All the world's spiritual traditions involve ceremony - the repeated actions developed over generations to present some form of understanding or connection with the forces around and within us. Though interested in their form and content, I never practiced ceremonial actions while I was seeking and waiting for the music - I had no sense of clarity around how to do so, and thus abstained, preferring to simply forge ahead as best possible.

I have now begun incorporating some aspects of ritual into playing music now that I feel I have a sense of real connection to it - I always smudge or blow tobacco before playing publicly. I am not doing this to invoke some kind of outside spirit. Rather, it is to ensure that I and others present remain aware of where the music I am playing came from.

The classical hero Odysseus made the mistake of ignoring this observation, forming a key moral of the Illiad and the Odessy. After Neptune sent a spirit to give him the idea for the Trojan Horse - and it worked - he took all the credit and made no offerings or declarations. Thus began the downhill slide from hero to loser, 20 years adrift, finally alone in the sea, ship sunk, crew dead, crying out "Why, why give me so much just to take it away from me?"

Neptune appeared and replied:

"Because we want you to learn, Odysseus, that without the Gods, Man is...nothing..."

Amen.

Some of you will know why I regard Atahuapla with such personal affection. More can be found here. Atahualpa perfecly demonstrates how mastery is not bound to technical ability - the complexity of his music is only in its originality - and one even gets the sense that he disdains flair as a lesser expression. And it is not that he only plays background for the great voice - his solo guitar work stands any listening for the conveyance of his true subject of complexity - the human condition.

Most of his records are still available through Amazon, and you can see an example of his composure and composition here.