Slide Show
Kamau Daaood, poet and
Three songs will be performed this evening in this first set of what is I am sure to become an eclectic array of sound perception. First, Jarman sings a Bob Dylan composition as a duet with his guitarist / clarinetist Ram Dass Khalsa. His tastes also lean toward the “Beetles” as he sings through his version of their popular music.
Jarman has a table of instruments in front of him in which to choose and his choice is the small chimes and bells that work with the sound of his soft delicate sounding voice. The music is spiritual and lovely in the natural rawness of its delivery. Voice and chimes saturated in the space of the night sky. As he dances, the chimes strapped to his ankles ring with the tribal stomp of his movements. He picks up his alto flute and the two rhythms engage blending elements of freedom, meditation, universal love and the spirit of being to express his musical message.
As Ram Dass Khalsa leaves the stage, Jarman picks up the alto saxophone where he explores the extent of its sounds mixed in with bells, prayers and spiritual chants. The flute is his next instrument of choice. The melodic beauty of solo flute in the natural environment of the Ford Amphitheater is a lovely feeling. Jarman strikes a ringing vibration on the Tibetan singing bowl whose sound blankets and penetrates us with natural waves of audible feeling. His voice is sweet when speaking of heavenly spiritual subjects but, when the “business of human pleasure for pleasures sake” is the topic; it becomes loud, thunderous and sarcastic as if we dare. We are all spirits in this universe with purpose spreading a trail of love along the way in search of dreams coming true. The sounds of a tiny xylophone and the clarinet create a sense of floating like we emanate the joyous wonderment of inquisitive children finding our way towards peace and purpose on earth.
After a short intermission, Roscoe Mitchell walks on stage loaded down with his arsenal for the evening; a bouquet of horns ready to entice our pallet with the fragrant sound of their delivery. The air is cool, still and silent except for the faint sound of Pink Floyd spilling over into our theater from the nearby Hollywood Bowl carried by the slight breeze of the evening. No worries though, because in a moment, the sound of Roscoe’s alto will disinfect any annoying sounds in the air of any and all of the impurities like your common household cleaner. If your ears are big and your mind is open, you can take in the continuous breathe of dynamic abstract thought that is expressed in Roscoe’s language of the saxophone. If for any reason your heart and mind are not ready to hear the message, the signal will get distorted and you will not receive any blessings. This music is like having the serum to the virus; without it, you will perish in the implied toxicity of sound. However, if you decide to take the red pill, the mental, audible and visual puzzle takes its form and you can see and hear the truth!
Roscoe plays all of the notes that you never heard on the soprano. It is almost like extra terrestrial communication; code that only a few can decipher. Sound is what you make it. Its meaning depends on the frame of mind in which you perceive. Roscoe seems to work on a scale of notes that have a polar opposition foreign to mainstream tonal frequencies. When he breathes, he breathes from his toes and every ounce of his body is active in the production of circular continuous breathing. Life is a box and there are those who search for what lies beyond the forest and the trees. There is bravery, heart and courage for a having a strong belief in sound and communication that exist on the other side of the galaxy when the average ear cannot filter it. The ancient sound of futuristic music!
Music without rhythms or boundaries allows you to be still and cognitively take in the clear and precise message in the sound; continuous as an ocean’s current or distant as the cry of a school of whales. Sometimes simple repetition after long periods allows thought and perception to permeate and settle in the stillness of calm possibilities of being. Sound cannot harm you. New information only seeks to make you wiser and more complete.
Joseph Jarman comes back to the stage to join Roscoe in a
plethora of audible abstract art. Music, concepts, new ideas, forms and
structures all created to entertain, educate, create possibilities of choice
and to give blessings to the world! Two men in service to spirit, the organic
nature of life and unity through music, Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman.
“Give me
LeRoy Downs
