walking with miles

ok, so i got hold of porgy & bess, the miles davis/gil evans one, which, now i remember it was one of the 1st cd's that dad got with his new cd player when he retired & i was either a late teenager or very early 20'ser...

a beautiful album, accompanied me through many different parts of my life...

i remember how neatly prayer (oh doctor jesus) & fishermen, strawberry & devil crab used to fit exactly into the cycle ride from my house to my work when i was working in that vast windowless room for directory enquiries in leamington spa...

also how the entire album fitted into the journey time from here to a past lovers house...

the way gil evans makes the musicians rise & fall so gracefully and seemingly without structure while miles floats over or plays his part within...

so anyway, i carefully didn't listen to any of it until it was all on my shuffle and then me & dinah went over manolis's where we were in a perfectly stupid laughing mood... i left her @ the busstop heading to college and put on my headphones and set off walking down tufnell park road...

strange mix of familiar emotional reactions to the music and contemporary sights & sounds...

i walked in a wide arc from there (walking away from ours) back round to our road and our house...

found this beautiful rainbow of leaves, similar to the leaves that turn so wonderfully red in our garden for a couple of weeks each year... but so many different hues in one place...

found myself taking loads of pictures and a few videos - all on my phone - greyish autumn day throwing up strangely satisfying dark glimpses of landscape and buildings...

then these wild flowers that i carried for awhile in my buttonhole, destined for a jar on dinah's desk...

all to that album, to miles & gil...

i was concerned that when i got to the main roads i'd have to cross to get home the cars would interfere with my listening pleasure, but crossing both holloway & hornsey roads was remarkably easy and natural, you know when you don't even have to stop walking, just drifting over in a gap when the traffic is stationery, or the traffic in both directions thinning out miraculously to let you cross...

and so i was about to cross over into our road when the album came to it's huge end and i'm very happy that it's back in my life...

x