Max: Wide Angle Vision
I just spent five of the most amazing days I have ever experienced. I am sitting here staring at this screen trying to come up with words to share with you what I just went through. How do I convey what I just experienced? I guess that is my job as a writer. But have you ever wandered barefoot and blindfolded through the woods just after a major downpour? Even if you did, would you feel the same way I did? Would you feel disgusted as your feet picked up unspeakable filth from the ground? Would you curse every obstacle you tripped over? Hate every tree you ran into? Fight every step of the way to not just pull off the blindfold and give up? And if so, would you feel as I did at the end, after this endless, hellish experience? Would you feel a lightness of spirit? The joy, the high like almost no other you've ever felt, as you pulled off the blindfold?
Would you have immediately question the wisdom of this adventure when you first saw the camp and its filth and primitive conditions? Would you have stayed anyway? Would you have felt like an idiot playing portions of the few songs you know in front of 60+ people you just met, not to mention some of your personal heroes, while sleep deprived and totally unprepared?
How would you feel making fire with a bow and stick?
What would it be like for you to try and find a drum while blindfolded? Would you be amazed at how it drove almost all other concerns from your mind?
Have you lost a child? Could I tell you how it felt to break down in tears talking about it when I was asked about a time when music was important to me? To have Gerald Veasley share with me that he and his wife suffered the same loss? To have him hug me without hesitation, to talk with me and offer support several time throughout the week? And after all he shared with me to listen to the piece he wrote for the daughter he lost? To have Chuck Rainey not just once but twice offer support, to tell me that my pain is what will make me a great bass player? Do you even really know who Gerald Veasley and Chuck Rainey are?
Can I really put into words what it felt like when Gerald led us in a bass version of a drum circle? Can I tell you what it felt like to make music in a group? To really groove on a simple line, amongst 7 other simple lines, making a powerful whole?
Bass/Nature Camp happened as much in my head as it did in Montgomery Bell State Park. It is still happening inside of me. I can tell you what it was like watching Will Lee sing a funny birthday song for Victor Wooten. I can tell you how amazing the performances were. I can tell you I met Stanley Clark, Victor Wooten, Will Lee, Futureman, Gerald Veasley, Chuck Rainey and tons of others I have long admired. But that would not tell you about the transformation I went through this week. I'm not sure I am good enough of a writer to really tell you about what has made me so much more confident about my musicianship, while still showing me how far I have to go, about what has made me more obsessed with the bass than ever.
The best way to really show you the Bass/Nature Camp I experienced is to give you the chance to get to know the person who drove out of that park yesterday. I'm not certain I know him very well. But I know he is not the same person who drive into that park on Tuesday.
Would you have immediately question the wisdom of this adventure when you first saw the camp and its filth and primitive conditions? Would you have stayed anyway? Would you have felt like an idiot playing portions of the few songs you know in front of 60+ people you just met, not to mention some of your personal heroes, while sleep deprived and totally unprepared?
How would you feel making fire with a bow and stick?
What would it be like for you to try and find a drum while blindfolded? Would you be amazed at how it drove almost all other concerns from your mind?
Have you lost a child? Could I tell you how it felt to break down in tears talking about it when I was asked about a time when music was important to me? To have Gerald Veasley share with me that he and his wife suffered the same loss? To have him hug me without hesitation, to talk with me and offer support several time throughout the week? And after all he shared with me to listen to the piece he wrote for the daughter he lost? To have Chuck Rainey not just once but twice offer support, to tell me that my pain is what will make me a great bass player? Do you even really know who Gerald Veasley and Chuck Rainey are?
Can I really put into words what it felt like when Gerald led us in a bass version of a drum circle? Can I tell you what it felt like to make music in a group? To really groove on a simple line, amongst 7 other simple lines, making a powerful whole?
Bass/Nature Camp happened as much in my head as it did in Montgomery Bell State Park. It is still happening inside of me. I can tell you what it was like watching Will Lee sing a funny birthday song for Victor Wooten. I can tell you how amazing the performances were. I can tell you I met Stanley Clark, Victor Wooten, Will Lee, Futureman, Gerald Veasley, Chuck Rainey and tons of others I have long admired. But that would not tell you about the transformation I went through this week. I'm not sure I am good enough of a writer to really tell you about what has made me so much more confident about my musicianship, while still showing me how far I have to go, about what has made me more obsessed with the bass than ever.
The best way to really show you the Bass/Nature Camp I experienced is to give you the chance to get to know the person who drove out of that park yesterday. I'm not certain I know him very well. But I know he is not the same person who drive into that park on Tuesday.
posted by Max Dobberstein at 9/13/2004 07:52:00 PM
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