I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HAROLD LÓPEZ-NUSSA-Tiny Desk Concert #812 (December 14, 2018).

This was the final Tiny Desk Concert of the year and it featured a pretty traditional jazz trio (piano, bass, drums) from Cuba.  There have been a number of Cuban musicians on Tiny Desk, but I always defer to the blurb:

Cuba is known as much for their pianists as their percussionists — you’ll see why with this performance.

They play three songs.  The first is “Elegua” which opens

with some help from a recording of famed Afro-Cuban folkloric singer Lázaro Ros. Ros is both a musical and spiritual guide for this performance; the trio dug deep into the ritual music of santeria for inspiration with “Eleguá,” a tribute to one of the Afro-Cuban deities.

After about two minutes, Harold plays a nifty staccato riff on the piano while the bass plays a cool  related melody.  The song runs about six minutes and mid way through Ros returns to recite over the music.

When the song is over, Harold introduces his “brothers.”  His literal brother Ruy on drums and his brother from an other mother and father Gastón on bass.

(Special mention should be made of Harold’s brother, Ruy López-Nussa, on drums, and bassist Gastón Joya, who both fill the spaces between the beats while elegantly leaving breathing room within the performances.)

Joya is a treat to watch as he has a contented smile on his face for much of the set.  But it’s Ruy who is the most fun.  With his suit and bow tie and the unconventional way he holds the sticks he is fascinating to watch.  He looks like he is trying to be funny, the way he is playing.  Maybe he is just having fun but his playing is spectacular.

“Preludio (to José Juan)” is shorter–quiet and pretty.  It opens with a lovely melody on the piano.  There’s brushes on the drums and a quiet, subtle bass solo on the middle.  The song is much shorter and the closing minute is just beautiful.

“Hialeah” has the recognizable piano riffs — called guajeos — that we can recognize as originating with Cuban dance music, but the trio deftly melds that rhythm to a complex jazz exploration, without compromising its dance able pulse.

The melodies are recognizable, and yet he is basically riffing with them.  The piece opens with frenetic finger work on the piano with some complex drumming.  The rhythm is playing a dancey melody with some wild soloing on his right hand.  By around 14 minute into the set, he is an amazing blur pf speed and melody.  After a brief one second pause they come back with a phenomenal little drum display.

[READ: January 11, 2019] “All Rivers”

I have really come to enjoy Amos Oz’s stories–they are never about what I think they will be about.

This one was surprising for the way it was constructed as well.

The narrator, Eliezer is fondly remembering a woman ,Tova, who has a profound impact on his life. He says the name Tova was simple and popular and, he felt, didn’t suit her, a young poetess.  He doesn’t remember the color of her eyes, although he does remember the color of her trousers–dark blue/gray and tattered coarse material.

As he is describing her he interrupts himself.  He explains that he wants to be systematic and do things in order, but that he keeps getting ahead of himself  Every time he thinks about her, everything rushes to be first.

In fact, even as he is telling his own story he keeps getting ahead of himself.  He was discharged from the army as a lieutenant and is now a reservist (an incident in the war has stayed with him since he has been out).  He now works in a kibbutz making decorative shades for lamps.  He is mostly interested in his stamp collection.  It is one of the best in the country. His father started the collection fifty-two years ago.  In the six years since Eliezer inherited them he has succeeded in doubling the size.  He trades with people from around the world.

One thing that stayed with him about Tova was her response to his stamps.  She said, “God collects us, too, one by one, arranges us, sticks us in his album, and enjoys the harmony that hides behind our suffering.”

He met Tova in Tel Aviv.  He had read in Stamp World that a Tel Aviv collector Eliezer Berlin was looking for a rare Austrian stamp and was willing to trade it for a full set of stamps from Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Narrator Eliezer had two of that Austrian stamp and a large gap where Bosnia and Herzegovina were.  The man asked sellers to meet him in Tel Aviv at precisely one o’clock.

Eliezer who has been trying to describe Tova and his experiences says he has a hard time painting things with words and so he describes the Austrian stamp thus:

it shows a woman bathing in a river. On the riverbank there are deer.

He arrived in Tel Aviv plenty early and went to a cafe to wait.  In the cafe, which was otherwise empty was Tova,  and a waitress who was Hungarian.  There were flies all over the restaurant –Eliezer killed two while he was waiting.  Tova was cranky first about the noise he made from killing the flies and then from the interest he showed in her.  She was smoking and was soon doubled over with coughing.  He tried to help but she burst out “don’t touch me!’  Then she asked what he wanted from her.  She proceeded to insult men from the kibbutz generally and him specifically.

He was not put off and instead asked her about the poem she was writing.  After they talked about it, she invited him to walk with her by the sea.  She coughed constantly–body wracked. lung-hacking coughs, some of which nauseated him.   When he asked her about herself, she recited details as if she were a missing person.  He was not amused, but laughed anyway, out of courtesy.

While they were walking on the beach they ran into a guy, Gunter who fell into Tova’s arms. He blathered on oblivious until her finally looked at Eliezer and asked if he was her new lover.  She said he was.

They sat and talked a bit.  She coughed more.

He explained that he had to go meet the collector at 1PM, about fifteen minutes away, and she asked him to marry her.

He brushed it off, but she insisted she was serious and that he must take it seriously,  When he made light of it she told him to go, go trade his precious stamps.

Ultimately he decided to blow of the stamp collector but this seemed to displease her.

I love the way the story tidies up, both with the stamp collector and with the time frame of the story.  I also love how he is completely hooked on this woman who seems to be crazier and crazier with each moment that passes.