Friday ~ July 2, 1999 

The Zen Of Listening

"I don't really know how other people listen to music...  I really don't."

I was thinking that we all have our different ways of listening.   We all come from different experiences that we each have our own interpretation of what a certain sound is,  or in the visual aspect,  what a certain object looks like.

Of course if you look at something like a tree.   Everyone has different opinions about what that tree IS to them.   Each of our experiences will naturally be different because of our varying past experiences.

But getting back to the music people listen to,  it's interesting how we all listen to the same music differently. 

As for myself,  I can't really explain what I listen to.   When I go see a jazz artist performing,  I hear nuances and the little embellishments that go along with that artist's peformance.

When I perform on drums,  I try to re-create embellishments and nuances that other musicians have done.   It's a tough endeavor...   jazz...   the real jazz artists like the greats of the past have done so much creatively...    Lester Young,  Dizzy Gillespie,  and others.   It makes one truly appreciate jazz as an art form.

Funny how I can listen to simple windchimes playing in the wind and to me they are the most beautiful thing,  and perhaps I had really never noticed or appreciated its beauty until that time I realized it.   And prior to that,  those chimes were taken for granted,  and its sound not appreciated because we weren't focused on its pure sound and were distracted toward something else and not the chimes.