(a bassist’s point of view)
The challenges of bringing unity and peace is that for many, it is a fight to be won, instead of a goal to be achieved. This complicated dynamic is talked about in this writing involving Antifa, fascism in Europe in the 21st century, and the role that musicology can play in healing these battle wounds. Britta Sweer’s research on this topic is a fascinating additional resource, and her work is highlighted. Enjoy the music link from India Arie and thanks for reading!
Read MoreMuch of this music creates a chamber through which the human heart can reverberate and create harmony with the troubles of conflict that exist on the exteriors. Countless people have been comforted, consoled, and able to reconcile their feelings with the chaos that surrounds the warfare of the masses. Dr. King relied on spiritual songs. Dr. Dre relied on the voice of the restless. All of this music is valid, and it is critical that we keep ringing it out. The people of Hong Kong were captured creating the beauty of the mass song and its impact on peaceful resistance. I hope to find more examples of this, today.
Read MoreI hope that songwriters are busy at work right now, cataloguing and scripting new lyrics to tell the story of humanity in the beginning of the 21st century. It’s connections to events of the past 400 years in the Americas, its rich roots to the old worlds of Europe and Africa, and its reverberations and impact on the billions of people living today. Perhaps the griot of West Africa can bring the kora to the world stage and help us remember how to sing the history of people, the world people, and how they fought so hard for each other, against oppression, against injustice, and against the murder of our fellows.
Read MoreToday, I found a song that captured me before I even listened to it. It came out of a story of a griot, (a bard from Kita in West Africa) who sang the douga, a formidable chant, imbued with magic.
I found a rendition of the douga performed by Sory Kandia Kouyaté, and I felt like standing up and crying out as soon as he began to sing. I can’t wait to hear more, but the revelry of today’s song is definitely worth the memories, even if I don’t know where they came from.
Read MoreFor the next few weeks, I’ll be diving deeper into this rich history of the griot, and I look forward to hearing more of the incredible music. It’s story has traveled through the cities and villages of the African continent, to the colonies of the Indies, Australia, and the Americas, transformed the cultural languages of western art music, and evolved many of the music traditions in modern popular artists. The bard that you may be familiar with might only exist in the code in the latest online adventure. The one I’m going to research for a while has circled the globe and helped put the soundtrack behind the story.
Read MoreA random trip though and old discarded history book led me to thinking about songs from my past. Te Deum laudamus is one of the oldest hymn in recorded history, with a wide range of compositions attributed to it, but the religious songs I remember come from Mel Brooks and Marlo Thomas, and Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock opera. Hopefully people will keep playing and listening to those songs, too.
Read MoreFrom “The Souls of Black Folk”, by W.E.B. De Bois:
I walk through the churchyard
To lay this body down;
I know moon-rise, I know star-rise;
I walk in the moonlight, I walk in the starlight;
I'll lie in the grave and stretch out my arms,
I'll go to judgment in the evening of the day,
And my soul and thy soul shall meet that day,
When I lay this body down.
-NEGRO SONG.
Read MoreFloyd is part of the notion that when we know it’s an act, we are more likely to participate in the imaginative fantasy that it portrays, whereas, when there is some element of misunderstanding, or an unexplained phenomenon, we are more likely to distrust, and revolt. Emily Howell is part of a hierarchy of horror movies and sci-fi flicks that tells us “one day the computers will take over.” The Aeolian Harp, while today, may seem innocent, at one point was the instrument of the Gods, communicating their mysticisms.
Floyd? Floyd’s just a bass player, and if you’re cool enough, he might honor you with a pair of shades. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, do yourself a favor and watch Floyd do his thing.
Read MorePart of the benefit of performing as often as I have is for me, I lost a great deal of anxiety about the actual music. I still worry about silly things, like how I look, or what people will think, but I feel incredibly safe about the music itself. Music is like a mother’s womb to me, like a crowd of friends, like a story I’m in.
