It is a deeply emotional moment from a world-renowned Alberta musician, resonating with thousands of people whose lives were torn apart by the Los Angeles wildfires.
This week, Jens Lindemann and his family made their first return to the burnt-out remains of a place they called home for 16 years.
As he and his wife walked over the ruins of their once-splendid Southern California home, Lindemann opted to let his music speak in a moment words failed him.
“I managed to pull out one trumpet that I had saved. I saved eight out of the 35 that I had,” Lindemann said. “I played a beautiful song by Charlie Chaplin called Smile.
“It was all I could muster.”
Almost 80 per cent of his largely celebrity neighbourhood was wiped out by the deadly Palisades fires that tore through the Santa Ynez Canyon on Jan. 7.
“There was a lot of panic on the mountain that I lived on,” Lindemann said, describing firefighters bulldozing away some of the 200 vehicles abandoned in a traffic jam caused by the sudden evacuation. “People literally left their cars because the canyon was burning, burning on either sides. We were trapped up the mountain for another four hours until that happened.”
Lindemann makes frequent visits back to Alberta. He was in Banff in recent weeks, playing at a show with longtime friend and bassist Kodi Hutchingson.
“He’s one of the top five trumpet players in the world,” said Hutchingson, the artistic director of JazzYYC. “He’s been in the States for over 20 years, but he comes back here to support the arts and arts organizations.”
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The Alberta-raised trumpeter is the first classical brass soloist to receive the order of Canada.
“I have everything in my career that I can possibly imagine having because of music and because of my education, growing up in Canada,” Lindemann said.
He’s no stranger to unscheduled performances in trying times. During one Alberta visit in 2018, Lindemann’s trumpet solo lifted spirits for a captive audience stranded in a snow squall along the Trans-Canada Highway.
“He’s just an upbeat person, even in the worst circumstance,” Hutchingson said.
Lindemann said “it’s the most basic thing to be able to do, is to comfort each other at a time of need.”
“And now I guess I’m in the position where I need some of that comfort.”
Lindemann is finding that comfort in music as well. He’s still laser-focused on an upcoming concerto written by legendary jazz composer Wynton Marsalis.
“‘I’m working on it, one bar at a time, one note at a time, one phrase at a time.”
Friends and fans are also trying to offer comfort of their own, with a GoFundMe they hope will ensure music continues to help Lindemann and others heal from a devastating loss.
“We live in a very divisive time as a society,” Lindemann added. “And something like this just brings people together.”
