MUSIC, HEALING & WELLNESS = RESILIENCE

Music as a conduit to health and well-being became an American ideology in the late 19^th century and continues momentum in this 21^st century as a documented therapeutic approach. Early theories of music impacting health and wellness dates back to Ancient Greece when philosophers Plato and Aristotle discussed music’s influence on the mind, while Hippocrates speculated it could affect mental health and body functions.  

Ancient African societies across the continent had already recognized the therapeutic power of sound, melody, and rhythm Integrating them into healing rituals, ceremonies, and daily life. This was a crucial topic for legendary pianist, composer and historian Randy Weston. He often shared with me how African societies approached music not as an artform but as a vital component of health, wellness, and spiritual life. His book co-authored by Willard Jenkins “African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston (Duke University 2010) focuses on the importance of ancestral connection and the role of jazz as a living condition.  Healing music—drumming, chanting, and instrumental playing—was used to address physical, emotional, and spiritual ailments, is detailed in the book “Healing Drum: African Wisdom Teachings” by Yaya Diallo and Mitchell Hall. 

Sun Ra, the eclectic bandleader, pianist, composer, and pioneer of Afrofuturism saw music as a vibrational sound capable of restoring psychological and spiritual balance. A firm stance, he held before universities embraced the trio of music health and wellness. “When I perform my intention is always to reach out to the audience with music that can positively motivate,” said trumpeter, composer and former member of the Sun Ra Arkestra Ahmed Abdullah. “Music is the manipulation of sound that can raise our level of consciousness and move us to other planes.”

A 2024 American Journal of Medicine review summarized clinical trials showing music can influence heart rate, blood pressure, and emotional well-being. However, the review noted inconsistent results and the need for standardized protocols to determine whether effects are temporary or long-term.

Genius nomad avant-garde drummer, percussionist, and researcher/inventor Milford Graves became so enthralled with the heartbeat ---he began recording and transcribing human heartbeats into music notation. His brilliant research connected music, science, and healing, blending his avant-garde rhythmic innovations with his intense personal study of the human heart.

A 2023 European Journal of Public Health systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials found that active musical participation (playing instruments, singing) had beneficial effects on both cognitive and psychosocial functioning in adults aged 40+, while passive listening primarily improved cognitive outcomes (Oxford Academic). 

Academic jargon aside, many experience music in their emotional psyche that has affected them physically and mentally. Some pacify heartbreak by playing the blues, Marvin Gaye, or Aretha Franklin; on a good day rhythms rise up with Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar, Dee Dee Bridgewater or the funk of DeAngelo. Masses around the world flock to stadiums, and music halls to see their favorite artists with one goal ---to feel good, to get that emotional high--stimulation derived from live music. “Music helps center us, our nervous systems. Music is an outlet for our emotions to express themselves or just to ring out” said vocalist, composer Fay Victor. “Music saved my life and gave me a way to heal. Having the outlet and release of music as a performer has been a healing force for me and many others.”

Music particularly Black American Music from the inhuman slave ships to the brutal sun burning cotton fields, call and response, to Negro spirituals, ring shout, gospel, R&B, blues, regardless of the genre, Black American Music is the fabric of a stained America. As a reference read Amiri Braka’s “Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music (University of California Press 2009). For over four hundred years this music has served as a mask to hide how black performers felt in black face, walking through back entrances not being served not being respected. Their performance masks (Paul Lawrence Dunbar “We Wear the Mask”) offered audiences inspiration, faith, spiritual healing (in the moment) to rise Up despite inequality, adversity, and political injustice, life doesn’t stop---- Big Mabelle, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahaila Jackson. James Brown, jump up on “Popa Don’t Take No Mess” (there don’t u feel better), chills ignite any soul on Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful” or swing on his “Night Time is the Right Time.”  Music in the black community inspires more than rhythms and harmonies but aspirations, goals, and spiritual fortitude. While health and wellness can be a difficult prescription to refill under America’s socio/political system.

 “That's what it's about for me – music as a healing mechanism for myself, and hopefully for all those who hear and encounter my experience. And you must do it in person as well. When I was practicing the other day, it reminded me of the times that Cecil Taylor, when he was very unpopular, was playing private concerts for himself in his apartment. And it kept him going. Performance. For the artist, and the audience. A living, breathing organism,” explained singer, pianist, composer, Darryl Tookes, Director of The Julian “Cannonball” & Nat Adderley Music Institute, FAMU. “A friend who is a medical doctor, now retired, was recently saying that my first big record “Lifeguard” is on her constant playlist, and it affects her the same way it always did. Healing.”