Just say no... unless you play Jazz

Today we get some West Coast Jazz from one of those legendary dudes you've never heard of...



Trumpeter Luis Gasca has had a pretty interesting career. He played Jazz in New York in the '50s, then went to San Francisco in the '60s. There, he worked with folks like Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Dead, Santana and all those cats and of course did copious amounts of drugs. Then he got his crazy on and eventually disappeared, as sometimes happens when your amount of drugs used is, in fact, copious enough. But hey, in Jazz the people who do blow are usually the people who can blow, and Luis is no exception. Check out the lineup on this record... Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Mongo Santamaria, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie... yeah, not much of a chance of this sucking, eh?

Luis Gasca - Cosia No. 2 (ysi)

So I guess the moral of the story is... kids, if you want to be good at Jazz, do lots and lots of drugs. The fact that Luis has come back from his journey to Highsville and is still performing does nothing but prove my point...



Man, I'm jealous of that dude's hair...