It was an event that almost defied
description. As the participants
arrived, it was difficult to tell what they had in common. And yes, they were participants, not an
audience. Some were dressed for a formal
event, men in the obligatory black bow tie and cuff links, ladies in black
sequined dresses. Others were men well
passed retirement age, with shoulder length hair, boots, jeans and cowboy hats.
Musicians came with instrument cases.
Parents came with children. As
they entered, they were greeted by a well-dressed doorman, a rented security guard,
and a man with dreadlocks playing a steel drum.
The
inside décor was every bit as eclectic.
In the entrance were tiki torches on either side of a giant stone face
that could have come from the statue of Ozymandias. The wall to the left was decorated with a
variety of musical instruments that ranged from primitive folk instruments to
death metal guitars. They were hung over
one bad ass West Coast custom motorcycle.
The right wall featured tombstones being the names of the establishments
that had previously inhabited the building, but had gone out of business. The date of the last departure was 2011.
The diversity of the people and the décor served
to give context to the performances that were taking place in the room. Only a few of the performances were happening
on the stage. On the left side of the
room, the man behind the bar was engaged in making an ice sculpture. Simultaneously, a fire dancer was
entertaining the guests on the dance floor.
Simultaneous performances in fire and ice? Perhaps it bordered on
cliché, but it was compelling nonetheless. On the balcony to the right an older
lady was rendering a seaside Italian villa in oil paint. Next to her a younger lady was painting the
Tardis from the Dr. Who series. Most of
the guests would have been able to identify both paintings.
The
onstage performances were meant to be the aural expression of the other activities
and they succeeded in doing so. The beginning
sequence was approximately as follows: a
tenor aria from an Italian opera, followed by Native American flute and drums, followed
by a young female singer/songwriter. After
her performance the guests were brought to their feet by a blues band featuring
a Dobro player, a guy playing harmonica, and an accordion player. At one point in the performance, a slightly
inebriated young female participated by pounding on the large ceremonial
African drum that was placed in the middle of the room as part of the décor. Blues jam meets drum circle, and the musicking
cycle is complete. Christopher Small
would have been proud. Unfortunately,
Christopher Small passed away on September 5, 2011.
In
the beginning paragraphs of this paper, I purposefully chose to use the word “participants”
and “guests” as opposed to such words as “audience” or “spectators,” for this
is what they were. In a Christopher
Small inspired ethnographic analysis of a musical event, the question must be
asked, “What exactly is going on here?” Simple observation would not have
revealed the common thread that united the financiers and the fashionistas with
the roofers and the rockers, but there was a relational connection between
them. That relational connection was
Greg.
Greg
is the owner of the venue and the host of the event. Greg is a lover of art and music. Greg was also the guy playing the Native
American flute and the guy playing harmonica with the band. If Christopher Small was right, if music is
all about how we structure relationships, then Greg had succeeded in creating
his ideal world, if only for one evening.
He was surrounded by the art, the music and the people he loved, and all
of those elements were interacting with each other. Whether he knew it or not, Greg was musicking.
The
remainder of this paper will consist of an attempt to lay the philosophic
foundation and academic structure behind the event the reader has just experienced
vicariously. Greg, the host of the
event, was just following his heart and pursuing his passion, but in doing so
he was engaged in an activity that has deep roots, and a promising future. Hopefully, this paper will satisfy the
curiosity of the scholars and feed the appetite of the sociomusicologists who
value such events and long for them to be more commonplace.
