CURRENTS: Writings by Jessica Williams

Table of Contents

About Currents: my brain on xhtml
My Poetry in 2012: Rita Dove is inspiring to me
Just for fun: photos from fans and friends
Alan Grayson and Ben Franklin: some very strong opinions
Songs of Earth: liners for an upcoming CD of mine
Survey finds jazz musicians are male, educated, underpaid... and homophobic: who knew?
The Jazz Cartels: Trouble! I sent it away but it returned after a five-year run in cyberspace
We're in a post-idea vortex: quick! somebody have an original thought beside "no new taxes"
Now's the time: we could conceivably end up like the poor Dodo bird
Beginnings: there can be no happiness without freedom
An import for those of us in the Asylum: and it's all true, Dorothy
My research into hypothyroidism treatment: porcine thyroid, and the dreaded filler Avicel
Make a thing, take risks: it's not important what others think of it... just make it, splat
Touch and where it leads: my next CD and what it means for me and my freedom
The End of Money: we're slaves to it. Even the super-rich are enslaved by it. Time to end it
Time to say "ENOUGH": as our planet and our hopes wither, it's time to balance yin and yang
An article by Vandana Shiva: about our never-ending war against the Earth
The Circle: an advanced crash-course in making music and why I do it still
The Eleventh Hour: I need more than two years to live
Aspiring to Oneness: seeking the source of power to change the world
Are you happy in this world?: Does it seem horribly askew, unfair, montsously off-balance?
Disassembling the piano: I'm full of opinions and other combustibles... for example, I believe that pianos have too many strings, or at least I did when I wrote this article
Choosing to buy a 7'6" Yamaha Conservatory Grand: it is already changing my life. For the better
How I and my piano have bonded: a sort of diary/love story, I guess
Approaching the piano: How to sit, how to breathe, how to eat, how to get free at the keyboard...an on-going treatise
More Glenn Gould: sitting so low and climbing so very high and speaking to me, through technology, across an abyss of time ... leading me, changing me, teaching me
Mary Lou Williams: her advice to me is one more good reason I'm still here. As women musicians we never forget her legacy and must always revere her profound impact on our art
Mel Brooks has a nice face: British researchers theorize on what Jesus really looked like
The New America: this can not stand
Playing for all the right reasons: Some critics still say Dexter played too many cliches and that his time was bad. Well, I was there, critics. Dexter made us ALL swoon
Miles: "Teo, play that... once... let me hear that once... Teo... Teo..."
Monk: The Monk runs deep
The Monk Runs Deeper: no one deserves another tribute more than he, and I'm just the one to do it ...liner notes to Deep Monk, a release of mine, out now
Doing Jersey with Philly Joe: Philly Joe Jones was royalty, and I was very young, very out there, and very lucky to somehow wind up in his band
My three nights with Tony Williams: playing with Tony changed my life - one of the greatest musicians of all time, and a drummer too!
Life as Contest: all of us famous (sic) musicians live in castles with moats, get $100,000 per performance. This, and other various hallucinations
Songs for a New Century: an important, crystal-clear, transparent album for me and for you and for our collective hopes and dreams
A Musician for all Seasons: What Dr Billy Taylor means to me: my own musical tribute to him
A poem from Andre: a great honor for me
Orgone, Dr Reich, and the FDA: it is dangerous to be an American and not be a Christian, even if you are NOT running for president
Presenting a wonderful video of Erroll Garner: When I am BLUE, you will find me at this page
Eulogy for Leroy Vinnegar: my tribute to a great musician and exemplary friend, my esteemed associate
Eddie Marshall: such a great drummer
My trio at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA. I always love playing with Ray Drummond and Victor Lewis
Long live Elvin Jones: without him, Chasin the Trane or Vigil or A Love Supreme would not exist. The greatest drummer in the world has left us, but also he left us a legacy
Doing the hang with Dexter Gordon: at 6'5" he was more than a giant in stature. He changed all of us that knew him, all of us that heard him play. He was the Sophisticated Gentleman
Coltrane's light: his A Love Supreme still sustains me after all these years. His words light my path, and his playing lifts my spirit and cleanses my soul
Hypothyroidism, a walk in the dark: feeling dead-tired, old beyond your years? Hair falling out? No appetite but gaining weight? Ears ringing? You may just be playing with a bad drummer, watching too much CNN, or you could have one very serious disease
Ayn Rand: an unhappy soul revealed, as her popularity soars
Marion Hayden: wow, can she play
60 - The Best Birthday Ever: I've never had a b-day like this! And I have a very special and significant reason to celebrate, and I hope you read this, as it might impact your life too
Crossroads: a beginning or an ending
The Grace of my life: why now? Because I'm ready
I'm Thankful: my web site, my friends around the world, my music, and my future
The exploding chicken style of jazz music: invented and patented by Berklee™
Hope, a dream, and Aiko: the beginning of a new way towards making crystal-clear art, a way of cleaning bugs off of the windshield of the soul
What life is: and there's actually some mystery to all this?
