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Free Write Friday ~ “My Year of Living Improvisationally.” Feat. Excerpts from Prelude to a Memoir Proposal ~ “Breaking Sounds” ~ Dizzy Gillespie performing Shadow of Your Smile with MJFO 1965.

"Jazz Box" Collage by Jazzybeatchick — “Jazz Box” Collage by Jazzybeatchick

The Call:

The fog from PTSD of the traumas in my life has lifted. I had forgotten that major events like cancer, death from cancer, the death of my father, a neuropathy and mom’s death over time is cumulative. It obnubilates living in the present moment. Those moments expanded into thirteen years. The Sound I Felt: Improvisations on Life. Writing and listening to the sounds – jazzier and more; going to the beach; and daily life has evoked memories from 1965. I didn’t know how to piece a narrative together. Dramatic events. Elusive missives and musings. On frequent occasions only timbre or sound. I didn’t write about the most traumatic experience, my mom’s death over this past decade. I want to know why? Now these past events are giving me the courage to transform my life. Today marks the beginning of a new journey using improvisation and living creatively using conversations, quotes, literary and collage art and participating in community literary and visual arts.programs in Oakland, CA.

Now thirteen years later, those consequences inspired me to start Fifty Shades of Jazz| Living Improvisationally | A, a personal blog in 20014. The unexpected utterances have liberated me from feeling hostage by the sum total of those traumatic experiences. The dwelling on loss seems utterly self indulgent and toxic – actually it is, if it consumes all of your thoughts. Now I am able to embrace those disorienting years through my poetry and accepting the mind’s selective entities. I want to place individuals and communities especially those that healed and were amazing and those times when not, strictly for holistic purposes.

Note: I selected this track of my father’s cd because it celebrates the Men From Monterey and the launching of my creative life inspired by Gil Fuller (my dad), Ralph J. Gleason (muse) and Dizzy Gillespie (comic relief).

Yesterday I watched Joe Albany… A Jazz Life- 1980 Complete 60 min. Feature Documentary Film and Sepia Cinderella (1947) which brought back centering memories on growing up in jazz as a writer, poet and collage artist. I plan to watch Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz. Jazz documentaries bring back my fondest memories from my year of musical thinking that began February of 1965 with the Monterey Jazz Festival , my father, Gil Fuller was the Music Director featuring Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody and the MJF Orchestra. At the end of that rehearsal I learned the importance of hearing music at rehearsals, especially the final one.

I was eleven years old at the final rehearsal before the live performance when I met Mr. Ralph J. Gleason founder of Rolling Stone magazine. I knew absolutely nothing about Ralph J. Gleason nor how meeting him transformed and inspired my literary and collage arts took flight. It was the final rehearsal at the studio behind the sound stage….

“You were, he thought, accountable to those who formed you; it was your responsibility, especially if you were a writer with the chance to reach others, to honor those who had mattered, who had made a difference in how you or your readers lived their lives. Ralph was the most honorable man I have known. Some who did not know him will perhaps find such a claim excessive or too “emotional.” Those who did know him well will recognize it as a simple statement of fact.”The rehearsal was now under way, it became an invitation to my imagination renewing my love for writing – cultivating a joy deep in my heart.

But there was a time, not that long ago, when there were only a few and they all knew each other. Today’s pop music critics, who cut their teeth on Pearl Jam and Nirvana, will never have the chance to leave behind a legacy like Gleason’s. In an age of the information superhighway and media overload, the era of E! Television and Entertainment Weekly, how do you explain one lone writer working for a daily newspaper in a provincial backwater changing music history? But it was never easy to explain Gleason, even when he was alive. Greil Marcus. Ibid

From the moment I met Ralph J. Gleason and after that 1st meeting @ the final rehearsal inspired me to pursue my dream to write. In a lot of ways I have always been before my time, maybe it was because I began to read at three years old. I credit mom for that. Every chance I got when I was five years old I would read books from the library dad and converted to a den. I read Jung and secretly started writing in my journal poetry and doing collages in sync with what dad was composing on the Steinway Grand piano in our downstairs livingroom. I fell in love with words and reading things aloud to my mom. I began to explore who I really was. Dad did not encourage me to function as a creatively independent woman. I guess he thought I would have plenty of time to be independent and a woman. During that time I would get frustrated and somewhat confused with the mixed messages I was getting from him. I knew what the clan wanted; I learned how to fit into the tribe and not make waves otherwise I could possibly lose my father’s love or be ostracized. I grew to be afraid of being abandoned. I couldn’t connect to my inner self and embrace solitude much less how to be a free individual. What I did learn when I was with Dad at rehearsals was the musicians exhibited a fierce respect for their own creativity as well as respect and the creativity of the other musicians; I learned about the musicians and the families that I sat with and inadvertently learned about myself,

I began to explore who I really was. Dad did not encourage me to function as a creatively independent woman. I guess he thought I would have plenty of time to be independent and a woman. During that time I would get frustrated and somewhat confused with the mixed messages I was getting from him. I knew what the he wanted. To keep the peace, I learned how to fit into the my dad’s wishes and not make waves. Otherwise, I could possibly lose my father’s love or be ostracized. I grew to be afraid of being abandoned. I couldn’t connect to my inner self and embrace solitude much less how to be a free individual. What I did learn when I was with Dad at rehearsals was the musicians exhibited a fierce respect for their own creativity as well as respect and the creativity of the other musicians; I learned about jazz life through musicians and their families, Gleason, my mom, dad… that I at the end of the day –I learned about myself,

My Response:

Do you remember1965? It was early spring and you received a call from Jimmy Lyons one of the Promoters for the Monterey Jazz Festival. You accepted the position for the MJFO and We were sitting in that Ford Torino station wagon that you constantly called it a pig of a car, You hated that car. We were going to Benny’s CantoneseWhen I close my eyes in the Parking lot at Azuma’s on Wilshire Blvd. “Dad, you created a phenomenal year for Jazz music from Monterey to the opening of the Music Center in L.A., …

Grace Notes to My Father

by Jannat Marie

I learned that timing is the secret to living a jazz improvised life,

Knowing when to stop, to start, to step it up, to slow it down but oh

so important is learning how to wait thru the strife.

Jazz harmony is the theory and practice of changing

dominant and tonic chords of life,

where major and minor share the same syncopated space

in a timeless bond…

Progressions depart in thirds and stacked fourths

favoring harmonic progressions where tensions are in intervals that resound

II.

I learned that searching for meaning, or intentions and having the blues

is about finding your truth and grace found in a life of humility

coz the universe is mistin’ the air with valuable scented truths

Improvisation is the essence of living in a tranquil and joyous place

where cadence and notes become window dressing that is a façade

pierced by listening to the spoken word filled with harmonic intent

of the path and choices you debate.

Play it slant is the message best heard in the evening.

III.

I learned that being different is the integral part of the master plan

Leaning in and seeing how high you can reach

The harmonies in real-time, flowing and ebbing

an improvisational context is the lessons you will teach.

I learned that playing jazz has four elements

broadening your words and expressing every letter

in a charismatic way to enhance

finding your intentions and mixing all of them together —

where freedom and coordination learn how to really dance.

Jazz has the power to go deep within,

having a relationship with you as next of kin

Transforming arrogance into the love of sound on the page.

IV.

I have been saved by jazz and words from above

healing my soul and body from within

thru life’s trials and tribulations

finding peace on earth that is filled with

the promise of words and life dancing with joyous jubilation

in our wake!

A Love so Supreme….Your Daughter

I found myself on May 8^th, 2015 without a place to call home. For over a decade dealing with all of the post traumatic events in my life, year after year it was not a real place and I didn’t want to go there. Today feeling like I had to summon up the courage to live a fuller, improvised life by learning from the grace noted memories that have been revisiting me on a frequent basis lately. It has given me a new lease on transforming my life to finish writing The Sound I Felt. I am looking to work for a non-profit part-time re-connecting me with the creative community. I love to read and write after meeting Ralph J. Gleason in 1965 how he transformed my life by using quotes and prose taking us on an incredible audiovisual journey, Starting today, I am going to write about those scented and ornamented grace notes and wisdom from Gleason, my mom and dad and the cast of characters that have affected my life. This new series for 2016 is entitled “My Year of Living Improvisationally.” Welcome, Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & >3!

This material has been copyrighted, feel free to share it with others; it can be distributed via social media or pingbacks or added to websites; please do not change the original content and please provide appropriate credit by including the author’s name or visual artist @ http://jazzybeatchick.com your readers shall not be charged by you under any circumstance.

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Free Write Friday ~ A Boomer Remembers the Sounds of Living in the Moment with Bob Kaufman’s ” O-Jazz-O War Memoir” featuring Beatles & Jazz – In My Life

Texture Abstract Jazz Art Paintings Courtesy of bits_r_us.net

Music would take over at the point at which words become powerless, with the one and only object of expressing that which nothing but music could express. ~ Debussy

February 26^th

Today it appears that spring has sprung. A warm glow piercing through my window cradling the chill from last evening. Jung wrote: “The serious problems in life are never fully solved. If ever they should appear to be so it is a sure sign that something has been lost. The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not in the solution but in our working at it incessantly. This alone preserves us from stultification and putrefaction.” The San Francisco Bay area is plagued with Homelessness. I know a thing or two about that because things went totally and literally south last May when I gave up my spacious one bedroom apartment in a lovely community off of Puget Sound in Seattle. I wasn’t running from anything, rather, I was running for the life that was waiting for me. Now when I look back, I would have hoped that I could find a place, not like a shelter where I would be able to actualize my dream. But my dream to write and to help others to overcome adversities like money and a place to live where my dreams can come to life and in accordance with God’s plan for all of us.

So to this end it is only natural that at the tender age of eleven, I had fallen in love with jazz sound and words. Jazz poetry is the best of both worlds for me. I have discovered that there ain’t nothin’ in this world I could ask God to give me than the gift of translating notes into words. Take the shape of a life lived in full measure. Of course, with that gift I had to face the perfect storms of life and after all that is played and done, a glorious experience and sense of timing. The art of knowing when to..stop, start, slow it down, staccato and rests carefully placed on the canvas of life. That knowing has left me craving peace and serenity and knowing deep down to the souls of my heart that the joy comes when we wait. Waiting is the first born of jazz poetry.

Exploring mindfulness meditations and conversations that give the soul the full acoustic literary dose of memories, dreams, inspiration that expands and awakens the mysterious source of living the life that is waiting for us…. Today I want to take a closer look at Bob Kaufman and unleash the scores of wisdom and insight. I paired Beatle Jazz with sounds that are a reflection of growing up. If it were not for the life riff jeering, circumstances filled with timbres that were flat or that shrilled to a thrilling vibrato that casted notes penetrating rhythms of stride that were both arbitrary in nature and where drummers paid homage to the cultural rage and chaos of the streets giving a steady ebb and flow of memory syncopation of tradition with ambient sounds marred by the blue mood of hard times that stirred like a river of notes ornamenting the riots deep and knapped within that scrambled new rhythms and tonal alliterations that struggled against the personal entropy that was disoriented by High Society and an acceptability of just being different. The battle continues to rage between faux and real, inspiration and economic oppression and to actualize a life that understands human pain and is able to transcend it’s ravages became a snap shot of learning by living from my father and my mother because they have made this all possible…Peace & Love Out! JBC 8-)♥ (Excerpt from The Sound I Felt”)

Poet Jack Micheline said about Kaufman, “I found his work to be essentially improvisational, and was at its best when accompanied by a jazz musician. His technique resembled that of the surreal school of poets, ranging from a powerful, visionary lyricism of satirical, near Dadaistic leanings, to the more prophetic tone that can be found in his political poems.

O-Jazz-O War Memoir: Jazz, Don’t Listen To It At Your Own Risk

by Bob Kaufman

In the beginning, in the wet

Warm dark place,

Straining to break out, clawing at strange cables

Hearing her screams, laughing

“Later we forgave ourselves, we didn’t know”

Some secret jazz

Shouted, wait, don’t go.

Impatient, we came running, innocent

Laughing blobs of blood & faith.

To this mother, father world

Where laughter seems out of place

So we learned to cry, pleased

They pronounce human.

The secret Jazz blew a sigh

Some familiar sound shouted wait

Some are evil, some will hate.

“Just Jazz, blowing its top again”

So we rushed & laughed.

As we pushed & grabbed

While jazz blew in the night

Suddenly they were too busy to hear a simple sound

They were busy shoving mud in men’s mouths,

Who were busy dying on the living ground

Busy earning medals, for killing children on deserted street corners

Occupying their fathers, raping their mothers, busy humans we

Busy burning Japanese in atomicolorcinemascope

With stereophonic screams,

What one hundred per cent red blooded savage, would waste precious

time

Listening to jazz, with so many important things going on

But even the fittest murderers must rest

So they sat down in our blood soaked garments,

and listened to jazz

lost, steeped in all our death dreams

They were shocked at the sound of life, long gone from our own

They were indignant at the whistling, thinking, singing, beating,

swinging,

They wept for it, hugged, kissed it, loved it, joined it, we drank it,

Smoked it, ate with it, slept with it

They made our girls wear it for lovemaking

Instead of silly lace gowns,

Now in those terrible moments, when the dark memories come

The secret moments to which we admit no one

When guiltily we crawl back in time, reaching away from ourselves

They hear a familiar sound,

Jazz, scratching, digging, blueing, swinging jazz,

And listen,

And feel, & die.

This material is and has been copyrighted. Feel free to share it with others; it can be distributed via social media or pingbacks and added to websites; please do not change the content, and please provide credit by including the author’s name @ http://jazzybeatchick.com and your readers shall not be charged by you under any circumstance.

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Free Write Friday ~ How Women R Makin’ Waves and Breakin’ Free ~ HerStory featuring a video snap of “All About That Bass – Postmodern Jukebox European Tour Version”

Les Ballets Jazz De Montreal Courtesy of nac_cna.ca

“Gender discrimination and gender segregation have posed considerable barriers to women’s musical talent. Still, many women musicians around the world challenge traditionally held beliefs about gender and women’s social status simply by playing a certain instrument or singing a certain song.” Smithsonian Folkways Magazine

I wanted to feature some of the Phenomenal Women who have influenced, nurtured and continue to be inspirational in my life, since the 60’s when civil rights was not solely relegated to race. Mom was my role model. My BFF and beside the fact that she was the “best mom”; it’s because she was an educator who believed and promoted multiethnic and gender culturalism that would also include women in order to successfully provide the catalyst for assimilation into American Life. That meant not to segregate, but to incorporate where we all would learn about diversity and to respect and appreciate one another. The air was so emotionally charged with racism that being “mixed race” was difficult for me to feel comfortable and fit in. My father, forced to deal racism in the jazz world, chose not make waves by including women musicians not because of their abilities, it was because he succumbed to the insuperable chauvinism and that was steeped in the jazz tradition because he felt it would’ve made the situation worse on both fronts. Neither agenda survived! The decade was phenomenal in terms of growing up. I was right in the think of it and although the 60’s decade changed the face of America’s civil and cultural revolution, 1965 was “My Year of Musical Thinking” when I fell in love with Jazz, the sound of words and modern art making it the most transformative and phenomenal year of my life. It is my frame of reference. It became my cultural compass where diversity was a substrate in every conceivable direction.

Blues Jazz Piano Courtesy freejazzlessons.com

Comments like “She’s not supposed to play like that! And “She plays like a man” were epithets that have been uttered throughout the early life of jazz when describing women musicians at the turn of the 20^th Century. Sex discrimination, segregation and tradition have been the foremost barriers that impacted women’s musical talent and ability to perform. Still, many women musicians around the world continue to challenge and transform traditionally held beliefs about gender and women’s social status simply by playing the piano or guitar or performing a certain song. Additionally, songwriting was something that also fell into the fray as well.

Bley was born in Oakland, California. Her father, a piano teacher and church choirmaster, encouraged her to sing and to learn to play the piano. After giving up the church to immerse herself in roller skating at the age of fourteen,^[1] she moved to New York at seventeen and became a cigarette girl at Birdland, where she met jazz pianist Paul Bley, whom she married in 1957.^[2] He encouraged her to start composing. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The battle of the sexes challenged the socially and culturally functioned under the assumption that men are superior to women. Ironically, this did not apply to women musicians. Those beliefs infiltrated medicine; science and the Arts & Entertainment world, respectively. The line in the sand of equality between men and women has become smudged because those differences lost ground at the beginning of the 20^th century. In the 60’s racial and gender differences were a celebration of those differences. In some circles of society, politically correct thinking began obscuring and diminishing those differences. What do you think? Peace Out! 😎 ♥

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Tell It Slant Tuesday ~ Call & Response A Jazz Meditation on a Poetic Beat featuring a video snap of Level 3 Call and Response Patterns (6 Notes) – Jazz Improvisation

REGINA_CARTER Courtesy of americanjazzmuseum.org

In music, a call and response is a sequence beats or musical notes played by different musicians, where the second sequence of beats or musical notes is heard as a direct commentary on (response) to the first. It corresponds to the call-and-response pattern in human conversation and is found as a basic element of musical form, such as verse-chorus form, in many traditions.

In the Sub-Saharan African cultures, call and response is a pervasive pattern in public gatherings with respect to civic affairs in addition to in religious rituals and vocal and instrumental musical expression. Notably, in African-American music it is prevelant

in a myriad of forms i.e.: gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, jazz and hip hop. I love it when a characteristic of jazz, sound and words can evoke so much imagination and passion. This is the highest form of mindfulness meditation and sound that is a blessing to my life. Peace Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

The Call:

I am Nobody, Who are you

By Emily Dickinson

I ‘m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there ‘s a pair of us-don’t tell!
They ‘d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Response:

Self Imag(I)nation

by Jannât Marie

I don’t care how many masters exist.

I am curious to know if you have discovered

Who You truly are or

are you still trying to fit in and find yourself?

I am curious to know if you have felt misery or

can you hear it in our children?

Are you living in the world?

or are you of this world?

With its oppressive nexus to

make you conform when reflecting

through fine tuned ears,

Proclaiming THIS IS WHO I AM!

Are you improvising how to

thrive in the cultural inferno by

leaning in to the center of your dreams

Accepting to live in every present moment

remaining rooted in a universal love

fully aware you can consciously re-Create

the misguided missives

that originated in Cultural deceit.

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Free Write Friday ~ A Mindfulness Meditation Riff 4 Big Dreams − New Life is featuring Stanley Clarke’s Butterfly Dreams

Make Dreams Come True Courtesy of rickyahuja.com

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. ~ Harriet Tubman

“New Birth, New Creation”

By Carol Lynne

Life is change, every moment brings change.

In this moment there is creation
There is passion
There is fire
There is birth
A new idea
A new creation
A new love
A new passion.
Energies stir within my soul
And new aspects are born in this moment.
All is excitement
All is wonderment
I am in awe as I experience new creation
New birth.”

The Vedanta teaches us that there are seven states of consciousness. These are: (1) deep sleep; (2) dream state which occurs while we are in the 1st state; (3) awake state which we are in the majority of the time; (4) meditative state where we have a glimpse of the soul; (5) cosmic consciousness; (6) divine consciousness and last but not least (7) unity consciousness. Today I fell in a somewhat reflective mood and am ready to move on and conforming to my dreams. When I was 3 years old I was passionate about books and music – jazz and ethnic music. When I sat in my mom’s lap as she read from a reader brought me immeasurable joy at the deepest level. I now realize my love of writing and reading were born and established that heat has a kinship with what is essential for my life. Ironically, I am calling for questions that I usually reserve for the New Year and a way to let go of the negative energies of my old efforts. I didn’t get the grant I applied for a few months ago. Now I am blogging and working on new tasks that give me boundless energy and I am following my North Star. Timing is everything when it comes to animation and jazz. What is most substantial are the internal questions and what would be the inspiration for both my mental and physical state of being. Thinking over and opening up your mettle to the possibilities is what keeps me going. Experience has demonstrated that. And then I am giving way to lean in on my dreams and learn from my mistakes. I will begin by embracing the wonder and mystery of life and then I may expand my intellect and connect to my cozy world. Creating and improvising allows for a change that will benefit everything and everyone. I plug-in, crank up the volume of Butterfly Dreams, let the flow begin… streaming jazz, words, symbols, dreams and expansion. Timbre changes my orientation, the beat dominates the regular recurrence of my spirit and I become mindful of the riffs that emerge that are transforming my life and prepares me for life’s riff to get. How would you go about it though? How do you change a negative into a positive? It doesn’t use up magic or illusions; it shouts for your dreams and the bravery and imagination to freely improvise the changes that heals and nourishes you. Baby steps in the start; with practice it becomes natural and joyous. Follow your life and let it lead you to where you never believed was possible? Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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Tell It Slant Tuesday Riffshot ~ “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman Acoustic Ambiance ~ The Rippingtons – “Where The Road Will Lead Us”

Beginner's Mind Suzuki Philosophy Courtesy of jazzadvice_dot_com — Beginner’s Mind Suzuki Philosophy Courtesy of jazzadvice_dot_com

Song of the Open Road is a 1944 musical comedy film directed by S. Sylvan Simon, from a screenplay by Irving Phillips and Edward Verdier. It was the debut film of teenage singer Jane Powell. Powell’s real name was Suzanne Burce, but prior to the release of this film MGM assigned her the stage name “Jane Powell” (the name of the character she portrays in this film).^[1]…Hope you enjoy a mindfulness improv moment in jazz with an open mind and heart…Peace Out & Love JBC 😎 <3.

