The lilacs in our postage stamp-sized backyard are peaking in the depth of their color and fragrance today.  It seems like spring happened overnight.  The world seemed to turn from black and white to living color so suddenly this year. But of course the plants and trees have been getting ready – sending sap up the branches and thickening the buds.

Lots of things seem to be happening suddenly.  But as we know there are conditions that had to come together to make each moment possible.  More conditions than we could ever account for, and here is life, here is the world, expressing the results of all of those causes coming together in this singular moment.

I write these announcements to let you know where we are playing – but also to reflect on how it all comes together.  We rehearse for about 90 minutes once a month at my house and we play two gigs each month; one in Cambridge, and one in Ipswich.

That is the part I can explain.  But how the music comes together in real time is so much more complex.  It has taken a lifetime.

Actually, without needing to believe in reincarnation, I can still accurately say that it has taken many many lifetimes.  We need to count the lives of J.S. Bach, and Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles, and countless other musicians whose innovations were necessary for the music we play to be possible.

I am writing to let you know that this coming week is an exciting one for me and the band.

Heart of Hearing is recording a new album on Monday and Tuesday evening at WGBH studios in Brighton, where we recorded our last two. The sound in that room will be recorded with sparkle and warmth by our engineer, Antonio Oliart.

This past year I’ve written more than a CD’s worth of music. Some of it I wrote at Avaloch Farm Music institute in New Hampshire, where I won a fellowship to compose.

Many of the songs I’ve written come from the harmony and song-generating techniques I learned and practiced this winter while auditing Frank Carlberg’s class at New England Conservatory called “Composition for Performers.”

On Monday and Tuesday we will have a chance to play and listen in the aurally pristine conditions of the recording studio.  That environment always acts to polish up the music.  The night afterwards, we will share that music with you, when we play live at the Lilypad on Wednesday, May 7.   And the night after that we have been invited to play a private house concert on Beacon Hill.

This band has been rehearsing and playing this gig every month for about three years.  I’ve been playing once a month at the Lilypad for over 15 years.  And you all, who come and listen and support us, have formed a community, one that gathers and listens and jokes with us.  I will never take that for granted.

I am so grateful for all of it.  For you our audience of friends and fans, for Gill who runs this venue and who keeps the piano in tune, for Dor who plays the drums so musically and colorfully, for Andrew who plays bass with such intelligent clarity, and to Rick who reaches deep down, playing the saxophone with a penetrating understanding and commitment to the ideas that he develops as he plays.  These guys bring my music to life.

I am so fortunate – all these things coming together.  And again, you, yes you who are still reading this, you who show up and open your heart to the spirit in the music and cheer us on.   Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.