Paul Paolicelli and I got to be friends hanging out at professional meetings when we were television news directors. We were both trumpet players and found more to talk about than the state of journalism, which in the 1970s and ’80s was already a little soft around the edges. Come to think of it, so was the jazz business.
Paul still runs a TV news operation, in North Carolina, and has a blog on his station’s web site. This morning he responded to the “Giant Steps” piece below by referring me to his latest entry, which begins:
A few years ago I told my (soon to be 13 year old) daughter that one of the few things I
could truly give her was a working understanding of the difference between John Coltrane and Paul Desmond. That she probably had no idea of what I was talking about, but that one day in a distant future, when she would be able to glibly discuss jazz with a full memory of the sounds, and she’d smile and thank me wherever I might be by then.
Sometimes things happen sooner than later.
The other day my daughter and I were driving to Wilmington from Chapel Hill and listening to Anita O’Day (I have a car loaded with CDs and mp3s of the old jazz greats, just for this purpose)…
To find out what happened then, go here.
To find out more about Paolicelli, go here.