Philosopny of Composition ( Compose & Be Composed)

Dear Colleagues,

“Many run to diverse places
to visit the relicks of the saints,
& full of admiration at hearing
of their deeds, gaze upon the
spacious buildings of the temple,
and kiss the sacred bones that are
wrapped in silks and gold.”

Thomas Kempis

In these my years of early onset
presbyterianism (elder hostile walking
on 3 legs in late after noon), conversation
becomes the whole-y grail I've been
looking for all my life slouching towards
Bethlehem and there it is right before
my very eyes & nose and always
was & will be:



converse-action

Me & a Colleague were having side-bar converse
trading chops the other day on the Philosophy of
Composition, one of the great fiddle tunes of the
Western World any body can get in on—bring your
bones, spoons, wash tub base, banjer and guitar of
course, some Whiskey Before Breakfast: old time
jamming on the back porch fiddling the same old
same old tunes & it’s the playing that counts and I
can’t say if it was good for him or not but it’s always
good for me.

Like 1940's tap dancing in musicals: I used to climb
the gutter and squeeze thru the men's room window
to get into Central Theater when I didn't have 90
cents to watch Gene Kelly do some buck & wing
tappety tap shuffle ball change, flap heel, cramp roll,
buffalo, single and double pullbacks, wings, Cincinnati,
the shim sham shimmy, waltz clog, hop step, running
flaps, running shuffles, sugar the paddle and roll, slap,
stomp, brushes, scuffs, single and double toe punches,
hotsteps, heel clicks, single, double and triple time riffs,
and chugs like any thing and then Donald O’Connor
would try and out do him in appreciation & thrill
of the converse moment —hop skip spin & jump
over the chair, off the sofa…

Call & Response
what it's all about
clarinet & then trombone,
piano & trumpet back & forth
no one’s convincing any body for
crying out loud that's neither here
nor there: the play’s the thing
to catch that swing.

Watch THIS!
Well, get a load of THIS!
Tap and Tap, Slip & Slide,
Shuffle & shucks 'twarnt
nothing: a good time's had
by all & the more the play
the better and GOOD you
get at it Anyone.

Delight.