|
 |
| |
|
But I think what we do affects 'over there' and vice versa. The spirits 'over there' can guide us, and likewise. Tibetans say, in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, that when someone passes, for the first 30 days they can't get to where they are supposed to go unless we think of them for 30 days. Then, if that's done, they're with us as an ally the rest of our lives. That's sweet, I love that. So with all that in mind, shit man, Jim [Morrison] blew up over that first commercial we were thinking of doing. So I try to honor that.
-John Densmore on the use of The Doors' music in comercials |
|
|
| |
|
Jim Morrison by Rei Lagarto
As we continue to discuss the music of Tribaljazz, the idea of a philosophy surfaces more than once, but it's not in some new-age mumbo-jumbo manner. His thoughts are grounded in a unifying belief that can be found in all forms of music stretching back to the first drum beats. "The idea is that the heartbeat is the first instrument that we all hear in our mother's womb. And then we have our own little rhythm, so you already got polyrhythm like Coltrane's drummer Elvin Jones - my idol - and I guess we all supposedly came from the Olduvai Gorge in Africa. And what makes people dance is, whether it's a duet or a 40-piece orchestra, all those musicians are always trying to sound like one musician, which is trying to get back to that heartbeat, and the tighter a band is, the closer we are to where we were in our mother's womb. It makes us feel good, and we want to dance and we're warm and happy."
Tribaljazz |
It's this sense of connection, whether it be with one's heartbeat, with an audience, or with another musician, that drives Densmore's passion for music. As he recounts a lifetime of magical moments, he quickly recalls a small, personal affair that happened less than a year ago. "I played for this famous Yogi a few weeks ago and met Madonna's backup singer Donna Delori. She chants these Hindu chants and we did this little thing for this guru, and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is it.' And it was small, like 50 people. So when that dance between whosever on stage and whosever in the audience is really going well, whether it's a tango or a waltz or free-form Grateful Dead, it's better than drugs."
The Doors |
One may be inclined to think that a founding member of one of the world's most famous and influential bands would thrive on being a star, or perhaps the object of fans' obsession, but not Densmore. He is truly a down-to-earth individual who simply loves music. As he tells us, "With The Doors, the most exciting thing was, I would say, second bill in a small hall. We're in clubs working our butts off, and we get a record deal and then we're playing small concerts. 'Wow, this thing is gonna happen!' I mean it's great to play Madison Square Garden and be worshiped, but all this work and then you realize, 'Oh shit, it might go!' That's really exciting." Perhaps it's this pure love of music (not all the bullshit that comes with it) and the desire to push something small and personal into the world at large that has allowed Densmore to remain so vital, so creative, and so pertinent. Where many of his contemporaries dropped out of the music scene due to a variety of ailments from drug abuse to losing touch with their musical roots, Densmore is once again embarking on an exciting and relevant project. Although it does happen, it's rare to find an artist from the sixties still creating new music as opposed to just clinging to their name while driving their legacy into the ground.
John Densmore |
While Tribaljazz holds loose elements from The Doors' music, it is immediately clear upon hitting play on the new CD that, as the name suggests, this music starts with jazz. There's an ease and a flow to Densmore's drums as Art Ellis's flute dances atop the beat and Quinn Johnson's remarkable piano cascades across the melody. Densmore could have easily put his famous name into the band's handle and immediately drawn attention to the fact that this is the drummer from The Doors and perhaps raised more eyebrows, but he's not interested in such shallow actions. Over the course of our conversation from his Los Angeles home, I was struck time and time again by his humility, and his genuine, advanced world view. "I was in Ravi Shankar's School of Indian Music in the sixties studying tabla, and I was meditating with Maharishi and all that stuff, and it exposed me to the East and to all the philosophies of the East - Buddhism and all that stuff. So it's in me, I'm a polytheist, a patchwork cosmology, because the organized religions of today are pretty much finished. I mean, who goes to church? They go to concerts. So that's how it comes through. All that stuff is in me, and I love improvising and seeing people move to what we're doing. I always think of a concert, no matter how many people are on stage, really it's two people dancing together: the people on stage and the people in the audience."
|
