Jazz for aficionados

****Nothing is being merged****

Of course it is. The depiction of "voodoo music" in a Hollywood film like "Black Orpheus" is no more accurate than the depiction of nightclubs in films. I would go so far as to say that the way nightclubs were depicted is more accurate; that's the nature of the film industry. There are very few places on our planet where indigenous musics still exist unadulterated by modern society to some extent; and if they do, they are certainly not part of the mainstream. If the question is: why is African native music as heard in places like Brazil closer to that of the African slaves (and I say "closer" because I suspect that there a many places in Africa where it is still fairly close to what it was 200 years ago) than in the USA? The answer is obvious: the more a country becomes industrialized, modernized, whatever one wants to call it, the less "pure" any one native art form will remain. Isn't that exactly what has been happening to jazz?

****Especially since that music was retained and survived all of those hundreds of years, every place, except here.****

Really? Besides Africa itself, where? Perhaps, to a degree, in places like Haiti and remote parts of Brazil where the above comments apply; and even in those places the indegenous musics have "merged" with it. And BTW, here in NYC there at still places where one can buy live chickens; and NOT because fresh tastes better. The point is that it has survived to varying degrees everywhere, but in a country like ours it is much more "fringe" than in others.

I should also have added the fact that in the USA, slaves had fewer rights (legal marriage, for instance) than slaves in other countries; consequently, they lost their connection to the past more readily.

O-10:

I did answer your question. You just have to fill in the details. Let me put it this way:

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, survives contact with American Culture!!! That's the answer to your question O-10. The details of the musical part of it, I leave to The Frogman.

A few folks doing some so-called voodoo thing in Nawlins, is not the same as saying African music has survived in this country. A lot people in Nawlins are from the Islands, not American at all. Even to this day.

Neither the Slaves nor any music they may have had, survived the culture clash. Hell, slavery itself could not survive it. The millions of Europeans immigrants of the 19th century did not survive.

For example, the French know this, but, because of their arrogance and illusions of grandeur, are fighting a losing battle against it. The rest of the planet has happily succumbed.

Worried about Chinese Power? You needn't. We have The Stones on Tour, Buick is the most popular car, and the Golden arches and KFC are everywhere. You can feel free to sleep like a baby.

The slaves and their music never stood a chance. This was not a beating on a log type place. They lived in a 'European' country. Cuba and Brazil were colonies 'administered' by Europeans. There is a difference.

Just a few things to ponder.
These slaves did not all come from the same village. Hell, they didn't even have the same religion or language!! And once here, they were displaced all over the South. Sort of hard to mantain 'traditions' in that enviroment.

How large a 'population/concentration' of people is required to sustain a culture? EVERYONE was not a musician or even cared about music.

And lastly, an inferior culture will always succumb to and try to adapt to a superior culture. That's just human nature. Beating on a log or western music? Who do you think is gonna win that one.

Also. America was the land of oppourtunity even by slave standards. Maybe not so much in Cuba or Brazil.

The Frogman was on target with his comments.

Cheers

Suggested reading: 'Guns, Germs and Steel' and 'The Diary of Mary Chesnut'

Acman3, this is the real deal all the way live, "makes me want to get up and boogie".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErZnMmYJlE8

Enjoy the music.

Frogman, this is from the movie, compare it to Voodoo around the world, including New Orleans to this on "You tube", and notice the similarities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js0CAjUXv58

Canonical story[edit]Eurydice was the wife of Orpheus, who loved her dearly; on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow. One day, a satyr saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a viper, dying instantly. Distraught, Orpheus played and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and deities wept and told him to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her, which he gladly did. After his music softened the hearts of Pluto and Persephone, his singing so sweet that even the Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take her back to the world of the living. In another version, Orpheus played his lyre to put Cerberus, the guardian of Hades, to sleep, after which Eurydice was allowed to return with Orpheus to the world of the living. Either way, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world. Soon he began to doubt that she was there, and that Hades had deceived him. Just as he reached the portals of Hades and daylight, he turned around to gaze on her face, and because Eurydice had not yet crossed the threshold, she vanished back into the Underworld. When Orpheus later was killed by the Maenads at the orders of Dionysus, his soul ended up in the Underworld where he was reunited with Eurydice.

Enjoy the music.