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages 
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages

(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages

(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages

(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages 

2nd 1K Sub-Total: 13,945 pages. So as of Day 578 of The Second 1,000 Days, I've already passed (by a substantial amount) the number of pages I read in all of the first 1,000 Days. Woo-hoo. 

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages

(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages

(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages

(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages

(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages

2nd 1K Sub-Total: 15,547 pages. Grand Total: 28,996 pages. 

(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages

(21) Miles: The Autobiography 445 pages...abandoned at page 229 for violence against women, racism, and unrelenting assholiness.

(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages

(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 

Halo Season 1, Episode 4: Homecoming

 

I'm still watching Halo on Paramount+ . In fact, I actually look forward to watching this show with Joe, and I even make him pause the video if I have to leave the room for a minute--something I don't do with any of the other shows we watch together. 

And my interest in the show grew even more this week with the fourth episode, "Homecoming," because in addition to cool Military Science Fiction stuff I also got a side dish of something I hadn't been expecting: Food For Thought.

A lot of this episode revolved around the subject of memory. Master Chief / John and all of the other Spartans have had their memories wiped pretty clean...presumably to make them more efficient warriors. But MC / J's interactions with the alien artifact...that should really be "non-human artifact," shouldn't it? Yes, let's make it so...have shaken some things loose, and he is beginning to reconnect with his memories. At one point, a character says, "memories remind you what's important." Oh, wait a minute...I keep forgetting that it's the 21st century. It's Soran, and he says, "Memory's what lets you know who you are and reminds you what's important to you." * (Because, ironically, we no longer have to rely on our memories when we can Google pretty much anything.) 

Now on the one hand, that's not a particularly insightful or profound comment. But it got me to thinking. Because I have found that my memory is far from perfect. There are many things that I don't remember until someone else reminds me of them. And there are  things that I remember quite differently from others. Which means that my brain is not only filtering out some information...at least from my conscious awareness, but it is also altering some of the information that it retains. (I posit that there is another level of my memory which is either untouched by these processes or less touched by them, since there are times when someone will tell me something or I will see an artifact (human) which inspires a memory I'd forgotten or clarify one which I'd unknowingly altered.) Taking that back to Soran's comments, I'm hearing this: what we remember is what is important to us. 

And I find that puzzling. Because I have forgotten some things which I seem to care about...but even moreso because I've found myself remembering things that I don't care about. Or at least that I thought I didn't care about. So what the line from Halo suggests to me is that I've forgotten or misremembered those things because of who I am...or who I see myself to be, at least.

This is pretty simple stuff in some ways. For instance, my sister will sometimes tell stories about our childhood in which I am being cruel to her, such as the time that I pushed her into a fence and her ankle got caught in the pointy things at the bottom. In her memory, she was the victim of a cruel-ish brother, and the fact that she has forgiven me for that shows what a good person she is. My memory of the incident is that we were playing in the backyard, doing a kind of bull and bullfighter thing with her on her bicycle as the bull, and me with a trashcan lid as the bullfighter. When she came at me and ran into the trashcan lid, she slipped from her bike and got her foot caught on the bottom of the fence. In my version, it's just the accidental result of a stupid game two kids were playing. There's no malice, no cruelty, and no need to forgive or be forgiven. 

And of course that's just childhood bullshit, but I haven't got it in me to go into any Scenes From a Marriage, where much more powerful things reside. Still, the result would be pretty much the same. I only end up being the bad guy in the other person's version of the story.

What this suggests to me is that it would be spiritually revelatory to delve deep inside and try to recover or repair some of my memories. To get a fuller vision of who I am as a human being. 

That seems like a lot to get from a line in a Military Science Fiction show based on a video game.

Oh, speaking of the show....

At one point John goes into his childhood home. It's an absolute wreck--all kinds of vegetation has grown through the house, and there's been lots of damage to the place. If you've ever looked at one of those books of abandoned places, you know what I'm talking about. And then he runs a program through his helmet face shield which allows him to partially see the home as it was when John was a child. (I think it draws on his memories as well as predicative analysis...it is far future tech, after all.) And it was a very interesting way of thinking about the past...what an amalgamation it is of reality and memory and maybe wishful thinking as well.

Anyway...good show. Check it out sometime.

