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Down The Hole

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Today’s Farming Update is from Ben.

I was listening to a jazz station the other day and a song came on that I remembered.

“Li’l Darlin’”, a 1958 song by Neil Hefti for the Count Basie Orchestra. And I recall hearing it late nights on MPR with Leigh Kamman and the Jazz Image. I went down an internet rabbit hole looking up Leigh and the Jazz Image. He has a Wikipedia page. He even has a website created by his daughter and others.

https://www.leighkamman.com/

He was on MPR for 34 years, in radio for 65 years.

Born in Minnesota in1922, he grew up in central Minnesota, and spent time during WWII in the Armed Forces Radio. The last edition of The Jazz Image was September 29, 2007, and he passed away in Edina, MN, at age 92 on Friday October 17, 2014. From the look of things, his contribution to jazz music is severely understated.

He used music of Alice Babs as his ‘filler music’. But Li’l Darlin must have been in there somewhere, how else would I have known it? And that led me to Count Basie, and a recording by the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble, and down the hole I went. I had forgotten how poetic he was on the program. From a substack website by Tyler King called “From Astaire to Sun Ra: A Jazz Journey”, there’s are quotes from some of his broadcasts: “wrapped in honey and floating on a cloud” or “Here we are in pursuit of a timber wolf howling across Miller’s Bay, Leach Lake; and we are headed to Star Route, Walker, Minnesota zip code 56484.” Pretty good imagery!

And in the words of Duke Ellington, “If it sounds good, it is good.”

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Kamman.

It must be spring as the college put out the ‘Ornery Goose’ seasonal email.

The college has several nesting geese. This one has moved to a new spot in the parking lot this year.

At home, I picked up the driveway markers, and I took off the rear blade, but I haven’t taken down the snow fence yet.

I have started picking up sticks, branches, and roots from the dirt work done last fall. It’s a little too muddy in places yet, especially with the rain and snow we’ve been getting lately, but there’s a lot to pick up and we’ll get them eventually.

And before it snowed and rained last week, I cleared a downed tree off the edge of a field and pushed brush back into the trees along the edge. Trying to keep nature at bay. Or least in its place. It’s a yearly battle.

The weather was so nice Friday evening, Kelly and I and the dogs sat out on the veranda for an hour. We didn’t have wine or even chairs; we just sat on the steps and talked and watched the chickens and the clouds and the world go round.

I’ve had three electricians working in the shop this week. One journeyman and two apprentices. There is so much planning and forethought required in this, it is one of those situations where I’m paying for his 20 years of practice, in addition to the 3 days of work. Look at the skill it takes to create concentric 90-degree bends. Plus, all the code requirements, and the cleanest way to get all the wires where they need to be with the least amount of conduit.

Part of me wonders why I hired this out and didn’t do it myself? All the aforementioned is why. Plus, he has a scissor lift.

I did pick up the lift early and mount the lights to the ceiling, and I’ll install the ceiling fans myself, but they’re doing the hard work.

It will be nice to have the large garage door opener hooked up, and outside lights when needed, and better inside lighting, and outlets all over, and a dedicated outlet for the air compressor, and two welder outlets! One inside, one outside!

Can’t wait. It’s gonna be SO COOL! And then really, I’m gonna stop spending money. On this.

I moved some tractors on Tuesday. I was going to hook up the big tractor to the soil finisher, my main spring implement, but decided it wasn’t quite time for that yet.

Moved the scrap metal tote outside so I can get to the grain drill. And it will be time to pick up seed shortly.

It’s interesting the chives growing wild are greening up, but the chives in the pot are not yet. The ground stays warmer than the cold air surrounding the pot I suppose is the reason.

