Shadows/Leaves

so holy:
green leaves, young leaves,
in sun's light

(Basho, trans. D. Barnhill)


Making the effort this week to expand the musical palate: since the sun's (finally!) been shining I've been listening to 'The Legendary' Sir Lancelot's 'Calypso of the West Indies and Ballads of the Caribbean'. It's a fabulous, joyous record, despite some of the lyrical concerns, and Lancelot's warm, humane tenor is like sunshine personified. Intriguingly enough, my son, who generally just walks into the kitchen and turns down whatever cacophony I'm subjecting him too that day if he wants to talk to me, was heard to exclaim on hearing Sir Lancelot, "DAD! What the hell are you listening too today!?" -presumably this stuff is actually 'alternative'! Lancelot himself seems to have been a fascinating character: an actor (with a notable appearance in Jacques Tourneur's 'I Walked With a Zombie' as a kind of calypso-singing chorus) as well as a musician, he was popular in the States in the 40's and 50's, before falling out of favour for his left-leaning political tendencies, but was a cause of, as he put it in possibly his most famous song (a definite source for Madness' hit 'Embarrassment') 'shame and scandal in the family' at home in Trinidad, where he was largely disowned for his dishonourable choice of career. Anyway, I heartily recommend the album as an alternative to those reggae compilations that the coming of the British summer seems to make us all pull out as inevitably as the rusty barbecue equipment. Here's a sample, if you're interested.