In Praise of Mose

Where is the Love?

You should listen to Mose Allison.

That could be the whole post, really.

I feel a great temptation to compare the utter lack of Mose love on this platform with the slobbering gibber of Zimmerman slurp that coats every page. It’s not that I think the Big Z is so mediocre—but I do judge his acolytes. Consider this paragraph my brief surrender to that temptation before I return to writing about something I love.

The music of Mose. He sings vibrato-less, almost flat, like a clever and less-sad Chet Baker. He plays blues structures on the piano with a near-Monk-ish willingness to go out. The music is an easy and pleasant groove, while also being the type of hard, cerebral jazz that flourished in the mid 20th century. The lyrics glitter with irony and wit, but they follow a rhyming pattern that wouldn’t be out of place in a country song.

That was Mose’s magic. In Nat Hentoff’s liner notes for his first album with Atlantic¹, Mose says, “I always figured that you’ve got to be able to assimilate what normally seem to be opposing elements. That’s the way reality is.”

Take, for example, the closing lyrics in the album’s title song “I Don’t Worry About a Thing.” Grim as it may seem, Mose considered that song to be a part of his Dionysian style.

Don't waste your time tryin' to be a go getter
Things'll get worse before they get any better
You know there's always somebody playing with dynamite
Now I don't worry 'bout a thing, cause I know nothin's gonna be alright

Nat interviews Mose for another of his cold-eyed, warm-hearted songs, “It Didn’t Turn Out that Way.”

Mose draws his ideas for songs from what he sees around him - on the street, in clubs, and as in the case of “It Didn’t Turn Out That Way,” while hanging out in bars during the afternoon. “The title,” Mose says, “Just seemed to apply to a lot of the people you do see in bars during the day. I guess, for that matter, that it applies to everyone a little".

When I was just a youngster
This man looked down and said
He said, what you gonna be when you grow up
I just know you'll get ahead

But it didn't turn out that way
It just didn't turn out that way
No matter what that old man say
It just didn't turn out that way

It actually turned out pretty good for Mose. He stayed married, raised his kids, got nominated for a Grammy or two, and toured the world throughout his long life. He lives on as a musician’s musician, but he deserves so much more.

Or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe the slobbering level of fame is only for the mediocre. It follows the logic of the bell curve. How many clever people are out there, really, to launch someone like Mose into the stratosphere? I guess I’m glad he’s not so popular, or I wouldn’t have been able to afford an original copy of his first album!

I don’t want to be a hipster about it, though. I want to share the love. Go ahead and listen. Mose will blow you away.

1. I don’t know where this is online. Nat Hentoff’s essay covers the whole back of my vinyl copy. Best $17.99 I ever spent.