JSheel Music: The place were Jazz and Hip-Hop meet

This is the prose of Antonia Sheel, my wife, which she wrote about my master degree graduate recital a little more than a year ago. I love you Antonia!!!

The Recital

-by Mrs. Antonia Sheel (then Antonia Winston)

"Every note he played was for me. His love blared through that horn and I knew… He was the man I would spend the rest of my life with. The only man for me and somehow even with the distance...with him on stage and me there in my seat, we were connected. Deep, strong, eternally. My heart fluttered at the thought. How was it possible that such melodic sounds could come out of a piece of metal?

“It’s a piece of metal.…Do you know how hard it is to blow through a piece of metal and make a sound…I mean, it’s unnatural.”

Yet, as unnatural as it was, he made it sound absolutely heavenly.

I was awakened from my trance-like state of bliss by soft baby strokes on my back. He patted it like he was saying goodbye and for a brief moment I felt like it really was. Confusion set in because how could I be feeling so good, yet so bad all within the same moment. We both knew this was our end. Tears welled up in my eyes and one rolled gently down my chubby cheek and landed in my lap. I was no longer his little girl and I could feel it. I was indeed a woman.

Part of me wanted to look over and see if his eyes were filled too, but he’s a man and ‘men aren’t supposed to cry’ as he had told me before…so we laughed instead.

The laugh was deep and hard…like it was coming from the gut. You know how your 8^th grade drama teacher tells you to belt out lines from the gut…’with some bravdo.’ It was a laugh like that…a laugh to hide the pain.

The set ended and we clapped wildly. Although, we would never be the same again, that quiet moment in the loud bar, filled with those precious sounds of love reverberating off of a gold trumpet, spoke volumes.

Tears could not and would not ruin such a divine evening."