Thought for the day...

from Spike Wilner- the pianist and manager of Smalls and Mezzrow in NYC:

Three o'clock in the morning: The miracle that is Smalls Jazz Club is in full swing - packed to capacity. Like a scene from a Chinese medieval legend or perhaps Lewis Carroll, an impossible number of people in an impossibly small space. The band is on fire. Stacy Dillard and his trio are pouring lava-light jazz into the atmosphere. We are inundated in golden swing, cooked like a soup in a hotpot broth of music. The audience is unified - eyes closed, heads bobbing, smiles. This is Jazz music - the very best that Humanity has to offer. This is America. Not a land of hatred, not a land of killing but a land where a variation of all races, nationalities and religions can come together to agree on one thing - jazz, swing and to feel the joy of life. This is real! Not a place where mindless idiots take up the flags of defeated nations to simply rage. This music is a place where there is no flag, no symbol. It is wordless and without form. It is invisible and yet binding. It is vital and enriching. It is not corporate. It is not a "meme". It is not a phony slogan. Jazz is what makes America great, not "again" but right here and now, always here - it is our cultural and our spiritual heritage.

At the end of his set, to the raucous applause, Stacy in his Cheshire-Cat style smiled at the crowd. "You see how easy it is?", he asked all of us. "You see how well we can all get along? Black and white? It 'aint hard..." and with those words the jam session began. The young musicians scrambled to the stage to grab the bass, get behind the drums, to take out their horns. One, two, three - a Charlie Parker blues and the music continued.

I bid everyone peaceful abiding and hope to see you in our clubs - ours, every one of us.