RockOm

RockOm Round-up is a quick glance at what's going on around the world in the areas of music and spirituality...

• Jason Mraz wants his music and his actions to help people change their lives for the better - "Mraz shares the restaurant's philosophies at a 'gratitude tent' at his shows. Personally, he is always looking for ways to improve his life, whether it's through Buddhism or other sources... 'Anything I can do to stay tuned up,' Mraz said. 'It's every little pamphlet, every spiritual text, every life manual I can get. As a writer, it's my duty to stay abreast of different philosophies.'" (modbee.com)
• Terence Blanchard melds philosophy, music in 'Choices' - "These albums are not simply collections of songs, but larger thematic pieces recorded around a central idea, inspired by hard times and social change... It's part of our generation's response," said Blanchard. (latimes.com)
• Dance Your Blues Away - "Dance is also used throughout many of the spiritual traditions as a form of losing self-centeredness and opening the heart, as seen in Sufi whirling dervishes, Tibetan lama dancing, the ecstatic dance accompanying Hindu devotional chanting, or in Jewish circle dancing." (huffingtonpost.com)
• Looking to the music to lead us back - "It shouldn’t be left to politicians and economists to show the way forward... our traditional musicians have their own story to tell and a long history of healing ills" (irishtimes.com)
• Cracking the code, is music the universal language? - "During a unique panel on Notes and Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus, the presenters discussed this question: 'Is our response to music hard-wired or culturally determined? Is the reaction to rhythm and melody universal or influenced by environment?'" (examiner.com)

"Artists reach areas far beyond the reach of politicians. Art, especially entertainment and music, is understood by everybody, and it lifts the spirits and the morale of those who hear it." [Nelson Mandela]

Nelson Mandela, one of the world’s most inspiring and influential men, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the first President of post-apartheid South Africa turned 91 on Saturday. Mandela's legacy was celebrated at a star-studded concert at New York City's Radio City Music Hall and was attended by some of the industry's brightest.

It has been almost two decades since Mandela was released from his 27 years of imprisonment at Robben Island and Victor Verster prison where he was known by the infamous prisoner number 46664. The entire world cheered upon watching the live coverage of Mandela's release on February 11, 1990. We delighted again three years later in 1993 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, scarcely a year later upon his election as President of South Africa we came to understand the full significance of how far the human race and spirit had evolved.

Over the 27 years Mandela was imprisoned by the separatist South African government, musicians worldwide kept Mandela and his fight for an integrated South Africa in the forefront of our social conscience through music and song. One of the first and most popular songs elevating Mandela and the outlawed African National Congress to the world stage was from the group The Specials, who in 1983 recorded the song "Nelson Mandela". In 1985 Stevie Wonder won an Academy Award for his song "I Just Called To Say I Love You" and dedicated the Oscar to Mandela. Also, in 1985 the album Sun City: Artists United Against Apartheid featured songs by a who’s who of the music world including Steven Van Zandt, Bono, Keith Richards, Peter Gabriel, Ringo Starr, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Cliff, Daryl Hall, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, Stanley Jordan, Bonnie Riatt, Bruce Springsteen and many others.

On June 11, 1988, The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute took place at Wembley Stadium, London and was broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. Musicians taking part in the concert included Dire Straits, Simple Minds, George Michael, Whitney Houston, Aswad, Hank Wangford, Sly and Robbie, Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Jerry Dammers, Al Green, Bryan Adams, Jackson Browne, UB40, Salt-N-Pepa, Chubby Checker, Miriam Makeba, Eric Clapton, and Sting.

Music certainly played a part in helping bring about the freedom of Nelson Mandela. Mr. Mandela's story continues to serve as a reminder of the awesome power music plays in lifting human rights and social causes to a higher ground where change occurs. The soundtrack in which to remember that special moment in time will never be forgotten. It will be looked upon as an example by generations to come for furthering future causes of freedom and equality for the oppressed and subjugated.

Today we celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela as he turns 91 and offer acknowledgment and gratitude to not only Mandela for his graceful example of humanity at its most noble, but to those musicians and social activists as well who took up the cause of equality for all, becoming Mandela's voice at a time his voice was seemingly silenced.

Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures
CNN
Nelsonmandela.org
Mandela.tv

By Tom Crenshaw, tom@rockom.net

"The planet is asleep and it's the fault of musicians who are untrue to themselves." ~Sun Ra

The world is clamoring for new ideas. Innovation, fresh modes of thinking and deeper levels of awareness are vital to meet the dire challenges facing us all. Here are just a few global-level challenges in need of new ideas:

1. The world economic crisis

2. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan and nuclear weapons proliferation

3. The threat from global warming

4. Third-world hunger, disease and genocide

5. Religious and spiritual intolerance leading to violence and war

The point about ideas is that there is no shortage of them. However, proven ideas are more limited. These challenges weren’t created in terms of months and aren’t going to be resolved in months or perhaps even years. We are essentially owning up to the fact that a large percentage of the world’s population has been asleep and a larger percentage basically never had, or has given up on, ever having a voice in what happens to them in the future.

We, as individuals, families and communities need new ideas to be put to use in areas of influence on a local level. Sometimes the word “idea” might be too limiting. Perhaps better words might be “intuition” or “a burning passion leading to higher ways of thinking and creating” are more appropriate.

Here’s a sample on a smaller scale of some of the challenges we face as families and as communities that are in need of new ways of thinking to create almost immediate change. We might just discover resolutions to these challenges that culminate in an exponentially greater sense of happiness as a result of our thoughts and actions.

1. Lack of respect or kindness towards one another

2. An inability to be nurturing and kinder to our own selves (we’re hardest on ourselves and this reverberates to all those around us)

3. A mindset that believes our actions don’t matter and we can’t be agents of change or goodwill

4. Ungratefulness for what is ours already, what we can accomplish, and what we can share with and be for others

Ideas, intuition, and burning passion can be a guide in solving both global and individual challenges if we simply trust that spark or idea and then act to create solutions. Not overwhelmed with solutions and overwhelmed with doubt? Then remember the words of Theodore Roosevelt and, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” The place to start perhaps is defining what ideas and passions are sustaining us, nurturing us and making us better beings.

One of my greatest passions is helping develop RockOm.net. I truly believe in everything that RockOm.net stands for. I believe RockOm can be a vehicle of service and change, and I believe in those of you who are coming to the website in search of a place to express yourselves and share your music and thoughts with the world. Music and musicians, as well as those who understand that music cuts through all the barriers dividing us, still have a vital role to play in shaping ideas, dialogue, and thus, our world.

I’ve no doubt that we as individuals and as a planet will continue to both muck things up and create solutions to the problems facing us. But our emergence into a better today and into better lovers, friends, family members, neighbors and stewards of our planet will come about through our ideas, passions, burning desires, and through our actions.

What are your greatest ideas, intuitions or burning passions? They don’t have to be so grand as to change the world globally, maybe just locally. If they are and do, that’s welcomed, such as what we're hoping to do here at RockOm. And now we ask you- what is it you need, what are you waiting for (if not now, when?) and what can best serve you as your music unfolds or your love of music expands?

I think, as Marianne Williams so eloquently said, each of us is aware of a power inside that we’re afraid of, that is so illuminating as to temporarily blind us to what we’re truly capable of. Trusting that brilliance, our inherent brilliance and becoming aware of its ordinarily awesome nature is most important to seeing our ideas and passions through to brighter realities. And to relate this specifically to the RockOm community - this brilliance can shine through in music and in our understanding of music as an instrument of awakening, celebration and change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Crenshaw is the Vice President of RockOm.net. Contact him at tom@RockOm.net.

With Ram Dass, Odetta and Christine Stevens

It was while attending the Seva Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Concert in Oakland, CA on September 27, 2008 that the conversation began. The line-up for the evening included Ruthie Foster and Nina Gerber, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Graham Nash, Elvis Costello, and Los Lobos. The night was filled with great music by some great artists, some of whom you could say have changed the world as we know it. Perched in our seats in Oakland's Paramount Theater at intermission, we began to discuss whether music does indeed have the power to change the world or if that is just a poetic, though inaccurate, perspective.

Then we remembered what the great folk singer Ms. Odetta said in an earlier interview with RockOm. When asked by Tom Crenshaw if she thought music still has the power to change the world, Odetta replied,

“Not the music, not the music… It’s people who are actually on the firing line that we’re supporting, that are doing the changing of the world. Person by person, there is some power there.”

The people Ms. Odetta were speaking of are the Seva workers and social activists in the field - the doctors, nurses, organizers, planners and support staff who are actually doing the changing. It’s really not about the music… or is it?

So we went to the top with this, asking Ram Dass, renowned author, spiritual teacher and board member of the Seva Foundation about the work of groups like Seva and music's transformational potential.

