RITA EDMOND LEAVES TO CONQUER RUSSIA

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

RITA EDMOND LEAVES TO CONQUER RUSSIA

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For the first time in over 20 years I've been offline for over a week and a half.  One of the reasons for that (other than family issues that I had to come terms with) is I've been agonizing over my good friend and road dawg, Rita Edmond's, pending departure for Russia. It's not like she's never left the country before, she's been all over Europe. But in today's highly unstable political climate, and with the United States and Russia standing, literally, eyeball-to-eyeball in a proxy war in Syria, Rita being in the middle of all of that has been all I can think of.  I feel like she's being deployed - and on a more personal note, who am I going to argue with for the next three weeks?  She's assured me that she's internationalized her phone connection, but somehow, it's just not the same.
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Rita's leaving for Russia today to do a series of concerts and jazz festivals across the country. If I had more heart I would have liked to have gone with her, but the fact is, I don't like leaving the United States - and especially in the current political environment. Thanks to the machinations of George Bush and Dick Cheney Americans are far from the most beloved people on the planet,  so I like knowing my White folks, or at the very least, being able to understand what they're talking about.  Just call me paranoid, but I think that's understandable.  After all, I'm an African American male, so I have my neighbor check my tail lights before I drive to the liquor store, even in this country - in fact, especially in this country. But at least here I have some idea of what I'm dealing with. But in RUSSIA, where they don't even like American White folks, and where I don't understand the language so I wouldn't recognize the word "lynch" when I heard it (!!!?), I don't think so. If something did go down I wouldn't even know what direction to run - and with my luck, I'd probably end up in the Russian equivalent of Alabama.   

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But even if I wanted to go, and I am a musician, I'm not of the world-class caliber of a Rita Edmond, so the Russians might not understand me.  Now, if I was of the highly polished, conservatory-trained school of a Dale Fielder or Ricky Woodard, that might fly, but while I know music very well,  I'm of the what-counts-is feeling-and-passion school of jazz, which granted, is a very legitimate tradition.  But the only problem with that tradition is, occasionally the only one who feels your passion is you. So if I have a bad day, the Russians might confuse me with a CIA spy trying to pose as a musician and throw me in one of their gulags.
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But there's no chance of that happening to Rita Edmond, because as I pointed out in my article Presenting Ms. Rita Edmond - The Contemporary Face of True Jazz Royalty, "Ms. Edmond moves between sultry sophistication, hard driving swing, and childlike innocence without any effort at all. There are many great singers out there, but from the very first bar of anything Rita does, she clearly distinguishes herself as one of those rare individuals who was born to do exactly what she’s doing, and nothing else. She swings with the effortless grace of a Sliver Shadow cruisin' down Pacific Coast Highway, and her ballads are lush with sultry passion, personal depth, and individuality." So the only thing I'm worried about is once the Russians hear her, they may not want to let here come back home.

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So Rita, you'll be over there near Copenhagen, Denmark where they treat jazz people like rock stars (that's why Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, and many others transplanted themselves over there), but even if they offer you a king's ransom to stay, you have people here who love you enough to make anything they can offer pale in comparison.
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And one other thing, Rita.  Don't forget to tell 'em I taught you everything you know.  Naw, on second thought, don't do that.  I'll wait until your current CD comes out. Then I can tell that lie to the world at the Grammys.

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Have a good and safe trip, give our regards to the Russian people, and show 'em how we do it, baby.

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Eric L. Wattree 
Http://wattree.blogspot.com 
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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