My friend, Kimiko, and I are working on a performance.  One tune we’ll play is “So What!” that appears on Kind of Blue.  As I got into the introduction that Gil Evans wrote, I was ultimately led to Manuel de Falla.  On Sketches of Spain Gil Evans would cop de Falla’s El Amour burho.  But, what moves me is the intro to So What! that Gil Evans wrote.  It’s exploration in the Dorian mode is a work of art in itself that I feel is worthy of musical expression.  So be it!

Lost is an illusion of reality.  As Life and Death is an illusion, so be the thoughts and emotions of loss.

If you have ever lost your key, your money or your friendship, the pangs of pain you feel bring sadness. But, upon finding you key, your money or the restored friendship, happiness and joy and relief from anxiety wraps your awareness in relief.

The question is: Did you actually loose anything?  Answer: No! You thought you did, just as I have. In fact, the object, the money or the friendship was hidden.  Some might say, “misplaced.” But, more likely, you’ll find the key, the money, the letter or whatever under something that was absently placed on top of it. That has been my experience.

Clean up enough stuff, throw away the useless papers cluttering your desk, and there it is!  Under the junk mail. Of course, there are instances when something is dropped and “lost.”  But, it’s not truly lost, either.  It is your control of it that has been lost due to it being actually misplaced (not where you intended it to be, whether by inadvertence or missed direction).

Perhaps, nothing … absolutely nothing … is ever truly lost … even Life itself. It is simply in another place or the place where it was left, waiting to be discovered and used again. That place is called Hope, Faith and Love.

Today … this afternoon finds me visiting my mother-in-law at her senior living community dining room. I’ve played music for the seniors on several occasions.

Visiting is an important activity. Doing so reminds me of the moments end games of life. It inspires respect for those who are here who came before me and who, in all likelihood, will leave before me and you.

Happy New Year to all  who have made it this far.

Be sure to check the rehearsal tab on site.

Peace.

Is there really anything else to say:  Celebrate it!

Somewhere, years ago, when I truly wasn’t playing regularly, there was an opportunity to jam with some musicians at a coffee house.  I believe it was in Mountain View.

A young person gave me a sketch made.  I found it about 13 years ago, after my wife of 27  years died and I was cleaning stuff up.  I think the sketch was a premonition as I didn’t know I’d truly play again.

Fly on into the New Year, moment by moment!

I must say that it’s good to have the ability to scan and save, as the sketch was almost destroyed.  Thanks PAM (whomever and wherever you are)!

During a time of change in the U.S., (desegregation), some men were outstanding in their leadership, inspiration and unbiased fairness.  Mr. Richard B. Wagnon was a great trumpet player and, at one moment, the Band Director at Santa Monica City College (as it was then called). He was one of the Outstanding whom I’ll always remember, and who helped me grow immensely as a person (and musician).

RIP, Dick. The band plays on.

Mr. Wagnon is easily recognized.  We won second place in the Junior Rose Bowl band competition in 1963.  But, does anybody recognize Tim Wiseberg?  😉

Below is a copy of a news article concerning the band in 1963 as provided by CDNC (California Digital Newspaper Collection):  http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc  For additional articles on their web site do a Search from their Home page.

Corsair Band, Coronettes Place In Pre-Jr. Rose Bowl Parade

Eighty-five and seventy are the magic numbers when it comes to spearheading school spirit and winning awards for Corsairville. The numbers represent the 85-member Corsair band, and the 70-member Coronettes drill team. Garnering awards is nothing new to the college band, which proved its musical proficiency Saturday by marching away with the second place award in the annual pre-game parade at the Junior Rose Bowl match in Pasadena. Over the last five years, the band has participated in the Junior Rose Bowl parades and never placed lower than third. Last year, and in 1959, the band placed first in open competition. Defending their championship against 20 bands from three states, the baud Saturday played “American, We.” The Corsairs were judged on musicianship, marching, showmanship, and inspection of instruments and uniforms. As an “auxiliary unit,” 11 members of the Coronettes’ drill team provided “additional flash for showmanship,” according to band director, Robert Zachman. The band had spent one and a half months preparing for Saturday’s competition, said Zachman. Part of their practice was appearing in the Huntington Beach parade, in which they won the first place award. At last year’s televised Pro Bowl game, the Corsair band and Coronettes won further praise when the Los Angeles Times called their half-time performance “the best musical since the Greek Theater closed,” according to Mrs. Kay T. Crawford, Coronettes director. The band again appeared on television last summer when it performed on the Vic Damone “Lively Ones’ program. The band, which will appear at the Pro Bowl game in the Coliseum on January 12, is “larger than most junior college bands,”  while Coronettes is the “largest junior college drill team in the nation,” according to Mrs. Crawford. “1001 Nights” and the “African Safari” show, two examples of the programs that the band and drill team present, are “100 per cent original,” as are the rest of the shows, according to Mrs. Crawford.

