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uvalde sandy hook parkland

Shuv Lament

"Less Is More"

Gun Violence
The simple yet poignant tune is a lament for all the lost lives in gun-related violence in America. Its unfathomable how the USA has devolved into a land of savagery and the butchery of innocent children and civilians continues unabated while our politicians bicker endlessly on freedom and the 2nd Amendment. American allows the Massacre of children. This is total BS—when will it ever end.?..

Columbine (high school), Aurora (movie theater), Sandy Hook (elementary school), Boulder (grocery store), Parkland (high school), Buffalo (grocery store), Uvalde (elementary school) - that's just a partial list of the tragedies... Mass shootings in America are commonplace: as of May 2022, 27 school shootings have taken place this year! That number doesn't even include other mass shootings: grocery store, factories, etc.

About the Music
Shuv Lament features the Am Double Native American Flute1. Shuv stands for Sandy Hook » Uvalde. The carnage of innocent elementary schools children and teachers (especially while the police stood by and did nothing) is truly incomprehensible and difficult to process. The subtitle Less Is More—often attributed to Miles Davis—is probably a simplification of these two famous quotes of his and the origins of Cool Jazz2.

  • "I always listen to what I can leave out.”
  • "It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play."

Of course in this context "less is more" refers not only to the very simple melody and arrangement of this tune but also as a metaphor for America's infatuation with guns. With less guns there'd be less violence and shootings—a very statistic-proven simple fact3 that still seems to elude a large segment of our country... These tragedies sadly will re-occur until assault weapons are banned, background checks are mandatory and the red flags of mental health issues are addressed. God help us all...

Footnotes
1- For the Gearheads (patches used):

  • Drums (Brushes) - Casio PX-S3000
  • Guitar - Casio PX-S3000
  • Acoustic Bass - Casio PX-S3000
  • Second Acoustic Guitar - Roland JV-880
  • Strings - Roland JV-880

2 - Cool jazz was created a as contrast to the generally fast-paced many-notes improvisation style of the bebop movement. With a focus on smooth relaxing playing and a tendency to lag just behind the beat instead of pushing it ahead, it was epitomized in the Miles Davis recording completion "Birth of the Cool (1957)" and later "Kind of Blue" with Bill Evans at the piano.

3 - The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, has 46 percent of the world's civilian-owned guns: