Vibration, the Open Grave, the Open Heart

2 Kings 3:15 (Young's Literal Translation):
"and now, bring to me a minstrel; and it hath been, at the playing of the minstrel, that the hand of Jehovah is on him,"

At the playing of the minstrel, the hand of Jehovah is on him. Elisha understood something about music, about the nature of God, the nature of music, and the key to opening his own spirit to what God would say to him.
Babatunde told us that, "Rhythm is the soul of the universe."

I have been talking with a couple people about Moses' encounter with the Great God in Exodus 3. In verse 14, the Proclaimation, God says in most english versions, "I AM THAT WHICH I AM." He is existence in most true form; life in fullness; the essence of all existence. But one friend in bible college says that a better translation is, "I WILL BE WHOM I WILL BE." And in Exodus 33 and 34, where Moses asks to see God, The Lord says that Moses can only see His back, but not His face, because then he would die. My friend said, "Doesn't it sound weird that God would put His hands over Moses' eyes while His face passed by, and then Moses would see God's bock?" He went on, "What that means is that God, being the essence of existence, is always moving. And if Moses were to see where God really was at any time, he would die. What God tells him is that He will allow him to see where He just passed by, where He just was - His trail, essentially."

God told Moses that He would pass by him; God is always moving, and we can catch the trail of Him, the hem of His garment, for "No one may see My face and live" (33:20).

Think about what we hear in music: we hear what was just played. Music cannot be stopped and examined circumspectly, it cannot be caught and held; it must be moving in order to be music, in order to be sound. We cannot hear what it as much as we hear the back side of it - what was.

Music is the key to unlocking the god-ness in us. Jesus Himself said, "Ye are gods," and He was quoting David. Psalm 8 brings this into a clearer focus. God Himself made us in His image, and is restoring us back to a state that is greater than our original form, because Christ is our progenor, not Adam any longer!

Elisha understood what it was about music in order to have God touch him. "At the playing of the minstrel...the hand of Jehovah is on him." Music is an expression of God's nature.

They say in string theory that the smallest article of substance is vibration; and what is vibration but movement? And what is movement but rhythm?

We are all interred with and expression of the nature of God, physically. God is all and is in all; the universe, His creation, rings true with who He is - it is alive and vibrant!

What was it that shook death out of our lives forever by rolling away the gravestone at Christ's tomb? A great reverberation in the earth, we call it an earthquake. Rhythm is the genesis and continuation of life. It opens the grave of our hearts to receive His spirit and His life.

But remember this...the earthquake, the vibration, is not God Himself; for the earthquake passed in front of Elijah - but God was not the earthquake, nor was He in it. Those three things that passed in front of Elisha were signs and signifiers that God regularly used to represent Himself - but they were not Himself...they did not encapsulate Him.

God is not a song, per se...He's so much more than that. But a song is like God.

There is old magic in song that has not been rediscovered yet. Purported by one school of archaeology, Stonehenge was constructed by vibration, by song, as were many of the great wonders of the world. Where has this knowledge gone? It has been hidden for ages, and I believe it is time for it to reemerge - not in a gnostic sort of way...but in a real sense of understanding.

God chose the Psalms to be cannonized, but He did not leave us music. Why? Because the expression of Him through music could not be contained by one culture - not even by His chosen people - and every tribe, nation, tongue - song - will bow at His feet. Amen.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

These days are the canvas;
My environment, the palatte;
My brush is my choices and
The strokes are my spirit.

What kind of picture of me
Would I love to see on
The wall in thirty years?

