For Tony

There is a trick to his smile, something in his mischievous curling moustache and the crinkling skin, so full of promise, winking at the corner of his eyes. There is a hidden energy inside his steady step and noble posture. Up the red stairs, I see him carrying his piano, his cajon, his tashigoto, his halo, this alchemist is a wandering warrior monk, capable of dancing and singing and clapping in divisive triple time, and all the while breathing his mathematic mantras, he maintains perfect balance.

During rehearsal in the bright day-lit studio, he sits astride his box drum, surrounded by technological marvels that, like cybernetic enhancements from some sci-fi dream, grant him a vast capacity for spontaneous poly-rhythmic melodies. Here at least, some of his mystery is revealed, for one cannot hide behind one's music, it reveals all of the unspoken parts of a person's story. His music is a portrait of a well travelled man, both in the realm of countries and people and places, but also in that vast and significant inner world that is a little more difficult to describe, yet equally adventurous to explore.

We see through our mind's eye into the world of imagination. We hear through our inner ear the songs of all creation. We feel through our flesh the truth of our feelings, and this man, this multi-cultural musical alchemist and dancer, speaks to us with an inner voice, with an inner language that we all hear, and we all understand. In defiance of the count of his years, he is lifted from within by a youthful buoyancy, and we who are graced to know him, we who are blessed to work and play with this living example of a modern international man of culture and intelligence and joy, cannot help but be lifted up with him, a little closer to the sun.