Six
months ago today, Ufa, Russia was deposited into my love bank and left me
feeling richer because of the experience of traveling and seeing a world beyond
my own backyard and also, sharing my gifts on their music platforms.
At Ufa Jazz Club in Ufa, Russia
It was an opportunity to embrace who I am in a different and
unfamiliar setting and it had lingering effects that still empower me in so
many ways.
What I learned
By the White River in Ufa, Russia
You never know
how strong you are until you let your wings get you off the ground to soar
through the skies. You will never have a change of mindset if you do not clear
the clutter of doubt to let possibility in.
We push hard every day. We owe
it to ourselves to take chances on our pursuit to greatness. We ought to inhabit
each moment while working hard and experiment with it. We deserve to expand our
dreams and to marry our passions to life.
To have been well received on
the stage as I sang with the musicians, stays stored in my mind’s inventory. It
was a wonderful experience that I will never forget. It was just the melodic
change that my song and dance deserved as experiencing the soft winds of Ufa,
was the vamp to end the incredible experience that being in Russia was.
And so, I try to put my whole
heart into every performance whether I am happy or with a broken spirit. The
stage gives me a reason to feel optimistic. I can declutter my mind for a
moment as I box out my troubles with a song.
I release infectious laughter
at the end because the joy that took over made me feel really good. I may worry
or climb over familiar hurdles every time before I take the stage but the music
clamors for my attention and then my focus turns to the song, the lyrics, the
notes, the key signature and the audience. And so my alter ego thrives in full immersion.
I am no longer who I was a
second ago and the sound art breaks the cycle of who I was and I become
who I am in the moment. The doubtful whispers cease and I feel as if the
music and I, become one before a score of people.
I guess this is why my heart rattles
like thunder for it. I am psyched with each opportunity to release the passion
within. Even on my worst of days or when I am completely exhausted, I get on
stage and my day changes into a masterpiece. I get this energy that is unreal
and I experience this maniacal grin because I still don’t quite understand it; you’d think exhaustion would pose as a challenge and instead, my alter
ego reboots me and I’m with a full battery.
Like for instance, a year ago
this week, I was on my way to an exciting performance that I was supposed to
do. My friend William Rivers invited me and my band to be on his television
show, “Showcased Talent.” And so, I got all dressed up, into my car and was
driving on the highway. The highway had a crazy merge from about 10 lanes to
one and while merging, a coach bus hit my car. I had to sit waiting for cops to
come and attend to us for two hours just to tell my side of the story and fill out a report. I was late to the television studio and still wanted to go do the performance though I was not under the best condition, being stressed and waiting out in the
cold for all that time. I still can’t believe I did not cancel after all of
that but, it was one of those experiences I will never forget. Check out one of the many songs JNote Band and I did that night together here: https://youtu.be/z7BZHMjQdFk
I try to maintain a thankful
spirit. It's no easy street to be a singer with an instrument inside the
body that you need to preserve through weather and sickness and drama-filled days
and emotions and tiredness. But singing is one of the most delightful things that I
do and I am happy with each opportunity to face the toil of what is required to
simply vocalize. I have genuine affection for the work because I genuinely love to
do it.
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.
It wasn’t my fault that we got caught underneath the cover of
the sky when the sun came and claimed it.
We had been told many times to go
out and face tomorrow, but it wasn’t our fault that it was already tomorrow.
Early morning for that matter and time to go back and to do what we were used
to doing routinely in the structure of our lives.
Some may have had genuine concern for us because we hadn’t
slept. We never worried. We just jumped in the shower and went about our business. We were always jittering with excitement about what was next on our agenda. We had learned to
go with the flow of things since we had been doing these crazy things for quite a bit of
time now. Um like forever! We never were in a position where we would be frozen by fear over not
being able to accomplish the task for the day though we were almost on empty after we’d been running almost 48 hours without sleep. We owned the night and then we
owned the day no matter what; even if our heads never hit the pillow and our
hearts beat violently because our engine never rested.
But then you come to a point when you realize and accept with
openness that you are not young anymore. It is sad, but I will admit that I am
bathed with shame over the things my body can no longer withstand because I am
no spring chicken. Sometimes I weep in the darkness over the fact that I must
sleep in order not to overrun myself because I now get tired. And then I
realized that relaxation and creativity go hand in hand.
It wasn’t my fault on the night when I decided to honor
myself and give into the thousand count thread pillows that were calling my
name. My energy was plummeting. How could I run like a sheep with no shepherd?
I could hardly keep my eyes open to even see what was before me. And that is when I realized that everything must change like the season changes from summer to autumn. I must change with it.
