Last Day of the Semester

Today was kind of an important day for me. It was my last day of official classes in my first year of graduate school. All I have left are a couple of cinchy finals and my jury. I'll be done for good next Thursday.

I finished my research paper on Mary Lou Williams today, also. I asserted that it was she who started the bebop movement, even though she has never been credited with doing so, and in fact, is never even categorized as a bebopper at all. But she was. She was the person who taught Thelonious Monk (the "high priest of bop") everything he knew. She gave him the foundation of his style. If I were really interested in history and research and writing, this would be a great doctoral thesis. I'll send you my paper to read if you are interested in this subject at all. I think it's groundbreaking, but what do I know?

I have LOVED my jazz class this semester. I learned so much, and discovered so much great music. I can't wait to take some jazz lessons next semester. I'm going to learn the rest of my graduate recital this summer, and then plunge head first into jazz. It's going to be painful, but I can't wait to play like Shirley Horne and Fred Hersch.

I'm so proud of me! This has been a demanding but rewarding and wonderful year.

Died of Concert

I'm writing a paper about Mary Lou Williams. She was a jazz pianist. She was performing in the 1930's, through her death in the 70's. She had a fascinating life. She performed from the time she was a very young girl, and toured around with Vaudeville troupes, not realizing the danger she was in, a young black girl in a white man's world (or a black man's, for that matter). She became a very well respected pianist, composer, and arranger. I'm just learning about her; I wish I had started on this paper sooner.

Anyway, one of my methods in doing research is just to open up my book and type everything that looks meaningful, and then I can cut and paste whatever is useful to me later as I'm going along, so I read as I type. I was reading about the end of her life. I guess she died of cancer. I'm typing along, and find my fingers saying, "she died of concert." Talk about a Freudian slip. I hope I don't die of concert. Or cancer, for that matter. LOL.