After finishing up my latest recording project, I spent a lot of time thinking about what my bass player, Russel, said to me. He was here for only a short time on the ship, but his reinforcement and encouragement left a massive impact on me. He and I agree already agree on so much, but there was one night when we talked about how and why music is so powerful. I took every word to heart, for this man has not only played with some of the great legends in music, but has seen and experienced life upon its whole spectrum, from the bad to the good to the divine. His thesis was that musicians are priests, speaking a higher word for the masses.
Using my ever-increasing travel experiences and my ever-evolving outlook on life to reflect on his words, I came to this conclusion:
It’s not all about the music.
Music is indeed powerful. It is more pure--and can communicate better than--human
speech. It stirs our emotions
tremendously, giving something deep and meaningful to us. But some musicians focus too much upon
music alone.
As immense as its potential is, music is one part of the
Equation. It is part of the Equation
of meaning. Of life, existence,
the world, God, religion, human nature.
The universe and all of its components, from the smallest particle to
the largest strand of galaxies.
Music, as part of the Equation, helps guide us through the rest of the Equation.
Music is not meant to be confined to one’s own skill
sets. It is made to help
communicate the rest of the Equation to others. Music and its meaning flows through musicians; they, and
their skill sets, are the vessel for the rest of the Equation. Indeed, musicians are preachers.
They must therefore embrace all of what life has to offer, and not just music.
If they do this, they will start to love music more than
they’d ever thought possible. They
will become better at their craft than they’d ever thought possible, driven by
the desire to express the deepest qualities of living.
You can find my project, called "A Ship Sesh," on my SoundCloud page. There are three tracks, and they are free to download:
No comments:
Post a Comment