EXPERIENCING THE COLORS OF LOVE

 

One of the beautiful things about contemporary jazz is that many of its greatest “love songs” don’t use words at all. Instead, they express romance through melody, phrasing, harmony, and tone. When these artists do include lyrics, they tend to center on enduring love rather than fleeting romance.

 

My friend and I recently attended the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway, a 4-day event hosted by jazz genius Brian Culbertson.  We’ve learned to appreciate Brian’s music because it evokes love rather than spells it out, and his Colors of Love, released on Valentine’s Day 2018 but still one of his signature songs, is probably his purest artistic statement. He uses his keyboard to “speak” the emotions without words, allowing each listener to imagine their own love story as the music unfolds.  

 

This year’s Jazz Getaway was a gathering of several world-famous jazz greats, and performed in the presence of a community immersed in every note and every lyric, turning every one of the four evenings into a dance party and lovefest.

 

We were unprepared for the ambiance and cohesiveness of this community, but we were enveloped by their sincere welcomes. We learned so much about jazz and its history through the conversations we had with these wonderful people, and we have already bought our tickets for next year!

 

Love themes from the array of artists intertwined throughout their performances, and a thread of continuity flowed from the oldest to the youngest audience member, transcending race and age.

 

A distilled message running through their music echoes the Bible’s famous description of love in Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians 13:

Love is patient.
Love is faithful.
Love heals what life has broken.
Love chooses another every day.
Love grows stronger through the years.
Love brings peace to the restless heart.
Love is a gift to cherish.
And the greatest joy is sharing life with someone who knows your soul.

 

That may be one reason contemporary jazz resonates so deeply with many listeners—it often celebrates mature, enduring love rather than drama or heartbreak.

Among the artists we enjoyed, Jonathan Butler probably expresses love most explicitly through lyrics, while Brian Culbertson and Peter White often let their instruments tell the story. Culbertson even dedicated his album Colors of Love to exploring “all aspects of what love is,” with pieces such as Love Transcended, In Your Embrace, and All My Heart.  

 

And yet, Brian Culbertson’s entire Colors of Love album is almost completely instrumental. I researched and learned he deliberately chose not to include vocals after polling his fans, who overwhelmingly wanted a piano-centered instrumental album. He has said the album was inspired by his wife Michelle and their 20th wedding anniversary, with each composition representing a different “color” or aspect of love—passionate love, longing, enduring love, comfort, desire, and lifelong commitment.  

Because there are no lyrics on Colors of Love, the titles themselves tell the story: Colors of Love, I Want You, Love Transcended, Don’t Go, You’re Magic, Through the Years, In a Dream, Let’s Chill, Desire, Michelle’s Theme, In Your Embrace, The Look, and All My Heart.  

 

His earlier albums, however, do include vocal love songs. Some favorites are “Somethin’ Bout Love,” an upbeat celebration of being in love, “Do You Really Love Me?, ” exploring the desire for reassurance and commitment, “It’s Only You” (featuring Wayman Tisdale), a song about finding the one person who truly matters, “The Secret Garden” (featuring Howard Hewett), a romantic classic originally written for Quincy Jones’s album, and “I’m Gonna Miss You” a heartfelt ballad about grief and remembering someone who has died, written in memory of Brian’s late manager.

 

If you’re looking for music that captures the feeling of falling in love or celebrating a lifelong marriage, I highly recommend the group of artists featured in this year’s jazz getaway, among the finest in contemporary jazz: Brian Culbertson, Jonathan Butler, Richard Elliot, Nicholas Cole, Rick Braun, Adrian Crutchfield. Their music consistently points toward love that is joyful, faithful, comforting, and enduring.

 

But our most important takeaway from this 4-day journey into jazz, and the reason why I titled this post “experiencing the colors of love…” is two-fold.  First, the actual color ratio of African Americans to Caucasians in attendance was, by our estimation, 65%/35%.  So being the racial minority could certainly have made us feel ostracized, or made us feel as through we did not fit in.  The hundreds of attendees who were jazz aficionados with  intimate knowledge of the artists and their work could have made us, as neophytes to this world of contemporary jazz, feel uncomfortable or out of place, but instead they embraced us with kindness and conversation.  On shuttle buses, in lines queueing up for food or drink, and in our seats as we watched the performances, we were not only accepted, but welcomed.  And the reason why that sense of community was extended to us was so conspicuous to my friend and I that it became a point of discussion between us for our whole trip. 

 

Which brings me to my second point: when people gather around a common purpose, it creates an opportunity for community, but only an opportunity.  What we have learned from our Jazz-loving friends is that true, sustainable community exists when people are united in common by being drawn to a common feeling of joy… and joy that is sustainable comes from a set of people or performances that create a sense of belonging, a sense of positivity, and a sense of love. In contrast, I would offer, are the gatherings we see so often of people united only in the moment around a negative set of opinions or thoughts or beliefs. Does that common negativity create a temporary fervor?  Perhaps.  But is it sustainable?

 

Perhaps you will use this message as an invitation to enjoy some contemporary jazz.  If so, I just know you will “find your groove” and relax into the music.  But my ultimate hope is that it has prompted you to reconsider gatherings where fellowship does not actually lead to community, or to a sense of belonging or yearning to reconnect. Because it is those feelings for which we were created… and thus they lead us to healthy, positive, sustainable community.  We deserve that.  And in a world competing for our attention and our time, it will nourish us, fill us with the experience of the colors of love, and keep us coming back.