* https://tvshowtranscripts.ourboard.org/viewtopic.php?f=1283&t=52420

The Windhover Tapes by Warren Norwood

 

The Windhover Tapes is a tetralogy by Warren Norwood. Book 4 is Planet of Flowers, and I suspect that I am the only person in the Northern Hemisphere who owns two copies of this tome. No brag, just fact. And in this case, it's not because of incipient senility (though I'd have to admit that in my current state that is a viable first choice explanation). It's because I was at Half-Price Books and found the entire series...at $1.49 per...and I couldn't remember which one of the four I had at home, having bought it several years ago and put it onto a shelf where it remained, untouched. So I bought all four of them.

If you're wondering why I would buy a tetralogy when I had never gotten around to reading the first book, then I can sum it up for you in one sentence:

This is the story of a man named Gerard Manley, a diplomat who cruises around on his spaceship, The Windhover...and makes tapes about his adventures.

If that's not ringing any bells for you, then I submit for your approval my favorite poem in the English language: "The Windhover," by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
  dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
  Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
  As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding 

Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
  Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

  No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

How much do I love this poem? Well... THIS much:

So happening upon a book (referring to my first time around, hence the singular) which was obviously alluding to my favorite poem required me to purchase it. And I no doubt didn't find out that I'd bought the fourth book of a tetralogy until I got home, which is probably why I put it on the shelf and didn't touch it for several years. Somewhere in the back of my mind I no doubt hoped that I would happen upon the first three books in the series at some point. Of course I could have found them online, but that's not my favorite way to find books. I get a lot more enjoyment out of discovering things by surprise, even if it means going through hundreds of books that I don't care about to get to one that I do. 

That's kind of life in a fuckin' nutshell, isn't it?

ANYway...now that I have The Complete The Windhover Tapes, I am thinking that I need to  BUCKLE! down and Get To It. In fact, maybe that would be a good Daily Devotional Reading Project once I get finished with All That Jazz stuff. 

Mmm-hmm.

News as it happens, so bate your breath.

P.S. Just in case you have a Need To Know..."bated is an abbreviation of the word abated, meaning to lessen in severity or amount."

 (https://grammarist.com/idiom/bated-breath-vs-baited-breath/)

DDR: Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis with Quincey Troupe

I don't know any of the details, but I have heard that Miles Davis beat women. I have no respect for men who beat women. Or for anyone who beats anyone else, for that matter. The question is do you reject the art because of the behavior of the artist? Well...John Lennon also beat women. (He even included a line about that in the song, "Fixing a Hole": "I used to be cruel to my woman / I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved....") Does that mean that I should stop listening to John Lennon? Does that meant that I should stop listening to The Beatles? Sorry, but that's not going to happen. 

So what about Miles Davis? I don't know. But I have been listening to Kind of Blue (and just finished reading two books about it), and now it looks like I'm going to be reading his autobiography.

Deep breath.

Okay.

Day 1 (Jazz Day 46 / DDRD 1,624) April 12, 2022

Read to page 23, and will probably read a little more later today, but this was enough for now. It's not a hard read, and it is at least occasionally interesting, but Miles is so abrasive...and comes off as so ignorant (I would guess that I've already read the word "motherfucker" two dozen times; I'm not offended, just bored) that it has not been easy going. I have serious doubts about my ability to read this book. Of course, we're still in the Miles As A Child stuff, which I really don't care about, and I would suspect that once he becomes a working musician things should get more interesting. But thus far all I can think is that Miles really seems like an asshole. At one point he mentions seeing a friend who had been badly hurt in a fire, and describes the friend as looking like a hotdog that has been burned. That friend later died from his injuries. What kind of shitwad describes another human being...much less a friend...in that way? It's beyond callous. It's brutal. Strange, too, that Miles talks in a prologue about what a beautiful human being Dizzy Gillespie is and how much he loves him...since Dizzy seems to represent the opposite end of humanity from Miles--a person who is full of love and truly cares about other people, is willing to sacrifice himself to help others, all of that. 

I'm not ready to quit yet, but I'm not all that anxious to get to know Miles any better, either.

P.S. And today I picked this up from the library:

It's 23 + 260 + 4* = 287 pages, which would normally mean a little over 14 days' worth of reading, but I'm betting it will be more like a 7 day book for me. Maybe less. In fact, I'm kind of tempted to ditch Miles and get right onto this Trane...but we'll see how tomorrow goes.

* The endpapers have text...which seems to be in Coltrane's hand... hence the "extra" four pages.

Day 2 (Jazz Day 47 / DDRD 1,625) April 13, 2022


Read to page 51. And Miles has graduated from high school and is earning a steady income as a musician, so hopefully we're now on the cusp of The Good Stuff.