Today is about some bassist greats from the past, and a bassist great of today. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
Read MoreThere’s always a side of our lives that we’d rather not look at, but often needs our attention, regardless. When I shed all that nonsense, and just sing, there’s usually nothing left to say, but listen. I was reminded by what the gift of music gave me, and what I hope to keep sharing with all of you. The industry of it is not my department. It’s out of my pay grade, and hopefully, will remain that way. Here’s Joe, telling us what we really need
Read MoreI got to meet Hanzhi Wang, the Accordionist? The accordion player? One who is wise in the way of accordion? I’m not sure what the accepted phrase is. … at UCSB. I had no idea that the instrument was capable of the arrangements she played. I was captivated by her emotional expressiveness. She breathed and swayed with the phrasings so dramatically that at one point I thought she might rise up and start waltzing. I wanted to dance, too, and I’m surprised I didn’t spring to life myself.
Read MoreI don’t know why, but I feel like I just needed to laugh this morning. Looking back at all the wonderful humor that is expressed through music was the most obvious way to experience it for me.
The healing power of joy and song are essential components to a healthy start to the day. If you missed your daily reprieve, let the power of the Barbershop Quartet compel you. Peace be with you, and I don’t recommend drinking your morning coffee while watching. You’re liable to do a spit take all over your screen.
Read MoreOne of my favorite songs tells a great tale of love and faith in each other. Elle Fitzgerald captured my heart with her song It’s Only a Paper Moon, and I hope she adds a little sunshine to yours, today:
Say, it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me
Read MoreWhen I was 19, I moved to Ventura. I instantly fell in love with the city and have considered it my home ever since.
I lived a five-minute walk to the ocean, and the weather was amazing. I didn’t nearly go to the beach as much as you might have thought. I had a few short stints of walking down to the café that was at the end of Seaward Boulevard, where the road met the sand, but that was mostly to look brooding while I wrote poetry and smoked cigarettes in an attempt to meet a girl. I got exactly zero dates out of that. Here is my favorite YouTube version of it (the Scheherazade) by the Vienna Philharmonic, mostly because the conductor, Russian Maestro Valery Gergiev, looks like he just rolled out of bed after a 30-hour bender in an Amsterdam flop-house.
Read MoreJust some simple rain talk today, and a song.
The vast majority of YouTube videos feature highly produced, “studio quality” versions with exotic reverb and commercialized renditions of this music. I found it distasteful, but I don’t want that to dissuade you if you enjoy that. This was a simple as I could find, and it starts at around 2 minutes in. I hope it fills you with the gratitude for the rain like it did for me.
Read MoreI was reading about a woman named Ethel Smyth this morning. I had studied her work in a class about symphonic music and was hoping to put on a concert this summer, (before Covid struck) to honor women composers of the19th century. Ethel was on my list, along with Fanny Hensel (Mendelssohn), and Clara Schumann. The theme would be to honor the passage of the 19th Amendment. I’m still planning the concert, but Ethel was what was on my mind this morning.
Read MoreThis is the poem inscribed on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s gravestone in Bandon Hill Cemetery, Wallington, Surrey (today in the London Borough of Sutton).
Too young to die
his great simplicity
his happy courage
in an alien world
his gentleness
made all that knew him
love him
Read MoreI hope that when I’m old and senile that the nurses bring me my MTV. The best part of Eminem is the video where he’s running around in the hospital trying to convince people about who he is with his music. That’s me. That’s what I want.
I hope one day to react the way Henry does, in this video about how powerful music can be to restoring us to our former selves.
Read MoreIn 1986, a touching tale about three friends looking for success south of the border turns into a grand adventure as they save a small Mexican village from a terrible fate. Within the scope of this film, comes a short, memorable scene where one of America’s great musical treasures was able to fill a minor, but humble part.
I am, or course, referring to Randy Newman as the Singing Bush in Three Amigos.
Read MoreFor those of you who have lost track, it’s Tuesday.
I was immediately confused to learn that Tuesday is sometimes not the second day of the week. In a large amount of U.S. calendars, Sunday is the first day of the week, which is just nonsense. Even if Sunday is the first day of the week, Tuesday is still not the third day of the week. That’s just basic science, folks.
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