Shadows and Light

Never a hard and 'was more' suitable to describe a day, Shadows and Light, I had forgotten this record lost in a corner, and this morning I 'dropped the eye in the bedroom of a white case ... I was leaving for Milan 7 am I open it and there is no 'written anything, so take it with me, I'll listen' in the car. Arrival at the office, take a company car and childbirth, I insert the reader and magic 'disc of Joni Mitchell Shadows and Light (and as if on purpose last night I had come up with that song Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell ...). A historical record, stellar musicians, Live Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker, Don Alias, Lyle Mays, I do not know how they could live personalities' s so huge on the same stage, which is struggling to keep them at bay Joni poor, to channel properly their creativity ', especially that of Pastorius in a state of grace, no one has more' played the bass like he did with that heart and damn fool with that of human folly and musical.

The day was full of shadows, the shadows of an almost sleepless night, with unwelcome thoughts that were knocking and did not allow me to sleep, the shadows of the fog that comes with me to Parma, the disc goes forward, all 'height of Parma, I think of Paul, call him and he says: "Then there is telepathy ... I was writing down your number on the book", I smile and let's talk about the latest developments of our lives, I close the phone and I keep thinking what we said, what kind of a strange person, and especially that guy is, and somehow the hyperbole of the thoughts I am reminded that I must withdraw to the airport for at least a month for a bass player who scores left me for a recording that we have to do ..... I swear even 10 seconds the phone rings, and 'the bass player who gives me good news, I confirmed that I had forgotten two dates Saturday, November 26 and Saturday 17Dicembre Trio in a wonderful place there' even the grand piano ... and smile thinking back to telepathy, a bit of light, like the mist that drifts to Milan strange that there was fog in Pisa and Milan ..., arrive at the office on time for the meeting, a meeting difficult, those who do not know it will turn ', but the news of the concerts and the voice of Paul, I do not know how they changed the mood, lack of sleep does the rest usually become hyperactive when I lack sleep.

The meeting runs quiet street, in a friendly and collaborative atmosphere with good ideas and proposals that make sense, one of those meetings that you rimettono even in peace to the work you do, it flows like 'well that when I realize that we're done are 5 pm and it 'time to come. I defer travel to Pisa, and got up to on Fornovo Cisa, I find a queue, move the minute, hour, two hours, and the situation 'critical, comes the road that makes us turn around and we stock at useful where the first toll us out, there seems to be a very serious accident. I find myself at 9 pm Toscoemiliano among the Apennines, in the midst of strange countries with names that would make me want to come to deviate at each intersection to see what lies behind those signs, those little lights in the distance. Wrong road, I stop in a village bar, and I lose the size of the business trip, I forget 'cause I'm in the mountains ToscoEmiliane, I feel like I know in the Blue Roads, to travel as the straight-necked ducks forward, to take paths forget listening to the speeches of the patrons of the bar, I lose track of time, the sense of haste, of having to get somewhere, I'd take the car and let her go wherever he wants, according to the lights, the smells, the shadows. Around for a while until you decide, however, of having to return home, unfortunately tomorrow after meeting requires a minimum concentration and presence, but the unpleasant sensations of the past few days that yesterday I was really overwhelmed, are partially mitigated, feel something, at least something is moving, some light in the deep valleys of my thoughts, I see those inner shadows. The last part of the trip, I put the disk that has accompanied me, who decided to travel with me this morning, Shadows and Light Joni Mitchell and the wonder of those musicians who play and those that you feel the presence, goodbye pork pie hat ....

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

When Charlie speaks of Lester
You know someone great has gone
The sweetest swinging music man
Had a Porkie Pig hat on
A bright star
In a dark age
When the bandstands had a thousand ways
Refusing admission of a black man
Black musician
In Those Days They also put HIM in
Underdog position
Cellars and chitlins'

When Lester Took HIM wife
Arm and arm went black and white
And some saw red
And drove Them from Their hotel bed
Love is never easy
It's short of the hope we have for happiness
Bright and sweet
Love is never easy street!
Now we are black and white
Embracing out in the lunatic New York night
It's very Unlikely we'll be driven out of town
Or be hung in a tree
That's Unlikely!

These crowds Tonight
Are happy and loud
Children are up dancing in the streets
In the sticky middle of the night
Summer serenade
Of taxi horns and fun arcades
Where right or wrong
Under neon
Every feeling goes on!
For you and me
The sidewalk is a history book
And a circus
Dangerous clowns
Balancing dreadful and wonderful perceptions
They Have Been Handed
Day by day
Generations on down

We Came up from the subway
On the music midnight Makes
To Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone
In taxi horns and brakes
Now Charlie's down in Mexico
With the healers
So the sidewalk leads us with music
To two little dancers
Dancing outside a black bar
There's a sign up on the awning
It says "Pork Pie Hat Bar"
And there's black babies dancing
Tonight

(On Air Joni Mitchell Goodbye Pork Pie Hat)