If someone would have told me five years ago that I would (1) love jazz music (2) be interviewed by NPR's A Blog Supreme, (3) create an increasingly popular jazz blog and (4) attend the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards show in Los Angeles in 2011, I would have laughed heartily in disbelief for at least five minutes. :P
Here I am, though, about to leave mid-week to attend four days of GRAMMY events in Los Angeles. It's all quite amazing to me.
I grew up with the classic Soul and R&B sounds of the 70s. I was exposed to a heavy dose of doo-wop and Motown by both my mother and maternal grandfather. The first album that was purchased for me (after I begged and pleaded for it) as a young child was "ABC" by the Jackson 5. The first 12 inch single that I bought for myself with saved lunch money was Parliament's "Flash Light".
An interest in opera was stirred because of the passion that my 7th grade music teacher, Mr. Nelson, had for it. I had to find out what he was so excited about every week in class.
Charlie "Byrd" ParkerHowever, an appreciation of jazz music eluded me. I would hear it on occasion. As I got older, I heard about artists like Thelonious Monk, Dinah Washington, and Charlie "Byrd" Parker from a few of the men I dated. Still, I could take it or leave it.
As some of you know, a person near and dear to my heart died suddenly in late 2006. I was totally caught off-guard. He was my best-friend. His calmness fascinated me; no matter how tempestuous my personality was, he was always Mr. Serene.
The void that was left in my life by his death paralyzed my mind and my heart was hurt. It was the first time that I took in just how big the world was and I felt alone. The grief overwhelmed me. I couldn't will it away. Nothing worked.
One day out of desperation, I decided to find some jazz music online. Why jazz? My best friend really enjoyed jazz and bossa nova when he was alive. He would try to get me to listen. Needless to say, he was rarely successful. The day that I decided to finally listen to it, I rationalized that maybe it would assuage the despair that I felt.
I started listening to Pandora. It didn't happen overnight but as I heard it on a daily basis, the debilitating grief slowly lifted.
My first blog was on MySpace. I left that website around the beginning of 2008. This coming month of May will mark my third year on Twitter.
After a period of incubation and hesitation, I lauched ElementsOfJazz.com in March of 2010. As I mentioned earlier, an interview with NPR's A Blog Supreme was published. It happened during the first week that my blog went live. What a blessing that was!
Esperanza SpaldingNow - fast forward to November of 2010 when I was asked to join the group of Community bloggers for GRAMMY.com. Another life-changing moment that lead the way to the upcoming weekend of music that will culminate with the GRAMMY Awards ceremony on February 13th, 2011.
I'm going to see many amazing artists while I'm in Los Angeles this week: Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin, Seal, Barbra Streisand, Esperanza Spalding, Tony Bennett, Nikki Yanofsky, Vijay Iyer, Kirk Whalum, Mavis Staples, Roy Haynes, Julie Andrews - the list goes on forever.
My hope is to bring some sense of the excitment and special GRAMMY moments to you - whether you follow me on the website, Twitter or Facebook.
I'm still in touch with a lot of the people that I befriended on MySpace long ago. My Twitter family grows day by day. And I have recently expanded to Facebook. The EoJ Facebook page has been warmly received.
Thank you! Thank you for sticking with me on this unlikely path that I find myself on. May each and every one of you be blessed in 2011 like never before!
Donna