Creating for the Community

On Monday night of this week, I had the privilege of attending the Inside Out Jazz Awards at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle.  The awards show was created by David Pierre-Louis, owner of Lucid and founder of Strength Through Unity, a foundation dedicated to healing Haiti.

creating a water filtration system in Haiti

This was an incredibly inspiring evening.  But it went beyond that.  It was also entertaining, emotional, fun, hopeful, educational, and full of a great sense of community.  The fact that they were able to use Benaroya Hall also offered a nice level of sophistication.  Seattle isn’t known for its dress-up opportunities, and it was nice to see so many people dressed up and enjoying the evening.  (Don’t get me wrong—there were plenty of jeans-clad folk, too!)

Jazz has never been my favorite style of music.  I can appreciate it, and do, but always prefer the vocal stylings over instrumental pieces.  But having a few people in my life who are very connected to the jazz community has altered that feeling a bit.  I find myself listening to it on occasion in the car, and sometimes after a show that moves me, I’m inspired to write something with a jazzy feel.  Watching the Inside Out Awards allowed us to enjoy various styles of jazz, and then honor the people creating them.

Adrian Sims

Leif Totusek

Kelly Ash

Clarence Acox

Mt. Zion Liturgical Dancers

It also ventured into other territories:  spoken word, R&B, dance, gospel, etc.  Much of it was simply focused on music and creative arts.  But a nice portion of the show was also about education.  Education around the situation in Haiti, and what is being done to help by the Strength Through Unity foundation.  Education about what is happening in Seattle on a grassroots level to bring music to the community, and what the Seattle jazz community has done to help out David and his foundation, ultimately benefiting Haiti.

One of the most amazing pieces of the evening was what I would call a symphonic jazz piece, “Acknowledgement of a Celebration”, composed by Evan Flory-Barnes.

Evan Flory-Barnes conducting "Acknowledgement of a Celebration"

Evan is part of my friend Jason’s band, the Jason Parker Quartet, and that’s pretty much the only way I’ve seen him perform.  I learned on Monday that Evan has a whole lot more going on!  He received a grant called “Meet the Composer” that allowed him to compose a piece and have it performed.  He composed a piece for an entire orchestra!  Imagine how complicated that must be!  Just after the intermission Evan came out to conduct this orchestra in an amazing multi-part piece.  It was so beautiful!  The icing on top was the dancing that was also choreographed for the piece.  It was modern with hip-hop and somewhat improvised, created with dancers from a variety of companies in the Seattle area.  Watching a piece comprised of classical musicians, a jazz composition (with classical and hip-hop touches), and dance brought home for me what the arts can do to bring the community together.

Dancers in Acknowledgement of a Celebration

And in the end, isn’t that what creating is all about, anyway?

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Letting Others Inspire You

Surrounding yourself with encouraging people is really helpful when you are trying to accomplish something. If you are trying to accomplish something creative, it’s also helpful to surround yourself with at least a couple creative individuals, or at least this is what I’ve found.

My friends Darrah and Jason Parker got married last fall. Both of them are very creative individuals, and have careers in an artistic field. Darrah is a professional photographer–it’s a new business, launched within the last year. She’s taken a lot of brave steps to make this happen, including quitting her full time job. Her photos are beautiful, and the way she views life is very prevalent in them. She seems to actually find the humanity in an inanimate object–now that is a gift! You can follow Darrah at her website–her gallery, Etsy store, and blog can all be found there.

Her husband, Jason, is a professional jazz musician. Trumpet player, to be exact. He’s been living as a professional musician for a number of years, and has his hands in a number of projects to make it work. Jason has been patient in creating this path for himself, and that has paid off. His music is tight, he has developed a very good reputation in Seattle and beyond, and he moves in and out of a number of music/jazz circles in the area. He keeps a blog documenting his path, which includes some of his music, as well as many ideas on how to keep the energy flowing.

(Jason playing “Bashert” at their wedding reception, which he wrote after meeting Darrah)

What I’ve noticed is that I love checking out both Darrah’s and Jason’s blogs weekly. I love reading their updates, noticing their progress, and seeing what new ideas they’ve come up with to inspire themselves and others. It reminds me that like all things, creativity is a process, and it’s ok if it doesn’t come all at once. In fact, sometimes it can take quite a while to feel inspired enough to even want to create something. No need to feel awful about that. But no need to let that stall you, either. Sometimes we need to build a habit of creating, or exercising the creative side of the brain. Other times, we simply need a break. We need to dive into something that has nothing to do with obligation, or creating, or a deadline. For me, that usually means watching a movie, or following some TV show (like Lost, or Glee, or Parenthood–other people’s creations!). Sometimes it means reading a book. Sometimes it means doing my spiritual work. And sometimes it means taking a walk or going on a run. If I don’t do that last one for obligatory reasons, I often find myself gaining inspiration as I go. Plus I get to look at pretty things on the way. It’s a win-win! A win-win as long as I can get motivated enough to go, that is. 🙂

Last night, after attending my school’s play, I went to Lucid Jazz Lounge in Seattle. The Jason Parker Quartet was doing their final show of a 2 week west coast tour. They sounded tight! Night after night of performing together seriously paid off, and the energy in the room was fantastic. Even though it was late for me, I found myself in a great mood as soon as I walked in. I have to finish a song by Tuesday for a class I’m in right now, and their show inspired me enough to get it basically done today. It was a reminder that it’s important to keep the music playing, and soak in the vibes of those who are doing it and loving it. That’s the kind of contagion I want to nurture!

By the way, since I want to be held accountable, I practiced the guitar 3 times last week. That’s 2 more times a week than I had been for the past month, but about 2 less times than I’d planned on. Here’s hoping for more inspiration this week!

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