Listen closely

Hearing, singing, playing and performing music has helped lift the world’s spirits through a time of sadness, writes Alison Veness.

dusted off my dad’s 1960s record player, a sleek Dansette Regina with a Garrard 3000 turntable. Thankfully there was an old but unused diamond-tipped stylus in the case. Dad has a small but solid collection of LPs, so I’ve listened to Louis Armstrong, His Greatest Years, Volume 4, the Mills Brothers’ London Rhythm and Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines.

I was raised on jazz, Louis mainly, as well as Count Basie, Duke Ellington and more, and for many years growing up, Dad and I would sit in the soundproof booth of a record shop sampling albums.

For that reason, Virgil Abloh’s Instagram post in late March resonated with me. He declared: “Advanced warning. My return to djing means I’m playing 85% jazz. Those are the records I’m listening to these days. So grab a book or design something while listening for additional entertainment. 2020 has to be different for the better. None of us are going to club anytime soon anyways.”

Abloh’s words ran under the confronting image of a blood-splattered Miles Davis outside New York jazz club Birdland in August 1959, where he had been performing his recently released album Kind of Blue after a sellout run. Standing outside the club to have a cigarette, Davis was asked to move on by policemen, and when he refused, was brutally beaten. The picture of his bloodied face appeared the next day on the front page of the New York Journal-American. The charges against Davis were dismissed, and went on to make more legendary music during his career. “Nothing is out of the question for me,” he said. “I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light … Then I’m grateful.”

We are grateful too, not only for Davis’s genius but for Abloh’s ‘Watercolor’ Jazz Hours, streamed on Instagram throughout April – a celebration of the genre. Abloh’s track list was a rich mix that included artists Erykah Badu, John Coltrane, Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Miles Davis. As Abloh said: “These times are a trip.”

Jazz has been the perfect trip, a mellow way to spend days at home self-isolating, wistful, discordant perhaps, and thoughtful.

Other stand-out musical fashion moments on Instagram came from Chanel, which gave us a live performance by Belgian singer Angèle; and Maison Valentino, which hosted Alicia Keys live from her piano at home.

Lady Gaga’s Covid-19 benefit concert, One World: Together at Home, for the World Health Organization in mid-April, raised $195 million for coronavirus relief. It rallied behind doctors, nurses and multiple responders and included performances by Paul McCartney, Elton John, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift and the Rolling Stones. Gaga sang the Smile original score by Charlie Chaplin, and so we did, even though are hearts were aching.

There has been nothing as powerful as music to lift the spirits in these challenging Covid-19 lockdown months. The most poignant

DURING LOCKDOWN, I

When we look back, perhaps the sweetest sound will be that of the simple act of clapping

moment was in Italy, where it all began in March with the whole country singing the national anthem and folk songs from their balconies and windows. The epic countrywide chorus started an overwhelming reaction: in New York citizens sang Beatles’ songs, while the Brits clapped and sang You’ll Never Walk Alone, culminating in Captain Tom Moore’s rendition (with Michael Ball) after he raised $61 million for health workers in the UK. In France, the Orchestre national de France played Ravel’s Bolero, with 51 musicians individually recording themselves from home; and the Kaleidoscope Orchestra in the UK played a new work by Steve Pycroft. Meanwhile, members of the UK’s Do Your Thing Choir, which raised funds for the NHS, individually recorded themselves singing and made the song into a video. Here at home, Brisbane-founded Pub Choir turned into the Couch Choir with more than 1,000 people sending harmonies from all over the world for a cover of Close To You by the Carpenters.

If the global crisis has given us one thing, it is a wonderful sense of survival and belonging. We might be isolated, but together as many we are one voice. This has inspired us all to sing and clap in appreciation, or dance and perform on TikTok. There have been so many fabulous #BlindingLightsChallenge dances to The Weeknd’s tune that made us laugh and cry and sob for all the caregivers around the world. We have sung and danced to CDM Projects’s Cha Cha Slide; we’ve done the #ohnananachallenge thanks to the Nanana remix; and we have listened to New Year’s Party Band’s Can’t Touch This and grooved to Dance Monkey by Tones and I. We have felt joy – You are the Reason, Calum Scott; and oh, how hospital staff have glided on gurneys to My Heart Will Go On (Titanic) by Maliheh Saeedi and Faraz Taali.

It’s been a small bright spot in all the agony of all those we’ve lost. We’ve learnt that we still sing, and that medics – even when up against seemingly unbeatable odds, with little or no personal protection equipment and with incredible skill and patience in the hardest of times – can be the funniest people on Earth.

When we can finally bear to look back, perhaps the sweetest sound will be that of the simple act of clapping. Hands have united us all as medical staff have left hospitals after a double shift, as survivors have been discharged from intensive care units, and as families have stood in car parks outside aged care homes and applauded the selfless workers, many of who have ultimately given their lives. Quite simply, we give thanks.