"Best Years Of Our Lives", All Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elizabeth (A Place In The Sun) Taylor and Betty Grable and Robert DiNiro Movies.
Al took me to hear Monk, Al Cohn, Zoots Sims,Woody Herman, Roy Haynes and Harry Belefonte et al.
One cold winter night Dizzy christened me "Lady Haig" during a break at Birdland; just the sounds of that place conjures up warm, mellow feelings as I reminisce about the dearness of meeting that sweet long drink of a laughing man at Birdland when it was the center and jazz palace of the world of modern jazz then located at 1678 Broadway; the club named for the incomparable Charlie "Bird" Parker...after all, on opening night, "Bird" used a group that included Red Rodney, trumpet; Tommy Potter, bass; Roy Haynes, drums and AL HAIG on piano
Ironically, forty-eight years after my short marriage to Al, I am amazed at our anachronistic linkage, juxtaposed through "us", their advante gard women, and how we randomly somersaulted, tumbled, vaulted and capriciously amalgamated into our jazz man's lives.
In hindsight,the memory of our silent sority is really so bizarre, yet on a sub-conscious level, still en-compassingly beautiful in its will-o-the-wisp magical strength , lassoing through the time warp of space to those heartfelt embers...now only ashes of long gone passions, empty dreams, burned out nights and rooms-without-a-view which focused on us...or so we thought; the music was always paramount...the juice of all juices.
How innocent we were.
No matter how well bred, intelligent, talented, beautiful, rich and strong we were...in our own wasp world, we believed enough in them; Dizzy, Bird, Bud, Max, Fats, Bags, Miles, Dexter, Prez, Potts, Red, Monk, Zoot, Al, Chet, Stan, Sonny, Tadd, Ray, Klook et al; and my husband, AL HAIG, to cross over the lines of convention and propriety. Most jazz aficionados worth their salt are aware that bebop blossomed in Harlem in the 1940s. No one musician did it.
And as "THEY" created this new music, we gladly embraced them, while we isolated ourselves into their halcyon bebop world...if only for the heartbeat of the moment; it was the best of a mighty, mysterious intangible some women never even dared or hoped to attain.
ZEITGEIST.
But, like the withdrawal from a drug, when the relationship was over, it jabbed, and ripped out forever, a piece of our war-torn yet still tender, bebop hearts. I almost didn't make it...I was lucky.
Unfortunately, poor Bonnie Gallagher, Al's beautiful young third wife was murdered. Like Orenthal James Simpson, Alan Warren Haig was arrested for homicide and accused of murdering his wife; both were found "Not Guilty" by a jury of their peers. Thank heavens Dizzy Gillespie arranged a concert at Art D'Lugoff's: "Village Gate" to raise money for Al's defense fund.
Tout comprendre ces't tout parlonner. To understand everything is to forgive everything.
Sincerely,
GRANGE: The Wife No One Ever Knew
Signed Copies of Death of a Bebop Wife available at Cadence Jazz Books: 315-287-2852 or
973-857-8496
Centenary College
Hackettstown, NJ
Graduated: 1960
Student status: Alumni
Major: English
Clubs: Little Theatre Drama Group and Centenary Singers
Greek:
Theta Epsilon Nu
1956 to 1960
Montclair High
Montclair, NJ
Graduated: N/A
Student status: Alumni
Degree: High School Diploma
Major: college prep
Clubs: President of the Spanish Club, Glee Club, Dancer, Future Nurses Club, Archery, Student Council, too many years ago to remember it all but I loved it all!
Same goes for the Big Bands - and "captured" by the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Stan Getz,
Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and of course AL HAIG - into the trio,
quartet and quintet format...allowing the repetition of the
melody to become the escape. I love Chet Baker, Russ Freeman,
Phil Urso and Carson Smith: "Let's Get Lost" - (Love Russ's
solos); Ruth Brown:"Momma He Treats Your Daughter Mean",
Ella Fitzgerald: "All The Things You Are", Chris Connor:
"I'll Remember April", Anita O'Day: "FOUR", Diane Krahl:
"I Can't Get Started With You"...
"I Want Some Frim Fram Sauce"
and "Standing On The Corner All Full Of Jive."
