miércoles, 31 de octubre de 2012

Make silence and learn



There is an aspect that all African American people have learn troughout history. All the dificulties that they had through in the slavery were usefull and teached a lot of things. Think when you have to cope with several problemes, think that at the final... "What Dosen't kill you, makes you stronger". They learnt a lot of things and they become stronger. In the past we forced the silence of all the African American people, now  it have been necesary make a little of silence so we can hear them. 

Bob Marley and the voice of reason









Bob  Marly is one of the most popular reggae artist. He song about free and life.

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the 'and of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.

This is an important artistic expresion of slavery and African American people condition over the years. But the most important thing, i think, is this: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds."

The policy affects on a direct way on the social understanding and reality life and social construccion. The slavery  became  an important aspect that  affects directly the cotidian life of the people. An example of that is the racial segregation. The slavery started to reside in the subjective relations and constitution of African American people and American people. Was necesary, and still being, a long process of recognition and apologies to help to heal the damages and pain suffered in the slavery.
I leave you with a couple of prhases of Mandela:

 "I am what I am because of who we all are" and  "For­give­ness is the very path one must travel to know free­dom."

martes, 30 de octubre de 2012

Max Roach - Abbey Lincoln "Freedom Day"


"Freedom Day"


In the whole African American Music there is a kind of specific speech that is directly influenced for the history of African American people.The slavery is a cultural factor that can't be denied, that factor made several consequences in the African American people and their culture. They have been claiming for freedom since they were taken from their home. The several musical expresions are a way to express the call to freedom.

Freedom is not so simple as say free or liberty. The speech of freedom is involved with politics characteristics. This freedom speech means freedom to build and help to develope their country, freedom to be a competitor of the politic, freedom to be active citizens. That kind of speech of freedom mean be involved like active partaker of her country and the project of her nation.


Lyrics:

Whisper, listen, whisper, listen. Whispers say we're free.
Rumors flyin', must be lyin'. Can it really be?
Can't conceive it, can't believe it. But that's what they say.
Slave no longer, slave no longer, this is Freedom Day.
Freedom Day, it's Freedom Day. Throw those shackle n' chains away.
Everybody that I see says it's really true, we're free.
Whisper, listen, whisper, listen. Whispers say we're free.
Rumors flyin', must be lyin'. Can it really be?
Can't conceive it, don't believe it. But that's what they say.
Slave no longer, slave no longer, this is Freedom Day.
Freedom Day, it's Freedom Day. Throw those shackle n' chains away.
Everybody that I see says it's really true, we're free.
Freedom Day, it's Freedom Day. Free to vote and earn my pay.
Dim my path and hide the way. But we've made it Freedom Day.

The different uses of the African American music like a channel of communication



Back in 1774, the most songs of black people assume the work on their songs. Levine says: 

“In 1774, an English visitor, after his first encounter with slave music, wrote in his journal: In their songs they generally relate the usage they have received from their Masters in a very satirical style.” (Levine. 2005: 592). 
Levine,L. (2005). “African American Music as Resistance”. African American Music: An Introduction. (p. 587-598). New York Routledge.



So, back in 1774 they used to sing based in the slavery. In the 1895, after the civil war and the black rights, they sang: “White man goes to college, Niggers to the field; White man learns to read and write; Poor Niggers learns to steal…” In the 1895, different to the 1774, they didn´t sing in relation with the slavery, they were singing for a social cause, because even in that time the racism, and the black exclusion, were present.


But the music can’t be based in a response or relation to the American people or the slavery. But, in fact, it’s true that the music is in direct relation to the slavery, and it becomes a channel of communication and expression for the Black people and culture. So the music, away to be only an instrument of resistance, becomes a channel were the African American people could communicate themselves, and with the American people. In this way, every gender of Black music is not only based on the rhythm or harmonics, it has a specific way of communication. The genders were created in the same relation that the Black and Withes were being communicating. African American Music evolves as the same time as the racial social relation.



"Swing Of Change"


"Swing Of Change" 




The project of nation and the future of the Unite States of America was, back in the 30's, conformed by singular and particular objectives with specific characteristics. The African American people were anything but the desirable, with the time they had been creating a diferent relations and the influence of African American people in the project of nation has changed.

