Friday, August 17, 2007

rest in peace

Max Roach, 1924-2007.

Another cool video of the great jazz drummer:


10 comments:

Garpu said...

In my jazz days, I've seen Max Roach a few times. Hell of a musician.

Jeff said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeff said...

An improv done on the I Have a Dream Speech? That was a pretty cool idea, and very well executed... Great drummer. Rest in peace.

cowboyangel said...

Did you know you can play both of the YouTube videos at the same time? Max Roach x 2. Actually worked pretty well.

Funny we both posted on Max using YouTube vids. And that we chose different ones. I looked at these two as well when trying to figure out what to include.

Sigh. Not many more of the great Greats left in jazz. We still have Hank Jones, who played last week in NYC.

Your last two posts were on Saint Roch and Max Roach. (Though, to be honest, I always think San Roque - had never even heard of Saint Roch.) In the True Cosmic Church, wounded though it may be, we now have Saint Roach.

Play on drummer...

Anonymous said...

Liam, I've 'talked' to you before on the internet; remember the guy with the RCIA problem. I don't know if you ever look at past posts, but I need to use it now.

I'm prety sure you answered some questions from my nephew's son and two of his friends My relative is marrying a Catholic, and when they came up to the 'big' city to visit my wife and me last week they had some questions about Catholicism. They told me they couldn't ask my wife, a Catholic, and ask if I could help. Not being a Catholic, and suspecting the questions were 'delicate' I refered them to you. Brave me! They didn't know there were any 'religious' sites on the web, but said they would try but said they were sure someone from New York and Columbia would not answer.I told them to ask anything they wanted and neither my wife or I would look at their comments. That's why I on this older post. Anyway when you did reply the kid who was watching the computer ran in to where the rest of us were and yelled "He answered!!"

I don't know what you discussed, but they spent half the night discussing what to say.

You've probably forgotten that I have had some problems, but it's amazing when your concerned with others problems how your little woes fade. But I am a bit worried over one of the boys.(I guess I should call them men, but since I've know them from birth it's hard to thik of them a "men."}

I don't know if they told you about the accident one of the boys had. I'm going to tell you because I don't think it violates my pledge to not look at their comments.

A couple of summers ago F. was working on construction in the 'big' city. Their town is very small. F was staying with us and at work a heavy piece of equipment fell on his feet. One foot was cut, but the other foot was almost crushed, breaking almost every bone in his foot. We rushed to the hospital, signed we would pay the bill{he had no insurance}and went to the room where they were preparing him for the orthopedist.They had taken off his shoes and socks and his lower clothing. One of the female aides said,"Boy, your feet and legs are dirty" Of course they were from the work he had done that morning.You could tell F. was embarassed. I stepped into the hall and told a nurse to get the girld out of the room. She did. The doctor was very nice and after a couple of hours they had set the bones and we could take him to our house, but he needed to stay in town for a couple of weeks so they could check his foot.

So what does this have to do with religion? Well all three of the boys had gone to mass on several ocassions with my wife. She did not ask them; they ask if they could go with her. They were very impressed, esspecially because the priest who they met after the service did not ask them "If they had accepted Christ as their personal savior?"

Back to the accident. The doctor had given us 3 pain pills to give him after the anesthetic wore off. It did wear off, we gave him the pills, but by 7 that evening he was virtually yelling with pain.He was also sweating profusely. He was about 6'2 and 185 pounds but I couldn't believe any body could have that much perpiration. His sheet was litterally soaked.I tried to call his doctor but just got an answering machines. My wife was frightened and as putting cold towells on him and trying to quiet him down.

We finally decided to call an ambulance at about 9. As I went to the phone the door bell rang and there was a priest from my wife's church. He said something like"I understand you have a sick young man here." My wife ask him how he knew and he replied someone told me.

He went in the room where F was nearly in shock , made the sign of the cross on his forhead, leaned down and said "Don't worry young man I PROMISE I will get help for you." A few minutes later, after the priest made a call, medicine arrived. The medicine worked and F's pain began to subside. F ask the priest if he would stay. The priest said "That's what I was planning." The priest stayed in the room with us until the young man fell asleep. He talked so much in his sleep I was amazed.

Liam, at last to the point. My wife who is a liberal, liberal catholic wants to believe although she is not much on maracles that this boy was a kind of second chance for our son who had died the year before and my wife felt she hadn't done enough for him.No, she's not morbid but when I tell her that's not clear thinking she says, good naturely,"Jack you can believe what you want but I'm going to think he {the boy}was sent here." My wife took care of all his physical and psychic needs for the whole two weeks.

Oh my, F. thinks the Big Man Upstairs called the priest and told him to go help him. I could probably dispprove that by asking the priest who called him. But should I? Last week was my wife's. I gave her a beautiful ruby ring which she loves but F sent her a card and one of his prize possessions: A medal from his high school days that reads," Best Offensive Football Player" from his senior year of high school. My wife said "This is the greatest birthday I've ever had---this beautiful ring and the medal."

I have three choices each with a plus and minus. 1. call the priest and find out who called him,BUT disappoint my wife and the boy. 2.Agree with my wife,BUT that would be a lie. 3.Say,"well every one to their onw belief,BUT this is a cop out. F has never ask me but I think he will. Sorry for the length but do you or any of your readers have a suggestion?

Liam said...

He told me part of the story -- I hope I could help him and his friends, they seem like great guys.

I think God works in our lives in more than one way. Maybe a neighbor or someone from the hospital called the priest -- but that doesn't mean that God wasn't working through them and it certainly doesn't mean that F and your wife are giving it the wrong meaning. He seems to have been searching for something, that's why he was going to Church. Your wife had something on her mind as well. Both of them felt God's hand in what happened, and I think they're right. The fact that things worked out the way they needed is miraculous -- no matter who made the phone call.

Anna said...

I completely agree with Liam.

If either your wife or F insist to you that God made the phone call, and not a human, I don't think I'd see any point to proving them wrong. It might make you feel like you had gotten the truth out, but it won't do them any good.

If F *asks* you about it, I'd just say "I don't know who made the phone call" and leave it at that.

Beautiful story, by the way.

Mark said...

liam, anna. this is alice. of course the boy and i know god doesn't make phone calls. but we know god's "hand" was there. no one has said they made the call to the priest. i think i know. a catholic lady next door heard the boy's cries and called my church with the understanding the priest would not tell because it would look like she was meddling. i've only ask the priest once and he says "i can't remember." off to confesion for the priest for fibbing. incidentally who is trying to get into the church. could it be jack? i don't know who gets the better of that deal. jack is really mild mannered. one of the few times I saw him go in a rage was when the nurse's aide told F his feet and legs were dirty. i thought we were going to have to take jack to cardiac care!! thanks for both of you for showing interest. alice

Mark said...

Hey, Liam. I forgot to thank you for talking to the 3 kids. I don't know what you talked about, but If it was what I guess I would have to speak from long past memory. One of the boys was Methodist and two were Baptist. They hate the "are you saved" question, but they all are in their churches. You had better produce a big literary or historical work because they think you're a celebrity. BTW Alice got a call from two of the parents and they said to thank "The new York Man" for helping their boys. They will never see the blog---you don't blog in our state if your from a 5000 pop. town. Thanks again from Alice and Me. Jack

Mark said...

I did't mean you, friend. Jack