JOY-SPREADING: VALERIE KIRCHHOFF, ETHAN LEINWAND, ANDY SCHUMM, T. J. MULLER, RICHARD TRALLES (St. Louis, MO: June 20, 2024)

Oh, my, yes.

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The place: General U.S. Grant’s home; the creators: Valerie Kirchhoff, vocal, ukulele; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Andy Schumm, clarinet; cornet; T.J. Muller, cornet, trombone, guitar, washboard; Richard Tralles, double bass. Valerie cautions anyone in the audience (now, anyone in cyberspace) about destructive behavior, even if born out of affectionate exuberance:

There will be more music from these lovely Mound City creators.

May your happiness increase!

A CELEBRATION for JUNETEENTH: DUKE ELLINGTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA at COVENTRY CATHEDRAL, FEBRUARY 21,1966.

Let us celebrate with this film of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra performing his Sacred Concert at Coventry Cathedral in England — a film aired on Granada Television on April 10, 1966, and then presumed lost. What was lost now is found. It was aired again in 2018, but I believe this is the first time the whole program has been shared online.

Thanks to Jean-Marie Juif of the Duke Ellington Society for his wise encouragement.

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra : Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Herbie Jones, Mercer Ellington, trumpet; Lawrence Brown, Chuck Connors, Buster Cooper, trombone; Jimmy Hamilton, clarinet, tenor saxophone; Russell Procope, alto saxophone, clarinet; Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone; Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone; Harry Carney, baritone saxophone, clarinet, bass-clarinet; Duke Ellington, piano; John Lamb, double bass; Sam Woodyard, drums. George Webb, Cliff Adams Singers, vocal. NEW WORLD A-COMIN’ (Ellington, solo) / COME SUNDAY – MONTAGE – COME EASTER / TELL ME IT’S THE TRUTH / IN THE BEGINNIG GOD / WEST INDIAN PANCAKE / LA PLUS BELLE AFRICAINE // Performed on Monday, february 21, 1966; aired on April 10, 1966.

May your happiness increase!

YOU MUST MAKE TIME FOR BEAUTY: ERIK McINTYRE PLAYS BING CROSBY (TURK-AHLERT)

I had a chance this morning to look at the front page of the New York Times, and I saw nothing there that didn’t feel like grief. Suffering, oppression, dishonesties. So I am always searching for music that will make me feel hopeful, lifted up. Beauty, plain, no fuss, no gimmicks.

Guitarist Erik McIntyre and I have never met, but I know him by the company he keeps in Ann Arbor, and he and his friends know what beauty is and how to make it, without narcissism, so that it resonates long after the last note is played.

Here he is, playing Bing Crosby’s lovely theme, WHERE THE BLUE OF THE NIGHT MEETS THE GOLD OF THE DAY — homage not only to the song and to Bing, but to Bing’s dearest friend, Eddie Lang. And he plays the verse twice!

Watching and listening to this performance, I felt the tears forming behind my eyes. But they were not headline-despair-tears; they were tears of gladness at being alive in a world where such beauty could be made. Thank you, dear Erik.

May your happiness increase!

A DREAM BAND IN REAL LIFE: T.J. MULLER’S SWING SEVEN, COMPLETE, featuring VALERIE KIRCHHOFF, with ANDY SCHUMM, JACOB ZIMMERMAN, JONATHAN DOYLE, ETHAN LEINWAND, CLINT BAKER, HAL SMITH (Redwood Coast Music Festival, October 8, 2023)

Sometimes combinations of wonderfully talented musicians don’t work well in reality. Styles, approaches, egos, what you will. But this band exemplified hot synergy in its purest form: that is, the eight singular personalities on the stand felt the same way, so even though they were reading T.J. Muller’s charts for the first time, they soared and rocked like a working band circa 1940. They amazed me. And this was my first exposure to Valerie, Ethan, and T.J. in person: three transcendent experiences.

This band hit me, to borrow from Larry Eanet, like Cupid’s arrow. They are T.J. Muller, banjo-guitar and arrangements; Clint Baker, double bass; Hal Smith, drums; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Jonathan Doyle, tenor saxophone and clarinet; Jacob Zimmerman, alto saxophone and clarinet; Andy Schumm, cornet; Valerie Kirchhoff, vocal.

