e
n
L
i
e
n
XT
e
L
i
l
e
i
T
T BODY T
r eQU I e M
office becomes a setting straight out of a parable, a point of con-
stant symbolic intersection and interaction. and i’m right there in
the middle of the boil. it’s a great viewpoint. So when the Shake
House file found itself on my desk, I couldn’t help but take a closer
look. after all, i love jazz.
I started making it down to the shake house three or
four nights a week, to see Marcus or whoever play. There
were a lot of names back then, most of them I’ve forgot-
ten now, and they all had something about them. but no
one had nothing like Marcus. I’d sit in the hazy dark, right
there in the middle of the boiling crowd, feeding off the
breath of the pale-eyed brother onstage. I took to hanging
around after, talking with the bartenders and the security
guards, waiting to catch a glimpse of him. I saw him a few
times. once I bought him a beer and we talked for a bit, but
I didn’t know what to say except that I’d loved the show. he
was quiet. The next night, though, one of the joint’s manag-
ers asked me if I wanted to make some money wiping down
tables after hours, since I’d been hanging around anyway.
always wondered what Marcus said to get me that job.
i was paying attention. Coltrane, gillespie, Bird – i’m willing
to bet i was the only mBa in my class who’d even heard of those
guys. Some might drop their names to convince some broad they
had some class, but i was a real fan. i loved nothing more than
to come home, pour some wine, and flip on some Charlie Mingus.
there were a lot of names back then, that was the time of disco,
you know. my friends went through a Jefferson Starship phase.
But i’d dug in underneath all of them. i’ve always tried to keep in
touch with what’s really happening out there. even though i grew
up in Whitton, which is just north of the city, i used to volunteer
with my church – don’t worry, i’ve since grown out of believing
– and we’d come down and do urban renewal projects or put in
blue moon 5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171