Jazz for aficionados

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.

Frogman, I was in Haiti about 3 years after this movie was made, and Haiti was very much like the movie, "weird beyond belief". In regard to the voodoo music, it's like the air they breath; we were riding up a mountain trail on a half ass (that's a cross between a horse and a donkey) in "Cap Haitian", and on the side of the road, one kid was beating out this voodoo rhythm on a metal shovel that had been left by a road crew, while other kids were dancing to the music like their bodies had no bones. They did this to amuse themselves, it had nothing to do with tourism or anything else.

I only saw the movie many years after I had gone to Haiti, had I seen the movie first, I would not have gone to Haiti. Movies can come very close to reality.



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

O-10, fascinating account of your trip to Haiti. This is an interesting essay that addresses, and corroborates, some of your points:

http://www.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/21-2/45-54.pdf