Music For Backgrounds 02: Jack DeJohnette -Peace time
A beautiful journey into a serene world of meditative bliss. This is perfect music for your meditation, creative process or yoga practice….
– Jack DeJohnette’s Peace time 1:02:08
Throughout late 2009 and most of 2010, Peace time was one of my most played albums. It simply is captivating….
Jack DeJohnette (born 9 August 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny Rollins.
Biography
DeJohnette was born in Chicago, Illinois. Besides the drums, he also studied the piano. He first became known as a member of Charles Lloyd’s band, a group that pianist Keith Jarrett also was a part of at that time. He played with Bill Evans in 1968 on the acclaimed Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and from 1969 to 1972 played with Miles Davis. In the 1970s he recorded for Milestone/Prestige and ECM. He also appeared widely on ECM as a sideman. Since then he has recorded for MCA Records, Blue Note Records, and Kindred Rhythm.
DeJohnette has led several groups since the early-1970s, including Compost, a jazz-rock group that did two albums for Columbia with Bob Moses and Harold Vick; Directions (with John Abercrombie, Alex Foster, Warren Bernhardt, and Mike Richmond); New Directions (with Abercrombie, Lester Bowie, and Eddie Gomez); Gateway (with John Abercrombie and Dave Holland); and Special Edition (with David Murray, Chico Freeman, Arthur Blythe, Peter Warren, and others). Since the 1980s, he has been a member of what has become known as Keith Jarrett’s Standards Trio alongside Jarrett and Gary Peacock.
Since 2003, DeJohnette has been part of Trio Beyond with fellow musicians Larry Goldings (organ) and John Scofield (guitar). The trio was set up in tribute to The Tony Williams Lifetime trio led by Williams with Larry Young (organ) and John McLaughlin (guitar). He also currently appears as a member of the Bruce Hornsby Trio. In February, 2009, DeJohnette received the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album, Peace Time.
DeJohnette’s most current project as of 2010 is Jack DeJohnette Group, featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto saxophone, David Fiuczynski on double-neck guitar, George Colligan on keyboards and piano, and long-time associate Jerome Harris on electric and acoustic bass guitars.
DeJohnette successfully incorporates elements of free jazz and world music, while maintaining the deep grooves of jazz and R&B drummers. His exceptional experience of time and style, combined with astounding improvisational ingenuity, make him one of the most highly regarded and in-demand drummers. He also occasionally appears on piano, on his own recordings.
In 2012, DeJohnette will be awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for his “significant lifetime contributions have helped to enrich jazz and further the growth of the art form.”
Maps and Trails (Turning the Page – A Bend In the Curve Remix)
Crossing the bridge of discovery we find ourselves….
Biking to a new place
Some thoughts on ambition and the nature of Self….
How often in life we complete a task that was beyond the capability of the person we were when we started it. – Robert Brault
Ambition is not what man does… but what man would do. – Robert Browning
It is in our nature to discover things and in our will to reach them. – Walter Smith
We Can Say Things That Are Just Shadows Of Ourselves
The city series….
We are at times left behind
A shadow of ourselves
there was a photo of me
here
against the granite wall
falling
to this very day
knowing
not just a shadow now
with little to say
except
time does fly
when saying good-bye….
We Say Good-Bye To Ourselves
For you and I all that is left….
Looking out to what was
we say good-bye to ourselves
before it is too late
when you ask to know why
before the last door is shut
you smell the rose
you see the forest for the trees
lost at sea
we say good-bye to ourselves
before the next day comes
when you know the answer why
the last door can’t be found
no more pie in the sky
no more man in the moon
is it really too soon
to say good-bye
The Silence In Urban Meditation
The silence series….
Towards the inner silence of the city – urban meditation
Urban Meditation 01
Urban Meditation 02
Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day. – Deepak Chopra
In the city the choices that become attachments lead us into the noise of our thoughts….
Urban Meditation 03t
Urban Meditation 04
My meditation is without hesitation, and the marks left behind are indications of a state of oneness with my environment, my people and the universe. – Ian Factor
Somewhere in the city; in its alleys, playgrounds, parks and abandoned buildings, we find the place to know ourselves….
Urban Meditation 05
Urban Meditation 06
At the museum a troubled woman destroys a sand painting meticulously created over days by Tibetan monks. The monks are not disturbed. The work is a meditation. They simply begin again. – Susan Griffin
In the city we find the process of renewal; we simply find the quiet place….