Song of the Open Road

BY WALT WHITMAN

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,

Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,

Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,

I do not want the constellations any nearer,

I know they are very well where they are,

I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,

I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,

I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,

I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)

You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here,

I believe that much unseen is also here.

Here the profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor denial,

The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas’d, the illiterate person, are not denied;

The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar’s tramp, the drunkard’s stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,

The escaped youth, the rich person’s carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,

The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the town, the return back from the town,

They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted,

None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me.

You air that serves me with breath to speak!

You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!

You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers!

You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the roadsides!

I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to me.

You flagg’d walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges!

You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves! you timber-lined sides! you distant ships!

You rows of houses! you window-pierc’d façades! you roofs!

You porches and entrances! you copings and iron guards!

You windows whose transparent shells might expose so much!

You doors and ascending steps! you arches!

You gray stones of interminable pavements! you trodden crossings!

From all that has touch’d you I believe you have imparted to yourselves, and now would impart the same secretly to me,

From the living and the dead you have peopled your impassive surfaces, and the spirits thereof would be evident and amicable with me.

The earth expanding right hand and left hand,

The picture alive, every part in its best light,

The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,

The cheerful voice of the public road, the gay fresh sentiment of the road.

O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me?

Do you say Venture not—if you leave me you are lost?

Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you,

You express me better than I can express myself,

You shall be more to me than my poem.

I think heroic deeds were all conceiv’d in the open air, and all free poems also,

I think I could stop here myself and do miracles,

I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me,

I think whoever I see must be happy.

From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,

Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,

Listening to others, considering well what they say,

Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,

Gently,but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.

I inhale great draughts of space,

The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought,

I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me,

I can repeat over to men and women You have done such good to me I would do the same to you,

I will recruit for myself and you as I go,

I will scatter myself among men and women as I go,

I will toss a new gladness and roughness among them,

Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me,

Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me.

Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear it would not amaze me,

Now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appear’d it would not astonish me.

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,

It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

Here a great personal deed has room,

(Such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men,

Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms law and mocks all authority and all argument against it.)

Here is the test of wisdom,

Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,

Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it,

Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,

Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content,

Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things;

Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul.

Now I re-examine philosophies and religions,

They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet not prove at all under the spacious clouds and along the landscape and flowing currents.

Here is realization,

Here is a man tallied—he realizes here what he has in him,

The past, the future, majesty, love—if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.

Only the kernel of every object nourishes;

Where is he who tears off the husks for you and me?

Where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for you and me?

Here is adhesiveness, it is not previously fashion’d, it is apropos;

Do you know what it is as you pass to be loved by strangers?

Do you know the talk of those turning eye-balls?

Here is the efflux of the soul,

The efflux of the soul comes from within through embower’d gates, ever provoking questions,

These yearnings why are they? these thoughts in the darkness why are they?

Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood?

Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?

Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?

(I think they hang there winter and summer on those trees and always drop fruit as I pass;)

What is it I interchange so suddenly with strangers?

What with some driver as I ride on the seat by his side?

What with some fisherman drawing his seine by the shore as I walk by and pause?

What gives me to be free to a woman’s and man’s good-will? what gives them to be free to mine?

The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is happiness,

I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times,

Now it flows unto us, we are rightly charged.

Here rises the fluid and attaching character,

The fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness of man and woman,

(The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every day out of the roots of themselves, than it sprouts fresh and sweet continually out of itself.)

Toward the fluid and attaching character exudes the sweat of the love of young and old,

From it falls distill’d the charm that mocks beauty and attainments,

Toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact.

Allons! whoever you are come travel with me!

Traveling with me you find what never tires.

The earth never tires,

The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first,

Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop’d,

I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.

Allons! we must not stop here,

However sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient this dwelling we cannot remain here,

However shelter’d this port and however calm these waters we must not anchor here,

However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are permitted to receive it but a little while.

Allons! the inducements shall be greater,

We will sail pathless and wild seas,

We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper speeds by under full sail.

Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the elements,

Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity;

Allons! from all formules!

From your formules, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests.

The stale cadaver blocks up the passage—the burial waits no longer.

Allons! yet take warning!

He traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance,

None may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health,

Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself,

Only those may come who come in sweet and determin’d bodies,

No diseas’d person, no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here.

(I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes,

We convince by our presence.)

Listen! I will be honest with you,

I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,

These are the days that must happen to you:

You shall not heap up what is call’d riches,

You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,

You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d, you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call’d by an irresistible call to depart,

You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you,

What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,

You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands toward you.

Allons! after the great Companions, and to belong to them!

They too are on the road—they are the swift and majestic men—they are the greatest women,

Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas,

Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land,

Habituès of many distant countries, habituès of far-distant dwellings,

Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers,

Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore,

Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of children, bearers of children,

Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lowerers-down of coffins,

Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years, the curious years each emerging from that which preceded it,

Journeyers as with companions, namely their own diverse phases,

Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days,

Journeyers gayly with their own youth, journeyers with their bearded and well-grain’d manhood,

Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsurpass’d, content,

Journeyers with their own sublime old age of manhood or womanhood,

Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe,

Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.

Allons! to that which is endless as it was beginningless,

To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights,

To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights they tend to,

Again to merge them in the start of superior journeys,

To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it,

To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it and pass it,

To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you, however long but it stretches and waits for you,

To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,

To see no possession but you may possess it, enjoying all without labor or purchase, abstracting the feast yet not abstracting one particle of it,

To take the best of the farmer’s farm and the rich man’s elegant villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple, and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens,

To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through,

To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go,

To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them, to gather the love out of their hearts,

To take your lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave them behind you,

To know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls.

All parts away for the progress of souls,

All religion, all solid things, arts, governments—all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the universe.

Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance.

Forever alive, forever forward,

Stately, solemn, sad, withdrawn, baffled, mad, turbulent, feeble, dissatisfied,

Desperate, proud, fond, sick, accepted by men, rejected by men,

They go! they go! I know that they go, but I know not where they go,

But I know that they go toward the best—toward something great.

Whoever you are, come forth! or man or woman come forth!

You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though you built it, or though it has been built for you.

Out of the dark confinement! out from behind the screen!

It is useless to protest, I know all and expose it.

Behold through you as bad as the rest,

Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people,

Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those wash’d and trimm’d faces,

Behold a secret silent loathing and despair.

No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession,

Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes,

Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and bland in the parlors,

In the cars of railroads, in steamboats, in the public assembly,

Home to the houses of men and women, at the table, in the bedroom, everywhere,

Smartly attired, countenance smiling, form upright, death under the breast-bones, hell under the skull-bones,

Under the broadcloth and gloves, under the ribbons and artificial flowers,

Keeping fair with the customs, speaking not a syllable of itself,

Speaking of any thing else but never of itself.

Allons! through struggles and wars!

The goal that was named cannot be countermanded.

Have the past struggles succeeded?

What has succeeded? yourself? your nation? Nature?

Now understand me well—it is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.

My call is the call of battle, I nourish active rebellion,

He going with me must go well arm’d,

He going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty, angry enemies, desertions.

Allons! the road is before us!

It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not detain’d!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!

Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!

Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!

Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!

I give you my love more precious than money,

I give you myself before preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

Featured

Friday Free Write ~ Jazz Improv Flash Notes on Getting to Know Who You Are featuring David Benoit’s “Human Nature”

Romare Bearden Odyssey - a trip of self discovery — Romare Bearden Odyssey – a trip of self discovery

“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.” ― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Our experiences shape and make us into the people we are today. But that does not clarify who we really are or for that matter what we are passionate about or what we want from life or what our purpose is.

We develop beliefs and values albeit good and not so good from our environment. The pressure from society to conform plays the biggest role in how these virtues are developed.

When I was younger, I thought academic achievement and fitting in defined my self-worth.

The sunrise cast a warm glow through my picture window early on that early Monday morning in February, 1965. Dad is sitting at the piano in our living room making last-minute notations on the songs for rehearsal later today. He is my five a.m. wake up call. I would hear dulcet tones sending a breath of notes across my mind to the beat of my existence. It was a series of riffs and changes with a syncopated harmonic intent. It had a rhythm that majestically brought a sense of devotion to each note. The sound of him hitting each piano key gave the house a mystery, transforming life and setting our house apart from the rest of the houses on Wilton Place….

…Growing up, I was the “native” daughter of a 60s Jazz arranger/conductor where the reining tradition was parents (‘rents) had the final word. I slump down in my seat staring out the window trying to recover. I feel betrayed. Deep down inside I always felt like I was a visitor especially when it came to expressing my feelings and even more so in the world. To me being mixed race or checking the “Other” box is a perfect witness to my life. My father was a very complicated man of contradictions. So reading and writing poems became my escape. It liberated me from the labyrinths of insuperable gender and race biases that tend to dissipate little girls like me.

I would hole up in my room for hours overhearing myself admit difficult truths that I could not hide from. It welcomed creative inspirations into my sensory consciousness. It gave me the chance to explore and discover the province of sound and words. I found my rhythm. Mom taught me how to read when I was 3. I was eleven years old when I had fallen in love with sound, art and most of all words. Dad throughout all the civil rights Tsunami did not faze him because he was driven to do the best on all levels for the upcoming Festival. I followed suit in my own little way. I survived by living in disguise. Since I was very young, the sanctity of my bedroom provided a canvas where I hoped, dreamed, set my own values and aspirations. When I left my room I had to leave them behind like my books and other treasures tucked away on a shelf nestled in the opposite corner of the room. I knew that Dad loved me, not without surrendering and bartering my own thoughts and feelings when he told me what I was supposed to want. Dad repeatedly drummed into me that …being a doctor is where it’s at. My foray into the jazz world began when I could feel my father’s intensity and determination given to each note; I mirrored that sensation into words at my desk. I discovered and accepted the gifts and talents that Grandpa used to tell me… were gifts God gave me. I let go of my family “persona” free to let my imagination come alive and tap into my personal sense of purpose and who I really am. Early mornings I would lie in bed hearing the music climb the stairs, it had a purpose, it had an intent – it was harmonic, it had a rhythm that grabbed my heart and rendered the beats to prepare me to go to my desk open my curtains and let the burst of the morning gently touch my face. Jazz was transformative. I was paralyzed by the feeling of losing my father’s love if I chose to follow my star. I needed for him to tell me things would be okay. That he would help me, encourage me, teach me the way things are in the world I was living. How did he do it? Every time I tried to step out of the role he created in the song he wrote for me, he would resist. So I would withdraw and try to convince myself that he knows what’s best for me. I was so conflicted when he would teach me how to sight sing from sheet music, take me to his rehearsals and ask what instrument I wanted to learn how to play? There were definitely rules of conduct and engagement with others in the Jazz world. There were two distinct behaviors, one associated with our home and private life and the one associated with our public life. I spent most of the time in my room. There the only rule was to be myself.

So here are suggested secret habits of Jazz Living that I learned that have helped me to find myself:

You do not have to prove or define your worth.

It is not up for debate. You cannot change your circumstance by saying If I do everything my parents or loved one wants then I will be accepted or loved. Not only is that self-deprecating and destructive it places your value outside of who you really are…worthy of love, respect, and compassion.

Take 5 to explore different things to find the things you enjoy.

Begin by having a mindfulness meditation on what things you would do if you were stranded on an island or in the country or even a big city and see what you would like to do and need. Would you need a guitar, books, art supplies, a camera or would you run or dance in place or create a movie? Explore what makes you feel comforted, and what comes naturally to you. You can sign up for classes in dance, guitar lessons, listen to a different music to find out what resonates with you.

Let go of expectations. Be yourself!

Stop worrying about what the outcome will be. Others have always tried to help me to find myself and granted that was wonderful but what I learned from the musicians when I went to their rehearsals was you have to discovers what makes you tick. What gives you joy and what gives you pause. Let your inner soul free to fly or sail to where ever it may lead you.

Take care of yourself.

Follow your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, listen to yourself. Give yourself a break at least, well in my case, a hundred times a day. If something isn’t going the way I want it to, step back and see what it is you really want from the situation.

Fitting in is not the name of the game.

“The real treasure is not reaching your destination; it’s getting the most out of the journey.”

When you are living in the moment and being yourself you will attract authentic and lasting friendships into your life. People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.

Your life is not set in stone. You are the creator of your life and the choices you make. You are Awesome and if someone tells you otherwise, tell them Haters Not Allowed. Peace and Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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Tell It Slant Tuesday ~ Poet’s Beat on a Jazz Lit Canvas “Under the Edge of February” by Jayne Cortez featuring Gil Fuller & Monterey Jazz Festival – “Angel City Blues” – Feat. Dizzy Gillespie

“Overall, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe. That’s what music is to me—it’s just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, that’s been given to us, and here’s an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is. That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life, and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music.” ~ John Coltrane

Part of the writing process for me is finding inspiration fueled by improvisation. It is everywhere. So, jazz portraits on a literary canvas began back in the 60s. Witnessed by the shattering of equality were the demonstrated demands for freedoms of expression of being who you are still remain in our country today. Described as “a fool’s folly”of thinking that colors should be sundered from white. That blood is red and yet not equal. That striving to be the same is better than celebrating our differences. February was the quiet before that August storm when I was inspired by the soft muses that resonated with me and comforted me back in the 60s seeing twenty five miles from our manicured community in the Wilshire district flames and fury that forever metastasized Tinsel Town. Jayne Cortez was born in Arizona, grew up in Los Angeles, California, and lived in New York City. She was the author of ten books of poems and performed her poetry with music on nine recordings. Her poetry continues to be celebrated for its political, surrealistic, dynamic innovations in lyricism, and visceral sound. Her poetry reflects the time but what the most important message from Ms. Jayne Cortez FIND YOUR OWN VOICE! That became my mantra and has given me the strength to face whatever adversity that comes my way. Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Under the Edge of February

by Jayne Cortez

Under the edge of February
in hawk of a throat
hidden by ravines of sweet oil
by temples of switch blades
beautiful in its sound of fertility
beautiful in its turban of funeral crepe
beautiful in its camouflage of grief
in its solitude of bruises
in its arson of alert

Who will enter its beautiful calligraphy of blood
Its beautiful mask of fish net
mask of hubcaps mask of ice picks mask
of watermelon rinds mask of umbilical cords
changing into a mask of rubber bands

Who will enter this beautiful beautiful mask of
punctured bladders moving with a mask of chapsticks
Compound of Hearts Compound of Hearts
Where is the lucky number for this shy love
this top heavy beauty bathed with charcoal water
self conscious against a mosaic of broken bottles
broken locks broken pipes broken
bloods of broken spirits broken through like
broken promises

Landlords Junkies Thieves
enthroning themselves in you
they burn up couches they burn down houses
and infuse themselves against memory
every thought
a pavement of old belts
every performance
a ceremonial pick up

how many more orphans how many neglected shrines
how many more stolen feet stolen guns
stolen watch bands of death
in you how many times

Harlem
hidden by ravines of sweet oil
by temples of switch blades
beautiful in your sound of fertility
beautiful in your turban of funeral crepe
beautiful in your camouflage of grief
in your solitude of bruises in
your arson of alert
beautiful.

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Improvise Ur Life ~ 8 Tips to Listening to Life Like a Pro featuring “Moontide” performed by Dizzy Gillespie ~ A Jazz Mindfulness Improv Meditation

Rhythms-of-the-Universe_Fundamental to our existence, Sound and music, rhythm and movement can heal the body and awaken higher consciousness as we attune to the rhythm of the universe_anandalaurelwooo.torg — Rhythms-of-the-Universe_Fundamental to our existence, Sound and music, rhythm and movement can heal the body and awaken higher consciousness as we attune to the rhythm of the universe_anandalaurelwood.org

…A timbre of caressing eyes that extricate

the horizon from the sun’s intense incantations.

Signaling the beginning

as well as an ending

of the thoughts that flow from the universe to heaven.

Flowing backwards to the unsound

to the world’s greatest measure that can only be sung alone

beat by beat

that creates a rippling in the fabric of creation

and the space that life seeks

becomes a drama of existence and evolution.

It is a note embracing its own space in my life’s memory. By Jannat Marie

A successful alternative to psychotherapy today would be to listen to music. Listening to Jazz or Bach or your favorite music serves as a mindfulness practice. It begins with creating an intention of consciousness the difference is in mindfulness meditation is “Listening” is unique and distinct from a mindfulness “Breathing” practice.

Building Ur Listening Vocabulary

Jazz like all music is a universal language of energy, a “vibe” of emotions and happiness. It speaks to our core desires and feelings. It spans language barriers and political borders. It is a powerful means through which beings, humans and animals, can connect to one another. In a mindfulness practice, you develop an internal and interrelational conversation and thought process focused on listening and seeing with our whole being developing a mutual understanding. Jazz functions as the catalyst and our conversation is the processing and substrate to a deeper understanding. This “vibe” or energy flows through Jazz is to heal and transform our lives on a daily basis

As with any great Art, Jazz touches the qualities of our experience that are beyond words. Wisdom, insight, love, fear and joy can all be a conversation traversing the subtle textures and vibrations of the musical palette. Appreciating jazz and visual arts gives us more than an aesthetic pleasure ~ “Listening” is an act of compassion.

In my memoir “The Sound I Felt” it is the fundamental perspective that has given me a deeper appreciation and understanding of jazz and life as I know it. It is constantly changing and rearranging our visual and acoustic sensibilities giving us a unique insight into our personal experience with life.

Since May 2003 jazz has brought me through the death of my parents and finding a way using mindfulness improvisation to living a full life with Breast Cancer. Here is what listening to jazz and visual arts has transformed and healed my life. I invite you to join me and give a listen to what this song brings to where and who I am today.

https://open.spotify.com/track/0lvpo25xc11HwNoeGb3Ki7https://open.spotify.com/track/0lvpo25xc11HwNoeGb3Ki7

We all suffer. I particularly love jazz contemporary and classic styles. It is a metaphor of life that is looks at life giving a deeper understanding of our own inner-world of thoughts, emotions and feelings. There are inner-terrains and vistas that helps me to find clarity of shape, arrangement, composition, timbre and rhythm bringing to light a catharsis and release through self-expression and improvisation in my daily life. Jazz is healing. It is a communion between jazz arrangements and compositions that are orchestrating the kind of energy that is extant I believe the decision is just below the surface of every thought, in a context of texture, vibe, energy and mindfulness attention that in itself creates a rejuvenating and healing practice. Each song gives a different energy in concert with what is going on outside and inside of our souls. Giving a sense of freedom from the anchors and thorns of life’s pain and suffering and gives a feeling that is suspended in time and space of contentment in that moment.

Brain Research has documented the effects of deep listening to specific kinds of music (jazz) to be fundamentally good for our bodies, minds and bodies and spirits. There is an emerging field of music therapy that captures the psychological and physical effects of listening to music. Here are a few tips to develop a mindfulness meditative relationship with music,

Take 5 – set time aside to select a song and a chair, couch, by the marina…centering yourself.
Creating a comfortable place to fully commit your attention to the music. Designate the space as your own private concert hall. Light Candles and scent the air. It is what you feel would make this unique for you ~ a personal private place for contemplation and relaxation.
Turn your phone, e-mail, etc. off so you are not distracted and make this a time you’ve chosen to meditate.
Eat before so you can avoid getting hungry or thirsty in the middle of the piece. Prepare a small snack and herbal tea to regulate your energy. designate what your Intention. Allow any thoughts and images associated with this contemplation rise and fall through your awareness. No judgment or critical thoughts.
Take a few deep breaths and relax into the sensations of your body. Rest with your breath for a minute or two.
If your attention wanders, gently remind yourself to return to the sounds and sensations of the music.
If the music stirs your emotions or thoughts, you can include those inner experiences as an extension of the music and appreciation of your practice.
When the music ends remember to thank yourself, the musicians, the composer and God and the Universe for giving you this time and opportunity to listen. — Take a few minutes to digest the experience. You can do this by breathing and meditating or just letting go. You can start by writing a poem or in your journal about the experience. Or paint, dance or sitting still to take it all in.

Thanks for taking time to let me share my personal mindfulness meditation of jazz with you. You be the judge…does any part ring true for you? Peace and Love Out! JBC 😎 ♥

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Tell It Slant Tuesday ~ Jazz Note Flash ~ “one note wanders” by Jazzybeatchick featuring Monk’s Epistrophy

This is a pastiche inspired by Improvised Life| antidote the ordinary’s post Thelonious Monk’s Notes On Life and Music

one note wanders…

by Jazzybeatchick

Living moment to moment

Life makes many sounds in notes

Can’t live within, can’t do alone but in Solitude

Hear hate, deceit, greed, guilt that are sharing the same swing.

Sometimes eternal notes of death

Is the only peace ‘cause Monk notes “…Cause when you’re swinging

swing some more…

Notes emanating from mistakes that fill the air with despair ‘cause

God’s promises take on different meanings depending upon timing.

Joys like dreams soiled by the cacophony of fear.

Salacious and sentient improvisation is the only survival mechanism

Found where a heart beats syncopated in an asynchronous fantasy that we hear…

Monk notes “Don’t play everything (or every time): Let some things go by.

Some music is just imagined. What you don’t play can be more important

Than when you do….”

Timing, rhythm, imagination, and courage to express and live in the moment of your truth.

“Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it.

A genius is the one most like himself…” Monk resounds.

Notes echo in your soul to eternity.

Reminding the jazz that made the sound come true, bring me home to a sound

That echo’s harmony and a peace I have always known.

A calling in my heart that forgives

the ravages of life’s cruel moments hoping that in the CODA

My life makes a difference.

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Free Write Friday ~ 5 EZ PZ Lessons Learned 4 Living through Life’s Challenges with Mindfulness Improv ~ A Jazz Meditation. Featuring “Dreams” by DJ Ezasscul

Paul_Schutze_-_More_Beautiful_Human_Life! Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

“Each life is formed by its unique image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny. As the force of fate, this image acts as a personal daimon, an accompanying guide who remembers your calling.” ~ James Hillman

This quote resonates with me on so many levels. The only word that I would use instead of image is sound. The inspiring force in my life constantly challenges, alludes and takes me away from that sound are discordant and devastating counter melodies that have disconnected me are fear, anticipation, control and remaining true to that force. Breast Cancer, Guillain Barré, homelessness, the death of my parents are the major noises that interfere with hearing and feeling that daimon. Jazz was the only sound that brings back that familiarity and sense of joy and inner peace. My thoughts and life changed course and I spend quite a bit of time meditating on Jazz, mindfulness and creating the life that remembers my calling. It is when I had fallen in love with sound, images and words that became a portal to my inner strength and life.

Here are the 5 essential lessons that I feel deepened my practice over the past decade…

Authenticity is important– vital actually – in ‘the art of mindfulness living’. To truly embody mindfulness, we need to embrace absolute authenticity in every aspect of our lives. It is the degree to which we are true to our own nature and spirit, despite external pressures the world seems to place on us.
Protect and nurture mindfulness despite living in a chaotic world. I started meditating at the tender age of eleven. Life has taught me that in order for me to be happy; I had to adapt my thoughts to a more ‘Simplistic’ frame of mind. I was living in excess, i.e., clothes, food, drink, events and other ‘Junk’ to the point that I no longer had space or time to enjoy life. My plan was to simplify life and take time outs for walks, sitting by the water, reading, listening to jazz, dancing and just being –in a sustainable balance.
Develop the ability to listen intentionally to my body-mind-spirit through sound and poetry to live with compassion and patience. I decided to take Mindfulness Meditations by listening to jazz and writing instead of drinking or worrying or fighting and denying my feelings by accepting and breathing into those moments which now makes my suffering less intensive and gives me clarity and reminds me of my calling.
Finding better ways to deal with stress and painful emotions. I have learned, through mindfulness, to acknowledge my ‘negative’ emotions and not react to every little upset by suppressing them or burying them. Making different choices and to just relax and breathe! I discovered that I can find peace even in the midst of inner storms. My perceptions have changed and the fog has lifted. I may not know what or where I am going, but I am confident and comfortable and back to my laid back self. Listening to music, dancing barefoot in my room or in the sand, long walks or just sitting quietly at the Marina are some of the ways to decompress and renew my inner spirit.
Consistency is a vital necessity. I have been very devoted to a formal mindfulness practice usually yoga mixed with doing art and writing at a consistent time of day early morning works best for me. I am no longer just surviving and now am living fully awakened to this phenomenal life and those who have put God’s grace and beauty in every way. Now I am able to be a catalyst and the adventurer of this template we all call Life.

I hope my realizations and lessons are helpful to you. What about you? Share your experience and wisdom below. Peace Out! JBC 😎 & ♥

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Poetic Beat on a Jazz Lit Canvas ~ “Wild Dreams of a New Beginning” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti featuring Herbie Hancock’s “Solitude”

Music is Magical Abstract Healing Art By Omaste Witkowski owFotoGrafik.com

“Funny how a melody sounds like a memory.” By Eric Church

For my new beginning a prevalent theme in actualizing my dream to be an author was accepting a major aspect of the writing life was “solitary confinement”. It has been that way for the past twelve and a half years. Washington state was my “wilderness” of sorts. Left to my own devices initially after my mother’s death then subsequently by the well meaning gestures of those who said they cared but didn’t. There is no blame nor was it anybody’s fault. It is the process of living on the brink of destitution month after month and the burgeoning rising cost of living that depleted my creativity and freedom of expression. I was surviving not living. I was drained because struggling to pay bills made my dream to write suffer. The starving artist thing is not appealing to me. However, moving to the San Francisco bay area from Seattle made the necessary difference. With the exception of the “roommate fraud” thing and being homeless for a little while, it forced me to rely on my nascent auditory memories to get me through those hard times. I am grateful for this Solitude because it opened my heart and my eyes to why I am here….and who I truly am.

I paired Herbie Hancock’s Solitude with Ferlinghetti’s Wild Dreams of a New Beginning because it is exactly the emotions and thoughts are the appreciation of the of the good times I felt and heard. Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ♥

“Wild Dreams Of A New Beginning”

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

There’s a breathless hush on the freeway tonight
Beyond the ledges of concrete
restaurants fall into dreams
with candlelight couples
Lost Alexandria still burns
in a billion lightbulbs
Lives cross lives
idling at stoplights
Beyond the cloverleaf turnoffs
‘Souls eat souls in the general emptiness’
A piano concerto comes out a kitchen window
A yogi speaks at Ojai
‘It’s all taking pace in one mind’
On the lawn among the trees
lovers are listening
for the master to tell them they are one
with the universe
Eyes smell flowers and become them
There’s a deathless hush
on the freeway tonight
as a Pacific tidal wave a mile high
sweeps in
Los Angeles breathes its last gas
and sinks into the sea like the Titanic all lights lit
Nine minutes later Willa Cather‘s Nebraska
sinks with it
The sea comes over in Utah
Mormon tabernacles washed away like barnacles
Coyotes are confounded & swim nowhere
An orchestra onstage in Omaha
keeps on playing Handel’s Water Music
Horns fill with water
ans bass players float away on their instruments
clutching them like lovers horizontal
Chicago’s Loop becomes a rollercoaster
Skyscrapers filled like water glasses
Great Lakes mixed with Buddhist brine
Great Books watered down in Evanston
Milwaukee beer topped with sea foam
Beau Fleuve of Buffalo suddenly become salt
Manhatten Island swept clean in sixteen seconds
buried masts of Amsterdam arise
as the great wave sweeps on Eastward
to wash away over-age Camembert Europe
manhatta steaming in sea-vines
the washed land awakes again to wilderness
the only sound a vast thrumming of crickets
a cry of seabirds high over
in empty eternity
as the Hudson retakes its thickets
and Indians reclaim their canoes

Featured

Free Write Friday ~ Listening for the Riffs 2 Heal My Soul featuring “Autorretrato” by Vincent Amigo

52nd Street_New York 1948 Courtesy of wikipediadotorg

“Spirit is always with me. It wants to lift my pain. It does this not by abolishing painful memories but by putting me totally in the present where the past does not exist.” Deepak Chopra

Originally, a riff referred to any imaginative improvised melody. In Jazz, riffs are musical responses and conversations musicians have among themselves that are telling stories of the challenges that life brings. History has demonstrated that jazz has been “racialized”, “genderized” and “Americanized” with respect to identity since it dropped into American culture over 75 years ago. Folks may not like it but they sure know what jazz is. Jazz in literature has helped construct histories, create discourses and builds communities. I learned that in “jazz language” riffs are artistic expressions that involve identity and are multidimensional critiques on our social and cultural condition. It is the harmonic and melodic expression against the back-beat of the rhythmic flow of the counter-melody of our lives.

Since moving to the Bay Area from Seattle, the past six months have presented so many counter melodies and riffs brimming with painful emotions as well as physical manifestations. These riffs continued until I created a break in my response to that pain and circumstance. It has become very enlightening. Not feeling physically good varies from day to day. Establishing and creating a groove and feeling of well-being is helping me to find a flow that works for me. Improvisation in jazz is developing a language of the cultural riffs and identities through sentient experiences. In my case the riffs of pain are a part of living and thriving with breast cancer. I am learning to accept it.

Now I respond very quickly. Now ask myself, am I maintaining my integrity? Do I do what I say I am going to do and respect and recognize other’s boundaries? Do I ask for forgiveness? That has been something that has been on my mind and proven to be very liberating. . I find comfort being alone with my heart. The solitude awakens me to finding nuances in the melody and the finer points my existence.. I have been running from painful riffs most of my life. Now I respond differently with God’s grace to open my heart and mind to the beauty that surrounds me. Beneath the lush green grass beats a heart that is uniquely mine.

Changing the riff to a melody that is set to a different rhythm allows me to get into a groove that is healing and transforms my soul. Not letting the well-meaning gardeners disrupt my balance and groove. My center is dynamic and dependent upon the connection to that sacred space. It is within as well as surrounds me in a golden light that is only shadowed by painful memories. But those memories are just signs and guideposts of where I need to look in order to find my true center. I am listening to my heart….I am remembering 1965. It was a year full of racial tension − riots, misfortune and misery that was ringing out everywhere. I have no agenda now. My soul speaks and inspires me to share my experiences and dreams. I realize I have spent most of my life-giving everything away. Now I just wanna’ keep the rest for myself. Life is tragic when you have not lived your dreams.

Enough of mindlessly taking the path of least resistance and drowning out all connections I have to my truth. The glorious part of 1965 when I was eleven years old was that became the year that Jazz provided the ambient substrate of my soul’s expression. It was safe, It was impenetrable and had washed away the misery that was blazing through the souls and streets of civility, compassion and love. So just for today, I am looking forward — all I see and feel is a joy and sense of wellbeing when I am writing with jazz as my muse filling my heart and soul with a love supreme. .How about you? What would be your muse? What are the riffs that have changed you? I leave you with my favorite sound

Championed by the late maestro Paco de Lucía as the next great flamenco star, Spanish guitarist Vicente Amigo has more than lived up to his promise. The guitarist’s live performances feature pyrotechnic virtuosity, charisma and copious quantities of that intangible quality of Iberian music called duende, which Amigo explains simply: “If you hurt when you hear it, then it’s duende.” This promises to be an unforgettable evening of flamenco fire. SFJazz

Peace and Love Out! 😎 & ♥

Featured

Tell It Slant Tuesday ~ Improvised Sounds of the Millennia ~ “Sometime During Eternity” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti featuring Dizzy Gillespie’s “Things Are Here”

“…keep retreating into our head, learning to stay in our heart is not a distraction but how we prepare the ground for living a full life. Afraid as we are that we will lose our self for getting involved, loosening the tightness of our identity is how we let our soul experience the Living Unity of Things.” ~ Mark Nepo “The Endless Practice”

The Turn of the 20^th Century dropped some serious human flirtations on civilization. The Industrial Revolution in its infancy transformed life through discovery, exploration and capitalization of the atom and its cousins the electron and microbes by furiously furling new beats on mechanization. We learned a new way to communicate, manufacture, consume, transform and how to travel faster and furiously. History continuously repeats and reinvents itself through its youth movements and cultural revolutions. The 60s brought about riff changes that produced a world of rapid-fire call and response activism and the birth of self-exploration and self expression that changed the way we live and look at life through salacious and emotional cultural expression. The 60s were filled with hope and leaned into to life in an inspired and rugged individualistic way. I am going to focus on the arts, jazz and the literary aspect of the retrospective sounds. Being true to the sounds familiar to me, let’s begin with the 50’s impact and the Cultural Revolution that tailgated our lives with words and sounds from Ferlinghetti and Monterey Jazz Festival 65 the Mecca of Jazz, Rock and Folk sounds. Peace and Love Out! JBC 😎 & >3

Sometime During Eternity

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Sometime during eternity

some guys show up
and one of them
who shows up real late
is a kind of carpenter
from some square-type place
like Galilee
and he starts wailing
and claiming he is hep
to who made heaven
and earth
and that the cat
who really laid it on us
is his Dad

And moreover
he adds
It’s all writ down
on some scroll-type parchments
which some henchmen
leave lying around the Dead Sea somewheres
a long time ago
and which you won’t even find
for a coupla thousand years or so
or at least for
ninteen hundred and fortyseven
of them
to be exact
and even then
nobody really believes them
or me
for that matter

You’re hot
they tell him

And they cool him

They stretch him on the Tree to cool
And everybody after that
is always making models
of this Tree
with Him hung up
and always crooning His name
and calling Him to come down
and sit in
on their combo
as if he is THE king cat
who’s got to blow
or they can’t quite make it

Only he don’t come down
from His Tree

Him just hang there
on His Tree
looking real Petered out
and real cool
and also
according to a roundup
of late world news
from the usual unreliable sources
real dead

Featured

Improvised Life ~ Riffs on the Sounds of Letting Go ~ Featured Video Snap Alan Watts – Guided Meditation (Awakening The Mind)

World Peace Heart Courtesy of the powerofoneness[dot]com

“As once the winged energy of delight
Carried you over childhood’s dark abysses
Now beyond your own life build the great
Arch of unimagined bridges

Wonders happen if we can succeed
In passing through the harshest danger;
But only in a bright and purely granted
Achievement can we realize the wonder….

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out
Until they span the chasm between two
Contradictions…………….For the God
Wants to know himself in you.” by Rilke

This poem brings us into the present moment where inner peace resides. Inner peace is simply acknowledging and accepting who you truly are. This is the only way to find our true self by becoming completely relaxed, focused and centered. Mindfulness Meditation and improvising by focusing on your breathing and observing your feelings and emotions as they float by. No judgments or expectations are allowed. However, when distractions will present themselves just acknowledge them and deeply breathe them out. Breathe in joy and peacefulness. Rilke’s poem creates and evokes images let them in and see where it will take you. The beauty is that you can do this anywhere. Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & >3

Improvising Life ~ 9 Inspiring Steps to a Creative Life ~ Featuring Creative Coffee – Best Time of My Life ~ featuring a Video Snap of Nonconformity and the Creative Life

Have A Colourful Life Courtesy of abstract[dot]desktopnexus[dot]com

“The key question isn’t “What fosters creativity?” But it is why in God’s name isn’t everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything.” — Abraham Maslow

Here are 9 inspired suggestions to help you start living a creative way of life:

1. Be open to try something new.

Step out of your daily routine and did something totally different? Take a dance class, go to a concert or try a new jazz club near you to experience something that is a departure from your normal routine. Try a new radio station or grab a pencil and start sketching the trees in your own backyard or a park where you see children (they could be yours) take a vegan or gourmet cooking class @ a Natural Food Store to engage in a creative action. Creative thinking and creative action occurs when you decide that you want to jazz up your everyday life.

2. Create something with your own hands on a regular basis.

Set the table following a layout from your favorite magazine, i.e., I like Coastal Living they have wonderful recipes and table settings that are really festive and different. Make time to try something new. For example go to the art section of your favorite department store and come up with a theme for the centerpiece with flowers, object, etc. Check out DYI sites on your computer. It is a lot of fun when you do it as a family and or friend thing. Check out Betty Edward’s Drawing From the Life Within.

3. Express yourself through movement ~ dancing to music or watching a classic film, play video game or even try performing arts of a play or opera you love. For the inner writer start a creative writing or book club.

You have the option of creating whatever fun filled evening of movement by learning a new dance step or exercise or yoga routine to break away from your usual nightly fare. It does not have to cost a lot of money, just use your imagination.

4. Integrate Creativity into your daily life.

Begin by scheduling time on your calendar for it. You don’t have to go crazy. Start off with maybe twice a month. Make it an intention as you would when you are meditating for a positive and productive day. Chances are you will not consider it foreign or uncomfortable because you are pacing yourself to experience life differently. Pick your own pace and find Parks and recreation programs that go to Wine Country or Hiking or Ballroom Dancing where there is not a long term commitment and you can sign up without going into debt. My cable company has dance, yoga, exercise as part of the cable package for free!

5. Design or make something for your office or your room that is made by you.

Your surroundings are a reflection of your uniqueness. Inspiration is the catalyst for more creativity, grace and character. So it is wonderful to surround yourself with objects that you make or you find in unusual places. Hand-made objects evoke vivid memories as well as diversify your experiences.

6. Find interesting and exotic creative spaces.

Museums, art shows or galleries, outdoor exhibits, theatres and outdoor performances will places remind and cultivate our innate creative abilities.

7. Take time-outs or break for new inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere! Check with friends, family, coworkers, etc. suggestions of creative ideas they enjoy. Get the conversation on creativity going over coffee or a glass of wine.

8. Let your creative juices flow and explore everything!

Keep in touch with your creative network. Dialog and you will both be inspired.

9. Be a creative outlet.

Talk about unique and unusual experiences to friends, email, start a blog or a Creative Living Circle. Just be relaxed and free to do whatever suits your fancy.

At the end of the day, be yourself. The possibilities are endless. Just include love, compassion, grace, forgiveness and most of all YOU! There is no right answer. Not happy with a choice, just make another one. And now for a short snap on nonconformity….You are here! Peace and Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Nonconformity and the Creative Life

Featured

50 Shades of Monterey Jazz ~ Living Life on a Liminal Edge “Man From Monterey” ~ Gil Fuller and the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra circa 1965 feat. Dizzy Gillespie

“Spirit is always with me. It wants to lift my pain. It does this not by abolishing painful memories but by putting me totally in the present where the past does not exist.” Deepak Chopra

A riff referred to any imaginative improvised melody. In Jazz, a riff is a repeated phrase or melody. In the past six months there have been many riffs that are filled with painful emotions as well as physical manifestations. These riffs would continue until I created a break in my response to that pain. It has become very enlightening. Not feeling physically good varies from day to day sending riffs of pain that have become a part of living with breast cancer. I am learning to accept it as a part of life. Now I respond very quickly. . Now ask myself, am I maintaining my integrity? Do I do what I say I am going to do and respect and recognize other’s boundaries? Do I ask for forgiveness? That has been something that has been on my mind and proven to be very liberating. . I find comfort being alone with my heart. The solitude awakens me to finding nuances in the melody and the finer points my existence..

I have been running from painful riffs most of my life. Now I respond differently with God’s grace to open my heart and mind to the beauty that surrounds me. Beneath the lush green grass beats a heart that is uniquely mine. Changing the riff to a melody that is set to a different rhythm allows me to get into a groove that is healing and transforms my soul. Not letting the well-meaning gardeners disrupt my balance and groove. My center is dynamic and dependent upon the connection to that sacred space. It is within as well as surrounds me in a golden light that is only shadowed by painful memories. But those memories are just signs and guideposts of where I need to look in order to find my true center. I am listening to the Man from Monterey I am looking toward Monterey….I am remembering 1965. It was a year full of racial tension, misfortune and misery ringing out. I have no agenda. My soul speaks and inspires me to share my experiences and dreams. I realize I have spent most of my life-giving everything away. I just wanna keep the rest for myself. Life is tragic when you have not lived your dreams.. I have mindlessly taken the path of least resistance which drowned out all connections I have to my truth. The glorious part of 1965 when I was 11 was that was the year that Jazz provided the ambience for my soul. It was safe, it was impenetrable and had washed away the misery that was blazing through the souls and streets of civility, compassion and love. I am still in search of my home. Where my heart can sing praises to living the life I waited my whole life for. Some folks say that you cannot live anywhere in Northern California, but, it is more than a trend or whim, it is something that has been calling me. I have given in so often, but, I will know if that is true when I feel I have exhausted every possible source, door, window and opening that is presented to me. Tomorrow is one big fulfillment of my dream. And now I am more accepting which makes the harshness of reality a discomfort rather than a barrier. What more can anyone ask? I am jazzed and ready to hear sounds that resonate with my soul. This is going to be a then and now for me. I hope you swing by and check out upcoming posts. So just for today, I am looking forward — all I see and feel is a joy and sense of wellbeing when I am writing with jazz as my muse filling my heart and soul with a love supreme. See you there! How about you? What would be your muse? What are the riffs you have changed? Peace Out!

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50 Shades of Monterey ~ Poet’s Beat ~ Grace Notes Celebrating My Father, His Music and The Place That Forever Changed My Life… featuring The Shadow of Your Smile (Love Theme from the “Sandpiper”) Gil Fuller & The Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra feat. Dizzy Gillespie

abstractexpressionism1 Courtesy of Creative Commons

I wrote this poem to honor and tribute the first man I ever loved. He was complicated, dedicated and brimmed with tough love. I now understand that it was a blessing in disguise. I have always been a poet and artist at heart. I thought he didn’t want me to go into a creative life. Now when looking back I realize that if writing and being an artist meant that I was willing to devote my life to it completely and especially when it came to facing the hour of the wolf I would not to succumb to giving up but to surrender and face the harsh reality that it is my soul’s purpose and must push on past it no matter what….What about you? Is there someone special in your life that made such an impact? I have included my favorite song besides the one he wrote for me is The Shadow of Your Smile performed by Dizzy Gillespie and the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1965 in my memoir. Although Dizzy and Lorraine didn’t have any children, he considered all young people as his Love Children…Best wishes, have a great day! Peace and Love JBC 😎 >3

Dear Dad,

Thank you for the lessons on life in 1965 where you created a phenomenal year of Jazz from the Monterey Jazz Festival to the Grand Opening of the Music Center in L.A. Thank you for the song you wrote for me…when I was three years old.

