I love it when the subject of Travis McGee and jazz comes up.
There are instances in the McGee novels where he goes on at
length about Steve and Edie and what great singers that they
are. he also rants about quadraphonic stereo and how he hates
it because "I'm over here and the musicians are supposed to
be over there, dammit!" I can't help but wonder what he would
have thought of mega digital windowsxp superdolby 5.1a
globular surround sound?
The part I like is that in true guy-dom he lets us know that
he marches to his own jazz beat and no one else's. it's just
that his beat marches right down the middle of the
road.
Cheers, Rich
Subject: RARA-AVIS: 1960s: Pale Gray for Guilt
>
>
> PALE GRAY FOR GUILT (1968) by John D. MacDonald is
the ninth Travis McGee
> novel.
> | I switched the FM-UHF marine radio to the
commercial frequencies
> | and tried to find something that didn't sound like
somebody trying
> | to break up a dogfight in a sorority house by
banging drums and
> | cymbals. Not that I want to say it isn't music. Of
course it is
> | music, styled to accompany teen-age fertility
rites, and thus is as
> | far out of my range as "Rockabye Baby.... As I was
about to give up
> | I found some pleasant eccentric, or somebody who'd
grabbed the wrong
> | record, playing Brubeck doing Cole Porter, and I
caught it just as
> | he opened up "Love for Sale" in a fine and gentle
manner, and then
> | handed it delicately over to Desmond, who set up a
witty dialogue
> | with Joe Morello.
>
> This is classic McGee. There's the technical detail
that it's an "FM-UHF
> marine radio," not just any old radio, and there's
the snobbery about
> crass popular music. McGee's too experienced and
intelligent to dig rock
> and roll, though it's fine for the kids. But who
does he admire? Dave
> Brubeck, who played very nice but quite safe jazz.
McGee didn't even like
> the way jazz had changed.
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