After his 6-year-old daughter was killed in the Newtown school shooting, Jimmy Greene, an internationally renowned jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader, is preparing an album called "Beautiful Life," inspired and dedicated to his daughter, The Associated Press reports.
While everyone knows how Ana Grace Marquez-Greene died, Greene said he wants the public to know how his daughter lived.
Shortly after the shooting, Greene found a homemade book on her desk titled "Ana's flower book for dad," The AP reports. The book was filled with pages of beautifully drawn flowers in different colors and shapes.
"It's a brutal reminder of what I lost," Greene told AP. "There's very few people I think in life who love you unconditionally. She was one of them. We lost her."
"She had qualities in her that were very well beyond her years," Greene told AP. "She would sort of sense when somebody needed a word of encouragement or a hug or a little piece of kindness. She would do it without being prompted or without someone asking for it."
Ana was known to leave notes, like one telling her parents to look under their pillow. That, AP reported, led to another note reading: "I love you Mom and Dad."
Ana enjoyed singing and dancing. Her father's new record will include her singing "Come Thou Almighty King" while her brother played the piano just months before she was killed. Her classmates from Canada, where the family lived for a few years, also sing in the record, as does Greene about his hope to one day join Ana in heaven, AP reported.
That faith that Ana is in heaven is what sustains Greene and his wife, Nelba Marquez-Greene.
"That is pretty much the only thing that gives us peace and any sort of comfort at all," Greene told AP.
The album's proceeds will go toward the Ana Grace Project, which works to prevent violence, and The Artist Collective, which exposes children to the arts and, Greene tells AP, played a key role in his career.
Greene, who has played at the Litchfield Jazz Festival in Goshen for years, hopes to play a few songs from the new album at Sunday's festival, according to AP.
"For him, I think it would be a homecoming to be surrounded by people who love him and appreciate his music and what his family went through," said Lindsey Turner, spokeswoman for the nonprofit that runs the festival. "I think it will be a really nice chance for him to share his pain through his music with people who love him."
Ana was one of 20 first-graders and six adults killed in the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The pain, Greene says, is as profound as it was 19 months ago. "Every day is a struggle," he told AP, while acknowledging the support from family, friends and fellow musicians has helped.
Greene is an assistant professor at Western Connecticut State University and has released a series of critically acclaimed albums and has received numerous honors, AP states. He has played with Harry Connick Jr., who wrote a song in honor of Ana, called "Love Wins."
Greene tells AP that his daughter's death made him realize that life is precious and fleeting.
"I know I'm forever changed as a person," Greene said. "I don't remember what normal feels like. I don't even know if there is a normal anymore."
Greene hopes to release the album before the end of the year.
