At the opening of this song is the reference sample (the basis that the rest of the song is built on) of me playing on an old upright piano in the house of a young Parisian drummer who invited me over for an impromptu jam session with his bassist friend, back in 2013. It was an interesting year because I began it by taking a random trip to Europe, arriving in Berlin on January 20th) to spend approximately 3 months in the region (or at least that's how long my round-trip ticket from New York to Berlin was). The funny thing, though, was that I only had about 2 weeks worth of cash to survive on with no additional money that was coming to me, that I knew of. It was kinda crazy for me to book that trip, knowing that in advance, so it was basically a sort of leap of faith, if you will. At that point, when we were just improvising that day, I had been in Paris longer than the initial 10 days I had planned to be there (at that point, I think I was living there about 3 or 4 months in, of the total 6 months I would be there that year). However, I wouldn't revisit that rough recording of that day until maybe a couple years later, and then still wouldn't finish it until just after the beginning of the new year of 2017, just before my milestone 40th birthday the following month, on February 22nd, which would be when I would release it among other songs I had been holding on to and hadn't finished. It was a speech by the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff that prompted me not to hold on to too many songs I had, and just release them out into the world, because tomorrow wasn't promised, so might as well send it out to the world so that eventually I just "die empty", meaning leaving it all out on the field...not leaving with unfinished work, if you can help it. And so here, on another year we enter, 2023, I felt it apropos to mint this song, "This New Day (Gratitude)", which by the title alone is sort of self-explanatory, but I'll take it a step further and say that with ANY new day, be it January 1st or any of the remaining 364 days to follow for 2023, let there always be gratitude and let there always be the same energy we give New Year's Day with the feeling of new beginnings and turning your life around and starting on a fresh, blank new page in your life book...let it be the same for any day, any moment you truly wish to make a change in your life, and then remember to express gratitude for every day you are fortunate enough to wake up and participate in, knowing that yesterday wasn't a guarantee you'd get, and that today is pretty much another reset to try something again or do something new because hopefully we'll get tomorrow, but since it's not guaranteed, might as well make the most of RIGHT NOW! That's the whole point of this instrumental song that needs no words, but the feeling of the drive of it can be felt. And I'm going to set the reserve price for this song at 1 ETH because it's not only the 1st day of the 1st month of the year, but it's the number that is most important to me when I think about when I consider how to take on life...1 moment, 1 day at a time. I guess this is another way to look at this being "1 of 1", huh? 😉 Good luck to whomever collects this special piece! 🙏🏾