I learned that timing is critical in jazz as in life,

Knowing when to stop, start, step it up, slow it down

and more so important is learning how to wait thru the strife.

Jazz harmony a theory and practice of changing dominant and tonic chords,

where major and minor share the same syncopated space in a timeless bond…

Progressions depart in thirds and stacked fourths

favoring harmonic progressions where tensions are in intervals of 9ths, 11ths, or 13ths abound.

II.

I learned that the search for meaning, intentions and having the blues

is about finding your truth and appreciating a life of humility

‘cause the universe is misting the air with valuable truths

Living in the essence of a universal tranquility.

where cadance and notes are window dressing, a façade creates

by listening to the spoken word filled with harmonic intent

of the path and choices you debate.

Play it slant is the message best heard in the evening.

III.

I learned that being different is the integral part of the master plan

pressing forward seeing how far you can reach

harmonies in real-time, flowing and ebbing broadening the span

of improvisational context is what matters in all you teach.

IV.

I learned that playing jazz has four elements

broadening your words and expressing every letter

in a charismatic way to enhance

finding your intentions and mixing all them together.

where freedom and coordination learn how to really dance.

Jazz has the power to go deep within,

having a relationship with you as next of kin

Surpassing arrogance into a love of the sound of spoken words

sharing that experience with others is where you begin.

VI,

I learned that I was saved by jazz

healing my soul and my body from within

thru life’s trials and tribulations to

finding peace on earth that is filled with

the promise of words and life dancing with joyous jubilation!

A Love so Supreme

Your Daughter

Featured

Fifty Shades of Monterey Jazz 2015 ~ Riff Shots, Licks, Tropes & Memory Bytes~” Blues Alley DC, Dizzy, Me, My Ex in D.C”. Video Snap of Dizzy Gillespie – “And Then She Stopped” and a Jazz Byte of Creole Shrimp Gumbo Mack Recipe

Dizzy Gillespie ~ This is how I remember him! Courtesy of http://dialogosdosubsolo.blogspot.com/

“I don’t care much about music. What I like is sounds” ~ Dizzy Gillespie

It’s mid-December 1985 when I spotted an announcement in the Washington Post that Dizzy Gillespie and his band was performing at Blues Alley in Georgetown, D.C. Cell phones to call Dizzy were rare back then so I relied on plan B going in person. So me, my ex and his father drove, found a great place to park, which is rare in Georgetown especially on a Saturday night back then. To make a long story painfully short, we arrived sixty minutes early, it was a rainy and chilly evening with little cover over the cobblestone alley. I knocked on the club door and asked the Maître D’ to give the note I hurriedly scrawled on the way to Dizzy. After a long glaring pause, the Maître D’ looked once more at the note and then back at me and in the next instant disappeared into the dark ambiance of club. Typically when Dizzy came to L.A. for a visit or was performing, he would always come and stay with us. He was the complete opposite of my father. Sometimes I felt my father wanted to lock him up in the attic hidden from polite society. But that was a losing battle because Dizzy was just like my grandfather and dad knew that he couldn’t compete with that kind of love. I stood behind the door underneath a small awning listening to my ex and his dad saying he ain’t coming…the door gradually opened. Where the hell are you? I stepped out into the light and Dizzy was standing in the doorway with a big ol’ bowl of Shrimp Gumbo in bare feet, You escaped! Girl, if you don’t get your tail in here right now, I am not sure who scares me more, your dad or my wife. He motioned me into the foyer turning he instructed the Maître D’ to seat my ex and his father to reserved seats in front of the band stand. It was a night to remember and if you haven’t caught on by now, I love Shrimp! here is a family fav, this is an authentic slammin’ New Orleanian recipe here are the ingredients with instructions: Welcome to my mixed ethnic world and Bon appétit!

Jazz Byte: Authentic N’awlins Bonnaroo recipe for a Slammin’ Bowl of Creole Shrimp Gumbo

The Original recipe makes 20 servings (P.S. you can plug into an app to adjust to the serving size you want)

Smokey Hot Sauce Creole with Gumbo Courtesy of creolecontessa_blogspot_com

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup bacon drippings

1 cup coarsely chopped celery

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 large green bell pepper, coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound andouille sausage, sliced

3 quarts water

6 cubes beef bouillon

1 tablespoon white sugar

salt to taste

2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco®), or to taste

1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend (such as Tony Chachere’s®), or to taste

4 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes

1 (6 ounce) can tomato sauce

2 teaspoons gumbo file powder

2 tablespoons bacon drippings

2 (10 ounce) packages frozen cut okra, thawed

2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

1 pound lump crabmeat

3 pounds uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons gumbo file powder

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Putting it all together:

Make a roux by whisking the flour and 3/4 cup bacon drippings together in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat to form a smooth mixture. Cook the roux, whisking constantly, until it turns a rich mahogany brown color. This can take 20 to 30 minutes; watch heat carefully and whisk constantly or roux will burn. Remove from heat; continue whisking until mixture stops cooking.

Place the celery, onion, green bell pepper, and garlic into the work bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the vegetables are very finely chopped. Stir the vegetables into the roux, and mix in the sausage.

Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Bring the water and beef bouillon cubes to a boil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot. Stir until the bouillon cubes dissolve, and whisk the roux mixture into the boiling water. Reduce heat to a simmer, and mix in the sugar, salt, hot pepper sauce, Cajun seasoning, bay leaves, thyme, stewed tomatoes, and tomato sauce.

Simmer the soup over low heat for 1 hour; mix in 2 teaspoons of file gumbo powder at the 45-minute mark.

Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings in a skillet, and cook the okra with vinegar over medium heat for 15 minutes; remove okra with slotted spoon, and stir into the simmering gumbo. Mix in crabmeat, shrimp, and Worcestershire sauce, and simmer until flavors have blended, 45 more minutes. Just before serving, stir in 2 more teaspoons of file gumbo powder.

And now for the Pièce de résistance I give you a snap shot of Dizzy the man that my father wrote inspired amazing arrangements for. This one is captures what he was really like on and off stage. There was no one in the world like him and he treated everyone the same way, DIZZY!

Bon Appétite! I hope that you enjoyed this post as much as I did remembering it. It is only fifty three days until the Monterey Jazz Festival 2015. So gear up and get your comfy clothes on and sandals because we are about to stroll down vistas that are blasts from the past and steppin’ into the future in September. Hope to see you there….Peace and Love Out! JBC 😎 & >3.

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The Sound I Felt ~ 50 Shades of Monterey Jazz ~ Gear up coz Itz time 2 Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Gil Fuller and the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra circa 1965 ~ Dizzy Gillespie performing “Man From Monterey”

The 58th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival will take place at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, located at 2000 Fairground Road in Monterey, California, from September 18-20, 2015. Over 500 artists will be performing nonstop on 8 stages for 3 nights and 2 days of the world’s best jazz. Voted “World’s Best Jazz Festival” by the readers of JazzTimes Magazine in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2013, the Monterey Jazz Festival offers 20 acres of magnificent oak-studded grounds for fans to enjoy, featuring films, conversations with the Festival’s stars, exhibitions, food and beverages, an international shopping bazaar, and 8 stages of live jazz entertainment spread throughout the grounds.

I am in Baby Boomer Paradise. Did you know that there are only 65 days till the 58^th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival is set to drop cool and outrageous sounds onto the Monterey Penninsula and it has been fifty years since I witnessed the most prolific and spectacular performances by such greats as Gerald Wilson, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie. Pianist Dave Brubeck will also be returning this year. He has played Monterey more than a dozen times, including the first festival in 1958. MJF always conjures up and brings back such memories of going to all of the rehearsals in Los Angeles and in my eleven year old mind.

This is an excerpt from my memoir about the Men From Monterey…

MJFO rehearsal 1965 with Gil Fuller and Dizzy Gillespie preparing for the Album and the Live Performance

“I’m saying: to be continued, until we meet again. Meanwhile, keep on listening and tapping your feet.” ~ Count Basie
The sunrise cast a warm glow through my picture window early Monday morning. Dad is sitting at the piano in our living room making last-minute notations for the songs for rehearsal later today. He is my five a.m. wake up call. I would hear dulcet tones sending a breath of notes across my mind to the beat of my existence. It was a series of riffs and changes with a syncopated harmonic intent. It had a rhythm that majestically brought a sense of devotion to each note. The sound of him hitting each piano key gave the house a mystery, transforming life and setting our house apart from the rest of the houses on Wilton Place.

As we are driving to the rehearsal studio my dad turned to me I gave up traveling with the band so that I could devote myself to my family. I am really excited about getting back into the groove again. You know Dizzy chose me to serve as music director and conductor for the Orchestra this year. In the ‘40’s I wrote Dizzy’s arrangements . That’s where we met. Back in the day we played Bebop with folks like Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. We were best known for songs like “Manteca”, “Things are Here”, “One Bass Hit” and “Tin Tin Deo”.

I know that I have offered you guitar lessons, but, being a musician, writer or singer leads to a hard life for you. I know that you can do anything you want but just not anything creative because traditionally women are not appreciated or respected. I am telling you this because I am your father. I really want the best life for you.

I went numb. I look at him hoping that he was joking but he quickly turned away, he is guilty of committing that very tradition in his orchestra.

We rode for the last 20 minutes in silence. It is deafening. I am the “native” daughter of the Jazz world in the ‘60’s where the reining tradition was parents (‘rents) had the final word. I slump down in my seat staring out the window trying to recover. I feel betrayed. Deep down inside I always felt like I was a visitor especially when it came to expressing my feelings and even more so in the world. To me being mixed race or checking the “Other” box is a perfect witness to my life. My father is a very complicated man of contradictions. So reading and writing poems became my escape. It liberated me from the labyrinths of insuperable gender and race biases that tend to dissipate little girls like me.

The rest of the drive to the rehearsal studio felt lonely. Everything around me seemed to have vanished along with my excitement. I shifted trying to compose myself. I wanted to shake myself free from the volcano that just erupted in my soul. Suddenly breaking my solitude my father proclaimed We Are Here! My excitement returned.

The rehearsal was now under way. It was an invitation to my imagination renewing my love for writing – cultivating a deep joy in my heart. The studio fell silent. My father began to motion the count as he tapped his foot. Calm waves from the alto sax and trombones began to move into the downbeat, the cymbal gently touches the shores of 4/4 time….Dizzy’s cheeks puffed out, his crazy angled trumpet bell releases the sounds of surprise announcing …the Man from Monterey has arrived.

Ralph Gleason from the Chronicle summed up the day’s session perfectly on the album’s liner notes… Gleason wrote The 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival music clearly is designed to last. This amalgam of the talents of Gillespie and Fuller are insurance that it will. The orchestra played the music at this session for all time, which is the way good jazz is always played.

I had fallen in love with jazz sound and words, even though I thought I had to keep it a secret. I credit discovering my inner voice when I am immersed in the mindfulness of the sound and creation of jazz music that was rehearsed at that session. Now when I am facing cancer trials and tribulations and experiencing secondary breast cancer symptoms, I write. When I am grateful for the wonders of life and God’s and the Universe’s grace and blessings, I write. When I am weary and discouraged, I write. The 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival was not only a major league Game Changer. It was the wake up call that Breast Cancer manifested to heal my soul and my life. Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & >3.

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The Sound I Felt ~ Coming Home or 50 Shades of Monterey ~ Finding my way Back to Monterey ~ featuring Gil Fuller and the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra with Dizzy Gillespie

Photo courtesy of Monterey Jazz Festival

“Do not be afraid of being wrong; just be afraid of being uninteresting.” – T. Carl Whitmer

Day 55: Well one perk to finding the place I shall call home is that I get to live my life in full on improvisational mode. The one thing that I have discovered is that relationships have a certain fluidity and flow that has thrown my balance off. Stress like change is a naturally occurring phenomenon. One thing that I know for sure is that I am not afraid of my cancer coming back. I now know that my cancer has morphed into what is now considered “Secondary Breast Cancer”. According to Cancer Research UK the definition of Secondary Breast Cancer is A cancer is made up of millions of cancer cells. These form a tumour. The original cancer in the breast is known as a primary breast cancer. Some cells may break away and spread to another part of the body. The symptoms include low energy, poor appetite and extreme fatigue. In my particular case it is complicated by Guillain Barré Syndrome which has the same symptoms. However, I developed an enlarged lymph node in 2013 which developed after I was diagnosed with lymphedema in the chest wall in 2007. In 2014 I was experiencing extreme itching 24/7 and the doctors could not give a diagnosis. I am by no means a hypochondriac in terms of fabricating symptoms in fear of the cancer returning as it did in my mother and it was metastatic and terminal. I love living in San Francisco and I had no misconceptions that things would be the same as they were twenty nine years ago. But, I think that I have a soft spot for living in the Monterey area or even Santa Cruz. Big city and big lights does not do it for me any more and the congestion of people, traffic and city life really messes with my flow.

So Monterey is plan B. The 4^th of July is coming and I wrote this post in 2013 about my relationship with my father. I know that he loved me but growing up and being the apple of his eye as he would call it created a tremendous amount of trauma when he flipped the script and getting GBS and being in the hospital through Thanksgiving and Christmas of 1990 was a wake up call that gave me a better understanding of him and myself. It hurt like hell, but, in retrospect I realize that was the only way he could deal with it. I picked “Things Are Here” featuring Dizzy Gillespie because in 1965 this was the song that they were rehearing in downtown L.A. just before the festival and it is a wonderful reminder of my father’s talent and his being a complicated man of contradictions. This is my story and I am sticking to it… Peace Out!

This is an excerpt from my memoir ~ Coming Home….

My relationship with my dad had dramatically changed. The first time was when I was accepted into medical school in 1972. Subsequently requested a leave of absence — the school granted an indefinite leave. The second was not to be a doctor. It was dad’s dream, not mine. I did nothing for at least a month. I was, as my dad described it “wretched”. I had no feelings whatsoever. I still felt like I was that 11-year-old mixed girl on the way to the rehearsal studio riding in the car with my dad. Now, 8 years later it felt like I lived four lifetimes. Initially dad did not want me to go to medical school when I was accepted at 18 years old, he felt I was too young. However, I had other plans . Just wanted to get it over once and for all. Although I had an aptitude for science because I was in an Extra Honors Science program in high school and graduated high school In the 11^th grade. I knew then that my real love and passion was writing. I secretly wrote in my journal and wrote poems though out school. Now my father didn’t know how to deal with me, I was despondent. He wanted me to respond to him, life, anything. When he was approached by Gil Noble of ABC-TV he asked my dad to be a technical consultant for the documentary. Dad thought that giving me the assignment of researching and writing would bring me back to life. It did. I got a chance to go to the library at Rutgers and to go into the City by myself I came back to life. It was a new lease on my creative life. I took up residence. For a month I got up got my notebooks together and set out with the sun in my face and coming home the sun was at my back. I turned over the segments to my dad and he was very happy and the show won an Emmy. I finished my B.A. degree and got a M.S. from Fairleigh Dickinson Univesity. He was elated until I announced that I was moving to D.C. because I was accepted into Georgetown University’.

♪ ♪ ♪

So when I moved to D.C. in 1979 that was the another major change in our relationship. I had come home for the Christmas holidays with a dental student I met at Georgetown. I worked in the Anatomy department. Dad was not happy with any of this, but, now I was on my own and he had to deal with it. So coming home with walking pneumonia became virtually the last straw. I did come home from time to time when I got married to someone I knew he would hate. I wanted to get back at him. Unfortunately it backfired. I was unhappy in so many ways. I was molested by my father in law. I couldn’t tell my dad otherwise he would have killed him. I didn’t want that on my conscience. So, I decided to move to San Francisco. My grandmother (on my mom’s side) called my dad to find out my phone number in D.C. My father called several weeks later. Now my grandmother was in NY Hospital in a coma. There had been an electrical fire that had started in her basement. A young man was walking by the house and saw the flames he threw something through the window and found my grandmother lying on the floor because she couldn’t get out. My uncle would not let my mother in to see my grandmother. Mom called me from the hospital sobbing. I asked her to put the Attending on the phone and then explained to him that my uncle was not in his right mind. I am her granddaughter and my mom is her daughter, and pled my case. He hung the phone up and walked my mother to my grandmother’s room. My mom held my grandmother’s hand, brushed her hair and talked to her. A week later my grandmother had succumbed and passed away. It was early in the morning and the sun peeked through the blinds. I got up, and packed my clothes to return to New York for my grandmother’s funeral. It also signaled the end of my marriage. I came back to the crowded streets with concrete gardens and the hustle and bustle of New York City. I was a grown up child sitting next to my dad in the ride back from the JFK airport. I wasn’t angry that he didn’t tell me sooner about my grandmother’s call or the fact that he refused to talk to me or let me talk to mom when I called during the six years I lived in D.C. I stayed for 10 days, and then made my move to San Francisco. The last part will be in the next post. Hey, I am covering ten years and trying not to leave crucial parts of the story out. Till then, Peace & Love Out! JBC >3 & 😎

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The Sound I Felt ~ Coming Home or A Chick of a certain age finally makes a move to live the life she was meant to live and learns a Truth of a lifetime. Featuring “Blues for a Debutante” ~ Gil Fuller and the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra feat. James Moody

Day 53: It has been quite an experience moving back to San Francisco from Seattle and a great departure from what I had hoped and planned in April of this year in my over priced apartment in Seattle. It has been twenty nine years since being in San Francisco and the twelve years I spent in Seattle felt as though I was living in the wilderness and I was lost because I lost my best friend after a six year struggle with breast cancer. It makes such a big difference when your best friend just happens to be your mother. When I inherited the same BrCa1 gene from her I didn’t feel it was a life sentence but it prepared me for the Secondary Breast Cancer that I have been experiencing and battling for the past fifteen years. I was lost, angry and frustrated by the chill that surrounded my heart because of the benign neglect I received from the folks in Seattle. Because my best laid apartment plan fell through in San Francisco I have experienced yet another layer to finding a home that I can be the person I was meant to be. At times the apathy gets me and other times I feel as though I am back dealing with a mortality issue and how people form opinions based on a fear that it can happen to them. Fear clouds the issue and people try so desperately hard to avoid it. I know I have changed and I know it is for the better…Now this is living an improvised life filled to the gills with Jazz…

This is an excerpt from the original Homecoming Chapter. I will add the contemporary stuff to the second part in the next post… I also selected Blues for a Debutante because in a way there are so many aspects that remind me of high school. Even though the “mean girls” didn’t mess with me because I was on the basketball team and the tennis team, I stood 5’9 and I think they were afraid of me. Enjoy…

The phone rang early that morning with an urgent tone. It pierced the quiet with an anxious and fretful quality. My dreamy thoughts of going and hanging out at Ocean Beach writing poetry were abruptly stopped. It rang again. I stared at the phone hoping it would change its pitch. I moved toward the window, and slowly picked the receiver up. Hi honey! My mom’s voice sounded different. Hi mom, is everything okay? There was a long silence, she replied, whispering, Your dad has been having mini strokes and I am still recovering from my illness… Rubbing my eyes, What, why are you whispering? After several minutes of rustling, a door closed my mom continued your dad has been having a lot of mini strokes and I am still recovering from my illness. I am now fully awake, Illness? Yes, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in the spring of 1984. Now, honey I wanted to tell you but your dad told me not to, because he knew that you would immediately fly back home. I was feeling a cross between fear, guilt and anger. Oh, I suppose he was right. I will be home as soon as I can get the funds and book a flight. My mom’s voice now sounded relieved and started to say…I, but I interrupted her, no mom, don’t do anything but wait until I call to let you know when to come and meet me at the airport. I’ll see you very soon, everything is going to be alright mom, take care. I hung up the phone. I sat staring at the people walking up and down Bush Street in the Knob Hill section of San Francisco. I moved to California in 1986 after my grandmother’s death and the end of my marriage of six years. I picked Northern California because of the wonderful feelings I had from the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival as a child. I called my close friend from medical school and he paid for my passage back east to take care of my rents (slang for parents). It was not from feelings of guilt nor homesickness. It was honoring a promise I made to my mom when I was 5 years old…

♪ ♪ ♪

My dad considered my moving to Washington, D.C in 1979 as “running away” from home. I was twenty-five. He wouldn’t take me to the train station. So my brother and mom took me and didn’t de-train in time so we all rode to Trenton with my mom tightly holding on to me as if she could make me stay. I felt that it was my move to independent living. It was a break from the overwhelmingly suffocating reign of dependency my father had over my life. He had the best intentions of course, but, I feel that he never took the time or any consideration of what I really wanted from my life. His not talking to me from August to December was hard, especially when I came home for break my first year was disappointing and desolating. He refused to send my winter cloths, so, when I did come home for the break, I had just got out of the hospital with walking pneumonia. .. More to come in the next post…Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & >3

Follow-your-dreams.-They-know-the-way Courtesy of Verybestquotes[dot]com

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The Sound I Felt ~ Rumors that “Jazz is becoming Extinct” have been Greatly Exaggerated! Featuring “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” by Erroll Garner

“I love Fifty Shades enough to become vulnerable” Dakota Johnson Fifty Shades of Grey

102_23.11.2008 Tony Malaby and Mario Pavone Double Tenor 5tet,Geneva by JC Hernandez amr geneva

JazzLine News wrote an article on March 9^th, 2015 entitled “Jazz Has Become The Least-Popular Genre In The U.S.” I totally disagree because you cannot quantify culture or art or anything that involves bringing beauty and joy to our lives! It is like trying to grab a hold of air. Besides I know a lot of jazz cats and chicks living and dead who would beg to differ with Mr. La Rosa and would challenge him by asking whether he truly loves jazz and how his love can convey the hope and promise that Jazz has maintained from its inception. Jazz has been scrutinized, vilified and has downright taken a beating with respect to criticism and evaluating its worth in American Life. So, I defer to Gerald Early’s take on Jazz which reflects a lotta folks when he wrote “I think there are only three things America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization the Constitution, jazz music, and baseball.”

