Under Construction . . .

Round every corner and fade into blue
The Angelus rings, she comes into view
Nine is her number
In nine she is due
She will never fail you

Singing creation, look into her eyes
Out of her mouth she is speaking the sky
Circling heaven, higher than high
She in time is movement

Why should I move from her world vibration?
Molding this clay into
Paleolithic Goddess Figurines

Streaming to rivers, she floats on the sea
Gathers her children who sit on her knee
Showing and telling them where they are free
She is softly speaking

Holding the line when she seems unpleasant
Molding this clay into
Paleolithic Goddess Figurines

There is no real dilemma
She has her own agenda
Though there's a vulture hovering above our heads
Go on and trust the pattern
Her sun and moon are lanterns
Painting the firmament with stars

She is the vision of attention engaged
Breaking the spell of automaton rage
A circuit of heaven, a luminous wave
All is seen before her

Why should I move from her world vibration?
Molding this clay into
Paleolithic Goddess Figurines

Round every corner and fade into blue
The Angelus rings, she comes into view
Nine is her number
In nine she is due
She will never fail you


Paleolithic Goddess Figurine
written by John P. Graboski
(OHO rehearsal recording-
Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak are OHO)





What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

If You Build It . . .

. . . you should market it . . .

I know.  I've misquoted the line from Field of Dreams but purposely so.  The members of Oho frequently discuss art, inspiration and commitment in music.  And considering the potential to exploit the business aspects pertaining to your music provided by the current technology, it has become even easier to market your music all by yourself.  So should you decide that you have a musical statement to make and that your talent is sufficient to do that, why simply make a recording and stop at that?  You really have to put that recording in front of every possible set of ears that you can.  That is, of course, unless you really don't need to have your statement heard by too many people. . .


(from http://www.madeforsuccess.com/articles/personal-growth/achievement/seven-steps-to-achieving-your-dream-2/)
1. Dream it
Everything begins in the heart and mind. Every great achievement began in the mind of one person. They dared to dream, to believe that it was possible. Take some time to allow yourself to ask “What if?” Think big. Don’t let negative thinking discourage you. You want to be a “dreamer.” Dream of the possibilities for yourself, your family, and for others. If you had a dream that you let grow cold, re-ignite the dream! Fan the flames. Life is to short to let it go. (Also, check out my article “Dare to Dream Again,” Which has been read by close to a million people in the last 4 months alone. You can see it at the website.)

2. Believe it
Yes, your dream needs to be big. It needs to be something that is seemingly beyond your capabilities. But it also must be believable. You must be able to say that if certain things take place, if others help, if you work hard enough, though it is a big dream, it can still be done. Good example: A person with no college education can dream that he will build a 50 million-dollar a year company. That is big, but believable. Bad example: That a 90 year-old woman with arthritis will someday run a marathon in under 3 hours. It is big alright, but also impossible. She should instead focus on building a 50 million-dollar a year business! And she better get a move on!

3. See it
The great achievers have a habit. They “see” things. They picture themselves walking around their CEO office in their new 25 million-dollar corporate headquarters, even while they are sitting on a folding chair in their garage “headquarters.” Great free-throw shooters in the NBA picture the ball going through the basket. PGA golfers picture the ball going straight down the fairway. World-class speakers picture themselves speaking with energy and emotion. All of this grooms the mind to control the body to carry out the dream.

4. Tell it
One reason many dreams never go anywhere is because the dreamer keeps it all to himself. It is a quiet dream that only lives inside of his mind. The one who wants to achieve their dream must tell that dream to many people. One reason: As we continually say it, we begin to believe it more and more. If we are talking about it then it must be possible. Another reason: It holds us accountable. When we have told others, it spurs us on to actually do it so we don’t look foolish.

5. Plan it
Every dream must take the form of a plan. The old saying that you “get what you plan for” is so true. Your dream won’t just happen. You need to sit down, on a regular basis, and plan out your strategy for achieving the dream. Think through all of the details. Break the whole plan down into small, workable parts. Then set a time frame for accomplishing each task on your “dream plan.”

