.... Monday night... Yesterday I went to walk through the streets late at night, a cold that leaves your facial expression fixed, the water vapor exhaling from your mouth and nose fogging up your glasses... there is a certain beauty in walking at this hour through the empty streets of Santiago..... when Billy Cobham came to Chile, in 1982, the dictatorship had imposed a "curfew" since 1973...
Two generations lived the afternoons and evenings locked up at home for 13 years, without interruption...
It seems like a foreign story, from a nonexistent past... but it was very, very real...
Anyway... Billy Cobham came to Chile in 1982. Along with bassist Jeff Berlin and I think Lavitz on keyboards (I'm not sure). The story goes that they hammered their accentuated rhythm, into the double pedalof the bass drum and the syncopated hammering of the snare drum, ioms and cymbals... a jazzy bass line with its own identity of Jeff Berlin, ... generating an innovative blend of jazz, reggae, rock, punk, and fusion in "song" format... a delight for the ears...
I'll leave you with a classic. Cobham's first LP, Spectrum. 1973....
If you like jazz fusion, this is a must-listen.
Lelan Sklar. Tommy Bolin. Jan Hammer. Other musicians participated on percussion and wind instruments.
Enjoy it....
<Tolerance and empathy are enhanced to energize the will and avoid gaining unnecessary heavy weight....>
Have a delightful night/ shining day/ !!!
Book TALES UNDER THE HIGH HEELS. 2025
Author: Antonio Alex Pezoa Scharpe
Chapter 11
"Tale under the dictatorship oppression"
//...Fellow poets,
taking into account
how implacable the truth must be,
I urgently need to ask
what should we say,
what truths should I respect?
If someone steals food and then gives their life... what should we do?
To what extent should we,
practice the truths...
to the best of our knowledge?
So let them write history, their history..."
..//(Silvio Rodríguez; Playa Girón)
.<.- Speak slowly, and don't move!!..
- It's 7:00 PM, the sun has already set and the neon streetlights have come on...
- Yes, but there are 7 blocks left and the curfew started an hour ago. Neither the police nor the military will have compassion...
- It's still better for the police to take you, not the military... those are sons of bitches...>
..... My eyes hurt from the tear gas and there was the smell of gunpowder in the air. It was almost winter, and the icy breeze stirred the leaves of the trees and bushes... their shadows formed strange shapes, and sometimes faces, bodies, or hands formed, moving toward where I was standing... it seemed as if they were accusing us of being outside the law... the cold touched our bones, and we couldn't move until the soldiers on the corner of the next block retreated... I felt my legs tremble and weaken. My backpack was heavy; it held the anatomy and physiology books I'd borrowed from the university library.
We had been at "Mario"'s house all afternoon, ever since I left the university, making leaflets by hand to distribute around the town, so people could join the university students for the march we planned for the following Thursday at noon in downtown Santiago.
Another half hour of uncertainty, between bushes, trees, and shadows... when the military bus departed, we separated from the shadows and began a quick trot... one street, one block, always without speaking and close to the walls so we could blend in with them and the shadows... another street, another sidewalk... almost at the end of the fifth sidewalk, bright lights dazzled us and a voice over the loudspeaker paralyzed our muscles...
<Stay still, hands where we can see!!...>.....The bright glare made it impossible to see anything, but we heard car doors opening, closing, the sound of boots hitting the asphalt, running toward us...
A large shadow bends to my right, at the same time I feel a blow, a dull pain in my right side toward my lower back, pushing me to the ground...
<Get on the ground, you fucking kids!!...Drop your backpacks! >
A foot crushes my lower back against the pavement...and I scream out loud....< - !! We were studying at a friend's house and the time slipped by.... I have my books in my backpack.... Felipe is by my side, walking me home and will stay with me...!!.. I live two blocks from here....on Lucrecia Borgia, across from the Copec gas station....
- The ID cards!!
- Here they are!...
- You are under arrest under the state of siege law... We'll escort you to the Belén police station... >
They put us in a patrol car and take us off at the police station... They search us all over, take off our belts and order us to take off our shoes... We hand over the shoelaces and put them back on... A door opens, they push us down a hallway and shove us into a cell, the iron door creaks and after a slam... We are left in a dark room, 3 x 3 meters, the floor damp, full of irregular accumulations of what seems to be water... The fetid smell of excrement and urine, of confinement and uncertainty... The cold makes me tremble, standing against a wall, absolutely in the dark... We stand side by side so as not to fall and crash, to position ourselves and not... despair....
