Friday, July 23, 2004

Flying Home

Yardhog is going through some serious chemical changes. Tittering on the precipice of a panic attack. Too much pent up energy and no immediate outlets. It will pass.
Illinois Jacquet the great tenor saxophonist died of a heart attack in his home in New York yesterday. He was 81 years old and had been leading a band nearly up until the end. He was mostly known for his famous boisterous solo on "Flying Home" with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. The song was a national hit and Jacquet was forced to play it almost every night with the Hampton Band. According to the article this morning that's what made him leave the Hampton Orchestra two years later claiming physical exhaustion. He said later in an interview. "I had to quit. Hamp was getting rich and I was dying." Jacquet and drummer Joe Jones had trio with my friend organist/pianist Milt Buckner in the 1970s. Milt died around 1975, lugging his Hammond B3 organ down the steps of Joe Segal's Jazzshowcase in Chicago, but Jacquet seemed to go on and on. According the obituary this morning he was born in Louisiana, the son of an American Indian mother and a French Creole father. Can you think of a better lineage for a jazz musician? Heard about his death this morning after hearing him on a 1956 recording with Ben Webster entitled "The Kid and the Brute" they were playing on WNOZ New Orleans radio. Jacquet was one of the last great Texas tenors that included the likes of Arnette Cobb and Buddy Tate. Ain't none of them left now.
     Got an email the other day from the president of the Louisville Bicycle Club. The young man I saw in the accident Monday night is apparently doing okay. He broke several bones in his arms and hand. Thanks to the gods.

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