A Whisper in the Wilderness
The label of ‘genius’ is a term all too easily bandied about these days. You hear it and the first thing you do is turn away. The mind simply shuts down. There is more than enough noise in the Universe as it is, and we’re not talking about The Big Bang here.
On this road more often taken, when something tracks just above the radar in the consciousness of the general masses, this albatross term is slapped upon it like a brand, a lodestone, a supposed Seal of Approval. This pseudo-gift is presented in lieu of actually using just a bit of mental elbow grease, to truly describe the person and their creations.
So, with the value of the word being diminished to everyday pop stars and other media pap, it becomes hard to find any credence for those that might still actually deserve the original descriptive intent of the word.
In the field of music it might be a safe bet to say that less than .001% of 1% of what peeks above the drivel, works its way through the clouds of static and media regurgitation, is ideologically loud enough, unique enough and, Universe help us, REAL enough to survive. Perhaps on that level people of this order might in fact be considered ‘genius,’ or at least braver than hell! Oh, to not be common! No small accomplishment.
A small voice in my own personal consciousness has been hollering at me for some time now, demanding that I get fully behind the idea that this man Dann Glenn, really could be the Genuine Article. Nothing he has ever done is by halves.
Whether as the author of his mind-wrenching book ‘Almost a Proverb’ and his soon to be released second time in the verbal pool, ‘Good Friends are Hard to Kill’, he will change the way you perceive what passes for reality. I have read the first chapters of his newest venture and promise you that if you are an adrenaline junkie, this is a ride like no other. It is like standing tippy-toes on a cliff and realizing your shoe lace is untied, a bee has landed on your nose and crap, now of all times, your long-promised 60’s acid flashback has just kicked in. Into the rabbit hole, ready or not!
There are his multiple modern day Masterpiece Symphonies, and his virtuosic guitar playing with the Eleven Eleven Orchestra, including the incomparable fretless bassist Baba Elefante and drummer Ronnie Ciago…not to mention the musically peerless jazz legend Jeff Berlin. People of this order don’t spend time with fools. Sit up straight now kiddies, you have been invited over to a musical banquet with giants!
Every conversation I have had with Dann over the years has left me feeling a rush of clarity for days afterwards. Verbal roller coaster rides with this Artist open up vistas and levels of thought and awareness that I have not found elsewhere. I have come to believe you have to have guts to take the ride. Now I can’t say for sure if all of this harkens after the term of ‘genius’, but if it doesn’t, it is close enough for me. Hey wait a sec, I think my shoe lace is untied…!
-Warren Murchie/Dietikon Switzerland
2009
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