T r A n S i T i O n S

Not to be confused with Denzel Washington,Jamphel Yeshi,or Richard Pryor,brother Bern Nix is a man on fire in 2013.In the trenches working on a quartet for the past couple of years we made our move on the studio this week thanks to bassist Francois Grillot.Now is the time to strike with the reality of a Vision Festival concert this June 14th.Were even talking to a good friend of ours in Europe about 2014.Boom.

Indeed.The VF main stage at 7:30 on a Friday night.Not my gig,but I'm amped up like Buddy Bolden at sunrise.I even hear EMINEM setting the tone from his piece "Lose Yourself"..

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime

I saw a video of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong backstage once when Duke told Pops he had a problem with being nervous on stage and said he had stage freight..(he was smiling when he said it)..I'll never forget Louis response.."Stage fright? What's that? You Blowin' man!"

Were all amped up for Bern and sure as hell won't get bugged out by a big audience and a big stage.It's like Eminem said..(Daniel Carter would be proud of me for joining forces with Rap).

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

Like I said,not my gig..but a chance to blow in a quartet with Bern at the Vision is a top level experience in my community and my reality and the only option is to raise the horn up and do what must be done.

Bern and I are tight and both vibe off our time living in planet OC.Were Harmelodic but we swing more than bop.We also have a lot of fun.Coming back from the studio we created a skit about Ornette being the mystery guest on the old game show "What's My Line?",where blindfolded celebrities ask questions to discover who the mystery guest is.Duke and Louis appeared on this show in real life,scope youtube.

In our skit Ornette is the guest..

First Celebrity:"Are you an actor or a musician?"

Ornette:"What's the difference between an idea and a unison?"

Celebrity:"What? whatever are you suggesting?"

mayhem ensues. . . . . .

The large scale view of Jazz to the american public has always been strange to me.Those of us who are on the inside so to speak don't realize that the vast majority of people don't hear and get off on Jazz like we do.As soon as Bebop heads started we started losing people right there.Free Jazz is like a footnote in a book to some people rather than the vital spiritual transformational life changing music that it really is.

Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock one night.Tracy is a comedian but comedians can get real sometimes coming from a different perspective.Tracy came right out and said it one episode,I don't remember the context.

"White people stole Jazz."

It wasn't Wynton explaining it via Ken Burns on PBS,it was stated as fact during prime time on a sitcom.Then there was that time Stanley Crouch called a bunch of Hip Hop guys minstrels on Oprah one day.Fists ready to fly,Oprah dipped out for an extended commercial break.

Back to brother Bern,the quartet is ready to transition into whatever next level we can become.All four of us have faced adversity force level 5.All 4 of us slowly climbing the 5 floors to rehearsal the other day I wondered how the 4 of us were even able to be in the same place at the same time making music."How are we even here doing this?" I asked the guys.Fact remains that not only are we together,but we have what some people consider the gig of a lifetime coming up.It's on now.We have to ride out this Interstellar Transition and become what's on the other side.

TRANSIT   ION

Extracting the word Transit from the great Trane record Transition I can connect Trane's music to the brutal astrological transits of Saturn and Pluto.Pluto(pictured below),is the force that leads us to transform or perish,evolve or die.Pluto just moved into my first house.The average temperature on Pluto is a balmy -375 degrees F.

I'm turning right to Bern's music to assist.Tunes like "Less is More",and "Don't try so hard" are the exact vibes I need to tune into.

Especially after what I just learned or was able to remember,not sure which one..



Turns out that when you graduate Earth you simply become a baby on the next level..


so CHILL.

To be continued at 4:30 today at the Brecht Forum with the Bern Nix quartet.
 


For Eddie Brock 


 



*** 

the other side..

                                                      with Dave Liebman

Yesterday at the Ash my friend Jerry Dodgion came by while we were all gathered around watching a Mingus concert on our store video screen.As I got him some reeds he told me he saw that band live and would never forget it.Yes,the band with Eric Dolphy,Clifford Jordan,Johnny Coles,Jaki Byard,and Danny Richmond.Jerry dropped this bomb on me,a beautiful bomb.JD is a sweet cat.

"In the middle of the set Mingus went to the mic and told the audience.."Everyone in this band thinks there a motherfucker.Bird needed 3 choruses to say something.If you need more than 3 and you haven't said anything yet than you don't have anything to say,which means you are no motherfucker."  

