Jim Dapogny left this neighborhood on March 6, 2019, and what follows comes from the last time I saw him. He was a hero to me: a surprising man, generous and sly, and a musician who loved to explore possibilities others hadn’t envisioned.
He is here, intact: the roving musical imagination, the sly wit, the life-long immersion in music played, considered, and loved. The surprising chords, the unexpected rhythms, the ascending octaves, the unpredictable shapes he created.
The songs are, as Jim explains, his own WHOLE CLOTH BLUES, Jelly Roll Morton’s BERT WILLIAMS, a Fats Waller medley of I’VE GOT A FEELING I’M FALLING, KEEPIN’ OUT OF MISCHIEF NOW, IF IT AIN’T LOVE, HONEYSUCKLE ROSE, a reprise of FALLING, and William H. Tyers’ MAORI.
Jim took a sizable chunk of the universe with him when he went offstage. This half-hour recital is a dear thing, a fragment I can shore up against my sense of loss. But it could never be enough.
May your happiness increase!
JAZZ LIVES 