May 2009

2009 is proving to be a remarkable year.  Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States began his term of office.   This present day event   would not have happened if it were not for someone who existed many years ago: Abraham Lincoln.  Coincidentally, 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and there are celebrations across the country.  I was approached last year to compose music to help celebrate the occasion, which lead to a wonderful experience for me artistically.  I have been busy composing and rehearsing “Proclamation of Hope: a Symphonic Poem.”   This is a large-scale work consisting of the Ramsey Lewis Trio plus a 22-piece band, including a vocalist accompanied by visual images from a range of sources.  The movements of this piece were all motivated by historical events from Abraham Lincoln’s life and work.  The premiere is Friday, June 12th at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois.

This project required many hours at the piano composing, writing and arranging.  It also required a great deal of time researching, reading, and contemplating Abraham Lincoln’s life.   My feelings and observations about him will be expressed in the form of that live performance next month.  I also wish to share some of those feelings and observations on Abraham Lincoln’s life here in this forum.   Many things I learned about Lincoln are qualities we can all aspire to and involve habits we can cultivate in our daily lives.  Even though he was born in 1809 and died in 1865, the way he lived his life is still relevant in 2009. We can all become happier, more fulfilled human beings by following his example.

A defining characteristic of Abraham Lincoln from an early age was the determination to make something of himself. We have all heard the saying, “You can be whatever you want to be, despite your circumstances.”   We also all are familiar with the simple surroundings in which he grew up in rural Illinois.   He never finished high school.  Still, he was determined to educate himself.  Even though a formal education was not readily available to him, he decided he wanted to become a lawyer.  As a young man he was determined to pass the Illinois Bar Exam.  He put in many hours of study.  Keep in mind that law school takes three years today and students have the benefit of professors and teachers guiding them and challenging them along the way.  He studied on his own without that guidance.  And he passed the exam on the first try!   What can we learn from this?   Know what you want to accomplish, put in the time, no matter how tedious it may seem, and you can accomplish that goal.  He lived in a time and place with few luxuries, little formal education  and tough circumstances but through his will and hard work, he made something of his life and changed those circumstances.

This ties in to another aspect of his character: Abraham Lincoln saw his life as his own creation. He saw learning as a lifelong process; something that one can be engaged in as long as they are on this earth.  He was always reading, studying, learning, and growing.  He appreciated the arts.  He read books on calculus.   He read Shakespeare.  He read the Bible cover to cover.   He approached life as an opportunity to enrich his existence through learning and to exist harmoniously with other human beings.

Abraham Lincoln was a sensitive man who was in tune with his emotions. He was a wartime president and the death of soldiers was an everyday occurrence.  He understood this.  He dealt with it not with machismo or a ‘toughen up’ attitude, but in a much different way.  He dealt with it as a thoughtful, caring human being.  In many cases he cried.  That was his reaction upon receiving the news of the death of soldiers – even in groups they were still individuals.  His presidency spanned a time of great tragedy facing the confusion and difficulty of war.  Through it all he was not afraid to stare that harsh reality in the face and respond in a way that is sometimes perceived as showing weakness or fear.   Neither of those attributes applies to Lincoln.  This was a man of great strength who was not afraid to show his emotions.

Abraham Lincoln accepted disagreement and understood its value. Yes, he had the courage of his convictions.  He believed what he believed and knew the principles for which he stood.  At the same time, he understood the importance of listening to both sides of an issue.  If someone did not agree with him, he did not just turn his back or respond negatively.  Disagreement was not seen as an attack.  Disagreement was an opportunity to stimulate healthy discussion, to see another point of view, and to understand each other as human beings.   He wouldn’t necessarily change his mind or change the other party’s mind through these healthy debates and discussions, but he understood their value nonetheless.  Sometimes just being listened to is all that is needed.  Sometimes getting a clearer picture of the other side of an issue causes one to consider decisions more carefully.  As a politician, disagreement was a common experience for Lincoln.  Not only did he thrive on the healthy discussion and understanding that can be brought on by disagreement, but he had great respect for many of those who disagreed with him.  Several people who ran against him for public office ended up in his cabinet when he was elected President.

Abraham Lincoln knew that humor was a key to a harmonious existence with other human beings. Every book I read about him describes his sense of humor.  While it is rare to see a photograph of him smiling, the man understood the value of laughter and taking a lighter approach to life, when appropriate.  He was a fountain of funny stories and humorous anecdotes – this too in a time of great tragedy.  His appreciation of humor did not detract from those tragedies and hardships, but instead made them bearable as he guided this nation past slavery and the Civil War.  Without his sense of humor that guidance would not have been nearly as enduring or effective.

Will we all become as historically significant as Abraham Lincoln if we follow these principles?  Probably not.  However, by approaching life in this way: having the determination to make something of ourselves despite our circumstances, seeing our lives as our own creation, being in tune with our emotions, understanding the value of disagreement, and the importance of humor in the face of tragedy, we can all be more fulfilled, happy human beings.   Lincoln made the world a better place while he was alive and those changes resonate today, 200 years after he was born.  We all have the power to make our world a better place right now in 2009 if we follow his example and approach our lives the way he did his.