SMCC BAND PLAYS AT JR. ROSE BOWL—The 85-member Corsair band is shown performing in Saturday’s Junior Rose Bowl pre-game parade in Pasadena. The Bucs garnered the second place award.

There is a lot on my mind today.  In some ways, I’m deep in a purple haze. My mind continues to return to the state of humanity and my own inadequacies.

Helplessness and hopelessness are the attributes of the inability to change the world. The inability extends beyond the inert physical world into the realm of humanity.  To be more specific, into the world of violent humanity.

Empathetic mind-state only amplifies emotional pain and frustration inside of me. I search for the formula for peace, true peace. Is true peace oblivion through death by one human exercising his or her will against another?  Is that were the answer sits? If so, then why the joy and experience of live and life that comes through living and music?

And what of religion and politics?

Turn it off, turn it off.  That’s all I know at this moment.  Kill them both.  Shut out the sounds, the noise and the irrationality of belief that empowers one human to desecrate the life of another based on some absurd and faulty belief in what some other dead prophet supposedly uttered.

Killing people over what some dead human supposedly said and did, it seems to me, is the summit of stupidity and absurdity.  Yet, that is the world in which most, if not all, humankind exists.

The time has long past to evolve to a higher level of consciousness, a higher level of mass consciousness that is righteous, without hypocrisy.  The level that is belief without religion.  A place beyond geographic borders and rationalized ideologies. Life love.

As much as I can tell, the “ism” and “ists” and “ocracies” are nothing more than “hypocristic” in the hypocracy (neologisms).  And, dare I tell you that Hypocracy includes any and all theocratic and geo-dominant political systems of belief.  For within all such theocratic and political systems is abuse, torture and killing of innocents who have been judged unworthy of life and living based on the mere incident of conception.

I’ll not bother you with the facts, as you can read or here them in the daily news.

There burns within my mind the idea that Hypocracy is wrong and that I don’t want to be a part of it, in any manner.

Jimi, i hear u.  Manic depression’s a frustrating mess.

Peace.

This is “The Season.”

Peace. That is the cry. She echoes from land to land, order from sand to sand, by woman to man and hand to hand.

The Season exists eternally, but only in those who are free. Those who see no time, to those who need no rhyme, the dove is hard to find among the faithful blind.

This is “The Day.”

RIP:  Joe Cocker.

The love in your muse will be missed.
This is a melody to you: bliss.

My mother-in-law (former Willow Glen resident) now lives at Villa Serena Apartments, an adult living complex for senior citizens.  Sometimes, I have the pleasure of playing with other musicians there.  It’s always wonderful to see the power of music that revives the rhythms of life in those who are slowing down.

Mike Megan and I did a set a few days ago.  Carol, his wife, provided the hat!

We had a great time playing Christmas tunes.

I went down to Cafe Stritch Saturday evening to experience Joey De Francesco, after playing a gig at the Menlo Park Veterans Administration Hospital under the auspices of Bread and Roses.

I’d never seen Joey perform before, although I’d dug so much of what he’s played.  It was a great experience.  I got to meet Pete Fallico, too and experience the wonderful odor of ozone as he opened the back of the B3, so I could marvel at the vacuum tubes, transformers, capacitors and stuff I hadn’t seen and tinkered with since 1967!  :0).

All I can say is that the Stritch is about as close as one can get to the East Coast scene in NYC on the Peninsula!  It was a great evening.  I hope you get down to the Stritch to experience the Muse, whenever you can.