Sir Wick

Latest News

An Article on Chad "Sir Wick" Hughes via Phi Mu Alpha on his upcoming premiere "Tribute to Sinfonia"

https://www.sinfonia.org/2020/08/13/two-premieres-three-brothers-and-a-musical-legacy/?fbclid=IwAR19If2vLU02w8emsKIiFkLBmn3Uo0_CUDIIAaRA3haKimEm2ns1CcBHb_w

Teacher Shortage in ATL

There are about 1,500 Teacher vacancies, in the METRO ATLANTA AREA.

Some districts are using the lure of MONEY to entice teachers to work for them, which is cool.

But we must analyze the under lying factor of WHY there are so many teacher job shortages.

1. Teachers who started in the 90s, are reaching their 30 yr mark and are high tailing it out of education.

2. When I started, in 94, in APS, it was challenging, but i stuck with it...due to the encouragement and coaching of the "old guard"

3. NOW, the under 35 yr old are NOT staying, in education long...they have too many available options, that are not as stressful and taxing. I have had many of the "young teachers" say I made 45k selling items on EBAY, at my own leisure, without the stress of disruptive students or parents or admins...or they have YOUTUBE PAGES or podcasts, that bring in revenue.

4. This generation are NOT saddled with mortgages or car notes, they stay at home, with their parents, so they don't have to ENDURE the challenges of being a teacher.

5. Teaching is not as simple as closing your classroom door and TEACHING YOUR CLASS...there are layers and layers of paperwork, that takes away from the ho of teaching. There are testing mandates, that wear teachers and students out. There are professional development meetings that happen about 3 to 4 times a week.

Soooo...if you add the teachers that are RETIRING to the number of young teachers (less than 5 years) who are leaving the profession...

boom, you have a teacher shortage.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES...

Then you will have folks looking at the PAYSCALES AND SUMMERS OFF and think "hey, I can teach" but don't have the PASSION TO DEVELOP YOUNG KIDS...you don't just teach and go home...EVERY DAY, I am a referee, a counselor, a motivator, a coach, a "parent", in addition to teaching.

IF YOU LACK THE PASSION, YOU MESSING UP KIDS LIVES, WHILE PICKING UP A CHECK AND ENJOYING SUMMERS OFF...

ITS REAL IN THESE CLASSROOMS AND HALLWAYS. _Tee LOTT

Michael Dinetz's word on Why Independent Films fail financially!

Most common mistakes in producing center around money. Quite often it's green lighting, a project with an insufficient budget as measured against the screenplay. Why do people do that? There's really only one reason, which you could text certain varied sub-reasons onto. Most producers and directors treat their relationship with film kind of like a heroin addiction. There's this constant itch to get on set and be making a movie. This is coupled with the fear that this amazing movie that they have crafted in the form of a screenplay or acquired may never see the light of day. Too many, this is terrifying. I would say to me, if I was going to go out and do that, I would rather wait 20 years if that's how long it took to raise enough money to deliver the screenplay at a sufficient level of quality that I don't feel that I did a disservice to the screenplay. Because at the end of the day if you make the movie and you ruin the greatness that the screenplay contained, what was the point other than temporarily scratching an itch? Few filmmakers want to face this reality. They would rather sweep it under the rug or make a bunch of excuses. And I've heard them all. Well. It's timely so we have to make it now. If we don't make it now, it'll never get made. I'm not independently wealthy. I don't know any rich people. The list goes on. They're all just excuses. You either want to make a great movie or you want to make "a movie" now. Not every movie is going to be Citizen Kane or The Godfather, but that doesn't mean that you can't make an entertaining film. You're going to pour your heart and soul into writing a screenplay that you think is really good, or you're going to cut a deal to acquire a screenplay that you think is really good, then I feel like you owe it to yourself and the audience, and certainly to the investor, to deliver a quality representation of that screenplay.

