Remembering Bill Bailey

There’ve been a few times over the past ten years or so when I’ve found myself reflecting on my jazz band days and recalling key experiences from that time.

Near the end of my saxophone playing days there was an arrangement of the jazz standard “Bill Bailey” that I remember as being quite challenging. I’m not sure why it kept coming to mind periodically but I’ve wished I could revisit it in order to remember what made it so hard.

I tried to find it a few years ago with no luck, but for some reason it came to my mind again tonight and this time I found a video, performed by a jazz band of young musicians from Barcelona, Spain (of all places)!

Listening to it validated my memory of it being challenging, but let me tell you, these young folk nailed it!

And to top it all off, I even stumbled across the actual sheet music. Totally fun.

Outer order = inner calm

Outer order contributes to inner calm.” –Gretchen Rubin

This is the quote I saw on my Momentum Dash screen this morning while searching my office files for some sheet music we need for the upcoming Spiritual Renewal Week concert.

I resonated deeply with this statement, especially since I could feel my inner calm fraying around the edges as I considered having to change the program because I couldn’t locate the parts. Not a good feeling. 🤦‍♀️

But I had also experienced this in the first week after returning home from our trip.

I was dealing with jet lag; a bad cough; unpacked luggage; leftover travel gear; dirty laundry; and the naturally occurring “out-of-orderliness” of having had a houseguest in the apartment for almost two months.

It all felt like chaos.

The end result was that I felt virtually paralyzed for the first four or five days, and not just in practical terms. I also felt like I couldn’t think or plan or settle.

I believe the breakthrough came when I simply had to do pressing tasks like laundry (or not have clothes to wear!). As I — bit-by-bit — established some order, I was able to — bit-by-bit — access my inner calm.

P.S. Not to worry, by the way! We did locate the sheet music. 😅

Christmas is coming

Today was about getting music together for Mantrini, who’ll be directing the choir for our Christmas concert, as well as copying parts for the choir itself!

Now I’m absolutely done for the day.