Music & Health

I'm checking out this new vitamin store the other day, and I glance at the magazine rack on the way out the door.  I see Wynton Marsalis on one of the covers but I really think anything of it.  I look back again at that same magazine cover and ask myself, "I'm in a health store, why is a musician on the cover of a magazine in a place like this?"

I pick up a copy, cause its free, and the magazine is called ENERGY TIMES: Enhancing Your Vitality Through Nutrition, Health & Harmony.  This particular issue, Music & Health.  Well, to some of you this may be blah blah blah, but it actually blew me away.  I'm a huge lover of both worlds (music & health) so a magazine to cover both, my glasses must have been smudged!

So I had to dive in and see what this American Jazz Master had to say about the correlation of music and health.

The overall article turned out very well.  The core of the interview was music, but what do you expect from the only jazz musician who won a Pulitzer Prize.  However, he didn't talk above the average persons head when it came to life through music.  He discussed chords, improvisation, vitality, and emotions all in the context of music which turned out to be quite interesting.

Nothing was discussed about his blueprint for a healthy lifestyle, but more on mental well being.  "Your mental state affects your physical health. The blues is optimism, the optimism is not naive," says Marsalis, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the interview.

Although, he did make one statement about today's music that I had to agree with totally! Marsalis says, "I believe the direction of popular music has taken is regressive, form high levels of musicianship, to non-musicians in 60 years.  That's not an achievement.  It's like if you went to amateur doctors."  I had to clap when I read that statement. LOL!! 

Aside from composing symphonies for orchestras, hosting children and teens at seminars, and speaking before business groups Marsalis found time to release a book this year in September.  Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change your Life.  I may go pick up a copy of this one.

By the way, he's always dressed to the nine!  Suited 4 Success

Stay Inspired,

Dominic 

www.energytimes.com