I have been practicing all morning. Just before I stop and go out for a walk a rhythmic tune appeared under my fingers. In order not to forget I recorded it immediately. That’s what you hear mostly from the left channel. I listened back to it and played an improvised line on top – that’s what you hear from the right channel.
I called it Full Moon Friday because that’s what today is. An emotional day.
A better title for this song would be “A memory of Istanbul” or “An Impression of Istanbul” or “Resonate with Istanbul” or even “Hotel Armada” would do.
You know what I mean…
Follow your heart with no fear and no reservation. Follow your heart because that’s the only true path to follow.
Follow your heart. Such a cliché! I have heard this so many times, read about it in so many self-help books. Follow your heart. Follow your bliss. Be a light onto yourself…
Yet, this cliché is so dear to my existence. So much so that it’s not a cliché anymore, it’s a song. A song that I can play and play; it will always be different, it will always be new. Here is the latest and the newest version.
Dedicated to my dear friend Pierre Chartrand.
This song was composed and performed today in Normandy to celebrate the amazing Solstice Sunset.
I am throwing away objects and giving away the furniture. New empty spaces are invading already emptied spaces. There is lightness in my heart. In an hour, I will go see my friend JF to get the keys to his apartment. It’s raining outside. I start playing the guitar and record what I play. I play for 10 minutes. It just flows and a tune emerges. I decide to post the entire 10 minutes – unedited and raw.
I call it “Getting The Keys”.
This is not a song just an improvisation. Living is a daily practice.
I practice headphones.
First the song:
And now it’s meaning:
From Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French *pincher, pincer
transitive verb
1 a : to squeeze between the finger and thumb or between the jaws of an instrument
b : to prune the tip of (a plant or shoot) usually to induce branching
c : to squeeze or compress painfully
d : to cause physical or mental pain to e (1) : to cause to appear thin, haggard, or shrunken (2) : to cause to shrivel or wither
2 a : to subject to strict economy or want : STRAITEN
b : to restrain or limit narrowly : CONSTRICT
3 a : STEAL
b : ARREST
4 : to sail too close to the wind
intransitive verb
1 : COMPRESS, SQUEEZE
2 : to be miserly or closefisted
3 : to press painfully
4 : NARROW, TAPER
Fifty-Three is the name of a restaurant in Singapore – on 53 Armenian Street.
Here is another restaurant in Toronto called Olivia’s at Fifty-Three.
Rumi Birdsong: Fifty-Three Short Poems can be purchased from Amazon.
I had not heard of The Fifty-Three Stations of Tōkaidō (東海道五十三次 ,Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi) until today.
The song Fifty-Three has its solid origin in the year 1953. It’s about being 53 or older.
I have so much respect for shoemakers.
Shoemaking is a traditional handicraft profession. Shoemakers produce shoes, boots, sandals, clogs, moccasins… Each pair of shoe is different from the one before. Shoes are made for walking and yet can reveal esthetic qualities.
I compare songs to shoes and composers to shoemakers. How does it feel to wear this song?
Before I Leave has a dose of pathos in it.
Why this music? Why now? There is no explanation or justification. It happens. Simple, in draft form but somewhat alive. I will keep this posted for a while and see what happens to it. Enjoy !
Sometimes specific ideas or thoughts have an obsessive presence. They may not take you anywhere but they’re there, demanding their place in you. Until they are purged, and often they purge themselves out with time, we have to reckon with them.