Three weeks ago, we posted Turiya and Ramakrishna by Alice Coltrane, and then the next week, following the passing of the legendary Cecil Taylor, we posted his Spring of Two Blue J's. Last week, we posted Piano Solo 11 by Ahmad Jamal, as it had played that week in the soundtrack of Episode 6 of Danny Glover's television comedy-drama, Atlanta. The emerging theme here obviously is jazz piano.
Well, last night was Episode 8 of Atlanta, and what do you think Glover chose to include in the background music? Why, Turiya and Ramakrishna, our post from two weeks ago. Either great minds are thinking alike, or good taste is synchronous, or Danny Glover is following this blog after we name-dropped him and his show and he enjoyed the Alice Coltrane cut. Hey, don't laugh, it could happen.
Why, then, you ask, didn't he include some Cecil Taylor in Episode 7? Hey, nobody could fit one of Taylor's protean, epic-length compositions into a 30- to 40-minute show, not even Childish Gambino, and even with editing, Taylor's music is still too intense for prime-time TV. But thanks for asking.
To test our theory, here's a very soundtrack-friendly piano cut, Banyana, from Abdullah Ibraham's The Children of Africa. If we hear Banyana in an upcoming episode of Atlanta, I rest my case. I can easily imagine it playing in an opening sequence, or behind the titles. If we don't hear it, well, it's still a great track, and I love the elastic approach Ibraham takes to time and tempo in this composition. We had a vinyl copy of The Children of Africa back in the 70s, and it's a great album from start to finish. Banyana is the opening track, and the album just gets deeper and richer with each cut.
By the way, if you haven't been watching Atlanta recently, the last three episodes, 6, 7 and 8 of Season 2, have been among the greatest moments of television. No exaggeration. I would put them up against any episodes of The Sopranos or Game of Thrones or any of the other sacred cows of quality TV. And the beauty is you don't even have to follow the series to enjoy these episodes - each one stands alone as an individual vignette of one individual character per episode, and the emotional depth, the skillful story-telling, and the acute social commentary of each episode transcends the sit-com genre, or any other genre for that matter. Go and watch these episodes if you haven't already, and when you're done, listen to some more Abdullah Ibraham.
You can thank us later.
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