Jazz. com: Kurtz: Kerouac, Jazz, and Baseball

What in the name of Maynard Ferguson G. Krebs brought this on?

On those rare occasions when he spelled a musician’s name right and matched him with the correct instrument, Kerouac still managed to make a fool of himself. Jazz fans have no doubt heard, for example, “the sudden squeak uninhibited that screams muffled at any moment from Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet.” Say what? An uninhibited squeak that screams muffled! Oh, yeah, far out. Not only does the squeak scream, it’s so uninhibited it’s muffled. Hey, pass those bennies over here, man.

All of which brings our roundabout safari to “Congo Blues.” In his magnum opus On the Road (1957), Kerouac cites this track as an early Dizzy Gillespie record with Max West on drums. Who?  For working stiffs without the benefit of bennies, Max West was a baseball player, not a drummer. For that matter, “Congo Blues” was not a Dizzy Gillespie record. It was by Red Norvo & His Selected Sextet. What’s especially galling, though, is Kerouac’s reference to this “valued” record. Sure, so valued Jack can’t recall the bandleader, and thinks the drummer had a .254 lifetime batting average and made the 1940 National League All-Star Team.

This is a sad fate to befall an important Swing-to-Bop transitional track. Recorded on the first anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion during World War II that signaled the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany, “Congo Blues” signaled the beginning of the end for the Swing Era. But besides its historical importance, this track is more fun than a barrel of beatniks washing over Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls, slowly iTunes...Giant Steps by Giant Steps.