Last gig of the year
Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town,
Chicago, Chicago, I will show you around …
SELDOM does one get treated to the most penetrating analysis of political and other matters, mixed in with timeless Sinatra numbers. It happened the other evening at the final gig of the year at St Clement's, where Spyker Koekemoer (aka Pat Smythe) had the floor in the idiom of Herman Charles Bosman.
In the space of about an hour and a half, Spyker was able to cover:
· The future of the old Natal Command site – it's to be converted into a replica of the p'residential complex at Nkandla, then into a Disneyland.
· The Blue Flag beaches – they will go the way of the famous elephant sculptures when certain people catch on that the DA use blue flags.
· Mangaung – and the anomaly that Nkandla municipality is now controlled by JZ's political opponents, even after spending R238 million-odd to keep the neighbourhood happy.
But the crooning was the piece de resistance. Spyker put on a most creditable imitation of Ol' Blue Eyes.
Nkandla, Zumakandla, I built a town
Where that thriller called GodZille tried to push me around …
Has anyone ever before witnessed political analysis of this quality, set to the music and atmosphere of Las Vegas? On and on it went.
Now the Main Street they call it Straight Street
'Cos the government won't pay …
And if Mangaung leaves me in the dwang in any other way,
I won't be having the time, the time of my life,
'Cos I'll be having to dance with all five of my wives
In Nkandla, Nkandla – a national keypoint, IFP-run town …
Great stuff! It had the punters cheering. Spyker Koekemoer chalks one up as a crooner/political analyst non pareil.
Missed a beat
WHOOPS! Reader Cliff Gibson and my old musician pal Smelly Fellows both point out that Take Five was not composed by jazz maestro Dave Brubeck, as I said on Monday, but by his saxophonist, Paul Desmond. It was the Dave Brubeck Quartet – which included Desmond – that played and immortalised the tune.
Forgive me. I'd always believed Brubeck wrote Take Five (along with many others, I'm sure). But there can be no doubt Cliff and Smelly are right. Digging a bit deeper, I see Desmond was paid the royalties earned by the tune. What could be more conclusive?
Durban connection
MEANWHILE, Michael Green, retired editor of our sister newspaper, the Daily News, points out that two of Dave Brubeck's sons had close connections with Durban. Darius was on the teaching staff of the University of Natal (later KZN) and Matthew was for many years a cellist with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Darius, eldest of Dave Brubeck's six children, was on the staff of the music department from 1983 to 2006, and he will be remembered by many people in Durban as a congenial man of great personal charm.
"He was back in Durban a couple of years ago to take part in a music festival associated with the Fifa World Cup.
"He was named, incidentally, after the distinguished 20th century French composer Darius Milhaud, who was once a mentor to the young Dave Brubeck. Some of Milhaud's compositions were influenced by jazz, which he heard for the first time in Harlem, New York, in 1922.
"Dave's youngest child, Matthew, was a familiar figure to audiences in the Durban City Hall."
It's interesting, that affinity between jazz and the classics.
GPS fault
READER Adrian Collingwood takes us to task for a recent headline reading: "Blizzards inundate Baltic countries, stalling transport".
Serbia and Croatia are not Baltic countries, he points out, they're in the Balkans. "Serbs and Croats have problems enough with each other. They don't need to be confused with anyone else."
Ah, yes – the GPS fault that rang about the world.
Bonanza
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-40s: "If I won the Lotto would I quit my job right away? No sir! I'd make the boss's life hell for a couple of weeks first."
Tailpiece
HOW do you know when you're at an Australian stag party?
A sheep jumps out of the cake.
Last word
Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.
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