Communication

The problem of communication is always exacerbated by travel. I have spent a number of years struggling with the difficulties of expression in my own beloved English, but the problems posed by diverse language and culture are something else altogether.
Last week I had a wonderful experience with twelve or fifteen musicians in Milan. We had a beautiful dinner together, lasting some three hours, and afterward played music. They played without false modesty or self consciousness, using a variety of styles and instruments. At the end of the night, one of the vocalists sang "Summertime," accompanied by jazz guitar. She spoke hardly a word of English, but she understood jazz and sang so well I forgot I was even in Italy until a slight mispronounciation shattered the universe. I have always felt jazz rhythm somewhat inituitively and have wondered if that is because I am fluent in American culture, the historical origin of jazz. But this Milanese vocalist is certainly not knowledgeable, on an intuitive level, of American musical culture, yet she sang Gershwin with sensitivity and comprehension. It was a beautiful moment in which I felt more was shared and understood than had been in any conversation during the two weeks I was in Italy. There is something fantastically basic and elemental in jazz, perhaps in all music, that transcends cultures and languages. It bridges the distance between cultures and enables a conversation which could never be expressed in words.