Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Mose Allison Has Gone Home

Click on the picture to enlarge it.
I'll bet there was not a jazz club in America that Mose had not played in at one time or another.
He traveled relentlessly all over the world.
I know that I first saw him in Biloxi, Miss. and then in Seattle also in Chicago.
Each year he would play here at Blue's Alley in Washington D.C. on the first or second day of each New Year.
I saw him in person once at the hotel where I was working. We had a contract with Blues Alley to house the musicians who came to town to play at Blues Alley.
Mose wandered into the Lobby in the early afternoon and his room was not ready and they asked him to take a seat and wait a bit while housekeeping got the room ready.
I was eyeing him as he sat down. Then a couple came over and he offered them a seat. Somehow they took his seat and he said "You got my seat".
I got the impression that Mose was high strung and I could not really even think of anything to say to him that was in any way intelligent so I said nothing.
I am sure he had heard it all before. Musicians are odd strange people anyway. He struck me as a loner. Who wanted to be left alone. So I did not bother him,
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/arts/music/mose-allison-a-font-of-jazz-and-blues-dies-at-89.html?emc=eta1