In 1965 it was Charlie Mingus in the Auckland Town Hall...
A few lines later, he:
struck a chord that might have tameshiwaried
a pile of glass bricks
and left the stage for a hat change…
Later that night, the narrator is in St
Stephens Ave, Parnell, and speaks to the legendary jazz bassist, who lifts his
hat before replying.
This is odd, because as far as I can tell
Charles Mingus never played in New Zealand – he certainly didn’t in 1965
because according to Gene Santoro’s excellent biography Myself When I Am Real: the life and music of Charles Mingus he
didn’t leave the US at all that year.
On the other hand, the legendary jazz
pianist Thelonious Monk – who was known for his hats – did play here in 1965. I know this because I saw him perform at the
Tauranga Girls’ College hall, the poor bastard, and I know that after the
Auckland concert he was in Parnell because my friend Bernard Brown was at a
party in St George’s Bay Rd, the lucky bastard, where Monk played Debussy and
also duets with a local concert pianist – David Galbraith, I think. There were,
Bernard says, “jazz cigarettes” in the room. Fancy that.
Still, the Auckland Town Hall concert in
January 1976 which features in the poem’s second half, did happen. I was there
and it was great because it was Frank Zappa and he played a lot of guitar and, as always, he had a
really good drummer: this time it was Terry Bozzio. You can hear what the band
sounded like on the double-CD FZ:OZ recorded in
Sydney on the same tour. It features Norman Gunston on harmonica, as a result
of this interview Gunston did with
Zappa.
YouTube has more Gunston for younger viewers:
I am sure that Sacha Baron-Cohen would acknowledge that Ali G/Borat didn’t come
out of nowhere. Where the hell Gunston came from is anybody’s guess. Some sort
of Paul Holmes/Paul Henry timewarp thing?
I saw Thelonious Monk in the old Wellington Town Hall that year, and can't believe Ian Wedde could get it so wrong. However, I was in the 6th Form and my parents met me afterwards and drove me home. No after concert parties for me back then! It was the weirdest experience: my stepbrother had introduced me to TM but I didn't recognise a single work.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he was he being post-modernist?
ReplyDeleteNaaa, old age, poor memory, is my guess. A pity Metro doesn't have (apparently) a decent fact checking department like the New Yorker. Then we would know the answer.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they fact-check poems in the New Yorker, or anywhere else: "Mr Browning, I think our readers will ask what was the good news you brought from Ghent to Aix?"
ReplyDeleteA poem isn't journalism but having read Julian Barnes's account in "Letters from London" of dealing with the New Yorker's fact-checkers I can imagine them doing exactly that - "Could you really have travelled that route in that time?" And "How can we be sure it was a lark that was on the wing, and not a swallow? And 'the thorn' is too vague - is this a rose? Be specific."
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I read a book by Craig Seligman who had worked at the New Yorker, as a fact-checker to Pauline Kael. Seemed remarkable: you sit in a movie theatre with Kael's copy checking that when she wrote "John Travolta wears a red jacket" it really is red?
ReplyDeleteRe Norm Gunston: being stuck in Melbourne this year I caught re-runs of 'Mother and Son' in which he plays the overwhelmed son of a mother who suffers from memory loss associated with old age, well before it had a proper name. He looked so familiar but I put that down to having seen the programme in the early days of TVNZ (in the 70/80s when there was only one channel??? See, even I can't recall how many channels we had back then!) I thought of Norm as soon as I read your post, however, the Norm Gunston entry in Wikipedia doesn't mention the series, but the entry for the programme references only the actor's proper name. Curious.
ReplyDeleteGosh, this one post of yours has taken me back quite a few decades! Or, thanks for the memories!
Correction, and confession: I need a fact checker as I am demonstrably bad at doing it myself. I accuse Ian Wedde of old age/memory loss and in turn discover I suffer from the same problem. Pride etc ....
ReplyDelete~ Mother and Son - 1984 to 1995
~ Norman Gunston Wikipedia entry would not, of course, reference the series but it does reference the actor Garry McDonald as it should.
~ Garry McDonald Wikipedia entry does reference both Norman and Mother and Son. I should scroll down the page and not just refer to the hyperlink headings sidebar.
I do recall the series as in black and white, but no.... as the saying goes, memories play tricks.
@Philip, the bit I remember from Barnes is the New Yorker fact-checkers wanting a floor plan of Buckingham Palace to check his account of entering it. From memory there were demands for evidence of carpet colour, too. Admirable or nutty? I can never decide.
ReplyDelete@Stephanie, I remember that "Mother & Son" series. It was great. He could really do pathos, couldn't he.
ReplyDeleteHe had many rough years with depression (http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/645407/garry-mcdonald-speaks-out-on-anxiety) but is functioning well now - there is a recent interview with him about his role in David Mamet's play "November" this year at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-05-04/actor-garry-mcdonald-talks-to-paul-klaric-of-730/2707328.