Music and Global Politics

The "Devil's Music"?: The Genius of the Blues at the Heart of Modern Music

Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Like and subscribe, rate and review and support . Patreon/Gmail: musicandpoliticspod. Become an RSS member yourself using this link here: https://rss.com/?via=f3da93 [https://rss.com/?via=f3da93] In this episode we ask, is blues the core of Jazz, is it even the mother of all modern music? Is as BB King once said that "Jazz is the Big Brother of the Blues" or that Blues is High School and Jazz is College? Well its social and economic roots cannot be denied, a rural music versus the city one of the agricultural Delta not the bustling Port City, based on poor cheap transportable instruments, e.g. guitar and harmonica. Surrounded by an aura of suspicion as the "devil's music," the subterranean reservoir of Voodoo that lay beneath was never entirely hidden. ` A highly profane music of work and the carnal life, it is the first person singular voice of existential challenge. Musically, based around the pentatonic scale and non-tempered “blue” notes. These are crafted out of regular microtonal bends on the notes, most often on the 3,5,7 notes Out of this fairly defined 12/16 Bar,3 line AAB form, literally thousands of hit songs emerged, an inexplicable alchemy. These semi-tones create a sense of ambiguity between major and minor. Not published nor orchestrated, even the identities of that very first generation of Missippii Delta players remain shrouded in mystery. For all the myth around Robert Johnson, he was last in a long line of forebears unknown to the after world. : For musical selections today, two masters of the electric blues showcasing each of the primary instruments, Muddy Waters on Guitar and Sonny Boy Williamson on Harmonica. Suggested reading: · Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, Callahan , Kelley, et al. · And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, Joe Boyd · http://www.shmoop.com/blues-history/ [http://www.shmoop.com/blues-history/] · http://www.scaruffi.com/history/blues.html [http://www.scaruffi.com/history/blues.html] Suggested Listening: Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson Blind Lemon Jefferson - Match Box Blues W.C. Handy "St. Louis Blues" On The Ed Sullivan Show Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out Son House – Preaching Blues

