The BBC World Service is a dangerous instrument for the information dabbler. About eight, nine years ago, an odd mini-doc comes on the radio--this is before the BBC overnight turned into headline news, back when some plummy fellow could be heard reading the Golden Ass at 3:04 a.m. for nine days in a row.
The feature is about a seminal Algerian jazz pianist and band leader of the 1940s-60s. I could be off by a decade or two here in either direction; my car stereo wasn't so hot in those days, nor was my heater, which was running at full blast. The music swung hard, but with a decided North African melodic scheme. Sounded a little like Sun Ra playing "The Dance of the Pink Elephants."
On the subject of golden asses, I missed the name back then and I've never had a lick of luck uncovering it since. I remember a reference to cultural awards, perhaps state honors of some sort. He's a North African jazz giant; I am an ignoramus, but not a forgetful one.
― Hal and the Asthmatics, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)