Jazz dropped into the scene as an American form of musical expression at the beginning of the 20^thCentury. Jazz gave life dimension to become expansive, universal, and prolific by capturing color, timbre and reflected the shades of life experiences through sound. Jazz provided the most influential approach to music for all time. It is and has always been open to folks from all walks of life. Jazz applies improvisational self expressions and the hot rhythms of life infused with harmonic manipulations through solo and group performances. It is a breath of freedom that is giving birth to contemporary life and is constantly recreating exciting new soulful sounds that examines and redefines the old and familiar music. Jazz spans the spectrum — from soothing background music to an art form where sounds challenge and require unwavering attention. It is a beautiful thing to hear deep emotion as conveyed in John Coltrane’s Alabama or Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday. Louis Armstrong’s Stardust was sheer momentousness. Fresh Sounds Records rated Erroll Garner’s Concert by the Sea as “One of the biggest selling jazz albums of all time. This release -released here with its instantly recognizable original cover includes the complete classic album that was recorded in a former church on the coastline at Carmel, California.” Give a listen and check out the video snap of Mr. Garner doing his thing.

Finding jazz in everyday life is what gives me the fuzzies and comforts me like meditation and prayer. I would rather look for the beauty in life and what brings grace to my life then try and quantify my life. When it comes time for me to die, I want to be like all the men and women Jazz Legends when standing at the Pearly Gates of Heaven to be welcomed because they made a contribution to life not by the number of albums they sold but because they did what God asks all of us to do, spread the Word! Where were you and what comes to mind when you listen, was it at home, in school, or watching a Woody Allen movie or even Birdman? Peace & Love Out! 😎 & ❤

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Is Fear a Factor that is Running Your Life? 10 Riff Changes 2 Get Ur Groove Back feat, “Jazz Odyssey” by New Age Jazz with a 10 Min Guided Meditation

“Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt You Learn by Living

I don’t know about you, but with all the things that are happening in our world, culture and lives are riddled with fear, and for the most part takes center stage in our lives, grabbing us by the throat and suffocating us in our decision-making process. The irony of it is that most of the time we don’t even realize it. This is partly true because of the media and the learned behavior from our culture tends to stylize “fear” as a socially acceptable form of “stress.” And stress—stress is considered a trophy of success!

In the 60s “fear is for sissies or chumps”. It is a sign of weakness. It was confused with shame and courage and it was something that we needed to hide from others and deal with it in secret. In literature it was called “The Dark Night of the Soul”. NOT! I have lived long enough to know that FEAR and COURAGE cannot share the same couch. It became a truth especially when I was paralyzed in 1990 and when I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Here is how the scenario ran for me, when I was diagnosed both times it was a Game Changer. My life was never going to be the same. The fear of not being able to walk was Huge! The doctors could not find out what was causing it and it was slowly climbing up my legs and Thank God it stopped when it affected my gag reflex. The doctors finally came up with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Angela who became a dear friend who was diagnosed two years before me had to walk with a cane and had to cross the street in NYC at the slide which is where folks in wheelchairs were able to navigate the street and sidewalk curbs. Others in my support group were not so lucky, some died, some were put on a respirator for the rest of their lives. Being an active thirty something year old who played Varsity Tennis. I was devastated. What made matters worse was that my father did not believe it was a real illness. There is nothing wrong with you, it’s all in your head, you need to snap out of it and get a job! Fear became a permanent resident in my heart.

Fear is sneaky, and it shows up in all kinds of disguises, but until you see it for what it is, it’s hard to come into right relationship with fear. So, I decided I had had enough. Fear was now something that I had to stop somatizing! I decided to face it and embrace it as a part of my life. Here are the riff changes I used to get my life back. Who knew that I would once again re-enter my life in 2000 with my diagnosis of Breast Cancer.

You are unique – Perfection is the conduit to Fear of Failure

If you become afraid of criticism, failure, or rejection, you are setting yourself up to the illusion of being perfect. Growing up with jazz and the musicians who improvise and create their own style of living which is facing fear and adversity; I learned that trusting and accepting that God’s grace allows us to recover and heal us because we weren’t made perfect —facing fear is the portal to real intimacy, to be known, loved, and accepted for our true self.

Don’t settle.

Taking risks is a major part of living. If you become afraid to take risks, challenge conformity, and go for what you really want you have let fear and your ego convince you that you are not good enough. Then you feel that all of your relationships, your job, and your Life is as good as it gets. You have forgotten how to dream. That childhood curiosity and imagination are lost. Settling is not an option. When you choose to face and get past your fear, hope is reawakened in your heart. That choice speaks to creating the future where you will not stand for anything less than joy, vitality, even miracles. Mindfulness meditation and improvisation helps to focus on what you want and where your values are.

Say yes to the Stress.

Being afraid that you will disappoint people or get rejected if you don’t say yes, you have given the power to others and what is outside of yourself. When you choose, make that choice because it will benefit everyone. Friends are not really friends if they do not respect your choices. Only you know what is good for you!

No means No.

You cannot fear something that you know in your heart is the right choice. If you fear you’re your friends or loved ones will not like you or they want to go in a different direction as you and you don’t want to go in that direction and are afraid of losing them, then I have found that they were not really my friends. You have to risk it to get the biscuit! No keeps life honest. It requires thought and consideration and if you decide that No is right for you, go with it now matter what. It’s healthy.

There is no escaping fear.

Fear can cause a lot of inner pain, a kind of soul sickness that manifests as depression, anxiety, restlessness, helplessness, hopelessness, frustration, sadness, loneliness, and fatigue. We live in a society that there is a Pill for everything. The best medicine is to confront and face the discomfort to triumph over feeling the inner pain and void that all of us face one time or another in life. Drinking or drugging is just another panacea that eludes us into believing that we can control our pain and fear. It does just the opposite. It will affect you in so many negative ways that it could take you down a path that you may not be able to recover from. Fear is transformative because if you use mindfulness mediation and then improvise using your experience and style it is a way better high than any drug or drink can give you. It will also build your repertoire that will last a lifetime. You will develop the chops to do the deep transformative work that leads you to freedom. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best…Discipline of mind and body is one of the most difficult things one has to acquire, but in the long run it is a valuable ingredient of education and a tremendous bulwark in time of trouble. Certainly, it is essential in meeting defeats and recovering from disaster.

Why put off tomorrow what you can do today.

That speaks to the everyday choices you make that will keep you in your groove. Procrastination is good when you prioritize it in terms of staying in the moment. It is very helpful to me when I look at the situation or the task and decide that I will not worry about that now, I will worry about that at 6 o’clock this evening when I am able to focus and meditate the best plan of action. Scheduling specific times to worry, fear, etc. is the best way of living in the moment.

Don’t Freeze UP.

It is harmful to practice avoiding to make a decision or take an action that you know you must make. It’s a good thing to trust your gut or intuition will tell you that it’s time to leave a toxic relationship or to go a different way. It is critical to set boundaries with your loved ones, friends and people in general. Be impeccable with your words and speak up when your integrity is breached at work or in your daily life.

8. You are responsible to control You and no one else.

The only thing we can truly control in our lives is breathing, walking, and sustain ourselves. So leave the micromanaging and manipulating control to God or the Universe. When I realized that being right, or manipulating a situation is so WRONG and not in my control I found that life is so joyous and liberating. I know that my parental unit was deemed with that control thing when I was a child. However, the flip side would be to empower me with the skills and swagger to act in the world on the foundation of values and beliefs that benefit everyone and not just myself. Letting go is powerful in that it resonates with harmony and brings about miracles.

Sometimes we should use the Right to Remain Silent.

There is nothing worse in this world than a person who is full of unsolicited Advice. When folks come up to me, whether they are friends, family or coworkers, the best thing I have learned to do is listen. Not go into some diatribe about how it happened to me and what happened and just taking over the conversation. Yes it is true, I is not about you all the time!

When Fear has its way.

Fear isn’t just an uncomfortable feeling that holds you back from following your dreams, connecting with your true tribe, and serving out your life’s purpose. It can serve as a trigger for stress responses in the body that can morph into disease and prevent the body’s ability to heal itself. Fear has had its way with me when I was just a little chick. It played a major role in my paralysis and living with breast cancer. Facing fear is what keeps my thrivin’ and most of all alive.

A Positive Magazine Meditation Relaxation Inspiration

10 Minute Guided Meditation to ease Anxiety, Worry, and Urgency | Soothing | instant Calm | POWERFUL! Calm relaxing mediation 10 minute guided meditation video to help ease Anxiety, worry and the sense of urgency.

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Running Riff Changes on A Religious Canvas ~ “Jazz is My Religion” by Ted Joans featuring Tom Deegan – Jazz Is My Religion – Original Mix

Handmade Museum Quality_Jazz Oil Paintings

Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper unnamed feelings which from the substratum of our being to which we rarely penetrate for our lives are mostly constant. ~ T.S. Eliot

According to Wikipedia Religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence. For a Chick of a Certain Age that speaks to Who I really am. Folks who are different oftentimes create a separate world that is different from the world they actually live in to protect themselves. What I have come to understand that religion is an integral part of culture. American culture is an aggregation of different cultures and language. Jazz has weathered the storms of racism and chauvinism for over a quarter of a century. Religion and faith is what help one to survive through the roughest times. I started reading “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse when I as eight years old, it awakened something in me that showed me that Words, spoken, sung or written and jazz are the loves of my life. Peace & Love Out Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Jazz Is My Religion

by Ted Joans

JAZZ is my religion and it alone do I dig the jazz

clubs are my houses of worship and sometimes the concert halls

but some
holy places are too commercial (like churches) so I
don’t dig the
sermons there I buy jazz sides to dig in solitude Like
man/Harlem,
Harlem U.S.A. used used to be a jazz heaven where most of
the jazz
sermons were preached but now-a-days due to chacha
cha and
rotten rock ‘n’roll alotta good jazzmen have sold their
souls but jazz
is still my religion because I know and feel the message
it brings
like reverend Dizzy Gillespie/Brother Bird and
Basie/Uncle
Armstrong/Minister Monk/ Deacon Miles Davis/ Rector
Rollins/
Priest Ellington/ His funkness Horace Silver/ and the great
Pope
John, John COLTRANE and Cecil Taylor They
Preach A Sermon
That Always Swings!!

Yeah jazz is MY religion Jazz
is my story
it was my mom’s and pop’s and their moms and pops
from the days of Buddy Bolton who swung them blues to Charlie
Parker and
Ornette Coleman‘s extension of Bebop Yeah jazz is my
religion
Jazz is unique musical religion the sermons spread
happiness and
joy to be able to dig and swing inside what a
wonderful feeling

jazz is/YEAH BOY!! JAZZ is my religion and dig this:
it wasn’t for
us to choose because they created it for a damn good
reason as a
weapon to battle our blues!JAZZ is my religion and its
international all the way JAZZ is just an Afro-American
music
and like us its here to stay So remember that JAZZ is
my religion
but it can be your religion too but JAZZ is a truth that is
always
black and blue Hallelujah I love JAZZ so Hallelujah I
dig JAZZ so
Yeah JAZZ IS MY RELIGION…….

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A Taste 4 Jazz ~ EZ PZ “Rawsome Vegan Lasagna Recipe” and 4 Somethin’ Sweet a Rawsome Red Velvet Beet Cake

Hey JazzFoodies Wake Up For March Madness ~Wellness in Mind~Body~Spirit is the Thing! Most of you hip folks want it but figure it’s a hassle to make it a natural part of every day. I know I did. Mindfulness eating means choosing foods that balance nutrition suited for your unique body filled with enticing flavors to create an indulgent way to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Breast Cancer motivated me to listen to my body and to feel good and strong despite the limitations it has imposed in my life. Nutritious sustainability is one of the secret habits of jazz living. Coming up with mack dishes on a budget. To wit: Here is a super nutritious EZ PZ Rawsome Vegan Lasagna Recipe and finish off with a Rawsome Red Velvet Beet Cake. Bon Apétit! Peace & Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

And the Piece de résistance Red Velvet Beet Cake! (Raw Vegan)

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A Taste 4 Jazz ~ Remembering The Watts Riots ~ A Patch of Blue~Something Sweet~The Mack “Raw Vegan Pecan Pie” featuring Gil Fuller & Monterey Jazz Festival – A Patch Of Blue – Feat. James Moody

rose sepia

“Music at its best…is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us–beyond language–to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence. ” ― Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader

Prelude…

A Patch of Blue was the first movie I went to and I felt every single emotion a child of 11 could feel. I was changed. It was the quiet before the storm. It was a classic 1965 American drama film directed by Guy Green about the relationship between a black man, Gordon (played by Sidney Poitier), and a blind white female teenager, Selina (Elizabeth Hartman), and the problems that plague their relationship when they fall in love in a racially divided America. Made in 1965 against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement, the film explores racism from the perspective of love is blind. It was the first time I felt what love must be like for an eleven year old mixed little chick. I selected a jazz song with Classical overtones because it reminds me of how I felt when I watch A Patch of Blue and listen to my father’s arrangement…

The Watts Riots that dropped into American Life has many characteristics of the changes and call and response of jazz in the streets. It was a very frightening time. My heart felt as though the flame from a candle was too hot. It flickered and danced over-a warm breeze, offering no respite from the heat. The soft gossamer wings of grace notes fluttered to and fro in the darkness, sprinkling dusty syncopated flurry of the notes become a circle of light. I struggled to resist, but still I was drawn in. And then there was a brightness with the heat becoming so intensified because now I had flown too close to the sun. I became dazzled by the light, fried and melted from the heat and weary of my endeavors to stay airborne. The heat … was stifling and overpowering. The song was over and awaked me. I open my eyes, and I’m draped with a tremendous sense of hope and yet I feared it would never happen in my life time. But like love and life we must feel pain and sorrow to unmask the joy that the universe has to give. The saxophone is the riff of racial identity filled with licks and syncopation. The French horns respond by filling the air with a sense of freedom and liberty. It is a mood stirring redition as the point/counterpoint of American life is shadowed by the ever present hope that compassion will replace hate and violence against those that are different. The sound and harmony breathes hope in the fact that the theme and melody speaks directly to our hearts.

So, I want to end on a decadently sweet and healthy note…. Peace & Love Out! JBC 8-)* & ❤

Raw, Vegan Pecan Pie by Gena Hamshaw

Author Notes: An easy, forgiving, and absolutely delicious vegan spin on pecan pie. Creamy medjool dates and coconut oil perfectly approximate the flavor and richness of a traditional filling.

Gena's Pecan-Pie- Courtesy of Food52.com — Gena’s Pecan-Pie- Courtesy of Food52.com

Serves 8 to 10

For the crust

3/4cups raw pecans
3/4cups raw walnuts
1/4teaspoon sea sat
1/4cup shredded coconut
1cup pitted medjool dates, packed

For the pie filling

1 1/4cup medjool dates, tightly packed, pitted, and soaked in warm water for at least an hour
1/2cup plus 3/4 cup raw pecans, divided
1/4cup melted coconut oil
2teaspoons vanilla extract
1teaspoon cinnamon
1/4teaspoon nutmeg
Big pinch sea salt

To make the crust: Place the walnuts and pecans, sea salt, and coconut in a food processor and grind roughly. Add the dates and process until the mixture is thoroughly broken down and sticks together when you squeeze a bit in the palm of your hand. Press mixture evenly onto the bottom and sides of a pie plate (alternately, you can press it into a 9″ springform pan).
Drain the dates, reserving the soak liquid. Transfer the dates to a high speed blender or powerful food processor. Add the 1/2 cup pecans, coconut oil, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and about 1/4 cup of the date-soaking water. Blend until the mixture is totally smooth.
Pour the filling into the crust. Smooth the top over with an inverted spatula. Place in the fridge for at least four hours to set. Decorate the top with the 3/4 cup pecans, and continue to chill till ready to serve.

This recipe is a Community Pick!

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The Sound I felt ~ “Preludes” by T.S. Eliot n’ Liner Notes on “Changes” featuring Miles Davis and Milt Jackson

black_and_white_by_la_mystic_au_jazz-Courtesy of la-mystic-au-jazzdotdiviantartdotcom

“If Music is a Place — then Jazz is the City, Folk is the Wilderness, Rock is the Road, Classical is a Temple.” ― Vera Nazarian

Jazz opened my life to the endless possibilities. Jazz and literary arts are inextricably attached. Growing up the exposure to the power jazz and literary arts allowed me to tap into our uniqueness and vulnerability. It speaks to the feelings all of us share in our humanness. T.S. Eliot does that for me. Jazz served up the ambience of the nurturing environment to develop our deeply unfurled imagination to be separate but equal. It means coloring outside the lines of social and moral justice to find a peace within that truly connects us to one another. It is not about conforming or following some edict to prove who we really are. It’s about cherishing our differences and somehow we still remain together. It speaks to the place that you feel inspired and generous and the powers of love and compassion are extended beyond our basic needs to a level that all of us have at one time or another. The big Aha! The I get it without uttering a word. Going to rehearsals and traversing through various venues and terrains presented auditory snaps of life’s vast tapestry of culture, American life, is a canvas of life’s challenges This song is the quintessential element of a sextet. There are six musicians with the feel of an orchestra. Miles Davis, a central figure in the 1950s, embraced the meaning from Dizzy, Coltrane, Monk, Tad drawing together a new auditory vision of cool … He broke the rules of jazz five times from 1949 to 1969. … His first Columbia album ‘Round about Midnight (1955) featured Davis’s first. In 1959 he dropped Kind of Blue igniting albums with Cannonball Adderley and Milt Jackson.

Davis and Jackson combine salacious voicings on the head to “Bitty Ditty,” The result was their abilities by demonstrate their elegant mastery of harmony and swing. Both are inspired by the shape of the song’s line, and are completely unfazed and amazed by its intricacies. Give a listen and feel the pain of life and our separation from the Source. Wishing back to the time when we were one with it. So let’s breathe and Laissez les bon temps rouler Peace & Love Out! JBC ❤ & -8)

Preludes

by T. S. Eliot

The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.
II

The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.

With the other masquerades
That time resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms.
III

You tossed a blanket from the bed,
You lay upon your back, and waited;
You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted;
They flickered against the ceiling.
And when all the world came back
And the light crept up between the shutters
And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
Sitting along the bed’s edge, where
You curled the papers from your hair,
Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
In the palms of both soiled hands.
IV

His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.

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A Taste 4 Jazz ~ Waiting for Bonaparte Muffaletta (The Remix Edition) By Pierino + JBC’s Vegan Remastered Version featuring Bob James – “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”

“Those who have not lived in New Orleans have missed an incredible, glorious, vital city–a place with an energy unlike anywhere else in the world, a majority-African American city where resistance to white supremacy has cultivated and supported a generous, subversive, and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues, and and hip-hop to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, jazz funerals, and the citywide tradition of red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and food and traditions and sexuality and liberation.” ~ ― Jordan Flaherty, Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six

Court of Two Sisters

Hey JazzFoodie Fans Mardi Gras is here!…The Carnival season, is a diversification of the traditional manner of preparing for the start of the Catholic season of Lent, that starts after Twelfth Night, on Epiphany (January 6). This is a cultural cornucopia that is filled with a season of parades, balls (some of them masquerade balls mind you), and don’t forget the king cake parties. It has traditionally been part of the winter social season; which at one time was when parties for Southern Society women, débutante balls, were arranged.

