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Saturday, 14 January 2006 08:00 |
"Sendin' The Vipers"
Way back in the day
when marijuana was something
people smoked in Mexico
or Mexicans brought with them
to the United States
& smoked quietly amongst themselves
there were musicians
in New Orleans & Los Angeles & Chicago
who were introduced to weed
by their Mexican friends
& began to apply its magical properties
to the shaping of the new music
just then beginning to emerge
from deep within
the hearts & minds
of a new generation of Americans
born after the Emancipation
of the slaves
& on or around
the turning
of a new century
propelled by electricity
& charged with the promise
of a wild new kind of individual freedom
Way back in the day
when the music that would be called jazz
first issued forth
from the trumpets & drums
of musicians in New Orleans
who knew how to make people dance
& took the music with them
to Los Angeles in 1912
& Chicago a couple of years later
& Joe "King" Oliver & his Creole Jazz Band
came up from New Orleans
to pack the cabarets & nightclubs
of the South Side
with the sound of jazz
& set the tempo
for the development of the music
for everyone
who followed them
& in 1922
Joe Oliver called up Louis Armstrong
to join him in Chicago
& set the whole world on fire
with their brilliant improvisations
& the unbridled power of swing
New Orleans
November 1998
from Viper Mad
3.1.695 |
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