Embrace

A wise folk singer once said that true love is learning to love the things one's lover loves. What he meant to say was that one should attempt to embrace the hobbies, musical taste and pursuits of one's other half, especially if one seeks to be part of those things and not to drift apart with time.

To that end, I spent the evening with Mr. M in his listening room. He has put in a great deal of time assembling a deluxe sound system, perfectly scaled for the small bedroom that it occupies. We both love all genres of music, but his passion is jazz, especially vintage jazz from the era around the time of his birth, 1957. I'm not saying he is vintage, mind you, because that makes me vintage as well.

I lay flat on my back on the rug between the two speakers while he played for me a collection of tunes on vinyl, chosen carefully to ease me into the experience, lift me up, make me soar and leave me breathless for more. 

Three hours passed and finally I understood what it is he likes about it.

If all you catch are a few notes of it wafting through the air, it makes no sense, it sounds like noise, or the first grade orchestra warming up. Continuously, it  becomes a conversation, the soundtrack for a cartoon, an animated sequence. It gets into your brain and bounces around, exciting the molecules of your grey matter. Granted, I still lean toward more melodic jazz and I definitely love string instruments way more than horns, but I feel like I've passed a threshold into his world. Perhaps I have my toes and half my foot into his world and my heel into my world but is a start and I can't wait to do it again. Plus that red light over the turntable is just too cool.

His turn tomorrow night for some electronica and trance music, which does the same for my brain with the addition of not being able to sit still. Hope he's up for some dancing. After that, hip-hop, which will be a stretch for both of us, but in the spirit of embracing, we will make an honest attempt.

I wonder if the music you listen to before going bedtime can influence your sleep patterns?