Looking at all our life experiences, with our career, family, friends, and education, we find many great lessons, if we take the time to look within.

My life experience as a jazz musician has taught me many things.  Most obviously, I learned things specifically about music theory, concepts and technique.  But it taught me things of a much greater and deeper value.   At its heart, playing jazz is about relationships.  It is about the relationship created when the performer communicates with an audience.  In order to do that, individual musicians on the bandstand must learn to have relationships and communicate with each other, if they are ever going to communicate with the people filling the seats.    In order to do that, individual musicians must first establish a relationship and communicate with their individual selves.

If jazz is about communicating and relationships, then jazz is about life itself.  What is life without relationships?   Close to home we have relationships with our families, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Every day we hear about relationships between politicians, national leaders, between nations themselves.  Where do our relationships with other people begin?  They begin with the relationship you have with the person you see in the mirror every morning. All relationships begin with the relationship with that person — the relationship with yourself.

Studying music forces you to confront that person in the mirror. It is essential in order to learn, grow and advance.  You learn your strengths, which at first can boost your sense of self esteem and ego.  You learn your weaknesses, which at first can put a few dents in your ego and sense of self esteem.  You learn the consequences of becoming caught up in an overly boosted ego and sense of self esteem.  You learn how to get over it when a performance goes wrong or an audience is not as responsive as you wish they would be.  Your ego and sense of self esteem may take a few hits but you emerge a stronger musician and a stronger person as a result.   You learn the importance of commitment and the necessity of sacrifice.  You learn the discipline of using  your time wisely.   Sometimes “fun” activities have to be turned down.   Commitment means sacrifice and that means not always being able to socialize, to relax, to “take it  easy” when presented with the opportunity.   My father used to ask me, “What do you do with your time?”  Playing music forces you to make the most of your time — not only practicing and performing, but also finding the most positive and constructive ways to spend your time when you are not practicing and performing so you can make the most of the time when you are.

While these lessons gained from individual study are important and beneficial, it does not end there.   In the case of jazz, there are few musicians who have built a career entirely as solo artists who plays alone on stage.  There are a few that could have done so, if they chose to (Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson come to mind).   But even they made the choice to work with a group much of the time.  It is incredibly gratifying to reach a level on one’s instrument to be able to play alone and hold an audience for an entire concert.  But the value of sharing and communicating with other musicians on stage is far greater.

This is true not only on the bandstand.   Take a look at your own life.   We have all experienced a situation where we might have said, “Leave me alone, I can do it myself.”  While it is true that we are helped most when we help ourselves, we are missing the point if we isolate ourselves and do not make room for collaboration, communication and interaction.    What if Miles Davis had that attitude?  The world would have missed out on all the wonderful performances and recordings he did with Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock, to name just a few.  He helped shape their music and he had the wisdom to allow them to shape his.  As younger, less experienced musicians, they introduced him to new ideas and musical approaches, even though they had less experience.  Take that bit of wisdom and adapt it to your own life.  How can we all learn from others?   Can we put aside our egos for a moment and have the wisdom to open ourselves to learn something from someone else?

In my own playing and performing experiences, being a member of a group has taught and continues to teach me the virtues of communication and collaboration toward a common goal.   Why are we performing on stage?  Why do we rehearse, practice, write music, and record albums?   The answer to these questions goes back to one goal:  sharing with compassion.  On stage a musician can express ideas across the entire range of human emotions, often in ways that words cannot.  Musical notes express kindness, stillness, peace, love, and joy, and infinite variations and combinations of those ideas.  But notes are merely physical messengers of these ideas.  When the melody or the chords have died, as all sound does, the message they carried continues on within the audience’s memory, if the musicians are effective in communicating.  It is this kind of communication — the kind that can only be experienced by collaborating and sharing with compassion — that jazz groups create.   A jazz musician is doing his or her job by serving as a good example of this type of communication — and inspiring members of the audience to communicate and share with compassion in their daily lives.

There are numerous opportunities for individuals here in the United States to express themselves and to contribute worthwhile ideas to the larger whole.   In jazz, your career will end swiftly if you are not making those kinds of contributions.   In a democracy, the expectation placed on individuals is not quite as obvious.  One can easily avoid contributing to the group and go unnoticed.    But if you take the opportunity to contribute, when it comes time for you to stand up and solo, so to speak, all the preparation you have undertaken comes into play.  When your solo ends, you democratically step back and become part of the whole.  It applies to all relationships we experience in our lives: those with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, people in our churches and temples, people in our country, people in other countries we do not even see or interact with directly.    We are all connected and our individual contributions matter.

What we create as individuals in the context of a group shapes and guides the group, ideally in a positive, constructive and life-affirming way.  Just as in great jazz groups, the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts, and that is the beauty of communicating in this way.  All of this can happen in a democratic society, if we as individuals choose.  The first choice we must make is the choice to make a contribution at all. Sometimes it seems easier to sit back and coast, “take it easy” and not contribute.  But we all know that is not the path that makes the world a better place.  What can you do to make the world a better place?   First, make the decision to contribute.  Then, decide what kind of contribution you want to make so you are ready when the time for your “solo” comes along in this big jazz group we call the human race.   How do you begin make that decision?   By getting to know the person you see every morning in the mirror.