A Career In Joyce Spencer's Music

Born near the beachy shores of South Carolina, Trevor Hall grew up listening to the melodious tunes of his father’s harmonica and drum set (Rosenfield, 2012). Throughout his young life, inspired by his father, Hall would constantly be glued to a notepad writing music; following his dreams, at 16, Hall recorded and released his very first record. With all of the joy found in writing and releasing

Two women from two different backgrounds have so much in common yet they are so different. One grew up in Houston, Texas while the other grew up in Saint Michael, Barbados. Even though these two women have had very different up bringing the one thing they have in common is their great voices. These two women’s background, musical style, and other career ventures make them both two of the best female artist in their field.

Women’s music came from radical, grassroots origins in the 1970s thanks to contributions by brave women, mostly lesbians (Mosbacher, 2002). These women used non-violent, peaceful force to forge their own way into the music industry. It was a peaceful yet political revolution of togetherness and liberation. It brought together women of different backgrounds who produced easy-listening, mellow harmonies played with lyrics filled with tumultuous

At 12:30 PM, on October 18, 2016 I attended a Brown Bag Event that took place at the Jackson-Graeter Backstage Theatre of the Mary Alice Marshall Performing Arts Center. The event was a recital by singer / songwriter Ms. Amy Engelhardt, performing original works from her 2008 album, Not Going to be Pretty. She played the piano as she sang; and two Temple College staff members (Tarik Hassan on double bass and Norm Bergeron on the drums) also accompanied her.

Holiday’s career is cited to include significant complexity in regards to the standard social and cultural perspectives. The complexity of her life provides vital lessons on talent proliferation. Through Holiday, it is deducible that success in music depends on a variety of personal characteristics including self-determination, attitude, and one’s commitment to the career. Holiday made it in music owing to the love for music despite the limitations of her background ( Greene 18) . However, the misery of career affirms that social engagements posit potential impacts that can easily destruct the continuity of a singer’s determination in music ( Greene 19) . For instance, poor choice of social engagements facilitated the emergence of crucial miseries such as drug addiction and sexual abuse that fuelled her death. The unusual characteristics of her options are therefore cited as feasible lessons to the musicians in the present

From the creation of harmonies to singing to instruments, music has been an abstract form of human expression. Although an auditory collection of pitches and volumes, musicians can manipulate the same notes and bring them alive for their audiences. The true emotion and energy that’s felt in music really comes from the player as feelings are transferred to and through the listener. This interaction between performer and the house is catharsis, the complete release of strong repressed emotions. Thanks to the musician, music has the ability to grasp people and cause them to sense emotions and feelings without lyrics or images even being necessary. Although it’s believed we can only hear with our ears, something about music makes it emotionally if not physically tangible. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues,” a narrator certainly unaware of the impact of music invites himself to experience jazz for the first time. Baldwin uses the final scene of his story to argue that music has an effect on those who are able to experience it. Baldwin does this in one single moment by letting the fixed, practical minded, “well-intentioned” narrator experience catharsis from jazz as his growing, free-spirited brother communicates with him through jazz.

Music has always been regarded as an art of high importance. The word itself originates from the Greek word mousike meaning “of the muses”, the group of nine Greek Goddesses who regulate the arts and sciences. It has often been used as a way to heal mental and emotional pain; “music speaks directly to the body through intuitive channels that are accessed at entirely different levels of consciousness from those associated with cognition” (The Music Effect.24). In Jan Johnson’s Soul Wound, Johnson discusses the historical trauma of Native Americans and the rage that is associated with it. This rage, as she later states, “is generally turned inward and expressed through depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide, and manifested externally within families and communities through domestic and other forms of violence” (Johnson.226-227). In Wabanaki Blues by Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel we see this rage internalized and portrayed in the depression of both Mona and her mother and depicted in their family dynamic through the neglect of Mona’s mother towards Mona. Mona, as well as other characters in the book, utilize music as a form of therapy to heal the soul. The characters in Wabanaki Blues utilize music to heal in ways that parallels Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and the Rastafarian religion.