I think that this video is the right example of that. The American people learnt, with the time, to be in a relation of acceptance and dialogue with the African American people. Nowadays there is the first African American president of the United States of America. 

The perception of the African American people in the 30's


The perception of the African American people in the 30's

The general perception of the African American people was, back in the 30's, an aspect that we can't put away from the analysis. In the 30's there was a kind of social perception that put the African American people as uncivilized and primitive race, they were less than American people. 


Nothing good can be from the African American people, they are noticed as people with cultural and folklore aspects. But those aspects are qualified as lower and primitive. Being the American people who had the monopoly of the media and communication, they put in there all the stereotypes and social perception of the African American culture.

All that represent the African American people and culture is indesirable and primitve. Then, the African American Music is, as well as the African American People, undesirable. That music represents all the thing that aren't include in the desirable or progress. 

The cultural aspect and the expression aspect


The cultural aspect and the expression aspect



The bondage of the African American people was a strong way to create a kind of cultural and political social control. In fact, the bondage was the best way to make a breakdown in the relation of the white-black people. It couldn´t be that the black people saw the white as their masters. Counter to the white people, the black one just didn´t think in a master-slave relation. They just felt the pressure and social control that the white, with the slavery, did to them.  In that way, the black people hadn’t rights or vote, they weren´t citizens or civil subjects, they didn´t have rights or ways of communication.

Because of that, they saw the music like a way of expression. By the music they were able to express by themselves without being excluded. Lawrence Levine talked about that: 

“It wouldn´t distort African American music to argue that it has functioned primarily or even largely as a forum for protest. Black Americans have not spent all of their time reacting to the Whites around them. (…) But it would be an even greater distortion to assume that a people occupying the position that African Americans have in American society could create so rich and varied music with a few allusions or responses to their situation” (Levine. 2005: 586).

In: Levine,L. (2005). “African American Music as Resistance”. African American Music: An Introduction. (p. 587-598). New York Routledge. 

Then, there is a couple of thing around the African American Music that I would like to resume. For one side, the origins of the music of the African American people is a form of cultural expression that is cause of the repression and segregation in America. But for the other side, we can't say that it is just for that aspect, the African American Music is too a natural cause of a cultural product and folklore. 


Photography taken from: http://www.michaelpsmithphotography.com/jazzfest/pages/jazz1.htm
"Michael P.Simth PHOTOGRAPHY"

So, we have two aspects that are important in our analysis: the music as a way of expression, cause of slavery, segregation and repression; and the music as a cultural product and cause of folklore. That two aspects, i believe, is the most important to bear in mind in a analysis of African American Music. Otherwise, that doesn't means that there aren't no more aspects to see or to analyze, there are, in fact, other things that affect  the African American Music such as historical changes, wars, civil rights movements, policy makers, and politic aspects.


About the "cause and effect rule" of the African American Music 


In a general way, we used to believe that the music is only a cultural thing, we don't think in the deep construction and formation of the music. Each cultural product has their own cause, has, in this way, a group of characteristics that are important to understand the constitution of their structure. The things in the social world, in a academic observation, are not meaningless, the cause and constitution of the social  aspects are not because yes. The thing are by the way that are because there is a reason that supports that. So, the African American Music is a cultural product that response a series of causes and reasons, has their own political and social causes. 
Then, just to make a metaphor, you could imagine the dominoes effect. When you see al the dominoes pieces in the ground, usually, you think how they get there. You can even imagine all the process of the dominoes effect. Cause and effect rule, in the reality the things are not just like that, but is a good way of explain it. 


Now, I do believe that the main cause of the African American Music is the slavery. All the African people had brought to the American territory by the Americans and became the slaves of the American People. That cause started a long and complicate relation between the American people and the African American people. Nowadays, the being of the African American people in the United Estates of America is a very important aspect that is enough to affect the political life either the cultural and social life.


And there were slaves that affect the usual, political, and cultural life of the United States of America. The slaves are a real fact, and it has their own consequences, the slaves, had their own cultural aspects and forms. When they came here they started to act as their culture set like usual. But, the question is that they were not in their original land. The African American people were immigrants, that means that they were in a new land, had been acting and doing  according traditional aspects of their old life and old lands. I mean, they were acting as their traditional folklore set as usual, and were doing cultural things in a new context. That could cause a several effects on the structure of their tradition, and could be the cause of the being of the African American Music.