malibu

there’s not too much you can say to capture the feeling of certain places, and malibu is one of those for me. everyone has their own impression—- some from actually being there, some from ideas they have about what it must be like. none of my feelings come directly from the people who live there, but many of them come through those people. it’s almost like there’s a contagion in the air that catches you when you’re there, and you unknowingly and unwittingly become a transmitter of the frequency.

i like the helpless feeling of being infused with the vibration. it’s truly the “Good Vibration” that Brian Wilson wrote about. i have to fight to keep it off me, and it sometimes startles me, like i’m not supposed to feel it. eventually when i give in, i tune in to the universe in a unique and special way. i’ve written about the synchronicity, and we experienced more of that over this past week as we were there.

my friends welcomed donna with open arms and she seamlessly became part of the music and arts community, as we both thought she would. our performance at the malibu composer’s breakfast club meeting was a big hit and we all reveled in the joy of being together and connecting through the music. my bandmate from the 1970’s, michael levine, added harmonica to “billy boy” which took the song to a new place. richard gibbs’ piano and organ let “ghost” and “pinebox” shine in a new way. it felt wonderful to be the catalyst for what was a sacred community ceremony celebrating our oneness and love for one another. evryone shined.

this performance was the main purpose of the trip for me, so i have very little other LA news to bring east. i got to see the ashram in la crecenta where donna spent several retreats and to meet some of her friends, which was also nice for both of us. my new friend akai yang hosted another taiwanese tea for us on the sunday preceding the composer’s breakfast so we got to spend some quality time with him, as well as with richard and linda gibbs, all at the beautiful woodshed recording studio (pictured above). lucky me.

we return on halloween to get busy again mixing album 17, coming down the home strtetch between now and year end, and of course we continue our vincent’s lifetime residency on november 9th. as most of you know, we had a wonderful evening at the burren in somerville earlier in october, and will be returning in april. it was great to play in boston again, especially at such a fantastic venue. we’re all very much looking forward to our return.

i hope you all have a great halloween and a peaceful thanksgiving. we live in turbulent times. what is most important is that we remember we are all members of the same human race, and love is the most important ingredient for our success and survival. until next time,

love,

jc