Boom.Doing your own band on stage?! I've been dressed down before myself,but never that overtly in a direct address to the gathered listeners.Mingus's words are heavy on me,taking an 11 minute solo on my last record.Course if you play OC style the structure is ahem,freed up.I still keep thinking about how Monk said OC was nuts.One time at OC's we sat and listened to a Monk birthday broadcast on WKCR for a couple hours,just sat and listened.

Back to the ASH,I'm reflecting that In order to survive as a musician I have had lots of crazy jobs,yes..telephone psychic for a year comes to mind.None of them however has allowed me to cross paths with people from all over the world of Jazz on a daily basis.

Bob Mover,soul brother number one..

"I did the big Central Park stage with Chet Baker,and we had to follow George Benson who was huge at the time.People were ready to groove and Chet tried to drop My Funny Valentine.Were lucky we made it out of there alive.Afterwords when people thought I was the sax player with George,I just went with it."

Sonny Fortune when I asked him about playing with Elvin..

"As close to sex as music can get."

Steve Turre when I asked him about Woody..

"We could go to a piano and play any sequence of notes up and down the keyboard,and without looking Woody could tell you every note from bottom to top.No matter how complicated we made it he always got it right.His ears were that good."

ST on Rahsaan Roland Kirk..

"One time we were all sitting in a room and RRK turned the lights out making the room pitch black so we couldn't even see our hands.Now you motherfuckers are just like me!"

I see almost everybody up in there at some point,from Paquito D'Rivera who is mad funny,to Claudio Roditi who showed me how to spot harmon mute defects,to Jon Faddis,who blew my spot on my grammar madness in my book but had a great idea on what to do with it,to Slide Hampton,to Roswell Rudd who refered to Giuseppi Logan as genius,to James Carter who always hangs out with us in tenor town.Just met Rene McLean yesterday and had to bring up Let Freedom Ring.I rapped with Ravi Coltrane bout' Interstellar Space.Whenever brother Will Connell stops by I stop everything and just roll with him.I also have had the pleasure of having sold many of my close friends saxophones,including Ras Moshe,Sabir Mateen,and Charles Gayle.Boom.The list of friends and family and stories they tell goes on and on.It's what Jazz really is at the heart,a long tradition of story telling and information being passed on and on.I have more stories that you'll have to see me in person to get.GOLD.

So I've had worse jobs,and I have health insurance.Not getting my whine on as I have been accused of before.I just want to join everybody on the other side of the counter you dig.Everybody knows I play but most of them haven't heard me do what I really want to do.By and large I'm the Sam Ash motherfucker. 

But as I always say,you have to be alive to play.Live to play.Coming up when and how I have,I have never been able to leave the survival system and just live off my art,..yet.Musicians that live on the EDGE come into the Ash every day to.If you live on the street to long,eventually you BECOME the street,and I can say straight up that's not my path.I've gotten to close for comfort before.If I was born back in the day I like to think I could have gotten a trumpet chair with Duke and that I would have stayed for life.

I was able to cut myself down from that tree I wrote about last week.I was indeed able to do everything in the first paragraph.The body always wins I like to say..it cannot be challenged.My medical drama pushed me into the most profound internal transformation I've had in years.A new perspective on body and soul eh? Even deeper,the whole time I spent 2 to 3 hours a day playing and I found new music.Music I would never have found If I wasn't going through a personal crisis of sorts.The key? Staying calm and moving forward.



Now to meet you motherfuckers on the other side..



You dig..


 
 

   
 
For every Mom on Earth . . . .

The Hanged Man

Letting go.Having an emotional release.Accepting what is.Surrendering to experience.Ending the struggle.Being vulnerable and open.Giving up control.Accepting God's will.Reversing.Turning the world around.Changing your mind.Overturning old priorities.Seeing from a new angle.Supending the old order.Doing an about-face.Suspending action.Pausing to reflect.Feeling outside of time.Taking time to just be.Giving up urgency.Living in the moment.Waiting for the best opportunity.Sacrificing.Being a martyr.Renouncing a claim.Putting self-interest aside.Going one step back to go two steps forward.Giving up for a higher cause.Putting others first.Shedding skin.Releasing regret.Owning choices.Total Submission.Understanding Self-Healing is the path to mastery.All Pain brings periods of spiritual growth.

