Two and a half years ago, I heard that Jeff Beck had died unexpectedly. It sent shockwaves throughout the music world as the media reported the news to fans everywhere. Not knowing that much about his career since the early days, I checked out those reports, went to YouTube to look for his music, and discovered so many riches. Equally at home in different musical genres, this amazing, innovative musician had his own unique style of playing that defied categorization. Jeff was in a class by himself. I shared what I had discovered as a way to appreciate and honor the man: The virtuosity and versatility of Jeff Beck was unique among rock guitarists. One of the best!
From L-R: Jeff Beck, Vinnie Colaiuta, Tal Wilkenfeld, Jason Rebello
I really enjoyed Jeff Beck – Performing This Week… Live at Ronnie Scott’s, with its many outstanding performances, including special guest artists. Accompanying Jeff on guitar were Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Tal Wilkenfeld on bass guitar, and Jason Rebello on keyboards. Amazing musicians in their own right, they produced an exciting cohesive sound. The joy they shared making great music together was self-evident and the audience responded in kind. Surprise guests included Joss Stone, Imogen Heap, and Eric Clapton. One highlight was Jeff using a glass bottleneck slide to delicately tap out high notes at the lowest position on the strings towards the conclusion of Angel (Footsteps), which drew a standing ovation from the audience, and a satisfied smile from Jeff. Beck was interviewed on the success of the 5-night run at Ronnie Scott’s. He talked about each musician and every song on the set list. The show was edited into a 1-hour program for broadcast on the BBC.
But I keep coming back to three sublime pieces from that one-week residency in November 2007 at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London: Stevie Wonder’s Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers* featuring Tal’s impressive bass solo, Imogen Heap singing and riffing her way through a jazzy-bluesy performance of her song Blanket with Jeff contributing two short sublime solos, and Jeff concluding the night with the hauntingly beautiful Where Were You.
*Also see them play that piece at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago Southland July 2007 featuring Tal’s bass solo and Beck repeating his enthusiastic response to her playing.
These days we are constantly bombarded with social media and advertising messages on our portable devices. Life has become a lot more complicated than in the past. This short poem by Wu-Men reminds us to take time to notice the simple pleasures that each season brings. And with a peaceful mind we can enjoy our best life.
I first discovered this text as one of a four-book compilation by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings, published by Tuttle in 1957. I had bought a paperback copy of the 1961 Doubleday Anchor Book from a Montreal used book store in 1967 and carried it around with me.
That summer, I had an awakening experience, and those contradictory koans I read somehow made sense. I had become a seeker and learned Transcendental Meditation (TM) on September 30, 1967, three weeks after Maharishi had visited Expo 67 to speak at the Youth Pavilion. This was during Canada’s Centennial Year and what was considered to be one of the most successful World’s Fairs of the 20th century.
When the school year started, I set up a SIMS club—a chapter of the Students International Meditation Society—then arranged for and publicized a TM Introductory Lecture on the Loyola College campus. Other new meditators had done the same at McGill University, and Sir George Williams University, which, with Loyola, would later become Concordia University.
Many hundreds of students learned TM that school year in Montreal, and some of us would go on to become TM teachers. The same situation occurred in cities across Canada and the United States. It was an exciting time, especially when the Beatles had learned TM and went to Rishikesh, India to study with Maharishi. “Dear Prudence” Farrow Bruns was on that course, along with Beach Boy Mike Love and Donovan. From June 10-14, 1968, I joined other meditators to study with Maharishi at Lake Louise.
I never imagined that posting a little poem by Zen master Wu-men would awaken memories of reading Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and learning to meditate all those years ago. TM continues to help me live a better life.
Also enjoy reading the fine poetry of Ryōkan, another Zen master.
Stephen Mitchell later translated and read Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (The Book of The Way). I first enjoyed reading The Way of Life According to Laotzu translated by Witter Bynner. George Harrison was inspired to write “The Inner Light” based on Chapter 47 of this ancient text. It was first released March 15, 1968 by the Beatles as a B-side to “Lady Madonna”.
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
This simple yet profound little poem seems to indicate that Mary Oliver was in a very good place when she wrote and published it later in life.
