NUMBERLESS ARE THE SANDS ON THE SEASHORE

Though I’m not conventionally religious, I do respond to genuine religious (or spiritual, if you prefer) feelings and expressions.  I believe everyone has this inclination. Call it soul if you like.

Music is an artery of spiritual circulation and soul inspiration.

In the Bahamas, the African people were forbidden from playing their native instruments, particularly drums. They were also seduced or forced to forgo their own spiritual and religious beliefs and practices for what was called Christianity at the time.

May we never forget the vast horrors that human”kind” has perpetrated in the name of religion.

Yet, we know why the caged bird sings and the uncaged as well.

It’s in our nature. Without it is a life without soul.

In the Bahamas one response was to respect some of the religious teachings, to honor the soul that can be found in the Bible’s words and stories.  And so they developed a tradition of singing rhythmic sermons. In some cases, phrases and passages from the Bible were repeated over and over. Often, the repetitions became more and more rhythmic, more and more ecstatic. Obviously the singers themselves, through their ecstasy, turned into instruments of divine verbal and musical percussion.

In the link I’ve included here, the singers, led by Sheldon Swim, build after the first minute or so into a more rhythmic improvisation. Finally, forgoing intelligible words, the singers in a trance state, build, in the liner notes’ words, “into an almost savage, but controlled, release of energy mounting continually in intensity to the end.” The subject is Ezekiel in the Valley and refers as well to words from “Hebrews 11” - ”And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as numberless as the sands on the seashore." -

Listen to this recording from the Bahamas, “Numberless are the Sands on the Seashore”. Let it re-inspire you, this great testament and proof of the creative spirit and soul which lives in each of us.

See and listen to your love.

“To my maestro Pietro. Sing me a new song: the world is transfigured and all the heavens rejoice.” – Friedrich Nietzsche