Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments : www.terrain.org Issue No. 19 : Fall/Winter 2006 : The Music of It All Theme PDF Version. Contents Columns • Guest Editorial: “Sweet Home Chicago (and Memphis, Motown, and Vienna)” by Jay Walljasper, Project for Public Spaces • The Literal Landscape: “Ben’s Bells” by Simmons B. Buntin, Editor/Publisher, Terrain.org • Bull Hill: “White Whale Music in the White Sea” + Online Gallery by David Rothenberg, Editor, Terra Nova • View from the Summit: “Perfect Sights, Perfect Sounds: Redrock in Review” by Catherine Cunningham, Editor, Terra Nova Interview • “The Roots of Poetry Lead to Music” Terrain.org interviews Joy Harjo, Mvskoke poet and musician UnSprawl Case Study • Second Street District in Austin, Texas ARTerrain Gallery • Eleven abstract and digital compositions by Jaanika Peerna Poetry • One Poem in Three Parts by Michael J. Vaughn • Two Poems by Tara Bray • Three Poems by Paul Hostovsky • One Poem by Brendan Galvin • Three Poems by Melissa Tuckey • Three Poems by Allan Peterson • Two Poems by Shann Palmer • One Poem by DB Cox • One Poem by Hazel Hutchinson • One Poem by Richard O’Connell • One Poem by Peter Huggins • One Poems by Robert Lietz Essays • “We Are All One” by Ted Gostomsky, photos by Geoffrey George • “Earth Jazz” by Evan Eisenberg • “Hearing the Songs, Heeding the Call” by Tom Leskiw • “Folsom Blues” by Andrew Wingfield • “Where Has All the Anger Gone?” by Bruce Morganti Issue No. 19 : Fall/Winter 2006 : The Music of It All 1 Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments : www.terrain.org Contents Fiction • “The Holiday Dress” by Al Sim • “Pennsylvania” by Jacob McArthur Mooney • “Downhill Run” by T.R. Healy Articles • “Spirit of Place: Crafting a Campus Ecology in Northern New Mexico Rhythm” with Narrative Slideshow, by Florence Guido-DiBrito and Alicia Fedelina Chávez • “Recovery: Learning the Music of History” by Jake Adam York • “SmartWood’s Smart Song: Gibson Partners with Rainforest Alliance to Sustainably Harvest Wood for Guitars” • “Telling Stories to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurship and a Network Proposition” by Scott Edward Anderson Reviews • “Woman at the Loom of Language” : Deborah Fries reviews The Errant Thread, poems by Elline Lipkin • “Not a Roar but a Barbaric Yawp” : Judyth A. Willis reviews Hear Him Roar by Andrew Wingfield • “Sun-Baked, but not Half-Baked” : Simmons B. Buntin reviews Joshua Tree: Desolation Tango, text by Deanne Stillman, photographs by Galen Hunt • “Guiding and Governing the Literature of Place” : Terrain.org reviews The Land’s Wild Music: Encounters with Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Terry Tempest Williams, & James Galvin by Mark Tredinnick Issue No. 19 : Fall/Winter 2006 : The Music of It All 2 Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments : www.terrain.org Guest Editorial by Jay Walljasper : Senior Fellow, Project for Public Spaces Sweet Home Chicago (and Memphis, Motown, and Vienna) I started my career as a music critic, cranking out reviews of rock, blues, jazz, and folk bands in Iowa City, Minneapolis, and Chicago. That was a long time ago and seems a far cry from my current projects, many of which focus on chronicling the power of place to improve communities around the world. Few things seem more distant or irrelevant from the nitty gritty grassroots work of the New York-based group Project for Public Spaces, where I am a senior fellow, than tunes being heard today in clubs, on the radio, and downloaded onto iPods. I mean: What do rappers, rock stars, and country singers have to do with restoring the civic spirit and bringing life back to cities and towns? Well, maybe more than appears at first listen. Rap pioneer Chuck D of Public Enemy famously described rap as CNN for Black America, noting it was not just the dominant soundtrack of inner-city life but an illuminating document of what underprivileged African-Americans were thinking, feeling, hoping for, and raging against. It may not sound pretty to many people, but it’s an authentic depiction of what’s happening in those very real places in the “real world.” No one can pretend to understand the life of South Central L.A., the South Bronx, the South Side of Chicago or, for that matter, North Minneapolis in my own hometown, without engaging with this music. And certainly no efforts to make a difference in these places can be launched in ignorance of what rappers are shouting and rhyming. Rock represents an equally open-and-shut case for the melodic interplay of music and place. The sound and fury of rock ‘n’ roll through the decades has really been a story of local music explosions making enough noise to be heard around the world. Born out of an orgy of musical influences, although Mississippi blues and hillbilly country signed the birth certificate as