Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Jazz and poetry... Ira Sadoff


I believe that music was created to help us experience emotions. Nothing moves me quite like music. 




At the Half-Note cafe
                               for Gene Ammons

Once I heard him play
"Willow Weep For Me"
in a tone so full

and sentimental, I felt
a gap between my ribs
and lungs, a dearth of air,
sorrow soon enough would fill.
I found the blues unfair
to boys like me who came to bars
unprepared for grief
that wasn't strictly personal ...

By Ira Sadoff



Maybe one of the hardest things we face is to feel joy in the midst of pain, but I do believe God desires us to feel emotions as pancakes.  They come in stacks, not just one at a time.  We tell ourselves it is wrong to be happy or the pain of an event masks the joyful moment that fills the present moment.  In 1956 Gene Ammons gathered with some of the best to record some music.

 here is the title track, The Happy Blues...




Individual musicians touch our lives and when they pass away tributes emerge.  Here is one made for Etta James, in which she sings the song, which touched Ira Sadoff, when it emerged from Gene Ammons horn...






12 comments:

  1. This is awesome. Thanks for sharing it.

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    1. Mary... Thanks. And I found a new poet and sax player in the process

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  2. I so needed this. And I think I needed it from you, someone who doesn't drip touchy-feely everywhere he walks. Thank you.

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    1. Di, glad it reached you at a good time. I once feared that loving God would make me sappy, but a minister assured me that God wouldn't do that to me.

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  3. Replies
    1. Lynn, welcome back! I think this post is resonating with many, and I am glad.

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  4. Emotions as pancakes... what an analogy, one I've seen play out a few times of my own. Thanks for putting a different spin on what were many difficult times for me. This is a much better way of looking at it from a distance.

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    1. I stole that from a wise woman who once gave us guidance.

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  5. I'm finally listening to music again. Not just listening. Letting it seep in, swish around inside a little and flow back out through my hands.

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    1. Walker, I am sure your hands are grateful for the experience

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