{"version":"1.0","type":"link","provider_name":"Hardcover","provider_url":"https://hardcover.app","cache_age":86400,"title":"Riffs","url":"https://hardcover.app/books/riffs","description":"THE BLUESThe blues are an expression of fortitude in the face of a broken existence. They are more about the flesh-and-blood experiences of the heart, soul, and genitals of love, as in the lyric of Joe Turner\u0026#39;s \u0026quot;Honey Hush\u0026quot; which shows Joe to be as much an existential philosopher as Kierkegaard or Sartre, and as blatantly carpe diem as it gets.You\u0026#39;re so beautiful, but you got to die some day,You\u0026#39;re so beautiful, but you got to die some day. All I want\u0026#39;s a little loving before you pass away.The music is a camaraderie, an attempt to communicate that we are not alone and afraid in a world we never made.JAZZThe individuality of jazz and the pride and personal elegance of the musicians has always struck me as being what America\u0026#39;s really all about. As Ralph Ellison wrote about having institutions to preserve our human gains - \u0026quot;We have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And we have jazz.\u0026quot; The solo break, the spontaneous improvisation, the moment\u0026#39;s riffs, are unique. Jazz music lives and dies in the moment of performance. Or as Shelly Manne, distinguished jazz drummer, sagely put it, \u0026quot;We never play anything the same way once.\u0026quot; ROCKRock and Roll has perhaps had the longest run of any music since Gregorian chants. As Bob Dylan said of Elvis, \u0026quot;Hearing him for the first time was like bursting out of jail.\u0026quot;","author_name":"G. Bruce Boyer","author_url":"https://hardcover.app/authors/g-bruce-boyer","thumbnail_url":"https://assets.hardcover.app/edition/31949607/7ab4a8b45eab19b34e974f3cd08ec1cb47cf135c.jpeg","thumbnail_width":333,"thumbnail_height":500}