In Concert

The world has been topsy turvey since last blog. Been a long time:

1. More fishing
2. Trip to the mountains - a week too early for the Aspen Change
3. Got an official notice and will retire on October 31st of 2008
4. Attended a jazz concert (subject of this blog)
5. Went golfing - actually played 18 whole holes.. NPI (No Pun Intended)

The subject of this edition is the concert. My son-in-law, Drew Morell, is a jazz musician. And I must say a darn good one - he may be an even better stage commedian - he surely has great timing. I think practically the whole clan was it this last concert which included duets, quartets, and octets -- with an eclectic combination of instruments.

Music has such healing power and brings a depth of joy that is almost indescribable. The feelings music evokes can be very private and very public at the same time. Watching a 10 month old rocking with head bobs and arms raised in rythm tells us that it is truly a wonderful thing - yet can also be very reflective and spiritual.

The concert, held at the King Center at metro included the following songs:

How About You? (Freed/Lane) - it was a vibrant rendition and arrangement.

Beatrice (Sam Rivers) - really a nifty combination of bass clarinet and piccolo - something I had not heard before. I loved it.

Cherokee (Ray Noble) - they claimed it to be a tough piece with lots of time changes, I only counted 5 but there were probably many more. Is there a 7/8 and a 5/8 in there? If I closed my eyes I could see the native dancing - a wonderful earthy undertone.

Old Man Rebop (Leonard Feather) Excellent bass and Piano - very playful.

Something Borrowed Something Blue (Tommy Flanagan) - nice change of pace - Drew was able to share his guitar skills, hitting the harmonics nicely. One could actually hear the title words in the piano and the guitar. It was an excellent duet - maybe a wee bit too long - but nice.

Once I Loved (Antonio Carlos Jobim) I loved the soprano sax... it has such a neat sound - made for romance.

Dreams of a Sleeping Turtle (Drew Morell) - remember and picture if you can the bobble head turtles - you could hear the slow plodding turtle and just picture in the high notes his dream of being light footed and speedy, yet accepting his patience and methodical nature. I gotta find one of those turtles.

New Breed Leader (Ron Miles) - sorry, I just didn't get it. Except well the new breed of leaders tends to be, in my humble opinion, chaotic in nature. There was a neat juxtaposition of tromone and clarinet. I would rather have heard Dreams of Sleeping Turtle and put this song somewhere else in the mix.

Long standing ovation - Drew has such a great following and is so talented. We love him. His choice of instrumentation and jazz musicians was fantastic. I truly believe this was far and above the best of his concerts (that I have attended) at the King Center. His arrangements were thoughtful and interesting.

What is a G-Trumpet -- nifty looking instrument.

Great job - we'll be back next year!

Connections

Did you ever stop and think how connected we all are? I sometimes do, but mostly don't. I'm sitting at Starbucks - a young African American woman sitting across studying - subjects such as organic chemistry. That is one link - come to find out she is an officer in the Air Force studying for a masters degree. Her dad was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base. That is where i met Carolyn -- that, to me is part of our "social conectedness".



So why is that important. We are all connected why can't we get along locally, nationally, or internationally. I suppose for the same reason that we sometimes struggle with thos close to us, brothers and sisters, parents, kids, grandkids - let alone folks we don't "know from Adam". But that doesn't mean that we can't get along to an extent that we end up going to war and killing each other. Does it?Are we so different fundamentally that we can't learn to co-exist on this huge planet of ours?



Yes, the difference in personalities, nationalities, beliefs, color, and language are sometimes great, but isn't that what makes life so beautiful. In nature there are hundreds of different kinds of trees, fish, birds - you get the drift -- we as homosapiens also have those varieties and differences - I think nature (excluding humans) tends to get along within species much better than we as humans do. yah, you can bring up the food chain stuff with fish etc, but that is the natural order of things - bears don't tend to kill each other, nor do cats, horses - except under extreme circumstances-- or maybe, I'm just very naive.



sometimes, we even struggle within ourselves to the point where we as humans will commit suicide rather than live. It doesn't make sense.

We must, each of us recognize that we are of one species, but wse are different and we need to learn to disucss those differences. Sure there are really really bad people - and we need to deal with that in a humane way - but we do need to recognize that humaneness in the other.

And that brings us back to the subject of connectedness - we are all, in one way or another, no matter how slight connected - appreciate that connection and explore it whenever possible. Live the moments you are in - the past is the past, let it go, the future is not yet here - don't dwell on it so much that you lose the present!