Saturday 29 November 2008

Birthday Music: Lady and others






Late Lady Day, enjoying herself, the voice rising from one of the sweeter corners of hell, located in Yeats's foul rag and bone shop of the heart. But then Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldrige... just reeling off their names, as Auden almost put it, is ever so uplifting. So then: rising and uplifting.



2 comments:

Mark Granier said...

Thanks for this. Listening to it as I type: "There are two kinds of blues, good blues and bad blues." The Lady is educational, as always.

BTW I think what Auden said was: "Just reeling off their names is ever so comfy." Your take on it sounds better though, much less fey.

Happy Big 6 (the new 40 or the new 50?). Anyway, here's to another 30 good(ish) years, so you can stand the fellow on his head.

George S said...

Thank you, Mark. Yes, that is what Auden said. I think he was talking about lakes at the time. I like his line apropos lakes. It's mischievous.