Meanwhile, however, we had to hear about Miles's first sexual experience, about how his dad knocked his mom's teeth out, and so forth. Also, how Miles stopped going to The Juilliard School because the music was Too White. Which is understandable, I suppose, but it made me wonder: if a White guy went to Fisk University to major in English, but left because the literature was Too Black, would that be considered racist?

Well, first off I think you'd have to conclude that the person was pretty stupid, because going to Fisk and being surprised that there was a preponderance of emphasis on Black literature certainly doesn't strike me as smart. But racist? Hmmm. I'd have to say yes, that it was racist. So isn't the same thing true for Miles and Julliard? I'm going to say yes.

Not that that seems surprising, as Miles throws racist stuff around casually on a regular basis. You could, of course, point out that he was not averse to working with White musicians...but from my previous readings on Kind of Blue, I also know that he constant harassed Bill Evans with racist language, so I don't know that that mitigates any charge of racism against him.

I'm not giving up, but I have to say that it's hard not to conclude that Miles Davis was an asshole a lot of the time when his mouth wasn't wrapped around a trumpet's mouthpiece.


Day 3 (Jazz Day 48 / DDRD 1,626) April 14, 2022

Read to page 75.

According to Miles, Charlie Parker "was the greatest alto saxophone player who ever lived." Since John Coltrane was primarily known for playing tenor saxophone, I guess that still leaves room for him.

The first recording date for Miles was in May of 1945. He noted that he played with Herbie Fields, Leonard Gaskin on bass, and a singer named Rubberlegs Williams. He says that he did not play any solo parts, just ensemble playing. (66) A little Googling revealed that the recording date was April 24, 1945, and Wikipedia has lots of details on this date (HERE), including the titles of all of the songs that were recorded.

It looks like "That's the Stuff You Gotta Watch" was Miles' first recorded song...with Rubberlegs Williams on vocals, Herbie Field on tenor sax & clarinet (and it's Herbie who takes the solo--obvious since Rubberlegs calls him out), Teddy Brannon on piano, Leonard Gaskin on bass, and Ed Nicholson on drums. It's an inauspicious beginning, but hey...aren't most of them? According to Wikipedia, Miles was so nervous that he forgot most of the details of this date, and that seems to be affirmed by his mention of it in the autobiography.

Looking at this Wikipedia information is kind of puzzling. If I'm reading it correctly, then the group recorded 15 tracks that day...and 8 of those tracks (4 different songs) were written by Miles Davis. Miles would have been 18 years old at the time. Yowza.

Day 4 (Jazz Day 49 / DDRD 1,627) April 15, 2022

Read to page 105.

Some time ago...I think it was during The Hodeir Trilogy...I made a comment about how surprised I was that Neil Hefti was actually considered a Jazz guy, since I'd only known him as the guy who wrote the theme for Batman. I then sought out some of his music courtesy of YouTube and was astonished at how bad it was...just schmaltzy and overblown and pretty much worthless. So it amused me greatly when Miles said, "No amount of money was going to make me happy playing those bullshit Neal Hefti arrangements Benny's band was playing." (86)

Also reaching back into the past...but this time just to yesterday...vis-a-vis Miles' initial recording efforts, at the top of page 105 he notes that in August of 1947 he went into the studio and did "Milestones," "Little Willie Leaps," "Half Nelson," and "Sippin' at Bell's." Well, all of those tracks were listed on the Wikipedia page I mentioned as if they had been recorded at the same time...when it actuality it looks like Miles' first session in the studio only produced four tracks, none of which he had written. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. Part of me wants to do a little update on the Wikipedia page to make this clear...but the other 96 parts of me isn't feeling great and doesn't care enough to make the effort.

Day 5 (Jazz Day 50 / DDRD 1,628) April 16, 2022

Read to page 127.

Day 6 (Jazz Day 51 / DDRD 1,629) 🌅♱April 17, 2022♱🌅

Read to page 153. Right now, Miles is a heroin addict and he is paying for his heroin by working as a pimp. For some reason he feels that his trumpet playing isn't at its best right now.

I'll go on.

Day 7 (Jazz Day 52 / DDRD 1,630) April 18, 2022

Read to page 177. More heroin.

Day 8 (Jazz Day 53 / DDRD 1,631) April 19, 2022

Read to page 200. Heroin addiction ends, racist sniping continues. You know, Miles really is an asshole.

