Tia Carrera - Unnamed Wholeness

Evidently, music was a central aspect of the African American culture... As most music scholars would put it, jazz music was among the first American genres that influenced global music. In essence, many share the ideas that this form of music developed after the civil war especially in America. On the other hand, jazz musicians also used this music genre as a platform for advocating for civil rights and equality for the African American minority group. It was a subtle way of dealing with social injustices for which others considered as stereotyping since it mainly targeted those of white color.

In essence, music serves as an avenue for communicating across one’s ignorance’s and hatreds hence connecting people for the betterment of the society. With this attribute in mind, many jazz musicians played their music for a purpose that was greater than entertainment but as a way of bringing unity for the oppressed. Ellison’s use of Jazz and Blues in the book Invisible Man serves as a way of self expression. The fact that jazz music began as a medium of expression among the black Americans, a racial group that defines the narrator’s ethnicity places emphasis on the feelings of the narrator in the underground hole, introduced to the reader in the epilogue and the prologue of the book.

Evidently, jazz music is the only form of expression for the narrator because race has made him an invisible man. Many jazz musicians were from the southern states and emerged to appreciate it as the only available means of defining their autonomy and individuality. This explains why the narrator chooses to listen to such music in his underground hole as he strived to peer deeper into the invisible man that he received little attention from the whites.

Although many jazz artists were from New Orleans, this does not limit the themes to this location only. On the contrary, many African Americans formed the audience of those jazz artists because the themes expressed reflected the feelings and experience of all of them.

The development of jazz music during such politically critical times explains why the new genre had immense political impact on the civil struggle in America. The preceding years before the emergence of jazz music presented black Americans with the stringent segregation rules under the Jim Crow policies. The Jim Crow policies are the reason why the Ellison titled his book, Invisible man. During the time when Jim Crow segregation pattern was stringent, African Americans faced extremes of mistreatment because and had no access to jobs, education, and medical health care used by whites. Young African Americans found the strength to refute the unfair treatment against racial divides that had prevailed for several decades. Previous genres of music had proven to the African Americans that music had the potential of being an avenue to convey political messages.

Source: The Role of Blues and Jazz in Expressing the Experience by irvingkovacek

Tia Carrera - Unnamed Wholeness

• Release on: October 27, 2009
• Duration: 50:26
• Genre: Pop/Rock

"Tia Carrera consist of drummer Erik Conn, guitarist Jason Morales, and bassist Andrew Duplantis. For over a decade now, Tia Carrera have been melting minds with their own twist on the 70’s rock n roll jam."

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