Anti-Climacus

TECHNOLOGIES OLD AND NEW: Bronx Banter has a really wonderful series going on this offseason, where they highlight various soul and jazz records. A few days ago, they had a post on Professor Longhair. Here's my Professor Longhair story:

When I was first getting into music, right around 7th grade, I didn't know very much about it. My ignorance was forgivable because I also had very little money to spend on albums. I did, however, have a radio, and on the weekends would turn to the lower end of the dial to hear all the really weird and strange stuff--jazz and blues and folk and old, old country--on the public radio stations. In the summers, I would lay down under the windows of my bedroom, or sit on the bed, and watch the trees go back and forth, or try to see how far away I could see. On one of the very first occasions I did this, I heard Professor Longhair. At the time, I had a small blue spiral-bound notebook in which I used to write the names of bands I wanted to listen to. The Professor was dutifully entered, somewhere near the beginning of the list. For years--until probably the end of high school--I would look for him when I went out to buy albums, but never found any. I gradually became convinced that I misheard it, or made it up. And then I forgot about him for a long time, and was pleasantly reminded that I hadn't made it all up.