Bye Bye Blackbird

We shot this in late November or Early December of '08. I was wearing shades because I had just had cataract surgery on my left eye. So Ben decided to don some shades as well. This is just 2 people finding themselves and expressing themselves through sound and rhythm. A jam session. In basketball parlance, not a game, a scimmage.....

Music and aikido do share some similarities. When you are playing music with some one, you must be listening. There is a sense of creativity, but it is not about one person expressing himself/herself. You are playing off another being's timing and pitch sense. On recently looking at this clip I thought we did a good job of that. In aikido this is seen in the nage/uke connection.

In aikido the aim is unity through harmony. If this is acheived then other things such as beauty and power enter the mix. In music I have found that this unity/harmony is found in something elusively called lyricism. Is it lyrical? Does it on some level sing? Just as in aikido one can get lost in technique and lose one's soul. The lyricism comes from the soul. What I am talking about are things that I cannot presently myself do.

I want to thank Ben for spending the time with me off the mat. He is a very talented musician and it was a pleasure to be able to play along with him. I also want to thank Marianne Messina and Pete Skilj for also spending the time. Especially Marianne, who heard a lot of my real bad notes.