Music = Love
Bringing music to all to listen and play is a true game changer
I thought about doing a poll today: Do you want me to write about love, or do you want me to write about music?
I felt torn, but then I realized I didn’t have to be: they are one and the same.
I had a retreat here at my house upstate a few years back for some musicians, a group of men who met learning music at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. One of their teachers who had come to Sing Sing through Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program—trombonist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Washburne—came to teach, and it turns out he had actually been my husband Geordie’s professor at Columbia University, someone he had referred to often. Small world.
I was lucky enough to participate in the workshop, and something came up at one point where I said, “Music is like life…” And Chris immediately shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Wrong. Music is life.”
Yes, Chris, I stand corrected. You are right. Music is life. And, also too, it is love.
That music is direct actual love feels ridiculously abundantly clear to me at some moments, like a crazy jagged bolt of lightning striking just barely ahead on the road that forces out a terrorized bloodcurdling scream. Just like that.
Last Tuesday, aka International Jazz Day, I had one of those moments, a clear bolt-of-lightning epiphany that music is indeed love.
Artist and art therapist Samm Cohen had asked if I might be able to pull something together for the guys she works with at CAMBA’s Opportunity House Men’s Shelter in downtown Brooklyn, where I have been running a drum circle for some time. I said sure. I put it out on the Musicians Wanted Facebook page I joined recently and, lo and behold, got some folks to offer their services. Bass and guitarist Tom Shad said he’d find some other players, and brought with him vocalist Lauren Lee and trumpeter Pamela Fleming.
I was nervous. Sometimes the guys aren’t around, they’re busy or working, or avoiding being involved, especially with me and my incessant entreaties to “Come drum!!”
But they came, many of them. As Tom arrived, then Lauren, then Pam, the gentlemen began to gather for the festivities. It was casual, though I’d arranged for the musicians to be in front rather than in a circle as usual. The trio was starting out with a performance before we moved into our regular jam and meditation.
Tom and Lauren and Pam chatted a bit about what jazz is, the beautiful improvisational nature of it, and some of the guys asked questions. My heart beat in my chest. This was a dream come true, which is always nerve-wracking. Who knew if what you wanted in your dreams would actually turn out to be as fabulous as you hoped?
At some point, as they played, Lauren made a shaking motion with her hand and I quickly jumped up to pass around the many varieties of shakers and tambourines I had laid out on the tables. All of a sudden, most of the men were participating, playing along with the beautiful music.
Samm asked Lauren about scatting in jazz, and Lauren told us how she’d started out playing piano and moved to other instruments, but then found that using her voice —something we all have —worked best for her. The natural wordless improvisation of the voice that scat allows for pleased her best.
I asked if maybe (since she’d mentioned we all have one) Lauren could lead us in some improvisational vocals, some call and response? And so she did. And every voice rang out, just like in my favorite Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who, where Whoville is in peril unless every little Who made a sound. The guys’ voices scatted after Lauren’s free-range vocals loudly and proudly, beautifully, magically.
Wow. Unbelievable. Soaring. Joyous. Heartwarming. And maybe the best word to describe the moment, one that I heard unprovoked from a resident when I walked out later: Dope. “That was dope,” he said.
The whole event was indeed dope. We listened to beautiful music, made beautiful music with our instruments (including our voices) and closed out with a sound meditation that was nice, if not slightly challenged by the enthusiastic participants who found it hard to settle. And I understood. It was hard to come off of that high.
To celebrate the amazing tradition of collaborative improvisational music with some great teachers/performers, to really feel what it feels like to make music, to buzz with the vibration of your own voice in your own body, to experience this together in a group such that the positive energy in the room is palpable…That is love.
Music, like love, is equal opportunity, or it should be, it has to be, for society to function properly. International Jazz Day was sponsored by UNESCO, which has a Cities of Music Network based on the idea that music as a pursuit is a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.
We need more of this, and more and more and more, sharing the act of making music, letting every voice be heard so that we are all of us saved, as Seuss’s fictional Whoville was when even the smallest voices rang out to be heard.
Thank you to Tom, Lauren and Pam! And thank you to Samm and all of Opportunity House for making it happen, and for your sweet card!
