Classical Jazz music
Listening to slow jazz makes me feel like I’m on the dance floor. If you have ever listened to “Moment to Moment” by Theo Rollins, you will know exactly how I feel. You will hear the bitter sadness and acceptance of ones shortcomings in the tone of this song. You will feel your dance partners breath as you are dancing together hand in hand. Slow and longingly, we step and look into each other’s eyes and smile because we are truly one in this moment.
Jazz has a funny way of making your brain take pictures in your imagination. “Don’t mind me” by James Earle Trio, reminds me of the fall. As if you’re walking down a leaf covered sidewalk in the early fall. You smell the crisp air and that smell… that smell that you can only associate with wet leaves. So familiar – like chopping wood in the backyard with your dad so that there’s enough wood for the wood burning fireplace in the living room. I always sat in the couch beside the fire. I would fall asleep so easily. Then my mom or dad would wake me up and tell me to get to bed. Wonderful memories.
Sometimes I listen to a song like “Litania” by Sparrow & Bird, and think about those cold winter evenings when we would go to that Mexican restaurant. You told me you trusted me to choose your drink for you because you were so confident that you would like whatever I picked. Because you already knew me well enough to know I would choose something that I think best and based on you. You already had me figured out. And I can’t believe I’m just now coming to the realization that I’m in love with you. We would walk down the road after and we would talk and laugh, making fun of each other for being so cold. I wish I wasn’t such a fool. Love is the only thing I have ever felt with you. A wonderful love. Seeing those Xmas lights late at night while we drove around the neighbourhoods. Holding hands and your red lipstick.
If you ever look at the album artwork of “Pretty Ballad” by the Louis Silva Band, you will instantly be transported to a sunny downtown intersection. Watching the movement of the entire square from a 3rd person point of view. You will think about the woman in the dress clothes and where she is rushing to. Is it to the office? To meet a client? Or is she heading home because she forgot something?. You notice the cabs and take note of the flow of traffic each time the lights change. Hundreds of people using the sidewalks and crosswalks. And you hear the hum of the city but you tune it down to a dull roar. And the day turns into night and you see everything change. The lights come on and the light from the sun hasn’t totally gone away but it’s still pretty close. You watch a couple walking down the lamp lit path together hand in hand. They stop at the red light and wait for the light to change. He puts his arm around her and she leans up to kiss him.
I love to imagine myself as a James Bond secret agent or a copy writer like Don Draper. Not for the misogyny. But for the time period when songs like “Old Folks” by Southside Players come on. Like when smoking cigarettes anywhere was normal and acceptable. Picturing myself in a dimly lit bar. Where there is a piano player and a drummer and a cello/bass player. Everyone is in suits or cocktail dresses. The spotlight on the piano player. A real song to meet a mysterious beauty at a bar. Exchange stories and have great conversation. Have incredible sex because I’m James Bond or Don Draper. And then wake up the next morning to a cigarette and coffee.