Not every movie needs a $100 million budget, but some do. It really comes down to the needs dictated by the screenplay and the relevant expenses that go along with those needs. If your budget climbs high enough, you're going to need Union crew, unless you're shooting in a part of the world where that's not a concern. If your budget climbs high enough, your name talent budget is going to have to climb steadily with it. That name talent is the backbone of the marketing of the movie. It's the pillars that hold up the house. You could make the greatest movie on Earth, but if you don't give marketing enough to work with, not too many people are going to see it and your return is going to be dismal at best.

Some other financially related mistakes. Sometimes people have enough money to do things right and they simply don't manage it well. So it gets misspent and thus you run out of money. Obviously that's not good. The people in charge of the money need to make sure they're starting out with a sufficient amount to do things right, but they also need to make sure that they stick to that plan.

Sometimes, this doesn't happen a ton, you end up securing more money than you need and that will dig into your return on investment for your investor. There's this idea that more money is always better. My feeling is that there's kind of a line that you cross at a certain point where all you're doing is hurting the return. Like if you're making a $5 million movie and each of the producers is making a million dollar producer fee, you could probably reduce the budget of the movie and drop yourself down and SAG tier which would reduce your actor scale rates. It might also put you in a position where you don't necessarily need a union crew. All of these things are going to allow you to make the very same movie that you would have otherwise made and do so at a lower cost and thereby increase your return on investment

One thing that people have a tendency to do with strangling budgets is you lose something that you need, and that's visual quality. Great dialogue and great acting are important, but if all you have is great dialogue and great acting, you might as well be producing theater. Poor visual quality is a massive distraction when watching a movie. We can debate things like plot holes and story structure and a whole bunch of other bullshit, and even quality of acting, on giant Hollywood movies, but the one thing you can almost never say about a big budget studio film is that it looks bad from the standpoint of the work of the various departments working on it. It's pretty rare that you're going to poke holes in the job of the art department or the makeup department or the costume department or various other visual representative departments. Nine times out of 10. You're not going to be able to complain about the quality of the sound recording or the cinematography.

They may not be 10 out of tens, but they're usually at least an eight or nine. You're never going to watch a big budget Western and be like Wow, those costumes look to crisp or people don't look dirty enough. But these are the things that totally go wrong on smaller budget movies. And that's because the people in charge of the various departments just aren't good at their jobs or they were foolish enough to agree to a film where they weren't given the time and/or money to do their jobs correctly.

So now we get to the mitigation of risk. We've identified what people screw up. So your job as a producer, and to a certain extent the director's job, is to make sure that these mistakes are addressed and avoided. Good department heads are hired, you secured enough money to be able to hire them and give them the expense money and prep time to do their jobs effectively. You've spent the time casting quality actors for your scale roles. You've spent enough to secure named talent that is commensurate with the size of your budget, thus giving the distribution company the tools they need to generate that return. You've taken the time to put this through all the proper paces in post-production and make sure that work is up to par. You haven't rushed necessary process. You've chosen quality locations that represent what the screenplay needs. You've done all the same stuff that the big budget movies do and thus you haven't fallen short in those regards.

In order to do all of this, you have to really really focus on not scratching that itch and doing what is best for the film. You have to treat the film like a good parent treats their child. You have to take your own desires, set them aside, and do what's best for the child. And the reality is not enough. Producers do that. If producers really did that on a broader scale, we wouldn't have that horrible statistic to compete with. It would be far easier to find equity investment for film. The reason it's so hard is because film is deemed the most dangerous type of investment you can make. The only thing riskier is going to a casino. It doesn't have to be that way. Foolish filmmakers, in large quantities, have made it that way. The people that came before you have shot you in the foot. The sooner you recognize that, and the sooner you do something about it, the better off you and your project will be.

Making a profit on a movie isn't complicated, it isn't a mystery, it's sheer understanding of statistics and methodology and addressing those statistics and methodology responsibly. Yes, there's always going to be the occasional curveball, like a global pandemic or something along those lines, or a massive shift in the distribution market, but other than major force majeur situations, the reason movies fail is irresponsibility of the producers.

