Caravan in The Rain, Stranded

On Forgetting Memory

I recorded this rendition of Duke Ellington’s classic Caravan in 2015. I’m revisiting it now because it will be a selection on my upcoming album tentatively titled “You Can’t Forget What You Never Knew.”

Speaking of which, how many people nowadays actually know the tune Caravan or anything by Ellington, for that matter? Other than, perhaps, Take the A Train, which is not by Ellington but by his brilliant writing partner Billy Strayhorn.

This is not meant as a criticism of you, dear reader, but a criticism of the American talent for forgetting, or, more fundamentally, the glorification of ignorance that permeates our culture, particularly among the far-right cult led by T***p, but not exclusively that cult. For example, there is the leftish cult of pop star T****r S***t.

Don’t get me started.

Well, I’ve already started, so I’ll continue for a minute. Go listen to the original recording of Caravan by Ellington’s band:

(This is the Apple Music link, but I’m sure you can find it on Spotify, etc.: https://music.apple.com/us/album/caravan/199331521?i=199334696)

It is weird in the wonderful way that Ellington’s music is often distinctively weird.

Then listen to my version, which is even weirder. Why? Because whereas Ellington is attempting to evoke something of Arabia, I’m trying to not evoke something of Ellington evoking Arabia. Doing so would sound cliche in 2015. Plus, in the 80 or so years that have passed between the original recording and mine, a lot of water has flowed under many bridges, some of which were blown up.

The point is, there’s a lot of meta going on here (no, not effing F***b**k), and if you are unaware of the source, my version may not meta lotta sense.