I have posted seven of the fourteen songs the band offered — as discrete gems — already. But I thought there might be some people who had missed them, and that perhaps they would shine even brighter in context. So make yourself at home; prepare to be dazzled.

Their version of JIVE AT FIVE would make the 1939 Basie heroes smile:

Willie “the Lion” Smith’s STREAMLINE GAL:

Valerie asks us WAS HAT THE HUMAN THING TO DO?:

but she then suggests that there are other things to do FOUR OR FIVE TIMES:

Ellingtonia: SATURDAY NIGHT FUNCTION:

T.J .sings Nat Gonella’s BLACK COFFEE:

Valerie explains a cure for those dark moods, WHEN I GET LOW:

and then she offers the most tender DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME:

Wingy Manone said he composed TAR PAPER STOMP, which became a Swing Era classic:

HARLEM BOUND, in spirit if not geography:

For those feeling carb-deprived or needing a snack, how about GOOD OLD BOSOM BREAD?:

The classic jazz reproach, SOME OF THESE DAYS:

and for a skyscraper-scaling climax, KING KONG STOMP:

I’ve been out and about listening to live jazz for a long time (1967, 1971-1982, 2004-onwards: you can add up the numbers) but when this set was through, I said to Valerie that I hadn’t heard anything like this in thirty years. nd watching these videos now, I stand by it, with all respects to the musicians I revere who weren’t on this particular bandstand.

Without any false subtlety whatsoever, I’d like this set to stand as a vibrant advertisement for the Redwood Coast Music Festival — in Eureka, California, where the mighty redwoods grow. The OAO and I will be there this October, but the videos I hope to bring back are no substitute for this experience in real life, in real time. And if you dance . . . heaven awaits!

And my seeing and hearing T.J., Ethan, and Valerie has inspired me: I might be taking a trip to St. Louis before long, to see them in their native habitat. When I do, I will have a backpack full of cameras and the heavy things they require. So stay tuned.

May your happiness increase!

P. W. RUSSELL, VOCAL CHORUS (1944, 1946)

He didn’t take voice lessons. His voice was scrapy, raspy, croaky. His vocal choruses might have been conceived as a kind of comic relief, but they are memorable, and I love them. Individuality is what makes jazz the music that lodges forever in our hearts. Charles Ellsworth “Pee Wee” Russell was an abstract impressionist master of the clarinet. And he could tell a story when he got a chance to sing!

Here are the three recorded examples I know of:

PEE WEE SPEAKS (V-Disc): Muggsy Spanier & His V-Disc All Stars : Muggsy Spanier, cornet; Lou McGarity, trombone; Pee Wee Russell, clarinet, vocal; Boomie Richman, tenor saxophone; Jess Stacy, piano; Hy White, guitar; Bob Haggart, bass; George Wettling, drums. New York, October 17, 1944.

TAKE ME TO THE LAND OF JAZZ (Disc): Pee Wee Russell Jazz Ensemble : Muggsy Spanier, cornet; Vic Dickenson, trombone; Pee Wee Russell, clarinet, vocal; Cliff Jackson, piano; Francis Palmer, bass; Joe Grauso, drums. New York, May 28, 1946.

PEE WEE SQUAWKS (Disc): Muggsy Spanier And His Orchestra : Muggsy Spanier, cornet; Vernon Brown, trombone; Pee Wee Russell, clarinet, vocal; Nick Caiazza, tenor saxophone; Gene Schroeder, piano; Bob Haggart, bass; George Wettling, drums. New York, September 9, 1946.

Sing out, Pee Wee!

May your happiness increase!

A COMPACT ORCHESTRA OF BRILLIANT REBELS: MARTY GROSZ, FRANK CHACE, JOHN DENGLER (July 5, 1957)

My description isn’t to be taken lightly.

Listen to Marty Grosz, banjo and tenor guitar; John Dengler, cornet and bass saxophone; the mighty and unpredictable Frank Chace, clarinet. Recorded probably in Chicago, July 5, 1957. Thanks to Hal Smith for the source material. Choosing familiar material on which to improvise let the three luminaries have fun and take chances.

ALL I DO IS DREAM OF YOU. Don’t miss Frank’s thrilling solo entrance!

