pt at large

Diwali, Hindu Festival of Lights

The annual Festival of Lights celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists

One of my favorite holidays during my two years serving in the Peace Corps in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India...it symbolizes the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance".

Hindus were well-versed in stories of gods and goddesses in religious history. Men I worked with enjoyed telling me, perhaps the only American they ever met, richly detailed stories about the hierarchy including Rama and Situ, Vishnu, Krishna, Lakshmi, Shiva, Kali and Ganesh.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/festivals/diwali-2022-date-when-is-diwali-know-all-about-the-auspicious-five-days-of-deepawali-101665374513632.html

Photo by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

Duke and 'Trane

"Alexa, play Duke Ellington"

A big surprise when first two songs are arrangements with John Coltrane, whose nimble evocative phrasing are harbingers of where  he will take it as he ventures over the horizon toward the dense introspective opaque arrangements he will play in his later career.

Both songs are from the Impulse album "Duke Ellington/John Coltrane" featuring the tight group of Elvin Jones, drums; Jimmy Garrison, double bass; Aaron Bell, double bass; Sam Woodyard, drums.

MY LITTLE BROWN BOOK

Composed by Billy Strayhorn, a lyrical inside-the-lines light-as-a-feather reverie, Duke and double bass (Aaron Bell) lay down a foundation for Coltrane's alto sax that perches in your memory long after its final notes fade. Ellington's spare phrasing, brilliantly timed chords swirl with Coltrane's sweet trills that are intimations of where Coltrane will be headed as he breaks new ground after this.

ANGELICA

This arrangement lifts off like a kite in a late afternoon breeze... your psyche riding along as your memory bank opens a door to a sweet moment in your love life when the mixtures were calibrated just about right...three minutes of sweet melancholy.

Upbeat with Elvin Jones' muffled drums pounding an insistent beat, Jimmy Garrison's on-time double bass, Duke piano in hot pursuit in a ripe swing with vaguely a Latin lilt, Coltrane’s tenor sax that he favored after 1947 riffing along with increasingly be-bopping swoops and trills for a couple of minutes before Duke sets it gently to earth with familiar riffs that fade into silence as the song ends three minutes later.

Hard to find Duke and John Coltrane  pull off a better example of where 'Trane's train is heading.

Keep asking Alexa to play John Coltrane. Hear Coltrane's solos fly into the wild like a bird swooping from its comfortable nest into his locomating Blue Trane, 'Trane at the throttle pushing his band-mates to pour some of their own coal into the fire box.

And when you have an hour or so... read this out then play "A Love Supreme".   

John Coltrane – bandleader, vocals, tenor saxophone; Jimmy Garrison – double bass; Elvin Jones – drums, gong, timpani; McCoy Tyner – piano.

And for a chaser. John Coltrane Full Album: Stardust...put this band in a studio and they chilled like a bowl of jello.

"Stardust" (Hoagy Carmichael, Mitchell Parish) – 10:44 "Time After Time" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) – 7:45 "Love Thy Neighbor" (Mack Gordon, Harry Revel) – 9:21 "Then I'll Be Tired of You" (Yip Harburg, Arthur Schwartz) – 9:27 Personnel[edit] John Coltrane – tenor saxophone Wilbur Harden – flugelhorn (track 1), trumpet (3) Freddie Hubbard - trumpet (4) Red Garland – piano Paul Chambers – bass Jimmy Cobb – drums (1, 3) Arthur Taylor – drums (2, 4)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vf6E2Pu7Hc

         

Farewell To A Beloved Man of Substance

October 16, 2022
4:45 PM Sally, O’Briens Bar, Somerville, Massachusetts.

I arrive a few songs after the band hit the stage. Something feels off.

Something beyond the usual, late Sunday afternoon vibe with the Natural Wonders singing their usual set list in the order that feels like Sunday catechism. Rather than incense and the ringing of altar bells we have hip shaking rock 'n roll, smokey slow drag blues, and a dollop of do-wop. No wonder that the faithful call this gathering “choich”.

If energy had a color, this afternoon’s would be the iridescent purple of a priest’s vestments at High Mass.

