crazy raw beautiful energy passion spirit freedom life love beautiful love
i opened myself up to the music, let it enter my blood, granted it permission to weave its way through me, and felt the tingle of tired parts of my heart waking up. let myself feel alive, moved, playful. carried and buoyant.
knowing this is only the beginning.
[more to come, friends. more to come ...]
check out more jazz alley photos by kirsten.michelle
hooray!! so, so glad you got to experience all of this last night. i love that you opened up your heart and let it dance and run wild and free. i love that it taught you so much. i love that it met you exactly where you are.
ReplyDeleteyour photos are fantastic. and fun! such great stills that convey so much action and pure delight and joy.
wish i could have been there with you!!
I cannot tell you how much I love jazz. Wish I had been there.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice finally hearing your voice. We need to talk more. :)
Christianne & Terri, you two are next. Call me sometime.
christianne - it was so wonderful, i can't even begin to tell you. so much energy & passion, and it ran so incredibly deep. it did meet me exactly there; i love the way you phrase that.
ReplyDeletei had no idea of taking so many pictures [i uploaded just around 40 on flickr, but i seriously took 225 that night!], but i was challenged to capture that mood & just utterly enraptured ... i really wanted to have something to remember the night by as best as possible.
i wish you could have been there too. i am sure it is the kind of place both you & kirk would have loved thorougly!!
nathan - it does not surprise me in the least that you are a lover of jazz also, knowing you to be someone who loves good music & someone who feels life deeply.
i loved hearing your voice too, hearing what you sound like when you speak. i really & honestly felt like i was talking to an old, dear friend and that i could have stayed on the phone for hours!! when you said i could call anytime, i really knew & trusted that you meant it.
i was so jazzed after talking to you [pun intended :o)], i had a hard time getting to sleep. my sis was laughing at me as i danced around the house proclaming "i just talked to nathan!!". ;o) yeah, i really am that wired & weird sometimes.
anyway, it was good to talk to you & it's good to find another jazz-lovin' soul. ;o)
Jazz is awesome. No force of music is quite as moving as Jazz. Sometimes classical can do it, but Jazz just has it.
ReplyDeleteIt has funk, it has rhythm, it has strings and it has percussion...all adds up to a great piece of music. You add brass to that and heaven is closer at hand!
you and my friend marcia would get along great. she's our small group paparazzi. me...i always forget to pull out my camera. great photos and as usual, a description that plopped me right down in the middle of it.
ReplyDeletenate, i'm going to be mad busy the next little bit...but i'll catch you soon enough. i might actually end up withholding until you and your tribe post some pictures. it's not really fair that you have a face with our names but we're stuck imagining what you might look like. would it help if we send a really fabulous photographer who would capture your essence and such? maybe kirsten? :)
Woo Hoo! I'm glad you got some jazz in. Was this your first "experience" with the jazz life? I hope it continues for you! It is indeed soul dancing music.
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking to expand your horizons, check out Chick Corea's "Works" album. It is some older stuff, but Chick was known for his "electric piano" and this album is more of an experimental album with strings, and some of his great latin stuff at the end!
Also, find anything by Duke Ellington, my all time favorite since high school. I find the "Compact Jazz: Duke Ellington" and the "Jazz Masers 4: Duke Ellington" excellent albums. For a good rock out fest, check out Duke Ellington's Live at Newport album. People were literally getting out their seats and going wild dancing at this concert when Dimenuendo and Crescendo in Blue was played and Paul Gonsalves went off on his solo.
My father in law got me hooked on a group called Down to the Bone for some good old fashioned straight funk. Awesome stuff!
Alas, I have babbled again, coffee is kicking in a little fast this morning 8^D
Sounds good, Nate. Will catch up with you soon. Especially now that I'm realizing our blogging tribe is going audio, beyond words, in many directions. Need to keep up with expanding technologies within our group!
ReplyDeletePS: I think Terri's suggestion is fabulous. She can get Nate AND Tammy in one fell swoop. Because there really is no better photographer and friend than Kirsten for this job.
And Kirsten, what is it you've been saying recently about being paid to read, blog, travel . . . and photograph for a living? Looks like you're on your way. First Florida. Next Tennessee. You could swoop down to Mexico and then follow the clan back up to MN, too, at the end of the week.
Looks like you need me to act as your travel and interview and photo shoot coordinator. As long as I get to keep blogging and lovin' on all you people in the process, sign me up! :)
I love live concerts. There is ALWAYS a certain energy and spirit that's lost in the recording.
ReplyDeleteGirl you sure do have a lot of fun!
Blessings
carl - i so agree with you! there is nothing like live jazz; i have jazz CDs (botti, of course; miles davis, etc.), but honestly nothing can compare to the live performance.
