Music Masters and Rhythm Kings Essay

It is a rare chance to witness masters of the old tradition relishing in their element sweat on their foreheads as beats and strings pulsate the story of a past almost forgotten. It is a gift if single is fortunate enough to see them live, but seeing them and hearing their symphony on the limited aptitude of use up is still a treasure, much like watching some of the best keepers of old duration s show upherly music in Peggy Bulger and Melissa Shepard Sykes film Music Masters and Rhythm Kings.We review players Eddie Kirkland, Neal Pattman, homer Pappy Sherill and the Hired Hands, and Florencio Baro as they recount the origins of their music and how they have come to imbibe it. Southern music is essentially an amalgam of two tuneful cultures combined despite a clash of ideals and beliefs, and despite centuries of oppression and dispute. As Charles Joyner, a Southern Culture historian mentions in the film, it is impossible for the Southern peoples not to be influenced by the cu lture of another race, especially if they are so ingrained in their society.Though these people capability argue against these relations, there is no denying the immense influence of African culture in the language, the mannerisms, and especially, the music of the South. explanation dictates that traditional South American music finds its roots in the harsh working fields. Pappy Sherill phrases this perfectly when he says that these farmers do as a way of putting joy to themselves sic while theyre working. At the alike(p) time, Southern music also represented the subversive culture of the African slaves.Their music became their way of prospect because they knew that the white man can have no control. Bringing their own kind of musical tradition from their homeland, they created a new one that came to represent and signal the changing dynamics of the American South. In the film, we see Pappy Sherill and the Hired Hands, one of the few old-time string bands that play actively in the South. Their music embodies the respite that Southern farmers crave after a day of toiling under the hot sun.It is a fast-paced jig that consists of music from a fiddle, a guitar, a banjo, and a cello, all coming in concert in an energetic symphony of strings. Pulling it all unneurotic is Sherill, who at a very modern age still remains as one of the best fiddle players in the country. Folklorist Glenn Hinson defines his playing as propelled by advanced technique that harkens substantiate to the days when fiddlers made their instruments cry and sing. Playing professionally since he was thirteen years old, Sherill was a prodigy who created music despite financial setbacks.He barely have a proper wooden fiddle when he managed to save money from a side job, and only after using a tin fiddle for some time. In 1976, Sherill won the award for better(p) Old-Time Fiddler in the National Fiddlers Championship, opening doors for him to play in many road evince and concerts. But, whe n Pappy sang and played out of joy, Eddie Kirkland and Neal Pattman sang the sonorous, highly emotional tunes of the blues. Eddie Kirkland grew up harvesting cotton, and during the production of the film had once again stepped foot in the cotton fields.Drawing back to memories of those hardships, Eddie remembers doing this grinding, back-breaking work as a child. It was only the field hollers, work songs and spirituals of the African-American people that pushed them to go on. Arising from this work songs were the Blues, a uniquely Southern music that Kirkland loves so dear. As we can hear from the film, Kirklands music is derived from years of toil and work, let out a time of inequality and hardship. He describes it as heart-wrenching Blues. And so it is, with the soft, poignant, yet irregular riffs of his guitar accompanied by his soulful voice, we feel sadness and desperation. But, he goes beyond this by also notification songs of love adjacent the Blues format. It is a rare op portunity to hear the Blues as it couldve been played at the blood of the 19th century, in the backwaters of the rural South. Also reminiscent of Kirkland is Neal Pattman, a maestro of the blues harp, who also travel from the working fields. His music, as any Blues music would be, touches the heart and with his harp he creates an even much wrenching elegy.We follow the flow of his music as it rises and stops, as he accompanies it with his voice. We listen and we are transplanted back into the days of old when the whiteness of the cotton fields is an unwanted sight. Hailing from further South is Cuban musician Florencio Baro. A singer and percussionist, his music remains a pure representation of his African heritage. His songs are strain in his ancestors native African language that as a child he has learned to attend and to appreciate.Much like South American music, his music as a combination of two cultures brought together despite odds. Historically, his music arises from the spiritual cult of Santoria, a religion established by African slaves brought to Cuba. What started out as spiritual hymns as a way to once again reconnect with their distant land, is now comprehend as Afro-Cuban music. It is played with an energetic combination of African percussions and Cuban guitars. In Baros hands, the music achieves a life of its own.The beats throb as Baros voice sing of the woes of the African slave, weaving itself in and out of the notes, all in a way that is dramatically hypnotic. And entranced the audience were as they glance at this fragment of the past that, unfortunately, seldom reaches the majoritys ears. These men represent a water under the bridge era of music that is formed when culture clash and are forced to combine. But, in retrospect, what we are singing of now and what our music is today, all boils down to the undying pursuit of expression that these men have achieved.