Music Gives You Wings: part 1

Music Is.

Music has the power to transcend time, flowing into the hearts of many. Music transcends from one soul to soul to create healing, joy, and unity. Music transcends from one realm to another, affirming and confirming us. Music transcends into love, connecting us with the people we love most, don’t know at all, and would like to get to know. Music transcends one’s state of mind, daring us to dream. Music transcends into energy, flowing freely, creating and nourishing life in the soul.

Music Heals.

As I placed the needle of my new record player on the Temptation’s Greatest Hits album David Ruffin belted out, “Sun-a-shining, there’s plenty of life…A new day is dawning sunny and bright,” and my tears erupted. Memories of how far I’ve come in the last year and a half circulated in my mind -from dealing with my grandmother’s passing, running for the queen of my college, and graduating to start a new chapter. Since I Lost My Baby became a song not just about losing a lover but overcoming the ache of a passed loved one and shedding the old parts of yourself to reach your highest potential. The reveries my grandmother and I shared to these songs brought joy upon my face as I was transported to a time when we were together. Once again, music brought me peace in solace.

She was a true lover of music, especially songs from the Funk Era. Her home was a gathering place where dancing to music was infectious in the fun, love, and healing it gave all those who entered. The tradition of African American peoples’ use of sound vibrations, a

non-invasive healing method, is finding its way back home. The human body is composed of 75 percent water, making it a phenomenal sound conductor, so sound vibrations can easily move through the body, increasing circulation and energy flow. The incomparable Quincy Jones once said, “You can’t live without water or music. You can’t live without it.” According to the British Academy of Sound Therapy, sound therapy, also known as sound healing or sound vibrational therapy, is defined as "sound, music, and special instruments played in therapeutic ways, combined with deep self-reflection techniques to improve health and well-being.”

Music carries me through some of the most challenging plights of my life, giving me wings to elevate to my highest potential. When I was struggling with addiction to fill voids, the lyrics and voice of Chandler Moore and Maverick City Music’s Refiner rooted me in God’s presence. I would pray, “Burn me beautiful, burn me lovely, burn me righteous, burn me holy.” I put the lyrics "Clean my hands, purify my heart, I wanna burn for you, only for You, Take my life as a sacrifice, I wanna burn for you, only for You” on my screen to soothe my temptations to masturbate at night. It worked. As I reflected on that time in life around three years ago, I am reminded of God’s love. The singing melodies of goodness, joy, and the power that lies within the song. Music transcends gravity and gives you wings — to fly, to believe in the impossible. I never thought I would be willingly sober from smoking or alcohol, but music gave me wings to be free and to love greater.

Not only does music heal through vibrational frequencies, but it also educates and transforms the mind, daring us to dream and strive toward our highest potential. Individuals who understood that music is a culmination of all the emotions we experience daily and that there is truth in it have utilized these tools to spread messages of bliss, togetherness, peace, and freedom.

Music Inspires.

A Variety Directors on Directors interview with actor, director, and producer Regina King and 2019 Queen & Slim director Melina Matsoukas on their intentions behind the scores in their soundtracks was transformational. Regina King discusses music in One Night in Miami, "I think one of the things that is very real for me…and I feel like you feel this same way, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Is that music- Black People Are Music. (Matsoukas nods her head) You know we speak with rhythm. We do; everything in our heads is like rhythm.You know, it’s hard for me to imagine a piece that’s celebrating Black People in any way not having a strong music component. Even if, like in my piece, it's not a heavily scored film, when the music’s there, it is very purposeful, and it is part of the telling of the story."

Melina responds, “Which is my favorite way of using music in a film. I think that’s really important. I think I am so sensitive to overindulging in our music cause’ it tells you how to feel. And I’m always like.. I’m not doing my job if I have to depend on the music to do that. So I actually like to edit with no music and then add it in later and make sure that the scenes are doing what they should be doing without having to depend on a piece of musical song or score to drive the story forward. Then you can also use it to literally drive the story forward. You know, obviously, I come from music videos, and the combination of music and film is so powerful. With Queen & Slim, we really tried to capture the diversity of black voices and show that journey from blues to rap to screwed up music to RnB and soul and everything in between. We even had some afrobeat in there. I just wanted to show the diversity of black people in the music and show the journey that we’ve gone on as these characters were going on a literal journey. Obviously, we all love music, and you’re right black people, we all have a rhythm. Our culture is one of the biggest commodities in the world that people buy into and steal and appropriate. I think it’s really important for us to own our music and our narrative. And you know like Sam Cooke is one of those incredible political artists who was able to use his music for change. In your movie, it’s also like, ‘Oh Malcolm X challenged him to do that.’ That’s challenged me, inspires me rather, seeing all of those people who have used their art to create change. You can do that in music, and you can do it in film. That’s what you’ve done with your piece, and I try to do the same with my piece that are creating a conversation.”

Music inspires me to create art. All types of art, cooking, writing, and painting. I started painting again after my grandmother died as a form of therapy. I’d put on a playlist and allow the sounds to transport me to another universe. The frequencies guided me and my brush. That’s how I discovered Mereba. Her album cover for Rider became my first portrait. I worked on it for 2 years. I just finished. I worked on this article for 18 months. However, in honor of Beyonce making history this past week as the most awarded artist at the Grammys, Lizzo’s amazing acceptance speech for Record of the Year, and Erykah Badu’s Baduizm 26 year anniversary, the timing was more aligned than I could have planned. Rider is featured on her album Azeb meaning “where the sun rises” (the sun shines on me as I write this). She starts the video by saying, “We live on a circle so crowded by doom, it’s hard not to feel slowly swallowed by the dark. Love dawned down on me, Azeb.”

Before the beat drops, she adds, “There’s a light rising in the sky, guiding our feet away from the path. Every time two spirits give trying a try, Azeb.”

Music is Us.

Music keeps you company when you’re alone with your thoughts. Music is divine intervention, confirmation, and appointment. Music advocates for others and tells a story. Music is history. Music shatters the unthinkable. Music allows release and renewal. Music gives life and creates life. Music is a culmination of all the emotions we experience daily- it is life. Music provides a place where one can truly feel belonging. Music is a form of escapism- a way of shifting to a new reality. Music provides understanding where words cannot. Music affirms, re-affirms, and affirms again. Music is one of God’s many languages - a way for him to communicate with us. Music is love, and God is love.

Thank you for spending time with me and my thoughts! Peace & Light.

With Love,

A'Shiah N. Rachel