Vh1 Next Season of Behind The Rap (Music)
antiMUSIC.com
Vh1 continue the rap heavy focus for the next series of episodes of Behind The Music with specials planned for Game, T-Pain, Akon, Brandy and Nas. Here are the details they sent over: "Behind The Music: Game" – Premieres Thursday, March 22, …

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:00:09 GMT
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Jazz Band performs Radiohead in nearly sold-out show – The Breeze

Jazz Band performs Radiohead in nearly sold-out show
The Breeze
The JMU Jazz Band, directed by Taylor Barnett, played Radiohead's “Everything in Its Right Place,” “Paranoid Android,” “All I Need” and “Morning Bell” at Thursday's concert. The music of Radiohead is usually performed by five English men, …

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:20:55 GMT
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Hip-Hop’s Damon Dash Sets Sights on Asia – Wall Street Journal (blog)

HipHopDX
Hip-Hop's Damon Dash Sets Sights on Asia
Wall Street Journal (blog)
By Ben Sin Damon Dash was once a living, breathing vision of hip-hop extravagance. You may have seen him in rapper Jay-Z's music video for the smash hit “Big Pimpin',” dancing on a yacht in the middle of the Caribbean, one hand holding a bottle of …
Dame Dash Takes DD172 To AsiaHip-Hop Wired

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Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:08:27 GMT
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Classical music review: Lovely singing, again, from the Orpheus Chamber Singers – Dallas Morning News (subscription)

Classical music review: Lovely singing, again, from the Orpheus Chamber Singers
Dallas Morning News (subscription)
By SCOTT CANTRELL Dallas' classical music scene did itself proud last week. Between Thursday and Saturday you could take in a world-classTristan und Isoldefrom the Dallas Opera, a world-class orchestra concert from the Dallas Symphony and world-class …

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Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:59:41 GMT
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Yo! Turkmen Rappers Flip The Script On Repression – EurasiaNet

Yo! Turkmen Rappers Flip The Script On Repression
EurasiaNet
The threat of prison, however, has not slowed the rising number and popularity of Turkmen rap groups defying government restrictions in Turkmenistan. Production and distribution of rap music is not officially banned. But as evidenced by punishments …

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Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:53:50 GMT
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            From its humble beginnings the musics known as Jazz and Blues have been marked by magic and mystery. Music legend tells of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads for the ability to play like a master. Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton speaks of the hoodoo women of New Orleans in a 1941 interview. Female Legends Bessie Smith and Gertrude “Ma” Rainey also allude to hoodoo practices in their songs “Lady Luck Blues” and “Louisiana Hoodoo Blues,” respectively.  There is a clear underbelly of hoodoo in the lives and consequently the music of the African-American south.

            Eric Clapton once called Robert Johnson “the most important blues musician who ever lived…. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.” Now much speculation has been given as to wether or not Johnson really was attempting to commune with the devil. Among Southern root workers, or Hoodoo practitioners, there are several practices revolving around the contact of a spirit named Legba, who has his origins in west african lore. In both Hoodoo tradition and New Orleans voodoo Legba is seen as the guardian of the crossroads.  Always a trickster he serves as an intermediary between the world of the living and that of the spirits. Many spells involve leaving offerings to him at the crossroads in order to open the way to success. It appears that part of the reason that this hoodoo related tale has sprung up around Mr. Johnson is that he himself lived a life of legend with many twists and turns. By many accounts he began his career as moderately decent musician who after a series of misfortunes reemerged as a musical great. The lyrics of his songs feature many veiled and unveiled references to hoodoo, mojo and related terms.          

         “Ma” Rainey sung of the heart of louisiana hoodoo, the root workings used for love. She proclaims “Going …Down where the hoodoo folks can fix it for you with your man.“  Southern root magic, also known as hoodoo or conjure most frequently deals with magic to regain lost love.  It is rumored that even Queen Victoria herself, partook of the magics of New Orleans hoodoo.  The folk religion served then, as it does now as a vehicle for female empowerment and success.  In “Lawd, Sedn Me a Man Blues,” Rainey repeatedly belts out “send me a zulu, a voodoo, any old man. “ She seems to long for the magic that these time-honored ancestral figures hold. When singing the blues one must pray to all who will listen. Most often these are ancestors, who can confer knowledge, luck and blessings on the living. New Orleans knows a lot about the dead, and also the living. It has been said that the city itself is synonymous with both Jazz and the religion of voodoo. The song “Lucky Rock Blues” written by Katie Winters and Louie Austin tells of “goin to New Orleans to find that lucky rock.” Generally speaking rocks can be used as talismanic objects charged for a specific purpose, or they can be used more specifically for the deity Maman Brigitte. The loa, or goddess, Maman Brigitte is venerated as the first woman born in every cemetery. Devotees often build memeorials to her out of piles of stones. These memorials are similar to the cairns built in Ireland, which can be viewed as some level of syncretisism with the Celtic goddess Brigit. “Lucky Rock Blues” claims its’ rock can release the mind of “all this trouble.” Again Voodoo and Hoodoo are called upon as a remedy for a multitude of pains.

        Some of the most extensive research done on early Hoodoo practices in the 1920’s and 1930’s was conducted by anthropologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston. Better known for her literary work, Ms. Hurston was also a playwright, a filmmaker, and a voodoo priestess initiated in several different spiritual houses. Her most powerful legacy is the folklore and anthropological research that she collected during her fieldwork throughout the southern United States. Hurston chronicled the practices of folk magicians, also known as root doctors, or two-headed men and women. The two heads were said to represent the practitioners’ ability to see into both this world and the next. These individuals crafted their own magical techniques based on both their ancestral knowledge and the natural elements they had on hand.The world of New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo continues, mixing and melding with the music itself. Contemporary musical legends like Dr.John, have continued to keep the songs of the sacred world alive.  

Recommended Resources

Voodoo and Afro-Caribbean Paganism Website

jazz instrumentals

About half of the weddings I come across have the ceremony in a church, this means that if they require of me, can it be to offer live music during the drinks and food before and the wedding breakfast. Everyone’s needs are different, so do not be afraid to have any special requirements, with whom you discuss your attitude.

Regarding the choice of the specific pieces of music is the only part of the wedding that you really have to think about the wedding ceremony.

The ceremony