Everything That Was Broken by Mary Oliver
Everything that was broken has forgotten its brokenness. I live now in a sky-house, through every window the sun. Also your presence. Our touching, our stories. Earthly and holy both. How can this be, but it is. Every day has something in it whose name is forever.
Felicity: Poems (Penguin Books, 2015, 2017)
Mary Oliver eventually overcame her damaged psyche. She found love, creatively expressed her deep appreciation of nature, and manifested her destiny as a great, beloved poet. Her poetry inspired, instructed. Brokenness transformed into wholeness. She lived a fulfilled life.
Devoted fans forget their brokenness when they read Mary Oliver’s transformational poetry. It heals. See a related love poem, Coming Home.
Vancouver, BC visual artist and author Olga Campbell published DEAR ARLO – letters to my grandson, her third book. Like her previous one, A Whisper Across Time, it is filled with art, poetry, prose, and her family’s story of the Holocaust. This one includes old family recipes.
Olga sent me a pdf of the book for review purposes. I found it culturally rich and emotionally authentic and ordered a copy of the 218-page hardback book with colored images. She is offering a special introductory price until July 31st. You can purchase a copy on her website https://olgacampbell.com/dear-arlo.
From the Foreword: Olga Campbell is a second generation Holocaust survivor. Her mother’s entire family was killed during the war and although her mother survived, that trauma stayed with her and had a profound impact on Olga. The feelings generated by this as well as by the sudden and unexpected death of her husband, at the age of 49, shaped Campbell’s emotional life for years.
“DEAR ARLO – letters to my grandson” is her response to these circumstances through art, poetry, prose – even family recipes. This is an exploration into the legacy of trauma and how it shapes one’s identity.
Arlo in his car with Olga.
The book however does not only focus on trauma, it also celebrates the power of writing and art as a transformational and healing tool, and it looks at the wonder and magic of life. At the heart of the book are letters to Campbell’s grandson, Arlo. These letters serve to unify the book and transition from one section to the next. This book is a legacy, not only for the author’s grandson, but for all of us who are invited to share in this intimate journey.
One of the many poems in the book that made an impression on me is “Morning in Hyderabad” on pages 52-53. Olga wrote the poem during one of her three visits there from 2010 onwards. It is so vivid you can see and hear everything she describes as night slowly transitions to day.
MORNING IN HYDERABAD
the night is still and then awakens with a cocophany of muted sounds... slowly at first, then louder as it explodes into the light of day... in the grey stillness just before dawn a dog barks in the distance... far away a rooster crows a new day a fresh canvas to be painted on all yesterdays forgotten the wheels of a car rolling by subdued motorcycle rumbles soft sound of a horn the quiet swishing of a sweeping broom the dreamlike songbird... gentle sounds giving comfort to the fading night... a clock is ticking time moves a door opens - where does it lead to? a door closes - what is left behind? invisible footsteps marching solemnly birds join in to create a harmonious tribute to the day the songs grow in complexity and volume the symphony of sound gets louder and more clear anxious to cast off the shadow of darkness... a voice calls out no answer more voices and gentle interchange from one heart to another the ancient mystical call to prayers pulls the string of hearts the chanting of centuries fills the dawn with inner joy the clatter of pots and dishes water dripping people talking children laughing the smell and sizzle of breakfast and burning wood fills the air and so the day begins
— Olga Campbell, “DEAR ARLO – letters to my grandson”
There is a wonderful section titled SPIRITUALITY on pages 162-165 where Olga describes how she learned TM and later went to Rishikesh, India in late December 1969 with her husband Chris to study with Maharishi to become TM teachers. I remember meeting them both in June 1968 on a course with Maharishi at Lake Louise. The next time I met Olga was in March 1994 after Chris had died unexpectedly. This was a few months after I had arrived in Vancouver towards the end of 1993.
One of the letters to Arlo (page 65) sets up the section about Chris’s death and Olga’s grief, explaining what she was dealing with back then. “When I wrote these poems they were an expression of my feelings around Chris’ death and some of them are sad and heavy.” She wonders if “they might be too heavy and personal for a teenager to read.” She reminds him that “these were my feelings at the time they were written, and they were written to relieve the pressure of the pain I was feeling at that time.” She reassures him saying, “I am no longer feeling that intense pain, but the words are now frozen in time and you are reading them in the present. So, what you are reading is a fixed moment in time, but is not the narrative of my life.”
