Life & Death, Love & Loss: Elements of Human Being

  1. Speak to Me > Breathe - Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
  2. Mind left Body Jam - The Grateful Dead - Live at Winterland Auditorium, San Francisco, 11-11-73
  3. Pour un Instant - Harmonium - Harmonium (1974)
  4. Drink the Water - Jack Johnson - Bushfire Fairytales (2001)
  5. The Girl from Ipanema - Stan Getz,  Astrud & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto (1963)
  6. Funny (not much) - Nat King Cole -Great Gentlemen of Song: Spotlight on Nat King Cole (1960)
  7. Victim of a Foolish Heart - Joss Stone - The Soul Sessions (2003)
  8. Too Good to be True - Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
  9. Son - Yassir Armando Garcia - Live in Santiago de Cuba (2004)
10. So What - Miles Davis Sextet - Kind of Blue (1959)
11. In A Sentimental Mood - Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (1962)
12. After the Rain - John McLaughlin - After the Rain (1995)
13. Ocean Song - Pharoah Sanders - Message from Home (1996)
14. Going Out  - Sarah Harmer - I am a Mountain (2005)

These songs represent the journey of life to death from being born and beginning to breathe and finding one's place to experiencing existential doubt and trying to find oneself in light of the unknown. Next getting drawn away by falling in love and feeling the loss through to becoming a parent and being in awe of your child who is too good to be true. Then taking life and its many ups and downs, saying "whatever"  and "so what," being sentimental over the past, making it through the storms of life and seeing the beauty after the rain and becoming reborn or renewed through turning back to the ocean as others mourn the loss of your life by celebrating how you and all your loved ones have gone out and come back home. 

Musically these songs and the musicians that play them represent their genres as best as anyone can and they have moved me deeply with their styles and skills of musicianship. Pink Floyd and the soundscapes they create to bring music to a whole new experience. This was one of the first albums I listened to as I was becoming aware of music of my own in my early teen years. Speak to me and Breathe mark the beginning of a great experience, something that lasts a lifetime. The Grateful Dead taking the improvised psychedelic sound away to strange places (as mind leaves body) and bringing us back with smooth and silky melodies. Each show is a life journey on its own with the movement through moods, the lyricism and messages, the improvisation of life. Harmonium, questioning of oneself and for an instant forgetting who one is and letting it all go. They have the clean acoustical sound and form a big part of Quebec culture and my own growth as an  Anglo-Canadian becoming acculturated to Quebec culture as I come to forget myself. Jack Johnson and his soft and smooth surfer style looking at the challenges of living in a big world and trying to survive, if I keep on drinking (the water) I'll be back home, while the Girl from Ipanema is one of those songs that every man knows whether he has heard it or not, knowing that woman who just turns him upside down, leaving him speechless and in a daze. This recording is the definitive version, Getz's sax and Gilberto's soft voice just laying it down on this bossa nova rhythm. Funny by Nat King Cole represents the best of falling in love and being unable to get her out of your mind along with the best of the 1950s crooners, like Frank & Tony he cruises, but much deeper and smoother sounding, he is the King.  Joss Stone and her Victim of a Foolish Heart just cuts through all of the pretense of falling in love with a warning that you better watch out for your lower self because it will lead you into trouble. Like Aretha and so many other soul singers she takes no shit, but belts it out in spite of her young years and cultural background. The guitar and band behind just add the right mix of texture and support for her devilish sound. Lauryn Hill's cover of this classic tune. Thinking about her newborn child and the preciousness of such young life and the abandonment of parental love, simply too good to be true. Son (Spanish for song), with a prelude of my  young son crying just before the song starts is forever a reminder of love and friendship and how people from different worlds can come together and imagine a world without borders. This was recorded while in Cuba (with my son holding the microphone), with my friend, my brother, Yassir Garcia, playing this song that he wrote. So What by the Miles Davis Sextet is a classic tune on, arguably, the best Jazz album ever recorded. Miles, Trane, and Cannonball cutting through their solos at the peak of their playing days; Bill Evan's colour on piano simply makes this one a complete. More on Trane, this time with the incomparable Duke Ellington on keys. Their sounds are soft and gentle and tickle you to the core, in a sentimental mood you can't help but melt. After the rain, a Coltrane tune played by John McLaughlin, arguably the best guitarist of the 20th century, having played with Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Zakir Hussein, just to name a few, he has a classic band, including Joey DeFrancesco on the Hammond B3 organ. Just great. My special connection here is that around the time this album was cut I drove these two, John & Joey, while volunteering for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. It was one of the most special days of my life, hanging out and listening to stories about Miles and being there for a private concert during the sound check. Pharoah Sanders is simply beyond words. When I was in my 20s and feeling angst, his music gave me a path to follow, finding peace and harmony amongst the clouds of doubt and uncertainty. This track is part of a tape I once made for the birth of my second child, a homebirth in a water tub. The ocean song takes us away and calms us like the waves on the beach, like the heartbeat of our mothers as we are growing and being born. Lastly, Sarah Harmer's going out is so deeply touching and brings a tear to my eyes when I think about losing those I love. While it touches on the sadness of loss, it also gives us a beautiful sound and calming message of love and family and coming home.