Multi-Instrumentalist, Joseph "Pepe" Danza

One of my articles recently included in the Yoga Barn's newsletter:

International Musician, Pepe Danza, Brings Sacred Chants and Rhythms to the Yoga Barn

BALI, Indonesia – On May 22, 2011; Yoga Barn guests were treated to a multi-instrumental sound healing, meditation, and prayer performance from Uruguayan sound sculptor, Joseph “Pepe” Danza. Danza, a traveling musician with 35 years of world music experience, wove a mystical music-tapestry at the live recital using many instruments from various indigenous traditions.

“Wherever I would go, I would spend years trying to understand and get into the culture,” said Danza, who is a collector of over 400 instruments and is trained in the musical practices of Africa, Japan, India, and Tibet as well as his native South America.

According to Danza, his “Ocean of Sound” performance was a 100 percent improvised musical experience involving voice, woodwinds, crystal bowls, and percussion instruments, among others.

Integrating the full range of his multiethnic music gifts, Danza’s sound alternated from ethereal wavelike swells to frenetic drum solos, and he often played different musical instruments simultaneously and in unorthodox ways. Danza skillfully blended the entire range of his voice into his music: from impromptu chants to staccato rhythmic stabs.

“It’s very shamanic,” noted accompanying musician, Sparrow Deviyani, implying that Danza’s unrehearsed mystical sounds could induce powerful altered states through what Danza called a “sonic journey.”

Guests in the audience each took what they needed from the different sound modes on offer. Some sat or lay on their backs in meditative states while others moved their limbs to the rapid beats that would phase in and out of Danza’s music performance.

Pepe Danza comes to Bali and the Yoga Barn annually and will return in February of 2012. He considers Bali as “one of the highest civilizations on earth right now.” “As a whole, they live in a sacred way,” Danza said with appreciation.

As someone who honors the sacred dimensions of his own work, Danza emphasized the spiritual undercurrents that he offers, “I develop my techniques to a very high degree and then get out of the way,” he said, “I gather all these treasures in a ceremonial way.”

Danza will travel to Vancouver, Uruguay, and Mexico over the next few months. Learn more about him by visiting his website: http://www.pepedanza.com/home.html  

Oliver Sacks and Music Therapy

I saw Oliver Sacks deliver a lecture in Southern California a while back and I wanted to share some of my notes about the points he shared. He is a groundbreaking medical researcher and he recently wrote a book about music therapy. He was famously portrayed by Robin Williams in the movie, Awakenings, and is known for his groundbreaking work with disabled patients.

In my view, his research is providing space for scientists to explore the healing properties of sound energy in a tangible way.
According to Sacks, "music therapy" is an exclusively human phenomenon. Sacks considers music to be a "crucial" treatment for people with Parkinson and Alzheimer’s disease, and those recovering from strokes. It can also help patients resist amnesia. To support this theory, he discovered that music uses parts of the brain that govern language, memory, and emotions—language is normally a left brain function but parts of the right brain are also used when music is involved--something that is not normally possible. For Sacks' Alzheimers patients—their music memory kept them grounded even when they lost all other memory capacity. Those worse Amnesia cases can still sing and conduct an orchestra. According to Sacks, the only fundamental requirements are that the music used has to have rhythm and a beat.


Sacks's research also suggests that Music triggers memories not normally accessible to schizophrenics and Parkinson’s patients. He remarked that different parts of the brain are used for listening and different parts for playing music back. Some of his patients responded to the music in such a way that the “music was playing" them, leading Sacks to believe, “Music is a direct, unmediated connection to feeling and real feeling.”

Sacks posits that music can appear in dreams and is contextual although it is not always beneficial. He used the example of how we have "all been infected by a jingle, a hook or an earworm." In this way, themes and phrases have the propensity to go around and around in the head in a way that is not always constructive, Sacks believes.

