A Day Well Spent

 

I have not been sleeping well. Up for two hours in the middle of the night, some of it is jet lag and some perhaps a disturbing new old-guy pattern. Hate that feeling of lying in bed waiting for the mind to turn off and the other night, it finally did and I was visited by a nightmare— a plane taking off without me, getting picked up by some guys in a van to get me back to the airport and then them taking me to their house for dubious purposes. When I woke with a start, I was relieved it was only a dream, but then drifting back to sleep, those guys were still there. So after lying in bed hoping for sleep, I now was trying to stay awake! 

 

But last night, there were only sweet dreams and mostly uninterrupted blessed sleep. Until I checked the time and noticed it was 10:00 am! With my host Banu coming to drive me to the airport at 10:15. I had slept 11 hours!! Luckily, I was mostly packed from the night before, so made it to her car by 10:20 and got to the airport in time for my flight to Istanbul. 

 

Meanwhile, yesterday was quite a day. Banu took me to the University where she teaches, gave me a brief tour of some lovely gardens with peacocks and an extraordinary colorful large bird I regretted not photographing. While she went to teach a class, she had arranged for me to meet a colleague who plays jazz saxophone and off we went for an hour of non-stop jamming together. Fabulous! He was excellent and he seemed to like my playing and we listened to each other well and had some truly inspired moments together. Banu came back with two other teachers and we played Night and Day  for them and they were shaking their heads wondering: “How do you do that?!!!!”

 

How indeed. Music is most certainly not a universal language any more than Japanese and Spanish are, but if you do your homework to learn the grammar and vocabulary of a particular musical style—like jazz—and understand how to speak your own thoughts with the elementals of the musical language, you’re well prepared to meet a perfect stranger and achieve deep communication instantly. Which is exactly what happened. 

 

From there, we walked through the bustling tree-lined streets of Izmir in perfect weather, past all the outdoor-seating cafés, up a tower with an elevator initially built in 1907, into a modernized bazaar with all goods I don’t need but enjoying the hustle and bustle. On to meeting two more friends, enjoying a convivial meal and off to the evening workshop. The 16 lovely souls returned and 8 more joined the party. No need to wax rhapsodic, as I always do about what a joyful, uplifting gathering it was. Then an after-workshop beer with eight of the group to cap off a most delightful day. 

 

That’s the news, such as it was. Off to Istanbul!