< shut your mouths, you fucking kids!!!!>
.between sweat, cold, uncertainty, bars, walls, grills and fear....I reviewed part of my life... ...9 years since the military coup....9 years of murders, raids, disappearances... fascist propaganda..... difficulties to satisfy basic tastes....9 years of curfew...9 years of dreams.....of hiding at dusk.....walking among shadows....listening to the music that delighted me deeply, in cassettes worn out from so much use...of wearing second-hand clothes or the ones that were too small for my older brother....of seeing the neighbors grow old with their faces full of bitterness......of seeing my mother wash and rinse clothes in cold water with pain in her hands... but with a look of penetrating love and a smile that flooded our house with joy............and, ........with all of the above !!!, we smiled.... a force engendered in the decisions of our father and mother, filled an intangible part of our body but that was the driving force of everything we learned and did, We dreamed, we thought, we gave.......
.......and the night passed, standing, backs against the wall, shivering from the cold, hunger...dizziness and nausea from the stench of the environment, at 05:45 hrs. Footsteps were heard in the darkness... the sharp, painful, and penetrating sound of the rusty metal prison door creaking open, a voice, more respectful than the one from the night before <Young people outside, your identities and addresses have been verified, and the absence of terrorist offenses has been confirmed. Please come and get your things and you may leave. Don't forget, ever again, that curfew starts at 6:00 PM...>
...we gathered our belongings, our lanyards, and belts, and left...as we left, we said our goodbyes...and I began the long walk home.....
.....it was cloudy...in the distance, the sound of horns and cars moving...cold...tiredness...
Arriving home, the yellowish light of the outside lantern was on...the end of the journey...the kettle boiling with its characteristic sound...silence in the living room...and the bedroom... the bed...and I collapsed.............
________
_______________
<....."""...and that's the difference, comrades..... we're not here to defend our own pockets....
we're not here to maintain the illusion of freedom that slavery to money gives...
... we're here... because by birthright... freedom is ours!!!!
freedom of thought... freedom to choose how we want to live... freedom to choose to do something for other people...
... freedom to stand in our streets whenever we want!!!! .... the freedom to tell the dictator that we don't accept delegates imposed by whoever is in power, like our leaders!!!...
we elect our representatives... our deans... our presidents... we elect ourselves... all of us!!!!!!!.......
.........................
- That was good, Pezoa..... he could have also emphasized the conglomerate of the socialist bloc that supports us....
- yes, but you ...You know... I have something very anarchist going on in my head...
- See you at the Café del Cerro... at 3:00 PM...
- See you...>>>>
.... The structure of the hydraulic mechanics pavilion at the engineering school was... impressive!!... high ceilings... Roman-style column......the echo of footsteps and voices was from a natural quadraphonic sound system.... I imagined the French horns, bassoons, cellos, and violins resounding in that space while the notes danced through every corner... "The Heroic"..... Beethoven's majestic third symphony....
This was where I spoke a few words as a representative and candidate for vice president of the southern campus of the medical school.....
Here, those from all the universities debated and gathered, those who wanted to overthrow the dictatorship and its imposed representatives....
Here, the social history of the country was written............
........at the end of the school, a wet kiss, the close contact of a strong, tight hug, of a warm body reactive to my caresses, the contact of hand with her hand, of my chest with hers....and the brush of fine blond hair on My face, along with a crystalline smile, was waiting for me... a shiver ran down my spine and the prickling of my skin took me to another dimension beyond everyday reality... giving way to other sensations, nuanced by labored breathing and a fine sweating that gently took over all our senses...mmmmmhhhhh....
...... laughter, words, events, anger, studies, the weather, life, the rich, the poor, the rigidity of their parents, soft skin and biting tongue, shared melodies and rhymes, silly seriousness, intelligent laughter... everything began to flow between the words we exchanged as we stepped on each other's toes or high-fived.....
< - Maria Olga Herreros Cattani... you cloud my everyday thoughts and open me to another ethereal dimension, black and white slowly separate from each other and there appear colors I didn't know existed....
-. Hahaha, I'm going to lick your nose, your ears, and here and there...mmm...
- here!!...on the bus??
- Yesssss...,...>
..a deep kiss consumed the time....
The bus bell rang..... we both looked out the window....
<- here we get off!....
- Yesssss....eheheheh!!!....>
..we walked laughing, fooling around, talking... the businesses in the same order always... and the entrance to the south campus of the medical school... on one side a funeral home, on the other side, a bar... hahaha,...
