only to check in with church before heading off to a live jazz gig on local TV with the Jazz Ambassadors. I just sat in on one tune - they are smokin' players and I really need to work on my chops for this adventure - but it was a blast. What fun - and what a privilege - to join with these guys.There's a whole lot more to say about all of this, but here's the bottom line: we hope to bring some American jazz to Istanbul, Turkey in June 2011 as part of our peace-making commitment. We'll be playing vigorously over the next 9 months to raise funds for this - and working hard, too at practicing getting our sound right - and studying as well. Quite a fascinating way to jump back into the groove after being away for a few days...
Tonight after the TV show, we sat around talking about Coltrane learning
Arabic scales and the importance of cymbals and how they changed contemporary American music as well as our fears, hopes and needs about this trip. I am currently reading American Music by Jane Mendelsohn - a very sensitive book about a physical therapist working with a 24 year old Iraq vet who has experienced great physical and spiritual loss - that is equally grounded in the importance of music. Check out a review in the NY Times @ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/books/review/Gilmore-t.html?_r=1
Tonight after the TV show, we sat around talking about Coltrane learning
Arabic scales and the importance of cymbals and how they changed contemporary American music as well as our fears, hopes and needs about this trip. I am currently reading American Music by Jane Mendelsohn - a very sensitive book about a physical therapist working with a 24 year old Iraq vet who has experienced great physical and spiritual loss - that is equally grounded in the importance of music. Check out a review in the NY Times @ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/books/review/Gilmore-t.html?_r=1 More and more I am finding things fitting together in my life in bold but unexpected ways - which is also one of the themes of this intriguing book. Funny how life begins to fit together - maybe not make sense - but at least fit when you stop trying to force it into a mold or ideology and just go where the Spirit blows. VERY improvisational...
(Damn I love this tune...)
3 comments:
Jazz and life are both improvisational, on the same themes.
I am justing starting to read Ralph Ellison's reflections on jazz, do you know it? Very insightful - and as I learn more about jazz bass improvisation - two truths rise to the surface: it takes a shitload of practice to improvise well, and, each time depends on both the inner workings of the individual and the groove of the group. No one size fits all.
Heard of it, but haven't read it. I like duke Ellington's 1954 dictum: "Playing bop is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing."
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