Between You and Jerome Ellis


Jerome Ellis
Today at 12:21am
Iit's all about roots. Music has drifted too far away from its roots. I have these lectures, in both book and video format, by the great composer/conductor/performer Leonard Bernstein where he tries to grasp where music is going in his time, made in 1973. He touches on this whole concept of returning, returning to roots. They're titled The Unanswered Question, you need to get a hold of them. I envy drummers because their primary medium is rhythm, and you were right when you said that that was the foundation. The African conception of rhythm itself being melodic is truth. What I strive for in music is just what we were talking about, towards roots. Example: Coltrane in Love Supreme, throughout pervades the 1 b3 4 motif, like Acknowledgment's groove motif is 1 b3 1 4 (like C Eb C F), and Pursuance uses C Eb F (1 b3 4) and F Ab Bb (1 b3 4) as its first six notes. That motif, that series of notes, is the root of the blues, and honestly I think Coltrane recognized at that hugely mature part of his life the importance of roots--nothing could be simpler nor more foundational for jazz than the blues. The same with all music, and I believe that it all traces back to the motherland. I mean, we as humans trace back there, why shouldn't our music? I saw this Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra show last year with Wynton directing, and he had this African troupe with him, the set was called Congo Square, this huge suite of like 15 different "movements," and it felt/sounded just right. You and James, man, you get that. Like I was saying, last Friday before you get there, he laid down this rhythm, and I went over it like I was from Egypt or thereabouts. Roots. I read that Darwin, in the Descent of Man I believe, asserts that music in its primal form was connected with mating rituals and other such highly emotional activity, and of course, it was just rhythm in its first incarnations, with the addition of primitive bone flutes and such. That really points to my fundamental conception, you could call it, of what music needs to do, at least when I make it, create an intense, spiritual experience, and it doesn't have to be loud to be intense, nor fast, nor complex. Coltrane understood that. I stand by the comment I made, about how that performance of My Favorite Things ceased to be jazz, labels don't suffice. It's simply music. I'm so scatterbrained, man, but another thought I've been pursuing is how both classical and jazz music have come to, mostly, a dead end in very recent times. Not that there isn't wonderful music being produced within each "genre," despite my dislike for the categorization, but that the development/progression has halted considerably. Classical stuff especially, and I have so many thoughts on the peculiar time of the mid 20th century, I need to gather those into a coherent whole. But man. Return to the roots, and you can't go wrong. More later.


David Napier
Today at 3:22pm
Amen.
I'm so delighted to have someone who shares my mind. You're familiar with T.S. Eliot, I'm sure, but have you read or heard explained his tretise, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"? The turn of the twentieth century is such a fascinating period to me, mainly in its aesthetic geist and intention: to reach enlightenment - a transcendent state - through art. The cry of the era was, "Make It New," and I absolutely love that...perhaps with a slight modification: "Make It FRESH". And here's where Eliot's idea blooms...
He suggested that there is a connection of all humanity through art called "The Objective Correlative," which basically means that those who could touch the correlative had the ability to transcend environment, culture, and history to speak to the deepest parts of a man. This is the principle that explains why Shakespeare can be translated and performed in Japan and still garner a significant aesthetic response.
Eliot's prescription for the artist was this: learn the Classics, inside and out. But why? Well, they are classic for a reason; they have stood the test of time, and we can still draw the deep humanity out of them as though the author had a studio apartment in NY and putting out a novel every few years.
How were they able to create something that transcends time and culture? By connecting to the Objective Correlative of humanity - by knowing HOW to reach the human heart, not the Greek or Roman heart, or the Imperialistic Brittish heart, or the 19thC Russian heart. Eliot says that we should intensely and intently study the classic writers in order to discern HOW they reached the core of humanity. Then, once we've begun to understand it, we can then employ it in our own works; we can create something completely fresh accompanied by the understanding of how to touch the correlative.

That's why we, you and me, are getting back to the roots. We're looking for that essence, that thread that strings throughout the entire human experience...
HOW...
That's our crisis...

There's this killer quote that I've adopted from a guy named Aaron Lindsey:
"Playing is talking; you can only express musically what your vocabulary will allow. I submit that going to a greater level of playing has much to do with one's ability to speak the language of that level. Minstrels are few and far between; musicians are a dime a dozen."

Mm!

Dude, a lot of time just freed up for me. I'm going to be practicing like a mothasucka. I would love to gather with you and expound and express.

And here's a thought about the other night with James:
We were talking about whether or not Coltrane's life was worth his art...
Here's the beautiful thing about us, Jerome, we have the strength of Christ-in-us. We don't have to end up like Trane, or Bird, or any of those cats that had major problems but ended up making our world possible. We won't be overcome by the world rather we HAVE overcome it!

It's time for Renaissance/Revolution. We're on the cusp, and it's going to be ushered in by us.

You're right. "My Favorite Things" wasn't Jazz anymore. For a man, the most enlightening revelation that can come to him is that of existence: I am. That's one thing that kills me about what God said in Exodus. He made the most powerful, fundamental, essential statement ever: I AM.

I exist. I am the essence of existence. I am true existence. I am the source and flow of existence. There is nothing beyond. I am all has been, is and will be.

That's what "MFT" turned into: the most essential expression: I exist, and I am stating that with music. The essence of Music is simply expression of existence.

And here's the thing with generae past (Rock, Jazz, all of which are DEAD): they want to express what WAS, and not what IS NOW.
That's why our musical culture of rehashing is so stale and past rigor mortis.
Don't rehash the past. DO NOW.


Whoooo!
We've got so much to talk about!!!