Mary Ann and I went to see the great Ramsey Lewis at Chicago’s London House in the early 70s. The Trio was the house band for a number of years. On his passing at 87, The Guardian wrote:
“The piano great tuned in to the hits of his day and played hard bop to a rock backbeat, crossing into the mainstream and becoming one of the most sampled musicians of all time”
“I can, if necessary, play quite complicated jazz improvisations,” he once said. “But you’ve got to make sure you carry the audience with you. Most people don’t have an MA in music scholarship, they haven’t sat a jazz improvisation 101, they don’t want to hear you playing bebop inspired by Béla Bartók. You’ve got to follow the audience, and play off their energy.”
Often when I’m doing my morning walk, I listen to my iTunes library on shuffle. The other morning a song came up that I had not heard in a long time; in fact, I had forgotten I even had it — “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).” The words for this song came from an essay written as a hypothetical commencement speech by columnist Mary Schmich, originally published in June 1997 in the Chicago Tribune. The essay became the basis for a successful spoken word song released in 1999 by Baz Luhrmann.
“Ugh, I don’t wear sunscreen. I don’t need it. (Gulps, takes deep breath). Listen to me carefully: everyone, every skin color, every tone, every ethnicity, and almost every age — needs sunscreen. You need it for two reasons: first, because it prevents skin cancer, and second, because it prevents premature aging. If you’re wearing a mask, brushing your teeth, taking care of yourself — you gotta add in sunscreen.” (NPR)
I haven’t always listened to this advice. Over the last decade, I have begun to experience the result of too much sun without using sunscreen. In trying to make up for lost time, I see a dermatologist twice a year. I have had several skin cancers, all squamous cell carcinoma, all treatable.
