Felino Soriano Tribute

with hip hop and soul music: A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders of the New School,
Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey), Common, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and many others.
In terms of musical preferences now, outside of jazz, a simple definition is good
music, music that creates a physiological response, and has ability to alter mood
and creative affirmations. Some quick examples include Norah Jones, Jill Scott,
Anthony Hamilton, and Bilal. What needs to be said is that these artists and
others I enjoy are equipped with the ability to challenge predefined definitions
and identities—those definitions and identities that others incorporate into a false
truth of categorization.
Still, while jazz is the dominant musical form I most enjoy, I find elation with
other genres as well. What good jazz does well—despite the “purists” limited
perspective—is it disallows stagnancy. Currently, I am fascinated with the pianist
Robert Glasper. He has released several “traditional” jazz albums, patterned
within the trio formulation. He writes incredible original tunes, but also
interprets other genres as well, including Radiohead’s Everything is in its Right
Place, Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit (which is becoming a standard), and
others. In addition, his group The Robert Glasper Experiment is a dedication to
expanding boundaries of musical identities. One will hear an amalgamation of
disparate sounds, congregating to create a neoteric display of wonderful music.
When did you start becoming interested in jazz? And how?
In 2000, I had a coworker with an immense catalog of various musical
directions. I asked him to recommend me some jazz records; he quickly
suggested Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, both of
which I purchased soon following our conversation. I need to state in those days,
jazz was a strange language to me, as I mostly listened to popular music and
radio’s recycling of few recordings. Jazz though, immediately caused a
connection in me that functioned as fixation. About that time, PBS was
broadcasting Ken Burns’ documentary Jazz which I watched intensely. These
two events—the purchasing of Miles’ and Trane’s music/watching Jazz ignited a
desire to learn and listen, interact and enjoy.
What philosophers do you feel a particular kinship to? And why?
My current focus is on Martin Heidegger, —particularly his attention to poetry,
poetic language, and creative thinking. His devotion to the process of uncovering
amid interaction has caused a serial renewed devotion into finding innumerable
collocations of words or/and phrasing, leading to unexpected versions of
descriptive behavior; this identity has reinforced my own language, and has
enthralled the functionality of my writings. His quotation of “Language is the
house of the truth of Being.” is a prevalent example of directional function in the
context of language’s imperative functionality.