I ran across a friends book about Miles Davis, the legendary jazz musician the other day. It seems like Miles Davis is the icon of the jazz scene because a lot of musicians usually have some record, album, book or poster of his around. And reading this book “Miles” The Autobiography, one would think his lifestyle was more dramatic and interesting than his music. In this book he speaks frankly in black and white about his life and holds nothing back. He seemed to be very outspoken almost political like a preacher in his speech. And I have come across other Jazz icons biographies and movies also such as Charlie Parker, and their lives seem to have been sex, drugs, and Rock N’ Roll as one would never know these jazz icons and others on the jazz scene were former junkies in their lifetime unless you read the book or watch the movie to learn the history of these figures and the jazz scene around them in their time. And the legend lives on. Long Live Jazz.
Category Archives: jazz
Jazz Comes to the Bowery
And so I wandered outside last night with this digital camera I have to play around with to take photos of my friends band, Funk Monk at this really cool restaurant and lounge called Mannahatta. My friends band gave me a really good excuse to dust off the camera and use it for the night. Digital cameras are awesome and I find technology amazing these days. And so I took the above photo of my friends band just for the purpose of posting it on this blog. They are all jazz and hip hop and have played around the city at Nublu, Knitting Factory, the Williamsburg Jazz Festival, and even the New York City subway as part of the Musicians Under New York Program. And I am also taking my friend gig as an excuse to experiment with YouTubeing. How does one YouTube? Well, I made a video of them there also with this digital camera, low light and all and just posted it on You Tube with trial and error. I can now possibly become a YouTube addict to replace all of my other Internet website addictions I have going on at the moment. And that Mannahatta place is awesome with their new Summer Jazz Series and Funk-N-Flava Jazz Wednesdays. They have an open Jazz Jam session every Tuesday in July if you are in the neighborhood. Jazz, Jazz, Jazz. Play Jazz away the day.
MTA polizei and musicians
Is the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority becoming the New York City Metropolitan Terrorizer Association? Can someone remove all of the NYC MTA polizei from the subway system? Can the NYC MTA just make its subway fares free? Can the MTA free its riders and its subway musicians from its system of harrassment? And those “If you see something say something” messages and random bag searches are a terrorize the people campaign in itself. Yesterday I learned that now I should attend this Saturdays April 14th Earth Day event, the National Day of Climate action, http://stepitup2007.org just to help protect my friends saxophone in case the MTA polizei policy issue my friends a summons for playing their music in the subway. The National Day of Climate Action will be rallies and gatherings across the country to call for action on global warming and climate change and MUNY joins the National Day of Climate Action in a marathon concert at Times Square from 10am to 6pm, celebrating mass transit as a major solution to reducing carbon emissions and I should be there to help save their horns from becoming a New York City subway statistic. Since when did my job become horn saver? My friend Welf, from the Underground Horns , a brass band, performs with “Drumadics”, drummers. They have been playing their music in scheduled weekly performances as part of the MTA Arts for Transit/Music Under New York, http://mta.info/mta/aft series . Their music is fun and spiritual. And there is this policy officerial who keeps shutting them down with his volumnmeter who has now threatened to issue them a summons the next time they show up to play which would be this Saturday as part of the April 14th Earth Day Event at the Times Square subway station. So what does one do? Maybe subway musicians get complaints and get tossed out of the subway all of the time. Can one not tolerate art? What ever happened to freedom of speech? Since when did art and music in public spaces become a crime?
For more information about these musicians, you can view the Underground Horns YouTube video at http://concretebeat.blogspot.com , and the Drumadics page at http://myspace.com/drumadics .
And what does this have to do with a No Police State? Happy Earth Day. Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind.
No Police State Girl 