The Whole Music Experience

  photo by Patricia Herlevi (Conclusion of the book Whole Music Soul Food for the Mind Body Spirit) Super Music verses Junk Music (Excerpt) Like many other Americans, I spent my childhood eating junk food and listening to pop music.   Both the junk food and commercial music provided quick fixes and temporary comfort followed by agitation and hyperactivity later.   While food allergies and sensitivities increase in our society, I developed sensitivities to heavily programmed music without a strong melody or natural rhythms (in sync with the natural heartbeat).   I escaped into the worlds of jazz, classical, folkloric, and indigenous music.   However, some pop music, such as the Beatles with strong melodies and interwoven harmonies provides its own type of healing. In my twenties, I gravitated towards alternative rock.   It’s as if I needed to evolve spiritually, physically, and intellectually before I could appreciate music genr...

Django Reinhardt, Wikipedia (This excerpt comes from chapter 12, "Catching the Coletrane" of Whole Music Soul Food for the Mind Body Spirit ) Jazz Medicine  The story of jazz contains just as many tragedies as it does moments of elation.  Jazz musicians in general have personal history and early African-American jazz players in particular, carried the added weight of injustice, racism, illness, and addiction in the competitive music industry.  Societies in the west color any genre of music hailing from Africa with prejudices.  Early jazz as it emerged in the US and arrived in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was viewed as a novelty in some cases, and primal in other cases giving listeners the license to adopt destructive practices (consumption of alcohol, loosening of sexual morals and exploring the seedier side) as portrayed in Jeffrey H. Jackson’s book, Making Jazz French . However, even local-grown European musicians harn...

Harmonia Mundi/Jazz Village Bringing Back to the Classics: A Conversation with Catherine Russell The first time I heard Catherine Russell sing was when her 2010 Jazz Village CD, Inside This Heart of Mine arrived at my mailbox.   The songs, all thoughtfully chosen blues and jazz classics, delighted me and had my feet tapping while I reviewed the recording.   November hit the spot with its warm acoustic guitar, accordion, violin, and Russell’s soulful alto vocals wrapping around each word, like a winter scarf.   The send-ups All Cats Join In , We The People and Just Because You Can also had staying power. On the follow-up album, Strictly Romancin’ , again Russell treated her happy listeners to toe-tapping classics Wake Up and Live and Satchel Mouth Baby as well as, bluesy ballads Under the Spell of the Blues and Don’t Leave Me.   She sang romantic ballads too such as I’m in the Mood for Love.   Bring it Back , Russell’s la...