Rock Religion: How Spirituality Displaced Politics at the end of the 60s

Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Like and subscribe, rate and review and support . Patreon/Gmail: musicandpoliticspod In honour of Easter, Passover and Qingming tomb-sweeping festival today , we move to matters of the spirit: Did the political tragedies and disappointments of the late 60s convert energy for change into energy for the spirit? Did intimidation and fear of violence enforce this retreat into less earthly matters? Or did the transcendent awakenings of entheogens and the psychedelic experience cry out for metaphysical not political answers? The Grand Tour to the Ancient World instead became a trek to inner worlds, known as the "Hippie Trail," with overland passage through a safe and friendly Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan often by school bus culminating in India and Nepal. The Beatles stay with the Maharishi in Rishikesh studying Transcendental Meditation opened the global floodgates for a youth ready to rush their energies as spiritual seekers rather than revolutionaries.While the Beatles had an acrimonious split with the Maharishi, less well-known is that their American colleagues in art-pop, the Beach Boys actually went on tour with the Indian Guru, and titled a song promoting his consumer friendly technique of Transcendental Meditation. George Harrison made an even greater contribution to ISKCON - the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, known as "Hare Krishna." He bought the movement their first house in England, Pigget's Manor in Letchmore Heath, near Watford, in Hertfordshire, renamed Bhaktivedanta Manor, after the Hindu tradition of devotion the movement aligned itself with. Though inherently musical, already using chanting for transcendence, Harrison also produced and performed on the London branch's recording of the Hare Krishna mantra, an unexpected pop hit, peaking at #13 in England and remaining on the charts for 9 weeks. From the opposite side of the musical spectrum, the jazz world, Alice Coltrane the widow of the saintly saxophonist John, was not content to remain a spiritual apprentice, and instead founded her own ashram. For four years Doja Cat actually lived at Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura Hills, California with her mother. Highlighting her remarkable gospel-jazz fusion, Alice recorded cover 20 albums of such spiritual jazz, an excerpt of "Om Shanti is coming right up, recorded under her new name Turiyasangitananda [https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Turiyasangitananda&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&mstk=AUtExfApYRLTnk63WyxFxBQLiuSrk5-SwQ_3dTfEd1YbLckLaRrKHmzIyJDyOfv_JpuX7g8aD86bf2sZVeKVWxWcW3ZDW1fZlTiFbXQK6hdI-sPVdE0ki8fPJzeLgoAwaeMAMsKXCZNp0sv3XhSbYcIuwsYAgsuaqqutJACeaSywkzndcwRcPZ7OtGe2MVmk1iLi7kjSHs16WXpX-Quj0mvdcn-sjtwSfcvdia6mAce_cNY0xit6HtYm1VIL2iX4vj5dGv64cdPd6dAmantBwtbmOhey&csui=3&ved=2ahUKEwjdicf4-tWTAxVFa_UHHWPRKWsQgK4QegQIARAC], which translates to "the Transcendental Lord's highest song of Bliss" Stay tuned until the end to hear an excerpt from "the Source Family of Father Yod" a spiritual counterculture commune that made a frenzied form of devotional psychedelic rock, recording over 60 albums worth of material. The track "Godmen," by "Children of the Sixth Root Race," a clear reference to the Theosophical movement, the foundation of all New Age philosophies. Here are a few more suggested resources to continue your journey!:  KRSNA  Hare Krishna! (Documentary Film)  Raga (Film)  Yoga for the City (Documentary Short)  Spiritual Revolution, 2008 (Documentary Film) · BBC George Harrison Fact or Fantasy interview · George Harrison - Vatican Blues * The Beach Boys 'Transcendental Meditation' – * The Beach Boys - All This is That * George Harrison - Awaiting on You All

The Creole Origins of Jazz: Reconsidering the Emergence of America's Classical Music

Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Please rate, review, like and subscribe and support us on Patreon at musicandpoliticspod.com [http://musicandpoliticspod.com] Today we reconsider the very origins of jazz, delve into its historical context and address several questions such as Why New Orleans? What was the role of America's largest red light distinct,, how was Jazz related to the targest Union movement in the Southern United States and what was the relationship between Jazz and the failure of the politics of post-Civil War Reconstruction. We introduce to listeners the century long debate over the role and presence of African survivalisms in this music, a question that continues to vex sociologists, anthropologists and musicologists. Our opening musical example is a fascinating modern day experiment that pairs the West African instrument of the Kora with its long lost descendant the American banjo,, a link that forms one of the strongest musical arguments for survivals from the Mother Continent. What we can be more certain of is that Jazz is modernist and that Jazz is hybrid. Jazz galvanises the break with tradition, from the whole formal world of the 19th Century with its boundaries and hierarchies. Jazz is carried onward by the new tempos of the 20th Century, and the fragmented, cubistic art of that era of Picasso and Stravinsky. So contrary to the manichean fundamentalist racial dualism of the Anglo world, Jazz was catalysed by the remnants of another system entirely, that off the Creole gens de coleur the hybrid New World born people officially accepted by the New World Catholic Empires of France and Spain. These burning embers of of the Haitian Revolution came ashore in New Orlean forming a distinct Caribbean Diaspora, a colony of the dispossessed within a colony in the South. From Jelly Roll Morton, to Kid Cry, to Sydney Bechet all the way up to Winton Marsalis, it is the Creole dimension that has done so much to catalyse Jazz at its birth and to keep it alive today. We close today with Black Bottom Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers from 1926, that fittingly features some rip roaring banjo amidst the joyous polyphony of collective improvisation that is jazz in its earliest and archetypical form. For reading I suggest: https://www.jstor.org/stable/853007 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/853007] · Why Jazz?: A Concise Guide, Kevin Whitehead, , p. 19-53 · A New History of Jazz, Alyn Shipton, p. 13-53; 124 -146 · Louis Armstrong & Paul Whiteman, Joshua Berett (entire book) · The Myth of the Negro Past, Herskovitz Melville · Black Bourgeoisie, E Franklin Frasier · When Genres Collide, Matt Brennan · And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, Joe Boyd

