I was asked this question from another angle when I created the music for a Dance Piece called, “Hi-Frequency” choreographed and co-created by Kathryn Hightower. The piece was presented at the Chapel Space at the Good Shepard Center in Wallingford in Seattle. After the public performance there was a panel discussion and questions from the audience members. One of the questions that were asked to the Artists on the panel was, “What was the motivation for our creation and whether we think in advance about the outcome?

My answer was that In someways there is a little bit of both, because as George Washington Carver expressed, “The ability to foresee, visualize, and create your idea in your mind is the most powerful resource you have.” This is a natural element of the creative process, but self-expression the conveyance of personal feeling through your Art is your most important resource. So you create your genuine Art for your own personal empowerment or to tell your story or to educate, empower and share in community. I agree with the statement by John Stiernberg, in his book entitled, “Succeeding in Music” when he states in regards to your Art, “If a wide audience respond positively, that’s good, but it is not essential to the definition of Art. Another author, Van A. Christy in his manual, "Expressive Singing, Volume 1, in regards to this subject states, "The Artist must love his art, primarily for its own sake and not for the sake of possible remunerative reward. There is little purpose in considering singing as a career if the principle objective is personal ambition or desire to make money easily. Ambition must be present as a great driving force, but it must be the ambition for perfection in expression, for self-effacement in the Arts, rather than self-aggrandizement. the goal is to give rather than to get"

I guest if you want commercial fame then you have to rely on the numbers, but if you create to build a legacy to educate, you connect your enthymeme with the people who resonate with the message or the vibration that you transmit. Truth is revealed on any medium and it is the most powerful resource that an Artist can express. This is the “Hi-Frequency” model expressed in this works. As a group the dancers, myself and choreographer commence from a genuine intention to create a New Piece of Work that would stand out in a syncopated, poly-rhythmic frequency for our communication and interpretation for our expression to the world community. This was our universal language and we were aware that the Modern Dance World don’t create in this model. They don’t necessarily dance on the beat or let the rhythm from the music dictate their movement like in African Dancing or Popular dancing in the dance halls. Dancing is a Freedom of Expression and spontaneity, but it is still within an element of control and rhythmic syncopation at least in my long years of experience.

The Modern Dance World, Ballet and other dance form exemplify this control but not often times the rhythmic marriage. I wanted to find out more about this phenomena of off tempo dancing so I decided to do my own personal research. I found a book, “Ballet and Modern Dance” by Craig Dodd, where I discovered that this is a School of Thought in the Modern Dance World. Once of its originator is Merce Cunningham who was born in Seattle and educated at Cornish College in Seattle. According to this book, “He rejects the need for his dancers, and therefore all others to be wed to the music....Dance was freed from its dependence on musical structure. Music is something which, if used at all, just happen as the same time as the dance....Here in the late 1930's, at much the same time as he started to work with Martha Graham, he met John Cage. Cage, avant-garde musician extraordinary, was a major influence throughout his career and instrumental in the formulation of the idea of divorcing dance from dependence on the rhythmical impulse of music.”

Another view point I discovered from researching the subject of the connectivity of dance to music was found in the book, "The Spirit's Dance in Africa, Evolution/Transformation and Continuity in Sub-Sahara", Simon Ottenberg says, "Again the relationship of dance to music involves important, though sometimes quite subtle considerations. While correlations obviously must exist for dance to occur, important questions in any culture can be asked. Do the musicians lead the dancers, the dancers direct the musicians, or is there a back and forth guidance between the two?...........a related dance/music question is what is the balance of power between the dancers and musicians in terms of others who are present? In some performances the musicians serve as background and the focus is on the dance, while in others the reverse is true, the dancers seem secondary to the music, while in still other cases there is a balance of the two. What do any of these music forms says about dance and music in a culture, or about particular dances and music?"(Resource information came courtesy of Galeri Amrad African Arts Publications)

Yet another viewpoint is expressed by Albert Murray in the book entitle, Jazz, A History of America's Music..."The people for whom blues music was created in the first place...are dance-oriented people. They are dance-beat-oriented people. They refine all movement in the direction of dance-beat elegance. Their work movements become dance movements and so do their play movements: and so, indeed, do all the movements they use everyday, including the way they walk, stand, turn, wave, shake hands, reach or make any gesture at all. So, if the overwhelming preponderance of their most talented musicians has been exclusively preoccupied with the composition and performance of dance music, it is altogether consistent and with their most fundamental conceptions and responses to existence itself."

Herein lies my music philosophy:

Jah Breeze Artist Profile:

Jah Breeze received a Service to Education Award in May 2000 from Seattle Community College District in recognition of 5 years of dedication to teaching. He served on the board of directors for ArtsCorps, a nonprofit arts education organization. He has directed the African Drum Ensembles at High Point YMCA and Rainier Beach Community Center in the past years, and taught African drum workshops for Rainier

He has performed with the Seattle Dance Company for "Dance Dis" at the Paramount Theatre, and taught African drum workshops at the 2002 Seattle International Children Festival at Seattle Center. He also directed the Arts Corps African Drum Ensemble in a South African mural exchange celebration at the Seattle Art Museum. Jah served as the Percussion Director for the 2003 MAAFA Performance produced by the Sankofa Theatre, a Pan African Saga about the legacies of the Middle Passage Experience ------------------------------------------

JAH BREEZE TRIO which consist of Jah Breeze(Steel Pans & Percussion), Victor Odicio(Congos, Rhumba Box, Djembe) and Erie Jones(Guitar). The trio plays authentic steel drum music from the Caribbean where Jah Breeze grew up playing the steel drums in national ensembles for Carifeista and Carnival celebrations. His musical repretoire in the steel journey trio, includes such reggae and Jazz renditions of Bob Marley's, "Stir-It-Up", "No woman, No Cry", "Three little Birds", as well as, other older Caribbean classics like, "Jamaica Farewell", "Yellow Bird", and his hot, hot original pan tune, "Soca Fiesta". For Booking and Promotions contact Jah Breeze at the information listed below: "RASTA STEEL FOR REAL"----------------------------------------------------

Classes and Programs:

STEEL DRUM SUMMER CAMP----JULY 6 - AUGUST 12, 2010
Sojourner Truth Mission at El Centro De La Raza
2524 16th Ave S.
Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington
$40 Per Day
$100 Per Week
$250 for 3 Weeks
$500 for 6 Weeks
Space is Limited so enroll early.


Small group sessions/workshops (10 participants or less)
Large group sessions/workshops (over 10 participants)
Individual private lessons

For more information, contact:

Jah Breeze
c/o Jah Breeze Rhythms
4616 25th Ave NE, #303
Seattle, WA 98105
jahbreezereggae@juno.com
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