Since I have participated in concert band and jazz ensembles, I thought it was interesting how Viola Smith participated in both throughout her life. I found Snake Charmer to be a fantastic song with an upbeat tempo; much of the music Viola played directly equated to my favorite styles of music. I found Smith’s ability to play multiple percussion instruments at once to be extremely remarkable since saxophone players, like me, typically only have one thing to focus on in terms of instruments and music. I thought that Smith’s participation in Broadway performances such as “Cabaret” to be awe-inspiring in the sense that the she had an opportunity to play in a live orchestra. It was interesting to learn that Broadway shows and musicals hired drummers and percussionists. Viola Smith was a marvelous musician and performer both in large and small ensembles. It is unfortunate that such a talented person had to pass away at 103 years old, but her legacy lives on to be one of the best female drummers of all

From the day we’re in our mother's stomachs, to the day we die, we have always been listening to music. For me, listening to music all my life helped me develop a passion for it. When I was around the age of 6 my dad introduced me into the world of Rock. The very first band I remember listening to was System of a Down and ever since then, I fell in love with rock music and all its possible variations; for a long time this was all I listened to. It wasn’t until high school that I started listening to all sorts of genres and realized that I wanted to have a career in the music industry. That's when I learned about producing music.

In the novel Parable of Sower by Octavia E. Butler, is about a young woman named Lauren that encounters many obstacles in life that help her achieve maturity. The story begins in the year 2024 in Robledo, twenty miles from Los Angeles, California. On the eve of Lauren’s fifteenth birthday she has a dream that she is levitating. On Sunday, after her birthday, she will head out with her neighbors and family into the city to be baptized. Her father is a Baptist minister that once had his own church.

Family arrived on time well dressed and groomed. Ms. Spencer informed HS that last permanent address was located at 2075 3rd Ave. New York, NY from August, 2014 to May 2015. As per Ms. Spencer family could not stay anymore. Family did not have any other option that go to the shelter system. The family composition consists of GREGORY SPENCER (HoH, 33y); TISHAWN SPENCER (legal spouse 39y); NEPHATANI SPENCER (child, 7y); SHAWNTI SPENCER (child, 5y); GIOVONNIA SPENCER (child, 3y). Furthermore, Ms. Spencer stated that two children Naquarry (17y) and Jashawna (15y) will move with the family if permanent address is found. Also, Ms. Spencer is not pregnant, and any adults in the family has been convicted of a crime or parole. Family stated that they feel secure in the premises.

Miles Dewey Davis III was a phenomenal jazz trumpeter from the late 1940’s who composed several timeless jazz classics and would soon become immortalized within the genre. While attending the Institute of Musical Art, Davis skipped several classes only to participate in jam sessions with his mates, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, who too will become popular musicians. Davis and Parker often collaborated during the late 1940s, exploring with the capabilities of what one can improvise with harmonies and rhythms. Alongside musical innovation, Miles formed unique jazz groups which had included instruments that typically aren’t present within the genre, like the tuba and the french horn. Miles had become a heroin addict within the 1950s, and

As a child I frequently made up little songs, and there seemed to be a constant stream of music in my head. I could see myself in the children she was observing and like them I didn’t have a framework for my experience – it was just my life. Whether it was singing while playing, tapping out some rhythm, singing at the top of my lungs to a favorite song, or goosebumps from hearing “Hall of the Mountain King”, it all felt familiar and warming. It has also made me aware of the musicking I continue to make every day in small ways here and

Throughout the short story “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, the new generation tries to enforce modern standards on Miss Emily and her contemporaries. Despite their best efforts, the older generation remains cemented in traditional values. The older generation faces a slow, tragic, rotting death similar to Miss Emily’s if they continue to adhere to tradition in a modern age.

Betty Davis (26 July 1945) a pioneer in the development of funk music’s cultural senses,also known for her scandalous outfits, distinctively lascivious lyrics, fierce and impenitent personality, protruded and faced the male-dominated rock and funk music culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Her goal was to portray ‘black aspirations’ (Greene, 2013: 58) within her music, fashion statements, beliefs, and performances. Betty Davis’s indisputable desire for fame never passed by inconspicuously, Nonetheless, her bluntly honest music and lyrics became overwhelming to some audiences as well as male music critics. The main certainty of her being a black woman and her unforgettable statements produced through her music originated her exclusion from the American History of popular music (Keys, 2013: 44) who refused to be limited by general categorisation (Hundley, 2007).