As the mental curtain parted on everyone listening,
the musician's individuality jump started, ignited and, their
talented "touch," created a "dream" ..Each night an episode,
as they welcomed their "solo" - allowing their soul, their spirit
to musically strut, say "hello" and maybe, just maybe, linger awhile,
before they would disappear, right before your "ears" - like a smoke ring, into the waiting air.
Death of a Bebop Wife Reviews:
Colonel Robert Morris: Smell the whiskey and taste the blood!
"Lady Haig opens a dark and dusty door and allows us
to peek into a once hidden world of music, drugs, sex and murder. She shares her own scars as
she must, to bring this story to life, as she is the
only one left to tell the tale.
This book is not for the faint of heart, as you
can smell as the whiskey and blood spill together into one page turning masterpiece! Thank-you Lady Haig for having the guts to lay it on the line, and tell it like it is." Colonel Robert Morris 'two time hall of fame writer/musician'
Coda Jazz Magazine
Canada
Benjamin Franklin V
"Death of a Bebop Wife is by far the most thorough and voluminous published document about Al Haig,
man and musician.
As such, this valuable book will likely serve as a starting point for all subsequent studies of him."
Riding down Fifth Avenue in the Steuben Day Parade on the third Saturday of September.
THE LATEST NEWS ON MY 50TH COLLEGE REUNION AND I DON"T KNOW HOW I GOT HERE!
SOMETIMES WE ARRIVE AT A PLACE WE DON'T KNOW HOW WE GOT THERE...BUT, I KNOW THIS IS MY REUNION BUT SOMEHOW I THINK I AM ON SOMEONE ELSE'S SPACE, IF SO, FORGIVE ME.
SEND ME A TELEGRAM AND SOMEHOW - I AIN'T GOT NOBODY, OH NOBODY THAT CARES FOR ME, NOBODY THAT CARES FOR ME I'M SO SAD AND LONELY, SAD AND LONELY, SAD AND LONELY...WON'T SO
THAT OLD BLUE FLAME OF YESTERDAY IS STILL IN MY HEART, YOURS TOO? WHY NOT? IT"S CHRISTMA
A visual trip down memory lane is good for the soul and anyone's musical heart.
Enjoy and remember, it's the music that gets us through because THE ARTIST cares more about the gig than you and me...so, let the music play and remember, "baby it's cold outside" and we need to live la vida loca in the windmills of their talent. Got Tha
Coming out of a cloud I see the light and I thought it would be a "hoot" to share a little bit of myself as I live in the layers of my life.
After all, what are Internet Friends for, besides I'm doing fine and Etta Jones and I are connecting with all of you.
Grange Lady Haig Rutan - Author
DEATH OF A BEBOP WIFE
Cadence Jazz Books
A TRIBUTE TO MILES DAVIS'S TUNE: FOUR VIA
DEATH OF A BEBOP WIFE AND AL HAIG'S CONTRITBUTION TO BEBOP
BY
GRANGE LADY HAIG RUTAN - ENJOY THE BEBOP RIDE in 2009 FIFTY PLUS YEARS LATER.
Who I'd like to meet:
Grange Rutan aka "LADY HAIG"'s Friend Space (Randomized)
Darling Mutti!!!We asked for sun we have!!OMG it's hot as hell...I watched all of Pina,amazed,I did not see the lightouse light,my Mutti bee was away,I love you hope Wuffie is not driving you crazy,haaaabut a man..xoxo yours tenderly waiting for an evening breeze.Martini on the rocks.
Hi Lady! Everything is really busy right now. Mom has another surgery coming up and I'm working on updates. Sorry for the quiet...things are just crazy with everything going on around me. Best, Katharine
Hi Grangita...Rhoda Scott with Jesse Davis making up the quartet were brilliant lsat Sat. Next Sat. it's the Ron Carter Quintet. As it says in your fab. book, he was one of the pall bearers at Dizzy's funeral and you were there too. Amazing !! My cup runneth over right now. Here he is playing with the Miles Davis Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams....if only you could come too.... Abrazos desde bandido y Suzita...xx How is Wuffie coming along?...Is he following your orders and being a good lad???.......?
Signed Copies of Death of a Bebop Wife available at Cadence Jazz Books: 
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