Politicians Should Be Musicians; Musicians Should Be Politicians

Last night, Jazzphardic (Christina Díaz and myself) performed at Zanzi Jazz Bar in Prishtina. This is the hippest venue in town. The owner is a drummer by trade and entrepreneur. He shared his personal story as to how Zanzi Jazz Bar changed his life. He has been in business for 5 years. He told us that in those 5 years, there have been maybe 2 altercations; other than that, Prishtina practically has no fights between people; the people are relaxed. They love to eat spicy and drink Rakia. We started performing around 12:30am. As we played each song, I introduced the history of the music. It was great to hear some of the people signing the melody to "Los Bibilikos" or "La Rosa Enflorese." We began with a Persian melody, then a Yemenite one, and took the audience through the Balkans, and ended with my composition "Out of Time," which was inspired by the birth of my daughter in the car. Yes!! Out of time to make it to the hospital. After our first set, we opened up the 2nd set with some Jazz standards and invited Nesim on the drums. There was a guest pianist in town and I performed many songs with him and Nesim. The party ended at 5am. This is the musician life. This pianist shared his refugee experience during and after the war in 1999. He explained how it was tragic for him upon returning to see everything destroyed. I told him that despite rotten politics, music heals the soul. Politicians should be musicians, and musicians politicians. That's my solution to many problems around the world. Jazzphardic weaves many musical traditions into one cohesive experience of one hour. Join the Jazzphardic Experience.