More Music = More Love
This week brought me back to live music after a couple weeks’ rest. Maybe that’s why it was so powerful.
Monday was open mic night at Colony in Woodstock. I put my name into the hat to offer up some improv piano, but was something like 46th on the list. In the 30s, I started nodding off—no offense to the brave talent on display. It’s super inspirational to see so many people out there making music!! I’ll try again another time.
On Wednesday, I went to Radio Nublu/Classic Nublu for the 50th birthday bash of trumpeter/composer Jordan McLean who debuted his Resistance Wednesdays with a new project, JMMR, featuring sax player/multi-instrumentalist Tony Jarvis, drummer/performance artist John Bollinger and trombonist/singer Smoota.
I don’t know Jordan, but I crashed his super cool party anyway since it was open to the public, and my fave inspirational visual artist Shantell Martin was doing a free-form spoken word performance along with Google Creative Lab’s Amit Pitaru. Amazing. The “old” Nublu, just down Avenue C from the new one, is where I fell in love with the NYC music scene, a place where I encountered one brilliant band after the next for years. I hadn’t stepped in for a very long while, as it hadn’t been active. So many ghosts from amazing nights past. There is definitely love in that room, I always think it’s because there is no stage separating musicians from audience.
Shantell had asked us all for words, and I gave her “Energy.” I love how she used it…Just like in her line drawings, her music juxtaposes images and ideas with words to question and inspire the viewer/listener. Brilliant.
I am thrilled that Shantell, who I first encountered with incredulity at the Pulse show in Manhattan in 2014, is getting more into sound. Her early career was as a live performer and VJ in Japan, and with the debut of her new album, “Bad Ideas”—a post-punk, new wave, performance art project that captures her beautiful improvisational energy—she is officially back into music, symbolizing in vinyl what she dubs “the risk of pushing boundaries.” Comes with a signed and numbered print too, at ShantellMartin.art. Yay! Lovely person.
Thursday was a night out to see the lovely human and fantastic drummer Johnathan Blake with his “My Life Matters” quintet at the Village Vanguard. Aside from being packed in like sardines for the sold-out show, it was a beautiful inspiring display of Johnathan’s brilliant work as a leader, which I will be kicked from behind over and over again any day to hear. (Not really, next time I’ll request a seat on the side…)
Respected the rule not to take photos or videos, so the door and hand-drawn poster are all I got. Why don’t I ever take pics with the musicians I wonder?! Always feel foolish, but they are nice to have with friends after a great show!!
Friday was my monthly First Friday sound bath at YogaSole, which was lovely, and to Barbes, where we happily came upon The Big Lazy. Always happy to see Yuval Lion, the great drummer, with this cool trio he plays in with leader Stephen Ulrich, a famously “noir” guitarist who has led this band with various players since 1996, and bassist Andrew Hall. Ulrich composes for shows, including NPR show This American Life and the HBO Series Bored to Death, and calls The Big Lazy “Crime Jazz.” Ha. Super fun.
Phew. Big week. Hopefully it inspires you to get out and FEEL THE LOVE this week at one of the shows featured in the calendar below!! Hope to see you out!!
Peace + Harmony!
Steph
*If you feel compelled to make a donation for my efforts, even as little as $5 a month, it would be much appreciated—and likely put right back toward supporting these great musicians!!!
CALENDAR… MONDAY, MAY 6-SUNDAY MAY 12
monday, may 6, 2024
Beyondo Band
Lowlands Bar
8 PM
Trumpeter/vocalist/composer Eric Biondo’s Monday night performance with friends at Lowlands returns…always great, super talented guy with super talented friends, go.
tuesday, may 7, 2024
Mike McGinnis +9
Drom
9 PM
I’ve never heard the description “multi-reedist,” but apparently that’s what Mike McGinnis is. He is billed on this particular show at Drom with these nine other fantastic players — three saxophonists, one trumpeter, one french horn player, a pianist, a bassist and a drummer — as playing the clarinet! Promises to be a beautiful “sonic adventure” and album release part for McGinnis’ “Outing: Road Trip II”.
wednesday, may 8, 2024
Arthur Kell Speculation Quartet
Bar Bayeux
Sets at 8 PM + 9:30 PM
Big on the scene, bassist/composer/Bar LunAtico co-founder Arthur Kell plays with guitarists Brad Shepik and Nate Radley and great sweet drummer Allan Mednard.
