Free Jazz Force Ghosts

Between playing at the Vision Festival in NYC last night, and working full time as a closing manager at a supermarket, I have no new topic to delve into this week, so I’m going to do what Johnny Griffin said he did with Monk, and go for myself. When I first started writing in 2009 or so, it was true improvisation. It was also improv without chops. I intentionally used grammar wrong, ending sentences like this..,,, That may make readers cringe, and these days it’s borderline gross and disgusting right? I just let it fly. I went so far as to even write a book this way called NYC SUBWAY DRAMA and Beyond. To try and humiliate me at my day gig at Sam Ash, the horn repair guys gave a copy to trumpet king Jon Faddis to get his response. Mr. Faddis had an interesting response though, he asked wouldn’t it be interesting to write a story with absolutely zero punctuation?

Last night Daniel Carter got his flowers at Vision Festival 30 and it was an honor to stand with him. He received a standing ovation, which was great to witness. True to himself, he made the music a group experience, and the music was the leader. DC is part of the core story of NYC free jazz.

I have a bizarre relationship with jazz history. I have a masters in it, and enjoy research on my own terms as I do here on the stack. What I have received here in a year is about 1 month of a student debt payment. I have written about the musicians I knew that didn’t get to work on their own legacies. In the last few years, the universe has sent me to help people document directly.

It started when I played with the great Gary Hassay. As soon as I met Gary he told me that he was running out of time and that he was worried about his archives, and his legacy. The universe arranged our meeting as I was there to play, but I also knew who to call. I reached out to a jazz history master archivist who sent a team to do the right thing with Gary’s work. Time did run out for Gary, but his music made it to a safe place to live on. This same jazz archive superhero is now working with my buddy Francois Grillot’s hundreds of sessions from his NYC kitchen. Deep in the Francois archives is the next Bern Nix quartet album, fully recorded but unreleased before both Bern and Francois left town. Now I’m personally assisting with the Roy Campbell archive. One of the first things I discovered is seen in my cover photo. Roy, Francois, and Dee Pop were all friends of mine. There in front of me were the 3 of them playing together live at CBGB’s (upstairs) to a packed house, and they were on fire. Francois was recorded really well, (the bass often suffers) and he is just free swinging his ass off in musician speak.

I end up involved in the music of my close friends that have passed on so much that I see myself like Luke Skywalker sitting with force ghost Obi-Wan Ben Kenobi. One thing I can say but cannot explain here, is that musicians who dedicate their lives to music are still involved with and aware of what is happening with their music down below.

Even further, when we are playing music here, they somehow can sense it. They may even come and listen even though we can’t see them. You can feel their presence. Not just musicians, but also people that are close to us. It can happen even just in the woodshed. I was shedding tunes one day when I suddenly heard Claire Daly’s voice. She said “I knew you could play this way!” I was playing her bass clarinet that she sent me before she passed, which could be a factor but unknown. I know that Roy Campbell Jr and my late mom Theresa Beck where both in the house last night. Roy was there to hear his people and my Mom was there for me. The trip with Roy is that he might pull up with Lee Morgan. I don’t think people grasp the scope of spiritual power that can flow through a trumpet. Roy and Lee are still trumpet players if that makes any sense.

The culmination of all of this is that just recently I have begun the process of releasing the second half of the recording weekend session that resulted in the Crop Circle Suite with my 12 Houses orchestra. This music was from our book that developed during our year long residency at Nublu classic. The recorded 5 pieces are stacked with bright, heartfelt, and touching moments.

What’s heavy is that as Francois Grillot was entering his twilight here in this vibration, he asked me that if anything should happen to him, that I record his piece Hymn to the Universe and that we dedicate it to his daughter Charlotte.

Francois did ascend, and when we made it to the studio we did exactly as he asked, recording his great waltz, composed for his parents in Burgundy, France.

Now on my late mom’s birthday October 3rd, the music will be released.

From the skies above, force ghost or not, I can sense and feel Francois smiling knowing that one of his last wishes will now be fulfilled.

They are still with us, urging us to keep going.

Trust and Believe..

See you next week, peace

ML

We Love You DC