JAZZ MUSIC IS THE THEME THIS WEEKEND

62 thoughts on “Down The Hole”

    2. i learned this tune in the early 70’s and its still the coolest jazzy tune i do. i learned there were lyrics but i think im the only person ive ever heard sing them
      Won’t you stop and take
      A little time out with me
      Just take five
      Stop your busy day
      And take the time out
      To see if I’m alive
      Though I’m going out of my way
      Just so I can pass by each day
      Not a single word do we say
      It’s a pantomime and not a play
      Still, I know our eyes often meet
      I feel tingles down to my feet
      When you smile, that’s much too discreet
      Sends me on my way
      Wouldn’t it be better
      Not to be so polite
      You could offer a light
      Start a little conversation now
      It’s alright, just take five
      Just take five
      Though I’m going out of my way
      Just so I can pass by each day
      Not a single word do we say
      It’s a pantomime and not a play
      Still, I know our eyes often meet
      I feel tingles down to my feet
      When you smile, that’s much too discreet
      Sends me on my way
      Wouldn’t it be better
      Not to be so polite
      You could offer a light
      Start a little conversation now
      It’s alright, just take five
      Just take five

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  3. In 1978, I saw Ella Fitzgerald at Orchestra Hall, part of a jazz series to which I had gotten tickets. I was especially looking forward to seeing Joe Venuti in that series but he died during that tour. I’ve had a special predilection for jazz violin and especially Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz since college.

    When we were in Kyoto, one of the places we had learned about and sought out was the Yamatoya Jazz Bar. It’s operated by an octogenarian Japanese couple and all of the jazz is via LPs on high-end turntables and speakers. The place was wonderful. It was perhaps two miles from our hotel and we walked there on three separate evenings. I was so taken by the atmosphere of the place and the experience that I have been bolstering my jazz collection ever since we got back. Obviously, with 80+ year-olds, the place won’t be around forever but if we returned to Kyoto in the next couple of years it’s one of the first places I’d go.

    The Yamatoya Jazz Bar:
    https://en.japantravel.com/kyoto/jazz-spot-yamatoya/15482

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  4. I can do some electrical but stuff that you’re showing pictures of and the big picture vision of how to put it all together is way beyond me. I love the way Electrician‘s brains work.

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  5. I listened to leigh kamman for many years and love his shows and the way that he went about his interview interviews I miss my jazz collection being out in the garage where I can spend a couple of discs as desired and I intend to fix that this year it’s too much a part of my life to have it in storage

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  6. I have so little experience of jazz music, but I have a few favorites – got into folk instead, and sort of bypassed jazz.
    Leigh Kamman has my respect – I would catch his show sometimes and really enjoy it.

    I have a 1964 Dave Brubeck piano book that includes his most familiar stuff from that era – and it included a suite Points on Jazz, which I loved but could only play the slow parts…

    My dad, after attending a conference in New Orleans, bought a Pete Fountain album “Walkin’ in New Orleans”, which I also love.

    I have never seen the Ken Burns series, and I should probably watch that…

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    1. Ben, this is a gem! It is fun to read us 11 years ago. But it makes me miss our Steve even more. I had forgotten how well he described things.

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  9. Rise and Shine,Baboons,

    The comments about Leigh Kamman cause me to remember how, when MPR was a less “important” community institution, someone in management would pick up a local aficionado who could add richness to the MPR experience of just listening. I miss that desire to provide a wonderful listening experience. I was not aware of Leigh Kamman,but Lou, a jazz lover, was very aware of him and would often listen in the later weekend evening when he aired. I loved Kamman’s voice, his interviews, and his stories. There was one he told about moving to New York in the 50s as he tried to break into broadcasting music. He was listening to a neighbor playing the saxophone in a nearby apartment and discovered that the neighbor was one of the jazz greats, although I do not remember which one (maybe Coltrane?).

    I am really struggling this week. My cataract surgery went very well, but while I await the second surgery, my eyes see unevenly which causes nausea and dizziness. I had two migraines this week, and those combined with the eyesight issue have knocked me flat. Weirdly, though, driving is not a problem. The correction has given me outstanding distance vision that is clear and crisp. as long as I focus on distant sights I can function. Just don’t ask me to read or type anything requiring near vision. 🫣🫣😜

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    1. I had to wait nearly a month between surgeries. After my left eye was done and the blurriness was gone, I ended up popping the left lens out of my reading glasses in order to read or do other close up work. It worked well.

