On Halloween weekend, 2009, I had the opportunity to attend a major music festival in New Orleans – Voodoo Experience. Prior to this assignment, I had no intention of going to this event. However, as I began to piece together my topic and goals for this project, this became my best opportunity to experience what I have set out to understand. The purpose of this music-culture research report is to chronicle Jewish music in New Orleans – specifically the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars. I gave up the typical Halloween experience in order to seek out a band that seemed to be the ultimate blend I was looking for – a Jewish klezmer band that is distinctly New Orleans. In addition to this show, I was able to enjoy many great bands playing at the festival. I also make a point to catch the headlining bands, Jane’s Addiction and Kiss, both of which put on great shows.
Klezmer can be summed as “traditional, instrumental party music of Yiddish-speaking, Eastern European Jews”. (Strom 2) Literally Yiddish for “song vessel”, it is characterized by a festive, celebratory feel and expressive human-like leads. Klezmer is a secular music; it is not typically found within a synagogue or associated with prayer. However it draws strongly from traditional worship music. Though there are records of klezmer as far back as the 15th century, the majority of recognizable klezmer compositions originated in 19th century Eastern Europe. Klezmer has experienced several small-scale revivals in the late 20th century, thanks to groups such as the Klezmer Conservatory Band and the Klezmatics. Many of the newer as well as the older klezmer groups were heavily influenced by regional culture. The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars are perhaps the only establi...
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...e interview. 2 Dec. 2009.
"Klezmer." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 02 Dec. 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2009 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klezmer>.
"Mardi Gras Indians." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 02 Dec. 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_Indian>.
New Orleans Klezmer All Stars: Official Site. Web. 20 Oct. 2009. .
Rogovoy, Seth. The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover's Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music, from the Old World to the Jazz Age to the Downtown Avant-Garde. Chapel Hill, N.C: Algonguin Books of Chapel Hill, 2000. Print.
Strom, Yale. The Book of Klezmer the History, the Music, the Folklore. Chicago, Ill: A Cappella Books, 2002. Print.
Voodoo Experience. By New Orleans Klezmer All Stars. City Park, New Orleans, LA. 31 Oct. 2009. Performance.
For centuries, music has been defined by history, time, and place. To address this statement, Tom Zè, an influential songwriter during the Tropicália Movement, produced the revolutionary “Fabrication Defect” to challenge oppression as a result from the poor political and social conditions. On the other hand, David Ramsey discusses, in mixtape vignettes, the role of music to survive in New Orleans’ violent setting. Furthermore, “The Land where the Blues Began”, by Alan Lomax, is a film and perfect example to understand under what musical conditions profound ways of communication are made to stand the hard work of cotton plantations. As a result, music plays a crucial role in the sources’ cultures and its creation relies on particular conditions such as the social
Voodoo Music & Arts Experience: This festival began in 1999 and since then it has become very popular. In this festival, you can enjoy the food, music, crafts and cultural activity of the city. Two main stages and several smaller ones are placed in the City Park while food and beverage stands, books, jewelery, arts and crafts and clothes vendors are scattered around the green area as well.
Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America’s Creole Soul. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, c2006.
African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.
Through my research about this certain music culture I used many things to conduct my research. I first of all attended a concert performed by one of my classmate’s close friend Caleb Mak which was performed at the The Short Stop venue. After that later on I interviewed him by phone about different things related to his view of his...
The purpose of this study is determine why and how African American music that’s is so deeply rooted into the community is being culturally appropriated. This is a topic that has been the on the foreground of race for years. Activists and celebrities like Adrienne Keene, DeRay McKesson, Azealia Banks, and Jesse Williams helped bring the issue into the national attention. Most of the world or better yet the appropriators have very little knowledge of what the word actually means. In order to understand the problem we must first understand the word Culture and Appropriation. Culture being defined as the beliefs, ideas, traditions, speech, and material objects associated with a particular group of people. Appropriation the action of taking something
African-American music is a vibrant art form that describes the difficult lives of African American people. This can be proven by examining slave music, which shows its listeners how the slaves felt when they were working, and gives us insight into the problems of slavery; the blues, which expresses the significant connection with American history, discusses what the American spirit looks like and teaches a great deal from the stories it tells; and hip-hop, which started on the streets and includes topics such as misogyny, sex, and black-on-black violence to reveal the reactions to the circumstances faced by modern African Americans.
New Orleans has always been a big music town, for there has always been brass bands that played in the streets for parades, or for families to give comfort during a funeral.... ... middle of paper ... ... (The Influence of Jazz & Blues on Modern Music.”).
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
Breckenridge, Stan L. (2003). "The 'Path African American music for everyone. Second Edition. Iowa: Kendall-Hunt Publications, Inc. Enotes.
Small, Christopher. Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in African American Music. Hanover, NH: U of New England, 1998. Print
Powell, A. (2007). The Music of African Americans and its Impact on the American Culture in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Miller African Centered Academy, 1. Retrieved from http://www.chatham.edu/pti/curriculum/units/2007/Powell.pdf
Ray Allen, Lois Wilcken. "Island Sounds in the Global City: Caribbean Popular Music and Identity in New York." 1-6. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1988.
Music has played a role in society since the dawn of man. Said to be the beginning of communication in early civilization, music and dance have influenced how we think, act and treat members of our own society. Song and dance is used in rites of passage ceremonies such as births, weddings and funerals throughout the world. Jamaican and Yoruba cultures have made many contributions to our society. The uses of this music as a vehicle for political issues, values, and beliefs have been used by many musicians from different cultures. I intend to discuss the Contribution of these two contemporary cultures music and their effect on society.