Preferring the Inside
Jan. 3rd, 2008 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wlotusSaxaphonist Frank Morgan died in December of colon cancer just before his 74th birthday. I'm listening to excerpts of his appearances in the late '80s on NPR's "Fresh Air", with Terry Gross (18 December 2007 podcast). A few things strike me.
Morgan spent much of his life in and out of prison on drug-related charges, due to a heroin addiction. He said he spent $1500 a day on the drug. "I was a very good customer....and put many drug dealers' kids through college," he said without apology.
He was very well-spoken. When I think of a person in and out of prison, I don't think of someone who speaks as well as he did. I usually think street/gangsta/ebonics. His ability to speak well caused some cognitive dissonance with me when he and Terry discussed his many years in and out of prison.
Throughout his prison experiences, he continued to play, often performing with prison bands. He said prison guards would sometimes ask the musicians to perform when they felt there was too much tension building amongst the inmates. So his prison "career" did not hurt his playing ability.
He said part of the reason he stayed in prison was because in prison he was a big fish in a little pond. He was a good musician amongst maybe a few other good musicians. On the streets he was a little fish in a big pond: just another guy who played saxophone.
He decided to stay out of prison when he realized fewer and fewer good musicians were around in prison for him to play with. "They had either...died or had gotten smart and changed their lives." He also said a new, more violent generation was coming into the prison, and they didn't listen to or appreciate jazz. Because there were fewer and fewer people in prison whom he could relate to, he decided to get his life together and stay straight. He did acknowledge he prefers the problems of figuring out what record company to sign with over the problems inherent in a serious drug habit, but that wasn't the first thing he mentioned when he talked about what convinced him to stay straight. In fact, he said he doesn't regret what he did; he said he did it heartily until he got good and tired of it.
How tragic that a man who was so musically talented, whose speaking ability convinces me he had more than a few brain cells to rub together, willingly spent so much time in prison because that is where he felt most comfortable and appreciated. That's a pretty damning commentary on our society.
Morgan spent much of his life in and out of prison on drug-related charges, due to a heroin addiction. He said he spent $1500 a day on the drug. "I was a very good customer....and put many drug dealers' kids through college," he said without apology.
He was very well-spoken. When I think of a person in and out of prison, I don't think of someone who speaks as well as he did. I usually think street/gangsta/ebonics. His ability to speak well caused some cognitive dissonance with me when he and Terry discussed his many years in and out of prison.
Throughout his prison experiences, he continued to play, often performing with prison bands. He said prison guards would sometimes ask the musicians to perform when they felt there was too much tension building amongst the inmates. So his prison "career" did not hurt his playing ability.
He said part of the reason he stayed in prison was because in prison he was a big fish in a little pond. He was a good musician amongst maybe a few other good musicians. On the streets he was a little fish in a big pond: just another guy who played saxophone.
He decided to stay out of prison when he realized fewer and fewer good musicians were around in prison for him to play with. "They had either...died or had gotten smart and changed their lives." He also said a new, more violent generation was coming into the prison, and they didn't listen to or appreciate jazz. Because there were fewer and fewer people in prison whom he could relate to, he decided to get his life together and stay straight. He did acknowledge he prefers the problems of figuring out what record company to sign with over the problems inherent in a serious drug habit, but that wasn't the first thing he mentioned when he talked about what convinced him to stay straight. In fact, he said he doesn't regret what he did; he said he did it heartily until he got good and tired of it.
How tragic that a man who was so musically talented, whose speaking ability convinces me he had more than a few brain cells to rub together, willingly spent so much time in prison because that is where he felt most comfortable and appreciated. That's a pretty damning commentary on our society.
