Guitarist Stanley Jordan featured at Fall Health Classic

edicated to the improvement of personal health and that of the planet, the "Fall Health Classic" consists of more than one-hundred nutrition, fitness, exercise, massage, lifestyle, cooking, men's and women's health workshops and classes being presented November 1 - 5 at the Carmel Highlands Doubletree Resort. Subject matters covered will include: preventative health, general well-being, cancer, AIDS, and heart disease prevention and recovery. For more event info call (805) 969-0444.
Internationally acclaimed jazz guitarist and virtuoso musician, Stanley Jordan, will be performing two concerts on Saturday night, November 4. He will also be teaching a music workshop, "Music and Healing" as part of the Fall Health Classic. ET recently had the chance to speak with Mr. Jordan.

ET: How do you first hear about the Fall Health Classic?
SJ: My girlfriend Beverly is very much a health enthusiast. The idea came up since I am very interested in health, especially from an alternative perspective, and how to incorporate that with my music into some type of presentation that empowers people.

ET: I understand this is the first time you've integrated concerts with a portion to benefit a local group, in this case San Diego Earth Day. How did you first hear about Earth Day and what is your interest in environmental issues?
SJ: In the time and place where I grew up, Palo Alto, CA, there was a lot of environmental consciousness. I have a lot of memories of people talking about the importance of saving the environment. When I was 12 years old, I volunteered for a recycling center. It was really fun and it felt really good that I was doing something.

ET: You are leading a workshop: Music and Healing for the general public, tell me a bit about that.
SJ: There are a lot of things I want to say, but it won't be just a talk. As much as possible, I want people to get a first hand experience of what I feel are the healing properties of music. It's not a medical thing and it's not that I'm going to heal people. But I feel that music has an incredible energy and I want to help people experience that. But it's not as simple as put on a CD and feel better, because there are ways to listen and participate that enhance the process or detract from it.
My first experience with that was when I was a teenager in high school and I had come down with the flu. I had scheduled a jam session with a key-boardist and we were going to spend the whole day playing music. First I thought I should cancel, but then I decided to try it anyway. We must have played on and off for about 6 hours. After that I felt so much better and that my flu was moving toward being healed. I was well the following day. The music was like a cleansing. Playing the music, I was clearing out that flu energy. It was a kind of detoxification.

ET: Is there anything else you'd like people to know about you?
SJ: About the concert. We are also making healthy food available. One of the things I'm hoping will happen is that people will come because they know me and my music and then they'll be exposed to this other aspect of me and maybe it will make a difference for them.
In the last three years, I've gone pretty much completely vegetarian. I really made a commitment to eliminate toxins and to move toward superfoods and really healthy stuff for people. I just feel great and it's really helped my music. The more I've learned about nutrition the more it's meant for my music.
I've been playing around with an idea: music and food music production vs. food production and how we can all experience healthier feedback systems.
On the musical side, when I compose a song, it will be full of my own habits at first. But if I really listen to the music, I'll come up with something better for the listener and my musical skills.
When you think about it, the whole art of food combining is like musical composition in a way. Certain things go together, and others don't work so well. In both cases, there is an element of, not just on a physical level, but how you enjoy the foods is important as well. On a fundamental level, a piece of baroque music might have more healing capability than rock and roll, but if you are more tuned into rock and roll that could become healing for you. My goal is to share some of my experiences of both musical and health-healing expression available with music, and how I've pursued that with food as well - `two very universal experiences available for everyone.