She tells him that “the same thing applies to the poetry about Second Generation Holocaust Trauma.” (That section begins with a letter to Arlo on page 106. On pages 114-115 she explains, HOW A WHISPER ACROSS TIME CAME TO BE WRITTEN and what followed once it was in print.) She concludes that she has “spent years dealing with these feelings and coming to peace with them,” but assures him that “I am doing really well most of the time.”
Olga wrote about that unfortunate time in LIFE STOPS, pages 67-68, followed with poems about it, then DEATH AND DYING, pages 72-74, where she describes Chris’s full life and series of events leading up to his death. It’s followed by many pages of images of artworks and poems.
One powerful poem that stands out is I AM NOT THINKING on page 78, which painfully recalls memories of their good times together. The title was the reverse of “I’m thinking of,” one of several writing prompts I had learned from a Natalie Goldberg workshop that I shared with Olga and a few friends in a course I led at her home. Olga kept resisting saying that she wasn’t a writer; she was a visual artist. But once she started doing the exercises, something opened up in her. She couldn’t stop writing and began incorporating relevant samples into her paintings and collages. Olga had discovered her inner poet.
Meditating and creating are the two activities that fulfill Olga’s raison d’être. In the PS at the bottom of that letter to Arlo she explains: “I do art and write because it makes me feel alive and feel connected to something greater than myself.”
In LEGACY (page 125) Olga writes that both Transcendental Meditation and studying art “have been invaluable in my healing and have given me a sense of purpose, joy, and peace. Meditation has given me a solid foundation from which to feel and act, and art has allowed me to express myself fully and has led to numerous art exhibits and to the writing of three books.”
Olga Campbell’s artwork is on display at the Zack Gallery Jan. 8-27, with an artist reception Jan. 9, 6-8 p.m. Campbell speaks as part of the JCC Jewish Book Festival on Jan. 23, 7 p.m., in the gallery.
Olga Campbell: “DEAR ARLO – Letters to My Grandson.” A Memoir January 8 – 27 Through visual art, poetry, prose, family recipe, and letters to her grandson Campbell responds to second generation Holocaust trauma and to the grief resulting from the premature death of her husband. The book however is not only about the exploration of the legacy of trauma, it also celebrates the power of art as a healing and transformational tool and looks at the awe and wonder and ebb and flow of life.
Artist Reception Jan 9, 6:00pm – 8:00pm Artist Talk In Conversation: January 23, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Interviews and Reviews for DEAR ARLO – letters to my grandson
I just discovered a beautiful love song, “Twenty-Five” by Lake Street Dive. It was written by bassist Bridget Kearney and sung by Rachel Price with Akie Bermiss on piano. I was so moved I had to post a comment: Songwriting at its best, as is the singing of it and piano accompaniment. Nostalgic story and sound. A masterpiece!
I first listened to the Lyric Video and then found two live concert performances of the song. While I was preparing this post a new video of a studio recording was published for promotional purposes. I added all four videos. You’ll want to hear it again anyway it’s that compelling.
Here is the Description they provided: A song celebrating a love that wasn’t built to last but was magical and meaningful and true, if only for a short time. A human connection, even if it doesn’t end in marriage or kids or two gravestones side by side on a hillside, can still be treasured. Whatever the future holds, whoever else our paths may cross with down the line, we can carry along love and gratitude for the time we spent loving each other.
There was a time when I imagined us forever I can’t quite remember how I thought we’d work it out I guess I would move to California or you to Boston And I’d learn to like to stay at home Or you’d learn to like going out
And although the stories that I tell myself about us now Don’t take me to the grave I’ll be an old woman with somebody else by my side But I will always be in love with you in my memories When we were twenty-five
I always think of you when I drink affogato Cuz that summer we would have them every afternoon The hot and cold were such a perfect combination Melt all together, bitter, sweet and creamy, and always gone too soon
But all the joy we had and love we gave away back then Well, it never went to waste I’ll be an old woman with somebody else by my side But I will always be in love with how you loved me When we were twenty-five
No doubt there will be more media opportunities for them to promote this song and their new album before it’s released in a few weeks time.