Day 9 (Jazz Day 54/ DDRD 1,632) April 20, 2022

Read to page 220, and Miles has just started talking about the lead-in stuff for Kind of Blue.

Before that, he was talking about a recording session in May of 1956
for the Prestige label with Coltrane, Philly Joe, Paul and Red which sounded interesting. Something about how the recordings captured some of the band banter. It caught me fahn-see, so I went looking for more information. Turns out the session occurred at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on May 11, 1956, and that the band --Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums--recorded 14 tracks on that day. And if that's not incredible enough, get this: those tracks accounted for almost two full albums (one track shy for each of them) and 1/3rd of a third album.

🤯

Also, yet another example of Miles Davis's casual and regular racism: "...you could be a great musician, an innovative and important artist, but nobody cared if you didn't make the white people who were in control some money." (205) I wouldn't argue with the fact that (1) the people in charge of the recording companies were all about the money or (2) that most of them were White people. But their whiteness is irrelevant here. Black heads of recording companies would be all about the money, too. Anybody at the head of any for profit company is going to be all about the money, since that is what business is for. Put it this way: if I said that Black musicians were all about getting paid for performing their music, that would be both true and racist. It would be racist because I'm implying that the musicians' Blackness is somehow a relevant factor in the equation, when in reality any professional musician is all about the money to the extent that they perform for money...because that is how they earn their living. And certainly there's nothing wrong with that. It's just wrong to attribute it to skin color.

I also decided that I was going to try to see if Miles could get through a page without using the word "motherfucker," but I have gotten so used to the word that it's hard for me to notice in now. I can tell you--and this is not hyperbole--that it appears on virtually every page of the book at least once, though...and maybe no virtually about it. Maybe I'll try to notice in Tomorrow's 20.

P.S. Almost forgot. Guess who showed up in today's reading?

There doesn't seem to be any way of escaping from this French dude.

Day 10 (Jazz Day 55 / DDRD 1,633) April 21, 2022

Read to page 229 and had to pull up short. Because on page 228 it happened. Miles is telling a story about one of the women he loved, Frances Taylor, and how she came home one day and told him that she thought Quincy Jones was handsome. "Before I realized what had happened, I had knocked her down...." the story ends with him saying, "I told her not to ever mention Quincy Jones's name to me again, and she never did." He expresses no remorse, and the implication is that she got what she deserved. What a fucking asshole. In the next paragraph he lets us know that that wasn't the only time he hit her... and that he felt "bad" about it, but only did it because he loved her so much and was jealous. He also loved her so much that he forced her to turn down several key movie roles she'd been offered (West Side Story, Porgy and Bess, and a Sammy Davis, Jr. movie) and instead "let" her teach dancing to some other stars who lived in the apartment building where they were.

I read to the end of this section and the beginning of the next just to see what he would have to say, but after telling this he just went right on to talking about his music, like it was no big deal to him at all.

I really don't know if I want to read any more of this book. I'm astounded that he would even write about this. I mean, we're talking about a guy who trained with a professional boxer, and he's telling about how he beat up on a woman? He is such a detestable human being...such a poor excuse for a human being...that right now I don't know if it matters that he created some beautiful music.

A long time ago my mom told me that she'd rather not know too much about people she admired...because it so often led to disappointment. I'm seeing the wisdom in my mom's words now, for sure.

Time Passes, Then...

Day 11: Jazz Day 83 (DDRD 1,661) May 19, 2022

Yes, I decided to have another go at Miles: The Autobiography, picking up where I left off, of course. We'll see if the 28 days away have made any difference.

Read to page 260. Which leaves 164 pages...8 days or less. Today's stuff was good. There was a bit of sad irony in a story Miles told about getting into it with Art Blakey, who was strung out on drugs at the time. According to Miles, Blakey got aggressive because he thought Miles had had sex with his wife, and Miles punched him and knocked him out. The sad irony part is that Miles talks about how torn up he was about this, and how he went home and cried. I guess hitting men was harder for him than hitting women.

In other news, Miles defined artists' performances of Classical Music as "robot shit."

 =   💩

Hmpf.

Day 12: Jazz Day 84 (DDRD 1,662) May 20, 2022

Read to page 290. Actually read a few extra pages yesterday, and then a few extras today, so that. I cringed a bit when Cicely Tyson entered the story, knowing that she had been abused by Miles, but at this point it's not there, I'm glad to say. Funny (but not ha ha funny) how Miles talks about his love for Coltrane, what a great person he was, how he missed him when he died...and yet Miles can also be such a callous--even brutal--person.

