It was over 42 years ago that we met as friends. Englewood NJ is where it all started happening in the world of Dr. Marvin Smith. Marvin's life represents music as a rainbow with all colors being painted on his musical drum canvass. The feeling behind all the musical statement is always compassion,love and caring for everyone he knows and for those he's never had a contact with and haven't been fortunate enough to ever meet him.
You see, Dr. Marvin Smith is a genius. One of those very few people that you'll ever have the chance to "rub shoulders" with. Recognizing the genius qualities is easy when you open your heart to the reality of the musical statements that are played in a composer's heart. You've heard them before. John William Coltrane was one of them, so was leonard Bernstein,Elvin Jones,Max Roach,Charles Mingus,Duke Ellington,Monk,Charles Parker,Jimmy Garrison,Reggie Golson,Abbey Lincoln,Michael Jackson,John Lennon and so many more that we could fill up hundreds of pages up just mentioning all their names.
I remember first meeting Marvin. I knew he was unique. He was his own unique self, a voice of truth. He was spiritual in everyway and he had no ego inspite of the fact that he could play any music inside and out and in every direction at the same time. Marvin had that special ability to read hearts. He knew what you were thinking when you played music with him. He projected an aura that spread for miles. You could feel his presence in the center of any song and he was always swinging hard, harder than most people because he was always in the reality of the moment. His music always projected life,moment to moment,breat to breathmheart-beat to heart-beat. The early years were important. I remember us traveling down to NYC every Monday evening and play music with Walter Bishop,Jr,George Coleman, Haasan Dawkins,Rodney Jones,Juan Quinonez,Willie Mack,Becky Friend,Buster Williams,Thurber Attenboro,Claude Bartee,Art Blakey,Jr., Koko Jones,Dougie Wilson,Chet Lee Marcus,Stephen Daniel James,George Mello,Nat Dixon,Reuben Wilson,Cecil McBee, Dane Mygan,Mickie Roker,Mickie Bass,Roland Kirk,Arnie Lawrence,Tonny Purrone,Bernard Pretty Purdy,Sal Giorgianni,Archie Shepp,Monk, Kenny "Doctone" Kirkland,so,so many that at age 65, my brain has finally decided to go in and out moment to moment and it can be difficult to even remember the names of some songs.
The interesting thing is that although I sometimes forget the name of a song, I can always remember a melody and the bridge of a particular piece of music. Dr. Marvin Smith can create lyrics and place them to music on the spot. Yeah, I and so many of the rest of us can't always do that but the geniuses can. They have lived the music every moment of their life and the music is a statement of their life experience. We try and document things but few of us can say that we have recorded or been captured on well over 1300 videos alone.
In February 2011, Dr. Marvin Smith was written about in Modern Drummer Magazine. For many people, this was the first time that they ever read anything about him. He devotes much of his time teaching young college students about music and the traditions that help identify music as an art-form that we all play called Jazz. One of his statements is, Life Has No Color", a statement about harmony with the black keys and the white kets of a piano coming together in different ways to create harmony. I wrote a song about this and Marvin,Cecil McBee,Kirk Lightsey along with Kevin Lager and James Finn performed for a week at Visiones in NYC during 1992 performing some of this music.
A few new pieces of music have been created that represent my feelings about Marvin. One of them is called "Naked In The Truth". We recorded it in 2001 in a project we called The Melting Pot Drum Group. Some of the tunes are on the Internet but many are still unreleased. The all drum group at that time was created to make strong lyrical statements about the state of the world during a period of war about Oil and that war still exists and we just sent our troops home from Iraq, 10 years later, amazing, few things change and it all seems to revert back to the beginings.
Today, December 31st,2011 marks the transition from 2011 into 2012. Life today is more complicated than it was any other time during my 65 trips around The Sun. I remember Sun Ra and all the experiences Marvin had with him. I remember John Coltrane and the Long Island home in Huntington, Dix Hills during 1964. I remember The Cottage Inn across from Rudy Van Gelder's Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Elvin,John,Jimmy,Reggie Golson, Stephen Daniel James and all of us would eat there after all night Coltrane sessions. Elvin and Jimmy Garrision had a session under both their names that included Charles Davis,Prince Lasha,McCoy Tyner and a song called Nuttin. I remember John Coltranes Live At Birdland and sitting next to McCoy on the piano bench and Afro Blue was the song. I remember going to 57th St. in NYC with Stephen Daliel James and Reggie Golson and Trane was recording an album with Duke Ellington. Elvin said we would be hanging out with Sam Woodyard and him all night after the session. We often went down to The HalfNote on Hudson Street with Elvin and his wife Shirley at that time. The place is now a deli in 2011. Typical, this has happened to many Jazz spots from the past.
Jazz history is important and Dr. Marvin Smith recognizes this and trys to give the young players some of those important memories he has of his life from the days when we all had the opportunity to "rub shoulders" with the masters.
Marvin has a state of the art 48 track recording studio that he owns, along with a record label,Bumar Records and jazzdrumlessons.com,his music school. He also has a radio television network. Marvin has become a successful human being because he has ultimate joy everyday by giving away all his knowledge to students. Marvin also lifts other professional players' spirits whenever they have the opportunity to perform with him. Coltrane also lifted players to another level. Geniuses can do that. I can sit in the center of the music and be playing with Marvin and O can attest to the fact that I play on a much higher level when I am in the music with him. He draws everything out of you so nothing is ever held back.
Elvin used to always tell me to "get to the shit anyway you can". He played as hard as he could everytime he played. Marvin does that now. Everytime he sits at the drums, it's like a last chance to make a statement. He takes life seriously and so the music that he plays is Truth and as he says all the time, "better than holywood" and I intentionally leave out the capitalization of hollywood.
Dr. Marvin Smith celebrated his 62nd Birthday Thursday, December 29th and we were all there to hear him perform with Dr. Ron Petrides and Robert Kopec. Many of the people that came to honor him brought gifts of friendship love and respect. The best gift for Marvin was just having friends show up. Anyone that personally knows Marvin can tell you how real and giving a person that he is. He gives his own heart away to all the people. He is a beautiful Cat that deserves International honor and this year coming, 2012, will be the year that all of you that don't know him or have not had the chance to witness one of his performances, will be able to see him perform in many locations in NYC,San Francisco,Boston,London,Roma,and at many of the major festivals in your own geographical areas. You will also listen to and view many interviews with many people in his life and see videos of him with master players and students sitting in at sessions with the master players.
Many photographs have also been taken and recently, at the Bull & Buddha where he celebrated his 62 times around the Sun on Dec. 29th, over 14o photos were taken of that celebration and are posted on his facebook page, his Marbib Radio Television and Bumar Records page. The music was the magic all night long as Abbey Lincoln always said and sang, "The Music Is The Magic Of The Universe".
One person that responded to all the photos that were posted on facebook said, "I feel The Love". That's how beautifully described the event was. For those that couldn't be there, the music will be available soon.
I will be adding to this article about Dr. Marvin Smith's life and celebration shortly. Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year for 2012. I hope all days are filled with love and peace because that's what it's all about.
Love Always and Always Love,
HABIB
No comments:
Post a Comment