A random moment from the process of creating Barbara Parker's new recording; a process that took several months and happened to fall, on one evening, on Pres' Harding's birthday (Pres had no problem being in the studio on the night of his birthday, His anniversary, however, was off limits. Good for him.). As the project evolved, finding it's way to the place it needed to be, so did the personnel, landing on a core rhythm section of Pres Harding - guitars, Ray Anthony - drums, and me doing the left hand bass thing from the keyboard. Every group of musicians finds their own center of gravity. In this case the center is a little off (center) from my own, which makes it fun for me, and on target for where Barbara is coming from, and wants to go. At the final rehearsal for Barbara's CD release concert (tomorrow at the Mainstay) the chemistry was apparent. So it's a thing. For me, a thing among things. A good thing.

Reflecting on blessings I have received recently. Maybe I've been  told this before, and unable to hear, or perhaps not. Certainly, at least at many points along the way, it just wasn't true. But these days, I am told that my performances occur with little ego. Or that I am a(n uncharacteristically) humble musician. This is certainly new, at least as a conscious point within me. Or more accurately, to the extent to which it is true, it is the place to which I continue to arrive as I learn to more fully connect, and to get out of the way.
To get out of the way doesn't mean not to participate, but rather to move toward selflessness in it all. Kenny Werner (in Effortless Mastery) appropriately describes it as observing yourself from a detached place. As it has happened, this blog, over many years now, has become a chronicle of my growth in understanding, or perhaps better, the unveiling of this journey to me; a journey of letting go, of myself.
And it is in the very losing of myself that I have found myself, my connection, and the ability to share it, or be a reflection, or a bridge. My whole life's journey has brought me here, to this point. It is, indeed, humbling. and an affirmation that I continue to move toward where I need to be.