Coltrane And Prison

John Coltrane (who I listen to now) pioneered the use of different modes in jazz and, later, he was at the forefront of the free jazz movement of the '50s and '60s.

I try to get the Shakespeares to listen to Red Garland, Miles Davis and Coltrane but they don't get it, going for Capital FM with its same awful interchangeable screeching songs: Rihanna could be Nicki Minaj who is Katy Perry or Jesse J. It is all crap but, then, this is what my parents must have thought when Sheena E belted out "Come inside my sugar walls" in '84. Ghastly, but I loved it.

I take Madeleine to school on the No. 337 bus, upper deck, front row, staring into the glorious morning sunshine since it is 7:15AM. Madeleine and I practise spelling words from flip-cards, she reads some "Little House On The Prairie" and becomes concerned about the traffic in Wandsworth : tardiness merits a "signature", and she shows me her green-card which, so far, has 12 or 13 "accommodations" for good behaviour and no signatures. Madeleine proving herself to be a striver.

Me: "Don't worry, there are other Emanuel kids on the bus."
Madeleine: "If you get thirty 'signatures,' you are kicked out of school."
Me: "That is so harsh."
Madeleine: "If you get twenty, then you are expelled."
Me: "What happens then?"
Madeleine: "You have to stay in your room. And can only leave to go to the toilet and stuff."
Me: "Sounds like prison."
Madeleine: "It is worse. Plus you have to see the Head Master."