SOUNDTRACK: JON BATISTE AND STAY HUMAN-“Believe in Love” (Field Recordings, November 6, 2014).
I had never heard of Jon Batiste and Stay Human until he became the bandleader and sidekick on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
It’s always fun to read about a famous person from before they were famous. But this blurb doesn’t say much about him (that’s him in the yellow suit and melodica). But the story about this Field Recording [Jon Batiste Leads A Private Street Parade Atop A Fort] was too good not lead the whole thing in.
Jon Batiste is from New Orleans, where a street parade might assemble around the corner on any given day. Evidently, he likes a good walkabout: He’s liable to lead his band at a guerrilla concert in the New York City subway, or out of a venue, or — as he did at the Newport Jazz Festival — off stage and into the audience.
After playing a set at Newport, he and the Stay Human band kept walking. They walked past the backstage trailers, through the quad stage and up onto an overgrown rampart of Fort Adams — the 190-year-old edifice that houses the festival. After a long day of travel, interviews and a headlining performance, they were there to give us a special and private encore.
The song they played, “Believe in Love” which is upbeat and pleasant. It is a pretty New Orleans-inflected (must be the sousaphone bass) poppy/jazzy song. It’s a lovely understated song, with simple instrumentation: Jon Batiste, voice/melodica; Eddie Barbash, alto saxophone; Barry Stephenson, bass; Ibanda Ruhumbika, tuba; Joe Saylor, tambourine; Jamison Ross, cowbell/backing vocals.
The keyboardist and bandleader calls his portable performances “love riots”: attempts to generate instant community through music.
I love at the end, before they finish, they simply turn around and walk off (even the upright bass), still paying as the music fades from the microphone.
[READ: October 9, 2017] “The Proposition”
This story is about a successful immigrant to Toronto. His success is more or less everything he hoped for himself, but he wishes he had just a bit more.
Roman Berman had, like many Jews, migrated to this area of Toronto and because he was successful, he was always asked for various avenues of help. He wanted to sell his old car, but before he could, a friend called and asked if he would sell this car to Svirsky. So he waited in his office, but of course Svirksy (who bought a lemon of a car previously) did not show at the appointed time.
Berman was sympathetic to his plight but still angered about the delay. But he knew that when he first arrived he was also looking for help from anywhere. He worked very hard to get hat he had–and still worked very hard–to the point of irritating the people he relied on for referrals. But it was necessary if he wanted to provide a good life.
He had grown up with a father who was mixed up in questionable work as a way to make extra money and he dd not want to live that kind of life. His son was turning a bit lazy and he was worried about the boy and his attitude .
As he was getting ready to leave, annoyed by Svirsky not showing, a knock at the door came. But rather than Svirsky, it was two men, Kopman and Griber and pretty young lady.
It transpires that they disgusted him before with a proposition–a brothel in his clean office. There was certainly good money to be made and they just needed a man like Berman who had a massage license.
But how could he do such a thing–he wanted to live an honest life and the risks were so great–if he got caught, yes. Sure he’d committed some insurance fraud from time to time, but nothing extravagant–nothing that would even harm the insurance companies.
And what of the girl they’d brought with them, Felicia? She seemed smart and pretty–they said she was a nurse. Shouldn’t she go straight as well? You can imagine how well that went over.
When he got home he found Svirsky waiting for him, being entertained by his wife.
I found the ending a little unsatisfying–more like this was an excerpt rather than a full story. There was just so much there that was unfinished.
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