Dream music

I met Duke Ellington in a dream the other night (seven plus years ago) in a remarkably small theater after his ensemble had concluded their 1927 composition Black & Tan Fantasy.

I tried to bum a cigarette from the great jazzman, but he refused. I thanked him for doing that. “It will make a better story,” I said. Then I woke up with a smile.

When I told my fiddle teacher about it, he wasn’t surprised. “You’ve been playing his music,” he said. Spooky instrument, the fiddle.