Fairies…ARE Important

Nobody Flashes

Excuse me while I go back…way back in my memory, when I was all about three years old. I was sitting in the back seat of my parent’s old station wagon, in St. Louis, on a cold winter’s night, early 1950’s. My dad was in the front seat, and we were waiting for my mom to come out of the shopping center. I do remember it was near Christmas, it might have been Christmas Eve. I felt pretty tiny in the backseat, and it was cold.

And I was getting tired of waiting,

“Where’s mom?” I asked my dad. “Is she okay? They are turning the lights out. It’s dark!” I was worried about my mom walking in the dark.

“She’ll be here, she’s probably just getting last-minute gifts.” said my dad.

I continue to ‘pout’ …this is so boring I thought…and then…I heard this song. It was playing over the shopping center loudspeakers, which back then, were outside.

OMG. It was if I had been struck by lighting. I remember asking my dad to roll down the windows so I could hear it better.

There are moments in one’s life, that determine the course you take. Profound almost spiritual. I can think of no other moment that effected my course in life.

That one moment when I heard this song, was the moment I fell in love with music. Of course, you realized I had no idea what ‘music’ actually was, but the deep emotion created by those tiny bells…that song was me.

As the song played I remember looking in the stores and imagining all the toys coming alive. I asked my dad if they did, and of course he said…probably. (LOL) My dad told me to run down hills too so that tells you how he loved to throw his little baby into life.

I also remember looking up and really discovering the stars while I listened. Space, was endless. The night was…endless. What was up there? God?

To this day, if I hear that song, I stop dead,…and listen. Usually its in a shopping center, and it always stops me cold.  Like a fool, I’ll just stand in the crowd and tell whomever I’m with to ‘shh.”

I go back to that moment of sheer joy. I feel the same feelings that I first felt when I heard it at three.

It’s no coincidence that I spent my life making music, and I have pictures of the universe scattered throughout my house.

Yes, childhood IS important. All your personality, your likes, your joys, your fears…most of that is formed between the age of birth and four or five.

Everybody has something they just love. Mine was music and wonderment.

Years later I read that Tchaikovsky had suffered from deep depressions, as did I so much of my life, and I thought to myself, “No WONDER I get it.”

He was truly a genius.

And I believe, that sometimes the saddest people in life, are sometime so sensitive, that emotion can overwhelm their very souls…and the thing they want most in life, is to be fully alive…not to die.

They want to go back to that magical moment when the world was as simple…as a fairy. So, did a lot of Disney artists too who put the fairies to music. When you realize that this scene was hand drawn, it’s almost unbelievable.

But then, that’s what inspiration can do. Did he know how his “Dance” would last and influence everyone from Walt Disney to a nobody in Missouri?

Of course, not. It was no doubt, directly from the great muse in the sky, and he just had to get it out. There has never been a song written that even compares. (Harry Potter’s theme comes close, but no.)

So, I picked two versions…

Enjoy!

And thanks for letting me share a bit of myself.

December 2, 2017 Posted by Joyanna Adams | music, Uncategorized | Music | 1 Comment

Nobody Flashes the Evolution of the BAKA Pygmy Music

Nobody Flashes

I used to study the rhythm of the Pygmies when I was a drummer. They have the MOST complicated rhythmic patterns on earth.

In the first video, you have to TRY to ignore the guy dancing, (I know, it’s hard, he’s got it down doesn’t he?) and listen carefully to the synchronicity of the singers rhythm, compared to the drummers. It sounds like they are separate, but they are NOT.

VERY hard to do. Very few musicians in the world can do this…but the pygmies do it with ease.

Now, listen to the second video. It’s very soothing, and more rehearsed. I like to say that this is more ‘Westernized’ and some would claim it’s BAKA evolution. Add the guitar and you almost have a latin feel.

So to our ears, it’s MUCH more pleasing and fun. It’s more arranged, and the guy even has a mike. If you have never heard the music of the BAKA pygmy’s then you should at least try it once. I also wonder….Is this where the Hawaiians got the idea for the Hula skirt?

And by the way…I can do that. Really. And no, I’m not showing you.

Enjoy! And by the way, if you think this is weird, you should hear their lullabies. Hippo’s would run.

April 21, 2017 Posted by Joyanna Adams | music, Uncategorized | Music | Leave a comment