My Movie Routine by Cee Lopes

 Just watched a movie at home. Immediately following that, watched an hour and a half of the extras included on the DVD. Then went on the internet. Looked up the cast, the director, the screenwriter, the film scorer, etc. etc. In the age of information, this has become my usual routine.
  At first it was what I wanted to do and it felt like good fun. It seemed like a harmless (albeit time consuming) indulgence, a bit of sweet after the meal. But now it's become more of a bad habit, an obligation, a mindless grab of greedy gathering. My time for relaxation and entertainment is now riddled with anxiety. "I must follow every last trail of information to the end of where?" I don't know. To the end of nowhere? To the end of time?
 Lately, I've been exercising the discipline of saving some of "the other stuff" for later. I'll watch the movie tonight and save the extras for tomorrow. I'll listen to a few songs by a new band without having to hear every single note they've ever recorded. I'll wait to go on their website and hold off reading all of the thousands of articles or reviews written about them.
  This has been working fine for me and has helped to bring back a sense of immediacy to the things I like to do. The sense of mystery, of not knowing "everything", is something precious and something worth tending to.

It's about sound, it's about sound, it's about sound

When people ask me how someone plays that I have only heard on a keyboard:
I must say with all honesty, "I knoweth not.  For thy keyboard is programmed with thy preset
sampling of the touch of another." (A necessary evil, I know- for we must work.)

But - Touch, Sound, Rhythm- number 1! and PHRASING.
notes 2nd.

Jaki Byard=touch and sound
Roy Haynes=touch and sound

Every musician I know and love= touch and sound..soft, loud, in between....

Please don't forget: dynamics.

Touch and sound. Some on youtube are giving lessons devoid of sound and phra sing.
All about mechanics- scales and stuff.  STUFF.

STUFF is necessary and good. But it needs to come with a great sound and feeling. Otherwise, it can sound much more like typing than music.

The Art Prophet by Cee Lopes

Then, a woman with a beret asked, " What of art and money?' And he answered, saying:
"Let there be no conflict betwixt money and art. Let them that produce good works of art
be showered upon in raging storms of golden shekels, so much that their storehouses may
be filled to the brim. Then, let them not hoard but scatter those coins as seed so that they may reap
of them a bountiful harvest"
  "But beware and always be wary of those that might, in any and all ways, condemn thy makers of art to
poverty, for most often, it be these ones who stand to profit most by thy works and benefit greatest
by thy sacrifice and thy submission."
  "Lastly, take no notice of those who stand aside the golden gate asking of thee so much in ransom.
The gate is not locked and you need not surrender but walk straightforward and enter therein.

The Drum Prophet by Cee Lopes

 Then, a guy who held two sticks in his hand said, Master, speak to us of great jazz drumming.
And he answered saying: You go too quickly into four. After one or two choruses you rush to
that ride cymbal as it were inevitable and in doing so, you forsake what might have been in the way
that a child might wish to be at a vacation destination without the long and arduous journey by
minivan. In this manner, you ere!
 So, I say to you my sons and daughters...Sometimes, go not too quickly into four, but play a funky
two-feel and stay in that funky two-feel and let the groove resideth there. Furthermore, purchase
some of the music of Roy Haynes, listen to the music of Roy Haynes and absorbeth the sound of Roy Haynes. Then you will feel it in your body and then,  and only then, shall you understand.

Jaki Byard, Blues for Smoke

This is one of my all time favorite records!
I'll be posting music transcriptions from this and other works of the great pianist and composer Jaki's Byard.

A story: We were in Boston to hear him play at the Regattabar and there was a power outage that night so it was cancelled. Well, he felt bad for us and played anyway- we migrated to the piano out in the lobby - a terribly substandard instrument- as we sat on the floor around the piano. It was such a generous act. Even though we were given refunds he knew we were there to hear him play. It was beautiful to see a musician of that calibre willing to set his ego aside and play for us regardless of the out of tune, bad piano.

When I hear him play I hear love and kindness.