DINAH (its only flaw is that it didn’t go on for twenty minutes more):

What a hot Philharmonic. No equals.

May your happiness increase!

BING, PERRY, JAMES, JIMMY (1938)

Thanks to Will Friedwald for drawing my attention to this lovely miniature: Bing Crosby with guitarist Perry Botkin and an unidentified pianist working through what was a new James V. Monaco-Jimmy Van Heusen song, I’VE GOT A POCKETFUL OF DREAMS, with charm and swinging ease.

Dating this recording would be difficult, but I suggest early 1938, because the film it was written for opened in August. Its delightful informality — Bing jokes about Boris Morros, the film’s musical director — says that it was not a commercial recording but a demonstration of the new song, possibly for studio executives. Whatever the details, it’s delightful: Bing is at his cheerful best, his voice itself a thing of beauty, while Botkin provides a rich but light orchestral background, evoking Dick McDonough as well as Bing’s dear friend Eddie Lang. The pianist sticks to the melody but his accompaniment is fine, and the “Yes!” at the very end is the way I feel about this performance:

Please play this for anyone who suggests that once the Twenties were over, Crosby had no credibility as a jazz singer.

Postscript: About an hour after I’d posted it, a respected jazz critic who shall remain nameless wrote this to me:

I find this recording quite stiff. It sounds like everybody is sight reading the guitar. Solo is doll, the piano accompaniment is clunky and Bing, especially when he sings the word pocketful, sounds corny. This is certainly the worst recording. I can remember hearing of being. Nothing like the energetic jazzy of his earlier recordings, or the smooth suave delivery heard in his later recordings.

Well. You can’t please everyone, I guess.

May your happiness increase!

PROFESSORS KIRCHHOFF and LEINWAND’S ZOOLOGY SEMINAR (Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, Sedalia, Missouri, May 31, 2024)

You might think that a ragtime festival would be an unusual place for a presentation on zoology.

But Valerie Kirchhoff and Ethan Leinwand, voice and piano, are earnest in their efforts to advance learning about all the oddities of the animal kingdom. Please take notes: this will be on the final:

For those who wish to do deeper research, and that is something this course encourages, the author of the text is one “St. Louis Bessie,” and this particular volume is the “Creepin’ Eel Blues.”

Professors Leinwand and Kirchhoff will gladly answer any questions.

May your happiness increase!

“DANCING ON THE WILD EDGE”: RAY SKJELBRED and THE CUBS, OUT IN THE OPEN (Part One: July 12, 2014)

Without even bothering to look it up, I can say that July 12, 2014 was a beautiful day in Sonoma, California. You can see it on the videos that follow, but know that the air at Cline Cellars was full of music. I had the good fortune to be there while Ray Skjelbred and the Cubs were playing and singing.

At that time, the Cubs were Ray, piano, vocal, and directions (“Turn left at the third chorus and think of 35th and Calumet before proceeding.”); Katie Cavera, banjo, guitar, vocal; Clint Baker, double bass and vocal; Jeff Hamilton, drums; Kim Cusack, clarinet and vocal.

Nearly ten years later, all of the Cubs are here except for Kim. We miss him intensely, and this post is in his honor. I discovered these videos a few weeks ago and could hardly believe the treasure I had unwittingly been keeping hidden. I recorded two whole sets, so now I can rectify my unintentional selfishness, and hope that you will come back with me to Cline for the inspiring, hot, sweet, and vividly swinging music.

I FOUND A NEW BABY:

IDA (for Ida Melrose Shoufler, but of course):

Kim sings, inimitably, NOBODY’S SWEETHEART NOW (or, more accurately, NAOW):

BULL FROG BLUES:

ANY TIME, ANY DAY, ANYWHERE, sung by Ray in honor of Lee Wiley:

WAILING BLUES, for Frank Melrose:

Katie offers I’LL BET YOU TELL THAT TO ALL THE GIRLS, which sure sounds good to us:

Finally, THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE SUNRISE:

Oh, do they rock! And this may strike some as self-referential, what a thrill for me to be there, with good sight lines, clear ringing sound, a camera without mechanical rebelliousness and batteries determined to give their all. You can’t imagine, or maybe you can.

There’s another set to enjoy. But I hope you vibrate to this one. And, by the way, bless these lovely creators.

May your happiness increase!

SPLENDOR IN THE BRASS: CLARK TERRY, DOC CHEATHAM, HARRY “SWEETS” EDISON, SNOOKY YOUNG, JOE WILDER, HANK JONES, JESPER LUNDGAARD, CLARENCE PENN (Bern Jazz Festival, May 1, 1997)

I think that only someone who has tried to play a brass instrument can fully appreciate the mastery of these majestic artists. I watch and listen to this concert with awe.

Bern Jazz Festival, May 1, 1997: Clark Terry introduces Doc Cheatham, then 91 (with the Hank Jones Trio, Jesper Lundgaard, string bass; Clarence Penn, drums): SUNDAY / DROP ME OFF IN HARLEM (vocal) / IF I COULD BE WITH YOU // Snooky Young, Joe Wilder, Sweets Edison, Clark Terry: MACK THE KNIFE / Sweets, Clark: JIVE AT FIVE // Snooky, Wilder: JUST SQUEEZE ME // Clark, Snooky, Sweets, Wilder: MOTEN SWING // Sweets: I WISH I KNEW // Clark, Sweets, Snooky, Wilder: OW! // JUMPIN’ AT THE WOODSIDE (as OW!) // Encore: TAKE THE “A” TRAIN (as OW!) //

How very moving. I am happy to write that the Youngbloods, Jesper Lundgaard and Clarence Penn, are still thriving. The other Majesties have moved to neighborhoods beyond the reach of our outstretched arms. But as long as recordings and videos exist, they are never beyond our embrace.

May your happiness increase!

HAVE YOU MET THE VIPER CLUB? JEROME ETCHEBERRY, TCHA LIMBERGER, DAVE KELBIE, SEBASTIEN GIRADOT (May 17, 2024)

Viper Club

This compact vibrant quartet delivers all the swing allowed by law and then some.

Superficially, they harken back to Stuff Smith and his Onyx Club Boys, but I also think of the recordings that brought together Bill Coleman or Louis Bacon, Stephane Grappelli, and Django Reinhardt. But you don’t need an advanced degree in Jazz Studies to love them.

The Club is Sebastien Giradot, double bass; Dave Kelbie, guitar; Tcha Limberger, violin and vocal; Jerome Etcheberry, trumpet. And the songs in this unfussy hot concert presentation (over ninety minutes) are 00:00 Lawd, You Made The Night Too Long 05:08 Onyx Club Spree 11:50 Undecided 15:40 My Walking Stick 22:00 Baby Brown 27:16 It’s Wonderful 33:39 I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music 39:20 Louisiana Fairy Tale 46:33 My Blue Heaven 50:39 Desert Sands 57:10 I Don’t Want To Make History (I Just Want To Make Love) 01:01:47 Ballin’ the Jack 01:06:00 T’ain’t No Use 01:17:30 After You’ve Gone 01:23:00 Someday You’ll Be Sorry 01:29:50 I’m Putting All My Eggs Into One Basket //

Now that you’ve enjoyed them for free, you should also know that they have recorded a marvelous CD called ‘T’AIN’T NO USE. Details here.

and

The Club brightens any day. Guaranteed.

May your happiness increase!

LETTERS FROM BILLIE (1939-41)

Life before email, and a friendship carried on through the mail.

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Lady Day, 1939, with Bud Freeman, Zutty Singleton, and Hot Lips Page, at “The Friday Club,” photograph by Charles Peterson, inscribed to Moore.

The erudite bookseller Brad Verter, of CARPE LIBRUM BOOKS in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, acquired a collection of thirty letters written by Billie Holiday to the young admirer-singer Marilyn Leilani Moore (11 July 1921 – 7 Mar 1999). To be exact:

Holiday, Billie (born Eleanora Fagan, 7 April 1915 – 17 July 1959). A collection of 30 letters, possibly in the hand of her mother, to Marilyn Leilani Moore (11 July 1921 – 7 Mar 1999). New York, 20 June 1939 to 19 August 1941. Together 30 letters totaling 60 pages, nearly all with original hand-addressed postmarked envelopes, most on 10 x 8 in. lined paper, a few smaller notes variously signed “Billie” or “B. Holiday.” [WITH] A portrait of Holiday with bandmates inscribed to Moore, 1939 [WITH] A tearsheet for a concert at the Apollo Theater featuring Holiday, February 1941. All in superb condition. Individually filed in an archival box. Provenance: Christies, sale 2272 (June 24, 2009), lot 77.