JayZ and Beyonce bought a house "all cash."

JayZ and Beyonce bought a house "all cash."

Pinned by FinanceVaults

@everyneed3959 explained it here:

For those who don’t understand let me explain:

1.) Jay Z and Beyoncé have $200 million dollars worth of assets. This can be stocks, bonds, etc. the assets have to be something the banks are interested in and I’m sure those 2 have strong relationships with their banks. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they put up their music masters as collateral as that’s something that could be very valuable to banks (tho I highly doubt this but it’s something to think about lol)

2.) jay Z and Beyoncé asks the bank for a $200 million dollar cash loan and uses their assists as collateral. So if they don’t pay back the loan then the bank gets to sell off their assets to pay off the loan for them. Jay z and Beyoncé are basically saying “hey if I don’t pay back this $200 mill you can have all these assets to cover the loan” and the banks are like “bet say less”

3.) Jay Z and Beyoncé now have $200 million dollars in cash but keep in mind it’s a loan still. They use the cash to pay for a $200 million dollar house IN FULL! They own 100% equity in the property. Equity is the value of the property vs. how much you owe. If you pay off the full value of the property then you don’t owe anything and that means you have 100% equity.

4.) Jay Z and Beyoncé now refinance the property, or get a mortgage. This is just a fancy way of saying they got a loan AGAIN and used the house they now 100% own as collateral. They did the same thing twice, only difference is the type of assets. When you use a house as collateral they call it a mortgage/refinancing. The only main difference is the terminology. So now they got another $200 million dollars cash

5.) Jay Z and Beyoncé now uses the refinance money, or new loan, to pay off the first loan fully. And now they are making payments towards the new property since they refinanced the house. This new refinance term, or new mortgage, has wayyy better rates and i am willing to bet their interest rate is 1% or even lower if that’s possible. And they can write off the interest payments on their taxes, lowering their taxable income.

The main reason why they would do this is so that they have cash in hand without selling their assets. If all your “money” is in investments it might not be a good idea to pull your money out of them to then use them to buy stuff. It would be wiser to get a loan against your investments and use your investments as collateral instead. That way your money KEEPS GROWING in investments and you have cash ready to then buy more investments. If you have any questions lmk below. Thumbs up so ppl see.

This Composer/Producer/Arranger/Pianist and Emmy-Award Winner is a native of Detroit, Michigan...

This Composer/Producer/Arranger/Pianist and Emmy-Award Winner is a native of Detroit, Michigan graduating from our own Mackenzie High School. He received a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Instrumental Music Education from Southern University A&M College, and a Master’s of Music Education Degree from the University of Louisville and . This awesome musican also studied orchestration and arranging with jazz composer/arranger John LaBarbera. He was also a trumpeter, student arranger and Band Captain of the Southern University “Human Jukebox” Marching Band.

He has toured professionally as a pianist with jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield and the late jazz clarinetist Alvin Batiste. He is multi-talented and has composed, produced, performed and arranged music for recording artist such as: gospel great, Yolanda Adams, Howard Hewitt, Keith Washington, and L.J. Reynolds. His remarkable musicianship landed him studio time and work with Detroit’s legendary Music Producer Michael J. Powell. and was the understudy for the most sought-after string arranger and composer, Motown Arranger Paul Riser. He also served as Co-Director of Music for the nationally televised funeral of Rosa Parks, Mother of the Modern Civil Rights Movement, while serving as Director of Music for Oak Grove AME Church.

He currently teaches music with Southfield Public Schools, while serving as the President/CEO of the Michigan Fine Arts Institute, (Beverly Thomas Fine Arts Institute.) He is an active member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, Phi Mu Alpha Professional Music Fraternity, The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). I present to you during Black History Month, Detroit's Own: LaShawn Gary.

I'm truly humble by these words from my pastor! To God be the Glory!