Celebrations run for two weeks before and through Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French), to the day before Ash Wednesday. There is one major parade each day (weather permitting); most days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place on the last five days of the season. In the final week of Carnival, many events large and small occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities. Neighboring communities also hold Carnival celebrations. Food52 is undoubtedly one of the best Go2 sites for fabulous Jazz Foodies like me. Today let’s get a true blue N’awlins foodie’s recipe for an awesome Muffaletta. For my vegetarian friends I have a cool marinade for zucchini and eggplant that I roast and substitute for the meats. Check it out below… And now for the pièce de résistance Bonaparte’s Muffaletta by Chef Pierino

Bonaparte Muffaletta sandwich Courtesy of Food 52

Author Notes: Pierino: One of the greatest traditional food items to come out of New Orleans is the muffaletta sandwich. Central Grocery is renowned for theirs, but you can also taste a fine one on the café menu at Napoleon House on Chartres in the French Quarter. Napoleon House gets its name from the fact that in 1821 it was offered as a residence to Bonaparte during his exile. Being an unapologetic Bonapartist myself, my recipe title is a tribute to Boney. Now let’s see if he shows up for lunch. The primary components of the sandwich are ham, salami, provolone cheese, and topping of olive salad, all packed onto a crusty round loaf. The olive salad should be generous but it should not overwhelm your pork product.
Because it’s difficult to find the proper Italian-style round bread loaf outside of New Orleans, you might want to think about doing as I prefer and make your own. But what you really want is a good-sized round and crusty Italian loaf. The ingredients indicated here for the olive salad will produce enough for two sandwiches this size. To serve, you can/should halve or quarter the assembled muffaletta. – Pierino

Serves an army

For the olive salad:

1/2cup Spanish pimento olives
1/2cup pitted black olives (Kalamatas work fine)
4 to 6cornichons
2cloves garlic (see note below)
2teaspoons dried Italian oregano
1/2cup extra-virgin olive oil
2tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4teaspoon ground black pepper

For the sandwich components:

One6-ounce crusty Italian roll
A little creole mustard
1/4pound thinly sliced premium cooked or cured ham (even prosciutto or jamon Serrano)
1/4pound thinly sliced capicola (as the name suggests, this is most often made from pig neck)
1/4pound sliced provolone cheese

It’s easy to make the olive salad in the bowl of a food processor using the olives, cornichons, garlic, oregano, olive oil, vinegar, and black pepper. Give everything a few quick pulses. It should remain a bit chunky — somewhat more coarse than a tapenade.
Spoon the olive salad into a non-reactive bowl and cover it with cling wrap. It should then go into the refrigerator to rest for at least 5 to 8 hours, and it will keep overnight.
To assemble, use a sharp bread knife to divide the loaf into two halves horizontally like a giant hamburger bun. Smear some mustard on the bottom half and top with ham, capicola, provolone, and a generous amount of olive salad. Cover with the top portion of the roll and divide into halves or quarters. Bring napkins.
Notes to the cook: For the garlic, I use a “garlic confit” that I learned from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon cookbook. What that consists of is about 40 peeled cloves of garlic covered in canola oil and poached for about forty minutes — a flame tamer is advised. Store the garlic and oil in a sealed container in the refrigerator. After a few days the oil will be highly perfumed. I think the little Corsican would like that touch. It’s handy to have on hand and you can add a little of the oil to the salad. Otherwise, use fresh garlic cloves.
The cornichon included in the olive salad is untraditional but one of my New Orleans friends really liked it, so I think it really works. Don’t be stingy with the olive salad.

For my Vegetarian Jazz foodies ~ I make a special trip to my Asian Market and purchase the following ingredients:

1/2 cup tamari or shoyu sauce
4 tablespoons loosely packed cilantro leaves
2tablespoon Ume Plum vinegar (Eden Selected)
3 tablespoon toasted sesame oil +1 tablespooon Olive Oil
2 medium-size cloves garlic
1 ounce fresh peeled ginger sliced
____________________________________
4 small Japanese eggplants and 4 medium

I place all of the above ingredients in a blender EXCEPT FOR THE EGGPLANTS! Blend until smooth.

Pierce the eggplants and zucchini several times with a fork. Cut in half lengthwise. On the open side of each half, make two deep diagonal slashes in each direction. Place eggplants skin side down in a 13-by-9-by-2-inch purex baking dish.
Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons of the marinade over each eggplant and zucchini half. Rub the marinade into the flesh so that it runs into the cuts. Turn skin side up and pour remaining marinade into dish. Let stand for 60 minutes.
Turn skin side down. Roast in oven for 15- 20 minutes at 400ºF. Remove from oven and let cool.
If you really want to make it Vegan, I substitute Daiya Mozzarella, Provolone or even Jack and it is delicious! Just follow the assembly given above for the sandwich and Voila!

Best wishes 4 a Blessed and wonderful Mardi Gras 2015! Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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The Sound I felt ~ Going Against the Grain featuring Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra – What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?

Going Against the Grain EXPLORED Courtesy of flickr.com

It was June 8, 1965 that I can remember the first time I encountered going against the grain. Coincidentally, it was the first Talk I had with my father. I was eleven years old. The grain or the focus was, what I was going to be when I grew up? I was caught completely off guard and felt as though I was at a terrible disadvantage. I lacked the necessary mental state and experience to be able to parry, deflect or maneuver my father’s intentional incoming attack. Of course he had the experience and the presence of mind from living in the jazz world and being exposed to the dark side of things, like the society’s standards and labels. How drugs had transformed Billie, Monk and Coltrane and how the entertainment world treated women and minorities back in the 40’s and 50’s in his hey days. He wanted to protect me.

I began writing in my journals when I was eight years old. My mother gave me the greatest gift when she taught me how to read. My father’s greatest gift was to write a song and bring music into my life. The combination of both of their gifts gave me the love to write. Going against the grain is something that all of us face. Today I guess I am having an existential moment.

Perhaps it’s not that dramatic or some movie blockbuster. Maybe it is nothing more than connecting with my true self and taking a time out to take a good look at life and where I really want to be. Either way, somethin’s been blocking me from writing my memoir. It has nothin’ to do with having the courage to accept what’s true for me. I have read all these websites from literary agencies and how hard it is to be a writer that it takes away from allowing myself to do what I love to do. I have been feelin’ like that eleven year old girl who is asked a question and expecting to give an answer that I haven’t even asked myself. I realize it is a process. But there is an internal process and an external process and sometimes the answers do not reveal themselves before their time.

why fit in when you were born to stand out

The reality of this situation is what we all grapple with and sometimes the result is not what we wanted or even dreamed of. I get frustrated, tired of the struggle and all kinds of weird things that say it has been a waste of time to make sense of them. When I try to figure out things by looking at myself and compare it to others, I am not being fair to myself or to others. That’s when I am out of balance and get lost.

It’s foolish to believe I am the only one that feels that way. I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about. I take this time to remember what it felt like when I was eleven and went to my first rehearsal with my father. I saw living examples of talented, weather-beaten, society labeled “misfits” who were well seasoned, professional, genuine artists whose genius was expressed on their own terms and with all of their souls. It was poetry in motion.

So at the end of the day, every. single. time. that you decide NOT to live what’s true for you, you’re giving other folks permission to make all kinds of assumptions about you and are loosing apart of yourself. You are also burying who you truly are to comply, people-please and keep a peace that sometimes needs to be awakened.

Those artists did not live with the illusion created by others but lived with being who they truly were and did not get lost. The result was Harmony. There was no fear of playing the wrong note or going off the melody when they soloed that the rest of the musicians could not know where to come back in. If they did, I would hear my father yell “What the hell was that?” Everybody laughed. He tapped the baton on the podium “okay, okay, let’s take it from bar 122 or bar 181 and let’s see what happens…” Now that’s what Life is all about. Perhaps going against the grain teaches us something about ourselves and life that everyone can learn from…How about you? Do you remember such a time? Peace and love out! JBC 😎 & ❤

This material is or has been copyrighted, feel free to share it with others; it can be distributed via social media or pingbacks and added to websites; please do not change the content, and please provide credit by including the author’s name @ http://jazzybeatchick.com and your readers shall not be charged by you under any circumstance.

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A Taste 4 Jazz ~ 2 the Salad Daze…. How to Make Salad in a Jar That Lasts a Week – brought to you by SaladinaJar.com featuring Smooth Jazz – In the City at Night

Hey JazzFoodies I don’t know about you, but when I get fully into my work I would love to have something, simple, savory, healthy and filling to take for my lunch and dinner break. I know that it probably speaks to the geek in me, but, this recipe is totally tailor-made for that demanding type of life. It is also a great pot luck dish or tail gate party dish that is so EZ PZ to make that I had to share it with you.

Have a great week! Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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The Sound I felt ~ RiffShots of 3 EZ PZ Ways to Finding Your Happy Place through Jazz Improv featuring Gil Fuller & Monterey Jazz Festival – Big Sur – 2007 – Remaster

Big Sur is My Happy Place Courtesy of cheezeburgerdotcom

Here are three mindfulness improvisation tips to self care that will leave bad habits in the dust and shed light into your life bringing you to your very special happy place.

Here is one of my Happiest Sounds from my childhood…

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time. ~ Joseph Campbell

Mindfulness is your portal to being present in your daily life. For me jazz improv is my way of living creatively and not emotionally. When we live in the present it allows us to let go of the pain of the past and the worries or expectations of the future so we can focus on what we have now. It is not a matter of denial or I will be happy with a million bucks or all of my bills are paid because the price for living is that bills will always be there. There will always be an expense for living. Finding gratitude for the things we do, even the smallest thing gives me a sense of peace. Worry over being able to meet our daily lives takes us out of ourselves and life then seems like an uphill battle and we lose sight of the present moment. We get caught up and eventually will disappear from our lives. Mindfulness gives you the choice of what to focus on and redirects the mind to stop letting the past shape and distort the future and loose the present moment. You no longer dwell on things you cannot change and rely and react emotionally to them which can be quite exhausting. One of the biggest perks of mindfulness is that you can minimize anxiety and stress. Living in the moment and creatively brings more joy, clarity, wellness and energy.

The best way to cultivate mindfulness is through meditation So how can you do this? Jazz improv allows you to meditate so that you can be detached, a witness or an observer and releases you to explore ways that work for you. Now it takes a whole lot of practice and finding a different perspective to help you to find your happy quiet space between those thoughts. You quiet your ego driven obsessive thinking, and start responding instinctively. Meditation allows you to relax and to listen to your inner spirit that will allow your thoughts to detach and flow. This is the Happy Place where you begin awakening and manifesting your dreams. You are now in touch with who you really are; with what matters most to you as well as becomes your way of improvising on life so you face adversity and the challenges in your daily routine imparting your own style.

Here are three mindfulness improvisation tips to self care that will leave bad habits in the dust and shed light into your life bringing you to your very special happy place.

#1 Improvise this: . Begin with fifteen minutes meditation twice a day. It’s great first thing in the morning and then again in the evening at the end of your day. Here is one of my favorites.

Mindfulness Meditation – Quick 15 Min Stress Relief Version

If you want to fold it into your daily routine begin with eating a healthy, balanced diet that would include fresh organic food. Or how about a walking meditation or yoga class to help you to connect with your body that helps you to center yourself, and find balance? The benefits are a good night sleep that will rejuvenate and detoxify your mind and body.

#2 Improvise this: Taking Care of Yourself

Your objective would be to connect with those things that truly make you happy. Target that thing, place, or activity that creates space every day. This is not negotiable and a top priority. A total Ah Ha! Moment!

Block out time in your day—it is up to you whether it is five minutes or an hour. Do something you love. Listen to music, read a good book, sit in silence by the water or a fire, or even try dancing in your bare feet in the living room. Give yourself a star on your calendar every time you do it. Believe me you will feel more inspired and creative.

#3 Improvise this: Get an Attitude of Gratitude

You can start by counting your blessings! This lets you realize how good your life truly is and connects you with the abundance in your life. I have found that it attracts more prosperity and is way more rewarding.. Surround yourself with what you think is beautiful, and be grateful for it in your home, your work space, your clothes, I think you get the picture.

I love to take this time and combine it with my nightly 15 minute mindfulness meditation routine just before bed. It is a perfect way to open your heart and to dream beautiful dreams. Mind you, I am no spring chicken and that it does not happen overnight. I am also a late bloomer so some folks get right away and then there are folks like me that work at it until it takes hold and opens your heart and life to the wonders and joy of life’s possibility. Give it a go. Peace and love out! JBC 😎 & ❤

This material is has been copyrighted, feel free to share it with others; it can be distributed via social media or pingbacks and added to websites; please do not change the content, provide credit by including the author’s name @ http://jazzybeatchick.com and your readers shall not be charged by you under any circumstance.

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The Sound I felt ~ RiffShot of a Jazz Portrait of Monk Who Demonstrated the Bliss of Being Who He Truly Was…featuring Thelonious Monk – Epistrophy

American Jazz Pianist Thelonious Monk on TIME MAGAZINE Cover

“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.” Joseph Campbell

Jazz dropped a distinctive musical expression into American culture at the turn of the 20th Century. The presence of jazz became expansive, universal, and prolific. It became the most influential approach to music for all time. Jazz blends diverse contexts by capturing sounds and rhythms transforming them into spontaneous and synchronistic styles that infuse harmonic manipulations and maelstrom rhythms that are featured in solo and group performances. Jazz is an acoustic metaphor of life’s challenges or riffs. Our emotions love, fear, anger, sorrow and joy create a canvas upon which we live. Life’s challenges (riffs) are: abandonment, arrogance, inferiority, rejection and shame. Personal transformation allows us to overcome these riffs. Jazz is a way of dealing with life’s challenges especially through featured solo performances. The formula for a good life is harmony; being able to maintain and live truthfully; showing up and sharing a sense of well-being and interconnectedness with others. Finally having faith and trusting that these riffs are merely a part of living. My biggest riff has always been abandonment beginning when I was just a little chick. It filled the spectrum of being alone, judged and dependent upon everything and one outside of me. Jazz taught me what being in the world and not of it truly means. Joseph Campbell wrote: “The privilege of a lifetime is to be who you are”. Growing up in a jazz filled environment enabled me to see life from a different perspective. I initially saw and felt it when dad was composing and arranging songs. I also witnessed it at rehearsals and live performances on stage. I discovered that I experienced it when I am reading and writing prose and making collages. I had to keep it as a secret because the fear that dad would abandon me became overwhelming. It took many years for me to develop the courage to be me.

So now let’s take a closer look at jazz as an acoustic metaphor of life. The jazz ensemble/orchestra is an acoustic canvas of what I would describe as the ‘good life’. The difference between an ensemble and a classical symphony orchestra is that jazz ensemble/orchestras feature a solo performance that imparts their own style of imagination and creativity and still maintains the harmonic integrity and rhythm of the original melody. Through receptive sensitivity the soloist features their self-expressive performances to the audience. The complex harmony is only possible through playing from a collective score that inspires free musical expression and interacting with one another. The musicians are playing without obstacles or conflict creating a sense of harmony and free style that benefits the greater good of the whole. There is a sense of self-actualization through a loss of self in the song. The achievement in this case, the song, acts as an internal and interactive transformation between the musicians and the audience.

Jazz Portrait of Thelonious Monk

Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including “Epistrophy“, “‘Round Midnight“, “Blue Monk”, “Straight, No Chaser” and “Well, You Needn’t“. Monk is the second-most recorded jazz composer wrote about 70. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk’s unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. Since this was not a style universally appreciated poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as ‘the elephant on the keyboard’. Monk’s manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. At times, Monk while the other musicians in the band continued playing, would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. Notably, Monk was one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time.

David Thomson from the Los Angeles Times proclaimed Geoff Dyer. who wrote “But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz” May be the best book ever written about jazz”, wrote a passage on Monk that I must say gave me a little insight into what it was like living with my father and living in the jazz world. But like jazz, it speaks more about the man as an individual, their idiosyncrasies, their uniqueness. Here is an excerpt from his book that gives a good example of Monk. Mr. Dyer wrote:

“He kept all his music very close to him, didn’t like other people seeing it, he kept everything close to him. When he went out he liked to be wrapped up in a coat—winter was his time—and he preferred not to stray too far. At the studio he’d have his music in a little book, reluctant to let other people see it….”

Here is a video of Monk performing “Epistrophy” so you can get a feel for his portrait.

This is one example of jazz as metaphor and the meaning of the ‘good life’ where the privilege of a lifetime is indeed to be who you are. How about you! What shade is your life? How do you express yourself? As always, I promise to give more…Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & >3

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Yin and Yang (or, How We Resonate)

For Free Write Friday, Here is a beautiful way of expressing Jazz in terms of conversation with each other and living in a harmonious world! Beautifully written by Rachel Mankowitz Freshly Pressed…Peace Out! 😎 & ❤

rachelmankowitz

Some people resonate with each other, not because they are objectively the same but because they complement each other in interesting ways. We often talk about yin and yang, where two people create a whole circle, but I tend to think more of melody and harmony. It’s not a circle with no holes, it’s a song that resonates and echoes.

Cricket and Butterfly are not a perfect match. First of all, they look too much alike. They have the same color hair, both white with apricot markings in mostly the same places. And they both bark, at different pitches, but not in a harmony of beautiful sound; they are not a choir, they are a cacophony of noise. They are not the same height, but also not opposites, like big and small or fat and skinny. They are just small and smaller. They don’t fill all of the possible…

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The Sound I felt ~ 3 EZ PZ Listening Tips for Self Discovery featuring Peter Bernstein – Dual Nature with a Sneak Peek at “Jazz on the Brain”

Live-for-Music-Courtesy of hdwdoteweb4dotcom

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” ~ e.e. cummings

It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I believe that listening in the portal to who you truly are. Here are a few tips to connect with what lies deep within to reveal who you are. It gives us a sense of joy and exhilaration as well as a sense of peace. Listening is oftentimes referred to as hearing. But hearing is just recognizing sound waves, listening is hearing with intent. Paying attention to the words, the emotions, the message and most of all the meaning it gives to you. Here are a few key elements to consider when listening…

No Judgment Please…

Are you sure the news you listened to on the TV is exactly what was actually being said? How much information was diluted or distorted or filtered by your own experience?

In order to listen experientially with an open mind you have a mindfulness meditative focus on what is actually being said ~ to be in that moment completely. We must tune out interpretative listening because it stains and distorts our understanding of the true meaning of the message. It is when as Michael Singer refers to “our roommate” in our brain is distracting and alluding us from listening to what is being said now. This will allow us to be totally present and will lead to a deeper communication through all of our sensibilities.

Keeping culturally attuned diversity in mind…

Diverse cultural communication may create barriers to communication but the beauty of jazz or music can transcend and overcome that barrier with a visceral knowledge and we develop a respect for all differences that reside in the “Soul” of our universe.

Listen to what is not being said… the breaths or space between the notes or words…

The art of listening intently or deliberately allows us to become awakened to verbal and non-verbal cues, inflections, emphasis, and our joy and sorrow. It becomes a part of the intuitive learning through observing and responding to is not being said and the physicality of the body language between yourself and others.

Jazz provides a cultivating spiritual perspective which embraces all of life and death that can transform our compassion and wellbeing of those who are suffering. It has taught me to appreciate the real person inside of each of us and is the essence of the true human being that is always present that has been distorted by physical and emotional states that may cloud our ability to know what is really going on.

Let’s take a look at Jazz on the Brain to learn about brain waves and music on the brain Have a wonderful weekend! Peace and Love out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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The Sound I felt ~ A Terror is More Certain . . .by Bob Kaufman featuring Gil Fuller & Monterey Jazz Festival – Angel City Blues – Feat. Dizzy Gillespie

Forty years ago today, large sections of South Los Angeles went up in flames. The violence and looting came to be known as the Watts riots. The chaos was a precursor to the urban unrest other cities would soon experience. In a few moments, we’ll hear from a man who continues to activism that sprang from the 1965 riots, but, first, some history. ~ Adolfo Guzman Lopez, Reporter for KPCC

It has been fifty years when the first time I felt terror in August of 1965 when the Watts riots broke out and the Tsunami of hate, violence, fear which through the veil of animosity lay the remains of life. The 19” television in our family room seemed to have drowned out the music and replaced it with noise. Bob Kaufman’s A Terror is More Certain… and Angel City Blues acoustically recounts the story, beginning light and deliberate to an absolute terror filled frenzy of destruction and loss. What do you feel and hear? Peace & Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

A Terror is More Certain . . .

By Bob Kaufman

A terror is more certain than all the rare desirable popular songs I
know, than even now when all of my myths have become . . . , & walk
around in black shiny galoshes & carry dirty laundry to & fro, & read
great books & don’t know criminals intimately, & publish fat books of
the month & have wifeys that are lousy in bed & never realize how
bad my writing is because i am poor & symbolize myself.

A certain desirable is more terror to me than all that’s rare. How
come they don’t give an academic award to all the movie stars that
die? they’re still acting, ain’t they? even if they are dead, it should
not be held against them, after all they still have the public on their
side, how would you like to be a dead movie star & have people sit-
ting on your grave?

