"The Long Intermission" (COVID)

       Don't give up, please. It is now, during these difficult times and after them, that our audience needs us most. The pure nature of what we do forces us to endure a high level of adversity and frustration. At times this threatens our happiness and wellbeing. What in life rewards others for their work and accomplishments, faces us, often, with slippery slopes and an ever changing landscape.

       It may seem that Fate or God, unfairly, has forgotten us and that the world does not care about our plight. This, to me, seems just the opposite. We have been given the hard job. We are given the work now with the most responsibility and of the highest order. We are the voice of Mankind's soul. After we go, our work lingers and does not fade as easily as most jobs. Our work can affect Mankind permanently and shape societies to come by our influence and ideas. It goes "into" people. If you don't believe me, just try and get that song out of your head you've been singing for the last week. 

       This crisis, or as I like to call it, "The Great Intermission," shows and delegates to musicians, ALL musicians, not just the famous ones, work so important that, we and other artists like painters and writers, are entrusted with this very important task. It is a mission, not thrust upon us as punishment or with neglect, but as a great privilege and I look at as an honour. It is up to us to know and feel what humanity, as much as we can, is going through and that we feel it first hand with empathy. Only then, can we render this voice accurately and with enough honesty so that it can endure and be effective.

       It has been proven and accepted by paleontologists that music has been around for a long, long time. It is even included in our DNA memory. I don't think it will disappear overnight. But in modern society, we are forced and conditioned to make a living at the things to which we give our time, Thus, being a professional musician can seem daunting.  

       But we are forced to fit into this box right now because right now, the world is not balanced and healthy and so, does not perceive what is good or bad for it. Making a living by selling music, or time, is both unnatural and unrewarding because music is for all, rich or poor, man or woman, black or white. Playing it professionally without trying to be famous may not have all the perks or be recognized by non-musicians, but rest assured, it is of the HIGHEST importance and must surely be close to God, if indeed, God exists. 

(January 5, 2021)

 

Infinite Points – an essay by Mark Lewis

          “Why do we do it?” people have often asked me. “With your talent you can play anything. You should play something that will make you some money.” After this I usually let them talk and tell me what they think I should do with my life. By the time they are finished I try not to say anything that will make them think that I am arrogant or naïve so that the conversation can be ended. You see, most jazz musicians are artists. An artist lives his or her life with one thing in mind; the success of the art. Fame and fortune do not enter into the goals of an artist. A selected few in our history have been fortunate enough to have prosperity and art work together without compromising their integrities. But most find it a life’s work to concentrate on art or prosperity, respectively, the artist or the performing showman. Both are valid as a profession, but if one has an awakening and sees something greater, the artist’s path becomes evident and a driving force.

          My awakening happened while attending the Cornish Institute of Allied Arts in Seattle. John Coltrane and Rashied Ali had made an LP called “Interstellar Space” and I had just listened to it eight times in a row! I was secretly studying this type of music known as “avant-garde” or just “free” music, while in attendance at both Western Washington State College and Cornish. I say secretly because in my classes when I asked different professors about THAT music, I was not given answers to my satisfaction so I studied and listened to these musicians and what they had to say, all done in the music library.

          Anyway, after listening to sixteen sides of it, I thought I wordlessly understood the essence of what I was listening to. It was spiritual.

           I was already barred from practicing in the regular practice rooms at Cornish so I went down two flights into the building’s bowels; into the boiler room. It was hot but I could do my work there, or so I thought. With my new sublime knowledge I proceeded down into my steamy practice room. It must have been about 130 degrees Fahrenheit down there.

           As I started playing I became entranced in a meditative state and began experimenting with time. I started stretching time out in my mind so it would seem twice as long, allowing me to play with twice the velocities I was used to. I kept the formula going and played faster and faster. It became more than an abstraction as I compressed and expanded my mind’s reference points. As this was happening, I realized that the center of my consciousness came from an infinitely small point radiating infinitely in all directions, and the angles of directions produced infinite vectors. Each angle could also be divided infinite times. I was coming from a point; an infinitely small point with an infinite amount of directions stretching to infinity. I was sensing the infinitely small and large at the same time. I divided these lines spatially like I had done with time.

            At exactly the same time I reached the realization of all this, the headmaster’s first knock threw me back into our world. Dr. Friedman said I was no longer allowed to practice at all in the building. I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t knocked. I might not have returned to our space-time continuum. But after that, I knew that my destiny was to develop my art and my direction was clear to me. Luckily Dave the janitor let me in after everyone went home so that I could practice at night, sometimes all night.

           I finished out the school term and went to Europe, not knowing one person there and without a return ticket home. Within two months I was fortunate enough to play the music I was studying with some of its creators. Rashied’s brother (also a drummer) Mohammad and other great innovators of the avant-garde like Bobby Few, Ray Drummond, and Noah Howard let me play with them in their 1978 tour of France and Italy, which included large audiences in Paris and Rome.

          The music featured this month is a tribute to them; the artists who know that they may struggle their entire lives and maybe die unknown. But they continue to, as Bobby would say, “hold on.” They do this because the Music is their spiritual homage. They are the unsung heroes who give our human existence meaning in the Universe, without whom our existence would hold less value. I humbly thank them.

 Mark Lewis

March 2019

 

 

Sometimes I Wonder ...

Sometimes I wonder, why can't we as a group of humans on a finite planet paradise with a totally balanced eco-system, (looks like it was custom tailored for us), see the perfection of it and respect it (Mother Earth)? I am not a genius, and it is totally obvious to me. Is greed that powerful? Is it because we don't take responsibility for our actions? Is it because we are expecting someone else to do it? 

I know a lot of people. Most of them are very conscientious. Where are all the people who don't give a damn? Are they just a few with all the power? If that is the case, then I will tell you this: WE, The People, the workers, the ones who make the Art, and the people who don't do anything but think and relay their intelligence to the rest of us, are the ones with the power. WE, the People. We have ALL the power. Please don't forget that. Without us, there would be no rich people and the world would come to a grinding halt. And if you are rich, then there is no shame in that, as long as you use your power to make humanity strong and good. If you don't, then shame on you. 

We are all very important, each and every one of us. That is why I play The Music. I want this world of ours, the world we call "Humanity", to be balanced. If it is not, we will perish; a forgotten song with no one to hear it. But if we, as Humans, can find balance, we will be worthy of our place in this Universe, and of the human race, and its beauty, or at least some of it, will be remembered and cherished, rather than lost on an obscure planet at the edge of one of many galaxies........ 

As an after-thought, I would like to say that, no matter what you think of yourself, even if you have done something bad, each and every one of us is unique and special. You are not bad, what you have done may have been, but that is in the past now. It will remain a part of you, but your imagination and the fact that you know it was a mistake are all you need, to start again and uphold what you envision as something to be content with in your life and if there is something more, to give you validity in the new realm. If you think you are someone who doesn't deserve beauty and praise from a completely neutral source, then you are humble. That is special too. Special is why we are here. 

WE are This Universe becoming conscious of itself, and The Universe is very, very special and amazing. When you can appreciate beauty, then you are as beautiful as the beauty you are appreciating because you are part of it. Please don't forget that, Humanity. Please don't sell yourself short. Dig? -M. (April 3, 2017)

 

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