RockOm: Thinking back 30 years ago to the beginning of the Seva Foundation, what would you say was the driving force behind the founding members' aspirations and has Seva exceeded your expectations as to what the founders hoped to accomplish?

Ram Dass: The original purpose of Seva was two-fold: social action and using it for spiritual growth (Karma Yoga). Though the years the social action (relieving of suffering) has become more of the primary focus.

RockOm: What are your thoughts on how, year after year, music has helped Seva raise such awareness of its purpose and mission?

Ram Dass: Our music events led by Wavy Gravy have brought us money for our projects and publicity for the foundation.

RockOm: Do you believe music has the ability to heal and relieve suffering on a profound level as with other fields of service?

Ram Dass: I believe that the music itself at these events have healed the audiences, and we at Seva, who heal the blind, need music for our healing as well.

All of this from a man who, in his late 70s with a nearly unmatched spiritual resume and nothing left to prove, has released a new album entitled Cosmix - a unique blend of music and spirituality, mixing electronica beats and soundscapes with sound bites and spoken word. There is no doubt that Baba Dass finds in music that great power to bring healing and transform lives.

In our continued effort to explore this topic, we sought out Christine Stevens from UpBeat Drum Circles who, along with the UpBeat team’s Ashti Drum Project, recently returned from their second trip to Iraq. While there they served children with their music through Kurdistan Save the Children, as well as Iraqi women at two shelters in Suliyamania.

“There is only a one-letter difference between performer and reformer,” Christine commented. “Ashti Drum in Iraq has demonstrated that music and drum circles are successful models for transformation through cross-cultural collaboration.”

But what about music healing and serving profoundly, as with other fields of service such as the medical field? Christine went on to clarify,

“First of all, let’s define the term ‘heal.' Healing is restoring into one's life what is missing, becoming whole. Secondly, let’s define the term ‘healer.’ In indigenous history, the healer was both a musician and physician - the shaman. So, at its roots, music has been part of healing for centuries.”

Christine concluded,

“Let’s empower people to take an active role in their own healing and health. In our research, positive biological changes occur when people drum together (www.remo.com/health). Because of this research, we could go into Iraq with an evidence-based program that was accepted by all religious sects for the medicinal purposes of alleviating the suffering - both physical and psychological - of the survivors of the war in Iraq. Do I believe music can be healing? I literally bet my life on it going to Iraq... and it worked!”

So does music “change the world” or does it simply inspire the hands and feet of the change-makers? Like most questions, the answer is less “either-or” and more “both-and.” Or perhaps most likely, the question needs no answer at all. In the end, who really cares? It is all one process and one cycle. Perhaps a better lens in which to view such profound questions is best summed up by what Christine offered with regards to intention:

"As Krishna Das says, ‘If you want enlightenment; feed people.’ Music is food for the soul. Share your music. Let your gifts shine. Go to a shelter and sing. It is time for music to be unleashed as a powerful force of healing and cross-cultural peace-making. Music immediately removes barriers and creates dialogue and connections. Even the Dali Lama recommends music sharing festivals for peace-making in the Middle East.”

May the music-makers continue making their music, those in the field continue their work and each of us do what we can to make a positive impact. And, “person by person,” personally and publicly, alone and together, may we all work to, in Gandhi's words, “be the change we wish to see in the world.”

[By Trevor Harden (Trevor@RockOm.net) and Tom Crenshaw (Tom@RockOm.net)]

Discuss this article

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The Seva Foundation is a non-profit foundation in Berkeley California that was founded back in 1978 by some very compassionate individuals such as Drs. Larry and Girija Brilliant, Dr. Nicole Grasset, spiritual teacher Ram Dass, Berkeley activists Wavy Gravy and Jahanara Romney. The Seva Foundation currently is working to:

• “Prevent blindness and restore sight in India, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Tanzania and Guatemala.”
• “Help indigenous communities in Guatemala and Mexico develop their capacity to meet basic needs and create solutions to poverty and injustice.”
• “Support Native American projects across the U.S. in the areas of health and wellness, community development, environmental protection and cultural preservation.”

To find out more or to donate a one-time or reoccurring tax-deductible donation, please visit www.seva.org.

Info about Odetta: www.mc-records.com/html/odetta_landing.html

Info about Ram Dass and his album: www.ramdass.org

Info about Christine Stevens: www.upbeatdrumcircles.com

[Edited by Andrew Hoogheem]