  The late Jesse Burkhardt, Jennifer Hawkins, Fred Griffeth

A scattering of men and women I’ve never seen here before sit at the tables and occupy some of the seats at the mahogany bar. I can’t see it, but I feel a form of energy not usually in the Sunday vibe.                                                                                              

Maybe they wandered in from the three blocks of vendor tents cheek by jowl lining Somerville Avenue in front of Sally O’Briens and every other establishment on that side of the street. It’s a bit of a retail madhouse out there.

Maybe they were swept in by some kind of retail fairy dust and floated in like dust motes and settled themselves into the tables and shares around the dance floor.

That must be it, says I.

Wrong.

Some men and women join the crowd on the dance floor. They clearly are not dancers. It’s as if some unseen spirit is bidding them to get up and do something that is not a natural response from them. A gesture to make their presence felt for reasons known only to themselves.

The Natural Wonders finish their set. No one moves. A man steps up to the microphone on the stage. The crowd turns to listen. I walk from my seat at the bar to the middle of the dance floor to hear what’s going on.

A man is speaking with a muted sense of urgency The kind that makes people stop their conversations out of respect and curiosity. I have no idea what’s happening, have never seen anything like it at this place where high octane music is an answered prayer to absolve any of our shortcomings. Or at least my shortcomings during the week. If dancing to high and high octane music is my penance, I will come here to confess every Sunday afternoon. But I digress.

Begorrah... I realize that I’m in an emotionally charged Irish wake in which stories about the deceased are meant to greases the skids for his trip to the great saloon in the sky. At ground level, richly detailed stories about the man assuage our grief and bid farewell. For those who didn’t know him, they’re a window into a man whose kindness and eccentricities were legend.

By the third story, I realize that he was the tall thin character who wore an oversized cloche cap, perfect sartorial choice for the thin-as-a-rail man with a carefully trimmed Van Dyke beard. By every story told, Jesse Burkhardt was a social fixture in the Cambridge scene known for his kindness. And the conspiratorial mischievous glint in his eyes.

Jesse was a Plough and Stars presence then a regular Sunday parishioner at St. Sally’s. And in the best Irish tradition, after each story about this man, we raise our glasses in thanks for the memories.

I didn’t know him personally but I sure do remember his incandescent presence. And the energy vibe that surrounded him like a halo.

By every account he was the witty fellow with the gift of uplifting the spirits of everyone with whom he encountered.With a mix of humor and stoked grief, every speaker added a story that certified the man's presence, as outsized as his cloche cap.

Jesse loved the music. You couldn’t miss him on the dance floor. He danced like a stork out of water with intention and immense joy. He’s one of those guys who perfectly fit the saying “Dance like nobody’s watching“ as he danced like a long-limbed stork out of water. Watching him express it was a joy in itself.

This afternoon a mighty cloud of grief was softened by heartfelt stories told by his dear friends, one after another, about the man’s gift of connecting and uplifting every one in his considerable aura.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Credit to Susaan Straus for forwarding the photo of Jesse Burkhardt, Jennifer Hawkins, and Fred Griffeth and Susan Sullivan for photo montage of Jesse

"Don't Be Cruel" Billy Swan Channels Elvis

Re-posting  because like a birthday cake, you only see/feel the layers after you've opened it with the first slice.  I've heard layers of the song that I missed the first time around - a churchy organ thread, small  piano bluesy piano riffs, muffled guitar licks, angelic backup singers. impeccable timing of the whole arrangement, a first rate mood enhancer for a music lover of any stripe.

"Don't Be Cruel" - Reinvented

Whooeeeee, never thought someone could, or would, take this song by you know who, turn it upside down, let the sound of the coins falling from its trousers produce a song track, utterly its own, groove heavy, emotionally convincing, reeking of the 1950s ... voice, phrasing, backup singers, and tight band that makes every note count. And a bass line running through it like a freight train with a metronome in the firebox.

The organ coda swirling like incense from the first chord holds it together with an incongruously religious thread.

I don't remember dancing to the original but this version begs you push the chairs back in the kitchen. Oh, my. This song has it all going on.

Forget Elvis. Billy Swan owns this song.

