Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Running Down The Voodoo With Miles

When I was a teenager the Dad of one of my friends had a Ford Galaxie automobile.  It was the kind of car that many Dad's drove in those days.  The cool thing about this car is that it had a state of the art 8 Track music system.  This was before cassette tapes, CD's, downloads, streaming, or Sirius XM.

My friends and I used to drive around in this car blasting Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew".  If you are not familiar with this music, let me tell you that it was very heavy stuff for a bunch of white boys living in middle class suburbia.  It is real voodoo music.  Admittedly, we were usually high when we did this.  I am not advocating drug use but it was the sixties and we were part of the times.  Later this same summer Miles Davis played in front of 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight Festival in England.  He played one long jam that touched on a number of his compositions.  When an album of music from the festival came out, Miles was asked what to call his song.  He replied, "Call It Anything".  To this day, the music from that day is called by this name.

I thought about this today as I was driving around in my much nicer car with a much better sound system while blasting this album.  Most of the songs are very long and the song titles give you a very good idea of the kind of music this is.  It is jazzy voodoo like no one had heard at the time.  If I was home alone at 3:00 AM in the morning and this music was playing it would scare me.  Check out these song titles and playing times.

 1. Pharaoh's Dance 20:05
 2. Bitches Brew 26:58
 3. Spanish Key 17:32
 4: John McLaughlin 4:22
 5. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down 14:01
 6. Sanctuary 10:58

Many of the musicians who played on this album with Miles went on to their own success.  Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul formed Weather Report.  John McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra.  Chick Corea formed Return To Forever.  All of these bands were major players in the world of jazz fusion throughout the 70's.

Miles Davis is my all time favorite jazz musician.  I just think there is no one quite like him.  This album only represents a small part of the music of Miles Davis.  Check out "Kind Of Blue", "Sketches Of Spain", "On The Corner", "Live-Evil", and "In A Silent Way".  Of course there many more and I have just scratched the surface of Mile's music.

I wonder what happened to that Ford Galaxie and the copy of "Bitches Brew" on 8 Track?

Tuesday, June 04, 2019

Surprised By Joy

This morning, while walking in the park, I thought of the C.S. Lewis book entitled Surprised By Joy as well as the writings of Brother David Steindl-Rast, OSB on the topic of gratitude.  I like the title of the C.S. Lewis book and I love the experience of being surprised by joy.  Brother David, who is a Benedictine monk, has spent a lifetime encouraging people to live with grateful hearts.

Today is not only a good day, it is a beautiful day.  It is a warm day but not hot and there is no humidity.  After a good nights sleep, followed by some granola and coffee, I drove to the park.  The park I normally visit is a jewel.  It is only a few miles from my home and a great place for an old man to take his walks.  After many spring rains, with more to come this week, the vegetation is in full bloom and the streams are flowing strongly.  Ducks and geese are everywhere.

As I was walking this morning, lost in the moment, I felt profoundly grateful and somewhat surprised by joy.  First of all, I am grateful to be alive.  I am 68 years old and in relatively good health.  Everyone doesn't get to be 68 years old and many have health issues far more serious than mine.  In addition to being grateful for life, I am grateful to be retired.  I worked many years to get to this point but I realize that many people will never get to retire and they may be forced to work until they die.  I am not a wealthy man but I made a concerted effort to save and invest my money so I would be ready when this time of my life rolled around.  As of this week my wife now joins me on the retirement journey.  As a retired man I can walk in the park on a Tuesday morning when most people are in the office dreaming of having my life.

On a side note, as a retired man, I can also drive to my son's house in the middle of a day to feed his cats while he is out of town.

After walking in the park and feeding my son's cats, I came home and had a leisurely lunch.  Now, I write these thoughts in my home office as music plays in the background.  Of course, now that my wife is also retired, I will not be surprised to have her tell me to turn down the volume level.  I love the quietness of the park but I also love rock and roll music.

Let me end by encouraging you to be on the lookout for unexpected joy.  I can assure you that your chances of being surprised by joy will increase exponentially if you live with a grateful heart.  None of this has to wait until you are retired.  It may be a little easier in the leisurely life but it is not a requirement.