There are three points of view from which to regard the Buddha and his teachings : the first is objective, analytic, historical; the second is subjective, directly accepting Gotama as the Awakened One; the third and most enlightening is to understand the cat as a jazz player. Born around 563 B.C. in the Lumbini Gardens, (the hottest café on the southern edge of Nepal), his first crys were music to his mother Maya’s ears. Born at a time when animism, polytheism, dualism and even advanced monism competed for attention, little Siddartha was surrounded by monks. But the only Monk he wanted to hear was Thelonius.

Having spent his first 29 years in the lap of luxury (his parents were loaded) he kept asking himself the same question : “I live in a palace, I’ve got threads, and juice, and a groovy wife and son, but it’s still not swingin’ !” So, one night he cut out to find the meaning of life and a way to solo convincingly over non-diatonic chord changes.

Born around 563 B.C. in the Lumbini Gardens, (the hottest café on the southern edge of Nepal), his first crys were music to his mother Maya’s ears. He studied with the hippest guys, Alara Kalama and Uddalu. He later commented, “They were cool, and, like ‘nuff respect, but you know, they were mainly into a ‘lick’ thing... same old modal tunes...” Finally, he went off on his own to sit in at a club called The Bodhi Tree. (Sonny Rollins copped the same riff when he later dropped out for some serious ‘woodshedding’ from 1959-1961.) After six years, at the age of 35, on the night of the Full Moon Of May, he broke into The Song Of Victory, and the cat had definitely arrived ! His first serious gig (billing himself as “The Buddha”, presciently honouring Bud Powell) was at the Deerpark of Sarnath (near Benares). In between songs he shared his new-found enlightenment with the audience. The Four Noble Truths concerned Suffering (not getting paid), the origin of Suffering (cheap or criminal clubowners), the destruction of Suffering (getting paid), and the destruction of Sorrow (getting paid regularly). He soon gave mankind his Noble Eightfold Path : right clubs, right fees, right tunes, right chords, right scales, right tempos, right bass player and right drummer. (This last, he admonished, was “a tricky one !”)