{"id":7111,"date":"2015-11-25T15:11:57","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T23:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=7111"},"modified":"2015-11-25T23:47:04","modified_gmt":"2015-11-26T07:47:04","slug":"paul-desmond-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2015\/11\/paul-desmond-91\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Desmond, 91"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Paul-Desmond-Easy-Living-442790.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Paul-Desmond-Easy-Living-442790.jpg\" alt=\"Paul+Desmond+Easy+Living+442790\" width=\"220\" height=\"216\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7112\" \/><\/a>Paul Desmond would have been 91 today. I wish that he were. His friend the guitarist Jim Hall put it nicely&#8212;\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He would have been a great old man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Readers have sent messages saying that they looked forward to this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>Rifftides<\/em> observance of Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday. It might be impossible to say all that there is to say about that remarkable man. I came as close as I could when I wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Take-Five-Public-Private-Desmond\/dp\/0961726679\/?_encoding=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20\"target=\"_blank\">his biography<\/a>. At his memorial service, the playwright Jack Richardson said, <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I found him the best company of anyone I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever known in my life. I found him the most loyal friend I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever known in my life. I found him the most artistic person I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever known in my life. His leaving will make this planet a smaller, darker place for everyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yes. Except that Paul continues to illuminate the planet and our lives with his music. Toward the end, he assembled a quartet with the superb Canadian rhythm section of guitarist Ed Bickert, bassist Don Thompson and drummer Jerry Fuller. Thompson, also a first-rate audio engineer, taped the group at the Edmonton Jazz Festival in April 1976, a year before Paul died. Our birthday party music is Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one-hour recording of the concert. The playlist is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just Squeeze Me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Darn That Dream,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wave,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Someday My Prince Will Come,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wendy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take Five\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The still photo that accompanies the <em>YouTube<\/em> video may be unstable, but the sound is excellent. <\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1vKQe3BWfI8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><p>Devra Hall took the photo below when Paul and her parents Jim and Jane were her guests for dinner on Thanksgiving, 1976. When I see it, I think about the countless hours I spent with Paul, about Jack Richardson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memorial speech and about what Dave Brubeck said more than once about his friend and musical soulmate of more than three decades:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Boy, do I miss Paul Desmond.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Desmond-Tgiving-76.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Desmond-Tgiving-76.jpg\" alt=\"Desmond T&#039;giving &#039;76\" width=\"500\" height=\"427\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7113\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Desmond-Tgiving-76.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Desmond-Tgiving-76-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Desmond would have been 91 today. I wish that he were. His friend the guitarist Jim Hall put it nicely&#8212;\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He would have been a great old man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Readers have sent messages saying that they looked forward to this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Rifftides observance of Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday. It might be impossible to say all that there is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}