A rare me is more certain than desirable, that’s all the terror, there
are too many basketball players in this world & too much progress
in the burial industry, lets have old fashioned funerals & stand
around & forgive & borrow wet handkerchiefs, & sneak out for
drinks & help load the guy into the wagon, & feel sad & make a
date with the widow & believe we don’t see all of the people sink-
ing into the subways going to basketball games & designing baby
sitters at Madison Square Garden.

A certain me is desirable, what is so rare as air in a Poem, why can’t
i write a foreign movie like all the other boys my age, I confess to all
the crimes committed during the month of April, but not to save
my own neck, which is adjustable, & telescopes into any size noose,
I’m doing it to save Gertrude Stein’s reputation, who is secretly
flying model airplanes for the underground railroad stern gang of
oz, & is the favorite in all the bouts . . . not officially opened yet
Holland tunnel is the one who writes untrue phone numbers.

A desirable poem is more rare than rare, & terror is certain, who
wants to be a poet & work a twenty four hour shift, they never ask
you first, who wants to listen to the radiator play string quartets all
night. I want to be allowed not to be, suppose a man wants to
swing on the kiddie swings, should people be allowed to stab him
with queer looks & drag him off to bed & its no fun on top of a
lady when her hair is full of shiny little machines & your a**
reflected in that television screen, who wants to be a poet if you
f**k on t.v. & all those cowboys watching.

Source: Cranial Guitar (Coffee House Press, 1996)

Featured

A Taste of Jazz ~ The Mack Vegan Ratatouille featuring The Jazz In Paris Project – Tu Es

Moïse Kisling, Pâquerette, Picasso and behind them Marie Vassilieff at the café La Rotonde, August 1916

Hey JazzFoodie Fans, I just finished a fabulous read entitled, Harlem in Montmartre by William Shack. Shack gives a fascinating look at this extraordinary cultural moment when African American musicians left the discrimination and racism they experienced in American culture to pursue a life and their art in bohemian Europe. This was a dynamic community of African American jazz musicians and artists who were free to create a vibrant musical scene introducing jazz to the French. The Harlem Renaissance was thriving across the Atlantic however the entertainers in Montmartre became the epicenter of the Parisian scene. It made a fascinating contribution to jazz culture that thrived for two decades until the occupation of the city by German troops on June 18, 1940. Shack features and highlights some of the principal players that shaped the jazz scene in Montmartre folks like Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, and Bricktop. Shack, an anthropologist took a closer look at the musicians’ experiences, the settings in which they performed, and the response of French audiences.

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“Jazz is like a banana—it has to be consumed on the spot,” ~ Sartre

With that theme in mind, I absolutely love this recipe of Ratatouille and the video is a fun way to present it along with the recipe. Peace & Love Out! JBC Bon Appétit!

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Piperade Sauce:

1 Onion chopped

2 carrots chopped

2 stalks of celery chopped

1 Tbs. butter and olive oil

1 Tbs. garlic minced

1 ea. yellow, red Fabiano peppers seeded and veins removed and chopped

2 chili peppers chopped

20 oz. can of crushed tomatoes

1 Tsp. Italian seasoning (if want totally French way Herbs de Provence)

6 leaves of fresh Basil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sliced vegetables for Topping:

2 Yellow squash

2 zucchini

2 Japanese eggplant

6 Roma tomatoes

I use a Mandolin to ensure that all of the veggies are evenly sliced (1/16”) with the exception of the Roma tomatoes I slice them with a serrated knife.

Seasoning Oil

2-4 Tbs. Olive Oil with thyme leaves, crushed garlic (1 tbs.) and salt and pepper

Drizzle on top as seen in the video

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The Sound I Felt ~ A Jazz Contemplation on Selma50 featuring Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln – “Freedom Day”

“Jazz speaks for life,” King said. “The blues tell the story of life’s difficulties — and, if you think for a moment, you realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music.”

U Can't Turn This Around — U Can’t Turn This Around

Jazz reflects American pop music style and it’s Culture that radiates throughout the world. Jazz culture has dropped into every aspect of our lives. It represents more than its origin, it represents a sense of freedom in choice and style that touches all of our sensibilities and humanness. In recognition of Selma50 and Civil and Human Rights, consider this have you ever had someone say something so hurtful and untrue or given you a look of disgust or hatred because of who you are that you wanted to throw? I was five years old when my father moved our family from our loft apartment on Riverside Drive with a doorman on the Upper West Side of New York City to an eleven room palacious home in the Wilshire District of Los Angeles. It was a culture shock to say the least, however, I didn’t know the first thing about race or colorism or Light Girls. The folks that came all dressed to the nines, women wearing in their casual chic jeans and bejeweled tops to sleek classic cuts and make up like pancake and red lips; and the men in their cool slacks and turtleneck sweaters looked crisp and clean on the buzzing streets of New York City. Los Angeles was spread out and the clothes although had the same style imparted a Western laid back flare of Miles’ Cool jazz and sultry garden parties and barbeques.

Facing Freedom-politics-heroines-of-civil-rights-movement-Joann-Gibson-Robinson-vivian-malone-jones-Ella-Baker

My consciousness raising came about in all places elementary school. Where I was approached and asked: Where I lived? What my parents did? And oh yeah, the big one What are you? I had light brown hair with a lot of blonde highlights and my complexion was what was called “Olive”. I always thought olives were green or black. You see, when I would go with my father to rehearsals and recording sessions it was like the United Nations. In the jazz world everyone was welcome. But then the rumblings began. Starting off as slight rumbling and the question turned into a loud roar. Skin color symbolized who and what you were. Interracial slurs were swirling about. The air became suffocating. Now when I look at today and remember back then, only the words have changed…for the worse. Racism, Women’s issues, Gender Issues, there is always some kind of issue. Bottom line I want to change the channel. The cultural insecurities and identities have been called into question and are returning back to the cultural rage that haunted us back then. We need to Feung Shui the cultural situation and seek a consciousness of We Are Who We Are. God and the Universe made us that way. No more trying to bleach or excise what we cannot change. It is time to look back and learn from our past mistakes and stop reinventing issues that tear us and our lives apart.

Folks that were regular faces in our living room in Los Angeles were Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte, Lonetta McKee, Denise Nicholas and her father was a close friend of my father, Lena Horne, Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, but one of our most frequent guests were Abby Lincoln and Max Roach you couln’t have a better cast of characters. I selected Max Roach – Freedom Day because this brings back such fond memories of getting to know them as extraordinary common folks who love to laugh, and enjoy life irrespective of what was going on in the streets and the marches. They embodied what freedom meant and for a mixed little girl like me it made it even harder to go to school and keep that momentum going because of what was going on in the hearts and minds of those that feared our gathering to enjoy each other’s company was a threat to American Life. What do you hear? What sounds do you feel? Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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Inside the Improv Practice ~ RiffShot ~ 5 EZ PZ Ways to Trust Yourself in Times of Trouble featuring Gil Fuller & Monterey Jazz Festival – Things Are Here – Feat. Dizzy Gillespie

Iridium Jazz Club Courtesy of Elements of Jazz dot com

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. ~ Golda Meir

I have been feeling out of sorts and part of the reason is that I have taken my trust in myself and the writing process for granted. I know that it has been my lifetime dream to write, however, I must remind myself that the Writing Life ain’t all flowers and candy. I noticed that I began to feel down, like the feeling one gets after being at a live jazz performance and you are on the way home and the excitement begins to evaporate into a memory. Creating and finishing different parts of my projects has become a crazy ride. It is exciting and intense at times. However, the one thing that I have learned from those sessions, like rehearsal and recording sessions, it is possible to experience both sides of creating and finishing within the same moment. There has to be a rest stop that will allow you to savor and to commit it to memory. But once done, an insidious feeling has a tendency to take me into a “junkie-addicted high” which is not the true feeling of that moment. That kind of high is judgmental and euphoric which hey who doesn’t want to feel “high”. But the type of feeling I am talking about is a sense of accomplishment a sense of really understanding and embracing the process. The key is it can be replicated without any pharmaceutical or mystical inducements. I was lucky to have that experience when I was eleven years old at the rehearsal of Things Are Here and watching and experiencing both my father, the musicians and Dizzy. The snap below is the actual recording session that I attended in 1965 when they were rehearsing and recording this song.

MJFO rehearsal 1965

It is important to give yourself time to meditate and marinate in the emotions and experiences that are running through me in that moment. When I thought that I should not feel that way or my friends would talk about wandering to the dark side and they would begin to have doubts and question their abilities it felt strange, uncomfortable, and alienating. I would feel that way about folks that would hurl disgusted and discriminatory looks at me for being different. The 60’s was no joke when it came to being able to cut those thoughts with a knife. The whole experience can be quite exhausting.

Confidence is not to be confused with arrogance, although when taken overboard it can come across that way. Instead, think of confidence as the juice to jazz your thinking, feeling, and doing in more powerful ways. Rather than second guess yourself every step of the way, or chopping yourself down to size … put a cork in your fear, while uncorking your possibilities. ~ J.D. Meier, Author Getting Results the Agile Way

After any expenditure of energy, there is always a lull or a low point. Lulls can drain your creative inflow and deplete your energy if you choose to. When I feel a lull about to drop into the scene, I get up and either sit and meditate, or I take a break and go for a walk or maybe brew some tea or look at a magazine and sometimes I will go to the easel and start painting whatever comes to mind. If I could still play, I would pick up my guitar. You know what will reinforce your sense of well being. Make the most of it.

Through improvisation, jazz teaches you about yourself. And through swing, it teaches you that other people are individuals too. It teaches you how to coordinate with them. ~ Wynton Marsalis

This is when building my improv practice is so important. My father told me when I was ten years old that I was too sensitive. I thought that there was something wrong with me. I felt powerless, and that was when my childhood friends chimed in and introduced me about having dark thoughts and loosing trust and faith in myself had tried to take residence. But I was simple-minded and an eternal optimist. It never stuck with me, I even tried to find out what suffering meant when Carly Simon sang it, and what it meant to be All By MYSELF damn that hurt.

Self doubt has a way of getting under a person’s skin. For me when those thoughts presented themselves I would break out into hives and the discomfort of it caused me to find ways to CENTER myself and BREATHE. It was not an easy process. I can remember being up all night and beginning to worry that my father would find out.

So let’s skip all the “Let’s get down on ourselves, blah blah blah”. The secret to building an Improv Practice is to begin by Trusting yourself.

Setting the Rhythm

If negative thoughts are filling your mind that are stemming from past experiences or comments from others, staying present and taking deep breaths is key to being able to reset yourself and set up a new rhythm to focus on the positive. Play your favorite song and dance. Mindfulness meditating may help. I love walking meditations out in nature where I pay attention to the water, the flowers and the details and the rhythm of my surroundings.

Create your Melodic improv

If you find that voices of what Singer from Untethered Soul refers to as Roommate in your head or from a super critical friend or parent that are becoming way too loud now it is time to pump up the volume with either drown them out with your own Victory song or favorite chants or mantras.

Take 5 for a Rhythmic Rest

If you are feeling overwhelmed take 5 and step away from what you are working on and change the pace by thinking of something that you are very good at or a creative visualization. Do something with your hands, draw, knit, crochet, a game on your phone, whatever changes the pace.

Creating Your Melodic Invention

It’s play time. It is important to eat and stay hydrated, get plenty of rest and get some exercise. It is important to come up with a wellness routine and to keep a positive environment and attitude. I like to remind myself that I have a roof, plenty of food and everything I need. I like to keep a gratitude journal that I like to put my favorite recipes, poems, things I like and pictures that just make me feel good.

Develop your personality and self expression.

Improv is important to strengthen you from the inside out. You can also reach out and help others by encouraging and supporting them in their dreams or just to lend an ear. Since my folks have passed on, I have not been very successful with finding folks that appreciate kindness and who mistake it is a weakness or an opportunity to express their opinions and discontentment with their own life. I have also realized that it really depends on the relationship that you develop with yourself with respect to trust. If you cannot rely and count on the positive things in your life like, God, the Universe, Life, i.e., then you have not experienced and balanced the good and the bad aspects of every situation in your life. We cannot be constantly in love without experiencing the pain of being hurt. This is another reason I am moving back to San Francisco. Times are hard now and being comfortable with yourself will help you through these times.

It is important to not dwell on any negative subject to long. Keeping a positive attitude may sound daunting and sometimes some folks need a lot of convincing. I can remember speaking with someone who was considerably younger than I am and they looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them what makes them happy. I told them that being able to come up with an answer on the spot has always been rather difficult because I had to really think about it. It comes from developing an inner trust that shows up when we need it the most. Friends and family can disappoint because we must realize that although we are all on this journey together, we are experiencing events based on our own stories. When I learned to separate people pleasing answers from answers from my heart the answer was neither right nor wrong. Building an Improv Practice has been a lot of fun and but the great thing is it can be easily changed to suit the circumstance and the individual that is involved in that moment. Peace and Love Out! JBC 😎 & <3.

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The Sound I felt ~ Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ but A “4” letter Word featuring Jazz Explorers ~ “Village Of Origin”

“If the truth was really known about the origins of Jazz, it would certainly never be mentioned in polite society.” ~ Clay Smith a trombonist wrote in Etude (September, 1924)

The word and concept of ‘Jazz‘ probably comes from a Creole or perhaps African origin, but exact connections have never been proven. According to A Passion for Jazz Jazz aka JAS, JASS, JAZ, JASCZ or just plain JAZZ has been villainized, amoralized, dehumanized, sexualized was considered to come from an extremely low origin, that referred to copulation before it was ever associated to the Arts, i.e., music, dancing, and nonsense phrases like “all that Jazz”. “The vulgar word was in general currency in dance halls thirty years or more ago” (Clay Smith, Etude 9/24). “According to Raven I. McDavid Sr. of Greenville, S.C., the 1919 announcement of the first ‘Jazz band’ to play in Columbia, where he was then serving in the state legislature, inspired feelings of terror among the local Baptists such as what might have been aroused by a personal appearance of Yahweh. Until that time ‘Jazz’ had never been heard in the Palmetto States except as a verb meaning to copulate” (H. L. Mencken, The American Language Raven I. McDavid Jr. 1963). “She never stepped out of line once in all the years we been teamed up. I can’t sell her on jazzing the chump now” (William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley 1946).”

William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley 1946

Jazz has contributed the uniqueness and quirkiness of self-expression and style. In the sixties when I was a teenager, jazz became my refuge, because it was trés cool to be different, odd, imaginative and well just plain different. Back then, being unusual and finding creative ways to solve problems was called “being resourceful”. Today, it is the art of improvisation.

Monk’s Epistrophy became my mantra my manifesto when fighting the war to be hip and finding solace in the counterculture that I could easily blend in with. I didn’t have imaginary friends, I had imaginary scenarios. There was no way I could do the “Hippie” thing although I did defect and do the vegetarian-vegan thing until it began to interfere with going to rehearsals and live recording gigs with my father. Let’s get a closer look at one of the jazz legends I used as a model of modern living and a fortress against all the civil rights carnage and bloodshed that was staining the streets of Los Angeles.

Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including “Epistrophy“, “‘Round Midnight“, “Blue Monk”, “Straight, No Chaser” and “Well, You Needn’t“. Monk is the second-most recorded jazz composer wrote about 70. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk’s unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. Since this was not a style universally appreciated poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as ‘the elephant on the keyboard’. Monk’s manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. He is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time.

Jazz introduced a distinctive musical expression into American culture at the turn of the 20th Century. The presence of jazz became expansive, universal, and prolific. It became the most influential approach to music for all time. Jazz blends diverse contexts by capturing sounds and rhythms transforming them into spontaneous and synchronistic styles that infuse harmonic manipulations and maelstrom rhythms that are featured in solo and group performances. Jazz is an acoustic metaphor of life’s challenges or riffs. Our emotions love, fear, anger, sorrow and joy create a canvas upon which we live. Life’s challenges (riffs) are: abandonment, arrogance, inferiority, rejection and shame. Personal transformation allows us to overcome these riffs. Jazz is a way of dealing with life’s challenges especially through featured solo performances. The formula for a good life is harmony; being able to maintain and live truthfully; showing up and sharing a sense of well-being and interconnectedness with others.

Finally having faith and trusting that these riffs are merely a part of living. For me the biggest riff has always been abandonment beginning when I was just a little chick. It filled the spectrum of being alone, judged and dependent upon everything and one outside of me. Jazz taught me what being in the world and not of it truly means. Joseph Campbell wrote: “The privilege of a lifetime is to be who you are”. Growing up in a jazz filled environment enabled me to see life from a different perspective. I initially saw and felt it when dad was composing and arranging songs. I also witnessed it at rehearsals and live performances on stage. I discovered that I experienced it when I am reading and writing prose and making collages. I had to keep it as a secret because the fear that dad would abandon me became overwhelming. It took many years for me to develop the courage to be me.

So now let’s take a closer look at jazz as an acoustic metaphor of life. The jazz ensemble/orchestra is an acoustic canvas of what I would describe as the ‘good life’. The difference between an ensemble and a classical symphony orchestra is that jazz ensemble/orchestras feature a solo performance that imparts their own style of imagination and creativity and still maintains the harmonic integrity and rhythm of the original melody. Through receptive sensitivity the soloist features their self-expressive performances to the audience. The complex harmony is only possible through playing from a collective score that inspires free musical expression and interacting with one another. The musicians are playing without obstacles or conflict creating a sense of harmony and free style that benefits the greater good of all. There is a sense of self-actualization through a loss of self in the song. The achievement in this case, the song, acts as an internal and interactive transformation between the musicians and the audience. That’s jazz as metaphor and the meaning of the ‘good life’ where the privilege of a lifetime is indeed to be who you are. How about you! What shade is your life? How do you express yourself? Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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A Taste of Jazz ~ EZ PZ Shrimp Étouffée featuring Willie Nelson – “Bright Lights Big City”

Shrimp-Etouffee-Juniper Berries image courtesy of drterrywillard,com

Hey JazzFoodies, Mardi Gras is just around the corner! Creole Cuisine is a contemporary genre of food that was basted in century old, traditional, authentic New Orleans cuisine favorites. Shrimp Étouffée is a dish prepared with the Creole traditional, ancestral counterparts that are rich in flavor, history and culture! This family recipe is simple and filled with a passion for the Creole culture and its cuisine with a keen interest in preserving that culture and its rich culinary history; combined with a commitment to the tradition of the culture’s culinary excellence that is reflected in this recipe that is unsurpassed and gratifying to even the most discriminating palettes!

I selected “Bright Lights Big City” to let you get an acoustic taste of how jazz has and will always be a cross genre sound that is a part of the American Cultural experience. This recipe is a favorite at Mardi Gras especially Fat Tuesday. however, in my family it is just a good and savory favorite recipe best served any time you feel like it! A favorite for summertime dining and family gatherings. Of course it would be complete with spirits to your liking and you guessed it Jazz. Wynton Marsalis, Coltrane, Miles, Freddie, Dizzy or Monk will really set the place on fire. Or for a little romance how about Ella or Sarah, Cleo Lane Shirley Horn, whatever suits your fancy. Enjoy! Bon Appétite! Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Shrimp Étouffée

2 Tbsp Creole Seasoning (my fav is Morton & Bassett)

4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

1/2 Cup Onion, Finely Chopped

1/4 Cup Celery, Finely Chopped

1/4 Cup Bell Pepper, Finely Chopped

1/4 Cup Flour

3/4 Cup fresh Tomatoes, diced

1 1/2 Cups Shrimp Stock* Recipe below #1)

4 Tbsp Minced Garlic

I bundle of Fresh Thyme

2 tsp Homemade Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp Hot Sauce (my favs are Franks or Louisiana Gold)

1/2 Cup Green Onions, thinly sliced

3 Tbsp minced Fresh Cilantro

2 lb Jumbo Shrimp (Raw peeled and cleaned or deveined save the shells for the stock*)

3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

Sea Salt & Ground Black Pepper to your taste

4 cups Boiled Rice

Let’s start with the Shrimp stock

Take the shells and tails that you removed from shrimp (set aside the cleaned shrimp with 1 tbsp Creole spice)

1/2 Cup chopped white onion

1/4 Cup chopped celery

4 Garlic Cloves

sliced whole lemon

2 Fresh Bay Leaves

5 Sprigs Fresh Thyme

1 tsp. Black Peppercorns

Add all ingredients to a 2 qt. saucepan. Cover this with 6 c. cold water. Bring almost to a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer. Simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. Strain. Reserve for recipe below and store the rest in fridge or you can freeze it for future recipes.

Now we are ready for the Étouffée:

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet, add the onions, garlic, bell pepper, and celery and thyme, sauté until translucent. Whisk in the flour to make the roux, stirring constantly, about 3-5 minutes. Add the remaining Creole Seasoning. Add a little amount of the shrimp stock, stir well to a paste consistency, then slowly add the remaining stock 1 ½ c whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Adjust adding stock to make it to the consistency of a gravy.

Add the tomatoes, Worcestershire, and hot sauce, a pinch of salt, black pepper, and Cayenne. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add the shrimp and cilantro simmer until the shrimp are cooked through. Stir in the 3 pats of butter, and adjust the seasonings to your taste.

