Throwback Thursday: Ever Cold, Ever Jazz, Bye Bye 2016

As changeable as the image of the moon upon the water is the weather that comes with each new season.  And here we are at winter. Are you ready for the chill that is about to embrace us?

If you have yet to experience bone-chilling temperatures yet, then lucky you. For me, I do not remember experiencing a colder December than the one 2016 has brought us. I am hoping that this is not an indication of what is to come in the next couple of months that make up winter.

I have been feeling these temperatures since October. When I was in Russia, it was colder than it is now in December in New York City. I remember traveling through each town with a hat, scarf, gloves and boots, trying my best to keep warm because I was not used to those cold temperatures though I persisted through it all.

Even when I started to get sick because My coat was not warm enough, I entertained the idea of staying in bed to heal up, but never accepted the fact that I was too under the weather to do the tasks at hand. Because I always had an aching desire to perform in a place that is beyond my knowing, I pursued each stage with eager interest and with all that I could exert.  I had to orient my mind around being positive and staying in control of how I reacted to each, new experience.

It sure did bring sunshine into my life to hear the old-fashioned trio set the stage up for me to come and join them on the stage in Yekaterinburg at the Ever Jazz club. For one, I loved

the scenery looking at the great photos of Dexter Gordon, Billy Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie just to name a few. To have had a big portrait among those greats was like finding money in a coat a year later when you are down to nothing.

The ambiance of the jazz club was amazing and warm inside despite the ice that had formulated outside on the walk path to the venue. The audience welcomed me with great fondness and I felt so at home, it was almost like being in a room with family.

Thank God when you can come together with people from anywhere in the world for the planets highest good and the impressions resonates with you forming a revolutionary improvement over your mind than the ideologies that had been previously set. Left me with a strange, wild happiness.

And now, as I tread the cold sunless days that winter has brought us, I now have a clearer

picture of the world. Traveling gives you a timeless lesson that you cannot simply gain from a book or google search. It is only when you dive deep into the unfamiliar and scan the expanse of areas of places you have never seen that you break away from the chill of what has been misunderstood and experience the warmth of true wisdom. To explore is to actively learn and to discover new ways of thinking. And to discover new and fresh ideas, plays a huge role in the life that you live. In the upcoming year, I plan to do more traveling and to visit places I have yet to see. 2017 is the year to do more remarkable things and I know the best is certainly yet to come.

But even if all you’ve got in the world is the culture of the current wave, you can still share a deep and growing love for each other by trying to gain an understanding through asking question and clarifying what is real and what is myth. Life can be seen in two ways; you can chill on presumptions of the world or you can familiarize yourself with the world by seeking different vantage points.

 And the moments that I experienced will forever be in my heart. As is the performance I did with the Old-Fashioned Trio. What resonated with me about this performance the most was meeting a teacher from Chelyabinsk named Elena who knew of my music and videos and traveled 250KM to see me perform at Ever Jazz Club, because she had heard my music and liked it. What an honor to hear something like that!

Please check out the opening number that cleared the path for more great music to come in the hour we spent together on stage. The night started with a cover of the song “Bye Bye Blackbird” which is so appropriate for this time of year as we start to reminisce about 2016 and say goodbye to it while welcoming in 2017.

https://youtu.be/h8p0XhyBoF0

If you like the photos posted here from Ever Jazz Club in Yekaterinburg, Russia, please free to check out some of the others they posted here: https://www.facebook.com/JNoteMusic/posts/1275592319163528

Thank you for checking out my blogpost!