30 / summer wind

Many times, something starts when something ends. That´s why I don’t like to say goodbye. 

Three  points of view of this summer wind- choose yours.

29 / LAST QUATRAIN

You said in a whisper: tonight,

stars need a reason to bright,

in the middle of the darkness

we will burn the moon light.

28 /On Dylan's Road

It is quite impossible to me to choose only one Dylan’s song. Let us take a walk on Dylan's road.

This is probably the first video clip in the history and one of the most famous. It’s Subterranean homesick blues, from Dylan’s work Bringing it all back home (1965)

One of the essential Dylan’s songs is this Like a Rolling Stone (Highway 61 Revisited, 1964), here in its first version. There is a thing that you have to know about Dylan: he doesn’t sing a song twice in the same way.

Planet Waves (1974), one of my favorite Dylan´s works, includes the wonderful forever young, here in The Last Waltz, the concert where The Band, the group that used to play with Dylan, said goodbye.

 A wonderful Simple twist of fate from Blood on the Track (1975)  in a performance on  TV.

Make you feel my love, included in Time out of mind (1997)

Thunder in the mountain from Moderm times (2007). Elegant, classic rock, as you see.

Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ from Together through life (2009) the

 last original Dylan’s work apart from some Christmas carrols.

27 / MY DYLAN

I was thirteen and, as manna, Bringing It All Back Home fell into my hands. It was a vinyl LP with a suggestive sleeve from where Dylan was holding a cat and looking sideways at me . I did not understand a word, but from the first note, I knew it was exactly the sound I was waiting for. There was something in his delightful bad voice, something in this country-rock he had invented, something in the rhymes, in the intensity of his singing which connected directly with my very deep. And there, in this imprecise space, remains since then in the company of Dostoyevsky, chocolate ice-cream, and a few other good things of life.

 So, Dylan became such a personal matter to me, while he had already reached the generation’s icon level. Despite the fact that Dylan hates being seen as a mass leader, his influence in 1960s and1970s society’s changes is indubitable. Many people say that Dylan was a revolutionary voice, however, he only wanted to let his footprint in music and poetry, as he did, of course.

Following the Woody Guthrie’s trail, Dylan arrived to country music to renew it. His poetry gave a new dimension to the US’s traditional music from the beginning of his career. Even more, in 1965, Highway 61, was the confirmation of the fusion of folk music and rock that he had showed in his polemic performance in the Newport Folk Festival.  From this moment till now, Dylan’s experiments in music have been continuous.

People like control their idols; they like to see them, solid as rocks, showing some true as modern demigods or irreproachable models from the top of somewhere. That is the reason why many people do not understand or even accept Dylan. In fact, Dylan is nothing but a man who has walked his own road. Contradictions and radical changes of the course of his ideas and conceptions have surprised to everybody more than once. This is not inconsistency; this is just freedom and independence. There is only a constant thing in his life: searching and art. Although Dylan is known as a very influential singer-songwriter, he is a writer and painter as well.  As far as I am concerned, I do not need superheroes or prophets to follow or adore; I like human beings who inspire me sometimes and sometimes not.

Big Hunter of Answers Dylan has found a few questions and he asks them to me, to everybody, with the grace of genius. 

26 / ROUND MIDNIGHT

As my last tribute to jazz for today, I want to share with you, friends, a film I like very much: Round Midnight.

“Round Midnight is a 1986 film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by David Rayfiel and Bertrand Tavernier. It tells the story of an African American tenor saxophone player in Paris in the 1950s who is befriended by an unsuccessful French graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who tries desperately to help him to escape alcohol abuse. The protagonist jazzman, "Dale Turner," was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends Lester Young (tenor sax) and the tortured and enigmatic Bud Powell (piano). While the film is fictionalized, it is drawn directly from the memoir/biographyDance of the Infidels written by Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate days and on whom the character "Francis" is based. The film is a wistful and tragic portrait that captures the Paris jazz scene of the 1950s.

Dexter Gordon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and won a Grammy for the film's soundtrack entitled "The Other Side of Round Midnight" in the category for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Soloist. Herbie Hancock won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight and The Other Side of Round Midnight.” (From the Wikipedia)

25/ SOME JAZZ PEARLS

Scott Joplin, king of Ragtime, plays The Entertainer, performed in 1902.

Louis Amstrong and Ducke Ellington play It Don't Mean a Thing (if it ain't got that swing)

Django Reinhart, the greatest jazz guitar, and Stephen Grapelli, wonderful violinist, play Minor Swing

Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins in jam sesion in 1950

Miles Davis plays Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Keith Jarret and Jam Garbarek, new romantics, play My Song

24/ HAPPY INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY

 Usually, I don´t feel involved in those “international days” which try to make people aware of something. Mainly, I don’t see the usefulness and, even more, the resources invested in those celebrations should be used in the causes they claim for. But this time is different.

Jazz is the universal language of diversity and inspiration. Although Jazz has born in USA it has no nationality, all around the world, people feel jazz, people play jazz. 

Jazz is a great lover, if jazz make love with other tune, a beautiful song will surely born. The essence of jazz is mixture and freedom despite the fact that it came out from slaves. There is no other artistic expression as free as jazz is. Jazz break harmony rules creating a new one. Jazz’s disorder is not a chaos. Many times, Jazz is composing during the performance, so improvisation can became a miracle sometimes.

Perhaps you think you don’t like jazz, well, I suggest you to take a walk through this empire of diversity, because there is a special jazz sound waiting for you.  

"Jazz has been a force for positive social transformation throughout its history, and it remains so today. This is why UNESCO created International Jazz Day. From its roots in slavery, this music has raised a passionate voice against all forms of oppression. It speaks a language of freedom that is meaningful to all cultures. The same goals guide UNESCO in its efforts to build bridges of dialogue and understanding between all cultures and societies." 

Irina Bokova, Director General


A brief history of jazz: