Jazz moods [Archive]

(originally published August 7, 2012, at 9:27 a.m. CDT)

I am sitting in the hospital room today as Dad continues to show signs of improvement. He recognized me today, nodded when I asked if he knew me, and he squeezed my hand. He tried to smile when I joked about Mom.

Today, later, I have a phone meeting with someone from marketing for the publisher that is publishing my book. I have to juggle my thoughts between the novel, my father's condition, taking care of my mother, and trying to put in some work for my "Checkers" job to make a little money.

[Note: A "Checkers" job is just your day job, the one you do because you have to pay the bills. I call it a "Checkers" job because the hamburger chain Checkers in Florida used to use the slogan "Ya gotta eat!" So a "Checkers" job is the job you do because "Ya gotta eat!" Just thought I'd clarify that.]

As for the book, I was asked last night by my niece about the writing process. I told her that it has become like jazz. I have been watching Ken Burns' documentary about jazz, and the prevailing theme of this style of music I love is that in many ways the tunes are made up as one goes along. One of the reasons I love Miles Davis's album Kind of Blue is because he gathered these great musicians, offered them a handful of riffs, and then they just started ... doing it.

I don't think the jazz approach works for every artist. I think one needs to be trained in form and structure, and needs to be able to create well within those constraints, before one can start implementing his jazz moods. It's like a ballplayer learning to swing the bat. First, you must know technique, stance, mechanics, and you must master them. But once you master them, you reach a point where the swing comes to you in almost a Zen fashion. You can't overthink it, can't focus on the mechanics. You must let it be.

And I feel that is where my writing is going, that I am turning characters loose in a house of fiction and then seeing what happens. I will always have form and structure, as dictated by my late sensai Keith Denniston, to guide me. I entitle this post "Jazz moods" in honor of Keith, who wrote a collection of poems called "Jazz moods" and turned them into a dramatic, interpretive presentation.

I hated doing "Jazz moods" back then, hated playing the libidinous "Sonny Beaumont" in that piece ... but I'll be damned if I didn't learn a lot about my craft.