bikes and jazz

Two of my favorite things.

This is Avram Fefer: Bedouin Dream. Wow. Avram Fefer on the big sax with bassist Eric Revis, Marc Ribot on guitar and Chad Taylor drums. From the album Juba Lee recorded in 2022.

Dig it. Jazz. It’s been around since the end of the 19th century rising up out of the Blues and the Spirituals of the deep South, the African dance rhythms, the call and response traditions. When you mix all that up on the streets of New Orleans - that’s jazz.

This is the first bicycle. It was invented in 1817 in Germany. Well it didn’t have any pedals and it was made of wood but it was fun. It was called a ‘dandy horse’.

The first real bicycle was called the ‘bone shaker’; it had a big front wheel with pedals attached.

Good luck getting on and off this thing.

Finally some clever French guys invented gears and a chain drive connected to the rear wheel and the modern bicycle was born. Voila.

The most popular bicycle ever made is the Flying Pigeon. Over 500 million have been built in China since 1950. China is the land of bicycles. Or atleast it was before everyone got enough money to buy a car. Now they have traffic jams just like us.

So there you have it - the whole history of bicycles. Condensed version.

Nowadays the bicycle comes in many forms: street bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, recumbent bikes, trikes, electric bikes, fixies, single speeds, good old cruiser bikes like from the fifties, like Pee Wee’s bike, the one that got stolen and they made a movie about it. (Pee Wee’s Big Adventure) All different kinds of bikes for all different kinds of people and their needs, wants, desires, lifestyles.

Bikes are a form of expression. This guy built his own bike, custom frame and all. He’s with the Wild Dawgs Bike Club. I passed him on the street where he was trying to fix his derailleur cable.

These guys are riding around on BCycles with their skate boards looking for places to skate. BCycles are rental bikes that you can pick up at conveniently located kiosks around town. They’re electric too.

Here’s my buddy Bill on his bike coming out of the cafe. He’s riding a Pee Wee Cruiser. All he lacks are the frilly things coming out of the end of the handle bars.

Here’s my bike friend Richard and his friend Cindy riding down Avenue B. I keep running into him on his big ole custom painted ebike. They’re geared up.

Here’s my buddy at Bike World at the Pearl (forgot his name). They’re getting ready to sell some bikes.

Here’s me hammer down on Treyah, my beautiful ride. Until she got stolen. Lock up your bike kids so you don’t have to go thru the pain like I did.

We were together for 11 years. Tight. Perfectly synched up. We understood each other. Of course bikes aren’t sentient, I know that, but Treyah and me, we had some adventures.

Magic is happening all the time. Especially on a bike. Kinda like jazz.

This is Lee Morgan from his 1964 album ‘Search for the New Land’. It’s playing now on the podcast. If you like jazz you’ll fall for this. Lee Morgan on the trumpet, Herbie Hancock on the piano, Grant Green on guitar, Billy Higgins - drums, Wayne Shorter - tenor sax, Reggie Workman - bass.

Jazz, the truly American art form. Everything else we pretty much brought over from Europe. Even the bicycle.

Notice how the music magically matches up with the words. I don’t know how that happens. Jazz is fusion. Jazz is spontaneous, impetuous, impromptu. It makes it up as it goes along but never loses it’s way. Wild.

This is Pee Wee’s bike, highly decorated with all kinds of doodads and special features. Variation on a theme. He used it to search for the New Land.

But then it got stolen. Bummer. I so totally know how that feels. He traipsed all over the country looking for his lost bike. He found it too, in the basement of the Alamo.

Wait a minute, there is no basement in the Alamo.

Thanks to KRTU for all the great jazz tracks.

Thanks to all the bicycle people for the pics. Love you.