134 pages to go.

ADDENDUM: Read a little more, to page 301. So 123 pages to go now. 

Miles Davis refers to Steve Miller as a "sorry ass cat" and lumps him in with The Other no talent rock musicians. He also bemoans the fact that these performers, who know nothing about music, are making so much money, and suggests that he, with his far superior knowledge of music, should easily be able to do the same thing. I'm thinking he might be missing something there....

Day 13: Jazz Day 85 (DDRD 1,663) May 21, 2022

Read to page 324. Which actually means that there are only 100 text pages to go.

In the course of today's reading, I found out the Richard Pryor was a funny motherfucker and a great mother fucker within the space of five lines on page 302. Also that Miles was disappointed in both of his older sons, both of whom were alive when this book was published, so that must have made them feel really great. Have I mentioned that Miles Davis was a gigantic asshole?

On the other hand...it also hit me how many of the big names in Jazz have been associated with (as in played with) Miles Davis over the years. Just off the top of my head...Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Eric Dolphy, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Keith Jarrett, George Benson, Branford Marsalis,  Kenny Clarke...and I don't even KNOW that many Jazz greats, so I probably missed a couple of dozen of them. And get this...he was planning to do an album with Jimi Hendrix, but Jimi died before they got to work on it. Sheesh...the guy was pretty much a History of Jazz in and of himself.

Which doesn't really mitigate his failures as a human being, of course, but it's kind of a Bill Cosby Thing: as tempting as it might be to ignore the achievements of an artist who was a shitty human being, you just can't do that. You don't have to support them in any way, either, but to deny what they achieved is not reasonable.

I think.

Day 14: Jazz Day 86 (DDRD 1,664) May 22, 2022

Read to page 341. 83 pages to go.

ADDENDUM: Pre-Church Reading: to page 357. So now it's 67 pages to go.

Day 15: Jazz Day 87 (DDRD 1,665) May 23, 2022

Read to page 387. Which included this important statement:

"Black people are acting out roles every day in this country just to keep on getting by. If white people really knew what was on most black people's minds it would scare them to death. Blacks don't have the power to say these things, so they put on masks and do great acting jobs just to get through the fucking day." (375)

I think that's a very important thing to consider.

Unfortunately, these pages also included another violence against a woman story...two back to back, actually, and both against Cicely Tyson. I was really hoping to get through the last pages of this book without any more of this. At least this time Miles didn't give a "Why She Deserved It" context...though he didn't express any remorse about it, either. I just keep wondering what kind of "man" not only beats on women, but also tells about it in his autobiography? I can only think of three possibilities: (1) a very stupid man, (2) a man so full of himself that he doesn't even understand that what he did was wrong, or (3) a man who is either a sociopath or a psychopath. 

I'm going to push on through to the end of this now, but I'm not very happy about it, am going to write a review of it for goodreads which will get some of the angst off of my mind and out of my heart, and am pulling the plug on my Jazz Readings the minute I turn the final page of this fucking book.

Thanks, Miles Davis. You motherfucker.

37 pages to go. I'm going to try to read a little more today and then maybe I can finish this off tomorrow and be done with it.

Day 16: Jazz Day 88 (DDRD 1,666) May 24, 2022

Read to page 441, and am now shaking the dust from my sandals. 

Miles had to go back to talking about hitting women one more time. This time in the abstract, and it boiled down to, "Some women are really pushy and if you let them get away with that they keep pushing, so sometimes you have to hit them." This time at least he added, "But you can't do that." And then the twist: "I used to do that, but now I just walk away." So if you're  feeling very generous-minded, I guess you could attribute that to some personal growth, but as for me...I'm just glad to leave this book behind. I don't know what I'll be reading tomorrow for my Daily Devotional Reading project, but it sure as hell won't be about Jazz. I've had all that I can stand on that topic. So once again, Thank you, Miles Davis. You truly are a motherfucker.

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read

DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages 
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages

(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages

(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages

(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages 

2nd 1K Sub-Total: 13,945 pages. So as of Day 578 of The Second 1,000 Days, I've already passed (by a substantial amount) the number of pages I read in all of the first 1,000 Days. Woo-hoo. 

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages

(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages

(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages

(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages

(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages

2nd 1K Sub-Total: 15,547 pages. Grand Total: 28,996 pages.

(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages

(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages

(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages

(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages

(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages

2nd 1K Total: 17,164 pages Grand Total: 30,613