My view: good music should change your life upon hearing it
Another Lifetime: goodbye, 20th Century, and a poem for Keith Jarrett
Trying to Help: how does a mere thousandaire help save the planet?
A Dream I Had: what can I say? We all have aspirations. I used to want to play at the Village Vanguard
The Next Big Step: big ideas start as nebulous concepts and focus into powerful agents of change. Is your music as relevant as you want to believe it is?
Kurt Vonnegut Jr: I know everyone has to graduate. To die. But why him? Why anybody, as he would say
Puppy Days: the colors are getting vibrant. I'm in a cartoon and I like it
People ask me: answers to oft-asked questions. And more about that word gig ... and I use the word word loosely
Jazz: just a word?: it's not about others defining us... it's about us defining ourselves...
Sparks on the dog: those sparks and blue flames may be the universe trying to tell you something
After the JazzTimes "Before and After Test": why it doesn't matter how you play, only how politically correct you are. No apologies. I'm a Mac Gurl, and I don't do Windows
Doug Ramsey: a fine critic, writer, and good guy. I somehow survive the dreaded JazzTimes "Before and After" test...
I'm in a dream: It's my dream and I designed it
Digital Portraits: some Photoshop images that worked out, and a few real keepers
Drawings of mine: rescued by the Wayback Machine, in pen and ink, and not the digital kind, either
My poetry: the creation of a poem can still be an act of defiance, of irreverence, of hope, of protest: it can also be an act of pure incompetence...
More poems: more recent poems, including one I really like for Elvin Jones. As one gets older, one's poetry grows simpler and more direct. And isn't it hard to believe that there are those that at one time made their livings writing poetry...
Jazz is NOT dead: it's not even sick. It's just growing up. I think I was trying to convince myself of something here
Fantasia: letting my Conservatory training sing through me in a language not jazz, not classical, but mine alone
Ali For President: back when we were in love with Muhammad Ali... ok, I was in love with him
Wake Up: there are ways out of the trap
Raw facts, Raw Feelings: women under Islam suffer unimaginable tortures daily, while "feminists" in the West remain largely silent... this is a war against women
Jessica, why don't you come here and play?: I would if I could. The music business doesn't quite work that way. I wish I could...
Forgiveness and Freedom: Once you realize that your life is sacred and blessed and beyond the judgment of other human beings, you've come awake...
The Leroy Vinnegar Room: my words, painted in florid script, all over the walls in a hotel room in Oregon. Who knew?
The Three Rules of Everything: here they are again, for me and for you
Available to the moment: most instrumentalists aren't available to themselves, the moment, or the audience, much less the Music
Learning by Doing: not all places are the same, but each can teach you something
Illness as teacher: Keith Jarrett inspired this article. It's about feeling bad, and playing piano, and not playing, and growing wiser, and healing
The Garden: one day we're in heaven and the next day we're on hold, waiting to talk to tech support in India
Art by Tuv, Nerdrum, Matta: and a few pieces by me
Our attention: we take on the power and the tone of the things that we try desperately to avoid
God is such a big word: in my hands, in the galaxies, like grains of sand
If you want Paradise: Never serve false masters
Following the Silence: listening closely to silence, the notes start to form out of nothingness. Another attempt to express the inexpressible, and how we can stop making Music and instead let it make itself
Following the lines: they're there to tell us the truth, which way to go, what to do, and when. Mr Trudell knows it. I know it too
If only: we could accept that we are all one
Todd Barkan: it only took 30 years to figure out
i me mine: about selfishness, selflessness, and the balance we seek
Ten Things: Ten of the most valuable things you have
Great moments in Pianistic History: well, I thought it was funny
Web Tips: you don't have to be a super-coder to enjoy the web
Resting up: that's what I'm doing
Stream of Consciousness #1: why didn't I think of this sooner, I can write anything I want to... anything at all... and not worry about being even vaguely coherent
Stream of Consciousness #2: it's obviously a good idea, so I do it again
Where's my sun? Where's my health food? or, how many ways can you prepare dirt and rocks?
