the kitten chronicles - part 94

Do cats like music? Hard to tell. I plink, plank, plunk away in the basement and the boys join me. But mainly they just give me confused stares." What are you doing Big Cat?" Rooney will curl up behind the cushions on the bed and Rufus sits on Sam's office chair and tries to figure what's going on. Last night, I explained to Rufus that Rufus Reed the great jazz bassist and author of Elements of Jazz, my jazz instruction bible had advised in his book that any practice time can be valuable - even 5 minutes. This caused Rufus( the cat) to attack my bass and try to climb in an F-hole. Maybe he thought I was mocking him and that there was no such person as Rufus Reed? After all to him it's a cat's name. What human could have that name? Or maybe he's more sophisticated than I give him credit for and he was offended by my playing - I confess I might have missed a flat five while working on Herbie Hancock's Dolphin Dance. But going to E instead of B (as written) is perfectly acceptable. Damn these feline jazz purists. Whether they like my playing or not, the fur-brains are definitely trying to send me a message. They knock over my music stand and scatter the sheet music all over the floor in some kind of demented protest. Wait, the scattered sheet music could be a clue as to their intent. Maybe they're "Free Jazz" enthusiasts and totally reject structure, chords, - heck anything written - in favour of pure free improvisation. Listening to their atonal meowing to each other I suspect this is the case. So I will try to include some wild and sheet-music- free spontaneous numbers to see if they perk up their ears and launch into some kind of frenzied cat dance in tribute. I personally don't dig Free Jazz but I'm willing to compromise for the sake of harmony in the house. xxx dad