However, we are not upscale here at Prairie Weather. We are merely pretentious. So let’s check out what the informed and literate have to say about the wins of two New Yorkers winning their respective parties’ primary races in the original colonies.
First and foremost, we favor the elite — genuine American elite including musicians and not just musicians but (seriously) top-of-the-line jazz musicians. Marcus Roberts is in that group in terms of artistry if not of taste. His current mistake — disappointment — is a new album about the ongoing presidential race. Includes a song called “Feel the Bern.”
The song starts with a crash of drums (played by Marsalis’s younger brother Jason), then settles into a high-tempo bass-and-drum groove, before Roberts chimes in on piano with a three-note cue—Feel-the-Bern. A clarinet then hits the same three notes, followed by a tenor sax that picks them up as well, “It’s to show the different components of Bernie Sanders’s personality,” Roberts said. “When the piano does it, it’s laid-back and it’s kind of cool and dignified. When the tenor plays it, it starts to get a little more rambunctious. You know, maybe that’s when he tells Hillary, ‘I don’t really give a damn about hearing about your e-mails anymore.’ It becomes kind of aggressive, and there’s a lot of fire, like, we’re going to get to this. I think that’s why Sanders appeals to young people.” In the middle of the song, there’s a drum solo. “Jason just kind of goes nuts for a little bit and expresses whatever emotion that is,” Roberts said. …RyanLizza,NewYorker
And where is Hillary in this reverential jam? She’s over there with the Repubs.
The other songs on the album capture the candidacies of Hillary Clinton (“It’s My Turn”), Ben Carson (“I Did Chop Down That Cherry Tree”), and Donald Trump (“Making America Great Again [All by Myself]”).
“It’s My Turn” is slower and mellower than “Feel the Bern,” and it attempts to describe the many phases of Clinton’s long career in politics. “We know that she’s undergone a whole lot of changes,” Roberts said. A Clinton supporter, he was originally going to call the song “I Guess I’m Just Overqualified,” but he decided to keep the music as nonpartisan as possible. “People have been messing with the lady for twenty-five years about this and that, so I decided we’ve definitely got to have some changes,” he said, noting that, of the four songs, it is the most complicated and nuanced, just like her campaign. “We start in D-flat minor, but we change to G-flat and then to B-flat, and we change the meter and the tempo.” …RyanLizza,NewYorker
John Cassidy takes a longer view — literally. He reminds us that New York/New England are easily out-shouted by the rest of the country (all those newcomers, those less tidy states). There are some questions about how these guys will fare in South Carolina …
New Hampshire is a small state tucked away in the northeast corner of the country, with a population that is, in many ways, unrepresentative of the United States as a whole. Compared to the rest of the country, it is whiter, quirkier, and more willing to turn its back on establishment candidates of both parties. Since 1988, no non-incumbent Democrat or Republican who has won a New Hampshire primary has gone on to win the Presidency. …Cassidy,NewYorker
Ouch.
The rejection of Clinton by New Hampshire voters seemed to be a good deal stronger than Trump’s win on his side of that race. Maybe a more widespread loss by Hillary is nothing more dramatic than a general Clinton fatigue. It’s not something simple like Bill or Benghazi bringing Hillary down. If she stays down, that is. Then, too, trying the other gender in the White House seems important if naive. In the end, the White House, like Downton Abbey, is often dominated not by its heir but by its less visible inhabitants like advisers and spouses … and, of course, Congress.