Y’dig?

Lee Konitz

Is there are metaphor here for something greater? Something at hand?

Jazz is American’s classical music. It’s a national disgrace that it is so rarely heard, so absent from mainstream culture. Whereas we’ll spend millions on opera, concert halls and theaters, if you want to hear jazz, go to a saloon. It is widely held that the early jazz musicians were primitives, uncouth fellows who couldn’t read music, who played by ear, but who just had that innate ability to play. Nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of jazz musicians could and did, read and write music at the highest level and their musical education embraced all forms of music, Western classical, South and Central American, popular music, folk music etc. The one thing they all had in common was that they loved good music, from whatever cultural tradition it came from.

What’s more, jazz initially, was an ensemble music, entirely democratic, each instrument playing with and off the others. Highly American, in fact.

As time went by, ego asserted itself and the era of ‘the solo’ arrived. No more was ensemble playing valued. A trio, say, of piano, bass and druns would accompany the Soloist – the same happened in rock music too, and the public were treated to intermnably long, boring solos that eventually almost killed off the form. Many will be familiar with the story of how John Coltrane asked his then boss, Miles Davis, “Miles, when I get on that bandstand, I just go off into a world of my own. I lose all sense of time. People tell my my solos are too long. How can I make them shorter?” Miles said, but less politiely than this, “Try taking the horn out of your mouth.”

Loren Schoenberg, esteemed director of the National Museum in Harlem, and no mean player of the  tenor horn himself, says that the ensemble playing that the musicians of the past played, was extremely diffiicult to execute and that most modern players would find great difficulty playing it. He says it is technically much more difficult than soloing in front of a backing group. Indeed, he says, this being so, if audiences were more hip to what’s going on, it’d be the ensemble playing they’d applaud, not the solos.

Lee Konitz, a man they should be building statues for now when he’s still alive, and unquestionably one of the all-time great improvising musicians said to me yesterday, “in playing, more and more I feel like eliminating the concept of solo after solo, and the group really responding to each other. In the moment it becomes a compositional music that is great fun to play and sometimes, although it’s hard to evaluate the musical worth, it’s communicable too. Audiences appreciate not having to wade through these endless solos of mediocrity most of the time.” And he says, “To me that’s a revelation I’ve known all these years but somehow, people are willing to try that now, the young people. And I’ve had great fun doing that with young musicians. I’ll play with Brad Mehldau and Charlie Hayden in July and I’m hoping we can do that because they’re great at that, if they’re willing to do that, it’ll take Brad and all of us off the spot, of having to repeat what he’s famous for, playing great solos and things.”

By the way, Lee is playing with these guys at Birdland, for four days from July 20th.

Lee’s touching something profound in my view. Collective playing opens us up more, is spiritually fulfilling and is rewarding equally for the player and the listener. What are we waiting for? Maybe dancing together is about to come back too?

This could be the platform on which live music will enhance our lives and become commonplace once more, that our best musicians should be accorded the stature they deserve.

But I hope and pray, that these Obama years will be the prelude to something beyond our wildest hopes that human evolution will leap forward so that we all live together in peace and harmony, that this Mother Earth becomes a paradise for all God’s creatures, a place where true values are celebrated and where the rich, the greedy, the manipulators take a back seat for at least a few millennium. Their riegn has lasted too long and maybe the ensembe players are about to have a chance.

admin Awareness, Enjoyment, Knowledge, Meditation, Spirit, Truth, Uncategorized, Understanding, human brain, ydig collectivity, ensemble playing, hope for the future, jazz, Lee Konitz

A Holy Fire

afternath

Just spent a weekend in Raymond, Maine, with 21 people of all ages, from about 12 months old to 66, and from all over the world, from the USA, Russia, Ireland, India and China. We came together to meditate, to go spiritually deeper -  to eat together and have fun. It was a hugely successful weekend from all standpoints.

Lioudmila, my wife, who is always more sensitive to these things than me, said it was a special time for her. It’s a funny thing, but growing up in Belfast, in the north of Ireland, and later, living in London for many years, I’d always been essentially a loner. And of course, in time I grew to like that. If someone had told me that I’d come to enjoy the collectivity of good people, I’d have been dubious on a good day, scornful on others,, but love has a curious way of resolving things.

Bija in Flight

Bija

Take my dog Bija. We rescued him from an animal shelter in Yonkers. He was about 18 months old at the time and had spent the first 9 months of his life in a home where he was beaten and abused and the next 9 months with 90 pit bulls and a few assorted other breeds in the shelter – hardly an auspicious beginning. He was so down and nondescript we didn’t even notice him at first, but my stepdaughter spotted him and as soon as we focused on him, we could see his potential. His name at the time was PJ, a perfectly fine name, but I’d always liked the Sanskrit name Bija, which means ‘seed’ and there was clearly a little seed inside this poor fellow, who was so afraid, he couldn’t even be in a room with a man for the first couple of weeks, and he was equally scared of children too. Taking him into a group of children or a room full of of adults was just impossible. Now, two years later, Bija played with the young children and enjoyed meandering amongst the adults and the company of other dogs too, and his confidence is at a level we could not have imagined. This is what love will do, it is the most powerful force on the planet. And love worked the same way on me too, thank God.

The love that exuded from the 21 in Maine, was special, yet ordinary, commonplace amongst such who’ve surrendered their lives to a greater power and specifically, in this case, to the living incarnation of the Adi Shakti, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.

As we arrived, yours truly – the worst navigator known to man – the merits of a GPS notwithstanding – had entered the wrong street number – 236. We readily found 230 and 238, but no houses in between! I spent half an hour driving up and down in the absurd manner men do when behind the wheel of a car, as if, miraculously, a house would appear out of nowhere in what has been two or three times previously been verified as empty space. Eventually, a man came out of 230 and explained that this was ‘a bedroom community’ so he didn’t know any of his neighbors yet he warmly invited us in for a cup of tea. One wondered what sort of world we’re living in when such a nice man will not make an effort to get to know the people living beside him, yet, when a stranger intrudes, he’ll invite that stranger into his home.

When we found that 266 was the correct number we were made to feel welcome by Jane Gagnier, in whose house we stayed – we never felt like guests, and she made us feel that her lovely house was our home too. It was built in 1790 some seven years after the end of the Revolutionary War.

The weekend progressed spontaneously everything happening at the right time. Those who practice this meditation, called Sahaja Meditation become quickly able to feel cool vibrations, the energy of the divine – and in Jane’s house and garden, this energy was so tremendously strong, one immediately went into a state of the pure present, where all unnecessary thoughts abate and one can simply enjoy all the bounties around.

Lioudmila commented that it doesn’t matter if it’s 21,000 or 21 people who are theret, that the  result is the same because of the attitude and strength of the collectivity.

One of the highpoints of the weekend was the havan, the Holy Fire used, in this case, to clear out negativity preventing us from deepening spiritually. Holy fires have been used by many peoples across the world and here, we used the 108 names of Lord Shiva as a basis for this havan. There’s an important balance to be struck, for while there are important protocols to be observed, if things become remotely ritualistic, the vibrations don’t work. Here, the havan worked powerfully, so much so, that even the birds stopped singing, and all living entered the worshiping, surrendered state. Even as I write this, back home in the Bronx, my Sahasrara is wide open and I am in bliss.

Here’s a lovely photo of the house we stayed in.

What blessings.

admin Awareness, Enjoyment, God, Knowledge, Meditation, Spirit, Truth, Understanding, human brain, ydig bedroom communities, Bliss, collectivity, deepening spiritually, Going deeper, Havan