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myrnajacobs β Mind and Soul
Published: 2007-10-12 18:06:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 848; Favourites: 23; Downloads: 0
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Portrait of my husband . . . he plays jazz. Jazz is both structured and improvised. It is about the mind and the soul. It took me many years to really understand and enjoy jazz in it's various forms. Today I walk away from something called jazz that isn't. A CD made today is rarely jazz because it's rarely improvised. It may still be very good music so I'm not knocking anyone.To watch and listen to a musician who speaks this language is akin to entering another universe where the mode of communication is alien, but the fact that it is happening is so there it can't be missed. I must add that, in fact, it actually doesn't happen all the time even with good... even great jazz artists. But if you are lucky enough to be present when it does, it is completely transporting.
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Comments: 75
I've seen your name in several artists' works (in the comments), but because I just 'view' here, I don't comment very much. (I'm in the arts, but upload elsewhere.) But I think it's time I speak, since I've much enjoyed your gallery. I wanted to start with this because it's about jazz, and it's an unusual evocation of it w/ very suggestive images. I played jazz for years; and I also trained in classical, so I understand your feelings about "non-improvised" jazzβbecause I was doing both improvised & non-improvised music for years. Two of the world's great classical musics are improvisedβIndia's and the Classical Musics of the Middle East (now, not much played there, unfortunately). So jazz really has siblings! But it's had so many forms, so many incarnations; and when not composed but improvised, it is an immensely deep & moving art.
But now your art: Your images are really fascinatingβyour color has the kind of 'twilight' feel of jazz, that amber almost inward hue. And it's all on a textured background, like the textured papers used in fine papermaking or book-ends, etc (where one can see the fibers, as one can here); and it gives it a kind of personal scroll feel, almost like a very personal letter (a love letter, maybe). And the images: a husband looking very at peace; an amazingly architectural image (viewer's left), which (to me) captures the structures and interactions of jazz---that's just my sense---and a third panel which almost looks like a saxophone & a deeply inspired face, or eyes; and other flowing/melding shapes. (Did I miss something? I looked many times...I wish it were 5 times larger!) It feels like jazz inside-the-soul. It's a fascinating work; and after seeing a few of your photos, I can see you have many faces as a photographer. (One of your self-portraits is in saturated whites and near-whites/grays [and btw, it's beautiful]; how different a vision; you obviously like to reach out and try different modes.) (Another photo I saw had raindrops I think on the window or maybe the lens, and it was about memory, yearning for an old home...another way of capturing feelings...) Anyway, I've much liked what I've seen and will see more. This image was 'first' because of its mysteries, a person you obviously love captured in serenity, and the tone and feel of the whole. And---I can't leave without mentioning this---when I've seen you comment on various artists' works, I've noticed the sincerity and commitment of your thoughts. That counts for a lot. A pleasure. Will be coming back...
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What a wonderful comment! I am astonished and happy. Not too many people see what I was doing with that image. It makes sense that you are a musician. Few who do not play (well and a lot) understand what I said about jazz. Music is a different world and those who live in it part or most of the time are very lucky to have that alternate universe.
It is comments like yours that mean so much to me. Thank you for taking the time to write.
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my pleasure! I'll be stopping by other of your works too! (And that photo on your current journalβthe one at the top: Is that yours? Will you be posting it? It's beautiful...)
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The photo at the top is mine and I haven't posted it.. not sure why. It exists on another site.
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jazz is in the mind of the fingers... the mind of sound itself... the spirit, the soul...
for me, it is a non-binary difference-repetition machine of sublime sound matter/spirit...
lovely tryptich.
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thank you. It is obvious that you understand jazz ... it take a freedom of 'mind' and willingness to listen to get it now.
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Jazz is very important to me.
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To me as well. Do you play?
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I used to play a little (very free) sax, but I mostly express with guitar now. I was, and am, into "free" jazz more than "trad" (but that dont mean I'm a snob or anything).
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cool!!
Jazz should always be evolving. always moving. but with a basic static soul which ticks, or clicks like the click of a finger. To me, anyway...
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superimpose 1, 2 and 3.
there is JAZZ!
1. line/structure/intillect
2. face/form/passion/imagination
3. spirit/wisdom/intuition
in Greek Noos, Nos, Nous.
three in one/no.
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I love jazz, and this image is very moody and suggestive.
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Thanks. My husband plays jazz and I know a great many players... puzzle on how they think sometimes but am intrigued.
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Once again...an image that is so rich in emotion that I feel it rising up in my throat and almost choking me--and my eyes prickle with tears and my skin gets goosebumps.
So much of your art does that to me. Grabs me on an elemental level. What a gift you have!!!
