COVID – 19, A Blue Funk
Since late March I’ve been working from home assisting patients with navigating our health care system, assisting clinic staff, and answering phone calls. For the first 10 days, I worked predominately out of my bed. At 7 am I opened my work laptop and put my personal laptop away and then pulled out my phone rosters. When I got hungry I got up and made a sandwich and got back in bed and did the required work of replying to emails and answering calls. After a week and a half, I finally decided I need to do better, and started sitting at the kitchen island. Finally, about a month ago, I moved to my home office and tried to get motivated.
Guess what, I still haven’t found that pre-CV-19 fire. We had a great show lined up for the Memorial Day weekend that we hoped would be a great milestone for the business. The show was going to coincide with May Day in Crestview. May Day is one of the biggest celebrations of Black Kings and Queens in Northwest Florida. It’s a class reunion for those who graduated from Carver-Hill High School, the school for black students in Okaloosa County during segregation. People come from around the country for this annual celebration. It’s a great opportunity to showcase the expertise and talent of such a diverse community. CV-19 forced the cancellation of the always exciting weekend. To kick the weekend the New Soul Searchers, a local favorite was more than prepared to get the crowd fired up. Saturday’s show was featuring Dominique Hammons, Andre Cavor and Nathan Mitchell were ready to give us some of the funkiest Smooth Jazz and R&B the area has ever heard. And of course, Chris Snowden and Gino Rosaria had the great band members in the southeast lined up to keep pace with the all-star line-up. It was geared to be a weekend to remember. Only if…
I realized about a month ago that I may be suffering CV-19 depression, of some sort. I think all of us are going through some type of blue funk related to being closed in with limited regular contact with others. For me, I’m realizing it’s a big deal for a people person, not to be around people. I can understand why people are flocking to parties, the beach, and bars, but for me, self-preservation prevails. Even though some artists and fans and asking when is the next show? I’m not ready and some of the smooth jazz fans I have connected with say they aren’t ready… so when do we say when? Sometime between October and January, depending on the virus.
If you are feeling funky, blue, out of it, or just need to reach out…Reach out, I’m here and so are 100’s of 1,000’s of other jazz family members. So, when is the next show… when do I think it’s safe? As much as I love live music and smooth jazz, I love trying to be a responsible person and put you before money or music. So I’m picking up old projects that were sitting on the shelf and hopefully I will have more great news for you soon.
