I.
Now I've got to tell you about the one extra piece of thought I've been carrying around with me in the streets all these nights... Just like — tell you how it was — the other evening standing in the moonlight & listening to that music coming from sky above — It was the music of generations of jazz musicians making rhythm & wide & universal harmony & we are the free! You could hear their rhythm, you could feel their heartbeat down through the decades of the century, down across the dreamy bridge into the future, you could see them, feel them — & far & wide & future! & all these voices reminded me of what Eddie Jefferson was singing about years ago — he was singing to all the brothers & sisters in the future — about Bird & Bean & Pres & Trane & Rahsaan! & far & wide & rhythm & life! & nobody can ever take away the melody of Eddie Jefferson — or any of these spirit folks — nobody can ever sell out the dream of all humanfolk making harmony down the air waves! Recognition? It will someday come to pass! You can bet it will!The way it comes across now, in Eddie Jefferson's song,
the people hearing sounds on Fifty-Second Street —The way it comes across now, imagine you were there,
'bout three in the morning hearing Charlie Parker sounds,
& Thelonious on the stand playing magic things — so —Come along down to Fifty Second Street —
Imagine you were there & listen to the beat —
In Eddie Jefferson's song —The melody & rhythm, its the way it's got to be —
Imagine you were there & the players playing free —
In Eddie Jefferson's song—Imagine you were movin when the Diz was grooving high —
Imagine you were burnin when the Bird went to fly —The way it comes across, the newest sound in town —
imagine you were there hearing bebop turn around —
In Eddie Jefferson's song —In Eddie Jefferson's song —
II.
Here! We! Go!
Singing & shouting 'bout the everlasting music they were playing on those old enduring saxophones — & if you —
Listen to that steady kind of offbeat shake shake shake shaking softly undulating percolating kind of rhythm interconnecting my mythology with yours — well — it's just a rapid idiomatic melody — a smoking solo from the high priest of vocal jazz —
& Now's The Time & Groovin' High & moon beam vision & way down weavy & real blue woman & Moody's Mood for Love & leap'n Lester & the best of Dexter in a flash! Back! Anti-phonal! Funk! Honk! Refrain!
It's plain to see I'm
speaking all about a whole lot of Spirit Folks &
whisper in my ear about a whole lot of population
twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago on Fifty Second Street—
& they were finger! Popping! They were! Swinging! They were! Dancing! They were Taking a Chance on Love —It was just the reverbrating rhythm of a Charlie Yardbird —
he was playing bebop — at three or four in the morning he was
playing nonstop — he was playing Sha! Ba! Doo! Yeh! Scroobeedoobop!& it's when you give an ear & then you listen & you hear — & it's when you take a chance & then you hear the music advance — & now it's
Eddie Jefferson's song & he's singing along & vocalizing on the
best of the musical modulating on the scene — he's
making lyrics on the solos of the Bird & the Bean —He's standing in between — the chunk chunk chunk of the big band drummers & the new out of tune Oo Bop Sh Bam of the bebop innovators —
you can hear him crooning 'bout the music of pianoman Bud Powell —
when Bud was playing in his prime — so —Come along down to Fifty Second Street —
imagine you were there & listen to the beat —
in Eddie Jefferson's song —The melody & rhythm, its the way it's got to be —
imagine you were there & the players playing free —
in Eddie Jefferson's song —The people hearing sounds, it's the best going down —
& Dexter's on the stand, & J.J's in the band —The way it comes across, the newest sound in town —
imagine you were there hearing bebop turn around —
in Eddie Jefferson's song —Here! We! Go!
Rocket in the Anthropology & down the century & feeling like a Charlie Parker hitting on a riff & spitting it out at Minton's where they play &
everybody was blown away including Miles Davis!You can hear the new inner city innovation underculture New York City mecca pan Americana making new cohesion music!
Well you — snap your finger & you turn your head & you look around —you tap your toe & walk on down — it's Seventh Avenue — & suddenly it's Basie's Back in Town!
Where? It's over here! No — it's over there! No—it's where you are! Like somewhere there's heaven — as in How High the Moon — it's Lullabye of Birdland full of razmatootie people playing Sha-ba-doo-ye-ba-ba on those old enduring saxophones again —
Especially the saxophone of James Moody & his orchestrating — he was
Playing just a Change of Pace — where Eddie Jefferson seems to be groovin' on the team — he inherited arpeggios of Hawkins & double-time of Yardbird & laid it on his vocalizing at the Village Vanguard with Dexter Gordon! Johnny Griffin! J. J. Johnson!& it's when you give an ear & then you listen & you hear — & it's when you take a chance & then you hear the music advance — & now it's
Eddie Jefferson's song & he's singing along & vocalizing on the
best of the musical modulating on the scene — he's
making lyrics on the solos of the Bird & the Bean — well I mean —
you can hear the Messengers in Eddie Jefferson — well I mean —
you can hear the legendary Art Blakey & the Messengers —
III.
Some night,
some one will say the
slow note, the blue tonality—Some one will remember the message
of Eddie Jefferson & play full enough
to blow open the moonstream song — someWay down night dreamy, weavy rhythm, shaking,
you can listen hear the congregation making shaking motion
if you listen out across the skyline of the city with your inner soul —
LIS-sten! Ancestral motion whisper, whisper, whisper, penetrating, shaking,
inspirating in the shadows shacks & alleys —
you can listen in the streets & ghettos
all across the western hemisphere—You'll find life in tones in LINES!
I mean the message of Eddie Jefferson lives! The
working sweating situation will
transform tomorrow into—HOW 'BOUT AN AGE VISION!
HOW 'BOUT A LISTEN! HOW 'BOUT HERE WE GO, HERE WE GO AGAIN... HOW 'BOUT —O.K. YOU CAN COME ON IN & BLOW IF YOU WANT TO, I'M THROUGH...
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