Barry Olsen is the trombonist for the group The Spirit Drummers. They play regularly down in NYC. This group strongly promotes the message of sovereignty.
I suppose, my first inspiration would have been my mother. She played piano and she was the one who first exposed me to music. I then started playing trombone in the school band when I was in fourth grade and had inspiring teachers in High School. I wasn’t by any means a prodigy. At around fifteen I started really getting into Jazz music. By the time I was sixteen, I realized there was no other path for me than to make music my profession. I’ve been inspired by jazz music, afro-cuban, salsa, classical music from Europe and many different styles from the Caribbean and their African lineage.
The musician who had the greatest impact on my whole world view of music is John Coltrane. I’ve listened to his music countless hours. There are so many other great musicians but he embodies it for me, not just the way he played, but his all-embracing, holistic concept of the music. He modeled a type of dedication to creating music and bringing it forward in the best possible way he could. Coltrane pursued excellence to such a degree! He’s one of the greatest musicians ever.
I made my living primarily as a trombonist in salsa bands for many years. I also work a lot as a pianist, mostly in jazz and Latin jazz and as a percussionist, mostly playing West African music. On Broadway I’ve played in shows on all three instruments. They have always had some kind of African or Latin element. I’ve played marimba and percussion as a substitute for many years in The Lion King on Broadway. That show has a vaccination requirement now but it’s fine, I’m not suffering because of that. They removed the requirements for the audience but not for the employees.
An important aspect of my attitude is that I’ve been practicing Nichiren Buddhism for thirty-seven years. It comes from Japan originally. I’m a member of an international organization called the Soka Gakkai. The practice is chanting a mantra: “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo”. The basic premise is that we all inherently have the Buddha nature; that we all inherently possess the wisdom to be able to know how to operate without a set of explicit rules, per se. Chanting enables us to tap into the inherent potential and fundamental essence of life itself, which is identical to the life of the universe. Everything is one.
This practice enables you to connect with that concept on a daily basis so that you’re operating from this standpoint. Of course it does not mean in any way that you eliminate problems from your life. What it means is that you are empowered to be able to overcome any problem.
We’re in a transitional period in the history of humanity on the earth, the current era is transformational. The paradigm of dominating others in order to gain benefits is on the way out and it’s causing our civilization and our governing structures to crumble. They’re completely losing credibility. I think the pandemic has amplified this monumentally so a lot of people have woken up to the fact that nothing is making sense.
I’m so grateful to have my Buddhist practice to really ground me. It assists me to be able to navigate through this utter confusion and chaos that is around me. In a way, I am not swayed by it. I’ve been down and depressed at certain points, but for only brief times. I go back to my prayer, my chanting to really center myself.
A key element of Buddhist practice is the realization that in order to develop oneself and to be truly fulfilled and happy in life, you have to challenge yourself. You have to challenge your circumstances.
To respect each individual like Bodhisattva “Never Disparaging” who always bowed reverently with his palms pressed together towards every person and said: “I would never disrespect you because you have the Buddha nature”; that is the kind of attitude I’ve tried to have from the beginning of the pandemic. Obviously, my income and ability to work has been curtailed. It still is to some degree but I feel like I’m in the perfect place. I don’t feel harmed, personally. Even though I believe that the policies that have been implemented are extremely harmful and the lockdowns are utter insanity, I have tried to cultivate the attitude of absolute respect for everybody. I am okay, because I’m in exactly the place I need to be. I have confidence. I want to create unity as much as possible.
The highest purpose of art may be some kind of spiritual enhancement but I would say that it doesn’t always have to have a high purpose and art is important even when it has no high purpose. In other words, art is simply the expression of human creativity. Art on a high level is generally created by people who have devoted their lives to it. I’ve tried to do that in music. It’s something that I do out of love and passion. But it can be done on a very mundane level and it’s still extremely valuable. Music is a mover of energy. Music creates vibration and connects human beings to each other and to the essence of ourselves and sometimes to something beyond ourselves.
– Stephanie Andara Solarys