Upstate
Brian Mitchell & Friends
Colony Woodstock, NY
8 PM
Composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Brian Mitchell has played with Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and BB King among others. From what I’ve read, he says “music is life, music is healing.” So I’m in!! Ben Zwerin, my friend and great bassist, will play with him and others on this Wednesday evening at the lovely Colony. Looking forward! Come if you’re around!!
thursday, may 9, 2024
Balsa de Fuego
Barbes
10 PM
This new project, translated as “Raft of Fire,” mixes Caribbean Cumbia, Joropo from the Colombo-Venezuelan plains, Currulao from the Colombo-Ecuadorian Pacific Coast and North American jazz. Wow. Led by Colombian composer/bass guitarist Juan Sebastian Monsalve with Raquel Baena on vocals/trombone; Dan Neville, on vibraphone/marimba; Justin Flynn on sax; Andres Fonseca on drums.
Upstate, Private Sound Bath
Private Event: Morning Sacred Bloom Sound Bath for a private executive retreat at Scribner’s Catskill Lodge’s new venue, The Rounds. This Yurt village and its adjacent round lodge and skylit studio space is so dreamy…can’t wait to hear how my instruments resonate!! Check out my website, sacredbloomtribe.com, and book me for a private individual or group session!! Shameless plug, but hey…Always LOVE to offer up my sound bath! It is meditative for me too!!
friday, may 10, 2024
Armo
Bar LunAtico
9 PM + 10:15 PM
Ok. This is what happens when you meet a couple of new people on the music scene: you start seeing them everywhere, playing with a million people you already know. It is a strangely exponential thing, and the folks this week are trumpeter Jordan McLean and trombonist Dave “Smoota” Smith. Everywhere. In this band, Armo, an outgrowth of Antibalas, the focus is on classical and contemporary Afrobeat, featuring the works of Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor and others. A revolving cast from the NY Afrobeat scene, this particular night features McLean, Smoota, Marcus Farrar on vocals and percussion; Tony Jarvis on bass, Timothy James on guitar and Kevin Raczka on drums. Always fun to see how they fit all those musicians on stage…and sounds like awesome music!!!
saturday, may 11, 2024
Nikola Spasojevic Quintet
Williamsburg Music Center
10 PM
I sat next to a young man at drummer Tima Volozh’s show at Brooklyn’s Dada a while back, and it turns out (surprise surprise in NYC) that he is a musician himself. Wouldn’t you know? There are a lot of them, here in this great city to show off their great talents. That young man, Serbian saxophonist and composer Nikola Spasojevic, is performing himself at the Williamsburg Music Center, a cool venue on Bedford Ave. owned by musician Gerry Eastman where I have yet to go. His own compositions plus a few of others’ he’s arranged. Sounds like a fun night!!
Upstate:
Smootaphilia: Ensemble Erotic
Orpheum Theater, Saugerties, NY
8:30 PM
Sensual Sound Sinema —an original live soundtrack performed to the hottest sex scenes of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Suddenly Everywhere Smoota (ha) told me about this upstate debut of “Smootaphilia” with the Ensemble Erotic at Jordan McLean’s bday party. The Ensemble includes Smoota along with vocalists/multi-instrumentalists Ann Courtney, Jerome Jordan and Jeremy Kay. Should be…interesting!!
sunday, may 12, 2024
Mary Foster Conklin Quartet
Mezzrow
7:30 PM + 9 PM
“Rich,” “Bold,” “Off-beat” (assuming they mean in the figurative not literal way), the words used to describe jazz vocalist Mary Foster Conklin all sound lovely, combined with a listen to her “Some Cats Know” tune, which had me laughing out loud. With Warren Vache on trumpet, John DiMartino on piano and Yoshi Waki on bass, this show at Mezzrow, a fave spot, so small you could reach out and touch the musicians, but refrain. Beautiful way to close the week!!
ENJOY!! FIND THE LOVE IN MUSIC THIS WEEK IN SOME WAY!!