Welcome to BIGnote, the "Planet of Love".
On BIGnote, all aliens are legal because Love need not deport anyone. In other words, you're a BIGnotion the instant you touch down. BIGnote is a planet in the universe of your soul, and all these bignotes have been composed to remind you that Love Will Always Rule.
BIGnote is named for a man. This is his music, and this is the story of the night I first saw him:
From the first note, I was a hostage-for-life. Couldn’t run, didn’t want to hide. It was like watching an arsonist on a mission to burn down the house, along with everybody in it. He whipped his drumsticks like flame-throwers, blazing up hot-molten grooves and dispensing some kind of barrio voodoo that I could neither escape nor deny. I thought, how is it I never got any of this from teachers or books?
It made sense that I never found this in any book, because this wasn't about books. It was beyond that. At first, I thought I was being punked by some street thug. But it was more like I’d won a round-trip to the land of Ecstasy, and I could only pray that the promise of a return flight had been a bold-face lie.
The music was like lava scorching a path down an unwitting mountainside. I had this feeling that it came from another place, like some ominous mother ship dangling somewhere just inside the ozone, transmitting sound thru this musical messenger who was sent here to do just that - deliver a musical message.
There was something going on but I couldn’t hang an ID on it. Still, I derived a sense of peace and trust, like He was my friend and cared about me. I got the impression that He might know things about me that I didn’t know about myself. Who knows, maybe this was the day my Guardian Angel chose to introduce Herself to me, and in the process, She went ahead and hooked me up with a first-time introduction to Myself.
Images flashed in my mind like strobe lights. Flickers of light that seemed endless, as if I could contemplate infinity. I felt like I could reach out and touch my own strengths and flaws, my vulnerabilities - all of which seemed to throw me a peace sign and a wink of approval. I saw the pathetic nakedness that was my own insignificance, standing there, shivering in the shadow of All that Is.
I wore a pickled grin of drunken contentment like it was a badge of privilege, sensing this force, endless and all-powerful. This cat just raged on, igniting everything in his path. He was hot - so hot. Everything just seemed to fall effortlessly into a synchronized-swelter.
I mean, the whole joint, the walls, the people on the dance floor - beads and trails of sweat. Each drop gradually expanding until it morphed into a slow-motioned descent to the dance floor. Drops of sweat splashed and gathered and then turned into a hot blanket of steam that rose and embraced all the dancers like a thick fog of pure love. It felt . . . Divine.
He just laughed and kept playing, and seemed to taunt the audience as he went. I imagined that maybe he was celebrating His message. And I imagined that His message went something like: yo listen-up. This ain't no ordinary night, and this ain’t no ordinary music. And you, you who are gathered here tonight, you’re not just another group of people. Because right here, right now, we are in the presence of all the love and all the truth anybody’s ever gonna need. It just happens to be attached to the baddest groove you’ll ever know.
That was the first time I saw BIGnote. Long drumsticks of fire beckoning and burning their way into my soul and commanding absolute control. And like a dream, all else slipped right out the back-door of my consciousness, disappearing from view, from thought, and leaving only BIGnote, the music and the crowd - oh yeah, and me.
And then, without seam or warning - he started singing. A voice from the heavens? Or was it coming from somewhere inside the Earth's core? The only thing I could say with any certainty was that it was as beyond as it was deep. It was as if every note he sang was intended to conjure all the spirits in the Universe. I do believe it was working. His drumming had been relentless enough, but now . . . well, everybody went Tilt.
I stood against the back wall of the “El Sombrero Lounge”, frozen like a deer playing a losing game of midnight face-off with a fully loaded Santa Fe freighter. The dance floor was spilling over with more Latinas-mas-finas than any self-respecting chicano could ever ask for. As for BIGnote - my man was in charge, just working those drums like it was all he was ever meant to do.
The dancers seemed to concede defeat to his overwhelming power, pulsating and swaying to every note he played, as if on command. It was like his drums were equipped with a remote-control attached to every skirt in the joint.
He wore a bold-cocky smile that bespoke a level of confidence that normal folks know nothing about. He just flat-out held court, making love to the crowd by doing the same to his drums. After a while his entire drum-kit seemed to hover over the stage like some kind of Vegas magic act. BIGnote was no act but on that night, he was nothing short of bonafide magic.
The night pressed on and so did BIGnote, working that bass drum like a damn thermostat. The more he dug-in, the hotter it got, and the crowd just sort of melted into a collective trance. Everything was just burning and churning out of control. I was beginning to lose sight of the line where one person ends and another begins. It just started to dissipate into a blur and then everything melded into One.
His eyes sparkled and his smile revealed nothing but pure joy. He had us all where he wanted - in the palms of both hands. He manipulated everyone’s body movement, at-will, and he knew it. The air had grown thick with anticipation, like some kind of impending seismic-truth that was about to Set us Free. To summarize, it was freaking spellbinding.
That was the first time I ever saw or heard of the man I later came to know as BIGnote.
Comments: billrdrgz@yahoo.com