Commitment lies at the heart of great things: When you commit money to a savings account, the magic of compound interest happens. When a person commits to a relationship, whether that person is a parent, a partner or a friend, real love can develop. When talent commits itself to a field or a discipline, then genius can flourish.
And so it is with music, exemplified by this arrangement; Listen to how the bass and percussion remain committed to the rhythm and in so doing, the saxophone and piano can fully express themselves over the course of the song.
Here’s the magical part – I think something similar happens inside of us – the listener – in the course of listening. Once we become comfortable with the rhythm, our spirit can drift off into open space, safe in the knowledge that we are supported, that there is a path that we can always return to, so that we won’t get lost. And so we can begin to give voice to emotions and expressions latent within us.
‘I’ll close my eyes’ is a beautiful name for a song. There are so many things it could mean. We don’t close our eyes unless we feel safe. And for many people the truth is their surroundings are not safe, and people in their lives cannot be trusted. In such a world, it can be easy to close one’s eyes as a form of escapism – like the monkey emoji 🙈 – but I think there is a grander form of ‘closing one’s eyes’ – the type that the song alludes to. The type that says I’ll close my eyes and create my own island of trust and safety as a subversive act of defiance against a cruel and unjust world. That’s how I make sense of the hope-tinged sadness in the saxophone.
I’m glad that many brilliant musicians have committed themselves to mastering this jazz standard over the years. There is no better way to drift off to sleep than to play this song on repeat…
poetic reverb 