Wednesday, February 2, 2011

This Particular Harmony

I don't remember the song, but we were listening to a Chet Baker CD at work today, all going about our separate jobs -- Melinda resizing imagery, R. making photo-masks, I was packing pieces for the big wholesale show coming up -- when I suddenly became aware of the fact that all three of us were singing along, each with our various vocal talents (or lack thereof!).

There was not much that was conscious or even self-conscious about it. We were more just part of the symphony of background noises (rolls of packing tape unfurling, the click-click-click of the exposure mechanism, footsteps on the wood floor, the heave of heavy boxes, the rustle & crackle of stiff sheets of plastic, the printer spitting out a new transparency, glass vessels clinking into each other) but we were singing! On the job!

There are few delights more delicious, I truly believe, than feeling a freedom to sing in the presence of others. Not to perform, but to just let the music move the soul forward into a melody of its own, with no reward other than the joy of feeling ones voice lifted into the atmosphere of the moment.

Wait!I recall the song -- here it is (minus the glass-girls-chorus):


(Thinking back, it's not the first time this has happened. I recall the group of us singing gospel along with The Blind Boys of Alabama, as well as I Feel Pretty from Westside Story. I believe we've done this -- are you ready? -- time after time....)

6 comments:

  1. I love Chet Baker...thanks for this lovely video.
    I fell in love with Chet Baker and his music quite a few years back, when my husband and I had rented a cabin on Alta Lake in Whistler BC. We arrived late at night, it was a lovely warm August night and as we strolled by the lake we heard this music coming from one of the other cabins, there was a lone figure sitting on the front deck, a drink in his hand a cigar in the other, just sitting listening to the music in the moon light...it was sublime.
    The next day we found out that the owner of the next cabin had past away, and the lone figure was his brother who had come up to the lake to close up the cabin, and was playing this song, one of his favourites, in memory of him.

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  2. And time after time...you'll hear me say that I'm...so lucky to be loving you. Have a great time in Hawaii!!

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  3. another Chet fan here. I downloaded every Chet cd my dad owns - and I think he owns them all.

    I'd love to work with your little group. I'm a big fan of singing along, but no one at my house appreciates it. The wife and I were dancing - just yesterday - to Al Green's Let's Stay Together, and I couldn't resist singing along. She asked me to stop. :-( I'm a pretty good singer, too, if I do say so.

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  4. Victoria, this image of the grieving brother listening to Chet Baker -- I held it all day right at the front of my consciousness.

    There's another Alta Lake, in Eastern Washington where I camped as a child. (One could call it the "altanate" Alta Lake.)

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  5. Thank-you RobinB -- I intend to. I'll call you from some choice location!

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  6. Tara, she asked you to stop singing?! Okay, I forgive her, but just this once ;)

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