...... entering the campus, between the casino tables and the grass, the divided groups tacitly indicated who was who..... a singular peculiarity of classmates who talked about the normal beauty of women, captivating, flirtatious regardless of physical attributes... the "plastic" beauty of the woman who knew she was pretty, but lived only for that...... and the "remarkable" beauty of the woman who knew she was beautiful, she had accepted it,
...but it was secondary; her interests and thoughts elevated her above her appearance, radiating another beauty... profound...
I don't know the exact reason, nor the neurosensory pathway used in the "externalization" of the characteristics that define beauty, its appearance, its perception, nor the perception and exaltation that the observer places on the definition of beauty, of their ability to convince other people that what they see is their own and not theirs...
We sat at an outdoor table, while the chords of "Yendo de la cama al living" by Charly García played...
< - How was the assembly, Antonio Alex, in engineering? - Super good, the architecture of the place is incredible!!!!... Mario, I told them about the location of our headquarters and what the socialist bloc's program would be... but you know me... maybe I went a bit off-script... hahaha... I don't like "mental bars"... the bloc is what most closely resembles my way of thinking... but it doesn't accurately represent me... and the communists, with their "seriousness", always walk around with sour faces... sometimes, on purpose, I say phrases in English and laugh inside because I know it pisses them off... hahaha...
- Antonio, are you coming to physiology classes?
- No, I'll stay with Herreros Cattani here on the grass for a while...
- Remember the osmolarity seminar tomorrow, Friday, first thing in the morning!!!
- Thanks, Nadia.... see you tomorrow...
- Little one, I'm going to ask my classmates something and tell them I won't be going to class either... but first, give me a kiss... mmm... delicious!!.... wait for me, I'll be right back!!!
- Okay, little one....
- I'm going to tell the cafeteria manager to turn up the Charly!.... Mario, can you get me a strong coffee, please? >>
.........
...hands, arms, abruptly climb onto my shoulders from behind, thighs and legs hug my waist and cross in front of me, holding on tightly...blond hair falls before my eyes and I feel a bite on my ear...a body, breasts press against my back...
< I'm back!!!... did I take too long??...... mmmmmhhhhh.... how delicious.... how delicious.... let's go!!.....>
..... laughing, hugging, kissing, merging our bodies we left..., Walking toward the exit... many, many eyes on us... envious glances from the big, muscular men... smiling glances from young women... scrutinizing glances from professors... knowing glances from friends...
........
.....on a campus where I sat on the grass, a cigarette in my mouth, books at my sides, playing guitar on winter afternoons, where the University of Chile's obstetrics, nursing, and medicine programs met... with hundreds of girls laughing, talking, interacting, where the boundaries of the social, the intellectual, the emotional, the sensorial became blurred, shifting, mobile like leaves released from the stems of trees, swaying in time with the wind... spinning in singular somersaults unique in the entire universe, illuminated by faint flashes reflected again and again, between atoms of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen constantly altering their bonds with all the intertwined organic matter..... alternating with each other, generating movement, colors, shapes, light, in harmony with everything... I, sitting, looked, felt, gave, received, with an eternal smile, drawn on my face by my parents, and, possessing an effervescence multiplied by the intimate contact with those around me... I smiled... I smiled...
//... I received a letter and opened it...
When my eyes shone, I understood...
When I had wings, I flew...
When she called me, there I went...
When I realized, I was there...
When I found you, I was lost...
The moment I saw you, I fell in love...
Amara zaia zoié, zaia zaia ingado annn
When I had nothing, I desired...
When everything was absence, I waited...
When I was cold, I trembled...
When I had courage, I called...
When you called me, I went...
And without realizing it, I arrived...
When I found you, I lost myself...
And when I saw you, I fell in love. //(Pedro Aznar. At first sight).
Milestones
ReplyDeleteBetween the 1960s and early 1970s, he pursued a jazz fusion style, mixing rock n' roll, soul, and funk.
With brothers Randy and Michael Brecker and guitarist John Abercrombie, he formed the band Dreams.
In 1971, Cobham founded the Mahavisnhu Orchestra with John McLaughlin, with whom he toured from 1971 to 1973 and with whom Cobham recorded two studio albums and one live album.
In May 1973, his first album, Spectrum, was released with Jan Hammer (keyboardist with the Mahavishnu Orchestra) and guitarist Tommy Bolin (later guitarist for the hard rock band Deep Purple).
He frequently collaborated with Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, and Miles Davis.