Saturday, May 21, 2016

IMITATION SYNCOPATION

IMITATION SYNCOPATION  We learn by watching others, by listening to others, my imitating others, until we develop our own. I watched my older brother, Elvis Mitchell Coleman, Jr., dance and copied his syncopations . I read Dunbar and Don Lee and copied the former 's lyricism and Lee's truncated bluntness . I never could copy Smokey, though I tried; nor could I ever consistently bang the baseball on the "sweet" part of the bat as per the great Willie Mays. In the end, the braces and frames of imitation fade away leaving you on your own, until others come by and copy you ! So it goes. Each flame lights the next in seriatim, in succession. Also in the end, you are you, must do you, must be you.