Black Music Month 2023: The hardest part

One of the books I read was Black Music by Amiri Baraka, though it is generally listed under LeRoi Jones.

His writing is lyrical -- perfect for music writing -- and passionate. I think he had a tendency to be passionate anyway, but compared to his writing about blues, jazz enraptures him.

As we have covered, I do not appreciate jazz. 

Well, I do seem to be okay with hot jazz but this is mainly free jazz. Avant-garde.

I do not hear what he hears. 

I had sort of made peace with it, in that some people seem to appreciate rock or jazz but not both, and I definitely lean toward rock. there is still some wish that I did understand.

For example, in Ken Kesey's Sometimes A Great Notion, Lee gets a rise out of Hank -- after they have been bonding over jazz -- by playing some Coltrane. I can get why he objected to Coltrane, but why not the others? 

Was some of it too modern where it's related to the times? Am I too young to understand it?

When SpongeBob and Patrick were trying to be sophisticated, I believe they showed it by listening to smooth jazz.

A friend recently told me about a Langston Hughes character, "Simple", who theorized that be-bop is the sound a police club makes on a Black man's head, so white people can't appreciate it.

I might be too white.

However, I would like to add that it was like when I was reviewing M83 and my dog left the room. The cats don't like jazz either. (They must not be hep cats.)

Anyway, Black Music has a discography in the back, and I made myself listen to all of it. I did not really enjoy any of it. I felt like I should do some daily songs, but picking was going to be difficult.

Listening on Spotify, when you reach the end of what you started, it brings up something else that it feels is related. I usually did not hate those as much.

So the daily songs for July are mostly things that came up after listening to an album from the discography. Sometimes the artists were people I listened too, but not from those albums.

I don't necessarily love these either. Some are chosen on the strength of the names, like "Boplicity",

Maybe someday I will be sophisticated, but it's not today. Still, I did make it through that discography, even though it was the hardest part.

And it was not the worst part.

Daily Songs

7/1 “Smooch” by Miles Davis
7/2 “Shu Shu” by Ike Quebec
7/3 “Brownskin Girl” by Sonny Rollins
7/4 “Caribé” by Eric Dolphy
7/5 “Volga Boatmen” by Ahmad Jamal Trio
7/6 “All the Things You Are” by Dizzy Gillespie
7/7 “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (Rudy Van Gelder Edition)” by Paul Chambers Quintet
7/8 “Portal” by Matthew Shipp
7/9 “Angel Voice” by Ornette Coleman
7/10 “Bye-ya” by Thelonius Monk
7/11 “Boplicity” by Miles Davis
7/12 “Love” by John Coltrane
7/13 “Free” by Ornette Coleman
7/14 “Our Delight” by Fats Navarro
7/15 “Drum One” by Paul Bley
7/16 “Windows” by Chick Corea
7/17 “You Are My Lucky Star” by Sonny Rollins
7/18 “Eventually” by Ornette Coleman
7/19 “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane
7/20 “Care Free” by Art Ensemble of Chicago
7/21 “Shirl” by Horace Silver Quintet
7/22 “Monk In Wonderland” by Grachan Moncur III
7/23 “Tomorrow Is The Question!” by Ornette Coleman
7/24 “Blue Free” by Grachan Moncur III
7/25 “Ida Lupino” by the Paul Bley Trio
7/26 “Ankh #1” by Sun Ra
7/27 “Mascaram Setaba” by Mulatu Astatke
7/28 “Spirits” by Albert Ayler
7/29 “London” by Angel Bat David
7/30 “Addis Black Widow” by Mulatu Astatke, The Heliocentrics
7/31 “Sweet and Lovely” by Elmo Hope Trio 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/07/black-music-month-2023-prelude.html