Art of Slowdown x Marco Cafolla Pt II.
welcome back to our guest contributor and legend, Marco CAfolla. If you haven’t yet read MArco’s first post, you can read it here, it’s really good.
PT II. Are you not Entertained? Subverting Expectations - The Journeyman
Have you ever noticed signs / messages thrown in front of you your whole life? Things that you are suppose to pay attention too, and if you miss it, then they present themselves again, and again. No? Just me? Who knows, but I’ve definitely been getting them for as long as I started to pay attention.
Again I can attribute them to my musical journey quite easy. From my first moments proper in music (when I was around 15 years old), I was told my great uncle was coming to visit. ‘Papa’ - being my Dad’s uncle who was a Professor of Music and resided in Bray. I had never met him (nor heard much about him to be honest) but maybe with my first steps in music and his esteemed path the dots connected. I was 15 and he was 80+ (he wouldn’t tell anyone his exact age incase you treated him as it). He was kind, generous with his patience, and super curious about everything around about him. Dad, myself and cousin Paul took him around Glasgow where he asked more questions than he answered.
He was a first study Violinist & played Cello & Piano too. He moved slow, his eye sight was reduced, but when he sat at the piano launching into ‘Moonlight Sonata - 3rd movement’, he had more energy than the 15 year old boy watching him fly!
I’ve just turned 42 and I was promised the answer to life at this level, but in truth, I found it out that day. Dad pointed out to myself (quietly) how many questions ‘Papa’ was asking. At his age, with his experiences and life already behind him. He was always wanting to learn. He was a journeyman, on a path for knowledge and growth. He lived forever, until he didn’t. Everyday was a journey! The secret to life - right?
Doubling down on that was watching the shell of an 80+ year old, half blind gentleman limp to the piano, then play like he was unchained. That’s what music gives us, an escape to a path we might not even think we deserve. Art won’t hold us back, it frees us to explore and go anywhere we want!
Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash
10 years later I was sitting waiting for Dave Brubeck to appear onstage at the Royal Concert Hall, himself an octogenarian and walking in half time compared to his band mates heading onstage. I feared the worse, even before a note is played, why is he doing this to himself? Never meet your heroes etc… running through my head. Silly 25 year old me, watching him dance around the keys and solo like no one else could. His body was no match for his Mind and Art, and thankfully they came together that it didn’t matter his exact age. He was on his path and one could only sit there and watch him go in absolute awe.
André 3000 has dropped his follow up Outkast album, nearly 20 years in the making - ‘New Blue Sun’ is a 90 minute spiritual journey on various Flutes and other ‘other’ sounds. I connected to it immediately, there’s a self healing quality to it that I discovered with writing for Mama Terra. Very different musically, but that factor connects them for me.
I don’t want to review music here so rather I’ll link a new playlist for you to make your own mind up of what it is (and if it connects). You can listen to that here.
The only thing I’ll say is it’s no sequel to OutKast, why would it be? He’s a journeyman. We all wanted / hoped for ‘Hey Ya pt.2.’ What we have instead is a musical diary, 17 years in the making and it’s beautiful.
D’Angelo’s ‘Black Messiah’. 15 years on from ‘Voodoo’. Again, no real connection aesthetically apart from the Journeyman artist who wanders his path and shares their findings.
Miles Davis did it almost every 5 years. Reinvented his style and created new genre upon sub genre. For me - the ultimate Journeyman. He could’ve played ‘So What’ forever and had the crowd in the palm of his hand every night, but why would he? He had a journey to never complete.
How many questions did they all ask? I guess a lot.
I aim for that, the uncompleted journey. My Dad said to me all those years ago, shortly after that day we met my Uncle, ‘If you know everything, then what’s the point going on?’
I envy their paths, I am on my own, don’t wait for me, I’ll never get there!
I hope that’s some day I’ll ‘disappoint’ anyone listening to me (initially), by not giving them what they thought they wanted. Until they realise it’s exactly what they did, and even might nudge them on their own path too.
One small step etc….
Keep moving, keep searching - find a path and enjoy every second you possibly can. It’s a clique but it’s definitely not the destination. There is no destination, you don’t need one if your ‘mission’ is to explore. I chose Music (or did Music chose me? A question for another day). Whatever path you find yourself on, keep going!
You can listen to Marco’s new Art of Slowdown Pt 2 playlist here.