Max Perkoff: Blog

"It is not our job to finish the work, but it is our job to carry it on." So says an old Jewish Proverb, one my baba (grandmother) told me on a walk in San Francisco. I was 19 and worried about the fate of the Earth. She put her hand on me and with deep compassion reminded me not to take the weight of the whole world onto my shoulders. I've just felt her hand again (she passed away in 1986) while practicing trombone. All my life I've been looking for ways to use the music in me to help, to carry on the work of Tikkun Olam, Hebrew for repair and/or healing of the world. To do my part. I do accept that the teaching and some of my performing life has helped in that regard, as do continued acts of Tzedakah, Charity. Now the idea has finally settled in my mind and heart: I'm going to form a partnership with an Arab and/or Palestinian musician(s) in order to fuse our music in ways I pray Jews and Arabs will one day do in their own lives. Many are, and many have, but there's still a shortage of peaceful coexistence, so here goes...

I'm looking for musicians in the SF Bay Area from Palestinian and/or Arab culture for a musical & spiritual collaboration. If you or anyone you know might be interested, my cell phone number and email are all over this web site. Please contact me. I'm envisioning something like The Afro Semitic Experience my friend pianist/composer Warren Byrd is part of, but there are other models and we can invent our own. The aim is to embody the world we want by combining our music into a sound that connects people to each other.

I'll be using other means besides this blog to search for the right people, but this is my first public announcement on the subject. I'm already excited about the possibilities. We could perform in churches, synagogues, mosques, temples of all types - engaging people in conversation about peace and the connections between us.

Hope to hear from you soon.