| Current mood: |  cranky |
| Current music: | Shimatani Hitomi - last shooting star |
Music is nice.
The jazz event was great. It was at a temple on a nearby island, a place called Okamoto, I think. Regardless, it was in Shikoku. I'm just that close to the next island. I'm just that far out in the water.
I slept an hour and a half or so before the performance, and didn't eat before leaving, but I shall eat now. I shall. Lately, my stomach's been rolling a lot, regardless of whether it's hungry or not. I thought it might be food poisoning, but I've tried the suspected foods (granola cereal and milk) on several separate occasions since I first felt heard my innards talking a few days ago, and haven't had a "I've been poisoned!" biological response. So I figure it must be something else. I'll try to drink this cleansing tea my mom sends over before bed so that it can have time to do its stuff all Sunday. Woo hoo. Good times with the self analysis.
Anyway, the jazz concert. Very nice. We had the requisite piano, bass and drum, as well as an alto sax, bass sax (?), and trumpet. We learned a little about all the mutes available for trumpet players. I'd completely forgot about mutes (and what they were called). It was cool. Also got a mini jazz history lesson in Japanese by the leader. His name is Takeshi Inomata, and he played the drums. He's probably in his sixties, but he's still got it. It's nice when you see the players having fun and enjoying themselves as they perform. It's like the feeling is transmuted through the music and reaches the listener, making them enjoy the performance even more. I don't usually listen to jazz, but I really got into the performance tonight. It brought back to memory my year in the jazz band, and my guitar lessons at Howard Vance Guitar Academy in Memphis with my long-haired teacher David. I wasn't a very diligent student, but I enjoyed learning. I also liked working within the "box" of the scale/chord/I forget the right terminology and doing improvisations, even though I couldn't quite let myself loose enough to just let the music flow. Fault of my classical training on the violin, maybe. We don't really have improv opportunities, and I think that spilled into my guitar lessons and hindered me. Now that I'm older, it would be nice to give improving another chance (on some kind of instrument), but I'll save that for another day. Music is great, though. I like both playing music and singing it. If I'm having to do it in front of others, I'd choose playing in a ensemble/solo over singing, though. That's what I have karaoke for: singing and getting my vocal kicks that way. Once I joined the taiko group, I realized that music was ingrained in me somehow, and I'm so glad that I've got that outlet at my disposal here in Japan.
Bah. What am I saying? Darn it. I always jumble my thoughts. But you guys don't mind too much, do you?
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