Bryan's Health Blog
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Response: Arizona Police Officer Sues Over Immigration Law
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
American Dream: Joe Zawinul
Over the history of time, music has come to help define cultures and act as a voice for the emotion of different people all over the world. The first genre of music that can be considered truly an American creation is Jazz. I developed a love for jazz music in high school while playing bass in my school's band, but I never really appreciated the people behind the genre until I came to college and took a course in jazz history. One particular story of an Austrian jazz musician named Josef Zawinul, who played with greats like Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, Cannonball Adderley, and the Weather Report, is an example of the American Dream of jazz music.
Born into a family of gypsies in Vienna, Austria in 1932, Zawinul trained his entire childhood at a music conservatory in his homeland before emigrating to the United States for a career in jazz. He received a scholarship from Berklee School of Music in Boston to play the piano, one of the top music schools in our country. After playing with some of the original jazz greats like Adderley and Davis, Zawinul teamed up with a saxaphonist named Wayne Shorter to form the Weather Report. With the popularity of R&B and Rock music growing throughout this time in the 1960's and 70's, Zawinul and his group played music with the power of a rock group, all maintaining the technical musicianship of jazz musicians. Hits like "Birdland" thrust jazz music back into the mainstream, all be it for only a short time. But Zawinul's integration of electronic, jazz, rock, and R&B music to help form a new genre now known as 'jazz fusion' has had lasting impacts on American music to this day.
Zawinul studied music in Austria with the dream to come to America and be a part of the jazz music culture in America. Instead, he came to our country and created his own American Dream, revolutionizing the genre and reaching a level of creativity in music that is no longer seen these days. Zawinul once said, speaking of classic jazz, “It was great music, ... but it has passed. It is wonderful to recall it, fun to hear it, but that is not for me: I get too restless, too bored; I need something new". If all Americans had that level of motivation and passion to change the world, our nation would certainly be a better place.
Monday, April 26, 2010
American Dream: "Sugar" (2008)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
"Dive In" by Dave Matthews Band
with a sign that read 'will work for food'
Tried to look busy, 'til the light turned green
I saw a bear on TV and his friends were all drowning
cause their homes were turning to water
A strange, kinda sad, big old bear
surely would happily eat me
he'd tear me to pieces that bear
Wake up sleepy head
I think the suns a little brighter today
Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the water rising...
Summers here to stay, and all those summer games will last forever
Go down to the shore, kick off your shoes, dive in the empty ocean.
Tell me everything will be OK if I just stay on my knees and keep praying
believing in something
Tell me everything is all taken care of by those qualified to take care of it all.
Wake up sleepy head
I think the suns a little brighter today
Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the waters rising
Summers here to stay, and that sweet summer breeze will blow forever
Go down to the shore, kick off your shoes, dive in the empty ocean
One day, do you think we'll wake up in a world on it's way to getting better?
and if so can you tell me
how?
I have been thinking that lately the blood is increasing
the tourniquets not keeping hold in spite of our twisting
though we would like to believe we are
we are not in control
though we would love to believe
Wake up sleepy head
I think the suns a little brighter today
Smile and watch the icicles melt away and see the water rising...
Summers here to stay, and those sweet summer girls will dance forever
Go down to the shore, kick off your shoes, dive in the empty ocean