ReplyDeleteterri - i have a serious obsession with picture-taking; i think it may be genetic [my dad is the same way]. i pretty much have my camera with me all the time & just love the challenge of trying to capture the mood & energy of an evening with the camera.
and p.s. i would be happy to fly on over to tennessee & snap some pics of nate & tammy. when do i go??
hi sean!! - i am a serious jazz baby. we've got some decent live jazz played locally that i go to on occasion & the same friends & i went to see botti in the same venue about two years ago. it makes me feel so alive & moves me to be fully present in my own body & just live very much in the moment. ah, i love it.
thanks for the recommendations, too. i'll have to check it out!
christianne - i am more than happy to be the photographer ... and definitely more than willing to make the rounds to mexico, minnesota, tenneesee, florida ... you name it! you have no idea how tempting it is for me to drain my savings account & spend it on airfare to all these places. especially after talking to nate last night, i was all ready to fly on out there.
so ... travel coordinator? when do i go?!
dave - thanks, it was a lot of fun. it's been great to be able to have these amazing, fun experiences lately and just to fully enjoy them. life is so full and rich and good, & if i may say so ... jazzy!! ;o)
Terri, how you gone play me like that? Lol. Photographs are against my religion (I read somewhere the images steal your soul). I may try to put some photos up, but honestly, I don't have any. Now as for the rest of the tribe: Tammy is a no go on the photo; Clayton looks a lot like the dude leading this song (okay, it's him); Meeka or Mekia used to have a pic there I think; Andrea has pics on her myspace and facebook (but I don't have access to either) and there are some on my computer, but I'm not at that computer. I think Imma upload some pics that I do have access to on my blog.
ReplyDeleteWhen we let music truly enter our whole bodies this way, we DO come alive.
ReplyDeleteTo abandon ourselves to the wild nature, the open heart, the freedom, the music. . .ah, this is life well lived.
good work, terri. nate's pointing us toward some pics. hooray!
ReplyDeletebella - i completely agree. music helps us to embrace the present moment fully, to be there body, mind, spirit, & all!!
Looks inspiring!
ReplyDeleteyou captured the way good music feels, in its essence, kirsten. been there, and don't get to do it often enough.
ReplyDeleteand i think nate's secretly amish. they don't let you take photos for the reasons he stated.
I know some people who practice voodoo who believe that too, Blue. So what is it Nate: Amish or Voodoo? ;)
ReplyDeleteyessss!!!! music is SO SO AMAZING! reading what you wrote just made me want to turn some on & have a dance fest in my living room! WOOO!!! thanks sissy! (oh... and i just clarified with christianne that when i call you two "sissy" i'm not calling you wimps... it's just what i would call my sisters... what i DO call my sisters!)
ReplyDeleteterri - is there such a thing as amish voodoo? right, probably not. i don't want to get struck by lightning or anything, so i'll leave it at that. ;o)
ReplyDeletedanny - dude, i was totally thinking of you that night, bro! those were some of the best musicians i've ever seen live ... the drummer was off the hook, the bass player was just insane, & the guy on the guitar ... he took me to a whole different world.
and i totally love the "sis" or "sissy" moniker; it just fits you know? cuz we're family! [even those of us who aren't going to mexico!!] :o)
laura - it was completely inspiring!! it definitely worked its way through me.
ReplyDeleteblue - thanks! i didn't know how to describe that music except that string of words that poured out. my senses & my spirit were so fully engaged ... beautiful. ;o)
amish voodoo? i been all over haiti and i aint seen none a dat. (kirsten, duck!...lightning bolt at 12:00!)
ReplyDeletenow catholic voodoo? seen plenty a dat. (ouch!...lightning hurts!)
i've had a long day, so i'm getting really silly, in case you couldn't tell.
ReplyDeleteterri - i love silly. i totally get the same day at the end of a long day or a long week or lots of overtime. i offer up the following photographic evidence [this was taken in december after several cumulative months of OT had taken their toll on me]:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=333868&l=dbf2e&id=625014676
**lightning bolts all around!!**
i seriously need to go to bed now.
aw, nate...are you catching this radical transparency?
ReplyDeleteoh yeah...*surfing the urge to nag incessantly about photographs*
oh, speaking of pics, i love your new profile pic kirsten. belle anpil, zanmi mwen! (very beautiful, my friend!) yes, i speak a little haitian kreyol. but my husband can speak king james english like nobody's business.
ReplyDeletemust. get. some. sleep.
random. thoughts. disturbing. nice. people.
sad that I missed you in seattle! Concerts here are always so much fun - you've been doing a lot of blogging lately. I thought Kori was bad, but you are just as bad :) - but don't change, because I love reading all your entries.
ReplyDelete