I have a rough draft of a book I'm going to write called The Jazz Musicians Tarot Deck.I might even make the deck and paint all the cards myself.Before that however I'll have to cut myself down from the tree I'm currently hanging upside from.I'm the Hanged man you see,starting on my birthday this year until April 2014. . . 

 

My boy Charlie Brown here has a thing about getting stuck in patterns.He needs some of the first paragraph above,the core meaning and process of the Hanged Man.I'm hanging right beside him in one of the biggest transformations in my life to date as I claim my true power and prepare to begin a completely new life.It's time for me to become the Hierophant you see.Just like John Coltrane,my birthday signifies that being the Hierophant is who I am and my core purpose.That's the thing about Tarot and Astrology..if you go deep with it you find things about yourself that are simply true weather you want to see it or not.Don't want to see it? No problem,you can just go hang upside down in a tree for a year until you do. 

 

Pursuing knowledge.Becoming informed.Increasing understanding.Studying and learning.Seeking a deeper meaning.Finding out more.Hierophants you dig.

 

 

As usual over here at Fat Eb the only way through the valley is to play and write my way through it.My blog improvisation self-therapy is a creative attempt to write as a method to become who I have always been but tried to deny.When I get a horn out I get to FEEL the emotions I'm trying to purge.Thank God I had two amazing musical events this week at the same time my knee drama was taking center stage.Peep this:

 

 

This one was a real ear opener for me.Chris Kelsey put together an amazing group of musicians.Many of them are based outside NYC which proved to me further that you no longer have to be in NYC to roll at the high levels.That perspective has died.Chris Rich has been telling me to get out of dodge for quite some time now.I have always felt a strong connection to Miles electric music,but always viewed from the shore until now.Melodies like Agharta and Black Satin..they don't just get inside your head,they get inside your BLOOD and stay there,almost haunting you.

 

In fact I put up on Facebook earlier that day:

 

"Just got a text from Miles.If you play any of my shit tonight I'll lock your valves and leave you with a broke ass bugle"..

 

I didn't need Miles to run the voodoo down on me.I dodged him for the most part except for one run in the upper register when I just said freak it and went there.I saw him in the mirror in the Green Room staring at me.

 

Next night I found myself sharing the stage with Ted Daniel,Flip Barnes,and Asim Barnes.Trumpet Nemesis has returned and is here to stay.Trumpet brotherhood..we got down and had some stories to tell.Wasn't about who had a triple high C or who could devastate the bridge to Cherokee..was bout getting REAL,and for me about hanging upside down in tree.Turns out I could still play that way without passing out.

 

Sunday I started a long term idea with my new friend John Pietaro..Monk tunes with Vibes and Alto Clarinet.Don't worry we ain't gonna just run them down Aebersold style,NAH.Now it's off to rehearse with master Bern Nix for a big Vision Festival hit.

 

Yes...Friday June 14th 7:30 Vision Festival main stage.The Year of abundance is ON. . . .

 

 

Now to just get myself down from this tree.

 

 

Anybody out there that can help cut me down?

 

 

 

Hello...

 

 

 

Anybody?

 

 

 

 

 

....

 

 

TBC  5/19 at the Jayne Cortez tribute at the Brecht with Bern,and then 5/28 Matt Lavelle solo at Freddy's Bar and grill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

 

 

 

Attained:The Complete Sun Ship

Finding out on Facebook that the complete Sun Ship recording was coming out I was shocked to search John Coltrane on Spotify at work a week later and suddenly see it just sitting there on the screen.It wasn't the right environment to resonate with music containing vast amounts of spiritual power.I was tight that I couldn't download it right away,Amazon somehow beat Itunes to the punch.  

f          l          a           s           h        *      *    *  * *

I'm in class at Harmelodic University and have made the bold move to ask OC to listen to my record Spiritual Power..

"The reason you sound so good is the very high quality of your environment"

I couldn't wait to tell Michael TA Thompson and Hilliard Greene the reaction.Listening to the complete Sun Ship I'm seeing crystal clear that John Coltrane had one of the greatest environments that ever existed in Jazz.It's THE mark that it's not about having sidemen,it's about a group of true individuals that could create something truly powerful together.Duke wrote for his main guys,but down to a quartet Trane could create the perfect blend.I have taken this lesson very seriously myself.Getting the chance to hear the quartet creating Sun Ship was unexpected and next level.    

