Now Reading
Fireworks of a Silent Sun
0

Fireworks of a Silent Sun

by Dave HoekstraJuly 5, 2011

July 4, 2011-

The essence of music is deep and free.
Like sprinkles of dust underneath blasted firecrackers and cherry bombs there is a distant salsa beat.

An old blue bicycle takes you to a group of men in Humboldt Park on the west side of Chicago. They are across the way from the 16-inch softball players with the sweeping uppercut swings and the pregnant woman with a light white smock snapping in a gentle breeze.

It sounds like the old bicycle needs oil.

The men are huddled under a tree that shades them from a bright blue sky. No  barbecue, no beer; just their drums, congas and heart beats. No tip jars.

Just commitment, a promise to keep on playing.

You rewind  24 hours when the Iguanas got up at 6 a.m. in El Paso, Tx. to make a 11 p.m. gig at a Fourth of July festival in Berwyn, Ill. They played on and as did Jon Dee Graham who sang about freedom and Muhammad Ali in a green shirt drenched with sweat. These moments become your own, like a lyric in a song that always makes you cry.

The  men under the tree could be playing something from Willie Colon.
Is it  ‘Calle Luna Calle Sol” ?
No one is there to translate such things for you.

You guess  “Silent Sun, Street Moon” That would be perfect.
The men have jerry rigged their speakers to the engine of a white  low rider.
The music jumps starts your heart.

About The Author
Dave Hoekstra
Dave Hoekstra is a Chicago author-documentarian. He was a columnist-critic at the Chicago Sun-Times from 1985 through 2014, where he won a 2013 Studs Terkel Community Media Award. He has written books about heartland supper clubs, minor league baseball, soul food and the civil rights movement and driving his camper van across America.

Leave a Response