Jazz music… I woke up this morning and listened to Cannonball Adderley’s “Work Song.” Nothing is surer to get you in a working mood. And today I need to be in that mood, as I have to edit a ten page philosophy paper, go to Bill Jones’ chapel, eat lunch, read fifty pages of Nature and Grace and write two and one half pages on Thomas Aquinas, go to Classics of Christian Literature class with Baarendse, work on my hermeneutics final (1 Peter 1:1-2), eat dinner, go to Medieval Philosophy with Dr. Gentry, and work on hermeneutics some more. Then maybe work on my Classics of Christian Lit final? Maybe not. By that time it will be about 11:00 PM, and I will be going to my warm, comfy bed. Yes, finals week is here early, so I start my day with Jazz music.
What is it about Jazz that is just so appealing? Why do the rhythms affect us so? What is that mood, that feeling I get that I can only describe as being distinctly, well, jazzy? I’m really not sure, but I like it. It’s a great, relaxing, infectious anecdote to those stressful schedules. A cup of coffee and a Charles Mingus or Miles Davis tune later, and I feel so jazzy. Maybe it’s escapist of me, but I need to recharge my batteries sometimes, and jazz seems to be a good way to do it, musically any way.