I just got home after hearing pianist Pat Coil playing his weekly jazz set at Basil Asian Bistro, with Jim Ferguson on bass and vocals. On the drive home, I remembered a quote I read this morning in Jeffrey Overstreet’s book Through a Screen Darkly that expressed what I was feeling.
I can describe it best by borrowing some words from an artist and music-lover named Jessica Poundstone, who came back from a Bill Frisell concert recently and wrote, “Sometimes music is like one of those programs you run on your computer to optimize your hard drive: it heals a million little broken things you didn’t even know needed attention.”
God repairs us through creation and through art.
Listening to Pat play does exactly that for me. I look forward to every chance I have to enjoy an evening of jazz and a glass of fine wine, and I’m grateful for the echoes of something more that I hear during those times.
On a side note, I thought it was cool when I read that in Jeffrey’s book this morning, since I was sitting at a coffee shop waiting for Don Hart, an arranger I work for, to finish a meeting with Bill Frisell about some arrangements Don’s writing for an NCO concert next week featuring Bill. I had to get some of Bill’s charts from him, since I’m helping with music preparation for the concert.
You are a mad musical genius!