Ravin' in Hong Kong: Electro's Politics and Performance with Pauline Mornet

Welcome Back to Music and Global Politics. Please like, rate subscribe, share with a friend and support us on Patreon at musicandpoliticspod.com [http://musicandpoliticspod.com] Today we explore with nuance ravin in Hong Kong. Amongst the 5th most densely populated cities in the world, along with falling 5 straight years on the World Happiness Index, high stress and some classic grump infuse the Special Administrative Region's image. Its no shock that the psychic abandonment of ravin' and euphoric release would hold special appeal. Home to no Pattaya Beach Trance party or Beatforest Festivals as in Thailand or World DJ in Seoul, ravin' in Hong Kong is about finding well enshrouded GPS coordinates, on small islands buried in the trees. Stanford researcher Pauline Mornet gathers a number of different cases of ravin' in Hong Kong deftly marshaling thought provoking theory to explain the politics of its performance. Pauline explains given the territory's recent traditions its all about hybrid/ambivalent performance and the complicated oritentation to the music and dance movements of the former British colonial overlord. Further complicating matters are state attempts to coopt dance music alongside grassroots collectives. We frame this discussion by listening to a news story about the "last saturday night out in British HK," the so-called handover rave that featured Grace Jones in 1997. Stay tuned until the end for an excerpt of Faye Wong's "Chanel," a Hong Kong pop icon heavily influenced by jungle, on this Drum and Bass track from the year 2000. And check out these links for a collective and festival we discuss in the episode: https://www.instagram.com/ba___oi___ba/ [https://www.instagram.com/ba___oi___ba/] bà queer collective mentioned and https:// [https://www.shifumiz.com/]www.shifumiz.com/ [http://www.shifumiz.com/] Shi Fu Miz festival with next event March 21 2026 Merry Listening ahead.

From Russia with Wagner: The Russian Alternate Perspective with Slava Vlasov

Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Please like, rate and subscribe and support on Patreon at musicandpoliticspod.com [http://musicandpoliticspod.com] As a thank you and gift to listeners, please enjoy Slava'a "Wagner in Drinks": https://viacheslavv.substack.com/p/richard-wagners-favorite-drinks-announcement [https://viacheslavv.substack.com/p/richard-wagners-favorite-drinks-announcement] Russia is a font of alternative perspectives usually unavailable in the West. With its strong Byzantine past, Russia, arguably now still, and forever remains an exemplar of Caesaorpapism - the subordination of the church and matters sacred inside the state, a strong symphony or church and state lending the country's overall arc an air of the messianic. This background greatly shaped what is distinct about the Russian reception of the ever popular, if controversial German composer and father of the "total work of art," Richard Wagner. If in the West Wagner is seen as a problematic arch-reactionary, even a proto-Nazi, however looking out from Russia westward, if anything, Wagner has had a progressive role in musical aesthetics. His works challenged the old regime of the Tsars, and even the Soviet Union championed his work during and after the Nazi invasion. Our guest, Slava Vlasov, a passionate Wagnerian and author of much creative fiction based on Wagner, highlights how in his early career, at least in terms of his contacts and circles, Wagner can be seen as much a Russian composer as one German. This is a very personal journey, a special Russian journey into the world of Wagner. In this episode we discuss Wagner's Russian side: * the controversy over his semi-sacred, mostly heretical Parisfal * Wagner's breaking open of the possibilities on the Russian stage. * How Wagner was viewed by the Soviet Union and in Post-Soviet Russia. Our conversation is enclosed by two lovely piano renditions of Wagner : 1. The Quintet from Mastersingers of Nuremberg 2. Album Leaf for Dutchess Metternich