Porthos, As one who knows some of the beautiful Shenandoah, here were some of my reflections as I watched and listened: The song Shenandoah is a song by someone who has had to leave the beautiful river behind and move westward. There were images of train tracks in the video and shortly afterward an image of a home. I thought of Jeff's journey--through life, and now into a new life. While the video starts with a satellite of the Shenandoah, later there is an aerial view of a bow in the river. I think I know exactly where that is--at Front Royal, VA, on the north end of town. One has to cross the river twice in a very short distance. Jeff served as Associate Pastor in the UM church there from 1982 to 1984. And he and I both loved to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Shenandoah National Park. Thank you for posting this beautiful, so appropriate song.
I'm so glad that the post had so much significance! I really had no idea when posting it that there was a river named Shenandoah, that it was in Virginia, and that it had wound itself so meaningfully through your and Jeff's lives.
I recently found Jeff's Holy Cross Abbey on the satellite view of Google map and I followed the incredibly winding course of the Shenandoah--it's an amazing river. I also found that "Shenandoah" was in the running for state song of Virginia for a time.
The man who put together the video is a Japanese guy, user name mamesibamarukomidori, who has a great channel on Youtube that I sometimes visit. He usually puts up clips of tasty, contemplative jazz with a lot of beautiful pictures, some taken by his wife during their various travels together. He really went to town on this Youtube and seems to have researched it a lot. He must have taken a trip to Shenandoah--and it made an impression on him.
Keith Jarrett is typically an exhuberant and emotional improviser who adds all kinds of ornate textures and layers over songs--it is highly unusual for him to hold back so much and play a traditional song straight up and austere like that.
Thanks for the kind words. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but there are a number of strange coincidences with that Youtube clip and how it got up . . .
I've also appreciated the chance to scout out Jeff's territory on Google map and fill in the blanks! To me, I had just thought "Jeff lives over there somewhere around DC" but now I have a much better sense of Jeff's life and the people and places dear to him.
3 comments:
Porthos,
As one who knows some of the beautiful Shenandoah, here were some of my reflections as I watched and listened:
The song Shenandoah is a song by someone who has had to leave the beautiful river behind and move westward. There were images of train tracks in the video and shortly afterward an image of a home. I thought of Jeff's journey--through life, and now into a new life.
While the video starts with a satellite of the Shenandoah, later there is an aerial view of a bow in the river. I think I know exactly where that is--at Front Royal, VA, on the north end of town. One has to cross the river twice in a very short distance. Jeff served as Associate Pastor in the UM church there from 1982 to 1984. And he and I both loved to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Shenandoah National Park.
Thank you for posting this beautiful, so appropriate song.
I'm so glad that the post had so much significance! I really had no idea when posting it that there was a river named Shenandoah, that it was in Virginia, and that it had wound itself so meaningfully through your and Jeff's lives.
I recently found Jeff's Holy Cross Abbey on the satellite view of Google map and I followed the incredibly winding course of the Shenandoah--it's an amazing river. I also found that "Shenandoah" was in the running for state song of Virginia for a time.
The man who put together the video is a Japanese guy, user name mamesibamarukomidori, who has a great channel on Youtube that I sometimes visit. He usually puts up clips of tasty, contemplative jazz with a lot of beautiful pictures, some taken by his wife during their various travels together. He really went to town on this Youtube and seems to have researched it a lot. He must have taken a trip to Shenandoah--and it made an impression on him.
Keith Jarrett is typically an exhuberant and emotional improviser who adds all kinds of ornate textures and layers over songs--it is highly unusual for him to hold back so much and play a traditional song straight up and austere like that.
Thanks for the kind words. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but there are a number of strange coincidences with that Youtube clip and how it got up . . .
I've also appreciated the chance to scout out Jeff's territory on Google map and fill in the blanks! To me, I had just thought "Jeff lives over there somewhere around DC" but now I have a much better sense of Jeff's life and the people and places dear to him.
this is truly a musical painting. KJ certainly captured the natural beauty of the landscape.
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