e tu, mose..?

by russell

leonard cohen, then leon russell...

and now mose allison?

all since election day?  are these guys trying to tell us it's time to get off the freaking planet?

I'm gonna miss Mose, he was the hippest of the hip.  Not in a "you'll never be as hip as me, so don't even try" way like Miles.  Not in a "I'm hiding behind these shades and hat" way like Monk.  

Not even in an "I'm not even from this planet" way like Sun Ra.

He was just hip, in his very bones.  If Mose did it, it was hip by definition.  It was not how he was, it was who he was.  It was his essence.

In memoriam, a timely message from our skinny white brother from Mississippi.

If I gotta cry in my beer, at least I'm gonna have a laugh while I'm at it.

Thanks for all the music Mose.

Comments

[cleek]

i do not know Mose.

where do i start?

[Girl from the North Country]

I did not know Mose either, thank you russell. But Leon Russell hit me hard, and as for Leonard Cohen, I had the most enormous crush on him (and his work) when I was 18, and shortly thereafter when I was on Hydra for a week, he bought me coffee and we sat and chatted in the harbourfront cafe - a very fine memory indeed. I saw him twice on his recent tours, and was very glad to. A most extraordinary writer, and singer, and man.

[russell]

for mose I would probably start with the pretty good 'best of' collection from back in 1988. you'll probably recognize a couple of the tunes.

GFTNC, that''s a pretty amazing story about hanging with Cohen!

[Girl from the North Country]

I know russell, one of the (my) best. I had approached him to say I was a great admirer, and had just finished Beautiful Losers, and he like the perfect gentleman he was invited me to come and have coffee with him. If I knew then what I knew later, from seeing documentaries of him on tour, and constantly having women throwing themselves at him, I would never have done it, but luckily I knew nothing of the sort, so have an exceptionally cool memory. It's not that often you get to meet any of your heroes.

[Davebo]

Always sad but at 89 Mose had a fantastic run.

[liberal japonicus]

I heard Mose Allison in Hattiesburg when I was playing in the 1st jazz lab band in university, with this vague notion that I could play piano (I couldn't, I just covered the part cause there were no other pianists). I don't have many memories from the concert, (it was college, so there are a lot of holes in the narrative), but I do remember the effortlessness he played with.

Here's a tune that could be dedicated to the president-elect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSUsbeU9dDQ

[dr ngo]

Well, damn. I was a big Mose Allison fan Back In The Day (when I had several of his early albums on vinyl). Only got to here him once, nearly 50 years ago - aside: since he was older than I was then, and I'm now an old man, presumably he was even older when he died, so I should have been ready for it, but I'm not. He was the _least_ "audience-friendly" performer I've ever encountered, in that he mostly just sat with his back to the audience and played and sang. No banter, no effort to engratiate himself, no "Hello, DC" [for that was where we were], not even eye contact with us to make us feel like he was trying to communicate. You either came there to hear his music or you didn't; same to him either way, I guess. I suppose that's the "cool" Russell describes. Anyway, I was a little disappointed, but not enough to turn me off his music.

... and then somehow almost half a century passed and here we are.

I also heard Leonard Cohen once, just a couple of years ago, and he did _not_ disappoint as a performer, no way, no how. There's a video of him Live In London that is essentially the show we saw, albeit in Durham, NC. I think I've mentioned that he was only touring because his former manager had ripped him off royally, so he needed the money - which was a shitty thing for the manager to do, but a boon for music.

And now they're both gone. Except for the recordings and memories, which will last at least as long as I do, and probably a good deal longer.