Gabe's

Some of these faces are new of course. Everywhere you go people are they same, just little differences in interesting ways. New coworkers in this journey we call the study of music. I say coworkers for I don’t have a better label. Colleague is too vague and formal or something. It is work that we are doing. A work. Creating a work that only has value in the moment it is created. Not before and only in the hearts of listeners after, and only in the rarest of occasions for an extended time in the life of those listeners, and hardly ever for a lifetime. The value is always there for the givers, but it is work. Work to be paid for the doing. This leads me to to a fork in the road…veer right on the path of moneyed works or steer left and take a gamble on truth. The voice of truth.

This voice inside all of us that cries out for freedom, our voices that wish to say our truth. For some, they say it loud and proud, for others, they falter and live in fantasy of the past greatness of other explorers that had courage. So, do you think it matters more how you say it, or what you say? The path of least resistance might-lead to one over another, but I certainly think there is only one humanistic answer to this question. Talking about music of course, is a metaphor for so much in life. The word and deed are so powerful, yet it is the least powerful among us that can move our hearts so far toward the path of truth. I’m thinking of Jimmy Scott or Lester Young or those who say so much in such a gentle, slightly silent way. And their are those who are so unabashedly real, so human they frighten others. Miles comes to mind of course, Wynton now I think too, in a way. And those who say it SO loud and proud like ‘THE MAN’ Mr. Ralph Peterson, apprentice to the great Mr. Art Blakey. Ralph is a voice of such focused will and truth that it has been rarely heard by those that need to hear and understand it the most. It’s amazing how this life can lead us astray. Things are changing for Ralph and for our betterment. He took from Mr. Blakey the elusive torch of Time Bender – one who shades space and sonic time at ONCE with many-rhythm and tempi that reach inside of you, so you hear time and space as it should be heard, truthfully.

There are too many, I think, that are afraid to try to reach for their truth. To…dip their toes in the pool of their own dreams. The reality that could be of their own making, or to trust in another and have the courage to accept what you hear, in the moment, and make the most of that moment. Because, it seems as though all we have are moments. And to follow the will of another and not judge it and react in an unnatural way. To accept a creator’s instinct and to let another lead you to the path of truth.

Where to go now? I want to speak plainly but I cannot. I what to say exactly what I mean, but I will not. To talk with out redundancy and contradiction…it isn’ t in me! It isn’t in me and I don’t think it should be. Nothing is perfectly perfect. The truth is never perfect. That’s a funny thing to say – how can it not be so, it’s reality, it’s truth? It’s a judgement call, perfection is. Truth for us people is usually thought of as cold, heartless, and mean. The awful truth is that the only-truth is in the heart of the creator. I mean the creator of the moments. The people who wield an iPod or rock-the-mic. The sorceror that writes the fugue onto score paper and the magicians that study it to recreate that timeless moment.

We all must work. We all must eat. We all must play. What I’m troubled with is the nature of work and how we hold it in our hearts like it has power over us and not the opposite.

The heritage of the music is always speaking to us. I hear it screaming, SCREAMING! Do you understand? It is so much more than it appears. It should be clear that powerful messages are communicated through the music. Some refuse to give in and dive into that pool of truth. They avoid the issue, and many have wonderful careers and make others happy – but they concentrate on the saying and not the message.

Well I understand that this is elusive and not clear, but I know that some of my audience will understand almost every word. Our instincts tell us when something is strange, new, or unfamiliar. It is beholden to us, the human family, to not react in fear and denigrate the stranger. We ABSOLUTELY can work together. The judges among us are needed. But they are up on their courts and we all’s on the dance floor.