Route 1: Check your politics at the door, please

I feel sorry for people who must politicize everything. I think they must ultimately live sad lives, in which every defeat is a personal blow and every victory is as short-lived as the arrival of the next issue.
Surrounded by news and politics every day at work, I strive to make ROUTE 1 a refuge of arcane sports knowledge, gushing proselytizing about films and an endeavor to hear more, different music than humanly possible. There's a place for politics in this world, but not at ROUTE 1.
So thank goodness for ROUTE 1 reader STEVE M.!
Steve lives near the heart of the politicized world (Washington D.C., don't ya know) but his love of music transcends all partisanship.
Steve has enlightened me about so many great bands, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, John Mayall and Jefferson Airplane, to name just a few.
Imagine my delight, then, when yesterday's mail included a number of CDs from Steve, including a trio of discs devoted to SHELLY MANNE & HIS MEN AT THE BLACK HAWK.
For about 20 years, the Black Hawk was the premier jazz venue in SAN FRANCISCO, located at the corner of Turk and Hyde in the Tenderloin.
A drummer and bandleader most frequently associated with the "cool" WEST COAST JAZZ sound, Manne led a combo including trumpeter Joe Gordon, saxophonist Richie Kamuca, bassist Monty Budwig, and pianist Victor Feldman during a three-day engagement at the Black Hawk in 1959.
I am listening to the recorded results right now, thanks to my friend Steve.
Manne seems to swing a lot harder than some of the other West Coast jazz I have heard.
It's a joyous sound that provides a perfect antidote to the occasional bitterness of the politicized world view -- a world view that has a place somewhere, I suppose, but not here.