Tag: musicians

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A walk down memory lane

We’re working with Crystal Clarity Publishers on an upcoming project and needed some detailed information about the “Joy Is God” recording that we did in Ananda Assisi back in 2005.

Our memories were fuzzy so I had to search and search until I found a copy of the CD with the original liner notes (it’s changed several times since it first came out). And what a find!

We were ensconced for two days in Swami Kriyananda’s home near the Assisi retreat center (he was in India). Our recording engineer drove down from Lugano in a van containing his mobile recording studio, which he parked outside Swamiji’s house.

The musicians were from Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and America — all of them dear friends and great devotees. I wish we could have remained close to all of them, but almost twenty years have passed and it’s not easy to stay connected when you lead busy lives on separate continents.

What I love most of all is this shot of Ramesha and me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself looking happier than in this photo.

Joy is God, indeed!

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More thoughts on the making of music

What I realize is that there are some fundamental differences in the experience of those of us who got hooked on music very early in life vs those who were drawn to participate in music after they found themselves at Ananda.

Personally, I was chomping at the bit to play piano when I was seven years old, with lessons getting under way at eight. By the age of eleven I was playing flute — in band and in duets with my best friend (Suzanne Maria Lavinia Tharp!). In a few more years I had added saxophone and was playing and touring with jazz bands. Orchestral experience didn’t come until senior year of high school, but soon enough I had abandoned the saxophone and was concentrated entirely on building a career as a classical flutist.

But the point I want to make is that starting way back in primary school, I was absorbing the principles mentioned in yesterday’s blog post. Throughout countless hours of practicing, rehearsing, listening, and performing, no one had to explain the importance of “making music together” as opposed to “playing music at the same time”. I just naturally learned to extend my “antennae” and feel it from another musician’s perspective.

Bit by bit, as I gained in experience and musical maturity, I was able to play with ensembles where we truly were like the cake ingredients: blending and blending until we were able to transcend and then merge our individual identities so they could transform into that wonderful something more.

I believe this is a major part of why musicians tend to find ourselves so deeply bonded to those with whom we “make music.” Unfortunately, when we first start out we usually don’t understand transcendence; we don’t understand that the thrill of forgetting our little selves is due to catching a glimpse of the potential for oneness that is our true reality.

Instead we get fixated on the person or people with whom we bonded through our shared experience. All too often to our detriment.

To be continued yet again (have to rush because the power’s about to go out!)…