Today I spent about an hour jamming with a homeless guy in front of Burma Superstar on Telegraph, Oakland.  Never judge a book by it's cover. He was playing on a child's toy guitar that looked like it came from disney land, I think it had Mickey Mouse stickers or paintings on it.  

My man was covering "No Woman No Cry" as I was walking by looking for a spot to sit and play my guitar, already strapped over my shoulder. I stopped to hear what he was playing and eventually we started to jam. I handed over my guitar so I could play harmonica, we killed it to some funky classics and originals. People started filling up this cup he had tied to the neck of his guitar with money.

I think while I was there at least fifteen bucks got put in, I saw at least a couple fives. This is where my story gets better. The guy saw the cup starting to over flow and the first thing he said was " Hey, lemme share this with you".  I don't know how long he had been there before I showed up, or how much he made before I got there but I was moved by his offer.

This is an example of people I look forward to meeting in life. I like fair people, people who value honest activities. People who understand how to share when there is a cooperative effort to accomplish something. I turned down his offer to share the monies, and he went inside the restaurant to order food.

I never met this guy in my life, I've seen him there, playing and asking for leftover food or alms in front of this same restaurant. For some people it doesn't take much for mutual respect and understanding to be established. This is what most of my experiences with making music, the way I do, is like.

Most of the people I've jammed or had street performances with have been fair and trustworthy. The rapport built between respectful musicians is almost instant, especially when we don't write people off for their appearance or circumstances.

 ​When it comes to music, I can't think of anything more important than self-expression. Of course, you say, what else would music be for? But with the formation of the music industry and commercialization of music, today's musicians tend to glamorize the stage - high up and removed from their audiences - while striving for a certain "sound" that leaves little room for actual expression.

Growing up involved in churches, I was shown that music can be a social tool for everyone to participate in. Most elementary schools provide children group song and musical expression activities. As I've gotten older I've found less opportunity for community musical expression in our mainstream American culture. Around the world, many communities still use music as a tool for bonding, gathering, and ceremony. But here, few "musicians" veer from the audience-performer setting where they entertain a crowd of passive listeners, even though the most powerful moments are when the crowd knows the song and sings along with the artist.
  
In my experience with these "performance" settings, both playing in bands and recording other bands' studio sessions, I've seen people struggle with self-expression while obsessing over what note to play, when to play, or how to start a song. While this may make a song "sound" good, I can say that there is a substantial loss of feeling and communication of self due to this over processing of ideas, while claiming to make a song sound "Jazzy."

One of the best experiences I had in a "band" happened when I had no intention of actually being in a band. In those days, a few of my friends and fellow musicians liked to go out playing in the streets of San Francisco late into the night . Around 2 AM one night we found ourselves on a corner in the Mission district, completely surrounded by revelers from various bars. We were playing a song the crowd was familiar with. As we broke into the chorus, the crowd took that as a cue to pick up our instruments we weren't actively playing such as tambourines, hand drums, and even harmonicas (not sanitary, but fun). I couldn't see anything over the heads of people in all directions. I couldn't hear myself over the roaring and crashing of instruments. I couldn't tell where we were at in the song, but I could feel something powerful happening. I could feel the combined self-expression of an unplanned musical gathering. All were welcomed. All partook. 

Musical forms like Jazz  and Blues are timeless partially because they give space for musicians to communicate feeling. The improvised and unrehearsed solo, emerging from deep within the essence of the musician, can speak across borders of identity, politics, and language. 
 
After the golden nights of "busking" on San Francisco streets, I had a period of working with musicians who were, in my opinion, overly technical and just not free. However, my experiences have been dotted by a few genuinely expressive moments.

​Most recently, a few weeks ago I had the honor of attending a small party of International Rivers activists who gathered from all around the world. The place we were socializing happened to have a guitar and a harmonica in the key of C. As the jam session started to unfurl a man from India began to play Twelve Bar Blues, meshing improvised lyrics with some of Howlin' Wolf's visceral lines, while I played the harmonica, punctuating lyrics and taking turns with solos.

It was the most authentic Twelve Bar Blues jamming I've seen yet. The turnarounds were precise, the strumming was minimal and moving, and the licks were genuine.  All of it was without strain or lengthy deliberation, similar to how my son joins me from time to time as I song-write.
  
In our playing, there was evidently a level of proficiency that comes with diligent practice of an instrument and familiarity of certain song structures. But, at no time did we ever have to discuss what should or shouldn't happen during the playing.
  
I never asked the man how he picked up the Blues - it doesn't matter. We spent our conversation talking about how music moves us and what musico-spiritual goals we should strive for. We shared ideas about believing in possibility and Nanak's wisdoms. We talked about connections between languages, and how music is language.
 
Music is language. If music is language then the purpose of music is sharing ideas. Sharing ideas is self-expression. Self-expression is humanity.