The Elysian Fields

The drive to the UNO Campus is on a lovely street called Elysian Fields. Aptly named, for as describe by Wikipedia, the Elysian Fields in Greek mythology was a land of perfect happiness.  Only those favored by the gods could enter and there they were made immortal.

 

Having finished the 4^th day of the Jazz Course, it’s the perfect description of the timeless and jubilant six hours a day we 30 mortals enjoy. A place where clock time vanishes, where “troubles melt like lemon drops” and the life we’ve dreamed of is right here, right now, resplendent with laughter, tears (the good kind), deep soul and soaring spirit. 

Yesterday it manifested in the opening game Uncle Jesse, where any tiredness a person might feel is vanquished by the power of stepping and clapping to life-renewing music. From there, a deep dive into Charlie Parker’s My Little Suede Shoes and Juan Tizol’s (from the Ellington band) Perdido, meticulously taught so that the head, hand, heart and hearing were thoroughly engaged and we all could feel, hear, play and understand each and every note—where it comes from, where it goes to, how and why. Complete with a swinging horn section and some tasteful glockenspiel solos. 

 

From there to another room to bring both the children I have taught and the extraordinary jazz artists we're indebted to into the fields with us via the miracle of YouTube and videos airdropped to a connected machine. The proper use of electronic technologies that left people’s mouths agape with the things they witnessed on that screen, from my then 2 ½ year-old granddaughter painting and scat singing with the brush strokes to the 5-year-olds playing their “secret song” to the 4^th graders playing The Cookie Jar with such ease and infectious energy to the 4^th grader singing The Sunnyside of the Street with my Doug Goodkin & the Pentatonics band at SF Jazz Center to my then 90-yer-old Mom and residents of The Jewish Home for the Aged uplifted by the folks in my 2009 Jazz Course—people from Siberia, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, the U.S. and beyond— playing a swingin’ version of I Got Rhythm. With my beloved friend/resident Fran singing us out in the final chorus with everyone joining in. 

 

On to Youtube and if you want an antidote to the sub-human antics the media shines their cameras on every day, check out Blues Singing Bird, Jazz Dispute, Mumbles, Lindy Hop from Hellzapoppin’, Nicholas Brothers in Stormy Weather, Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye When the Saints Go Marching In. If you don’t leave that room smiling, then you need some serious help to figure out what happened to you.

 

In the Greek Mythology, those Elysian Fields were a kind of heaven, a place to pass your afterlife. But our paradise at the end of the Elysian Fields street in New Orleans is happening right here, right now, in this life. On to Day 5.