In coming weeks my art class will be drawing portraits
Tupac was a remarkable musician and actor, as well as being a provocative thinker politically.
It's also cool to see the musicians make sketches and another example is this sketch of Brian Eno by David Bowie.
This pic from the local newspaper was in my Facebook Memories.
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.
“…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.
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.
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.
Looking through the card from a camera and realised this memory wasn't mine
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.
Taking aim at bad deals