Urban Meditation 07
Urban Meditation 08
Is there a meditation that is not the ego trying to become? Is meditation conscious if every effort implies time? – Jiddu Krishnamurti
The city offers its timeless darkness and beautiful heaven; our meditation frees us from both….
Urban Meditation 09
To meditate is to observe yourself, for you are totally responsible for your body, mind, thought. – Jiddu Krishnamurti
The city has always been a place where I could lose myself. And at times I have….
With Every Breath A New Dream Is Born (Discovery Remix 2012)
We have all the means of vast exploration and creativity inside of us….
The inward view and the outward dream
“You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. This is not an easy struggle. Indeed, it may be the most difficult task in the world, for opening”. – Daisaku Ikeda
Looking Forward to 2012 – An Artist Shares His Thoughts
Looking forward to a year of art, writing, and contemplative journeys in 2012….
Riding the path to a creative tomorrow
Somewhere in the waking, I will paint with more than one color, write with more than one word, express more than one idea….
This will be my last post of 2011. It is Friday morning, December 30th. I am sitting in front of my computer while listening to Fluid Radio on ITunes. As I begin typing, Fluid Radio is playing a track entitled Shooting Blankets from the band called Two People in a Room. It is a quiet morning. The ambience is meditative. The cats are hanging about; grooming themselves, eating and listening to the sounds. I am preparing lunch; whole grain pasta, and tomato basil sauce with scallops and meatballs. I wanted to go to the gym this morning and do some spinning or weight training, however when the urge to write beckons, expression and creativity governs the day.
I have been thinking for some time now what I wanted to work on and accomplish for the New Year. This past year I feel I have been quite successful. I spoke more in depth about my past achievements in my recent post It Has Been a Year of Blogging – Some Thoughts I Wish to Share. Now it is time to look forward.
The very first thing on my agenda is the opening of my online store n e w d i g i t a l s c a p e s for selling my art. I have completed the design of the site (Imagekind is my site provider) and I am now in the process of uploading, editing and organizing my art galleries. I am very excited. An online store, I believe, is well suited for my digital art, and should provide a high quality venue for the purchasing of my art. Prints in various sizes, high-end photographic paper, canvas, and assortment of frames are all available. Links to the site will be available on my website and on my blog in January.
I am also looking forward to returning to my love of video art. I just got a HD video camera, and will be upgrading to a semi-professional editing system. I hope to investigate a distinct realm of processing which I call “video as chance”. It is a form of video expression that allows for time, space and subject matter to dictate what come into the lens of the camera. In the meantime, I will continue to create 2-dimensional photographic work. As I hope to continue to find new ways to structure my work in a beautiful yet provocative form.
I will continue to blog as often as I can. In the past year, I have come to appreciate blogging as a great tool for finding a consistency that sustains the creative process. The heavy schedule of creating new art, and marketing my online store may mean less posting. But I always let the mood of the moment carry the day, so we will see.
Another important part of my exploratory nature is my connection with the mind and body through challenging physical adventures. Top of the list is finding new mountains to climb on my mountain bike; long road trips on my road bike; rocking climbing and hopefully sky diving. That last one will take a little courage.
I hope to finish out the year with the publishing of an art book that centers on my blogging experience. Art for Posts is the title.
All in all I am looking forward to expressing ideas and concepts, and continuing the communication I have come to appreciate with so many talented writers, photographers, musicians, and artists.
2012 is a year for us. Let’s do it together.
Art rules.
Ideas conquer….
Talk Amongst the Trees
To meditate in the shadow of mountain, wind and tree….
We reach the summit and find a conversation amongst the trees
If we could hear the trees converse, what would they say to us?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Between 02
Between two trees of a different kind….
Where nature and industry collide
Nature and Science….
When thinking about this photo challenge I was drawn to a question, what is the in-between space that can sustain our planet? Where does it exist, and can it be found? And what is the cost of our ignorance; of not knowing how to balance that in-between space with the complexity of our lives on planet Earth? Is the knowledge we seek, in our meditation practice, in the great institutions we build, or in our hopes and dreams? Can it be discovered in our mind’s eye, in the things we believe, or in the progress of science?
In this piece I thought about nature and technology, and how these two sources of energy interact within our lives and with the planet. How these two vital forces; the organic intelligence of nature and the welded composite structure of modern progress collide. Trees are torn down and in their place the monuments of steel rise to the heavens. Our ozone dies, we reach the stars; our rivers run black, the cities grow tall.
