260902 MMM

Memory is a funny thing. At a certain point a memory is just a memory of a memory - it fades and degrades.

I have this memory from when I was a kid, maybe 9 or 10 years old. It's a high school concert - the one where all of the schools music groups perform. I was there to see my sister sing in one of the many singing groups she was in but it was the jazz band that sticks out. I don't know if they were any good but I remember this performance standing out as something I hadn't seen or heard at a school concert before. I hadn't heard much jazz at this point, so the music felt different and interesting in a way that the broadway tunes typical for this type of concert never did to me.

At this point, so many years later, I'm not even sure if this memory is real, yet I credit it for opening my mind up to a different kind of music. Or really, a different kind of performance - something more experimental and improvisational and ultimately less rigid and more free. It's been a major influence on how I approach making my own art.

I guess it doesn't really matter if that memory is real or not.

Today's Album:

Artist: Jimi Hendrix

Album: Band of Gypsys