"Life is Jazz" - A Declaration of Music as Life

Music is life in a very literal sense.

As musicians we must live life and experience life just like everyone else to authentically communicate life through music.

This energy is channeled through our songs and improvisation; through our melodies and the timbre of our strokes.

In a society that promotes music as a way to be 'more' than others by having a 'talent' - this point must be addressed.

As a musician, to stop living life in order to only be a musician is a contradiction. We run out of experiences to express and energy from them to speak fluently with our instruments. Inspiration is lost when we stop actually living life.

We must live lives equal to other lives around us in order to speak through music the trials and joys that we all share.

Auto-elitism puts out our fire. It is a self-imposed energetic isolation; an energetic death. In this state of mind, we have stopped listening to our equals. Some of us wonder in this state, "where did the music go?" or, ”where did the 'feel' go, or that magic I once felt in my expression?"

We may think we can just be alone but it is soon discovered without a listener, and without relating to that listener in some way - there is no music.

In the modern world of 'the chosen many' it is necessary to redefine music in order to retain its sacredness as a spiritual practice like it has been respected in the past in disciplines like Sufism.

We are shamans and healers. Our capacity to assist is only as great as our ability to maintain equality with our peers.

It has been said that "communication can only occur between equals," and I stand by this statement as I have learned in my travels that humility is the greatest key to conquer the unknown.

We must understand that as a liver of life, we are already playing music. To assume we are only playing music the moment we sing or pick up an instrument is a misinterpretation of our craft and a debilitation of the true potential of what we can achieve with it.

To stop living life is to stop the music.

Life IS music
and
music IS life.

(by Monti Karus)

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