The Whole Music Experience

Try this experiment. Next time you hear music coming from a passing car while you're out walking, pay attention to your body's reaction. Pay attention to how your body rearranges itself to match the rhythm and tempo of the song coming from the passing car. I've noticed this with myself. I'm walking on a city street at my own pace and cadence. Then a car passes by with rap music pouring out of the speakers. I notice that my step picks up, my heart races, and I end up walking to the rap rhythms against my will. Alternately, if I'm walking into a shop and a Bach prelude pours from a speaker, I pay attention to my body's rhythms as they slow down and my mind travels from worries of the day to contemplation. Or I stop thinking obsessive thoughts and I remember music history lessons about the Baroque Era--Bach's music. Right now, I'm listening to Marvin Gaye's greatest hits on YouTube as I type this post. I'm feeling my heart swelling with compas...

Wikipedia Soulful lions Often we feel empty and we look to food to satisfy our craving or we escape into another type of addiction. Sometimes we feel disconnected from the life around us or we lose our connection to our Divine Source, whatever name you want to call it.  During those times, I recommend indulging in soul music, a term that came about in the 1960s or 1970s that categorized songs of African-American musicians. Roots for soul music vary going all the way back to the Mandinka and other ancient African kingdoms or most recently to the African-American Church or "Black Church" while finding inspiration from African-American spirituals, blues, jazz, and gospel (not be confused with spirituals).  Some of the favorite artists to come from the genre include Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Earth Wind and Fire, the Commodors, Bill Withers... The songs reached deep into our souls allowing us to feel an array of emoti...

Gregory Porter Be Good Motema Ever so often a musician blazes their way into my life--Gregory Porter is one such musician.  Last year I reviewed his sizzling debut Water .  Like other journalists, I leaped onto the Marvin Gaye comparison bandwagon. Oh, yes, there’s much to compare between the two musicians such as powerful voices that move mountains, a storytelling gift, and delightful music arrangements.  On the sophomore CD, Be Good ,Gregory roots himself deep with the African-American culture of NYC and currently resides in Brooklyn.  Listen to the rousing third track, On My Way To Harlem in Porter gives homage to Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye and the author Langston Hughes. He croons, more or less, roars, “You can’t keep me away from where I was born.  I was baptized by my daddy’s horn.” Porter sings from a vibrant palette and his songs range from the tender, yet ironic title track in which he waxes metaphors about lions and cages, to the sw...