Don't waste time. Play it now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-STFyfsdoVA

 

"I can help"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsSxdGZni3Y

 

Indigenous People's Day in Watertown MA: Food, Culture, History

10.10.22 Branch Line Restaurant, Arsenal Yards, Watertown, MA

“Join us September 30th through October 10th to celebrate Indigenous Food Week! Organized by the Pigsgusset Initiative, a working group of Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice and the Environment. Pigsgusset Initiative and Branch Line have partnered with acclaimed Wampanoag Chef Sherry Pocknett to bring you three Wampanoag dishes: Three Sisters Garden Succotash, Corn Cakes, and Cranberry Chutney. By introducing diners to Wampanoag cuisine, we honor culinary traditions perfected across hundreds of generations by the original peoples to inhabit this land.”

Serendipity:  At a recent social at my house, the first since March 2020, my neighbor Mishy Lesser asked, “Would you put up a yard sign for this event?”

Mishy is one of the shakers and movers who created “Watertown Celebrates Indigenous People’s Day” along with a team from The Pigsgusset Initiative.

Mishy floated the idea to  Branch Line Restaurant owner Garrett, who viewed it as an opportunity to widen the lens on the menu and serve cultural awareness along with food associated with Native American history.

Like a pebble tossed into a pond, the ripples of the original idea spread around town to lap against a well-known restaurant. a famous chef, community organizations and The First Parish of Watertown.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Watertown Community Foundation, Mishy reached out to Wampanoag chef Sherry Pocknett who developed a menu with Branch Line’s chef Ivan Conill.

The two chefs had fun together in the kitchen, tasting, tweaking, and beaming with delight. Then Chef Sherry and Mishy trained the kitchen and wait staff in the in the culinary history and meaning of the dishes.

Saturday evening, October 1, Branch Line Restaurant

My dining companion and I enter a culinary time machine and sample both of Chef Sherry Pocknett’s Wampanoag dishes...Three Sisters Succotash (Paquahog Clams with local squash, beans, corn) and Journey cakes.

The 2 generously sized journey cakes, cornmeal flatbread cooked on a griddle were served with oh-so-good thick sweet cranberry chutney and garnished with chopped scallions. The journey cakes were the size of the dinner plate, a meal in itself. Likewise, the Three Sisters Garden Succotash, a large shallow bowl filled with  half a dozen Paquahog Clams with local squash, beans, corn, and chopped scallions. The clams are just one of the ways Chef Sherry adds protein to the dish.

These two staples of Native American northeast coast tribes required no refrigeration, were dried, and used in foods for months after harvest.

Journey Cakes, also known as Johnny Cakes, have their roots in Native American culture but recipes exist in latitudes from Newfoundland to southern states to the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

Confederate soldiers stuffed them into their pockets for sustenance on the march.

Johnny cakes were a staple for Rhode Islanders for centuries.

Here’s where the water gets deep. In the Ocean State, fist fights have broken out arguing about the provenance of johnny cakes.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/15/garden/johnnycake-is-traditional-and-controversal-in-rhode-island.html

Keep this in mind when you branch out to try Johnny Cakes. 

Many thanks to Mishy Lesser who contributed facts to the story and corrected an earlier version.

Entering Branch Line during construction in Arsenal Yards

Branch Line, heated open patio on L and restaurant on R

Indigenous Food Menu

Rockey's Spritz - Aperol, Rockey's Liqueur, Cava, highly recommended by this writer.

Journey Cakes served as a pair, we each had one. Deliciously dense, moist, filling (and larger than appears in  photo).

Three Sisters Garden Succotash: a large shallow bowl filled with  half a dozen Paquahog Clams with local squash, beans, corn, and chopped scallions.

Branch Line, heated open patio on L and restaurant on R

Interior

Illuminated stack, remnant of original 1816 Watertown Arsenal Building reported to be one of the largest steel-frame structures in the United States, sized to accommodate both very large gun carriages and the equipment used to construct them. A venture to Branch Line serves as an appetizer to visitors interested in history of early American mechanized industry.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Other resources

https://whatscookingamerica.net/history/johnnycakes.htm

https://watertowncitizens.org/working-groups/pigsgusset-initiative/

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/10/09/arts/tess-lukey-appointed-first-curator-native-american-art-trustees-reservations/