New Orleans Music rant
Posted by: mikeeschman on 05 March 2010
I am born and raised in New Orleans.
Went and lived in Houston, Enid Oklahoma,
L. A., Akron, Newark Ohio, Tampa, Sarasota, Washington D.C., visited Manhattan, Helsinki, Toronto, and Montreal.
I came back to New Orleans. Part of my birth is my mother, but the other half comes up out of the ground. New Orleans is my other mother.
Enough of that.
We are preparing for my daughter's wedding here. Music is a big part of that. She has collected 8 hours of New Orleans music by interviewing her guests. It's a summation of the family favorites.
Can't wait to hear it :-)
New Orleans music has two fundamental qualities that give it vitality.
First, this music is for a room full of people that are dancing and loving. Young people and old people. People are hugging, kissing, dancing, and even playing, ages 3 to 90+.
But the quality that makes it stick is the fundamental purity of the rhythm. If you have three voices going in three meters, and one voice begins to drag or rush, it's a mess. Musicians in New Orleans know that and never ever fail that way by the time they are 16, if they make it in adult life as musicians. No one else is this good at keeping time. No one.
The blacks in New Orleans dealt with being forced into particular neighborhoods in a number of different ways. The most interesting to me is their creation of virtual music conservatories out of their homes and churches.
It's where they learned secrets of melody and rhythm previously undreamed of. It's why this city's music always keeps a perfect time unknown elsewhere.
Went and lived in Houston, Enid Oklahoma,
L. A., Akron, Newark Ohio, Tampa, Sarasota, Washington D.C., visited Manhattan, Helsinki, Toronto, and Montreal.
I came back to New Orleans. Part of my birth is my mother, but the other half comes up out of the ground. New Orleans is my other mother.
Enough of that.
We are preparing for my daughter's wedding here. Music is a big part of that. She has collected 8 hours of New Orleans music by interviewing her guests. It's a summation of the family favorites.
Can't wait to hear it :-)
New Orleans music has two fundamental qualities that give it vitality.
First, this music is for a room full of people that are dancing and loving. Young people and old people. People are hugging, kissing, dancing, and even playing, ages 3 to 90+.
But the quality that makes it stick is the fundamental purity of the rhythm. If you have three voices going in three meters, and one voice begins to drag or rush, it's a mess. Musicians in New Orleans know that and never ever fail that way by the time they are 16, if they make it in adult life as musicians. No one else is this good at keeping time. No one.
The blacks in New Orleans dealt with being forced into particular neighborhoods in a number of different ways. The most interesting to me is their creation of virtual music conservatories out of their homes and churches.
It's where they learned secrets of melody and rhythm previously undreamed of. It's why this city's music always keeps a perfect time unknown elsewhere.