Final Thoughts
Different kinds of love come along at different stages in our lives. Some more than others have a special place in our hearts. While “Twenty-Five” may have been about a memorable love for a summer, Nikita Gill, in her wise and wonderful poem, Temporary and Permanent, contrasts that with those people who never leave us to face our painful times alone. Maybe you are one of these people who is always there for a friend in need.
Carlos Santana recently told musicians their role was to help people open up to feel their totality, to claim back their divinity, their light, concluding—it’s church. Leonard Cohen fulfilled this responsibility by courageously standing for the complexity of his own emotions at the center of his song giving audiences everything he had. Together they revealed the purpose of playing music—creating holy moments. Artists who listened to Leonard Cohen sing “Hallelujah” confirmed this: “It felt like a beautiful, holy moment. It was a church moment. You get this feeling of having a modern prayer.”
As musicians we are given the gift to help humans feel the totality of themselves. Because a lot of people feel like they’re not worthy. They walk around… Most people are not happy unless they’re miserable. You know. And it’s our duty as musicians to open them up and help them feel their totality. You know. It’s not ego. It’s just that people forget that we are spirit first. And then chromosomes and molecules and blood, and bones, and all that stuff later. But as musicians, with each note, we compel people to: claim back your divinity, claim back your light. We’re not wretched sinners. And we’re not a mistake. We are grand, because we are made from the Grand Design. Thank you for sharing your light and your music. And you will see, you will see that when people start dancing, they get chills and they start crying and laughing. It’s church. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Anything else is show business. I don’t know anything about that. (He blows them a kiss. They laugh and applaud.) — Carlos Santana
This inspiring biographical documentary examines the life and influence of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen through the lens of his most famous song, “Hallelujah.” It’s available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD: https://bit.ly/GetHallelujah. It’s also included in a Netflix subscription. Sony Pictures Entertainment posted the First 7 Minutes.
Directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, and head of the Cohen estate/Executive Producer Robert Kory discuss HALLELUJAH: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This was the first RRHF screening and discussion since the covid pandemic had shut them down for a year. See the 42-minute video.
Why Leonard Cohen came out of retirement to tour again
After leaving the Mount Baldy Zen Center where he had spent several years in retirement meditating and serving his Roshi, Cohen soon discovered that his manager had siphoned off all of his money leaving him penniless. He had to get back to work. He put a band together and after rehearsing for 3 months, Leonard Cohen, his backup singers, and the band performed their first concert in a small Canadian Maritime venue. Word spread and they kept performing at sold out venues and shows. The demand became so great they played sold-out concerts all over the world for 5 years! It more than made up for his loses and blessed those thousands of lucky attendees. Not bad for an old retiree!
Musical collaborator Sharon Robinson said: “Leonard really honored his audiences. He said every night before the show: ‘We’re gonna give you everything we’ve got.’” And Leonard concluded each show saying: “Thanks so much friends, it’s been a real privilege and an honor to play for you tonight.”
What Leonard Cohen said here gets to the essence of what makes for a memorable concert.
The only way you can sell a concert is to put yourself at risk. And if you don’t do that, people know, and they go home with a feeling that they liked the songs, but you know, they prefer to listen to them at home. But if you can really stand at the center of your song, if you can inhabit that space and really stand for the complexity of your own emotions, then everybody feels good. The musicians feel good, and you feel good, and the people who’ve come feel good. — Leonard Cohen
What some musicians said after hearing a Leonard Cohen concert
New York writer Larry “Ratso” Sloman said Leonard Cohen “was always a spiritual seeker, and that gave him a dimension that most rock stars couldn’t even fathom.”
John Lissauer, who produced Leonard’s 1984 album, “Various Positions”, which includes “Hallelujah”, commented, “When people hear ‘Hallelujah’, it must be something so universal. It’s really, really powerful. And that’s a big deal. We don’t get to be involved in very many things that hit people as strongly as that does.”
Towards the end of the film various artists commented on how they felt seeing Leonard Cohen in concert.
