Lovely eras: The Jazz age - New York
If I could go back in time to one classic era which would it be?
A commonly asked question and my answer more often than not would most
definitely be the jazz age, New York, when upon any given night I could head out to a nightclub and hear some of my
favourite artists in full flow.
I could check out the Savoy or the Cotton Club and jive to some of the sophisticated
swing of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Then there was the Royal Roost (or Birdland), named after Charlie Parker who alongside Dizzy Gillespie would completely regale me with their revolutionary improvised approach to the classic
genre. Perhaps whilst still in Birdland I might have caught a glimpse of an up
and coming Miles Davis or John Coltrane, who knows? From Birdland I would most
definitely go a few blocks down to a 52nd street club like the Onyx
or the Three Deuces to bask in awe at the enchanting choral of Lady Day.
I sometimes wonder what the atmosphere and air of such an era
would inspire me to become; perhaps I would find myself also drawn to playing music or perhaps I'd be a two-bit hustler in a pinstripe suit, I have so many
romantic ideas, I'd probably be an average Joe trying to support a family. I
know one thing, with so many musical geniuses so commonly exhibited I know that I
would never be out of the night clubs so if I wasn't doing something spectacular
to earn a living then I would be a ruined man and the kids would be hungry.
I remember watching a documentary about Ronnie Scott's famous London jazz club and
hearing the founders explain how as young men they would take jobs working on the ships just
so that they could dock in at New York and go hear the greats play on a
night off, I was envious.
I wonder, if perhaps I would fit in more so with this era than my own, would I even
want to come back? Yeah, it's probably a good thing that some fantasies can
never be realised.
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