Willem de Kooning

Untitled

Pastel and charcoal on paper

the light that never will go out

Jean-Michel Basquiat

CPRKR, 1982.

Acrylic, oil paintstick and paper collage on canvas mounted on tied wood supports.
Collection of Donald Baechler, New York

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Mecca

1982

Muhammad Ali

Shepard Fairey 2010

Ali has been a hero of mine since my childhood. You all know that I dig Shepard Fairey. Fairey’s Basquiat print appears below for the Radiant Child film poster. Inspiration. 

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

directed by Tamara Davis

Arcana V

edited by John Zorn

The fifth in the series of the best and most insightful books I’ve ever read on music. Zorn has blessed us all with these tomes. I can’t recommend them enough.

from Tzadik:

Mysticism, magic and alchemy all come into play in the creative process. For centuries musicians have tapped into things spiritual, embracing ritual, spell, incantation and prayer deeply into their life and work. Although the connection of music to mysticism has been consistent, well documented and productive, it is still shrouded in mystery and largely misunderstood. For this special edition, Arcana focuses on the nexus of mysticism and spirituality in the magical act of making music. Far from an historical overview or cold musicologist’s study, these essays illuminate a fascinating and elusive subject via the eloquent voices of today’s most distinguished modern practitioners and greatest occult thinkers, providing insights into the esoteric traditions and mysteries involved in the composition and performance of the most mystical of all arts.

There are moments in one’s life that are poignant. It’s as though the world has frozen itself in time just for you to appreciate what you have just encountered. It’s these moments that take your breath away that make you the person that you are…

Most of these moments in my own life were as a result of hearing something for the first time…but when I encountered Basquiat’s work, what I heard was my own musical imagination that created a soundtrack to what I was witnessing visually.

References to Basquiat have been scattered throughout my work for nearly 15 years from album covers to song titles, a concert during my tenure as Artist-in-Residence at The Fresno Art Museum was inspired by him as well as my album, Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off & my newest one, To Repel Ghosts.

I’m sure that there are layers of symbolism that can be attached to his work and that of the improvising artist. For me, the appeal was twofold. First off, I’ve always admired an artist that captures their time and place and doesn’t sacrifice what they believe in or who they are when creating their work. It allows their audience to feel them as people…and the artists in any medium that have done that always speak to me the loudest, whether its Bird, Stravinsky, Fellini, Zorn, or Neruda . Of course, tradition plays a role, but one’s personal tradition and one’s personal experience is what, when shared, resonates with the greatest and most powerful vibration: whether or not society as a whole is ready to experience it. Secondly, I just loved his work…simple as that. It didn’t take a whole lot of analyzing at first to feel drawn to his work visually. Many of my songs which share a title with one of his pieces are the sounds I heard when I first saw them.

As a concept: the freedom in Basquiat’s work is the freedom of a Louis Armstrong solo that makes the bar lines disappear, its the freedom of a John Coltrane solo that isn’t constrained by any duration…its the open sound of Miles Davis holding a pitch that makes you realize the possible depth of one note. It’s the artist at their best: being themselves. As I develop my own work, he continues to be guidepost. I’m serious about my work, but not lost in realizing what has helped me create it, is the inspiration I have felt when the world stood still.

“I start a picture and I finish it. I don’t think about art while I work. I try to think about life.” -Jean Michel Basquiat

-Armen (July 4th, 2010)

Thelonious Monk- Straight, No Chaser

The first album I owned changed my life. I didn’t really know who Monk was when I bought this as a kid. Sometimes, one discovers something at the exact point in time they need to. The moment I heard Monk’s touch on the piano I was transfixed and knew what I wanted to spend my life doing…

Thelonious Monk will always hold that place in my heart…the moment I knew what was important to me and would always be.