Preparing for a Performance

When you see a jazz musician up on stage, baring their heart and soul to their audience, you’re witnessing something bordering the miraculous. The true beauty of jazz improvisation lies in its spontaneous nature, created in the moment for your ears only, to be witnessed and then lost forever in the ether. The gravity of this experience is only given further weight with the irony that this magic spontaneity is only possible due to the hours and years of dedicated, purposed practice spent honing our craft. But not only that...the hours, nay, days spent leading up to each performance is vital to enable a smooth execution. And each performer’s method of preparation is as unique as their musical style. You may have heard of such strange rituals carried out by many great artists or even athletes before a performance: meditation, bathing in ice, a lucky pair of underwear, you name it...such mysteries of preparation can often defy logical analysis, but for some metaphysical reason, allow us to reach within ourselves and do our thing. Just as religions require varying forms of ritual to move oneself closer to a higher power, so the artist ritualizes often nonsensical actions to help them step closer to their true inner nature. Sometimes these rituals might seem trivial or even absent-minded; like, for example, leaving one’s dirty socks on the floor. To the ignorant (like my girlfriend,