I had heard that Trane didn't say much,that he would most times just start playing but here we get to see the music unfold at his direction,there must be recordings of Miles like this.The first thing that struck me was the different things Elvin got into.Right away on the alternate Dearly Beloved,the way those waves are crashing,there's more tension and greater release.I would have to ask John who the dearly beloved was,this possibly being the relationship between God and the human being.Everybody goes into different places.The vibe is that they have arrived at a new place,a special place that they will never reach again.No soprano and no trumpet player in sight,it's tenor time.Sun Ship was recorded August of 65.January 66 Elvin and McCoy would roll out.Sun Ship was released in 71 after Trane died which leaves me baffled.Alice said she remained in spiritual communication with him so he may have had more of a hand in the release then people think.   

The alternate Attaining swings.It's that swing with an EDGE that I think all of us have been going for ever since.Jimmy Garrison is recorded perfectly,maybe even better than the RVG sessions..way better than Ron Carter was ever recorded with Miles.I need to go hear McCoy Tyner stat.After Elvin's solo it's clear they have moved from Attaining to Attained,straight up.In the Attaining insert the Trane-Elvin connection takes the lead with even more drama,one of the greatest horn drum relationships ever heard.

On the alternate take of Sun Ship,Elvin keeps that thing happening throughout.McCoy tells a story something like standing on the ship during the movie the Perfect Storm.Elvin seems to be waiting to unleash the storm and as soon as Trane enters he lets it go,rain,wind,lightning..everything.

Try not to smile during the track Studio Conversation.Getting to hear the people we all know as music takes you to other places.I'm always talking super heavy here on Fat Eb but here we get to hear the quartet having fun with the studio guy about naming the track Ascent.I'm pretty sure Elvin suggests F.U. as the title."James will start this one"..declares John.This track was the one that needed the most work,and my favorite part is the engineer asking Elvin if he was going to sit down.

"Maybe."

The way he says it implies some other things that I cant reach.I hear just a touch of street in there that maybe went over the engineers head,but I may be going to deep.

Going deep is what we do here at Fat Eb as opposed to Doing the Math with the Bad Plus you dig.

Ascent is urgent.You have the ball so don't drop it.You can win if you make the move,so make it.Make it now.Don't let up.Don't get scared.Finish the job.

We got this.   

Amen has elements of joy,victory,and completion.In the alternate version Trane plays it a little faster than the released version and the band responds accordingly.Sometimes the tenor is so fluid.I think Branford Marsalis took something from that.Increasing the tempo on something where the energy is all ready so intense is like starting and finishing on turbo.I love the way Elvin and McCoy hook up and BOIL the water to the point where the pot is thrown off the stove.Trane comes in and the STOVE EXPLODES.

Amen.


If I was still at Tower Records this would have been one of the biggest releases of the year.Miles and Trane tend to still trump the living,even without a marketing team.

I would have had a whole display of this CD.This music was a big deal.


It still is.


Always will be.


..


Now to get my time machine online and try to sit in at the half-note. . . . . .



>>


For McCoy Tyner,Michael TA Thompson,Hilliard Greene,Ryan Sawyer,Francois Grillot,and Chris Forbes.




*****

Conviction

And now brothers and sisters a reading from the book of Coltrane..

Asked in 1966 in Japan what he hoped he would be in five years,John Coltrane replied.."A Saint".Indeed after his death in July 1967 at 40 years old he was actually canonized and is the main focus of a church in San Francisco,the John Coltrane Orthodox Church.In February of 67 Trane recorded his final studio album,the great Interstellar Space,my desert Island record. 

I have long felt a deep connection to Interstellar,released in 1974.At 4 years old I was unable to pick up a copy and go deep.One can only wonder if Trane knows it was eventually released,though I'm pretty sure he does.Having listened to it many,many times over the years it has grown to have special significance.As I have grown musically and spiritually I have grown towards it.I now see it as a signpost to not only where Trane may have been headed but also as a summation of his entire musical experience.I hear everything in Interstellar.By and large it's how I hear music,but done at such an advanced level.

Trane was the man who created Giant Steps after all,the musician who evolved and mastered changes like no one before him.On Interstellar Space the constant modulation reminds me of his earlier days..from a distance,but still connected.Along the way he discovers and explores musical ideas in a way that I can actually hear the influence of his studies with Ornette Coleman,a fascinating connection to say the least.OC told me that after Trane died he received an envelope with money inside and a note from Trane thanking him that made him cry for days.

