Its funny how so many things flow in cycles. Up, down; busy, not so busy.
This summer was largely what you’d call the “ not-so-busy” part of the cycle. Things were pretty quiet musically, with the time split between goofing off and logging hours in the practice room (always a good thing), learning new tunes and listening a lot . [...]
Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category
Cycles
Posted in Gigs, Inspiration, Music & Spirituality, Performance on August 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Another late night, musing…
Posted in Inspiration on August 25, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Sometimes I sit and think about what being able to play music means. Or how “music” fits into the great scheme of things. (I do this quite often, actually.) I wonder to myself:
Is it all about gigging? Self-expression? Competitions and awards? Trying to achieve some kind of notoriety?
Is it just another kind of job?
Maybe its about trying to [...]
Not by tunes alone…
Posted in Inspiration, Reading List on April 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Nothing exists in a vacuum…
As a college freshman entering the jazz program at Manhattan School of Music, I had a philosophy professor who asked us newbies an interesting question. In a rough paraphrase, he said, “Do you think there is any point in a bunch of aspiring musicians being required to take non-music (i.e. liberal [...]
More Alex Grey
Posted in Creative Process, Early Entries, Folk Art, Inspiration, Practice on July 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
ART is communion of one soul to another, offered through the symbolic language of form and content.” (p 19)
“The only way to formal inventiveness and technical ability is to work and work, studying and perfecting the craft.” (p 19)
“Technique is just the way to arrive at a statement. Great art is a concentration of transformative [...]
Folk Art
Posted in Early Entries, Folk Art, Inspiration on July 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“FOLK art is an expression of one’s life, not one’s culture. The past and the present co-exist. Local artists have an instinct for creation. In a place without tradition, they make art that does not look like art. Let’s call it community spirit, its sensitive and open-minded. Human-centered….
A folk artist takes pride in bringing back [...]
Personal Insight: “The Concept” (a la Harold Mabern)
Posted in Inspiration, Music & Spirituality, Performance on July 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
(…) My time in Philadelphia also saw interests in other areas developing, areas that at first seemed far removed from the music I was pursuing, but which later came to be intrinsically connected with my approach to it. Studies in spirituality, religion and mythology, psychology, aesthetics, the creative process, sociology / anthropology…all had a hand [...]
Art & Living
Posted in Inspiration, Music & Spirituality on July 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“The real essence of art turned out to be not something high up and far off. It was right inside my ordinary daily self….If a musician wants to become a fine artist, [s/he] must first become a finer person….A work of art is the expression of a [person's] whole personality, sensibility and ability.”
- Shinichi Suzuki
“If [...]
Haiku
Posted in Inspiration on July 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Be it as it may
All my life is in your hands
Now at the end-of-year.
Though I am aware
Evening bells my curfew toll,
I enjoy the cool.
- Issa (1763-1827)
“There Are Also Musicians”
Posted in Inspiration on July 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I came across these verses on John Smith’s CD, Kickin’ This Stone (2004):
There Are Also Musicians
(M.Coady)
Though there are torturers in the world
There are also musicians;
Though, at this moment, men
Are screaming in prisons,
There are jazzmen raising storms
Of sensuous celebration
And orchestras releasing
Glories of the spirit.
Through the image of God
Is everywhere defiled,
A man in West Clare
Is playing the [...]