parents, rock spent its nursery years around Memphis in the care of Sun Studios. But soon came time to hit the Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. road, Jack, and rock was drawing attention in Photo courtesy SoulofAmerica.com. Cleveland (where it got its name) and then on to Surf City, Liverpool and Swingin’ London, Motown, L.A. for folk rock, San Francisco for the summer of love, a few years lost wandering in the ‘70s, down to Georgia (Macon to be precise) for Southern rock, back to London and New York for punk, Seattle for grunge, and on and on. Issue No. 19 : Fall/Winter 2006 : The Music of It All 3 Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments : www.terrain.org But these were only the most famous stops. Dozens of other local scenes bubbled over with enough raw energy to draw the attention of the music world for a few moments and leave their mark on the progress of the genre. Philadelphia (doo-woppers). The Pacific Northwest (the Ventures, the Kingsmen of “Louie, Louie” fame, Paul Revere and the Raiders). Memphis again (Booker T & the MGs, the Box Tops, Stax Records). Jersey (Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Little Steven). Akron (Devo, Chrissie Hynde in the beginning). Athens, Georgia (B-52s and REM). Minneapolis (Prince, the Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum). What about the ongoing rock ‘n’ roll circus up in Detroit (Mitch Ryder, ? and the Mysterians, MC5, Bob Seger, Iggy Pop, Eminem, the White Stripes)? And most recently, Omaha (Bright Eyes, Beep Beep). And country? Well, the name certainly speaks for itself as a musical style deeply rooted in a particular sets of places. Not to mention its other alias: the Nashville scene, Austin City Limits and the Bakersfield sound. Music, more than any other American art form or entertainment industry, truly reflects the rich geographic diversity of our country. It’s never been dominated by New York or Hollywood like theater, movies, TV, art, dance, and publishing. Jazz is strongly associated with New Orleans and New York, with crucial side trips to Chicago, Kansas City, and the West Coast. The blues came growling out of Mississippi and Chicago. Cambridge and Greenwich Village were legendary for their folk music scenes, with Old Town in Chicago and the Troubadour club in L.A. not far behind. Memphis (once again) for R&B and rockabilly. Even disco, seemingly the most artificially concocted musical brew, can be traced to Philly, where it started life as the Philadelphia Soft Soul Revolution. Go-go, the short lived and grossly underrated mid-‘80s dance groove, sprang out of Washington D.C. House music’s techno-charged roots are in Chicago, while Techno was born in Detroit although it spent a lot of time in Germany growing up. Looking around the world, it’s the same song. Even a lot of the classical repertoire, often touted as the most universal form of music, is inseparable from Vienna. The opening of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is a beautiful evocation of the countryside just outside Vienna. You can take a streetcar to the village suburb of Heiligenstadt and still see the sort of setting that inspired him. Many other lands proudly trumpet their national composer: Poland (Chopin), Finland (Sibelius), Norway (Grieg), Czech Republic (Dvorak, Smetana), Hungary (Bartok). Music is interwoven so thoroughly with geography that just a few notes often serve as all the introduction we need to understand that the action in a movie or TV show has shifted to a new spot on the globe. Plucking on the mandolin or strains of an opera aria clue us in that we’re going to Italy. A tinkling, discordant sound, perhaps with some wailing, means we’ve Open-air concert held in front of the arrived in Asia since that’s our stereotype of the continent’s Vienna, Austria city hall. Photo courtesy Aviom Technologies music. The opening bars from “La Marseillaise” establishes Group. France as the setting for the next scene, just as mariachi music Issue No. 19 : Fall/Winter 2006 : The Music of It All 4 Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments : www.terrain.org does for Mexico, and banjo picking for the rural American south. While the power and meaning of music certainly travel well, there’s still something rich in hearing favorite styles on their home turf. I have enjoyed few aural experiences that match the pleasure of hearing blues bands blast in smoky little joints on Chicago’s South Side; Cajun musicians letting it rip at Mulat’s bar in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; or reggae bands under the palms in Jamaica. Perhaps, best of all, was finding my way to non-descript tavern on the west side of San Antonio, which had been recommended to me as the Fillmore West, the Preservation Hall, the CBGBs, the Ryman Auditorium, the Carnegie Hall of norteno music.