What if....Rap had given proper credit

It's 1993. Hip Hop is huge. I'm loving it. I know I want to be a producer and as I'm loving hip-hop, I am simultaneously falling in love with jazz (thanks to Benjamin Pruitt!) I get this idea to put jazz with funky beats. No one is feeling me, although my friends love Gangstarr, who has done it already.

There is a problem. I don't have any money to get equipment. Oh well, I'm going to try. Then as I have my portable FM radio on me riding the Dexter Bus to Northland Mall, I hear this song come on FM98 in Detroit. I hear this bass player walking a bass line. NICE!!!! Who is this playing? Then the drums come in NICE!!! Then I hear these horns. YES. I'm like what am I listening to that is that is sooo smooth. Then the chorus.

I'm so sold.

The song? Rebirth of the Slick: Cool like that by Digable Planets. THIS IS A HIT! I also thought, "This was the music I want to write! I told y'all you could do music like this live!"

Once again the chorus

I see my good friend Kindra Parker who is equally a hip-hop head like me. I say to her, Did you hear that song on FM98?

She starts singing.

I'm cool like dat, I'm cool like dat
I'm cool like dat, I'm cool

I jump in too. This is awesome.

I go back on the bus later to Northland and go to Musicland, one of the best record stores later rebranded as Sam Goody. I can't wait to find it.

Now, I learned how to red from two items: architectural digest and record covers. I always read the album credits. I wanted to know who was on every person who created the masterpiece I was listening to.

When you have the single "Rebirth of the Slick: Cool like that), you see this in the credits:

Conceived, freaked, and produced by Butterfly

Written and made lovely by all of the insects of digable planets.

So at this point, I'm thinking they had some live bodies in the studio. Why? Well, that's how I made music at the time. So I thought everyone did that.

Then later I found out the truth: they SAMPLED.

What if you bought the single or full album and it said this instead. Nope.

Even on the vinyl, there is no mention of the sample origins.

I had no idea that it was a sample and it's wrong that the composer didn't get his credit. Mind you, I'm 15 years old at this time. I'm still trying to understand what sampling was. Being a young classical and jazz musician, this idea of sampling was foreign to me. What about the musicians? They are the ones that made the music? Now, this isn't to cast aspersion on Digable Planets. They are wonderful and I still bump their music regularly. AND, this problem isn't on them, it's on the label and producers (Pendelum and Elektra.) Then around 1995, I had learned that many (which is an understatement) songs hadn't been cleared.

Just for clarity, sampling is when you take an a portion of the actual source of a recording (whether analog or digital) and use it in a project. It is different from recreation or interpolating, which is when you literally perform another's person creation or sing/play a portion of a song respectively.

This came to a head about three times when the great James Mtume had some interesting words about sampling. If you don't know who Mtume is, let's just say he has had arguably four great careers in music. We can start that he was a percussionist with Miles Davis. That automatically makes him a legend.

The his own band, Mtume, had hits. Yeah, that song Juicy Fruit, that's him.

Third, we can take about as a songwriter and producer for other people. How about "The Closer I get to You" or "You know how to Love Me." He also scored "New York Undercover." The fourth career is how coincidently about how his music has been a lifeblood for hip-hop.

So Mtume lambasted producers on a radio show "Open Lines" for being lazy which garnered a nice attack by rap group Stetsasonic called Talking All that Jazz. Now what is interesting about this: They MISSED Mtume's main point was to give PROPER credit to the people sampled and PAY the people who's music which conveniently gets lost in the sauce.

So now, what if....a big what if......

What if Rap had given proper credit when they originally started sampling. What I mean by "proper" is that they gave credit to Everyone. What if they adequately and accurately cited the songwriters and musicians? I dare say, we would look at the music differently. WAAAAAYYYYYY differently. We would recognize the performers of the sampled and they would get their due! Mtume has said MANY composers did not get paid and lost out on millions of dollars.

