Show #148 (I think) Playlist, etc.

Ramsey Lewis

I often wonder about the spiritual power of an instrument. Yes – you read that correctly. Who is playing John Coltrane’s saxophone right now (if anyone)? Do they appreciate that some of the most important sounds in Western music have come out of that bell? What about Woodie Guthrie’s guitar? Is that machine still killing fascists? Or what about Bach’s clavier?

To clarify, I’m not talking about recordings and written music and how legends live on and blah blah blah (although I don’t dispute that). A instrument is just a tool to bring music forth from within the individual playing it. The instrument does not make the music. Actually, neither does the musician. The music is already there. The musician is just using his/her instrument to give that music a “voice”. By doing so, though, that instrument carries with it every sound that has passed through it.

Sound is just vibration. In fact everything is a vibration. Everything that every vibrated is still vibrating right now. Every sound ever made is still sounding right now. Everything that ever existed still exists, right now.

With that in mind, tune in from 4:00 to 6:00. 🙂