Bert Seager - jazz pianist

The ground for me is always the gratitude that springs naturally from our situation, that we are attempting to spend our lives as jazz musicians. This is a path of infinite learning, filled wherever possible with the chance to share joy and wonder. Amazingly, each time we play we have the opportunity to let the music tell us where to go, teaching us over and over again the value of softening the sense of a self – and so turning on its head the view that we are in control.Sure there are plenty of obstacles to making a life of music, sometimes even to just letting the music flow freely. And though it is through training our minds that wisdom is possible - it is also our minds that can hold us back the most. And so our greatest challenge is in learning how to work with that.Trusting that it was our love of sound that brought us to where we are: we know this because we experience first hand that it is our dedication to that love of sound (listening) that keeps us uncluttered in the moment. In listening deeply we find we can discover how to proceed, what we need to work on, what we need to let go of.