In review--Musical aid to Palestine children

-

Rim Banna
April Blossoms
Kirkelig Kulturverksted
Helping children laugh and sing during an era of crisis is a precious commodity. More and more musicians have been doing just that, bringing the power of music, joy and up-liftment to children that have lost their innocence because of war, privation and other human frailties. Palestinian vocalist and songwriter Rim Banna has sent out a powerful message with her latest children's music CD, April Blossoms. Even with the success of Banna's previous internationally-acclaimed recordings, I was unaware that the singer was a Palestinian star of children's music.
Joining such women musicians as Navajo-Dine Radmilla Cody (Precious Friends on Canyon Records) and Sweet Honey in the Rock (Experience 101 on Appleseed Records), Banna has recorded a sophisticated collection of children's songs that could also appeal to adults. She doesn't talk down to the children, but instead helps them to reclaim their innocence, joy and playfulness with songs about springtime, birthdays, holidays, moons, shepherds, a donkey and other topics which are bound to bring smiles to children's faces.
Banna teams up with her Russian-born husband, Leonid Alexeienko, Norwegian, Turkish and American musicians and a Palestinian children's choir. The instrumentation includes the usual band instruments plus the Armenian duduk, Arabic oud, bansuri flute and clarinet.
Produced by Erik Hillestad with support from Norwegian Church Aid, and Action by Churches Together, this CD was distributed among Palestinian children in Gaza. Support this project and buy this recording for your own children or other children that you love.
For more information (although in Norwegian), go to http://www.kkv.no/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Peyote Songs & The Native American Church

-
Image
Father Peyote: Songs of the Native American Church Introduction to the Peyote Church Ceremony This is an archival article written in 2003.  It's not updated.  For more recent recordings, go to Canyon Records website, http://www.canyonrecords.com When some people speak of Native American ceremonies, the peyote ceremony or the ingestion of the hallucinogen peyote (contains mescaline) usually surfaces. However, there is too much false information being passed around in the non-native community surrounding peyote meetings. The first thing people need to know about the Native American connection to peyote is that the plant is sacred medicine ingested as a sacrament during healing ceremonies of the Native American Church. The second thing, people need to know is that the Native American Church is not a set structure like the Christian Church. The peyote meeting could take place in a Navajo hogan or a teepee. And finally, since the peyote meeting does in part derive from Nat
Read more

21st Century Musical Healer Series--Heather Hannan

-
Image
 Healing with Sound and Reiki Based in Toronto, Canada, Heather Hannan has proven with her own life healing experiences the enormous power of sound frequencies. She acts as a bridge between the mundane world (real estate) to other spiritual dimensions (past life regressions, quantum physics, Reiki, sound frequencies,  and other cutting edge work). I met Heather through my Linked In group Musical Healers and I'm delighted to include her work and insights on this blog. As you know, raising music and sound consciousness takes a world-size village of folks, just like Heather dedicating their lives to working with the healing power of sound.  Whole Music: When did you discover and begin exploring sound healing? Heather Hannan: Ten years ago I was at a crossroads in my life and looking for a group of like-minded people with whom to explore my gifts and talents through meditation. Little did I know that via the meditation group I joined I would be invited to
Read more

Talking about Timbre

-
Image
Wikipedia As I mention in my book Whole Music , when I was a child I fell in love with timbre and the voices of the individual instruments we listened to in music class.  Each instrument conjured a specific emotions or feeling in me.  The French horn caused me to feel majestic and the cello invoked melancholy.  My moods would shift with each instrument that I heard and my moods would shift quickly. Today, I listen to more than timbre, but I have an understanding of how tone, frequencies of the tone and timbre (the color of the tone) affect me on all levels.  And I wonder what listening to an entire symphony does with its many voices, themes, keys, musical passages etc... In the concept of "whole music" I prefer not to separate musical components, but in the case of this post, I will present solo instruments for your listening and feeling pleasure. If you keep a music journal (and I hope that you do by now), write down the emotions that come up with each instrument.  R
Read more