Rising Above
Up in Sequoia/King's Canyon, anything but harmony is hard to see
The “music” one hears as one ascends the more than 350 steps up to the top of the 245-foot Moro Rock in California’s majestic Sequoia National Park is one’s own and others’ fairly labored breath. But any breathlessness is well worth it, something I know from a previous trek and so did not even vaguely hesitate to make the climb. Views all around, from an elevation of 6,725 feet up, provide a look at the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada’s Great Western Divide range, and the great wilderness of the Sequoia National Forest’s vast wilderness.
It is stunning to stand beneath the swirling clouds, high above, and take in the sweeping panoramas of nature’s most beautiful creations. Even though other humans mar the landscape a bit, standing strangely to take their selfies or get strangers to oblige to capture them in this spectacular setting, it is easy to pretend that it is a long-ago time, before technology shifted things, before cities were developed and designed, carved out of what was Original to the Earth.
We camped for a few days in King’s Canyon, the National Park just adjacent to the more commonly-visited Sequoia, where sites such as General Sherman—the World’s Largest Tree—and Moro Rock draw the big crowds. We left the fly off our tent, allowing us to stare up at the stars as we went to sleep under the tall trees and—uncomfortable as sleeping on the ground can be, and as chilly as it got—it was magical. Despite being surrounded by other campers, the Azalea Campground sites provide a good deal of space, and the silence at night was profound, offering an opportunity for deep listening to even the slightest rustle of wind through the trees, or a lizard or high-elevation-dwelling pika scrambling around on the rocks.
At the Panamoric Point Overlook, two miles up a narrow windy road, we stood and took in the mountain ranges beyond and Hume Lake below—where we’d spent the bulk of the day with the dragonflies and ducks. An information plaque offered up a bit of writerly wisdom about the wilderness we were taking in:
Indeed, we sensed the awe and beauty. It changes you to take in such almost unfathomable vastness, lands that go on and on with no human inhabitants save the odd groups that decide sometimes to try to scale those distant peaks. It makes all the wars we rage, the politics and the poverty, the punishing penal systems, all the developments and deprivations of urban life, seem surreal. The word why comes to mind. Standing in the midst of the wilderness, it is hard to contemplate why we have evolved to live the way we do, why we would possibly accept anything but peace.
I think this and then on the way back to the car we see an ant quickly swipe off the wing of a flying insect that had crossed the ant’s path before it could burrow back into the hole it had dug into the rock. It seems, sadly, that violence is part of nature, much as it seems we humans might have the higher brain function to curtail it. But even with that sad reminder of “reality,” there is a harmony inherent in taking to higher ground for a while, for stepping away. There is clarity in higher elevations, a bird’s eye view that sometimes seems necessary to take, to rise above and try, hard, not get caught up in the morass down below even when you are forced to descend there once again. To keep that mountain mindset, that is the goal. Rise. Above.
Music and art can help us ascend to higher places even while at sea level, if we commit to taking them in. Pick an event this week from the calendar below, and GO! It will raise you up, I promise!!
In peace + harmony,
Steph
ListenUp NYC Calendar June 10-June 16
monday, june 10
Lauren Lee & Justin Wert
Five and Dime
7 PM - 9 PM
Singer/songwriter Lauren Lee wowed me with her voice, her great skill at improvisation and her kindness when she came along with Tom Shad and Pam Fleming to the Opportunity House Men’s Shelter for International Jazz Day. I have been wanting to hear her in a show since then, and here’s my chance! Said to be a master of “cross-cultural experimentation and off-the-beaten-track forms of vocal expression,” which I got a little sampling of at the shelter:) Looking forward! Lauren will be accompanied by jazz guitarist Justin Wert. Five and Dime is a cool cocktail bar in the historic Woolworth Building, never been but seems cool!!
tuesday, june 11
Lulu and The Broadsides
Joe’s Pub
9:30 PM
I heard about this show at a graduation party in a lovely lake community in New Jersey from a very self-possessed young woman, my friends’ neighbor and friend, who said she was a singer, about to start a songwriting program at NYU. When Julia Crafton was little, she lived in an apartment above her parents’ recording studio, Kaleidoscope Sound, in Union City, NJ, lulled to sleep, as she says, by the music of Richie Havens, The Mingus Big Band, Glen Velez, and a variety of Broadway and off-Broadway musicals. Singer/songwriter Dayna Kurtz recorded there, which is how Julia came to know her and live and train with her recently in New Orleans. Julia’s father, Randy Crafton, is an engineer, producer and owner of Kaleidoscope, and also a drummer who toured with Richie Havens.
Julia—who at 18 already has released THREE albums!— will sing background vocals with “Lulu and The Broadsides,” a sizzling New Orleans jazz band that features Dayna Kurtz as well as Randy Crafton on drums, Robert Mache on guitar/vocals, and James Singleton on bass. A listen to Julia’s music, and to the band’s, suggests it will be a beautiful night! Plus, Joe’s Pub is always fun:)
wednesday, june 12
Literary Cafe Presents Laura Hinton + Jazz
Dada Bar, Queens
7 PM
Author of The Perverse Gaze of Sympathy: Sadomasochistic Sentiments from Clarissa to Rescue 911, Laura Hinton is an essayist, poet and assistant professor of English at City College. Her performance apparently includes “words, music, improvisations and great stories,” and will precede Dada’s Wednesday jazz programming, apparently TBD.
thursday, june 13
Harish Raghavan solo + Michael Bates’ Northern Spy
Owl Music Parlor
8 PM
It’s a great night of bass! Double bassist Harish Raghavan (who I’ve never seen but have heard great things about) will play solo from his debut album as a leader, Calls for Action, followed by awesome bassist Michael Bates’ Northern Spy trio, with Michael Blake on saxophone and Jeremy “Bean” Clemons on drums.
friday, june 14
Super Yamba Band
Bar LunAtico
Sets at 9 PM + 10:15 PM
This beautiful Afrobeat/Physchedelic Funk band offers up some much-needed lively energy for a Friday night in June…I always list them when I see them cause they just make you feel great!! Go!!
OR, IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE UPSTATE!!!
Brian Mitchell & Friends
Colony Garden
6 PM
The last time master pianist/organist/accordianist/vocalist Brian Mitchell played at Colony in Woodstock was a blast, with everyone dancing like crazy, many people who have clearly been dancing to his great music for many decades! This time, he plays in the beautiful outdoor garden for a three-hour set!!
saturday, june 15
New York Guitar Festival
Kaufman Music Center - Merkin Concert Hall
8 PM
The second night of the NY Guitar Festival features the Medicine Singers—a collaborative project of Israeli guitarist Yonatan Gat, the Eastern Medicine Singers (an Eastern Algonquin powwow group from Rhode Island), and guitarist singer/songwriter Lee Ranaldo, founder of rock band Sonic Youth. Sounds amazing! Other special guests will include the great Gnawa guembri/sintir player Maalem Hassan BenJaafar, always fabulous, West African guitarist Mamady Kouyate from the Mandingo Ambassadors, and American multi-instrumentalist (among them piano/zither/mbira) Edward Larry Gordon, otherwise known as Laraaji.
sunday, june 16
Leo Genovese Quartet
Smalls
Sets at 9 PM + 10:30 PM
The great Leo Genovese on piano, with Tim Hagans on trumpet, Dan Blake on soprano sax, Sean Conly on bass and Ian Froman on drums. Jammin night at this West Village staple.