"In
much of Africa, music is as large a part of everyday
life as conversation or cooking or the birdsong.
It enhances the significance of all the important
way stations of life, from birth through initiations
to death. You can hear it in the marketplace,
in the fields, and at night when the moon shines
and when it doesn't shine. There are special songs
sung when a child's first teeth erupt and songs
sung to cure the same child of bed-wetting.
There are songs sung when you're rowing a canoe
and different ones for walking or hoeing the fields
-songs that are sung at these times and no other.
You could almost say that African peoples have
a song or a dance for every occasion. "A
village without music is a dead place," says
an African proverb.
Drumming at the Edge of Magic - Mickey Hart (Grateful
Dead drummer) with Jay Stevens
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FullHouse Imaging 2005