Calm Mind: the Dalai Lama is just like you and I. That's what makes his message so important right now
Intimacy: there's different kinds. Maybe the most salient feature of this age is the lack of it. We are measured not by our capacity to fill the world with love but by our ability to fill the bank with money
My Work: I know about my Music and my Truth. The things that I don't know (and these things would fill a LaCie 500 Gigabyte super-drive) I'll leave to the know-it-alls
As close as I get to a "mission statement": it works for me
Build your own web site: the one most positive a musician can do besides play their instrument
The light, the dark: some children fear the dark, and obviously most grownups fear the light
A few recent awards from JazzTimes: it's wonderful to read wonderful things about yourself in the 'zines. And CD of the year? Not to mention TWO in one year? But why was I not notified?
Like Minds: saxophonist Sarah Manning and I talked today
My new band: it doesn't get much better...
Epidemic of Dishonesty: just when you think you've balanced your books: SOP!
What's good, what's not: if we're not entering the dark ages, we've at least entered the dim ones
Watson: dog, familiar, ally, survivor, super-hero, teacher, sentient being, courageous spirit. To me he's all that and more
A Little Dog: There is no value in anything if there is no love. The grieving, the epiphany, and the beginning of inspiration. My friend is dead, and I'm not the same. I'm in pain, but I'm better for knowing him
A NEW Little Dog: Meet Ruby. I think that dogs are pretty amazing, and much more advanced than us in some ways. Well, at least more advanced than me
Truth and Lies: I had written this piece, and then removed it from this site, only to find it posted on someone else's site. It's the article that won't go away. So I brought it back home
Women Musicians: a compilation. There's less and less of us, so we can't quit now. If you're not on this list but should be, let me know
Music for powerful times: for our lives, unto our deaths, this is OUR MUSIC. We give it freely to the world to promote and foster harmony and freedom and peace
A friend writes a book: contributions to the sacred feminine (so rare in yang, patriarchal culture and philosophy) from authoress Linda Underhill
Jazz and codes of conduct: we play this Music in the shadow of giants. All ghouls who feed on the souls and the gifts of others, read this
My favorite things: Saps at Sea by Laurel and Hardy. John Coltrane playing Too Young to go Steady, or Miles Davis playing It Never Entered my Mind
The emotional plague: WR's theories were so controversial that he has been virtually eradicated from Western culture. He must've been on to something big
Battle of the mini-titans: they might think it's hip to put other people down. It just makes them look little. And if they read this, they'll surely know who they are
About playing, about being: it's pure will and absolute purpose without the arrogance of ego. It's Bruce Lee walking on the ceiling. With ego, you fall on your head
About challenges, gifts: existentialists, take note. When we question ourselves we break the trance of the true reality, the one that goes on when we sleep, when we eat, when we simply do anything at all without trying
Love in the Age of Flu: a short complaint about flu and why it's no fun anymore
About performing: since grand pianos always open to the right, your right side is the side that audiences will always see. So this is the side of your face that will break out before a concert. This has no bearing on pianos, but seems to be a universal law, like gravity
We the Living: jazz is not always healthy for me. I know it. I complain too much, so other people know it too. But I won't eat food I dislike and I won't play music that makes me ill. Now I stop complaining and start making the new stuff, the stuff I love. It's all about getting back to the garden
The Rebirth of America: this is the land I love, and how that love affects what I do and how I do it
Senior discounts, Fujitsu 100 Cold, Dead Fingers, more: I am more than a 12-minute experience. It takes me at least 15 minutes to say hello properly and find the soft pedal
Links-i-like: building web sites, css mania
Links-i-like reloaded: music sites, record labels (be very afraid), lots of music resources
Jessica reviews Jessica: this gives one an opportunity to experience Sartre's nausea without actually reading Sartre. This is probably a good thing. I review three of my own performances and get good grades
Things to do, tunes to play: bandstand amnesia no more. A list
Things we would rather forget need to be remembered, for our own sake and for the sake of future generations. Especially now. The Holocaust through one person's eyes - a discourse by Elie Wiesel - don't let anyone tell you it didn't happen, or that it can't happen again
Taking responsibility for the Music: some MORE things I'm not supposed to say
We've been thinking: how nice it would be to have our country back
Age: how you can stay clean in your dotage
The Dragon Lady is Back!: why working at the most famous jazz club in the world might not be such a good idea
Belief: better believe in yourself. You're cooler than you think
I Have a Dream: the great speech of Rev Martin Luther King, worthy of frequent listenings
Old News is better than bad news. Basically, a potpourri of writings that have been de-blogged and are now consigned to the morgue
About CURRENTS: is it a blog? What's a blog? Who cares?
Legal, copyright: boring but true