Ravinia_2018_Issue_6_Week

Human Element

A simple foreign phrase that rolls o the tongue. It’s not hard to imagine using it in a catchy

chorus, if you were a musician. But Jason Mraz is not your average composer.

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter is the kind of artist who can take inspiration from

a multitude of sources. It takes a special kind of bravery—the kind born from a playful

imagination and a wide-open heart—to write the way he does on “Have It All,” the rst

single from his brand-new album,

Know

e creative process for the song began with

the Tibetan Buddhist greeting. He heard it in Myanmar, where he performed a few con-

certs in late

to support a human-rights group. But instead of eventually incorporating

those two simple words into a song, he opted for a much more complicated route.

greeting sounds simple enough in its native tongue. Not so in English, where it balloons to

eight words with a total of staccato syllables, yet it began to quickly seep into his brain. “I

got to walk around and meet some really beautiful monks,” Mraz recalls. “ eir common

greeting—

tashi delek

—was translated to me as ‘May you have auspiciousness

and causes of success.’ Wow, that’s quite a salutation to lay on a total stranger. I loved that.”

Jason Mraz catalyzes care

without confines in concert

AUGUST 20 – SE3TEM%ER 2, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE