Jazz solos and through balls ( can I kick it, or do we have the jazz still?)

Everyone says music and sports go together. Well, I used to tutor kids, and my favorite lesson, I realized, is actually an Uncle Rico story undercover. I said there were more.

So, in my junior year, I got benched for political reasons, I tell you. I had more goals and contributions than the girl who took my spot, but I knew my part so I couldn’t be mad. Anyway, that is important because my efforts were not to play well to get a scholarship but to help the team win if I could. I gave it my all or as much as I could at that moment or in those moments.

So with these kids, I was not just relating math to musical notes, like fractions… but also the formula for calculating the percentage of passes completed for QBs and just baseball and statistics. (Yeah, they were as young as nine, but math is for everybody.) I was telling these rug rats ( I love that show) about music and sports and how they are the same, and I was inclined to produce the proof in the best way — with my own Uncle Rico story. This story never fails or will.

There are always those teams that you have to get over and not under to show your stuff; they bring out the best and worst in you, rivals, they call them. The team had two or two and a half. We were facing the second one and had already defeated the first team, aka Tony’s team. I sat on the bench after the first half, and it was tied. I am not making this up. Parents would yell put me in the game since I was benched even people I was not friends with would yell, I had one soccer dad who had a nickname that my mom still calls me to this day, yelling for me that stood out the most. His daughter called me Zo because I wanted to go to Georgetown like Alonzo Mourning. He was also called ZO. It is still tied, and I am still listening to RATM on the bench. I saw the coach look back at me the whole game, but he was serious this time. I was also serious about listening to music while on the bench, which I did every game since I got benched. He and I did not get along in a passive-aggressive way on his part. I knew I had a part to play on the team that was bigger than our relationship, so I did not let it get in the way besides, he had the easiest job. All he had to do was let us play, and we would play like how my favorite coach on the travel team taught us. We all were coached by him for the majority of the time, starting or on the bench or came from the same travel team but one girl, the one who took my Spot.

Anyways again. He keeps looking at me. The ball goes out, and he yells my name. Mind you, I am killing in the name of at this point in honor of my brother giving me a soundtrack for my suburban and political angst. I look at the clock. The clock has stopped, and as I am waiting to go in, I still have my headphones on as I am warming up. The two minutes are in the hands of the ref. It’s tied 1–1. I thought, let’s go; no drug on earth can beat this high. I yell to throw it to me. I make the run, and when the ball gets thrown to me, I make two moves, one pass through ball to a friend at the time. She gives a clinic on how to make a run, but the goalie blocks it, but it is ok; another girl ( a friend at the time)who went on to play field hockey at William and Mary( she could have played soccer for any team)is there to put the goal in.)I can not say enough about “A”( that is what we will call her) I waited for her to start playing with girls and be on the same travel team. We always knew where each other was at on and off the field. I do miss going over to her house and just being kids. We went on to be undefeated until the States the whole season.

I tell kids that is why we love jazz, and the solos found in jazz I would play them Thelonious Monk & Johnny Griffin With Ahmed Abdul-Malik And Roy Haynes — At The Five Spot Cafe, New York City, August 1958. Also when Monk was on the keys, John Coltrane was on the sax, Roy Haynes was on the drums, and Ahmed Abdul-Malik was on the bass at the Five Spot in 1958. The kids love the story and listening to the recordings every time for relax time, and this is why I explained to them how there were four players, including myself, like everyone at the Five Spot café, and each one of us had a solo that we kicked off to each other, and really five, including the goalkeeper. The player who threw it to me had their own medley, but it was also a solo that had the breakdown of the whole song, the whole game, or our offense. Throwing it to me was kicking it off to me to find my own beat; once I found my beat or solo, I kicked it to the other player. She went to finish her solo (took the lead)and tried to score, but the goalie came, and with that, we had the last solo. My other teammate who kicked it after the goal blocked it but did not catch it; that was her own solo. But we all had accompaniment parts as each teammate took their solo, where we each created a new melodic line to fit a song’s chord progression or the nature of the game, which is a song in itself.

I further explained to the kids the importance of finding one’s own voice and their contributions to life within the songs of the world. Or as Stevie Wonder titled his LP Songs in the Key of Life. They have to find their own song within the song. I told them we are all one solo away from finding and hearing our authentic voice. One kid said one time he could hear his voice just fine. I had to laugh and continue that the jazz solo is all about passing it to another and coming back around again (RATM reference) and being together as one song or one team as you are. Just being you and being with others and them also being ok with what you are and whatever it is you may very well be or on the way of becoming is what life is about. The trick to finding your solo is, like in jazz is, to be spontaneous, with creativity and intentional conviction when exploring yourself. Like with sports, when making a move on a defender, make your moves with bold strides, know your instrument aka your body to shake and bake like nothing before or after your favorite player. But really the real goal will always be being around people not just in sports who can help you ease out of your shell and score and hear your solo. Like with all sports, we have to hold our weight and know what we are capable of doing not just for ourselves but for the unity and cohesion of the grove in order to win and gel with everyone, to stay on beat. We have to know where each one is and be able to find them even when there is no light, even when we can’t hear the notes.

There were two minutes left to go in that game. There was literally one time for one play, and it was anyone’s game until a group of jazzy girls came together and performed their own solos that made a song that proves sports bring you together even if it is just for a moment, an uncle rico moment. We must know our part in the song to know where the music should take us and to the places we need to go, where we need to go to find the real you or real me, as the song goes by the Who. Everyone has a chance to be great; the key to finding that greatness is finding their solo that lets them shine with others. That way, no one can say that they didn’t hear themselves in the company of others and, most importantly, in the comfort of their being first.

I will never forget that same snot-nosed kid who said he already heard his voice like jazz didn’t help. He told me he loved jazz because of me, and he asked me why I was crying, and I did not even realize tears were coming down my eyes. I told him because that is what jazz does, it makes you realize you can have happy tears, and tears aren’t always bad. He grabbed onto my waist with this big hug, and when he looked up, I knew I had dropped a tear on him because he whipped his little face. Or maybe he was crying, I don’t know.

To my mom, who got me into jazz, encouraged me in sports, and for taking me to all those practices in every sport I could play, never once did she say I couldn’t do it, or she couldn’t take me or pick me up from practice or anything and to this day.

So do some improv on the field and how you express yourself, give yourself the room to have a solo in life. Add some math because we all got the jazz. Also, know your part; my part was on the bench, and with a story like this one, I would not change it for the world or for the beat of the song.