Tuesday, July 11, 2006

What's Scarier Than A Look Inside Pam's Brain?: Listeners' Series, Vol. IV

Lately I've been spending a good deal of mental energy listening to, writing about or remembering jazz. If I had to guess, I would say probably at least half a percent of my brain power on a given day in the past couple of years has been dedicated in some way to jazz. It's said that we human beings only use something like 3% of our brains, so a little number crunching means that my jazz compulsion leaves roughly 83% of my available brain function to do other things. It sounds like a lot until I consider that I need to use this 83% to feed and clothe myself, produce work so that I can earn money to buy fancy shoes, plus ruminate on the state of the world, why Dave Chappelle flipped out, and if Suri Tomcat really does exist. Among other things.

Then it hit me - I could free up some of my limited brain space by SHARING the jazz stuff that swirls around in there with others. This thought led to the evolution of my Listeners' Series IV: Jazz Tasting at the Tramp House. On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 a bevy of friends converged upon my living room in Glendale for some wine, tapas and jazz discussion. I emptied out about half of the 0.5% that was taking up valuable brain space and now can use the newly vacated area for some other useful endeavor, like figuring out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop and multiplying percentages of percentages for this summary.

Enough of that. Seven folks were coming over for the Listeners' Series, and I was a bit nervous because I had no idea what to expect. Would these folks actually like the music I had on hand? Would they be bored and change the subject to Lindsay Lohan? Would they point and snicker because I had a 'bat in the cave'? Pushing these questions aside, I prepared some materials ahead of time (just post a comment if you'd like me to send you a copy), opened a couple of bottles of wine (snoozers) and tried to figure out how to keep the prosciutto attached to the melon since I forgot to buy toothpicks (glue is not a good choice).

The evening was a great success. The participants were all interested, engaged and additive. We talked about what jazz is, how jazz songs are structured, what to listen for, and how to approach listening to jazz at home or out in da club. Check out the Series Review page on my website for photos - www.pamelahowell.com to put faces with the following names:

Pam Howell - Ringleader and evening DJ, spinning Miles, Trane, Ella, The Duke and even a little Erykah Badu.

David Reinhold - Former trombone player and sophisticated listener sporting a jazzy five o'clock shadow.

Allan Spring - Crossword expert (I think he cheats though) who now plans to teach his cats how to play the jazz spoons.

Cassy Nehring (+ baby to be) - Classical / rock pianist who may even introduce the group to Ethiopian jazz. I bet she means it too, since we learned to belly dance at her last baby shower...

Cam Frierson - Television producer and brainiac who drew analogies between jazz, Justin Timberlake and the Japanese flag. They made sense too. Really.

Holly Tempo - Artist and educator with some interesting observations on how the metamorphosis of a jazz tune resembles the creation of an art piece. We all impressed ourselves by how smart we sounded.

Susan and Art Young - These two folks have more music crammed into their 3% usuable brains than the cities of Tupelo, Mississippi and Paris, Texas combined. Art even suggested we play some free jazz (leading to Cam's analogy...) AND they have a dog named Ella. Zowie.

So that's a quick and dirty summary. The concensus when the motley crew broke up for the night is that we should definitely do it again. Next time, I'll be sure to provide more interesting wine and proscuitto/melon thingies that hold together better...





4 Comments:

At 7:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, Pam, I love reading your summaries. Especially anything listing me as a brainiac.

The thing that I liked best was that even though you had your handout slide presentation that would have even made Al Gore proud, you presented the evening as a conversation about jazz. There has to be a level of comfort bringing people together to "taste" music like this and I found the Tramp House to be a great clearing for that kind of free discourse to come about.

It was one of the smartest and fun evenings I've enjoyed in some time. And I didn't wake up with a hangover!

Should you opt for another of theses (yes, Yes, YES), I would volunteer my Tribe Called Quest album with the jazz musicians playing live on it. Innovative and the meeting of TWO indigenous American expressive art forms.

 
At 12:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pam,

I love your grassroots, get it done with loads of fun attitude. I learned a lot about jazz that I didn't know and enjoyed the group you gathered. Do it again. I'll come.

Suggestion: Maybe a night dedicated to latin jazz or global jazz renditions.

 
At 4:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! I read your summary and wished I had attended. Your passion for jazz really shows through and is contagious...

Definitely count me in next time!

Jennifer

 
At 7:32 AM, Blogger Pam Howell said...

Hey Kids - Thank you SO much for the comments!! I now feel less like the last kid picked for dodgeball and more like the head cheerleader for jazz. Or, maybe the nerdy kid who wins the science fair but the cool kids hang out with him anyway.

Wonderful suggestions, everyone! I am thinking that the next Tramp House jazz series will be a "Jazz Pot Luck" where we all contribute something interesting from our eccletic collections - and I'll pick stuff for those who don't want to bring anything. More details and a date forthcoming...

Thanks again - and keep those cards and letters coming, pretty please!

xo
Pam

 

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