Nature dies.
The question is where is the balance that sustains?
I wish I knew the answers to these vital questions. Perhaps you and I, your country and mine, can one day without personal or national agenda sit down at the table and discover the answers.
For the sake our planet, it is the only in-between thing we must do….
Weekly Photo Challenge: Between
Sky and Mountain….
The space in-between sky and mountain
there are so many paths
one can take
looking inward
facing outward
where we discover
the places in-between
…the between-space
magically soothing
nurturing
quiet
…sky and mountain
and on the summit
we breathe deep
searching and finding
a place to rest
in a moment
where our thoughts
are carried off
so gently by the wind….
Urban Contemplation: 14 – The Industrial Revolution and its Deconstruction
The city series….
The forming of an industrial moment in time
The cities where the industrial revolution was founded….
I remember the period in our American history, when the industrial revolution was coming to an end. I was in my mid-twenties and working as a Process Engineer at the DuPont Company. If you were a young person in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s trying to believe in the American dream, a job with the DuPont Company was a great place to start.
Or so I thought. Little to my knowledge, things were about to get very difficult. Life was going to become very hard. The way in which our society ran and governed its social, civil, economic and political spheres were about to change.
The social agenda of the New Deal that sustained the dreams of many families and individuals would slowly be deconstructed until it (with the hopes of some) would be gone forever.
In the mid-seventies, early 1980’s and in 1991 we had economic recessions of various lengths. They were short, but a tell-tale sign of things to come. In 2001 we had another recession. These four recessions were not as severe as the present recession; however, the factors that led to these five occurrences over time are similar; deregulation, the creation of a “false paper economy” and an insidious construct to shift the wealth from the middle class to the wealthy.
And unfortunately it is working.
I was laid off from my job at DuPont after having worked there for four years. Still emerging from the perception that all you had to do was start at an entry level position with a good company; move up the ladder and retire 30 years later. Remember how your parents or grandparents followed this rule and uplifted themselves into the middle-class? It appears that in 2011, that route to the middle-class is long since gone and not returning any time soon. It is a global world now. It is now a have and have not world that is shattering the dreams of many. It is 146 million Americans in the United States living in poverty or near the poverty line. It is a health care system that is dysfunctional and over-wrought with cost. It is an education system that is mostly for profit (remember when the California State Schools were free). It is a manufacturing sector that barely exists. And it is a corrupt body of government that wants to protect the rich, sustained the rich and become rich, at the expense of the poor.
And the attack is calculated and vicious to the core.
But I love America. With all its faults, it still has the potential to be a great nation. But we must learn from our past, and if possible turn back the hand of time just for a moment. And perhaps in that moment we can have a true political and social conversation, wherein we remember what we fought so hard for—a fair and equal society for all.
This post is in support of all those who participate in the Occupy Wall Street protests in America and around the world.
The Setting Sun and the Years of Our Descent (Recovery Remix 2011)
The city series….
From across the park I see the days end and the last day begin
We remember what we shared—the deep dark place and beautiful heaven.
And to never forget is now the bond that liberates and heals.
It is the recovery we now hold dear
and
the rising sun….
The Ending Memories of a Deep Dark Place and a Beautiful Heaven (Turning the Page – Recovery Remix 2011)
The City series….
A deep dark place a beautiful heaven to lose yourself forever
small towns…
big cities
where hopeless dreams
dance
swim
when the carnival is over
and
we are lost at sea
the magic escapes us
and the years are gone
small towns
big cities…
where the dreams
we shared
in the deep dark place
and
beautiful heaven
are
just moments
now forgotten
The Seamless Memory of Beautiful Places Left Behind
The city series….
Seamless thoughts in various colors
At night we often wonder where the memories have gone….
The Uncertainty Of Where Our Thoughts Are At Any Given Time
The city series….
Looking out beyond my window I am startled by the heavens
Bonus video imagery by ben2thewild, uploaded on Oct 11 2010. Featuring the music of Startle the Heavens – “Lull of the Storm” from the CD “Lull”.
All that I dream is free and alive….
From Across the Park I See the Brownstones Decaying (Recovery Remix 2011)
The city series….
