Jazztacular

I saw a flying saucer last night!

Or at least I thought I did, until I realized that it was just a satellite orbiting the earth. But still it was pretty cool to see something whizzing around in the sky...got my heart rate up a bit, I was that excited.

What a beautiful evening. Well, at least until the wind started howling. I spent most of the latter part of the evening on the rooftop of the Waiting Room, gazing at the stars and chilling to the sound of Rus Nerwich on saxophone.

I love jazz, or at least certain types of jazz and I am definitely a big fan of the blues. Unfortunately, not many others in my friendship circle are. Most of them are into the house music scene, so I usually end up at the jazz-blues places by myself.

The thing that attracts me to jazz is how quirky it can be, especially with all the improvisation. Improv distinguishes an amazing musician apart from a good musician, it seperates the mice from the men, so to speak; and allows for creative interpretation. Blues is cool too and also has that element of improv but it's pretty easy for anyone half decent to get into the groove and play. With jazz it's different, it's exciting and a jazz musician needs to be slightly eccentric. A good jazz musicians plays notes that would ordinarily be completely out of place, totally off key, but for some reason when they play it, it just fits together.

Jazz confuses me, I certainly can't play it, at least not well and I have massive respect for anyone who can. Maybe the fact that I'm not skilled enough to master it, is where its appeal lies. As humans we often want the things we can't have, don't have or can't do; and the lure of the unknown or unmastered has always been part of my nature.