Before you begin checking your bank balance, the collection will not be sold to an individual, but rather to an institution willing to share its treasures with the public. As Brad writes, “Price on request” because it’s for sale to institutions only. I’m against the private ownership of historically important materials and these need to be studied, not put on a trophy shelf.

Click https://www.carpelibrumbooks.com/billie-holiday-and-the-showgirl-a-correspondence-archive-1939-to-1941 to read excerpts from the letters, with Billie’s comments on Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, John Hammond, weight loss, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, racism, Freddie Green, Big Joe Turner, the music business, sisterly advice, and more. Fascinating and wholly revealing.

Is there a hip librarian or archivist reading this post? We live in hope, as my mother used to say.

And here’s some music, the way Moore would have heard it:

and

(For those entranced by those recordings, with lovely playing from Benny Carter, Bennie Morton, Bill Coleman, and George Auld, YouTube has the alternate take of each performance, although often in poorer sound.)

May your happiness increase!

WHAT HAPPENED IN SEDALIA: ROYCE MARTIN IN RECITAL (Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, June 1, 2024)

Young Royce Martin of St. Louis is a phenomenon. Soft-spoken and reserved in person, he is an audacious explorer at the keyboard. He reminds me happily of Dick Hyman and Dick Wellstood: there is no greater praise.

Here is one of his solo recitals at the fiftieth-anniversary Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, on June 1, 2024. The songs are KING PORTER STOMP / HELIOTROPE BOUQUET / ECHOES OF SPRING / TEMPTATION RAG / CHARLESTON RAG / LILY QUEEN / THE ENTERTAINER / Royce’s own SWAGTIME.

Surprises, lyricism, and imagination:

And here’s my review of Royce’s truly fine debut CD:

THE RIVERMONT ROUNDUP: THE FRIED SEVEN, BRIDGETOWN SEXTET, ROYCE MARTIN (April 2024)

And his website. He is a spectacular player with a deep musical worldview: catch him now so you can savor his daring and impress your friends!

May your happiness increase!

LESTER, WHEN YOUNG: SHAD COLLINS, DOC WEST, NICK FENTON, JOHN COLLINS (WNYC-AM, Manhattan Center, New York, February 15, 1941)

The two recordings that follow are masterpieces for so many reasons. This was an aesthetically successful small group that Lester Young formed after leaving Count Basie at the end of 1940. His front-line partner was his friend Shad Collins, and the three other members of the ensemble were supportive and forward-looking. Clyde Hart was on piano but not able to play this broadcast. The band with Hart recorded four sides with Una Mae Carlisle for Bluebird Records on March 10. The late Jan Evensmo suggested a different, later time period for this date in his 2018 Shad Collins solography, but sadly, I can no longer ask him why.

The announcer is Ralph Berton, brother of drummer Vic Berton, who had a radio program on New York’s municipal station, and these two extended performances come from an appearance at New York City’s Manhattan Center. TICKLE-TOE, Lester’s composition, was named for a dancer who was part of the Basie entourage; TAXI WAR DANCE, referencing a taxicab strike, is an uptempo improvisation on the harmonies of WILLOW WEEP FOR ME.

The music was recorded at the time, presumably by someone at WNYC, possibly for Berton, and these performances appeared, in my time, on a collector’s record issued by Jerry Valburn in the late Seventies. But Jerry’s source material had some defects; I believe that this issue offers clearer sound.

WNYC-AM broadcast, Ralph Bertpn, m.c., February 15, 1941. Lester Young, tenor saxophone; Shad Collins, trumpet; John Collins, electric guitar; Nick Fenton, double bass; Doc West, drums. Source material: “Lester Young, Volume 2, 1939-42, The Complementary Works,” Masters of Jazz MJCD 47, issued 1993.

and

Ethereal and intense both. That this band didn’t succeed hugely is a great tragedy. But that these extended performances survive is a miracle, one we can revisit. Thank you, bringers of joy.

And do share this music with people whose lives would be enhanced by it.

May your happiness increase!