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      1. I did try that. Unfortunately, my glasses correction in the right eye just won’t allow it and makes the dizziness even worse. So frustrating. The best solution is to put on glasses, put a kleenex between the “new eye” and lens as a patch and use the old glasses correction to read, which is how I am now typing.

        It is my new fashion look.

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    2. I just had my second cataract surgery 3 weeks ago, Jacque. First was in mid-February. Hang in there. It’s worth waiting for the second eye to be fixed so you can be glasses-free for most of the day! I agree about needing near vision help. I think I’ll end up with about three different powers of reading glasses for books, newspapers, and reading fine print on grocery store labels. 🙂

      I’ve also found my depth perception has improved and I can even see a golf ball in the air from more than 150 yards!! Woohoo!

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        1. Always. 😉

          In the five+ decades I’ve played golf, I’ve ducked and covered more times than I can count. It’s typical to hear “fore!” once or twice during a given round. I’ve had some near misses but have never been hit. Although my push cart blocked a low screamer from nailing me in the shin several years ago. :-O

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  10. Don’t get me started on jazz, Ben! 🙂 As some will recall from my comments on Dale’s post from 2014, I was a HUGE Leigh Kamman fan. He was a true poet, which compliments jazz nicely because it can be such poetic music.

    One of my most vivid memories of the Jazz Image was one hot summer Saturday night when I was in college at the U, trying to sleep, sweating all over my sheets in my third-floor room in a dump in Dinkytown. I dozed on and off until I heard Brubeck’s group playing an extended version of “Take Five.” Must have been a concert recording because the solos lasted for a long time.

    I lay there in that semi-conscious state, letting the music soak into my skin and my brain, feeling as connected as I ever have to the music and the musicians.

    Leigh Kamman was the reason I became an MPR member because I couldn’t imagine not living without his weekly show, and I like to pay my way.

    Side note: Kamman’s “jazz calendar” presenter and occasional on-air music reviewer, Will Shapira, was good friends with my father. They worked together at Mpls. Honeywell for decades. I got to know Will quite well. Dad invited me to play tennis and basketball with his work friends, including Will, on many occasions. I thought it was so cool that he knew Leigh Kamman. 🙂

    Here’s a link to a 2015 book review (and a short bio) he wrote for the Pioneer Press: https://www.twincities.com/2009/12/26/executive-read-by-will-shapira-2/

    Chris in Owatonna

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  11. I just saw that photographer Jim Brandenburg has died. That makes me so sad. I met him on Isle Royale years ago when he was near the shore photographing moose. He was gracious and personable. What a legacy of nature photography he leaves behind.

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  12. When we lived in Canada in the 1980’s we listened to the CBC quite a bit, and there.was this really annoying jazz announcer out of St. John’s, Newfoundland who always referred to the musicians he played as “real swinging guys”. His name was Bernie Avalon. Husband appreciates that he introduced him to the music of Sheila Jordan. CBC announcers all talk too much, I think..

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    2. I grew up as a “top 40” listening kid in Los Angeles. I had heard about jazz, but it wasn’t on the station to which I listened. About 6 months after I finished high school, I was in the army, in Vietnam, where there was only ONE armed forces radio station, which had a jazz program. My first exposure.
      An old guy, now, I still don’t understand “the nature of” jazz, but enjoy a well curated program of it. I guess, in part, I have Armed Forces VietNam network to thank for that.

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  13. Reposting interview with Jim Brandenburg and Laurent Joffrion from 2017. Their “Images from Home” was set to premiere at the Bell Auditorium in and would then run for 2 years to much acclaim.

    It would be replaced by another, “Secrets of the Forest,” which would garner a Best-of JANUS Award.

