The labyrinthine crime novels of Michael Connelly are brilliant—set in L.A., packed with gritty procedural, historical, and psychological detail, with their protagonist Harry (short, indeed, for Hieronymus) Bosch.
A tangential delight permeating the series is Bosch’s fine taste in jazz. Continuing my trumpet theme, it was through Nine Dragons (a murky Triad case) that I learned of Tomasz Stańko, “the Polish Miles Davis”.
To remind us of the jazz scene under state socialism (see e.g. Pickham and Ritter, Jazz behind the Iron curtain), here are versions of First song from 1976:
And even a recording from 1970:
WOW… His ballads are great too:
For more Stańko in a post on Polish jazz, see here.
As a big Connelly fan, I rejoice in the impeccable realization on film, from delectable theme music and jazz tidbits to the perfect casting, esp of Titus Welliver (a painter’s son, be it noted) as Harry B. TW looks enough like Jeremy Denk that I get a double frisson each time I watch.
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Wow, thanks. I haven’t got round to screen versions yet—a treat in store (though it looks as if one can only view them on on subscription?). I was going more for the angle of Iron-Curtain counter-culture, but I see there are fertile connections to be made between Bosch and Marlowe, and so on…
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Yes, it’s being made by Amazon Prime. With all the other benefits of a subscription (which us old folk use a lot), it’s a pleasure to encourage them in that enterprise.
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