my oldest son has been getting into hip hop music & culture over the past couple of years and, like any responsible middle-aged man, i can't let him think the sun rises and sets with drake. i dumped mp3 mixtapes onto his phone - tupac, biggie, nwa, sugar hill gang, grandmaster flash, public enemy, krs one, gangstarr, mos def, early eminem, outkast, missy, tribe, rakim, and others. he slowly embraced this stuff and, when i thought he was ready, we went to the cinema and checked out "straight outta compton". pretty cool movie, but even cooler hearing your 16-year old giant whispering along with ice cube's lyrics. that's one point for mike giles.
our house is situated on the outskirts of town, backing up to an alley of cottonwood trees and a quiet ravine. it is a gorgeous location, but comes with its share of wildlife. fox, groundhogs, deer, rabbits, chipmunks, and a veritable who's who out of the aviary textbook. we also have plenty of mosquitos, dragonflies, and wasps. we started noticing a few yellowjackets flying around our wall of windows, trying to escape. (no, not bob mintzer and jimmy haslip). in about ten days' time, we ran into a whole mess of them, coating the glass. we found their entrance and nest - inside the house - and went hellbent with the wasp spray. we eventually called an exterminator, sealed up the seven entry points, and wiped out the colony (fingers crossed).
throughout the whole time, i couldn't help but think of my early interest in the jazz fusion group sharing the same name. they seemed so harmless. there was something about will kennedy's drumming and marc russo's saxophone work that had me smitten with their sound. the harmonies moved around more than most smooth jazz acts, and their album production shined with that grp glitter. this insect fiasco had me listening to geraldine, feeling guilty with my ears in the clouds & the wife waging war on the wasps.
my friend chad, engineer and office neighbor, called me on friday, concerned that i had fallen (and couldn't get up) in my office. he had heard a loud thud and freaked out. my top bookshelf, loaded down with a bazillion magazines and assortment of lps, took a spill and miraculously missed my horns. i had a huge mess to clean up, but an opportunity to go through all of my old journals and records. what a blast - magazines with covers of lester bowie, george benson, ornette coleman, zorn/wynton, and the bad plus. albums by shalamar, anthony braxton, eddie jefferson, john coltrane, and the thompson twins. it took me a long time to embrace my eclectic tastes, to feel like it's okay to like what i like and to ignore the naysayers. i'm glad i have finally found that settling space and am always excited to build upon this myriad of influences.
as the rapper atmosphere so eloquently put it -
when life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold.