6. Work it
Boy, wouldn’t life be grand if we could quit before this one! Unfortunately the successful are usually the hardest workers. While the rest of the world is sitting on their couch watching re-runs of Gilligan’s Island, achievers are working on their goal – achieving their dream. I have an equation that I work with: Your short-term tasks, multiplied by time, equal your long-term accomplishments. If you work on it each day, eventually you will achieve your dream. War and Peace was written, in longhand, page by page.

7. Enjoy it
When you have reached your goal and you are living your dream, be sure to enjoy it. In fact, enjoy the trip too. Give yourself some rewards along the way. Give yourself a huge reward when you get there. Help others enjoy it. Be gracious and generous. Use your dream to better others. Then go back to number 1. And dream a little bigger this time!

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

My Ego . . .

Sometimes I can get my point across
And I do it rather well
You can see
What I think
About me

It's just my ego
It gets the best of me
It's just my ego
It's just my ego
It just won't let me be
It just won't let me be alone
It's not one of my most redeeming qualities
Still though it serves me rather well sometimes
It won't be easy to just let it go
It's just my ego

I take such great pride in what I do
Everyone should take some too
Don't you think
Pride in me
Not in you

It's just my ego
It gets the best of me
It's just my ego
It's just my ego
It just won't let me be
It just won't let me be alone
It's not one of my most redeeming qualities
Still though it serves me rather well sometimes
It won't be easy to just let it go
It's just my ego

There's a fine distinction between confidence and pride
There's a fine distinction that I'll never know
Cloaked with some discretion you emerge from the inside
I emerge in all my glory
What is there to hide

Mother said that I would never make
Any friends if I don't see
What I'm like
If I don't lose some pride

It's just my ego
It gets the best of me
It's just my ego
It's just my ego
It just won't let me be
It just won't let me be alone
It's not one of my most redeeming qualities
Still though it serves me rather well sometimes
It won't be easy to just let it go
It's just my ego


My Ego
from Chromatose
©2002 Raymond M. Jozwiak 




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Thelonious. . .

(from http://www.monkzone.com/monkzone.htm)
Minton’s, legend has it, was where the “bebop revolution” began. The after-hours jam sessions at Minton’s, along with similar musical gatherings at Monroe’s Uptown House, Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among others, attracted a new generation of musicians brimming with fresh ideas about harmony and rhythm—notably Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, Tadd Dameron, and Monk’s close friend and fellow pianist, Bud Powell. Monk’s harmonic innovations proved fundamental to the development of modern jazz in this period. Anointed by some critics as the “High Priest of Bebop,” several of his compositions (“52nd Street Theme,” “Round Midnight,” “Epistrophy” [co-written with Kenny Clarke and originally titled “Fly Right” and then “Iambic Pentameter”], “I Mean You”) were favorites among his contemporaries.

Yet, as much as Monk helped usher in the bebop revolution, he also charted a new course for modern music few were willing to follow. Whereas most pianists of the bebop era played sparse chords in the left hand and emphasized fast, even eighth and sixteenth notes in the right hand, Monk combined an active right hand with an equally active left hand, fusing stride and angular rhythms that utilized the entire keyboard. And in an era when fast, dense, virtuosic solos were the order of the day, Monk was famous for his use of space and silence. In addition to his unique phrasing and economy of notes, Monk would “lay out” pretty regularly, enabling his sidemen to experiment free of the piano’s fixed pitches. As a composer, Monk was less interested in writing new melodic lines over popular chord progressions than in creating a whole new architecture for his music, one in which harmony and rhythm melded seamlessly with the melody. “Everything I play is different,” Monk once explained, “different melody, different harmony, different structure. Each piece is different from the other. . . . [W]hen the song tells a story, when it gets a certain sound, then it’s through . . . completed.”

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

So He Says . . .

. . . the cop let his friend off with a warning, after reviewing her license and registration, allowing 'just one swerve' before getting an actual ticket next time.  Shouldn't everyone be allowed 'just one swerve'?


