The jazz police have been causing havoc in the Tweed. Shocked to the core I was when I read that Byron Council has some sort of policy outlawing busking in the Byron Shire. Don’t folks know that it is such a powerful ‘language’ that it is indeed the last sense to leave the human being.
My jazz-singing girlfriend shared a story confirming the need for us to nurture our musical souls. She sang her heart out at a Manly festival. Afterwards, a very conservative woman came and thanked her. To her, the music was life-changing. She’d been so depressed before she left to hear the music she’d packed all of her things, written a note and intended to ‘neatly commit suicide’ that evening. She faced the realisation that she was in need of more music. There would be no suicide!
Another singer has started in a choir in the Tweed named ‘Inspire’. It is packed with folks suffering from dementia. At a recent concert a lovely man with a deep tenor voice sang an Italian love song to his beloved wife.
I shared a remarkable moment with a dying woman. Her eyes were closed in deep sleep. I sang ‘I cannot give you anything but love’. To my amazement her eyes opened and she sang the rest of the song with love.
I read that Hitler so hated jazz he even outlawed it. Maybe history could have been different if he sang and discovered soul, song and universal love… Byron is foolish outlawing song in the streets. No! It must not happen! So much has been destroyed already… why song?
Thanks to darling Councillor Cate Coorey who is saying ‘No’ to this life-destroying ‘policy’ and who sang beautifully a farewell song to Mary Gardner. So soul satisfying. From my soul I heard Mary sing back.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
