home sick...

I feel crummy today, so I cancelled all my meetings and stayed home, and slept til 10:30! Feeling a tad better. Then I picked up the mail and there was a package from the Netherlands, which included a DVD of Ry Cooder's PBS programme from 1978! He essentially plays the Jazz album in concert for TV. And Joseph Byrd is there, resplendent in a white suit, conducting the little salon orchestra. The gospel quartet led by Bill Johnson does a short set in the middle of the show. Ry plays the Beiderbecke numbers, and at the end Mr. Dave joins Ry out front for a simple rendition of "Comin' In On a Wing and a Prayer". And it's an altogether excellent programme. Glad somebody taped it way back when! Sure it's not perfect. I had a much worse copy (4th generation maybe) on VHS. Marvelous stuff, even though it has very little to do with "jazz" it has plenty to do with music. Just watching it (and it's in PAL so I can only watch on my computer!) but just watching helped perk me up! Music hath charms, man!