Episode 19: The Music You Cherish
Music - "The Early '70's" - Composed and performed by Jessica Roemischer
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts & Stitcher
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts & Stitcher
This just happened...and I had to make a podcast about it. Here, where I live Down Under, the weather turned suddenly from very hot (95F) to cold, windy and rainy. I was compelled to get out of the rain and eat an early dinner - specifically, a hamburger. I entered a pub and found myself sitting next to someone who was reading a newspaper. But as I noticed, it wasn't a current newspaper--not the Sydney Morning Herald, for sure. As I looked more closely, I saw that it was called "Melody Maker." And as I began to chat with the man, I learned that the paper covered the music scene in London and the USA, and this edition was from 1971! He let me look at it and, as I did, I felt that I'd been given a time capsule from the past, from that period in my life when I was coming of age, and listening to all the rock and folks musicians who were featured in that paper--Van Morrison, James Taylor, Genesis, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills & Nash. As I pored over the articles and ads, reading each word as I turned the yellowed pages, I was brought back to the first album I'd bought ("Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor), the first concert I'd attended (at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island - Crosby, Stills & Nash), and the ways I'd learned those songs on the piano (figuring out the chords to "Fire and Rain" by ear). And there was a photo of Thelonious Monk playing with other esteemed jazz musicians, including a trombone player named Kai Winding--who happened to live a few doors from where I grew up in Dobbs Ferry, NY. As I sat there, reading that newspaper, I reconnected to experiences from all those years ago, as if they'd happened yesterday.
