Authenticity

As I listened to the Daraja Children's Choir sing at church this morning, I wondered why Americans in general are so enthralled by sugarcoated, uninspired things. No offense intended to the choir, as I rather enjoyed their 1st piece, an (to my semi-trained ears) authentic Kenyan spiritual song, and thought that the kids sounded great. However, the entire rest of the program consisted of Americanized pop/worship, with the emphasis no longer even on the choir, but the adult mentor/leader with his generic "soul" voice. The choreography that pervaded the show was also bothersome to me. I don't need to be entertained to worship. This is a trend (don't know if that's a fair term) that really irks me, the totally fake dancing/swaying/clapping that music ministers like to introduce to give the music an immediate emotional impact; but to me it just underscores the lifeless performance usually given to music performed in church. Forgive me for my callousness to whatever "Christian" music is....going to listen to the crickets chirping God's harmony outside right now...

Improv in life

Here is what many people (erroneously) consider to be the original example of modal improvisational music. In this song, I find inspiration for how I try to live my life- that is, keeping my focus in the right areas and taking things as they come. Let me explain a little. This newly invented "modal" style featured a fundamental shift in the way jazz was approached. Instead of complicated chordal changes, which effectively limited the number of scales the soloist could use to improvise with, the new approach was more minimalistic. The songs on this album (Miles Davis- "Kind of Blue") were very simple, with only a few chord changes that never strayed too far from the tonal center of the song, but this gave the musicians much more freedom when choosing notes in their improvisations, putting an increased emphasis on collaborative listening and choosing notes that sounded "right" within the context of what the other musicians were playing at the time. You might think this made the music boring (and I'm sure some jazz enthusiasts do not like modal jazz as much as other, more complex types) but in my opinion, this simplified approach is much more interesting and emotional. A mode is simply a scale (ie Do Re Mi Fa So La Te Do). However, this scale can be rearranged (ie Mi Fa So La Te Do Re Mi) to create dramatic changes in mood (there is certainly more to it than that but I am not a musical theory expert by any means). You can hear an example of this at 3:55 when Coltrane changes modes and creates a more wistful atmosphere for about 12 seconds. Before this modal approach, the complex chord changes kept these note choices to a minimum, and the emphasis was placed more on virtuosity rather than beauty created in the moment in my opinion. This approach gives us valuable insights into life. Instead of letting the complexities/activities of life distract us from what is important (the "tonal center", or God, family, etc) it is more productive to use this center as a guiding force in our "note" choices. This ultimately gives us more freedom in our choices in our own lives, much like is referenced here:

Galatians 5:1
"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."

The "yoke of slavery" here is analagous to complex chord changes in music, or the choices we make to take us away from our true focus in life.

Another parallel I draw from this music is how the spontaneously created collective improvisation is a also useful approach for our lives. I believe it is important that we are able to adapt to the world around us, yet many people simply do not choose to do this, instead keeping tunnel vision on their own day-to-day problems, prejudices, and opinions. Instead of playing the best solo that we can, while blocking out everything else, why don't we listen to the other players and create something unique and spontaneous? The recent earthquake in Haiti brought out what I consider to be an embarrassing example of this closed minded way of thinking. Pat Robertson implied on his show "700 Club" that the Haitian people are cursed because of a pact with the devil they made 200 years ago. To be clear, I do not claim to know God's designs for things, but I do know that it was hurtful to the cause of Christianity for him to make these comments. He should have been listening to the cries of the hurting people in Haiti and focusing on loving them and showing them Christ, rather than his selfish attitude of blame and scorn. To his credit, his company CBN did donate time and money to the relief efforts, but his comments drew the ire of people in Haiti (not to mention the rest of the world), hurting the chances that these efforts could be used to open people's hearts and minds to Christ.

Hope you enjoy the video, it is a watermark performance in the history of jazz.

Just getting started.....

I have some ideas for this in the future, we will see how they pan out.....