Then the question must be asked: How did the unjust due start? Well, that is a looooong conversation. I think a better way to have this conversation is to look at Rap/Hip-Hops fun history. See, rap started off in its early form by DJs.....well ,ONE Dj (Kool Herc) prolonging jams by buying two of the same albums and playing the breaks, going back and forth to keep the party going. This technique kept going and eventually, people started to rap over these extended breaks. These breaks were usually found on the 12" versions of singles. Now people started looping these breaks and rapping over them. Thus is born Rap Music.

With this type of simple beginnings, it became easily approachable.

So as people started recording over these loops and breaks, no one thought over the legal repercussions. An essential loophole (or so they thought) was how sampling was not included in the copyright language of the time especially with digital recreation. Remember, just like Apple's Garageband can have the average joe make a song, these were just regular people having fun and saying stories/poetry over prerecorded grooves. All you needed was a turntable and a mic.

So did the authors of the music own the rights when someone put the actual recording in their music? Oliver Wang wrote beautifully on this matter:

When sampling technology and practices became hip-hop's musical blueprint in the late 1980s, the business and legal rules were a thoroughly gray area. Since the techniques created digital copies of source material, copyright holders could argue that unauthorized sampling violated their intellectual property. Those doing the sampling could argue they were repurposing fragments of recorded music to create something entirely new. Up until 1991, disputes around whose argument carried more weight tended to be settled outside of court.

Per usual. technology comes faster than the law. Similar thing happened when VHS came out. Movie companies at first blocked it. Now movies like Frozen and Avatar have sold over 7 million DVDs and BluRay. Let's just say the companies have changed their mind! So now the court has to determine this gray area about sampling. Oops.

Now back to Cool Like That. There is another problem.

THIS SONG WON A GRAMMY!!

And it should have. YES, the song is amazing, It is a Classic.

This isn't an attack on rap, DP, or even sampling itself.

HOWEVER, when a song wins a Grammy, the musicians on that song get it. Wait a minute, the musicians from the sample should get it too!!! And the person who wrote the sampled song didn't even get credit.

So what is the song? Stretching which was composed by James Williams on the 1978 album Reflections in Blue by Art Blakley. It's a fiery song in Bminor that is in Blues form, but doesn't quite follow traditional blues progressions. Featured on this song is Bobby Watson, someone I came to know while I lived in Kansas as he is the former chair of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri Kansas City,

Rebirth of the Slick: Cool like that is an amazing composition and recording. It deserves everything it has earned. It still resonates with my generation. Right is right and wrong is wrong however. THIS was the original point of James Mtume criticizing sampling. Have integrity. PAY the people of the music you sampled. Now, perhaps they did pay James Williams. I don't know. Mr. Williams has passed on. When I talked to Mr. Watson, he said he was unsure. What is crazy is as bug as that song is, NO ONE KNOWS WHO PLAYED THE HORNS ON THAT! The composer of the sampled song and the band needs their due. Musical Integrity needs to prevail. Pendulum and Elektra Records should have known better. For that matter, ALL of the uncredited sampled song need their due. But for now, let's fix the aforementioned problem. Give these people their Grammy. If they hadn't made the song, there is no "COOL LIKE THAT!" Let the credits from this point read:

Rebirth of the Slick: Cool like that
Composed by Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mariana "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira, and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving. James Williams.

Personnel:
Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler: vocals
Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira: vocals
Craig "Doodlebug" Irving: vocals
Art Blakey - drums
Valery Ponomarev - trumpet
Bobby Watson - alto saxophone
David Schnitter - tenor saxophone
James Williams - piano
Dennis Irwin - bass

Now we see the full music greatness of this composition. We see LIFE. We can read about the great musicians who are on this song!

Just for the fun of it. How about we take a few other song and give proper credits/citations of AL the players. These songs were CLEARED FYI: however, I just want to show you the musical depthness of these songs if they were to list all of the performers and include the songwriters.

