“Music is My Mistress” – Edward Kennedy ‘Duke ‘ Ellington

 To this day I will never understand how a gifted lyricist like the late John Lennon omitted or neglected to elaborate, in his profound statements about imagination, a sentiment regarding a world without a powerful force called music. Perhaps he believed it went without saying as it were.

For this music historian, music will forever be my ‘go-to haven or source of inner peace.  Throughout the years, be them turbulent or not, I have always found solace and joy in the comfort of a Braham’s lullaby, or an Ellington suite, a Lennon lament, Gershwin ballad, and Hank Williams lovesick blues. I can still recall several years ago, during my college days, having to break away from my studies to be able to pay for the tuition costs. I chose to work in a relatively remote community wherein the residents seem to keep educated types at a distance. Loneliness began to set in until I
remembered I had a portable record player with a vast record collection. Soon after, I became one with the universe again, thanks to the likes of The Beatles Guess Who, and Elton John. It was only later, after years of musical maturation, that artists like Sinatra, Porter, Ellington, Bennett, Fitzgerald, and Gil Evans/Miles Davis took me to another level of consciousness.

…The Bird got ’em hoppin’ with his crazy be-boppin’ And Frankie crooned on and on…

I occasionally wonder if such inventors like Thomas Edison, or the powers that be at pioneering record companies such as Columbia and RCA could ever envision the spiritual consequences of their endeavours. To make this world one more step for mankind, director Steven Spielberg and I have imagined a universe where different beings or alien races might very well communicate on a sonic level, as witnessed in his masterpiece, “Close Encounters of The Third Kind”.
      
Be it jazz country, classical, blues, folk, or any other viable musical sound, the immense power of a note, chord, or lyric will always resonate with my curious soul forever searching for the lost chord.  I am reminded by what Canadian rock legend Burton Cummings once wrote in “Power in The Music’ :
        
:…The Bird got ’em hoppin’ with his crazy be-boppin’ And Frankie crooned on and on…
             

They got power in the music, and boy you oughta hear it now,
              

They got power in the music the boys are gonna show you how…”
        

P.S. As the British pop collaborators once wrote  ‘I get by with a little help from my friends…’