While immersed in my own woes of the "music business" I had forgotten the joy of the actual art of singing. Singing for a living is a difficult road. However, singing, just singing, is a great expression of life. i believe that music is a language that transcends words. It can say the things we feel more than if we tried to speak about them.
While it seems that the music business and my genre of jazz is struggling horribly and trying to survive as it is wounded by various disrespect and carelessness of businessmen and musicians alike, maybe we can all use this time to go back inside and connect with our real passion and love of music.
Do we need an audience to sing? No, not at all. When we were children and we found out we had a marvellous instrument right in our body, didn't we explore it with glee? This is what we have to get back in touch with.
I may stop performing for awhile, but that doesn't mean I will stop singing. Singing to me is like flying. There are times in a song, that my voice can literally take me away from form itself. It can also open my heart so wide that I break into tears. This is the connection of the throat, crown, heart, solar plexus and root chakras. If we pay attention we can feel them and the emotions they have stored there, then sing them out and cleanse our body and soul.
My path may turn to helping others feel this joy. If that is the case, I am honored to do it. If not, then I will sing in my car, in my family room, to my dogs, for myself.
We need to try to detach from ways of the world and reconnect to the joy and bliss we were created and called to experience through music.