The air is a little thick, in light of a recent passing, so I'd like to think that it would make a little sense to start this one off on a personal and almost irreverent tip before getting to what is really wrong. So, self-indulgence hits before reporting smacks. Blogosphere! 

I have a weird thing with smooth jazz. I don't listen to it, though I am a huge fan of bands that come close to it, but I do appreciate it. Not the genre, or the sound, or the touch, or the feel, or the emphasis, even. I dig the mess on a perverse level, and have for almost a decade. It just reminds of Phoenix and khaki shorts and all sorts of things that were placed in, uh, place as polar opposites of what I had to deal with growing up in Chicago.

Smooth jazz is the absolute antithesis of what I'd groomed myself to appreciate for so long, but by the time I hit my 20s, it just seemed like the logical next step. To go from A to Z. Once you'd done Root Boy Slim bootlegs and grown up with parents with Specials albums and stories about working with The Jam, one has to rebel in your own inimitable way.

Though I've no patience for anything in the genre that includes a soprano saxophone, I've made many a hipster retch by handing a cab driver a fiver in the early morning hours while asking him to turn the dial to a specific station, only to see the Chuck Taylor-wearers among me turn to dust as the electric piano hits. They trusted me, thinking that some Wreckless Eric tune was about to hit, and I took advantage.

And there's, well not the point.

The point of this is that Wayman Tisdale is having a tough go of things now, and in light of Kevin Duckworth's recent passing, there's a bit of trepidation on my end in asking the irreverent-by-nature blogosphere to allow the man his due. Whether it comes by his solid playing career as a sound scoring forward, or a damned good bassist (and I know from damned good bassists) that shouldn't have to deal with this.

The backing may be a bit, uh, off-putting, but the guy can play:

And he's funny:

And he plays the damn thing upside-down, which isn't easy.

And, again, he's dealing with some medical issues that nobody should have to deal with, at any age. The lesson here, as it always should be, is to tell the people you care about most about you care about them most, and learn from early passings and unfortunate incidents regarding people you've heard of.

The meantime doesn't matter. You're always going to leave yourself prone as you speak without pretense without what seems like a pressing need. Doesn't matter. End your turn with an empty chamber.