The Whole Music Experience

Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective Watina Stonetree Records/Cumbancha Only in his 40s, the musician and preserver of Garifuna culture, Andy Palacio died recently of a stroke. It's true musicians have been dropping like flies lately, with so many passing away from pneumonia, strokes, heart attacks and cancer. In the last couple of days, Cape Verdian vocalist Cesaria Evora suffered a stroke, right before she was going to headline at the WOMAD festival in Australia. (She is still alive). While the death of a musician to me is always tragic, Palacio's passing on hit both the global music community and the Garifuna peoples of Belize (and beyond), like a ton of bricks falling out of the sky. In a way, you might say that Palacio's journey into preserving Garifuna culture goes back to 1635 when shipwrecked African slaves liberated themselves and found solace on the Caribbean island, St. Vincent. There the African slaves were welcomed by the Arawak Indians and the...

Josh--Shahid Parvez & Shashank Sense World Music While I have not read much research into the healing effects of classical Indian music, I would imagine that this music goes along ways in connecting both sides of the brain. On one side you have the rhythm cycles, the improvisation, and the mathematical architecture. And on the other side, spirituality, beauty, and other worldliness comes into play. It's the perfect marriage between the Hindu deities, Shiva and Shakti or the feminine and the masculine sides of the human psyche. Other healing aspects that I can personally attest to, is that listening to classical Indian music heals problems with short attention spans. Listening to each piece from the slow and elaborate Alap section to the climatic moments which come later in the Gat (composition), section where musicians are free to improvise, teaches listeners how to focus on the moment. Then add the sensuality of the exotic instruments, the playfulness between musicians, t...