Serve over boiled white long grain rice and garnish with chopped scallions (green onions). Bon appétit…Peace Out!

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The Sound I felt ~ The Big Riff ~ Facing Reality and Bringing Who You Really Are to Life featuring Herbie Hancock’s – Maiden Voyage

7-rules-of-life-image

“Before, things had to look a certain way for me. In order to experience joy, I had to win: I had to be the best at what I did. If not, there was no joy. Now, that has changed, and you know what left with that? The suffering. That doesn’t mean that I no longer have goals or projects: it just means that my fulfillment no longer depends on their outcome. Now, I put all of my passion into creating and exploring my pursuits, but if something doesn’t turn out as planned, I no longer suffer.” Isha Judd

Wait a minute…that was me for most of my life! Folks would probably describe me as a late bloomer. I hated that term. Living in a world where fourteen year olds are winning The Voice or Master Chef Junior I felt as though I had been wasting my life. So, I had to step back and breathe and take a good look at what was really going on. I grew up in the 60s, yes, that means I am at the age that when I was fourteen was ancient! Ah Oh. But I had to gently remind myself that it is the journey that matters, not the destination…. When I was growing up it was a time in America where everything and anything was being challenged, civil rights, women’s rights, cultural transformation from the 50’s and the Depression Era, technology was in its infancy, so I spent most of my time doing things with my father and hanging in the Jazz world. It was a departure from the racial tension and discomfort of the times. The Hippies were the counterculture that questioned life and departed from the ideals that prevailed in their parents’ generation. So, all things considered, had I not gone through what I did, I would not be who I am today.

Movies of the 60s

Today, putting all of my passion into creating and bringing my pursuits into the light is something that I have to do on a moment to moment basis. Originally my spinney senses believed that it was going to be hard and tedious. I have been mindlessly following my ego around and as a result abandoned all hopes of realizing and actualizing my true creative and imaginative self. The self-criticism and being hard on myself made my life miserable and quite frustrating. I believe that I am a Jazz literary artist and my instruments are words, Improvisation, compassion, and imagination. Mindfulness meditation is a way to clear my path to self expression ~ the greatest form of improvisation, Now I focus on “being” rather than “having”. Living in this moment to its fullest extent instead of a mere object of my desire,. Everything becomes so clear and stands on its own. Desires are my dreams. I realize that what makes it so mysteriously majestic is that I can remain detached from the dream and at the same time attached to feeling and sensations that reside in that moment. In order for improvisation to truly happen, I must to be engaged, and letting go of any attachment of how things “should” look or “be”. This is what brings me so much joy. In this moment I am transformed into this incredible energy of joy because I realize that improvisation is the ultimate art of self-expression. That is my rainbow within, Joy in its purest sense. Letting go and letting the Divine set me free. How about you? Where do you find your energy and passion from within? Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Have a look at Improvisation: The Ultimate Art of Self-Expression — Paul Horn at MUM

The foundation of MUM’s Creative Musical Arts program is the profound connection between music, consciousness, and creativity. This provides a holistic, innovative approach to musicianship that allows each student to develop his/her unique artistic voice.@ http://www.mum.edu/music

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The Sound I Felt ~ Your Choice in Music Tells the World a lot about You! Featuring Smooth Jazz All-Stars – Not a Bad Thing

abstract-art-landscape-metallic-gold-textured-painting-eye-of-the-universe-by-madart-megan-duncanson

“Jazz is the music of the body. The breath comes through brass. It is the body’s breath, and the strings’ wails and moans are echoes of the body’s music. It is the body’s vibrations which ripple from the fingers. And the mystery of the withheld theme, known to jazz musicians alone, is like the mystery of our secret life. We give to others only peripheral improvisations.” ~ Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin

Music is ubiquitous. You cannot ignore it or avoid it. It is the integral part of every civilization and people’s sense of identity. “Without music, life would be a mistake”. Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols. It is the language of moods that are associated with emotions and are manifested in developing musical taste and our personality.

Jazz sends scented notes that linger in the air of life’s story. Brimming with lavender, jasmine, freesia and vanilla draws us deeper within creating a sense of enlightenment and a glimpse of who we are… Only if we stay present and breathe! Jazz provides a cultivating spiritual perspective which embraces all of life and death that can transform our compassion and wellbeing for those who are suffering. It has taught me to appreciate the real person inside of each of us and is the essence of the true human being that is always present that has been distorted by physical and emotional states that clouds our hearts.

Ready to Go by Art of Hope Courtesy of paintingsilove_dot_com

So what does your music tell about your personality? According to Adrian North of Heriot-Watt University “We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality. This is the first time that we’ve been able to look at it in real detail. No-one has ever done this on this scale before.” The studies show that:

Blues fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease.

Jazz fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing and at ease.

Classical music fans have high self-esteem, are creative, introverted and at ease.

Rap fans have high self-esteem and are outgoing.

Opera fans have high self-esteem, are creative and gentle.

Country and western fans are hardworking and outgoing.

Reggae fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease, but not hardworking.

Dance fans are creative and outgoing but not gentle.

Indie fans have low self-esteem, are creative, but not hardworking or gentle.

Bollywood fans are creative and outgoing.

Rock/heavy metal fans have low self-esteem, are creative, gentle and at ease, but not hardworking or outgoing.

Chart pop fans have high self-esteem, are hardworking, outgoing and gentle, but are not creative or at ease.

Soul fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease.

I consider myself musically and spiritually correct. Put another way, I dig it all! Which one describes you? Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

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The Sound I felt ~ Improvisation on a Jazz Literary Canvas ~ Apology Of Genius by Mina Loy Featuring David Sanborn – Tin Tin Deo

Courtesy of by Federico Bebber - Emotion — Courtesy of by Federico Bebber – Emotion

Jazz music should be inclusive. Smooth jazz to me rules out a certain kind of drama and a certain tension that I think all music needs. Especially jazz music, since improvising is one of the cornerstones of what jazz is. And when you smooth it out, you take all the drama out of it. ~ David Sanborn

According to Wordsworth poetry is a matter of mood and inspiration. Poetry evokes feelings from the poet. The source of poetry is the feeling garnered from the heart. It is not the ideas of the intellect. A poet cannot write under pressure. To wit poetry flows out of the heart in a natural and confluent manner. Deep emotion is the basic condition and element of poetry; powerful feelings and emotions are fundamental for a flow of rhythm, spontaneity and utterances from the soul.

Mina Loy born in England worked as a poet and visual artist in Paris, Florence, and New York City, where her beauty and outlandish behavior demonstrated at the center of several avant-garde circles. The eccentric vocabulary and syntax of Loy’s free-verse poems and their sardonic treatment of love can puzzle and offend, but no reader can question the work’s originality nor the poet’s fierce intelligence. In the top of the 20th Century when Jazz was born as a new American cultural art form Mina repleat with swagger, style, panache challenging the upper crust society in America and dropping and become part of the scene in New York City. Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Mina Loy Artist Courtesy of AskArt_dot_com

Apology Of Genius

by Mina Loy

Ostracized as we are with God
The watchers of the civilized wastes
reverse their signals on our track

Lepers of the moon
all magically diseased
we come among you
innocent
of our luminous sores

unknowing
how perturbing lights
our spirit
on the passion of Man
until you turn on us your smooth fools’ faces
like buttocks bared in aboriginal mockeries

We are the sacerdotal clowns
who feed upon the wind and stars
and pulverous pastures of poverty

Our wills are formed
by curious disciplines
beyond your laws

You may give birth to us
or marry us
the chances of your flesh
are not our destiny —

The cuirass of the soul
still shines —
And we are unaware
if you confuse
such brief
corrosion with possession

In the raw caverns of the Increate
we forge the dusk of Chaos
to that imperious jewellery of the Universe
— the Beautiful —

While to your eyes
A delicate crop
of criminal mystic immortelles
stands to the censor’s scythe

Featured

A Taste of Jazz ~ EZ PZ Creole Steampot featuring Keiko Matsui – Crescent Night Dream

N'AWLINS BEST

Hey JazzFoodies, speaking about improvisation and variety being the spice of life…One thing I learned when I was young is that Jazz has always set the timbre of my life. The tempo may change, the phrasing may repeat, but with music as your muse, you will always as Ralph Ellison coined it…live with music or die with noise. I hope you dig the variety I selected today…A family fav and poetry.

Creole Steampot

In the Mix:

Large Shrimp de-headed, but with shells on

Old Bay Seasoning

Tony Chacheres Original Creole Seasoning (my fav is Morton and Bassett)

2 tbs. black pepper corns

2 large heads of garlic remove skin, discolored pieces and stems (or you could use 2 pkg. peeled garlic)

2 Clusters of Dungeness Crab (approx. 1 lb)
6 Large Shrimp de-headed, but with shells on
1 pkg. Andouille sausage links (chicken is my favorite) sliced on an angle
2 Fresh Corn on the Cob (or you could use cut corn on cob in 3” to 4” pieces)
5-10 little red potatoes with

Two Halves make a whole:
For Garlic Boil: Place garlic and black peppercorns with about 2” water the stock pot (with steamer basket separated). Bring temperature to high then lower heat to maintain a simmer for minimum of 30 minutes. Boil red potatoes until tender about 20 minutes before adding the steampot. Put corn in garlic boil approximately 6 minutes.

Crab Legs: *Note: While garlic boil is simmering,, rinse and rest crab and shrimp with sprinkled sea salt. Also, saute sausage until have a slight carmelized chard.

When the boil is completed, remove the potatoes and corn and place into steamer basket. with crab legs, shrimp, sausage and place basket over the garlic bath (add more water if necessary) and heat and 6 -10 minutes. In a big mixing bowl add Old Bay seasoning, Creole seasoning and melted butter using a rubber spatula mix to incorporate well. Remove crab from garlic bath and add to the mixture add to mixing bowl. Toss bowl with ingredients or mix with a rubber spatula. Transfer mixture onto a platter and serve immediately. Add more seasoning to taste. Bon Appétit! Now that’s Jazz.. Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Featured

The Sound I felt ~ “Timbre in the Key of Life” by Jannát Marie Featuring an Acoustic Style Lesson Susan Anders – Lullaby Of Birdland Style Work: Texture & Timbre Changes

Classical Net ~ Books About Music Courtesy of classical_dot_net

Listening is the most luminous, challenging and contemplative form of art….Mark Nepo

The secret to living musically is to focus our ability to identify or discern the timbre of a voice, a guitar, noise even the sounds of daily life. It is the same as the style of clothing that you choose to wear. Do not be concerned with being fashionable, ‘cuz’ we are searching for the truth in our hearts and experiencing our intuitive self-expression. We are getting a deeper understanding of life, ourselves as well as of one another. In jazz, listening is the portal to experiencing life through: Rhythm, style, arrangement, sound, forms, arrangement and improvisation. Listening intentionally makes the sounds of life come true. Hearing is the foyer to listening in the parlor, where self-analysis leads to a better understanding of yourself and others. I had a conversation the other day and it felt as though they were not listening. I could tell from the questions they asked. It has become commonplace and superficial in its nature. Your voice is not heard because of the weeds that grow out of only hearing, and not engaging. It is a symphony of cacophony. The sounds at the end of the day left me feeling barren and alone. I befriended my voice in my head, only to hear how sterile and contrived it had become. It was a conspiracy of nay-Sayers that only feel the darkness of the light. Hard hearted they come and crowd my voice from my soul. It is only temporary and can turn on me at any given moment. Illusion personified by benign neglect. Reading aloud in a language you cannot speak. To have ears, that had become defended by the madness of society. Rationalizing the sounds in an attempt to make sense of something it will never possess. Here is a free verse poem I wrote about “Listening to the Life Within”. Can you feel and hear within the Liminal spaces of our lives?

Timbre in the Key of Life

By Jannàt Marie

Life’s cadence moved clouds into shadows.

tonality and voicing askew.

Began as a thought.

Rhythm assigned to scented beats.

A picture in a thousand chords

Reveals culture’s war

emerging over time “freeing” the heat

flavored emotional riffs.

Listening in a seasoning thyme

Tasting metaphors and memories

hot crusted timbre singing

a cry of desperation.

Feeling the sounds glorious sun

seeing the warm breeze of acoustic phrases

offering forgiveness

Hearing life’s rhythm in 4/4 time

senses filled with harmony

where counterpoint to point meet

at the synergy of knowing

equality of rights anoint supremely

dancing in the darkness’ minor riffs

becomes the conspiracy of

living your truth.

As a special treat I took a Voice Lesson to learn how to read my prose as a writer. My father taught me how to sight sing, however, the Voice lessons of putting sound to your writing is quite different and yet similar in the sense of feeling the words through your ears. Give a listen to Susan Anders as she schools us on the versatility and magic of creating your own style. Peace & Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Featured

The Sound I felt ~ Improvisation on a Jazz Literary Canvas ~Self Imag(I)nation by Jannàt Marie featuring Charles Mingus – Self Portrait in Three Colors with Romare Bearden on Odessey…A Trip of Self Discovery on Canvas

Happy New Year! Walden chronicles Thoreau‘s exploration of his capabilities and search for spiritual understanding. Thoreau recounts his personal journey of daily life and the obstacles that materialistic society places in the path of the person. We all must discover our spiritual truth that lies at the end of the journey. Thoreau focuses on the quest and our compelling need to better understand life and humanness. Walden reflects Thoreau’s spiritual growth, and as with all of our lives, the progress of this growth is not linear. It has peaks and valleys, periods of latency as well as of inspired perception. So let’s begin our 2015 jazz journey with the first step and set this year on fire! Blessings and may your year be full of grace, joy and enlightenment. I wrote this poem last year around this time because, I consider every day as a blank canvas in life’s journey where there are no expectations, fear only that we breathe, have faith and always remembering to breathe…Peace and Love Out! JBC 😎 & ❤

Self Imag(I)nation

by Jannàt Marie

I don’t care how many masters exist.

I am curious to know if you have discovered

Who You truly are or

are you still trying to fit in and find yourself?

I am curious to know if you have felt misery or

can you hear it in our children?

Are you living in the world?

or are you of this world?

With its oppressive nexus to

make you conform when reflecting

through fine tuned ears,

Proclaiming THIS IS WHO I AM!

Are you improvising how to

thrive in the cultural inferno by

leaning in to the center of your dreams

Accepting to live in every present moment

remaining rooted in a universal love

fully aware you can consciously re-Create

the misguided missives

that originated in Cultural deceit.

Featured

The Sound I felt ~ Running Riff Changes for Your Life in 2015 Featuring Lee Ritenour’s – “A New Day”

New Day - an original watercolor painting by Chidi Courtesy of modernartimages_dot_com — New Day – an original watercolor painting by Chidi Courtesy of modernartimages_dot_com

“Art is the act of triggering deep memories of what it means to be fully human.” ~ David Whyte

“Changes” according to A Passion For Jazz refers to the chords or progressions of a tune. ‘Playing’ or ‘running’ the changes means using suitable scales, etc., over each given chord of the tune. Determining the exact changes to use is a big part of preparing a tune for performance. Metaphorically changes refer to the choices that we make to create and give structure to our lives. I woke up this morning and realized that changes are the only constant in life. A willingness to continue running and playing with these changes affects how it feels to be fully human. I am trying to remain calm when living and thriving beyond my Breast Cancer diagnosis and the complications that arise along the way. Stress makes the experience torturous and quite unpleasant and disquieting. Every day can change some good and some not so good. I cannot afford to be afraid. It is necessary for my daily improvisational practice to have faith that whatever comes into my life, I will breathe so that I can tap into my soul and find the rhythm for me to live, love and expand. Breast Cancer is my third Game Changer not counting getting older!

I selected Lee Ritenour’s A New Day because it reinforces and embraces the concept of accepting as well as the actualization of living a fully liminal life. Give a listen. When I listen intentionally it takes me back and reminds me of It’s a Wonderful Life this black and white classic captures the paradox that seems contradictory but reveals a truth. Joy and sorrow are contradictory emotions but if you think about they both require passion (just like love & hate). Gibran wrote “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” We all live in this paradox. We must have sorrow to allow the grace of joy and serenity. The change is that knowing this truth opting to accept both feelings.

Sailing boats,Large original painting,Large abstract art,Large abstract canvas - Courtesy of etsy_dot_com — Sailing boats,Large original painting,Large abstract art,Large abstract canvas – Courtesy of etsy_dot_com

I am looking forward to seeing life through a rearview mirror. Allowing my memoir to take form gives me an immense sense of hope, faith and forgiveness. Improvisation facilitates changes. Learning to write according to my temperament is a heady experience. I have found what works for me in each present moment. It gives our sensibilities to feel alive and energized. Besides hearing the song my father wrote for me endlessly playing in the back of my mind, it reminds me of hearing my father’s voice saying you are too sensitive making me feel like it is some grand defect. Fear pierces the veil running its course distorting and translating those words to mean, you’re not good enough, you’ll never get it. Change is life’s mainstay. Perfection, fear and change cannot occupy the same space. So, this past week I opted for change. Life has become way more fun, open and I accept the imperfections because they are part of the process. The discomfort creeps in particularly a fear of sailing into uncharted waters. Now it serves as a gentle reminder evoking me to be creative. Letting go of disappointments and how things were, no matter how fractured things may seem, is not an easy task. It takes a ginormous amount of energy and courage to let go because it is an inside job. It instills grace. Grace to forgive myself and others, to let go of ideas of who I am or should be and how I think things and others should be. Surrendering and replacing my old negative thoughts with hope, love and freedom. Change happens whether I choose to be a part or not. This has been the most exhilarating week. So bring on the past memories. Either way I am blessed. I have battened down the hatches in preparation for the Tsunami that is approaching! Kind words and prayers are welcome. In the midst of cleaning my personal space these thoughts are floating through my mind preparing me for what Joel Osteen refers to it as “Your Season” and with that comes a process that we all must get though with a sense of timing and rhythm that will prepare you for the life you want.

Visualizing... expressive use of movement and motion—but for the first time, they're leaving behind abstraction and rooting the visuals in real life. — Visualizing… expressive use of movement and motion—but for the first time, they’re leaving behind abstraction and rooting the visuals in real life.

P.S. Every one of us needs to identify the things we don’t understand. When things come up that are confusing, frustrating or you can’t figure out; that is when patience and breathing will allow the changes to manifest. The New Year is a perfect time to make it a part of your daily improvisational practice repertoire. Let go of old frustrations and the negative voices that are running through your mind. Let go of the bitterness and resentment and choose to feel as though it is a new beginning. Don’t put a question mark where God and the universe have placed a period. Trust that all is good. Trust that the universe is conspiring to working things out for the greater good. Keep breathing, believing, meditating and hoping for the future. Let go of the things and people who didn’t work out in 2014 and gear up for the new season that God and the Universe has in store for you in 2015! Peace & Love Out! Happy Nu Year! JBC 😎 & ❤

This material is has been copyrighted, feel free to share it with others; it can be distributed via social media or pingbacks and added to websites; please do not change the content, give credit by including the author’s name @ http://jazzybeatchick.com and your readers shall not be charged by you under any circumstance.

Tell It Slant Tuesday ~ an Improvised Mindfulness Meditation ~ Sounds In the Wind – First Love featuring a Video Snap ~ 10 Minute Loving Kindness Meditation – New Mindful Life

Lovers_embrace Courtesy of themindfulnessclinic.ca

Sounds In the Wind

First Love

By Jannat Marie

The first muted note

That caresses your face

A dream that spoke

Beating in a syncopated space

Covering your heart’s sacred place.

Discordant suffocating breath

Ravaging the spirits with ornamented ghost notes of death

This is the choice and the sphere

Wild dancing kicks through fears.

This is the song’s laconic ennui

Nestled close to the quick

Evaporating and setting you free

Scented riffs that do the trick

Through sounds tortuous licks.

Sounds of a child’s love that pleases

Lingering in your ears

Making you do anything with ease

Choreographed an improvised life, replacing fear

Remembering the first sounds of love always appear.

Published on Oct 7, 2013

This guided mindfulness meditation helps to cultivate gratitude and present moment awareness.

My TEDx Talk

This post is the highest form of creatively Improvising life. Now that’s what I’m talking about….Great read! Peace Out! JBC ♥

One therapist's opinion about music, the brain, and life.

I’m happy to announce that in November of 2015, I had the opportunity to give a talk at a local TEDx event. If you had asked me previous to the experience if I ever thought I would give a TED talk, I would have said, “Ha, sure; maybe in 20 years”. I entirely have my husband to thank (blame) for this opportunity as he was the one who saw the initial flyers advertising applications and who believed that I had something interesting to share with the community, and ultimately, the internet world.

TEDx events are smaller, independently run, versions of a larger TED conference that is held each year. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design and the program runs with the intentions of spreading ideas. TEDx events are run by an independent organization at the local level to help create a “TED-like” community. The event that I participated in…

View original post 407 more words

Grace Notes to My Father

by Jannat Marie

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“If Music is a Place — then Jazz is the City, Folk is the Wilderness, Rock is the Road, Classical is a Temple.” ― Vera Nazarian

by T. S. Eliot