Useful phrase

[infrogmation]

I had a chance to use something I learned from the late great Doc Cheatham at a gig the other night.

Not a riff, break, or musical phrase. Something else.

For those who don't know, Doc Cheatham (1905-1997) was a trumpeter who played with McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, and many other luminaries and was still playing brilliantly past the age of 90, when his duet cd with Nicholas Payton won a Grammy. Doc was not only a splendid jazz musician but also, as anyone who knew him could vouch, one of of the nicest people one could ever care to meet.

At lunch once Doc told about some producer who flew him out to the West Coast to particpate in some sort of avante garde free jazz "experiment". As others banged out non complmentary rhythms and unrelated chords, Doc was urged to "just blow anything!", so he did, rapidly fingering his valves at random. He was given encouragement "Yeah, that's the stuff!". Doc himself didn't think it amounted to anything.

Afterwards, the sponsor came up and enthusiastically asked Doc, "So, how'd you like it?"

Doc replied, "Man, it was far out."

I had a chance to use that phrase the other night.

Far out.

It's a good one to keep handy.

[edited to add: The rest of the story]

Comments

[valiant-200.livejournal.com]

Just don't say "groovy," or I'll go all Partridge Family on your ass. ;o)

Far out

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

I had not percieved the ambiguity in the phrase "far out" before Doc heped me to it.

I think the editor of "Wavelength" Magazine c. 1990 was the last person I heard using the expression "groovy" without intention of irony nor reference to a bygone era. Hm, when I think of it, that may make that magazine's demise a bit less surprising... (such razzing aside, she's a nice person, just perhaps not the type who should have been running such a business.)