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Thanks. You are a mystery woman to me. I have my own image of who you are but it fails me sometimes and I wonder if I know you at all. You have real skill as a photographer and an aesthetic from another time ... but yet one 'educated in the present' too. When I get a comment from you I ponder about you. You always come up with just the right words for me when I need it too It's almost strange.
The work you do is work I might do myself if I were not so lazy about sets and getting models 
Anyway, once again, thanks for the wonderful words. There are few who can feed my ego like you... and we all need that so very much (despite what some folks think).
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I can't tell you how chuffed I am to think that I'm a mystery woman to anyone--as, well, I can't think of anyone less mysterious than me. 
And I am charmed to hear you say you "recognize" my lighting, my artistic process, that you would do work similar to to mine, if the stars were correctly aligned! That is such a wonderful compliment! I do know that feeling of recognizing yourself, your own thought processes in someone else's work, and it's always tremendously validating, to see someone else interpreting the world in a way you "grok". (Isn't it funny, how hungry we can be for validation!)
(I do have to laugh at the thought that you're too lazy to put together sets and find models...because I'm too lazy to go out and LOOK for photos--I'd much rather set them up myself--seems so much easier! 
And thank YOU, for the lovely words--I've taken my time responding to this, because everytime I start to respond, I just start smiling, and can't stop long enough to settle down and write something back. You really made my day!
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You are right about me. What you see here is pretty much me, but as you say, there is more depth...more to me than this. I feel that I have two identities foremost in my life, one is of Mother and the other is artist. They seem to have merged a bit because all my children and grandchildren are artists . . . though I suspect they are not so aware of me as one. I'm still mostly Mom, the one who encourages, listens, gives occasional advice and generally makes each feel like they are underappreciated and awesome. Strangely, that is the same 'hat' I end up wearing here on dA a lot too. I try to encourage some of those I watch ... ones who are perhaps still learning. I also notice that a high number of dA denizens are lonely, feel as though they are adrift in a sea of people who do not understand them. That is one of the reasons I think this site is so important.
When I first joined dA (my son recommended it to me), he said . . .it's for people like us who feel that we don't fit in most places. He was right.
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I love the way you put this together and I really like your comment. I have loved jazz all my life and that's a long time.
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Thanks very much. My husband plays jazz (as well as many other types of music) so I have had a lot of exposure! Nice to meet you.
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Glad to meet you too. You have a very interesting gallery and I got some ideas for things I would like to do. I'm very new at photography, but enjoying seeing, learning and experimenting.
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You see very well! It's most of the battle..now it's all learning some techniques..
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Thankyou. I appreciate your comments and encouragement.
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this is a really beautiful portrait, both of your husband and of jazz. i'm not a fan of most "jazz" because it sounds so contrived--as you say, the antithesis of jazz. i adore sun ra, though. oh my god, he was amazing.
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thanks. Most that passes for jazz today (even by the so-called top jazz artists) is not inventive or improvised enough to be jazz. That's my opinion and I do think some would argue with me. I was born in Birmingham, ala (like sun ra) but grew up fed on country music and early R & B and rock. I still love all but country (only like blue grass sometimes and occasional country)... mostly I prefer lyricists who perform almost acoustically. Jazz has been a learned and acquired taste for me because I married a jazz musician (when he was in a hard core soul band!) . . . Now I've heard so much jazz, I finally get when it's good.
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Your writings always add to your work. I agree, to improvise is a true art form very rarely seen anymore. Beautiful work.
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Thank you so much.
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I love the structure on the left, mind in the middle, and then the soul of it all coming together on the right.
Again, nicely done.
I went top the Playboy Jazz Festival years ago..I wasn't
bowled over, but it was a very entertaining day.
Bill Cosby, believe it or not, on his TV show, helped me gain respect for jazz...
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I know what you mean about Festivals...(in general). I honestly think that the 'magic' of jazz doesn't happen often. Perhaps that is true of other music forms too. I know blues bands can be marvelous or they can just 'not click'. The difference there is that with blues,you can still dance all night to it even when it is awful...but not so much the jazz. LOL
Interesting about Bill . . .I know he's into it. Another person is Clint Eastwood who is really saavy.
I especially like 'fusion' or more modern jazz that blends or uses rhythms and sensibilities of other genre, particularly rock, reggae, african, or latin stuff. I love it when a jazz player can take some tune from now and turn it into jazz.
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just a music missing...then it will be perfect portrait...like that triptych
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here she is again mrs. creative !! that is so kewl - cleverly done !!
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great portrait, cool idea to combine all those parts, and your comment is so interesting and informative
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(smile) I've learned to love jazz after I passed 40... couldn't hear it befor...
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