Bruce and Bob

Lately, Brandon and I have been splendidly fortunate to spend time in the presence of true musical greatness, wrapped up in the talents of two ordinary yet extraordinary guys named Bruce and Bob.

1. Bruce
www.brucekatzband.com

Maestro Bruce Katz, a virtuoso keyboard genius in the organ vein of Jimmy Smith and Des Moines' own Sam Salamone, gave us a night to remember at www.bluesongrand.com last week. It was one of those midweek sparsely attended shows, yet how very lucky were we to be witnesses to such awesome talent at such close range. Brandon has been privileged to interview and review Bruce and his band before, see www.midnightwine.blogspot.com and www.DesMoinesMC.com. So when we arrived, Bruce greeted us by name and with hugs at the door, as did his stellar bandmates, drummer Ralph Rosen, bassist Rod Carey, and an enormously inspiring guitarist named Chris Vitarello, www.chrisvitarello.com.

Simply put, it was like going to school and to church at the same time, in all the best of ways. Bruce and his posse showed us "the meaning of musical grace" as they served us up a gourmet banquet of musical "v" words: vitality, vigor, vivaciousness, and again, virtuosity. Before the first set was complete, they explored country, blues, rock, soul, jazz, and again, this was all in just the first set. It was the kind of "kaleidoscopic" musical approach that I dream of daily, vividly painted right before my grateful eyes, and ears! I came away with the reaction I've had at only a few magical musical moments in my life, including nights with Wynton Marsalis, Gov't Mule, and 2 of our 3 Stevie's--Wonder and Nicks. That reaction is this: I wish every musician and music-lover I know could have been here.

Bruce told us that he's working on an offshoot project featuring jazzy/bluesy interpretations of Aretha Franklin songs, to be coming this fall. Meanwhile, here is your several-month notice to make plans now when this group comes back to town in 2010. (By the way, I got so excited about their music as I write this, that I totally spaced the fact that little old me got to get up and do a tune with them--he mouthed at me from the stage asking me to come up--I still haven't quite recovered from the glee of this--and we did a slow 12-bar blues in D that the late great Irene Myles herself gave me on the back of a "Mel's" menu, called "Mean and Evil".)

2. Bob

Bob's Soundclick website here

There's a bar in our neighborhood called Smokey's Saloon, a pool table haunt with a nice-sized stage and dance floor, which is sometimes our last stop on the way home after a night on the town. This particular Saturday night, we were excited to learn that the entertainment was none other than Bob and company. The trio usually performed country blues stuff, but someone was present who had a serious birthday hankering for some Hendrix. So Bob gave the enthusiastic group of fans a moment to remember. He came off the platform, pulled up a chair right next to his lively listeners, and kicked into some serious birthday Hendrix (thanks to his wireless guitar hookup--he was mobile). After we were all enthralled to the point of overwhelming, Bob sauntered on over to one delighted Mr. Findlay, took off his guitar as the band continued, and handed it right then and there to him, as if to say, your turn now--show us what you've got! And boy, did he ever! Mr. Findlay went on to play while seated, with fiery passion and "Hendrix-ness" right under the nose of his hero and mentor.

So after those hoots and hollers subsided, Bob took his guitar back, segued into "Red House", and edged back over to none other than Mrs. Findlay, gave me that look, and I launched into some shouting blues with him, right from my chair, totally unamplified, totally lacking agenda or baggage, just for the pure joy of the music and the moment.

Of course the Bob I'm referring to is the one and only Bob Pace, who I'll be sharing the stage with a few more times this year, after many years of admiring his talents from afar. And to share it all with my husband makes it even sweeter. Bob could play rings around guitarists way more famous than himself, yet has remained "under the radar" to be completely approachable and accessible in intimate, unpretentious settings, like Smokey's Saloon, or Blues On Grand most Tuesday nights, or other neighborhood holes-in-the-wall.

Luckily, you don't have to wait until 2010 to enjoy and be inspired by this musicianship. You can connect with Bob all over our city, a wonderful example of how much more rewarding it can be to support the musical greatness of someone local that you can actually converse with, and find out firsthand about their creative inspirations. (Another place to connect with Bob is www.myspace.com/bobpaceandguitartown.)

In Transition--the personal angle

"Knowing that you don't know is the first and most essential part of knowing, you know?" --from the movie 'Synecdoche, New York', written and directed by Charlie Kaufman

It's May Day 2009 and I am once again in transition. Actually, when are we ever not in transition? However, that sense of "moving on up" into a higher, deeper place is even more palpable than usual. Some things in life are grrrrrreat, some things greatly suck. Same with the world at large (see previous sentence for my assessment of Obama's first 100 days). I've aged, and so has the world.

Have you ever seen those "life coaching" exercises where you break your life up into slices of a pie, and take the proverbial "good, long look" at them all, the "searching and fearless moral inventory" of twelve-steppers fame? They say that the unexamined life is not worth living, and a few also add that the unlived life is not worth examining. Well, this life has so far been anything but both unlived and unexamined. And that's just this past year; and that's really just this past week.

No big earth-shaking developments, just a gently growing internal virus of...dare I call it wisdom? Another good word would be surrender. Battling the good in life, keeping it out with addictiveness, doubt, fear, and other varying degrees of utter behaviorial madness -- it's time to surrender and say, once and for all, I was not born for unhappiness. My best days are ahead of me, and come what may, I'm going to live in freedom, because somebody somewhere said "freedom is a beautiful thang..."

It's been a serenity prayer year, filled with all kinds of personal upheaval, plans made and unmade, people passing through as their reasons and seasons of presence in my life come to a screeching halt. God has been his usual perfect, awesome, patient, and grace-extending. My husband Brandon continues to be "the brightest spot" in it all, even as he perseveres through his own changes.

Without going into any specifics at all, I'll just say that lots and lots of smoke is finally starting to clear, revealing an increasingly focused picture of my destiny and dreams. Less outcome-based, more organic and principle-based. Less controlled and controlling, more openness. Less tolerating, more celebrating. Less knowing, more not knowing as a kind of knowledge of its own. Less lost in the land of the found, more found in the land of the lost.

In light of the upcoming launch for our new band, this space and time probably should have been devoted to rhapsodizing about bella soul. All in good time, not everything has to be about that. Snoop us out, keep tabs, follow the creatiVEntures here (still under construction):

www.bellasoulmusic.com
www.myspace.com/bellasoulmusic
www.twitter.com/bellasoulmusic

I will only be posting here on a monthly basis, unless I get real ambitious and literary lightning bolts strike. I'll be posting more often at www.bellasoulmusic.com.

"Life is good, life is grand, when I'm holding the hand,
Of my strong pure-hearted man, who always loves me for exactly who I am"
--from 'Life Is Good' by me

I'm in transition. So are you though you may not acknowledge it. In times like this, we find out what the water is, and what the rocks are, in our lives. I'm learning that the so-called rocks tend to flow through, and that after all this time, it's the water that is the constant.

PS--Listen to these if the mood hits ya; I speak better about life, and my own life, through song.
www.twiturm.com/phbi
www.twiturm.com/38rc

Lyric Excerpt--Out Of Eden

I'm on a composition bender these days, and the words are coming from some pretty deep places (don't they always...). Here's your latest psychic snoop:

Out Of Eden

Living out these consequences
Of the things that I did wrong
Out of Eden, hope still holds me
Another garden keeps me strong

I believe in wild salvation
I believe in ancient dreams
Destiny's on my horizon
And I still know what grace means

Woo, let's take a breath after that one. Yes, I'm all for songs in the "cheesy party classic" category. But occasionally, my soul says "let's go swimming in the deep end." Maybe you can relate to these words, maybe you can't--although that would basically mean you're perfect or at least have a very short memory.

Last night Karen and I went to a discussion about the upcoming Des Moines Civic Center stage production of "The Color Purple", which is much more based on the novel than the movie was. We discussed evolution of the spirit, triumph over horrific abuse, Celie's personal renaissance, "stepping into creation" as she says in the story, into a land full of wild salvation and grace.

I'm going to see the show next week. But more importantly, I'm going to live in what it and the little song up above both represent, vast expanses of wild salvation and grace. It's not too late for a personal renaissance, for me or for you.