Sometimes chance encounters are the best ones. You meet someone for the first time, in a bar or a raillway compartment. You have a conversation that feels like a moment of rare clarity even while you're having it and then go your separate ways at the end of the evening, never to lay your eyes on each other ever again. When you wake up the next morning you may not be able to remember the stranger's name or even recall completely the shape and patterns of their face. But the importance and hidden details of the conversation, remain with you.
A couple of days ago by chance, I came across a photo of a large man on social media. He had a full expressive face which told of at least half a life of fully lived experience. He was busy adjusting a large pair of spectacles which he held warily across his face. A mop of heathy, curly hair, not unlike Billy Ficca of Television's A work shirt unbuttoned to reveal a Superman outfit as if he'd just emerged from a telephone box with the intention of saving the world.... again!
It was a really arresting photo and with some rudimentary Internet research I hunted down the record it was posted to advertise with undue haste. Ray Baretto a Puerto Rican Jazz and Salsa musician who an immediate exposure to the album in question (1973'a Indestructible) told you that he an his band were intent on bringing back the good times as quickly as they could.
Barretto lived a good, life. Almost eighty years of it. But he departed in search of a pair of wings and his next gig in 2006. By the evidence set forward on Indestructible, he seems to me like one of the most interesting people you never met. But the record is there for you whenever you need it.
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