“Jazz is a music built on individualism and compromise, independence and cooperation.”
If you have ever heard the musical magic of Charlie Parker’s horn, the pleasurable plucking of Thelonius Monk’s piano, or the solid, smooth solos of Buddy Rich on the drums, then you must appreciate jazz. And if you do, then you comprehend the importance of the improvised side of life. When you witness jazz, you witness creation. The back and forth, give and take, and madness of melodies. You absorb the sound, the ebb and flow, the passion and fury.
If you truly hear jazz as it fills a space, it nurtures you. It soaks into you the way rain and sunlight feed the trees. The branches of this impromptu sound extend far past our auditory senses and grip our entire being leaving us nourished and yearning for future growth.
For those who have not truly listened to jazz, please do so; not tomorrow but now. Much like jazz trees are unencumbered by the rules of man and they are not bound by the limitations of tradition.
“There is always music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.”
DID YOU KNOW? Charles Joseph “Buddy” Bolden, (born in 1877), was an African American cornetist who was regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of ragtime music, or “jass”, which later came to be known as jazz.
P.S. Stay tuned for photo contest updates!