I was doing my first-ever solo show at Coachella, and I remember looking at the lineup and going: “Oh my God! Leonard Cohen.” Seeing Leonard Cohen felt like a beautiful, holy moment, to be outside with all of those people watching him. It was a church moment.” (2009 Coachella Music Festival, Indio, California) — Amanda Palmer
You get this feeling of having a modern prayer. I think that’s why people were coming to the shows so much because they were getting that feeling. Even how he thanked everybody, everybody in the crew, and all the different jobs that people did to put together the show. It was like an instruction manual on how to be in the world. It’s like you can be this good, you really can. — Regina Spektor
When Judy Collins first met Leonard Cohen and heard him sing “Suzanne” for her, she told him she was going to record his song the next day. It was included on her 1966 landmark album, In My Life. She later forcefully invited him to sing “Suzanne” at a town hall charity event attended by many well-known musicians. He was so nervous he couldn’t complete the song, apologized, and walked off stage, which endeared him to the audience. Judy convinced him to return and finish the song. Judy Collins sang “Suzanne” with Leonard Cohen on her PBS TV “Soundstage” concert performance in January 1976. That episode helped launch his career as a special singer-songwriter. In this documentary film she summarized:
People who respond to him in the way they do—and they respond to him all over the world, of course—are responding to something that is different. You’re getting things that are so deep and so resonant in your own spiritual journey, that you are benefitting from his. And that’s of course the highest compliment to a poet or a songwriter. — Judy Collins
There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.
Another film worth watching is Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019)—a sensitive in-depth look at the relationship between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen. More relevant content has been added in the previous post about it.
— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.
Postscript: Speaking of creating a church moment, on May 31, 2024, Angelina Jordan premiered her own powerful rendition, with Toby Gad, of the hit song he co-wrote with BC Jean for Beyonce, If I Were A Boy (Piano Diaries), recorded in a London church.
There are many YouTube performances of these two beautiful pieces of classical music for piano—Passacaglia by Händel and Halvorsen, and Mariage d’Amour by Paul de Senneville. They’re usually played at a faster tempo, but I prefer a slower version, especially when performed by the two classical guitarists I recently discovered and posted—Passacaglia by Boris Björn Bagger and Mariage d’Amour by Iva Kosić.
Passacaglia was written by the great German-British Baroque composer George Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) HWV 432, and later adapted by Norwegian composer, conductor, violinist Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935).
I listened to many fine pianists on YouTube playing these beautiful pieces. Danish pianist and composer Jacob’s Piano plays Passacaglia at the same speed as Boris Björn Bagger on guitar. But Pianist Daisy plays Passacaglia a bit softer and slower, which creates a finer effect.
Jacob Ladegaard from Copenhagen, Denmark, aka Jacob’s Piano, pointed out that Mariage d’Amour had been mistakenly titled and uploaded as Chopin’s Spring Waltz by someone on YouTube. It reached around 25M views before it was taken down. He said that Chopin never wrote such a piece. You can read about it here: Did Chopin ever write a Spring Waltz?
I later found a young Indonesian musician, Amy Evelyn (Amy Tapping), playing Passacaglia and Mariage d’Amour on a double neck electric guitar using a two-handed tapping technique. Impressive!
Another well-known classical piano piece of music is Passacaglia by George Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) HWV 432 and Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935). It is even more beautiful when played on classical guitar, as performed here by Boris Björn Bagger. This Nov 2020 live rehearsal in Ettlingen, Germany is also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
I later found a young Indonesian musician, Amy Evelyn (Amy Tapping), playing Passacaglia and Mariage d’Amour on a double neck electric guitar using a two-handed tapping technique. Impressive!
I discovered a wonderful young classical guitarist on YouTube. Iva Kosić is a Serbian musician studying classical guitar at a German university. She recently graduated with a Masters degree in music. She performs concerts, teaches online, and is active on social media where she creates and posts her own YouTube videos.
This performance of Mariage d’Amour – Paul de Senneville played by Iva Kosić is so beautiful I had to post it. On Dec 24, 2023, Iva Kosić gifted her followers with this YouTube video and holiday message: “For Christmas Eve I am sharing with you my performance of this well-known piano piece played on classical guitar. Merry Christmas and enjoy🎄💖” She also posted a YT Short version of it on a loop.
Iva later wished her fans a Happy Valentine’s Day🌹 with this beautiful romantic Short, Romance (Wiki). See more videos on her social media: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook.
I later found a young Indonesian musician, Amy Evelyn (Amy Tapping), playing Passacaglia and Mariage d’Amour on a double neck electric guitar using a two-handed tapping technique. Impressive!
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