The Analects of Music part 9: I Pray I did Some Good

In November 2015, my ensemble God's Unruly Friends played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The event coincided with a terrorist attack in Paris.

The vibe was, shall I say, heavy. But we offered a good performance. Our music was dedicated to those who were suffering from senseless violence.

I recall a story. The night when Martin Luther King was killed, Jimi Hendrix was booked to play Newark NJ (of all places). They wanted to cancel the concert, but Hendrix said no; he would do the show. Everyone was scared of the possibility of race riots. Hendrix walked on stage and said, "This is for a friend of mine." He then abandoned all his usual songs and improvised a long blues ballad that was so moving even the theater stagehands and janitors were in tears.

Naturally, nobody recorded it.

I'm a musician, and in many ways, I count for very little in this world. I have to do what I can with what I have. God's Unruly Friends' performance that night in 2015 was us using our music as an imposition of spiritual power upon a political upheaval to counteract the presence of evil, oppression, and destruction.

I pray it did some good. I pray that my music brings something useful into a chaos of futility, and something beautiful into a world of ugliness.