Friday, December 9, 2016

Inspiring... and Inspired!

I got discount tickets for tonight's ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT at SF Jazz Center as a BERKLEE alumna, specifically as a member of the SF BERKLEE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, Robert Glasper being Berklee alumnus himself, crossover star pianist between acoustic jazz, hip hop, contemporary R&B.

The concert started with a footage on the big screen about Bruce Lee talking about Karate. That while, he says, it's easy to do his act just to show off his skills, 
"it's really all about expressing yourself." 
"... Honestly! Not lying, but being honest with yourself," he says.

And while the video slowly fades, Robert Glasper also slowly comes to the stage with his band, first, the drummer setting up the tempo, as the rest start walking towards their instruments. And the band plays mightily! Funk, jazz, R&B! Two songs in a row, then he introduces his band members - Awesome!

Then he pops out his first question, "What's jazz?"
He specifically talked about jazz tonight, being a Berklee night at SF Jazz Center. And like Bruce Lee, he says, "It's about expressing yourself."
Being honest, not lying, not showing off, but just expressing yourself.
He says there are 2 words that made him break the rules, make changes, be fearless in music - FUCK IT!!

I've never been so inspired! I tend to limit myself, hold back my music sometimes for whatever reason - insecurities, inadequacies, etc.. As we all know, we're always our worst critics.

After watching him, I realized why he named his band Robert Glasper Experiment. It's an experiment of all kinds of music!  And jazz, specifically, being so creative, is really about expressing yourself, in whatever form, free form, no form, whatever, as long as it sounds good... OR, even awful!

As he kept repeating his mantra for the night, "Fuck it... Express yourself!"


... So fuck it! I'm gonna express myself!! 


Yup!... Now I'm Fearless.