While all of this information created a lot to ponder, the most interesting and perhaps shamanically oriented part of Sacks' lecture was when he went into the topic of what he called, "Musical Hallucinations." Sacks said that music can follow you around while you are conscious to the fact that there may be no external source. He says that this is a common outcome for the hearing impaired and children. He doesn't know what creates them and dismissed them as something that "some people just have." He also noted that those who experience seizures hear music.

It strikes me that this is evidence of a residual sound energy that could be caught in a person's field. Thinking of the times I have felt music hallucinations, I wonder if these signatures provide clues about past experiences or if they might be an audio manifestation of journeying. The experience of a hallucination, by definition, is in some way related to an altered state. Perhaps sound and vibration is not only a way to induce an altered state, but it could be another dimension drawing in information from the spirit world.  

While he is deeply involved in the practice, Sacks thinks that the way music works is still a deep mystery and he suspects it will remain one. Sacks asserts that almost everyone is musical  and that the therapeutic powers of music are just being investigated now. He strongly believes that music healing will be recognized more in the future. 

Interview with Sound Therapy Master Fabien Maman, September 8, 2010

I am training with Fabien Maman, who will be interviewed by Jonathan Goldman, on his Healing Sounds Radio show this Wednesday.  Fabien is a pioneer in vibrational sound therapy--he created the 12 meridian acupuncture point tuning fork system.

Although it is not mentioned in the text below, Fabien also incorporates shamanic soundscapes into his healing practices--using different frequencies, the voice, and acoustic instruments to clear subtle body fields and help realign and balance energy channels.  For more information on Maman, visit the Tama-Do Academy website at:  http://www.tama-do.com/roothtmls/aboutfabien.html

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Healing Sounds Newsletter

HEALING SOUNDS RADIO with Jonathan Goldman & Fabien Maman

http://www.healthylife.net/ --September 2010

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Please tune in September 8th, Wednesday, at 12 noon US Eastern Time, to http://www.healthylife.net/  when I present "The Healing Sounds Show". My guest for this show will be Fabien Maman .

Fabien Maman is a musician, composer, acupuncturist, author, researcher, healer, teacher, "bioenergetician" and martial artist. As a musician/composer, he performed his original compositions in the great concert halls of the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Tokyo Opera, the Paris Olympia and the Berlin Philharmonic. He was the recipient of the Grande Prix de Composition Francaise (Grand prize of French composition). In 1977, Fabien became an acupuncturist, linking music with acupuncture. He created the now famous system which uses tuning forks instead of needles on acupuncture command points. In the early 80's, Fabien conducted his revolutionary biology experiments at the University of Jussieu in Paris, showing the impacts of acoustic sound on human cells and their energy fields. Fabien found that through a series of acoustic sounds, he could explode cancer cells, as well as energize and empower healthy ones. This would become the driving theory behind Fabien's life's work: 'that blockages in our subtle energy fields can result in physical illness if they are allowed to crystallize. Sound, Color and Movement are the most effective tools we can use to dissolve these negative energetic patterns.'

In 1988 Fabien founded Tama-Do ("Way of the Soul"), the Academy of Sound, Color and Movement®, offering a three-year training program for the evolution of consciousness using non-invasive vibrational techniques composed of Sound, Color and Movement® and Seasonal Healing Concerts. For nearly 30 years, Fabien has created research and practical applications to balance the body, mind and spirit through the subtle energy fields. He is the author of numerous books including: The Role of Music in the 21st Century and Raising Human Frequencies. He has also created several music healing CDs. He may be contacted at: http://www.tama-do.com/

Fabien is an extraordinary healer and pioneer in this field. This will be a remarkable radio show. Please join us on September 8th.

If you have a question and would like to be "live" on the air with us on the Healing Sounds show, here's the audience call in telephone number: 800 - 555 - 5453

Please tune in to this Internet Radio Show Wednesday, September 8th, at 12 noon Eastern Time to healthylife.net

Harmonically Yours,

Jonathan Goldman