As P'an-chang was about to die, he asked the monks: "Is there anyone among you who will produce my likeness?" All the monks tried to do their best, but none of their sketches pleased the master. Then one of his disciples, P'u-hua, came up and said, "I can produce your likeness."
"If so," said the master, "why not present it to me?"
P'u-hua performed a somersault and left the room.
"When this monk becomes a teacher, he will be a lunatic!" exclaimed P'an-chang.
---Zen mondo
A hole in the bridge---
the horse remembers it
in the evening mist.
---Issa
"Just ask, just ask!"
says the dew,
and rolls away.
---Issa
My dear online friend, BebopAuthor aka Lady Haig aka Grange Rutan, asked me to put up this photo of her. Newly invited and graciously accepting, she still is feeling her way around our august establishment---somewhat more difficult without the wise Bartender to lend a hand. Lady already has posted a couple of comments, and one of them describes her in her blue wig. She noticed our comment facility doesn't allow for images and worried a bit that people wouldn't understand what she was talking about. Being a lady top to toe, she asked for a bit of assistance.
Now you may wonder, Isn't this rather elegant for a bebopper? I mean, don't they ram around all night, getting blasted and playing any riff that pops into their twisted heads? And anyway, isn't bebop some old music from a vague past? Well maybe it is, but the vague past is why The Wulfshead is here...so let's be respectful.
And actually bebop was a stately music, more akin to Haydn than to Satchmo---which may be why bop made that jazz master a bit nervous. Eddie Condon, 1920s and '30s Chicago wildman, called it "Chinese music," and given the whole tone scales Thelonious Monk used he may have been closer to the truth than he realized. The people who invented and played the music were virtuosos of their instruments and could have been great classical musicians...but they weren't schooled that way, nor did they see the world as a relaxed chamber for pipe and slippers. And so in their personal lives, many of them stumbled and fell.
Enter the bebop wife. It still was the case that most jazz musicians were men---but that was changing fast even in the 1940s. (Certainly vibist Margie Hyams from George Shearing's first quintet qualifies as a bopper, and MaryLou Williams' compositions from this period still are a stretch.) So when a jazz player needed taking care of, it was a special kind of lady who was by his side. Long suffering perhaps, but they were devoted beyond anything most people can imagine. For some it just was not possible to stay because the dangers were many. There are some who did and most of them are memorialized in song and memory among players and fans. Lady Haig could not stay with Al, but everyone knows and remembers her anyway...and understands. Wasn't it Dizzy Gillespie himself who gave her the name?
So there's her picture, and I'm sure she'll be around as her pleasure allows. Since she's been a bebop wife, we need to realize (as we do with Utah, Nausicaa and the other ladies in here) that she loves a good time...but lines and boundaries are very clear in her head. After all, BebopAuthor also is a staunch Presbyterian. (Has anyone ever met an un-staunch Presbyterian?) So Saturday night is one thing, and Sunday morning is another. That's how the great beboppers kept going, with ladies like this one looking after them. She keeps track of me too, and it is a great privilege for me that is so.
MORE >