    As much as the upcoming movie was on his mind, Jim’s memories were drifting back in time to his teenage years while we munched and drank some wine at Sterling’s that afternoon 8 years ago…RIP, Jim, it was a pleasure knowing you, and you giving me hours of your time was one of the biggest honors of my life…

    ***REPOST***

    “Jim Brandenburg was in town last week getting some footage for various projects, including Nature 365, from around the area. He was giving the nickel tour to his French associate and friend, filmmaker Laurent Joffrion, whom he met while testing Nikon prototypes in France a few years ago.

    Jim and Laurent are putting together a project for the Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota campus. A 12-minute loop of collected works by Jim over the years for the Nature 365 project will be played continually as part of a larger exhibit. The only two places actually mentioned by name in the loop are Touch the Sky Prairie and the Blue Mounds.

    For visitors of the exhibit, a larger, one-hour film will be made available for purchase. This exhibit will be up sometime in the Spring of 2018. I prompted him about showing that film here for a red-carpet affair at the Palace Theatre, and he and Laurent thought that would be a marvelous idea! They have a few shorts they’ve never shown that they could partner with the film to make it a larger event, and do an introduction before and a Question & Answer afterwards.

    Laurent was intrigued by the Touch the Sky prairie biome, a very small part remaining of what was a vast tallgrass prairie throughout the area. He was especially concerned by the disappearing species – in every square kilometer of tallgrass, there’s 300 species of grasses, plants, nematodes, mushrooms, etc.

    Whereas, in our normal pastureland, there’s less than a tenth of that. And very, very few of the species of plants or animals found in tallgrass prairie exist outside the Mounds or Touch the Sky.

    We talked for a long while over drinks at Sterling’s Cafe & Grille about the disappearance of the prairie here over the last 100 years. How recent and sad, but necessary for the cultivation of crops as people spread Westward.

    The grasslands of Europe have been gone for hundreds of years, the feeling of sadness isn’t there because of the lack of recency. Their bison are similar to ours, but are actually more of a woodland creature.

    The massive Auroch became extinct in the 1600’s. A huge, wild cattle breed that roamed their prairies is the genetic precursor to domestic cattle today. It died off with their prairies. Something our own bison almost did before conservation efforts saved them.

    Jim talked about new technology, and how using a drone over the cliffs of the Mounds gave him an entirely different perspective of a land he considers his “spiritual home”.

    He was one of many that helped build Frederick Manfred’s house from the quarry stone of the Luverne Elementary School that was being dismantled at the time.

    Jim is well-renowned for his work with National Geographic and his photographs of wolves. He also published, “Chasing the Light”, a photographic journal of one picture a day for 90 days between Autumn and Winter. If you haven’t visited his gallery at the Courthouse Building, you are really missing out.

    He remembers walking around the area before it was a state park, spending countless hours there. Watching the sun rise over the Mounds (like many former LHS seniors can remember) is in Jim’s words, “very evocative, very primal. Something you don’t get, even back up North (by Ely).”

    After another round, talk turned to his early days here in Luverne. Back when he was involved in the early rock ‘n roll scene. He played guitar for Steve Ellis and the Starfires, opening for the Everly Brothers throughout the Upper Midwest. Other members of the band from Luverne included Clem (Butch) Hatting on drums, and Mike Mulligan on bass guitar.

    The Starfires, and the band members included, have been inducted into both the South Dakota and Iowa Rock ‘N Roll Halls of Fame. Their biggest hit, “Walking Around,” did chart briefly and can be heard at Soundhound here:

    https://soundhound.com/?t=100876449080649763

    Jim talks about the ballrooms: Hatfield, The Showboat, Valhalla in a wistful, reminiscent tone. Fun times cruising Sioux Falls and here in Luverne with his buddies (ask him how fast they got their car to go on Main Street – statute of limitations has expired), including drummer Buddy Miles from Omaha – who would go on to greater fame with Jimi Hendrix, and later as the voice of the California Raisins.