“BOUNCING BUOYANCY”: NICK ROSSI’S JAZZOPATERS PLAY THE ELLINGTON SMALL-BAND SONGBOOK (May 24-25, 2024)

Prepare to dance, even if you are seated at your desk.

Duke Ellington said that the orchestra was his instrument, but I think this is even more true of the small groups he assembled for recording sessions, especially in the 1936-40 period. Guitarist-scholar Nick Rossi has been investigating, performing, and re-animating those classic but less-known works, with a wonderful band of musicians who can create the mysterious Ellington timbres and then solo most fetchingly in the idiom.

The Jazzopaters have a beautiful balance. They use the original recording as a framework (beautifully transcribed by, among others, the splendid Riley Baker) but then the solos are often original, which is what the music is all about. I’ve posted performances by the band here and here. And here are three new performances, captured by the energized Sunny Tokunaga, from only a few days ago.

JUBILESTA (Juan Tizol, 1937). Nick Rossi, guitar, leader; Patrick Wolff, alto saxophone, clarinet; Nathan Tokunaga, clarinet, tenor and soprano saxophone; Kamrin Ortiz, baritone saxophone, clarinet; James Dunning, trumpet; Victor Imbo, trombone; Rob Reich, piano; Mikiya Matsuda, double bass; Riley Baker, drums:

PECKIN’ (Cootie Williams, Harry James, 1937):

PELICAN DRAG (Harry Carney, 1940):

Exact and fervent.

But should the Bay Area have all the fun?

Swing dance bookers, concert and festival promoters, take note. I think every member of this band has an up-to-date passport and a suitcase with latches that close. Spread joy to the maximum.

May your happiness increase!

WHAT HAPPENED IN SEDALIA: ANDREW OLIVER, ANDY SCHUMM, HAL SMITH (May 31, 2024)

I don’t have much to say about the performance that follows except to suggest that the children be in another room, the breakables be secured, and that your seat belt be low and tight around your hips. This music is joyously seismic.

The song is Jelly Roll Morton’s FROGGIE MOORE RAG, apparently named for a vaudeville contortionist, performed by Andrew Oliver, piano; Andy Schumm, clarinet; Hal Smith, drums, at the fiftieth annual Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival that happened this past weekend in Sedalia, Missouri.

It was a high point: simultaneously explosive and scholarly. You’ll understand:

I hope you played and viewed that glorious eruption at suitable volume and size. It is larger than the screen of your smartphone; it really requires one of those television sets that people watch football on — but it’s all up to you.

After that, there was a pause for the volunteers to check the tent poles to reassure us that the tent was still moored to the ground. Then the Joplin International Ragtime Festival went on sending delightful sounds all over the city. And now, all over the world, I hope.

Now, say hello to Mister Moore again. He deserves it.

May your happiness increase!

“LET ME NOT BE ANNOYING”: A LIFE-GUIDE

Sometimes you hear or read something so plain but so arresting that it feels valuable immediately. You want to share it with others. You think, “If only other people functioned this way, it would be a more lovely place to live.”

I just saw this video, slightly longer than eight minutes, on YouTube. Its subject is jazz drumming. And the person speaking is Kevin Dorn, a jazz drummer born in New York City.

Kevin and I have been friends for twenty years, and he is someone I admire. I admire his drumming, to be sure, but perhaps even more than that, his deep seeing. He might be embarrassed if I called him a philosophical guide, but I always learn something from him when I talk, and I assure you it is about a subject larger than the best ways to play the hi-hat: it’s about how to live gracefully and graciously in this world.

I didn’t have the co-ordination needed to play drums, and perhaps the same is true for you. But I find this video immensely moving in its messages: it’s not didactic, and you, the viewer, may at first hard to extrapolate beyond being a drummer accompanying a soloist. But take the time. It will reward you.

“What’s so important here, Michael?” The messages are about Ego and awareness of others. They apply to conversation, the workplace, family, relationships. Put simply:

Is my behavior, so dear to me, hurting anyone else?

Could I stand to be an extra in the play rather than the star?

Could I go an interval of time without being intrusive on others?

Does everyone need to hear what I have to say?

Would silence be a more generous option?

— and so on.

There are no schools or religious orders or spiritual retreats devoted to the goal of, “Please let me not be annoying,” but perhaps there should be. Thank you, Kevin.

May your happiness increase!