1. I realized today that the episode of Jazz entitled, "Dedicated to Chaos" is the episode I should have started with in my quest to better understand bebop. The episode helped me understand much better how some Black jazz musicians found the lack of freedom in big band/swing compositions to be confining. They also wanted to play music that more truthfully expressed their experience as African-Americans. In late night jazz sessions and with the support of Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and others pioneered bebop, this startling and innovative style of jazz. For listeners accustomed to the dance rhythms and much more structured sound of the big bands, the speed, emotional turmoil, and aggressiveness of bebop was jarring.
I thought about how little I know about hip hop. I do know that hip hop, like bepop, began underground -- not in Harlem, but in the Bronx -- and, like bepop, has its roots in the Black urban experience. Like bepop, hip hop was pioneered by African Americans as a way of exploring Black experience and expressing its truths. Hip hop also became a means for African Americans to take control of the recording, marketing, and selling of their own music, working outside of the established record companies and means of distribution. Over the last 30-40 years, as hip hop has emerged and gained widespread popularity, I've heard countless denigrating comments about this style of music and the content of its lyrics. I wondered if this rejection and these derisive comments are similar to the rejection the bebop pioneers experienced for creating a sound so out of conformity with mainstream jazz and for expressing a range of emotions that many listeners found unsettling.
2. On the windswept fairways and greens of Winged Foot Golf Club, host to this year's men's U. S. Open, I didn't hear any bebop or hip hop, but enjoyed watching putts drop as this most challenging course asserted its will, taxing the world's best golfers, demanding that they play at their highest level or suffer golf humiliation. The player who stood our for me today was Patrick Reed -- he scrambled all day, rarely hitting greens in regulation, but time after time, whether out of the green side rough or out of green side sand traps, he deftly pitched and chipped his recovery shots close to the hole and converted knee knocking after knee knocking putt. When he completed his round, Reed headed straight for the driving range. No doubt he knows, much like other followers of golf know, that in order to win this championship, he must drive the ball straighter. It's difficult to score well on a course like Winged Foot by putting so much pressure on the short game.
3. As I planned, late this afternoon and on into the evening, I got started on preparing food for Sunday's family dinner and visit from Hugh and Carol Crozier. I'm about half way done, will finish on Saturday, and have everything ready to go long before guests arrive. I'm relieved.
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