    Be sure to check out Jim and Laurent’s ongoing Nature 360 project over at:

    http://nature365.tv/

    And I’ll make sure to update you all when the Bell Museum begins their exhibit.”

    Jim Brandenburg, truly a modern Renaissance Man. We’ll all miss you.

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  16. I didn’t grow up in a musical environment. My folks didn’t play the radio much and we didn’t get a stereo until I was in junior high. High tech – I remember the 8-track. But we only had a few tapes. I had records but they were all folk and pop stuff. I had a passing knowledge of classical due to my piano studies.

    Even though I don’t have much to offer this weekend, I do love the chatter! And I love the Dave Brubeck – always makes me think of spy movies for some reason.

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  17. This is Clyde. I am the one who mentioned the Pixar movie Soul. After a brutal day yesterday with Sandra and her severe pain, I came home and started to watch Soul again. It is not aimed at children. Hard to explain. Uses lots of kinds of music, more jazz than anything else. Features African-American Pixar characters. Lots of quick jokes. When they are in the real world and not the beyond world, characters actions are backgrounded with clever jazz instrumentations. Not for everyone for sure, but I escape just listening to the instruments making the actions funny. I doubt very many people have even heard of it.

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    3. There are a small number of people at Pixar whose job title starts with “temporary”. When a new movie starts the 3-5 year process of production one of them starts building a music background, changing as the creators wish or as the movie changes. They might even compose music and bring in an orchestra to record it. They might add some foley work (special sound recordings). Then when the movie is about done, they drop out. The composer and music team comes in and listen to their work but in the end destroys it to create the real score. “Temporary” does not mean their job is temporary but what they create is temporary.
      Clyde

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      1. Thanks for posting this weekend Clyde. Nice to hear from you.
        And the Movie ‘Soul’ has such and interesting plot. To imagine the situation and what he’s goes through. Thanks for sharing that too.

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    4. good to hear from you clyde. sorry to hear about sandra. hope her pain lessens.
      soul is a favorite.
      glad it works as a fix on a tough day
      hope all is better soon

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  20. Great comments everyone! Love the stories and memories and music videos.
    Here’s another, in honor of Steve, who told us about Tuba Skinny.

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  22. Strange as it may sound, I grew up listening to a fair amount of traditional New Orleans style jazz. Lots of American jazz musicians were well known and popular all over Europe, several of them even resided there, so there was ample opportunity to see and hear them live. Stan Getz and his first wife were next door neighbors to one of my high school classmates for a few years. She used to babysit for them.

    My uncle Leo for my 13th birthday gave me a 45 rpm record of Bob Crosby and the Bob Cats playing Sousa marches called “Sousa Goes Dixieland.” If I’m not mistaken it’s among the treasures tim now owns.

    The year I worked in Basel there was a week-long jazz festival in town. I recall going to several of the concerts, though the only one I remember at the moment was with Lionel Hampton.

    Back in the mid-seventies, there was a Jazz Emporium in Mendota where they served a jazz brunch on Sundays while the Hall Brothers Jazz Band held forth (Butch Thompson was in that band). That was always a festive affair.

    Jazz greats that I’ve seen live Include Oscar Patterson, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, the Swe-Danes (a trio that consisted of Alice Babs, Svend Asmussen, and Ulrik Neumann), Miles Davis, David Brubeck, and Herbie Mann. I’ve been to a couple of concerts the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

    Dizzie Gillespie and his band performed a free concert at SIU while I was there. One of my neighbors, Susan Frenkel, a fellow English major and unbeknownst to me at the time, an aspiring jazz vocalist, somehow managed to get invited to sing with them. One of the band members became a good friend of hers, and convinced her to move to NYC when she graduated. She’s retired now and lives in New Jersey. We’re still in contact via Facebook.

    One of my current favorites is Jon Batiste.

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