So the documentary I am doing continues to be edited and filmed. But here are some new photos I took last time I hung out with Kalaparusha and his wife. They showed me some of Kalaparusha’s childhood photos and photos from when Kalaparusha was traveling and doing shows across Europe. It was really cool to see. So here is that…
Also here is a jazz piano song I made recently that I made out of the inspiration Kalo gave me. Maybe I’ll ask him to play on it.
[audio:http://lovebryan.com/danilo/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/files/trees-and-snow-final.mp3|titles=trees and snow final|artists=Danilo Parra]
Damn, that guys got some cool clothes and style points.
These are positively beautiful. I am digging this project very much and hot damn medium format’s got soul.
He’s the definition of Gangstarr….
that bench foto is amazing meng.. hey. i love you danilo. i just wanted to let you know. your new jazz song is hot shit. i want to hear it in my head while i skate down hills. please email it to me. or i wont be your friend anymore.. or let me use it in one of my films. its about time we exchanged some scores.. i want to see your film when its done and it wins 10 awards at cannes. i have a new film that you haven’t seen that you can view here: http://spencercunningham.com/ or here: ttp://vimeo.com/8310703 …and then go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKO6XYXioc and then tell me your thoughts…
I enjoyed seeing the pictures of Kalaparusha and I look forward to seeing your film.
The woman he is with is not is wife. His wife is his daughter Debbie’s mother, his high school sweetheart he got pregnant in high school and had to marry. Ask him about the college football scholarship he gave-up to marry Debbie’s mom.
Don’t forget his Woodstock years. Ask him how he got to New York and don’t believe the lie that his mother told him to move to New York. I moved him out of his mother’s house and we came to New York together. My idea not his or his mother’s, Mine!
Ask him to tell you the story of the Volkswagon with hole in the floor and the failed electric system, we named the car the blue bomb. We saw every mile between Chicago and Woodstock, through that hole in floor of that blue Volkswagon. It started to rain and the lights went out on the car. We didn’t even have headlights. I had to stick my head out the window to help guide the car and the back window blew out on the Tappen Zee Bridge.
Ask him to tell you about the time he missed his airflight to Europe because he went by subway to buy cocaine uptown at Manny’s house instead of the train-to-the plane at JFK and how his band and the tour promoter were waiting for him to get off the plane in Luxenberg and he was still back in Brooklyn and never made the tour.
Ask him about doing drugs with Miles Davis, Leroy Jenkins and Jerome Cooper in the early 80’s at Miles’ Brownstone. Please, please ask him why he loves drugs more than he loves himself.
Ask him about the time Clive Davis called our apartment in Brooklyn because he wanted to buy a master tape from one of Dif’s (that’s what I called Kalaparush) European tours I arranged and how he left an entire briefcase of master tapes on the subway and showed up at Clive Davis’ office empty-handed and Clive told him to come back after he found the tapes and never did.
Tell him I said this is chance to document his life and he should tell you the truth because he’s going to be really BIG after he dies, just like I told him during the 10 or 11 years we were together. Tell him I said I still have my finger on the pulse of the public and the truth is better than any lie he can tell. Please ask him to put his Aries pride and Southside ego on the back burner and document his real life. Tell him Sita said that woman he’s with now don’t look like Charlies Parker’s Chan to me! (he’ll know what I mean by that).
And would you please tell him that my son James graduated from College with two degrees music and english and is living and working 2 jobs in California one music and one to make sure he can always pay his rent, Melvin’s doing fine and I’m alive and well and living in New Jersey and got a college degree myself finally at age 49. Sometimes I miss him but I don’t miss being broke and unable to pay the rent or buy food or his drug use. And please tell Debbie I said hello and I hope her and her children are doing fine.
And thank you for documenting Kalaparusha’s life. His name is Kalaparush(a) Maurice McIntyre or Kalaparusha Ahra Difda. It is not Kalo. Peace…
Hello Sita Difda,
Thank you so much for sharing so much emotion and personal information with me about Kalaparusha. I would love to show you the film which I recently completed. If you find this message please email me: danilo_parra@yahoo.com
When I wrote on this blog Feb 16 I was in pain. Seeing Kalaparusha seeing where he has allowed drugs to take him, made me just plain mad, full of rage and I wrote in anger. I only know what I was told by Kalaparusha, what I wrote regarding Miles, LeRoy and Jerome is what Kalaparusha told me repeatedly. I was wrong to ever write that here, I was honest, I wrote what I was told, I wrote what we argued about, where he’s been and who he got high with, why and how, it’s what he told me. I was not there.
I knew the music before I knew Kalaparusha. My life fertilized the soil from which the music of the AACM grew. I’m from Chicago’s Southside and I’m proud of it. Music and words have always been a part of my life. When I write about things that happen or things that were said during the tens years that Kalaparusha and I were together, I do it because it’s time to tell the story. If there’s no story to tell than why tell it?
Thanks Dan for letting me preview more of the film.
Thank you for making such a beautiful film. Artists like Kalaparusha are almost god-like to me. I would be interested in purchasing this video if you ever considered making DVDs.
I will be making DVD’s that will be available in middle October. Thanks for your interest. ciao,
danilo
Thank you for making such a beautiful & hard exposure of life. Mr. McIntyre was and still is one of my musical heroes.
Look forward to see your DVD. You may contact me.