DDW Challenge; at the movies. On The Water Front

(on) The Water Front

What a lot of memories came flooding back (no pun intended) with this challenge. Not just the film, but a song. And a sound.

When I was about 20 I had a friend whose father ran a Jazz quartet and he introduced me to Ella Fitzgerald and Jimmy Smith (for which I am eternally grateful). I still have a vinyl LP of Jimmy Smith which includes I cover the waterfront. It’s one of those tunes that I seem to instantly recall whenever I hear a reference to ‘the waterfront’.

But the sound that attracted me to Jimmy Smith goes back even earlier for me - mid 1960s listening to Georgie Fame in dingy blues clubs, with his Hammond organ. And what made the Hammond organ special was the rotating Leslie Speaker.

I have a friend who plays Hammond organ and he managed to find a Leslie speaker recently on fleabay. The sound is so evocative - it’s a real time machine; power up, flick a switch and you're back in the 60s.

And so to my Waterfront. This is a garden table covered in water from last night's rain, taken from the front. Perhaps I should have covered it. But then no picture, no story.