I swerved to miss a turtle
As he watched the traffic hurtle
Past him from the center of the street
I saw him stick his snout out
Pulled off and played the Boy Scout
And snatched him from the jaws of defeat…

It was just a single swerve
And surely didn't deserve
A hundred-dollar fine for Careless Driving
But the Highway Patrol
Said “Think of it as toll --
Now please drive on, sir, I’m advising”

Just one swerve, that's all it took to
Get written up in that little black book
Just one swerve, what can I say?
One small turtle
Made it through another day

If you’re a Hindu or a Buddhist
You know there is a karma list
Good actions always earn you more
God, always thinking green,
Will use your soul again
In some new creature, depends on your score…

Just when you think you're
Doing the right thing
Life is a bumblebee
Administering a sharp sting

So with very little drama
I’m storing up good karma
One hundred-dollar turtle at a time!
But that Patrolman’s karma’s bad
It almost seems a little sad
That he’ll come back as a bug next time…

Just one swerve, that's all it took to
Get written up in that little black book
Just one swerve, what can I say?
One small turtle
Made it through another day


Swerve
(demo recording)
Lyrics by Rod Deacey
Music by Ray Jozwiak




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Unresolved, in fact . . .

Conclusions by both the FBI and NTSB are suspicious, at best, with regard to what really happened.
Some convincing evidence does exist but to date, no one has been held accountable for what appears to be an assassination.

 (from American Assassination; The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone by Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer)
 ". . . Once again, Wellstone seems to have been a nemesis for big business.  However, Wellstone posed an even more significant and costly threat to corporate profit-making interests. He tried to enable the 2002 defense appropriations bill to bar corporate tax dodgers from being eligible for defense department contracts.  Additionally, he successfully amended the Homeland Security bill to bar those companies from getting contracts with the new "Department of Homeland Security." Both amendments passed on the Senate floor by voice votes.

After the November election - and after Paul Wellstone's tragic death - the final version of the homeland security bill gutted the Wellstone amendment. His bills were obliterated by enough waivers to assure that corporate lobby groups would indeed land the billion-dollar defense contracts we have now seen, especially in Iraq.  Similarly, a mental health reform Wellstone had championed, which would have required insurance companies to provide mental health coverage on a par with physical health coverage if their policies cover both, has been successfully blocked, one more indication that the loss of "the conscience of the Senate" continues to make a difference. . ."

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Next . . .

. . . year. . .

. . .  is . . .

. . .  2014 . . .


2014 is my new, digital-download only, solo, instrumental piano music release which brings you up to date with my musical mind. A lot has happened in the past year since the release of Black & White Then Back. Devotion to the iconic Baltimore prog/folk/jazz/pop/rock band OHO has exerted a significantly positive effect upon me and my music in addition to adding perspective and richness to my life. The reconnecting with these and other good folks from my past, both musicians and non-musicians,  has brought additional spice to my thoughts, reflections and philosophies and contributes to my continuing growth and evolution.

What more appropriate name for such a musical collection than 2014?

2014 will be available through digital distribution only at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak April 8, 2014

What's being and what's been said . . .
". . . From the first note we are swept off our feet by a sultry sound of tantalizing notes and dashing fingers. The album’s mood is kept consistent throughout all tracks. The music engulfs you and the notes just relax your body. . . " (Kyzer Davis of http://www.bracketandbracket.com)

". . . One can hear little snippets of this and that running throughout his work, just enough to put you in the mind of a long forgotten favorite before he turns it inside out or upside down . . ." (Joe Hartlaub, http://www.music-reviewer.com/)

". . . He tries to play every note on the keyboard a few times, but puts special emphasis on the ones in the middle, as they wear out fastest… While running his tests, he channels Erroll Garner and sometimes Thelonious Monk, and plays himself into corners that you just don't think he’s going to get out of – but, wait – a quick wriggle and there he is gliding across the open floor… " (Rod Deacey, Board Member of the Frederick Acoustic Musicians Enterprise (FAME), Musician, Performer, Writer, Poet, Organizer, Emcee, Bluesman)
                                                                   
For a Promotional Copy, Please Contact:
Ray Jozwiak
Website:  http://www.rayjozwiak.com
Email:  pjozwiak@verizon.net
Phone:  410-369-8463
Snail:  1049 Winsford Road
Towson, MD 21204
USA


Highs & Lows
©2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak



What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet