This Cat is Deep

Last I night I took RCG to The Tivoli to see Kurt Elling and the Lawrence Hobgood trio. I'm not a great jazz fan, and I had only heard him once on the radio, but something drew me to it and RCG was game to go.

It was an interesting crowd - far more high-brow than the average Brisbane scene - reminded me more of the London theatre crowd. They had this air of cool sophistication with a strong streak of nerd in the middle. They dressed accordingly.

Kurt Elling himself was soulful (not surprising) and funny (surprising). It all so easily could have been achingly pretentious, but he almost single-handedly made it authentic and real. He was, as an enthusiastic fan remarked to me in the gents, the suavest man in the world.

He sang like I've always dreamed of being able to sing. I particularly loved how masculine he was, and yet so strong in his Lover archetype - a powerful role model if I ever saw one. As well as the inevitable songs on romantic love, Elling also spoke to us of god and spiritual love. Like many religious texts (e.g. the Lawa - Guru Nanak's poetry recited during the Sikh Marriage; the Song of Solomon; or the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam), his songs unite the romantic and spiritual aspects of love, so that you never know if it the lover rejoicing at the return of his beloved, or the disciple ecstatic at the guidance from his guru. This cat has depth (to mix a couple of metaphors).

Normally, my experience of music is something distant, esoteric, and head-space. But tonight, I was completely pulled in, actually feeling the music with my body. Of course, my experience of little heaven might have something to do with having my arm wrapped around RCG for the evening. She was stunning, wearing a red backless top. Every time I touched her porcelain skin I felt my body erupt with pleasure. I almost blacked out when we kissed at the end of the night.

So, despite a response of "When?" from K today to my "Darker" email of yesterday, and the potential for something more with N, I'm going to stick with RCG. Somewhere down the track we'll have to deal with the distance between Sydney and Brisbane. And we'll deal with it somewhere down the track. Not now, not while you are mine.