I'm going to see one of my favorite singers tonight - Y'ousou D'our. He's Senegalese and his music is so beautiful. He has a lot of Sufi influence and blends with many cultures. If you haven't seen the documentary about him, it's amazing. I seldom do shows any more, so this is a big deal for me. I mostly feel too old for the volume of noise, the crowds and parking. We sang one African song this time in chorus, but every session the director has us learn something from that part of the world, so I now have a little repertoire of songs. I know several lullabies and the rhythms are so soothing.
I've been listening to the two Virgil Thomson-Gertrude Stein operas, Four Saints in Three Acts and Mother of Us All. They are both delightful, witty and melodic. I was lucky enough to see "Mother of Us All" a couple of years ago, and in August I can see the other opera. But just listening is fun. Virgin Thomson was from Missouri, and I have a kind of pride in that, as both sides of my family hail from there. There is a lot of good music that came out of that state, both the jazz and country, but other kinds as well. My parents were crazy for jazz, and went to clubs in Kansas City frequently. They saw all the greats early on, and wherever they lived or traveled, they took in shows. They often dragged my brother and I along, so we saw Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Theolonious Monk, Charley Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn. They used to play in the casinos at Lake Tahoe, or in the clubs on Broadway in San Francisco.
Right now I'm reading a biography of Monk, and it's fascinating. One of my favorite bios ever is about Louis Armstrong. What an amazing man. So even though my parents were tone deaf, they had pretty good taste in music for rural Missourians. I'm grateful.
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