Young G's

Combs, Shawn Carter, Christopher Wallace, Burton Smith, Oliver Sain, Donny Hathaway)
Sean "Puffy" Combs: vocals
Christopher Wallace aka Notorious BIG: vocals

Jay-Z: vocals

Kelly Price: vocals

Oliver Sain - vibraphone

Earl Wright - Guitar
Paul Jackson - bass
Sammy Harris: Drums

Burton Rashad Smith: Drum Programming and keyboards

**
One Love

(Nasir Jones, Johnathan Davis, Jimmy Heath)
Nasir Jones: vocals

Stanley Cowell - Kalimba

Percy Heath - Bass

Albert Heath - Drums

Tiki Fulwood: Drums

Q-Tip: Background vocals and Drum Programming

**
Steady Mobbin

(O. Jackson, A. Gorrie, M. Gaye, Leon Ware, George Clinton, B Nelson, R. Ford)

Ice Cube: Vocals

Debbie Wright, Jeanette Washington, Lynn Mabry, Dawn Silva, Cordell Mosson, Mallia Franklin:

Background Vocals

Hamish Stuart – guitar
Onnie McIntyre – guitars
Roger Ball – piano

Alan Gorrie – Bass

Chuck Rainey: Bass
Robbie McIntosh – drums, percussion
Bobbye Hall Porter, Eddie “Bongo” Brown – bongos, congas
James Gadson – drums

****

I Like It (I wanna Be Where You Are)

(Leon Ware / Etterlene Jordan / Arthur Ross / Maxwell Dixon / Anthony Martin / Eldra De Barge / William De Barge, Don Addrisi)

Grand Puba: Vocals

Bunny DeBarge, El DeBarge, Randy DeBarge, Mark DeBarge and James DeBarge:

Background Vocals

Raymond A. Crossley, Russell Ferrante: piano, keyboards

Roger Ball – piano

Chuck Rainey: Bass
Robbie McIntosh – drums, percussion
Carl Tjader –vibes
James Gadson – drums

Mark Sparks: Drum Programming

Conclusion

With this type of credit listing, the argument of Hip-Hop not being music is absurd. People are being recognized and knowledge is being passed. Granted, Hip-Hop shot itself in the foot by not doing this first.

This would be amazing, This looks amazing. Let's make it right! If we can rename schools that once bore the names of crazy people, we can give the sampled performers their Grammy easily.

I need to finish:

Amen, finished my 3rd and 4th cello suite. BOUT TIME CHAD!!!

Now, I need to finish:

Alma Mater (choir and Piano)
Percussion Concerto
18th and Vine (orchestra)
Benjamin and Caroline (big band)
Baking Scene (Big band)
Rewrite a few bars of Indigo Child Opening Credits.

Living Composers

Some awesome pieces from living composers!!!!!!!1

Kevin Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9b4XuVoM5A

William AR May

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Dm3O293Bk

Brooke Pierson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSVJHjHXWoA

Armando Bayolo

http://armandobayolo.com/project/cancionero-amoroso/

James Lee II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-6c19W67ZU

What goes around, comes around

Back in the 48109, One of my composition teachers sat me down and opened up a great score. He saw what I was doing (which was terrible) and he showed me what this MAGNIFICENT composer had done. Few weeks later, I told one of my teachers about that score. He subsequently gave me that score. The composition was Beethoven 7th, the teacher in that lesson was Erik Santos and the buyer of the score was James Aikman. 23 years later, I gave that EXACT same lesson Santos gave me with score Aikman bought me to my orchestration class. Thank you Father for Santos, Aikman, and Beethoven being in my life! You all have been such a HUGE blessing in my life. Oh, and GOBLUE!

I Wonder Why I Love Music so much?

I Wonder

I Wonder Why do I love Music so much?

I wonder

Is it because first and foremost, my father and his sister played the music of Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Motown, Patrice Rushen, and many others over, over and over.

