How Small The Worlds

I'm going to risk a few generalizing statements today. Playing with people studying at another jazz school than I last week, and talking about plans for the (professional) future, I realized once again how strongly jazz musicians are influenced by their upbringing, meaning their educational environment. I guess it's human to orientate yourself, wherever you are, to the leading ideas.
In my jazz school there is a rather international vibe. A lot of the teachers have studied in Berklee, or Graz, and we have many masterclasses by jazz stars such as Mark Turner, Eric Harland, or Esperanza Spalding. The best students talk about their plans to study abroad after the bachelor's degree. There is idealism in every corner. People are talking about getting better, about bands, and cd projects, and getting reassured by the teachers who have led very interesting lifes. Discussions about money, about the future and about a job are very rare.
In the other jazz school, the leading subject seems to be different - I've found a more down-to-earth approach. Of course people talk about getting better and their cd projects, too. But a lot of the people put an end to their jazz studies after the bachelor. One statement that I've heard more than once is that with a master's degree in performance you don't have a profession, and with a master's in composition you'll just end up writing for carnival groups (called Guggenmusik in Switzerland). If you want to be a teacher, you will study pedagogy, but if not, you'd better try to find a job that guarantees some financial stability and practice your instrument on your own. I have never heard statements like these in my jazz school.
There are a lot of other differences. For example, a subject I will elaborate on a later date, in the city I live in there is a large jazz scene. Newcomers can play in lots of restaurants or small bars, gig that are neither paid well nor attended by many people, but still, there is often more than one jazz concert a night.  In the city I study in there are much fewer jazz locations, jazz concerts concentrate in one bar, open from wednesday to saturday.

I'm often astonished how quickly a rather self-orientated, self-sufficient subscene can build itself, and how quickly you find yourself believing that in there, you'll find the truth - not knowing that just a hundred kilometres away, there is a very similar subscene holding on to a totally different set of truths.
I guess I'm in a good position - studying there and living here!

Family reunion...

I saw my whole family yesterday, there were almost a hundred people, and I'm telling you, I had to fight for words. What just a day before seemed to me like the rock'n'roll, unconventional side of me lived out through jazz (the crazy music nobody cares for - "ooh, you know, I love jazz, I'm going nuts over some good old dixie"), appeared shallow and useless, when described to people who couldn't know less about what I'm doing. People who got married very young, had four children and that was it (not meant to sound condescending at all). When faced with one's own history, it can get really frightening, somehow one gets thrown back and has to look at oneself as others might, and although I'm happy (at least most of the time) about the road I chose to take, it's still hard to see that I'm so fundamentally different from almost everyone of them - people who are my family.

So that led to rather blue thoughts. Really bad day today.

The Paraglider and coffee and newspapers, and for once: no doubts!

This saturday seems to start out as THE perfect day! First coffee and newspapers with The Paraglider, which we haven't done in ages. Some other time I'll have to describe The Paraglider. Let's just say today: he's more than a nice guy...

Piano playing is going very well lately. I'm learning quickly, have good ideas, my hands seem to be in a very good condition, and pretty hard things seem not so hard after a few days, which makes me feel for a second like a giant brian with a future...

Yesterday for just a split second I had some sort of vision, complete with accessories and everything. I saw myself sitting in an office, and getting the blues for a life not moving forward - exactly like it often happens to me now. This got me thinking - if I do complete my jazz studies, I'll always be able to look back and think: man, these were the days, when for three years I did something really rock'n'roll and out of it. So just for today, I don't have any doubts about trying to pursue a small jazz career on the side. I'm still longing to start livin', you know? to be able to buy things. but still.
I always beat myself up metaphorically when I'm complaining about my life, because I know I'm granted a big chance - being able to study what I think I want, even if it has also rough sides to it. give me a second, and I'll say: nothing worth having comes easy (as Dr Kelso put so nicely). Let's put an end to this cheesy stuff.
But it's nice feeling warm and cozy!

And loved. man, the Paraglider and me, we're having a great time, since almost four years. in fact, I don't really know how it's possible that two people can be so good together. I just hope, if somebody ever reads these scribblings, that you can say the same about your relationships. feels kind of indescribable.

fine days for anybody!
this blog should be about mary anybody, mid- (or rather end-)twenties music student, who after getting her degree as a teacher decided to still try to be as good as possible at piano playing, so that seventy-year-olds could watch her at their early-bird-bashes on the lake of zurich.
so you see: not always happy with her decision. and looking for people who maybe share her many interests, who might have similar blue feelings on sundays. Even if we are really ashamed of them, because we were lucky and still are, and still seem to fight for a normal life, and still fight for something outstanding.
bucketload of blabla already! It's disgusting.
Anyway, people all over the world, who are in their midtwenties, who think about taking their relationships to the next level, who think about what their goal for the next year could be, and generally about how to find a nice cozy place, physically and metaphorically - Mary Anybody would be so happy to hear from you! And she would be thrilled to hear from people who also turn twenty-eight this year and already have found a lot!