Resilience: This JazzRx request came from a prompt from a friend of the band's, Nia Campinha-Bacote. She's a divinity school student at Yale and created a sonic healing playlist for hospital chaplains around the world for the purposes of specifically caring for Black bodies in pain. This track first came out on Nia’s project “Gilead.” Here's her prompt that we responded to:
Resilience: The intent behind this theme/track is to offer an embodied/musical/instrumental experience of resilience as defined by NYTimes bestselling author Resmaa Menakem in his book, My Grandmother's Hands: (bolded are phrases/words we felt to be helpful/resonant with our project)
“Resilience is often misunderstood. It is typically viewed as the ability to bounce back from adversity, often in a heroic, individualized act....Resilience is both intrinsic and learned, a combination of nature...and nurture...Resilience manifests both individually and collectively. Sometimes it does take the form of a personal, individual act. Often, however, resilience is expressed communally by a group, a family, an organization, or a culture...Resilience isn’t just about responding to--or getting through--a difficult experience. Resilience also manifests in a form that’s more about being than doing. This aspect of resilience helps us stay grounded and settled no matter what happens to us...It’s a way for our body to access possibility and coherence, regardless of the circumstances. It’s not so much a response as it is a way of showing up, a way of tapping into the energies that surround and move through everything in our world...Resilience is not a thing or an attribute, but a flow. It moves through the body, and between multiple bodies when they are harmonized. It is neither built nor developed; it is taken in and expressed as part of a larger relationship with a family, a group, a community, or the world at large” (p50-1).
Fecundity:
Our first prompt for JazzRx came from a dear friend and musical collaborator, Macie Stewart. She asked us to submit music for the compilation album Warm Violet she was putting together in order to raise funds for basic goods and services (e.g., toilet paper, bus fare) for those reentering society from Cook County Jail on Chicago's South Side. In response, we prescribed Fecundity, a track about bringing forth new life. Our music is in service to new life possible for the formerly incarcerated, for a nation sick with the prison industrial complex, and for each one of you listening.
Meadower:
I’m feeling a lot of hope right now. Vaccines on the way, a new administration, holiday lights. But all of that is future - it’s a funny liminal state: a little more patience and hope for brighter days ahead.
We made this track to give a sense of hope peeking through. Meadows are beautiful places of hope with their lush green, so we figured that a great place to put our attention for this one.
Transition and Waiting:
This JazzRx request came from a prompt from a friend of the band's, Nia Campinha-Bacote. She's a divinity school student at Yale and created a sonic healing playlist for hospital chaplains around the world for the purposes of specifically caring for Black bodies in pain. This track first came out on Nia’s project “Gilead.” Here's her prompt that we responded to:
Given that this project stems from our research focusing on the ability of music to facilitate healing, even in the midst of death/dying, our hope for this track is to offer a healing presence for those occupying interstitial space. This can be interpreted in the context of loved ones in a "waiting room" type of setting (though due to COVID conditions, oftentimes these "waiting rooms" often take the form of sitting in cars in hospital parking lots, or pacing back and forth in living rooms awaiting phone call updates, etc.). This theme of liminal space also speaks to those transitioning out of this world--those final weeks, months, or even years (given diagnosis/prognosis)...what would it sound like to offer sonic healing to those who find themselves/those they love in the space of the in-between, where of hope & uncertainty intermingle?
Green from Grey:
Dear JuJu: Spring is only "37" days away! Can you please write a song which describes how we will soon emerge into the warmth and light?
We made this track to be a playful response to this prompt about hope amidst the cold winter.
