So, while I sat through SEVERAL hours of rehearsal this weekend, I thought back on the 4 times I went to the Indiana Jazz Fest. Memories of great songs, and incredibly talented clinicians, among them Bobby McFerrin, Marvin Hamlisch, and Rockapella, filled my head. These thoughts led me to a realization that, though I didn't acutally attend Butler, I have had so many life-shaping experiences there.
When I observed the Jazz Fest as a high school freshman, I was given the gift of real jazz music for the first time. I saw how excellent people could be when they made music together, and how joyful making music could be when we saw Manhattan Transfer and New York Voices perform. I learned the beauty of expressing yourself through music, and a person's ability to take on a character in a single song when a member of the Jordan Jazz sang "Daddy's Son." She sang with such passion that you would believe she was really the tortured mother she portrays in the song. I knew when I heard her sing that music was something that could be so personal to anyone who had a passion for it. When we worked with Bobby McFerrin, he taught us how to create one of the most beautiful musical phenomena I have ever experienced. "Circle Singing" is an exercise where a group of people improvises a piece on the spot by each vocal part making up their own melody while individuals solo over it. What's incredible about it is that once the song stops, it is gone forever. In a span of 5 minutes something went from being unknown, to a performance, to gone and almost impossible to remember or recreate.
Another major role Butler plays in my memory is that it was the homebase for the Music Leadership Institute, the group I went to Hong Kong with in 2005. I have memories of our friend Jeremy trying desperately to communicate that he needed a place to stay in the states for a week without actually inviting himself so as to stay in line with his Chinese culture, I remember making my first ever CD recording, I remember a communal nap that the whole group took in a classroom in the middle of the day when we were too exhausted to continue. We walked by a knoll this weekend where the MLI gave an impromptu outdoor concert. The sight of it made me remember how for those few weeks, we were all happiest when we got to share music with unsuspecting people. Music is such a gift. That's what Butler reminds me of the most.
Something else I learned at Butler that is really helping me work through these nostalgic feelings is a saying I have heard from Dr. Brimmer (the professor at Butler that made all these experiences possible); "When you walk out of the best, most riveting lecture of your LIFE, you lose 82% of it as soon as you walk out the door." Thinking on this, I am starting to realize that my quest for nostalgia, and the feelings it creates may be connected to a desire to hold on to the remaining 18%. The idea that I have lost so much of these amazing experiences makes me want to desperately cling to what I have left because I cannot imagine losing more of the experiences that have shaken me to the core, and even shaped my personhood and faith at times. So, that's what I think I have discovered for today about me and my desire to reminisce.
(The group of U.S. students who were in MLI)
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