A Pointless Brief Encounter.

It is Saturday morning and five long days have passed since I last wrote anything on my blog page. The reason is that nothing has occurred of much interest to write about. I have got some good news about my bike. I joined a local Westbury neighbourhood internet group and asked if anyone knew how to mend bikes. On Monday morning a man came round and mended it in about twenty minutes which was good of him. He advised me to keep the chain well oiled in future, so I went round to Davis’s and got a can of bike oil. I have not been motivated to go out on my bike since then because it has been quite cold, foggy and damp this week, also I’m quite lazy. I have not been out of the house since then. Every day has just merged into the next one. I have not had any alcohol since this latest lockdown started 23 days ago. I was looking forward to going to the pub next week when lockdown ends on December 2^nd, but they have announced that the only pubs allowed to open are those that serve food. I do not go to the pub to eat, I go to drink and see my friends, so I will wait a while longer.

Most days I get up and potter around for a while and look on Facebook. I usually go back to bed in the afternoon because it is nice and warm up there. I get up again in time to watch Pointless on the telly. That is a popular quiz show. Then I watch the news. Last night they reported on a top Iranian nuclear expert being assassinated. That is very worrying. You can be sure that Israel is behind it. I bet it is not unconnected to Benjamin Netanyahu’s secret visit to Saudi Arabia last week. Why now?, probably because Joe Biden becomes President in January and has said he will reopen talks with Iran. Trump is so vindictive that he would like to leave Joe with as much chaos as possible when he takes over.

Anyway, after the news I have dinner which often involves brown rice and Linda McCartney. I usually listen to BBC 6 Music while this is going on. Monday night is my favourite telly night when I watch Only Connect and University Challenge. Then I flick round the channels to see if there is anything else worth watching. On BBC 4 on Thursday night they showed Brief Encounter with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard because it is the 75^th anniversary of its release. I watched it because there was nothing else on. It is about this middle aged, middle class woman who spends her afternoons at the pictures or hanging around railway stations. She meets this doctor, and they fall in love. I looked it up on Wikipedia and according to the critics it is the 2^nd greatest British film of all time, second only to The Third Man. It is directed by David Lean. How they can rate Brief Encounter above other films of his such as Dr Zhivago, Lawrence Of Arabia or Ryan’s Daughter is beyond my ken. It is not even in colour. The only other thing worth watching was a great documentary last night about singer Gerry Rafferty.

Once it gets past midnight, I usually look on Wikipedia to see what occurred on this date in history. Today for example is the anniversary of William Blake being born in 1757. I like Saturdays, it is the 2^nd round of the F.A. Cup today. My team Peterborough United known as The Posh are at home. I hope they win and get drawn against a big team like Manchester United in the 3^rd round. We shall see.

PS, Posh lost! Bah, never-mind.

The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady.

It was in the 1960’s that the name of Charles Mingus entered my consciousness. In a song by Donovan called Sunny Goodge Street. The lyrics said, ‘Listenin' to sounds of Mingus mellow fantastic, My, my, they sigh’. Then in 1979 Joni Mitchell put lyrics to Charles Mingus compositions on the album Mingus, but I never heard it. I was not ready for jazz just yet. In recent years I have started to show more of an interest. It might be partly due to Van Morrison having a jazz feel to a lot of his music. I want to experience some of the work of the jazz greats. I have albums by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Sidney Bechet and an album by The Mingus Big Band called Blues & Politics, but that was recorded after his death. I looked on the internet to see what the critics rated as Charles Mingus’s greatest work and The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady seemed to be the popular choice, so that is what arrived here a few days ago.

The CD has a nice gatefold sleeve and there is a booklet inside with an 18-page explanation of the music by Mingus. To me, his language reads a bit like Mezz Mezzrow. It is jazz jive talk, but I get what he is saying, I think! Charles also got his psychologist Dr Edmund Pollock who did not know much about music to write a review. It is a good review because although Dr Pollock did not know about the techniques of music, he did know what made Charles Mingus tick, so he understood the emotions behind the music. The album was recorded in one day on January 20^th 1963. Charles’s co-arranger Bob Hammer had the band practice this work night after night during a six week residency at the Village Vanguard club, so by the time they got in the studio they were au-fait with the music. There is an eleven-piece band consisting of trumpets, trombone, tuba, tenor & alto saxophones, flute, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. I expect the band members are all well known to jazz fans, but the only name I recognise and know is Jay Berliner on guitar. He played on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks and I have seen him play in Van’s band on a few occasions. I must say after two listens to this album that some of my favourite parts are Jay’s delightful solos on Spanish guitar.

The album is one continuous composition divided into four sections and six movements. It was originally orchestrated with a ballet in mind. I am not sure I understand it very well. I find it very avant-garde and experimental. I think Mingus was trying to push the boundaries of jazz with this work. Maybe, I will get into it after a few more listens. At times it sounds very chaotic to me. If it were a painting, I think it would be something like Guernica by Picasso. I think Mingus is trying to express the emotions of a black person living in a world where white people call the shots. I do not find it easy listening that is for sure. Perhaps I should have ordered one of his earlier albums to introduce myself to his work. Track four probably contains my favourite passages, especially towards the end where it accelerates relentlessly driven by the drums of Danny Richmond and the crazy trumpets of Rolf Ericson and Richard Williams. I will persevere and keep playing it and I will let you know if it grows on me.