Caravan's history and Mingus settling a score while recording a cover with Ellington

Caravan remains one of the defining jazz standards and has a remarkable history

First recorded in 1936 and becoming one of the best-known songs by Duke Ellington’s band, it originated with the trombonist Juan Tizol.

Among his contributions to the band was a role copying parts from scores, as well as composing.

Tizol often played a valve trombone and, as a Puerto Rican, brought some of that Latin American influence which can be heard in 20th Century jazz.

Mercer Ellington said the melody to ‘Caravan’ was suggested to Tizol through a technique called “inverting” that re-interpreted scores by reading the sheet music upside-down.

It remains one of the most-covered songs in history with over 500 versions published.

My favourite is possibly one of the most controversial.

  

The bassist Charles Mingus was also a member of the Ellington band and unleashed a version of the song during the fiery recordings for the “Money Jungle” album.

Mingus plays a rhythm part high up the neck that seems to force Ellington into the position of playing the melody in lower octaves.

It’s wild how the conventions of the standard ‘Caravan’ are thrown by Mingus taking the lead.

When I first heard it my mind was blown.

Then recently I read Mingus’ autobiography and gained a new appreciation for his bold playing.

It turns out that Mingus left Ellington’s band after Tizol lunged at him with a knife for the bassist’s playing of ‘Caravan’:

“…this is the band you don’t quit, but this time you’re asked to leave because of an incident with a trombone player and arranger named Juan Tizol. Tizol wants you to play a solo he’s written where bowing is required. You raise the solo an octave, where the bass isn’t too muddy. He doesn’t like that and he comes to the room under the stage where you’re practising at intermission and comments that you’re like the rest of the n****** in the band, you can’t read. You ask Juan how he’s different from the other n****** and he states that one of the ways he’s different is that HE IS WHITE. So you run his ass upstairs. You leave the rehearsal room, proceed toward the stage with your bass and take your place and at the moment Duke Ellington brings down the baton for ‘A-Train’ and the curtain of the Apollo Theatre goes up, a yelling, whooping Tizol rushes out and lunges at you with a bolo knife.”

The following passage where Mingus describes how Ellington asks for his resignation has been seen as documenting his considerable charm.

 

The role of an artist

Yesterday was a good day as I joined two art classes in my role at a primary school

One of those was the "special education" class, which brings together neurodivergent students.

I had sketched my submarine when the girl next to me said "Wow, are you an artist?"

It was a question that I thought about briefly, before remembering to say "yes."

Maybe it was because my role at the time was "paraprofessional," which is vague and I mostly follow the teacher's directions in art classes.

At other times I've described myself as an evangelist for creativity, as I think more people need to recognise the diverse benefits from having a creative practise or three.

This morning I was pondering my reluctance to accept the title of "artist" yesterday, reminding myself that I've had exhibitions and won prizes.

It really is important to raise the profile of the arts and validate the activity for others, I think.

As the art lesson progressed this student shared that her mother was an artist who sometimes made collages and other assembled artworks.

Then, nearer the end of the lesson, she said quietly "I'm a bit of an artist" and it was the conversion that I realised one should be working toward.

As an artist it is my responsibility to help others see the artist in their activities.

This map shows my house

 

Stealing beauty

Looking through the card from a camera and realised this memory wasn't mine

After recognising the subject and setting, my mind ran through observations about the time of year based on the angle of light and then confirming the layers of clothing suggested it would be winter or early spring.

Then I wondered why it surprised me as much as it did?

There's an intimacy in a selfie and looking in on a scene, a kind of voyeurism that I don't think about enough to feel guilty for it.

The thing I liked most, I decided after sifting through a mess of emotions, is the lighting of the eye.

Jo's irises were one of the first things I remember about her and still give me a thrill to read their grey-blue intentions.

Some days it's like looking at the sea and seeing something leap from the sparkle.

An assault on assault rifles

Taking aim at bad deals

In 1990 Eugene Stoner (left, with his M16) met Mikhail Kalashnikov (right, with his AK-47). They traveled together and became friends. In many of the world’s wars since 1965, the two guns were on opposite sides.

The US-made M16 had a reputation through the Vietnam conflict for jamming, while the AK-47 had a cartridge so solid that it was used by soldiers as a hammer.

The M16 routinely left the rifleman defenseless. In May 1967, one Marine wrote to his family: "We left with 250 men in our company and came back with 107. We left with 72 men in our platoon and came back with 19. Believe it or not, you know what killed most of us? Our own rifle. We were all issued this new rifle, the M16. Practically every one of our dead was found with his rifle torn down next to him where he had been trying to fix it.”

If you’ve paid any attention to Australia’s purchase of F35 fighter jets, then you’ll likely recognise how the MI6 overcame technical shortcomings to flood the battlefield with such uselessness through marketing and tradeshows.

According to former US Marine officer C.J. Chivers, author of The Gun, “The M16’s journey was marked by salesmanship, sham science, cover-ups, chicanery, incompetence, and no small amount of dishonesty by a gun manufacturer and senior American military officers.” 

As the Trump government are reshaping the New World Order, it's a good time to reconsider Australia's desire to be a Deputy to the US' Sherriff.

Jonfun

Spotted a burner in the wild

Ear to eternity

Working with pastels in art class this week

The teacher was talking about Van Gogh and drifted from talking about him painting sunflowers as a gift to cutting off his ear, which I seem to remember was also gifted?