Did my love for jazz come from hearing "Boy Genius" Ray Charles, Killer Joe (perf. by Quincy), and Oh Lonesome Me by Count Basie
Or is it because when I attended Birney Elementary School, in Detroit, MI, my music and art teacher Lawrence Cotter introduced me to a plethora of composers like Leroy Anderson, Mozart, and Beethoven?

Is it because I was inspired by the pen of Dick van dePitte and Paul Riser and power of the DSO?

Is it because Howard House taught me trumpet and euphonium at that same elementary school, supplemented by seeing Wynton Marsalis playing a piece about a carnival on that instrument?

Or is it because when I heard Daisy Gaines play organ at Christ Reformed Baptist Church, I wanted to play like her?

I wonder? I wonder...

Is it because in Concert Band I played Gustav Holst, Granger, Vaughn Williams. Then you add Elgar, Sullivan, and Britten. Does this give me a undying love of British Music and its composers?

Is it because in opera, you learn about Verdi, Leoncavallo, and Puccini. Does this give us a undying love of Italian Music and its composers? Does it not want to make you go to La Scala?

Is it because in all facets of music, you learn about Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Mussorgsky. Does this give us a undying love of Russian Music and its composers? Does it not make you want to go to St. Petersburg?

Is it because in jazz, you learn about Armstrong, Bechet, and Marsalis. Does this give us a undying love of New Orleans Music and its composers? Does it not make you want to go to Bourbon St?

I wonder, I really wonder...

This really has me deep in thought.

Is it because Mendelssohn make you want to know what was he dreaming that Midsummer Night? Or what was in Fingel's Cave?

Is it because I wanted to cower and not go after my dreams, but Bird and Diz said "Now's the Time?"

Is it because Spyra Gyra and Al Jarreau had me dancing in the morning?

Is it because it felts so good to ask Mister Magic about street life during Mardi Gras with Angela looking her Naima in a Taxi?

Is it because Sonny Rollins give me interest to travel to Nigeria while Weather Report told me about Birdland?

Is it because DouDou make me want to learn Djembe or breeze on 6 strings like George Benson?

I wonder, I really do wonder.

Is it because Ellington made me want to Take the A-Train or Basie having me jump when it's One O'Clock?

Is it because Dr. Hailstork reminded me, "I made my vow?"

Is it because Beethoven had me ask my mother, "Who was Elise?" or Smetena wanting me to take a boat down the Moldau?

Is it because I heard Rostropovich play Bach's Cello Suites so flowingly or Andre Watts tickling the ivories?

Is it because Marvin asked what was going on? and I answered, "My pain and headache follows me everywhere I do?"

I really have to ask these questions.

Is it because Mr. Morris told his dear love "You are the sunshine of my life"

Is it because I didn't go to Clarksville, I decided to take that late train to Georgia?

Is it because Benny Goodman had me ask "Where was the Savoy" or Duke Pearson and Eddie Jefferson had me ask "When was the last time I saw Jeannine?"

Is it because I was busted and I wasted time at the Bay thinking about how funk of a drummer I could be?

Is it because I whispered in her ear, "You're my shining star, always and forever, please don't go way from me?" or is it because I took a soulful strut to Cafe Reggio?

I wonder this at times.

Is it because I love the fountains and pines of Rome or want to ride a faniculi?

Is it because no one must sleep until I find Daphnis and Chloe?

Is it because I find out why Joe was so killing or me trying to keep Freddie from Freeloading?

Is it because I'm running for no reason and I can't hide love from her, who shines like a sun goddess?

Is it because I don't believe He brought me this far giving me melodies from Heaven saying how wondrous is His Name?

Is it because I want to be the Chairman of the Board driving down Route 66 teaching the boy from New York City how to make money?

Is it because I'm on the hill, not just blueberry or sugar, relaxing electrically because my account is paper thin?

Or is it because I had an inner urge to play dominoes and celebrate being Black & proud?

The question is, "Why do I love Music so much?"

I Wonder, I wonder,