The way that Trane created those musical events on Interstellar though,the way he found and conquered these things that only he would ever be able to play,was all him.Much of what he achieved on Interstellar was extremely difficult from a technical perspective.I've spoken with Tenor masters that have confirmed this.

I never got to ask him what he was searching for from the other side of life..the side that his music literally takes you to.What exists on the other side of the veil? The music on Interstellar begs to know..What is the reality of God and the human being after death? On Interstellar Space I hear someone searching for and almost demanding the answers to the unknown with the entire aspect of his spiritual being given at full bore.

MARS.

The planet that rules Aries people like me.Fire,power,action..the energy behind it all.On the opening Mars,Trane is playing with the speed and urgency of what MUST be.It has the Mars energy that can break down walls,break down barriers and fix spiritual problems.Mars has the power to cleanse and purge one of negativity.Mars has the power to enable this power in others as well.On Mars Trane goes as far inside himself as possible without fear and without restraint.Listening to Mars on the D train coming uptown after work today I received a gentle message from my soul to my brain that said I was ready to receive..

VENUS

The planet of Love and art.Venus starts off very gently with a short melody that asks you to see the beauty in all things,in all life,and in yourself in case your one of the millions of people with bad self-esteem.From there Trane takes you into one his greatest musical masterpieces.A stunning musical creation that could only be created by John Coltrane.The deeper he goes he moves,as Albert Ayler did on occasion,from playing the sound of Love to becoming Love itself.

                                                            J u P i T e R


Here's Earth next to Jupiter's Great Red Spot,the eternal storm.The heart of Jupiter that hopes Jupiter can become a star one day.The storm that is the great Red Spot would destroy Earth instantly,power beyond anything we can understand on Earth.Can we access this power? As Trane begins JUPITER I hear him travel directly to Jupiter to ask the question in person.Jupiter..the planet of expanse,the extreme,the planet where the volume is always turned up and never comes down.Trane plays here with unrestrained power,and not one ounce of fear in a near constant form of expanse.

S  A  T  U  R  N

The planet of forced structure and learning.The planet of boundaries and limits to force you to evolve.Takes Saturn 28 years to go around the Sun.Many people have a hard time with the Saturn process.With Capricorn Rising at the time of my birth,and Capricorn ruled by Saturn..I have had a very slow yet deliberate self-evolution,Saturn always just over the horizon silently watching.John starts Saturn off almost with a blues phrase that says things are tough,but with enough conviction were going to see this through.Saturn is the longest piece on the record.I literally hear Trane playing directly at Saturn's core walls.I hear the literal break down of structure.I hear someone fighting for and then reaching true freedom..

The other piece on Interstellar..LEO,was described by Alice Coltrane as a portrait of the energy of Leo people,a direct musical connect to the astrology.Leo..one of the three Fire signs,demonstrates just how far passion can go in life and relationship.Trane's Leo is so intense,just burning hot the whole time,not unlike the SUN which rules Leo.Once again Trane engages Spiritual Power through music at the highest levels possible,opening the door for every musician since.What if we could access the power of the Sun? John Coltrane may have actually done this here on Leo.

Interstellar remains a profound influence on almost every Tenor player and drummer I know.I believe it to be the definitive duo performance with master Rashied Ali shadowing every move Trane made,often sounding like 2 or even 3 drummers at one time.The main thing I personally take from Interstellar is the Conviction,just what I need in my own life.The music he created on this record could only come from a massive amount of willingness to shatter all fear with the complete conviction that what he did was indeed possible.He proved that it was.His entire musical life and existence led him to the moment he made this document.That he had so much conviction to challenge himself as much as he did is extremely powerful to see from 2013.In a time when everything,EVERYTHING is designed to distract us,the legacy of John Coltrane reminds us to stay focused and to continue the search for truth that was at the heart of his quest.He left us a recorded legacy before his search led him to leave to the places his music had all ready reached.              



Interstellar Space remains a final example and the ultimate testament of just what a human being can be..



For Rashied Ali. . . .




Coming soon..Sunship and Transition..
   

Truth Peace Dance

 

The Senate blocks the Gun control Bill


Albert Ayler   Truth Is Marching In



*     *     *     *     *



Boston Marathon bomb kills and maims


John Coltrane   Peace on Earth



*     *     *     *     *


Beached Whale dies.Channel 7 newsman complains about "the Stink"


Duke Ellington   Praise God and Dance


  
The last few days prove once again why the human race is unable to join the rest of existence..