I have vivid memories of my childhood. I may have gone
spinning out of control a bit. Okay, a lot but, it echoes in my heart because
it was good. I shook my groove thang. I fell, and got up. I learned new things
in the process. I wasn’t this delicate flower that fell to the ground because I
was unable to shine my worth with true conviction in the sun. I was bold. I was tough. Yet still, I did not truly accept my own being or value the temple that was the whole of me then but I am different now.
I know my
purpose. I can smile triumphantly. I am victorious. And I am growing with
strength for real because last year around this time and the years before that,
I got depressed and cried a bit when my birthday was approaching and I knew the
number of year would go up again. LML! But, my slant on life has changed. I have a broader perspective. I am at peace with myself. I feel
purposeful. I can happily look back over my life and say triumphantly, "Je suis toujours La" and the joy that I now feel about that truth ain’t my fault!
Speaking of being Toujour La, last year for my final project in my French
class, my teacher made us do a presentation of our choosing completely in French. I could say thank God I am Toujour La after trying to complete such a difficult task. Yeah, I have Haitian roots and yes the official language of Haiti is French, but try to speak it in my home and I am told to speak in English. I am not the best at it., LOL! But I chose to write a song and entitled it "Toujour La." I apologize to all you true French speaking
people out there. I tried my best to complete an entire tune in French and
it is on Soundcoud and I hope you will listen here: https://soundcloud.com/stephanay-jnote/toujour-la-by-stephanie-jeannot
I can only blame my teacher. She made me do it. SMH! She was the best of the best of teachers though. Happy
world teacher’s day to you Dr Ruiz. You made me do it. I needed a grade. You
gave me one. I passed my class. I graduated with high honors. I did it for the
educational value. But in truth it wasn’t my fault.
This picture was taken a year ago today and it was a very memorable moment for me.
I remember looking at my surroundings and seeing my life being relived in music. A year prior to this picture which was taken a year ago, the natural beauty of this site left a mark in my heart.
Paul called me and said, “hey, let’s go out and film a video.” I was excited. WE had worked on a song that I really enjoyed and I thought that it would have been pretty cool to create a visual anecdote of it. I cannot describe how powerful that moment was for me, to get in my car with the idea that a new video was going to be made for my song, “Harmony.” I had no idea how things would go except for the fact that there would be wardrobe changes which I had grown accustomed to doing in my car years ago when my friend Mike used me as a model to test out his new camera for an outdoor photo shoot. While driving, I remember playing my song “Harmony” over and over again so I could make sure that I would not forget any of my lyrics, which as a filmmaker and producer of videos, I have seen many artists forget; it is not an uncommon thing to happen.
I looked at the area that seemed vaguely familiar and the site evoked a memory in me. It was like having a brief moment of de ja vu when I realized at that moment that I had been in this same exact place before. Yet, a year ago, when that picture was taken, I had not even known that the name of the park was Herman Griem Park. I just knew it had some of the most beautiful features.
Paul and I were now connecting on a different level. We had gone from being in the studio for our brief moments of music recording to now taking it to the streets and video recording. I followed his car into an area full of grass covered hills. We drove into the parking lot and I remember seeing young kids playing handball in the hand ball court, and a basketball court which’s gates were locked. Beside it was more greenery that lead to a brook surrounded by flowers and rocks that stood before a white foot bridge. All I remember was that it was the most beautiful area I had seen in Wyndanch and we were about to film a music video there.
The picture shows a visual of a year ago with me hanging with TN'T's guitarist's grandkids before our performace at Herman Griem Park. Debbie’s grandkids were having a good time and running through the green fields like I had ran through it a year ago prior to the #tbt pic, as Paul viewed the action through the lens of his video camera. The only difference was that the #tbt pic was the day of the Babylon National Parks Department Music Festival and I was performing there with the group TN’T. We were all set to perform before a score of people on the mobile stage which was set up for us.
Images flooded my mind of the three outfit changes I did in my car, the cold air of October that hit my sleeveless arms, the youth that decided to join us as we filmed and Eddie, who played the role of my love interest in the video. And as we started doing our sound check, the sky opened up and rain started escaping the grey clouds that suddenly covered the sky's piercing blue color. Within minutes, the parks department cancelled our outdoor concert.
I was happy to have come back to the area this year where we gathered once again to do the Parks Department's outdoor music festival and were welcomed with favor and open arms by the charming sun. This post embodies a series of three separate events in the same park over a period of three years.If interested, you can watch the full length music video for Harmony here: https://youtu.be/Et2DjrOKJAo
