Time Out Ten
Mute
by Steve Day
For this item you need to be able to stop for ten minutes.
We are often moving on to the next job, the next meeting, scrolling down social media, taking the next call ......'Time Out Ten' asks you to stop for ten minutes and listen to a particular piece of music; to find a time when you won't be interrupted, when you can put in/on your headphones and chill out. Ten minutes isn't long.
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This month, Steve Day sends us his poem Mute that introduces a classic recording of George and Ira Gershwin's Embraceable You from Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. Listen for Miles choosing to play with a mute when his solo comes and for Charlie Parker's grace notes behind him.
Miles Davis chose to mute, soften his blows.
Bending over the bell of his trumpet; folds
across the floor like Islamic prayer,
for in a silent way he cries through brass.
I listen to his beautiful brittle syntax as it flows,
from the Bird singing shading in grace notes
in my consciousness, resting there
until the blur of blues pours into the past.
Such muted audio stretches out wide to grow
into a cynosure of light, harmonising hope
from the mantra. The final line I share
with Miles, bursts forth in one primal blast
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2025.3