I cannot compose music quite fast enough so that you can hear all that I hear as a composer -- someday when I have more time to write but thank you to composer Liborio Conti for the use of his wonderful music to provide the relaxation vibes!

Let's go for a coffee,
Right after a walk,
The espresso is frothy
As we sit down and talk.

It's a beautiful morning
And a beautiful day,
Another great dawning
To love you always!

Had it been "Let's Go for Gelato," I would have been able to make it a perfect match to the years I spent walking with the love of my life ... but I got the meaning across in this way anyhow!

Life has been lifing since 2022, and something happened to me in the past few years that I thought never would: I am a composer and pianist who has never lost the ability to compose and arrange at need, but just for the joy of music and the joy of sharing it ... not so much.

But this weekend, I sang for a mentor's 83rd birthday ... he and his wife had a Zoom celebration, and I was able to bless across the country because the allergies just ended the night before -- I literally noticed the night before that I was getting better.

My mentor said to me, "I felt like I was in Heaven!" and no one seemed unhappy!

Afterward, I cried ... that reminded me of why I am a musician ... I was gifted by God to gift others, and when all the trials and pains and struggles are stripped away, I still have the gift, and it is still available to bless, all around.

That unlocked the joy I had lost, and that unlocked me ... it was like suddenly turning the clock back to before the pandemic ... the joy of music came back.

I recorded a quick demo at the piano of a song I am offering a singer I know -- I'm reconnecting with other musicians I know, calling the studio -- it all came back and there was enough to move forward on all the things I have been slowly working on by sheer force of will, knowing I was called and thinking "If I can just keep going ... I know this is what I am supposed to be doing, and I am built for it, even though right now I can't feel it." There have been flashes of that "joy power" during these projects to keep me going, to let me know I was on the right track and should just keep going

But there was still one last thing to see ... could I improvise again at the piano, just compose on the spot for no reason except that @justclickindiva told me about this?

Let's find out together!

(Spoiler alert: YES! Thank God!)

African music in North America is a long story of triumph over great oppression ... beginning with my enslaved ancestors taking the music they brought with them and keeping it although blending it with new ideas from English-language hymns and folk songs. This is the origin of the Negro Spiritual, the sweetest music out of the greatest human oppression of the modern age. Chattel slavery sought to destroy the humanity of the enslaved down to the soul. The Negro Spiritual is the first evidence of the failure, the deepest body of music produced in the Americas, and one of the parents of jazz, blues, and gospel music.

But the other parent, the work song, is very much neglected, and although the Negro Spiritual and its more elevated themes and souns made it to the concert hall and the admiration of Europeans and their idea of a Christianity that allowed for a Sunday to be holy and peaceful and calm and devoid of any reminder of the suffering their choice of enacting colonialism and slavery , the work song and its closer connection to the African chant and drums was not embraced as readily ... and thus, as Black people embraced Christianity and at last began to hope to be accepted into Eurocentric Christian circles, Black Christians began to be afraid of both jazz and blues ... as if Africa itself and all its contributions that could not be pigeonholed as chattel were unholy.

It is 2025. I am 44 years old, and still having conversations with frustrated people who get scared when younger musicians use jazz chords and blues scales in church ... churchiness does not include five-note chords and flat fifths and progressions of that sort ... although both Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk played for church groups, and if you really listen, the only major difference between traditional gospel and traditional blues is really the lyrics...

I am free of the old prejudices because I am studied enough as a musician and a Christian to know that God loves every sound in music that Africans in America brought here, and that all of it can be used for His glory ... so I tickle myself sometimes doing traditional gospel progressions and listening to the great jazz musicians I have studied coming right on out in a harmonious blend. This was such a moment!

"Trouble In My Way" is a big-time traditional gospel song, and as an arranger I have been looking at the chant section in it on the phrase "Jesus, He Will Fix It" ... as both arranger and composer i look at repetitive phrases from the bass side for variety ... I always start out traditional but things can get interesting in a hurry when one has Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk under one's hands too... and because I am not afraid of my full musical heritage, what happens is what happens!

Lyrics:
When summer's brightest hopes and dreams and gone and passed away,
And darkness seems to creep up more and more on every day,
I remember the love!
I remember the love!

(The photo is from a walk I took on Sept. 23, 2024 ... that flaming beauty in the middle of all that green stood out to me ... like a vivid memory)

The two verses of thirteen available (1) I chose to sing:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come
'Twas grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.

God be with you, God be with you,
God be with you until we meet again!
God be with you, God be with you,
God be with you until we meet again!

If we never more shall meet you,
If we never more shall greet you,
God be with you until we meet again!
Keep on trusting in the Master --
He'll be with you, here and after!
God be with you until we meet again!

The context of this in the freewrite is Capt. R.E. Ludlow, a military veteran, recalling all the things he has been through in his life, and realizing that he would not have made it unless the Lord had kept him ... so, when he hears Sallie Stone singing this bridge, he connects spiritually and emotionally to it in a way that gets through his emotional scar tissue at last:

Lyrics:
It could have been me, sleeping in my grave,
But You made old Death get back and behave –
There's no kind of lost that I could not be
Except You, my Lord, keep on keeping me!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Two years is a long time to not be singing even an adapted version of the "Hallelujah" chorus ... keeping the voice up through two years of no choir was a challenge for me (complete with a bout with Covid-19), so I could hardly expect children, dealing with all the other changes that came with the lockdown, to keep that up. It's my job to get everyone working with me back up to snuff -- so, given that we have been scheduled by our church to reprise our holiday performances at long last, I have 2.5 months to help everyone to get their vocal strength, vowels, and stamina back up.

I do love classical music, but my wheelhouse of work is the music of my African American ancestors, and I mix jazz and gospel on the regular in my daily and weekly work while still thinking like a classical composer because that is the approach that I studied in terms of how to build pieces up. The end goal here was to have a working warmup that could be performed as well as used at every rehearsal ... so, a simple scale became a walking bass with key changes and jazz chords to make for an interesting musical texture... simple words to get all those vowel sounds back in place -- "O Hallelujah! O, thank You, Lord!" -- up and down an octave and back again.

The first performance of it at my church this last Sunday went well -- like I said, I had to get it together by last Sunday -- but, no videographer! I'll work on that for Christmas so you all can see this fully realized, but for today, enjoy the building of the instrumental side of this piece of music, and the story of how I built it all out!

I will have the link to the full story up here as soon as it is done and out in a few hours -- the story about the kites is told by two fleet officers who are great scientists and making enemies among those that care more about power and money than the people ... and, just like Gnari'el stood up for the people, Admiral Benjamin Banneker has something up his sleeve for the haters, with the help of Commander Helmut Allemande!

Lyrics:
“The harder and harder the wizard huffed and bragged and bluffed with all his fluff,
The higher and higher the kites arose – the wizard froze, for wouldn't you know –
The sun was soon ascendant in the sky, and that tired wizard was told 'Goodbye!' "

“The people then heard Gnari'el, and all the truth that he would tell
The wizard wished nothing the truth would bring – he snatched kite strings, but here's the thing:
He soon was cussing clear across the sky – flew off on a sin and a shame – oh my!”