The cyclical life of urban decay
from across the park
i remember
seeing
the place where all this started
the decaying brownstones
and
embracing the thirst that consumes
seeking awareness
in things we knew not of
finding the descent that limits
and subtracts
life
the city was dying…
and we too for years to come
Urban Contemplation: 13 – The French Quarter
The city series….
There is always music in the French Quarter
A journey in the French Quarter through a landscape of sound, imagery, and fine cuisine.
Weekly Movie-Making Moments in Film: Attack the Block – 2011
The city series….
Yo - the aliens are coming
One of the things that I have always questioned is this … Why don’t the aliens ever attack the ghetto? I mean, all the alien invaders when they invade seem to end up in the midwest; or on someone’s farm; in the backwoods; at the lake during vacation; or the town you would never visit with a population of 10—anywhere but in the hood.
Well those days are over. We be talking about the really cool, down by law, and just totally sweet, street-wise, hip new film (out this year) entitled “Attack the Block”. I could say more but I will let the trailer say the rest. But I will conclude by saying I think it is a must see film if you like the dark comedy science fiction genre. There are great moments in the film. Nothing gave us a laugh more than one of the characters saying …”fire in the hole” or “aliens got talent” in reference to America’s Got Talent and Simon Cowell.
Attack the Block is a 2011 British science fiction action film written and directed by Joe Cornish. The film stars Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard. Set on a council estate in South London on Bonfire night, the film follows a street gang which have to defend themselves from hostile alien invaders. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 May 2011. Attack the Block is the directorial debut of Cornish.
A scene from the film - is that what I think it is
No safety in here
At Every Corner the Noise of Our Thoughts Intersect
The city series….
Sometimes the noise of our thoughts take us places we can no longer go
Illuminating the intersections of our lives….
When you arrive naturally at a state of meditation, inspired by the View, you can remain there for a long time without any distraction or special effort. There is nothing called “meditation” to protect or sustain, for you are in the natural flow of the wisdom of Rigpa. And you realize when you are in it that is how it has always been, and is. When the wisdom of Rigpa shines, not one shadow of doubt can remain, and a deep, complete understanding arises, effortlessly and directly.
This moment is the moment of awakening. A profound sense of humor wells up from within, and you smile in amusement at how inadequate were all your former concepts and ideas about the nature of mind. – Rigpa Glimpse of the Day
Sometimes when we are distracted by the noise of our thoughts, we can look within; to the light that illuminates and frees us. Knowing that at every corner, every self examination is the opportunity to renew our perception of the world around us and the thoughts that govern our relationships. – Walter W Smith
Where the Entanglement of Our Thoughts and Emotions Reside
The city series….
The ambiguity of a certain step
life and stolen moments….
where things are taken away
and given back with bated breath
while we intrepidly
hesitatingly
transcend the mundane
where things are like yesterday
and in every breath
life is given hope
like tomorrow’s dream….
the American dream
in the illusion of timelessness
where things are the same
on either side
of the entangled thought
and attached emotion
where the city sleeps
at the crossing of life and liberation
Everywhere I looked the City Hosted the Old-Timey Bikes
The city series….
A biking city is a beautiful city
a city
a bike
and streets to explore
we’re downtown
and all around
by the river
on the pier
stopping for art
ipod in ears
moving there
nestled here
we love the journey
yours and mine
with personal finds
a city
a bike
as one….
Across the River There’s A Place Not Far From Here
The city series….
The bridge that takes us there
it’s there just beyond my reach
a bridge to cross
yesterday I am here
in a present moment
happiness
tomorrow I am there
in a dream to share
ambiguity
across the river
on either side
it’s just the same
nowhere
now
here….
a place not far from myself
Urban Contemplation: 09 – Music in the Streets – Painting in the Air
The city series….
The sounds of the streets and the color of music
color takes a form
finding it
only takes
a moment
to listen
hearing the blue
seeing the red
feeling the glow
of fair music
painting in the air
….
sounds flow like palettes
of greens and yellows
just sitting
by you
feeling mellow
listening
smiling
and hearing colors…
and knowing
it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood
Urban Contemplation: 08 – Art Work Ahead
The city series….
Art work ahead on the city streets
Finding the way through the narrow streets
searching for the deeper sentiment
of thought
of ideas
drifting block by block
glancing right
turning left
hoping to find
colors that speak
forms that convey
it’s a beautiful day
a wonderful life
finding art everywhere
inside and out
where there is work ahead
on the city streets
n e w d i g i t a l s c a p e s 