Still..99% of the world is ready for the Truth..that Peace will prevail,and at some point



The whole planet



will dance. . . . . .





As for me,I'll be in the band playing Trumpet.


LOUD.





For every bombing victim in history. . . . .


      


.....

OM at 43

Back in the early 90's on my nights off from my night shift at the Bodega I had time to kill.I was improvising my sleep pattern,and with bad sleep apnea at the time I was kind of like Spock that one time the transporter couldn't fully phase him in.My life became a full time OBE,Out of Body Experience.Sometimes I would practice in the subway or go to the Blue Note after hours jam but sometimes I just felt to weird.I would usually try to sleep from 11am to 6pm.I slowly learned that while some people are nocturnal,I am a creature of the SUN,and to deny her completely was I believe deadening my life force.My Trumpet felt so heavy.

Sometime during this period I became friends with a street vendor who sold shirts with the images of Trane,Eric,and Monk.We used to get together at his place or mine.He had every record Trane ever did and our M.O. was to sit and listen to all of them.We hardly spoke.He let me make cassette copies of them and I was on a dub mission.The last time we hung out he stole the vinyl right from the sleeve of my original copy of Trane's meditations,so I never gave him back the copy of OM he lent me.Trane wouldn't want us hustling each other just to get his music but that's what went down.All I knew was that Trane's music contained something important,something vital that I needed on a core level.

One night that I had off from work I left my spot round Midnight with a walkman and a cassette of OM.I just started walking and listening with no destination or agenda."Trane is the king of changes" I thought.

I was soon confused yet intrigued by the chant in the beginning."The clarified butter?" What was Trane getting into this time? First listen I was down but the music coming from Pharaoh had me a little scared,ain't gonna front.Just how would a trumpet respond to this? At this moment I had never heard any music from Albert Ayler and his brother Don.

I kept walking and kept listening.No subway..I needed to stay above ground for this.The deeper and deeper I went I started to feel something inside.This music was giving me a connection to my soul on a level I had never felt before.I ended up sitting on the steps of a church and kept listening asking myself questions about the nature of reality.I was slowly reaching for and accepting that their is much more to life than what we see.That Trane,one of my favorite musicians went there on this level meant that this was something I was going to have to confront,the nature of my own spiritual and musical reality.

What is that bright light?

Oh shit.A police car is parked across the street and they have their brights on me.I cant see.A cop rolls up slow and steps out of the car.A line of questions follow with the strong advice that I leave and go home.It's stressed that I had better have no intention of doing anything bad to myself,others,or maybe the church.The check for drugs or weapons came up negative.Good thing I had ID.My spiritual music experience with the record OM was over.From it however I took something with me that I'll have with me for the rest of my life and beyond..a true connection to my own soul on deeper levels that has given me many unique and even impossible experiences since then.I never needed the LSD or any other of the..um..supplements..

If anything,it was at that point that any notion of being a graphic artist,an actor,or being a family man with any kind of stable or traditional life was utterly destroyed.My life would become primarily a musical and spiritual practice for better or worse. ..




POOF! It's 2013 and I just turned 43 today.How did this happen? Where did all the time go? Birthdays are a good time to reflect on what you've done and are doing with your life,that's what brought me here today.
 
At this point I can also look back and blame MILES.As if his Funny Valentine live solo wasn't enough,the cocaine stories in his book finished me off.Truthfully I got it Bad as soon as I heard Louis Armstrong play the blues in high school,but Miles and Trane made the Transition complete.

At least I know I'm not alone.Crazy Art Blakey live record on Spotify that I found has Wayne playing ALL Trane,I mean a complete cop.Lee has the Harmon mute in tight and calls Round Midnight.I cant imagine having that level of influence on so many.

As I write I'm listening to OM once again.I haven't sat down with it since then.It still resonates but after hearing David S Ware,Charles Gayle,Sabir Mateen,and brother Ras Moshe my ears resonate steadily on a higher frequency.This is the 4th Dimension after all.

I've had to create my own relationship with it without getting a Tenor.I have to stand next to a wall of Tenors every day,but I keep reminding myself that Trumpets have access to that level of Spiritual Power to.Thank you brother Roy Campbell.


I can say without a shred of doubt that none of us might be here if this music didn't exist.





For Donald Rafael Garrett


...