Music demands bravery, stepping into the next no prob, my turn to throw I throw. Music’s energy. Gregorio Uribe with the Brown Jazz Band in Solomon. Leaves! One small flower and leaves two pinches. Uribe lives energy. Walk into a room and demand moment’s point. Composer and arranger. What must you do, what must you learn? First, he has to teach himself the music, then he has to lead. Take the Brown Jazz Band to the edge, duel with the alto sax player who may also be an engineer. Percussionists from Colombia throw hard those men. Music alive, music vibe. The edge music, have to step there. Know a pulse, live a pulse. Not simply music. Life sounds, play beyond the point, outline and improvisational flow. And so how magic you flow? Flow you know. My life is a jam. Dude, you want to jam? Jam into town, park, walk, darkness, the old city and libraries. Parked in front of the Rock.
I saw it, but can I describe and explain it?
I saw the edge when audience called to dance from theater seats. Only one first. Then another slowly. Then a little girl from Colombia. Then an American girl age six thrust on the stage, did her best but lacked moves, uncomfortably resorted to ballet toe taps rapid fire, which Uribe copied for a few. The tentative approach. The first experiments people unveil when dancing in front of others. Music continues. Five people total. Eventually warmth soaks but still. Soon there’s enough standing in front of me no dancing in front of me their best salsa hip movements best courtship dance, and the Japanese kid who must be a graduate student doing what he does which is robot freak with disjoints, and his date, or friend, from Colombia, didn’t dance close to him, sorted out her own vibe. They did not dance together. Anyone else notice that or am I reading it wrong? I didn’t read it wrong. Dancing in front of me such that I no longer see Uribe, and so I stand.
And when stand, find myself dancing. Shit! I’m dancing in front of thousands in broad arrangement up-theater, rows and rows and rows, hahahahaha! So move your body friend. Aight, you want me to dance on this shit? Aight, I’ll dance, show you some shit. And I move. Soon my girl joins. Now you gotta throw moves standing in front of your seat. You know the squeeze that is. Do it anyway, and if so you have to elevate to the energy.
Uribe refused to deviate from the set list; refused to play requests, or change a solo ballad after many people had gathered in front of the stage. Why did he refuse to deviate from the set list? Because he’d trained the Brown Jazz Band an exacting arrangement in only a few sessions and that shit to be tight if I’m taking the stage. Says everything about exacting standards, choreography, arrangement, vision, attitude, and virtuosity.
Driving home after the show, after a walk through the freeze, through downtown to 95 South, video game speed, autonomous pods 200 miles an hour in a cluster, as you buzz freaked in the zone between the lines pushed a rush from head heart toe, caused partner to squeal slow down, screeches, house party on Chill Rony Seikaly he played in the fucking NBA, extremely trance, exacerbated the drive’s elemental trip, in the zone and between the lines, noticing pod clusters flying along curves, dips, lateral maneuvers. The rush of the new edge. New edge rush. Where you live on the all-edge. Riding the channel past Blue Bug, petrol tanks and harbor pipelines.
Do you remember writing those novels, and the places you went? That place? The elemental place. There in the pocket. Remember that movement. We hear the song. We all know to sing it.
You sing the word, lyrically, fill the line rhyme in time; fly along with the rest of us, the perfect vowel, perfect word. See what kinds of sounds you can make. Did you see him up there on the mic doing such and same? Work on sound precision.
Some people on stage they’re chasing the moment. Almost out of time have to quickly step and manage their best. And by then, by the catch-up, well, it’s not good enough. Trick is to know the throw from the first second. And you choreograph that step-to-it. You throw the know. Work on sound precision. Work precision. Work sounds, voice. There she sings for the thing.
You cannot be chasing the moment. Make the moment from the first.
From the First
