RADIANCE BOOMERANG

Just a quick one.

The other day I was informed by Amazon via email that I had sold a copy of Keith Jarrett's 'Radiance' to a customer in some obscure part of the UK. Having no recollection of ever listing the item, I was disgusted and ashamed at my past self for committing such a careless act and didn't recognise the stranger inside of me who would have been so heartless to do so.

Nevertheless, I packaged up the CD and shipped it off feeling heavy of heart and still incredulous that I would have so carelessly off-loaded such precious cargo without any consideration for the future regret I would suffer. My only reasoning was that perhaps I hadn't played it as much as those big hitters such as 'Sun Bear', 'Blue Note' and 'Bremen/Lausanne' and so would probably rarely return to listen to it. But I knew I was only deceiving myself.

Cut to five days later and I'm walking down the road into town when I pass by a random box of free junk on the front boundary wall of a house, including a book on social economics, environmental catastrophe and some crumpled looking copies of International Socialism. Who lives here, I thought? Wolfie Smith?

I flicked through a couple of sad looking jazz CDS with cracked plastic jewel cases, the kind of lazy compilations that Spotify has now put out of business and felt increasingly that there was no treasure amongst this mundane pile of giveaways.

Then, noticing the anomalous elegant black spine of an ECM CD amongst the tatty hoard resembling a rose that grows out of cracks of concrete, I assumed it must be another discarded copy of Jan Garbarek's 'Officium' from 1994 that every new age man and his mangy whippet owned a copy of back in the day.

Only to find to my utter astonishment that it was, in fact, Keith Jarrett's 'Radiance' lying in the palm of my hand, staring back at me as if to say 'you don't get rid of me that easy, kid.'

I tried to calculate the odds of this minor miracle, this 'Radiance' boomerang but gave up as I'm crap with numbers.

Back at the house, I finally reacquainted myself with the CD, chancing randomly upon the track 'Radiance Part 8' where the familiar bold, faith affirming piano chords of Keith Jarrett reignited a familiar sense of home and spiritual security and I was suddenly reminded of my late father once again. How many times had we played KJ as the soundtrack to our mornings, poring over film and architectural magazines as we poured more coffee into our cups, igniting our own madcap dreams and schemes like a more cultured Caractacus and Grandpa Potts from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. I could even see the sunlight in the room lighting up the plumes of steam from the black gold as the notes filled the room like magic in a mirage of memory.

Redeemed of my sin and with guilt fully expunged, I instantly tried to heed the lesson the universe had taught me with this divine providence. All I could think of is that sometimes we should think before throwing away things in the heat of the moment as it's only when they're no longer with us that we realise their true value. If the Gods are merciful they will take pity on us and return the treasure, hoping we don't repeat the mistake.

Now it's just Wolfie Smith I feel sorry for. He really doesn't know what he's missing.