The Whole Music Experience

The Music Instinct Science and Song DVD Public Broadcast Station Many years ago I discovered the healing power of music. I was attending WOMAD USA and felt myself merge with everything around me when I listened to music played by world musicians. That epiphany led me on a journey that has only been validated by a small group of people, thus far. PBS just released a DVD and broadcast of The Music Instinct: Science & Song , directed by Elena Mannes and hosted by Bobby McFerrin and Neurologist Daniel Levitin . A bridge is built between science and the arts, music in particular and a lot of questions are probed, but some not answered to their full extent. On one hand, the director and her crew seem to have crunched too much information into the 120 minute film, but on the other hand, some of this information seems repetitive such as the presentation of brain scans activated by music listened to or performed. Neurologist and music lover Oliver Sacks who appears in t...

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...