Miles of Blu

MILES OF BLUE By Tony Adamo (Nov.25,’05) I walked into a little jazz dive off 125th and Lex. A cold wind blew me through the swingin’ doors. Beer, peanuts, dark smoke and the smell of times gone by laid me out like I was a hit man in a deep freeze. I was in the mood to get down. Not just any get down mood, but a funky jazzy get down highlife mood that would shake me down to the bone. Now how was that gonna happen? On walls above the bar were pixs of Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott and larry Young. Had I come from no where to find somewhere? On the ceiling were old and tattered playbills of past greats: Miles, Mingus, Monk, Train, Diz and the Bird. They had come in the early AM over the years to jam on tiny stage that gave birth to a new musical word. A jazzy sophistication accented by a hipness in thought A complex amazingly beautiful musical abstraction of pure melody line. Can you dig it? I had to sit down. My head was spinnin’ fast thinking about the possibilities that Monk, Diz and the Bird had pushed into one fat chord. Their musically original ideas gave birth to a spontaneous explosion of hybrid scales and hip to the bone atmospherical, improvisational, thoroughly impossible, but not improbable jazz notes of wonderment that had a residual harmonic effect upon our lives and souls. Man I was in deep. There was no turning back now. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and looked up into a wise face. A face that said are you walkin or drinkin?. I ordered a Brave Bull light on the rocks You got to be cool……nine miles of blue. You got to get it right With Miles and the gang you can see the light You got to be hipnine miles on a blue trip No live music was in this joint, but Lou Donulson was lighting up the jukebox with his funky alligator boogaloo. My mind kept tripping back to Miles, Mingus, Monk, Train, Diz and the Bird. Maybe it was the ghost of times gone by or just the vibe of the room. Whatever it was, I was in the zone of thought, the abstract thought of musical truth. Those cats were the jazz architects of the new sound dimensions that colored our black and white lives A jazzy soul drenched feel that seeped in and saturated our dull existence and musically brought us closer to the Love Supreme So what you may say! So what! Their music changed our performance in life. The force of their powerful presence leaves you spellbound. We all started to take Giant Steps around Midnight Yea Miles of Blu