Does Your House Have Lions?

"One day in the late sixties, I was on the phone with Rahsaan and mentioned to him that just that day I bought a house.
He responded by asking, "Does your house have lions?"
I said, "What?"
He said, "Lions, you know like in front of a museum or the post office. You know, concrete lions. My house has lions. Get a house with lions."

--Joel Dorn

Thursday, June 16, 2011

My favorite picture of Rahsaan

I love this picture of Rahsaan.  The top hat, the ring, and especially the pipe.  In addition to his massive instrument and record collections, he also had a fabulous pipe collection.  One of the first things that his producer, Joel Dorn, told me was that even though people thought of Rahsaan as an "out-there" jazz musician, he was really this down-home, Midwestern guy.  He loved to have his friends over for backyard bbqs, he loved listening to football games, and he loved his 200-plus pipe collection.
As Steve Turre, his bandmate & friend said, "He and my dad used to both smoke pipes so they would have conversations about pipe tobacco.  Rahsaan could relate to people on a lot of different levels."
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