Back when radio ruled the waves the BBC, main tunnel
from the world, brought to our shores "Greensleeves"
and Victor Sylvester. Lacking creole traditions like Trinis
with Christmas parang, I longed to hear pop maestros of string
instruments.
They sent down Cliff Richard, the Shadows, "Telstar", well you
know. Those cool girls from Jobim's Ipanema. And dazzling 60s
riffs by the Eagles and Jimi Hendrix. Those were the days
Ravi Shankar turned sitar friendly.
Back then (I think) I heard Victor Uwaifo ("Guitar Boy") four times,
his scratchy Nigeria picks too many oceans far for channel shipping.
The good news: finding the tunnel's end: on the //www.dials
You can watch "Guitar Boy"! Uwaifo's guitar licks
couscous steamed in 70s high life.
And hear this: what must be the gold coast of string harmonies
rocks by the rivers of Mali, from the diamond fingers of (the late)
Ali Farka Toure; Toumani Diabete.
Where were you all those years, guitar fathers? What trade winds
blocked this young heart access to those kora waves, ces vieux jams?
Radio Ghana. Desert moons. Faraway missed years.
Tunneling protocols, I know. Old pirates ♫
– W.W.
REAL SLOW JAZZ
Voices taking time to make
time feel
both tauter
and stretchier than we would
know from the limping clock,
the pace of the heart sure
beyond the need to run across
bridges of love, statements
of the tension between spark
and flame, spirit and flesh,
the tears of gods only men,
of men brimming with light.
(from "Fabula Rasa" by Brian Chan)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 