HORN TO HEAVEN

Jonah: "Well now, Herb, that's quite a song they wrote about you reaching your horn toward heaven. Like you found God in those spaces between the notes, each experimental sound a prayer in a language the angels are still learning to speak."

Jake: "Dude, they totally got your whole thing about disrupting the system. Like how you pushed against the legacy code of traditional jazz, refusing to accept 'that's how we've always done it.' Pretty inspiring for those of us still fighting broken institutions."

Herb: "It's strange hearing my life in verse like that. But they understood - that experimental fire was never chaos for chaos's sake. It was about finding new colors on the palette, new ways to make the brass sing truths that traditional techniques couldn't touch. Though I'm not sure I was as noble as all that."

Linda Green: "What I love is how they captured you building on tradition rather than tearing it down. Like adding new rooms to a house with a solid foundation. You weren't destroying jazz, Herb - you were expanding its blueprints."

Jonathan: "I've watched too many dreamers burn out chasing something they couldn't name. But you... the song says you kept your feet on the ground even while reaching for the stars. How'd you manage that trick, staying human while touching the divine?"

Tabby moves closer to Herb, settling against his leg as if offering comfort for a conversation that must feel surreal.

Milarepa: "In the mountains, I learned that profound truths come through difficult paths. Your journey through experimental sound mirrors the spiritual seeker's way - abandoning comfortable certainties to discover what lies beyond."

Herb: "You know, hearing it sung back to me... I started thinking about all that technical complexity, but maybe the real revolution was simpler. looks down at Tabby Maybe it was just having the courage to let my broken places show through the music."

Jake: "Wait, that hits different knowing it's actually about you. I was focused on the innovation, but the line about 'music lives in spaces where the broken still can heal' - that wasn't abstract, was it? That was your actual experience."

Linda Green: "Sometimes the most beautiful structures come from working with the cracks, not hiding them. Is that what you discovered, Herb? That the experimental techniques weren't about perfection, they were about honesty?"

Jonathan: "It's one thing to admire a rebel from a distance, another to sit with him. Tell me, Herb - when you were pushing those boundaries, did you know you were writing letters to tomorrow, like the song says?"

Jonah: "I came in here thinking I understood the spiritual dimensions, but listening to you... maybe the real teaching was in that wordless reaching, not quite sure where you were going but trusting the journey anyway."

Herb: "The strangest part is they made it sound so intentional. Half the time I was just... lost, you know? Trying to find something I couldn't name. The courage they sing about? Most days it felt more like desperation."

Tabby purrs softly, as if acknowledging the vulnerability in his admission.

Milarepa: "Perhaps that is the deepest wisdom the song captures - not certainty of destination, but faith to continue playing when you don't know what you'll do. Your legacy lives in that courage to keep reaching."