7.4.11

Music Nights

Practiced with the trio tonight, plus one. Wonderful guest on acoustic bass. Everything changed. The songs came out different--different tempos, different accents, different feels. We played the same song eight times in a row, and it grew every time, improved every time, followed a different arc every time. This is life. There is no map that leads us from our beginnings to our ends, only this desire to travel in the company of good people a while.

This is as it should be. Music, when you give yourself to it completely, is a way to find yourself, your heart, in a dark and echoing room. It is a way to find the hearts of the other musicians too, and maybe even an audience every now and then. Music exists only in the space between the people involved; so when a new musician enters the space, everything should change. And if everything changes for the better, you've found a friend, there in the dark, playing music and looking for you, too.

Tonight we found a friend. And we found each other again, too. And all that's just the way it's supposed to work.

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