As the sunlight hours lengthen our days and the afternoon temps begin to drip the snow pack away we have been sifting through our seed stock and seed catalogs, fine tuning our goals of going "flower" heavy in this years garden all the while seeing more snow storms on the horizon! Spring in Maine is always a guessing game and personally I'm not too affected by it other than when it hampers our schedules and throws our weeks into a tumbling madness of "learn at home" school projects and office day juggles that corporate America uses as a chess pieces in their diabolical scheme to destroy what family life remains across this once great land of opportunity. These days, it seems our best opportunity to get ahead is run by Fanduel & DraftKings or being a cooperate stockholder in a company that is too big to fail or maybe just to close to the demonic elitists that hang out at Mara Lago and Epstein Island to worry about loosing everything.
Sorry I digress, heavy times are weighing on me... I have been pulling back from the news feeds and trying to pay less attention, sometimes the more you know just makes you feel more helpless in the face of power and greed. In replacement of this I have been spending more time, saturating my thoughts with music and filling in free moments by creating rather than consuming.
Hazel has been inspiring to watch grow as a violin player. Never once have we told her she needs to practice, but everyday I hear her pick up her violin to run through her scales, practice slurs and maybe flip ahead a few pages in her songbook and work through a new song and more frequently we have found ourselves jamming together in the afternoon light that our music room/study lets in on our quaint house in the western hills of Maine.
Along with music, another grounding practice is getting outside into the fresh air of the homestead.
Sap season has arrived and over the last week we have tapped about 30 trees on our land... other projects like digging out the firepit, dusting off the boil pans and starting to pull some dry wood for boiling have been nudging up the priority list as well!
This will be officially our 10th season of making maple syrup and it correlates with us being here at our homestead for a decade!
We may be celebrating with a special batch of syrup this year but before I get ahead of myself lets make sure we yield enough for the project to come to fruition!
The long moon shadows of the most recent full moon inspired me to dive into the studio and create a mix using my catalog of Three Blind Mice records. TBM is a legendary jazz label that originated in 1970 in Japan and was founded by Takeshi Fujii.
Listen Here: THREE BLIND MICE SESSION
Along with these mixes I have been busy in the Rootcellar organizing new arrivals and spending ample time soaking in the sounds of new and old albums from near and far.... the one above is a tribute to the Bass and the one below was inspired by the thawing woodlands why tapping our maple trees...
"As the icicles drip and weep like percussive piano keys and high toned triangles, the bright long rays of the sun hold on to the horizon like a wailing horn bellowing through a snow covered forest at sunset... each note holding on just a bit longer, mimicking the sun on a late winters day. The maple sap begins to drip and the spring crocus bulbs swell beneath the frost as warm bass notes pulsate through the frozen tundra shaking the earths roots with its soft warm rumblings. Melted drops, long shadows and thawing tracks unravel through the landscape like percussive patterns through my thoughts. I stop, stomp off the snow from my boots, open the door to the Rootcellar studio and curate the sounds of Thawing Tracks from the LocalRootz HiFi library."
"A Friday morning session sifting through the new arrivals in the Rootcellar Studio and contemplating old thoughts while spinning some spiritually free and uplifting grooves from contemporary jazz artists around the globe."
"A session of vinyl mixed from the library of WeJazz. A jazz label based out of Helsinki, Finland.
As the music undulates from the dark cold shadows of a quiet snow blanketed forest. The stillness of the stark night lures you in as bright flashes of aurora borealis streak across the sky like a cold wind breathing life into a horn. Sit back and meditate or crank it while shoveling out and hear the microcosmic sounds of natures beauty translated by Europe's finest jazz musicians!"
"A journey through the beautiful spiritual tracks of Kahil El'Zabar and his multiple projects.
Meditative, uplifting and healing music for the world to embrace... as I sit here on the eve of another Kahil El'Zabar performance at Space Gallery in Portland, Maine. I recall shows of the past and follow the path his records have taken me over the last 6 or so years. Please enjoy, support the music and if you're local, show up for the event!"
Meditative, uplifting and healing music for the world to embrace... as I sit here on the eve of another Kahil El'Zabar performance at Space Gallery in Portland, Maine. I recall shows of the past and follow the path his records have taken me over the last 6 or so years. Please enjoy, support the music and if you're local, show up for the event!"
To listen to any and all these mixes please visit: www.mixcloud.com/localrootz
Speaking of showing up, yes I took my own advice and although a Tuesday night show with my work schedule isn't ideal, I was so happy to be able to attend and was the show filled me with hope, inspiration and my uplifted my spirit with the power and music of Kahil El'Zabar and the Ethnic Ensemble!
