James Taylor
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Welcome to our May/June newsletter. James & Band are preparing to depart NYC this week on the Queen Mary 2 bound for Southhampton, England. They will rehearse and perform during the 6 days it will take to cross the Atlantic. If they are lucky, they will hone their shuffleboard and navigational skills at the same time. Following that crossing, the Band will embark on a 10-week European Festivals tour performing 22 concerts in 9 countries. They will return to the U.S. in time for the "James Taylor & Friends" concert series at Tanglewood, August 26-30, followed by the ongoing "Down Home Tour" in September. In the spirit of the QM2 voyage, we are celebrating James's inclusion in the May 2009 National Geographic publication, "My Favorite Place on Earth" written by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr . James's chapter, excerpted below and appropriately titled, "The Center of the Atlantic Ocean" describes his love of the sea and a few of his favorite sailing adventures. This month, we have also included two TV clips from 'Star Academie', which had it's 4th season this Spring on the French-language TV network, TVA. James appeared as a guest mentor and performer on the April 13 grand finale show sharing the stage with distinguished French singer/songwriter, Francis Cabrel (Cabrel recorded the song "La Fabrique", the French version James's "Millworker" on his 1984 album, "Cabrel Public"). Also appearing in this video with James and Cabrel was Michel Rivard, a well known actor/singer/songwriter from Quebec. In addition to performing, all three artists served as guest mentors to the competition finalists. The final show had a record television audience of 2.8 million viewers. The winner of the 2009 Star Academie competition, was Canadian, Maxime Landry. The Center of the Atlantic Ocean Once I made a passage up the center of the Atlantic, from the Caribbean to Martha's Vineyard, with a good sailor on a beautiful boat. It was an old wooden sailboat made of teak, strong and seaworthy. The masts were tall, and we operated the sails by hand. I was part of the crew. Our captain, Nat Benjamin, who is a boat builder on Martha's Vineyard, is an expert at deep ocean sailing. We didn't have satellite navigation. He simply knew when weather was coming. We would shorten sail for a storm, the storm would hit, and we were ready for it. We went through one thrilling night with seas the size of huge houses passing under us. We just ran before the storm, feeling complete trust in our captain.
The Sargasso Sea is in the Bermuda Triangle. We were becalmed there, as is often the case in the Doldrums, so we let down the sails, stopped the motor, and just sat on these oily, calm swells. And to while away the time, we went swimming in the center of the Atlantic Ocean. The depth of the water beneath us was something like three miles. To think that if you stood on the boat and flipped a quarter overboard, it would be falling and falling and falling for a day and a half before it hit bottom that gave me an amazing feeling. On a boat, everyone takes turn standing watches around the clock. At night, you watch the polestar and see the entire cosmos revolve around it. It's a remarkable awareness you get of being on this planet in space. I know that as astronauts look back at Earth, they get a great sense of what it is. On our boat, I could feel myself on the surface of this water planet. In a way, it was similar to two trips I've taken down the Grand Canyon in wooden dories. It takes 19 days to get through the canyon, and it really takes you away from ordinary experience and timetables. The fact that you're drifting with the river, and not motoring down or powering through it, also has an effect on you. You're in this great geological picture book, which goes back in time as you get deeper and deeper. It gives you a profound experience of the planet to be at the bottom of this great slice through time and into the depths of Earth. You pass a layer that was once the floor of a sea and eventually get down to the Vishnu Schist, which is two billion years old, some of the oldest rock on the planet. To see this stuff, to drift past it, to live with it, changes you – just like being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
I feel the skin of life on the planet as a sort of coevolved life form. It has a type of consciousness that we humans – with individuated consciousness and an ego-based world view – see as alien. But it's my own belief that it is alive, a single organism on this amazing, rare, and perhaps unique planet. I really need to feel that connection. Compass Points Where: The North Atlantic Ocean encompasses the Sargasso Sea. Backdrop: The Atlantic Ocean covers 20 percent of Earth's surface and has an area of 41.1 million square miles, second in size only to the Pacific. Its average depth is nearly 11,000 feet. The island of St. Martin/St. Maarten is divided between France and the Netherlands Antilles. The Sargasso Sea is the world's only sea without shores; it is surrounded by ocean currents. Eels that hatch there swim to Europe or the East Coast of North America, then return to lay eggs. A vast garbage patch of plastic and other non-biodegradable waste has been collected by the currents of the Sargasso Sea. Despite the Bermuda Triangle's reputation for mysterious forces that cause ships and airplanes to disappear, it is a busy transportation route, and both the U.S. Coast Guard and the insurer Lloyd's of London judge it to be as safe as other areas of the ocean. Visitor Information: St. Martin (French side): www.st-martin.org; St. Maarten (Dutch side) www.st-maarten.com; Martha's Vineyard: www.mvy.com; www.mvol.com Reprinted with permission from the book My Favorite Place on Earth
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Photos: Whitney King, Nelliana Kuh, Timothy White |
