The Angel City Jazz Festival is an annual music concert that brings together different artists and celebrities as they perform live. On October 6 th , 2018, Angel City Jazz Festival was celebrating its 11 th annual festival at Ford Theater. The event was graced by different and most famous artists of their time. However, the event main artist was Xenia Rubinos. Xenia is a New-York based renowned artist, signer, and a music composer. In her company was the trio of drums, keyboard, and base artists. I got an opportunity to attend the event and, it was more than delightful to join the crowd of people who were moved by the music culture in the country. Xenia performed different songs including series of her latest albums. Her voice and performance is a tool that has been behind her success since her debut in the year 2013. In this occasion, it was apparent that her voice is a powerful tool that will push her far in the music industry. Among her songs, a specific song that hooks my attention was the Black Terry Cat song. The artist’s true identity was revealed by this song as well as its performance mechanism. Xenia Rubinos’ characters as revealed by the song the Black Terry Cat and other songs during the Angel City Jazz Festival are racism and politics.
Xenia Rubinos is a Brookline based artist whose songs have inspired many citizens of different colors in America. Xenia was born of a Cuban father and Puerto Rican mother at Hartford CT in the year 1985. She made her debut in music industry in the year 2013, and since then, Xenia has garnered a lot of fans cutting across all races. Most of her songs fall under the genre of Jazz and Latin music. Based on her history, she was influenced to be culturally and politically inclined singer by iconic musicians such as Ravel and Prokofiek since her father was classical and opera music fan. She studied Jazz music and later became one of the famous Jazz artists of her time. Most of her songs are racial and political based and are inspired by different political and human right movements such as Black lives Matters. The dominant theme in most of her music is her experiences as a woman of a different color in America. Notably, most are her songs are difficult to categorize as she changes their genre based on her lyrics and sound.
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During the entire performance, the musician’s identity was racism and political matters. These identities were apparent in most of her songs and particularly the Black Terry Cat. The Black Terry Cat was performed severally. It was surprising that during the occasion this song was performed, most of Xenia’s fans were overjoyed they recited the lyrics with joy. Using Alan Merriam Model to analyze these songs, the identity of culture and politics are apparent.
The Ethnomusicologist Alan Merriam suggests three ways of culturally analyzing a song. According to Alan, these three aspects are also critical while putting a song in its cultural context. According to Merriam, an analysis of a song should go beyond the boundaries of its sound and performance and include its cultural aspects. Merriam claims that a useful music analysis needs to encompass its cultural ideas and roles in the society, as well as the behavior of people towards that music. The triangle thus consists of the Sound, behavior, and the conception. The sound is the music itself. It includes what makes the music tick. The behaviors, on the other hand, are the activities that are involved in making the music interesting and engaging. The behavior further includes the audience and community’s behavior when they receive the music. It consists of the people who like the music, the time of its performance, the venue, and the traits of music that makes its outstanding ( Snapes, 2018). The last aspect is the conception. Conception is the idea about the music and its function in preserving the community’s culture. The conception answers the question of why the music exists and why it was produced.
In the case of Xenia’s different genre, as exhibited by the songs performed during the concert, the three aspects of Merriam model are apparent. Xenia’s performance exhibit a high-quality sound. The rhythmic quality of her songs is among of the bests. The beats match the rhythm in a fantastic manner that brings out the quality of such songs. Most of her songs that depict the genre of Jazz, Hip Hop and R&B are unique based on the keyboard sounds. The keyboard sounds are confrontational grinds of an electric guitar. The lyrics are delivered in both Spanish and English. Her exuberant basslines sum up the eloquent tune of the songs. The black Terry Catt and the Lonely Lover makes use of R& B sounds like a base from which it could be easy to explore much of exotic sounds. As exhibited in different genres, Xenia uses a combination of bass, keys, and drums to bring fluidity to her songs. This is a trait that has kept her glowing and authentic in this industry, making her music difficult to imitate. Lastly, the sound is reinforced by Xenia Rubinos’ powerful voice. Xenia has a magical voice that makes her songs different from others (X enia Rubinos: Black Terry Cat Album Review | Pitchfork. (2018).
Behavior in the case of Xenia's songs is positive. Most people who enjoyed these songs during the concert were people of different colors in the country. Most of them were the black Americans, the Latin Americans and the Hispanic Americans. It is noticeable that even though the white Americans were enjoying, they were outnumbered by the Americans of colors. Latin Americans were the majority ( Stone, 2015). Notably, Xenia is a Latin-American, and this could have been a significant factor that influenced her fellow Latin-Americans to attend the concert in large numbers. Another demographic factor that was noticeable in the show was the age difference. Most of the attendees were youths. These were people of approximately eighteen to thirty years of age. However, it was a fantastic occasion, and it attracted even the adults. The demographic disparity in this concert can be explained by Americans music taste. In America, youths derive their identity from different music genres such as R&B, rock music, hip-hop, and Jazz. Xenia's songs cut across all these genres, and this is the perfect taste for the youths. The concert took place at the Ford Theater, a venue that is regarded as one of the largest in the country with a rich history.
John Anson Ford Amphitheatre came to existence in the year 1920. During this time, the Ford theatre was used for Pilgrimage play. It was brought down to ashes by fire in the year 1922 before being rebuilt. Under the guidance of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission in the year 1999, most of the music festivals in the Los Angelis were hosted in this Amphitheater. Presently, the theatre is designed to host an array of events from diverse culture. The entire concert was groomed by dancing and shouting. Fans were impatiently waiting for the main musician before her introduction to the stage. The other musicians were just certain raises. Fans shouted her name on her arrival. The whole event was full to the brim with bright faces, bright light, different light systems, shouts, whistling and hand clapping. There was no way she could disappoint the crowd that was looking forward to being entertained. At the end of the concert, everyone left the theatre feeling some level of satisfaction from Xenia's performance.
Conception as predefined is the purpose of the genre on the community’s culture. It is the role the genre plays in influencing the society’s culture. In the case of Xenia’s genre, the purpose was to push for recognition and respect for each person in the country. Most of the music performed by Xenia were racial and political based. It was clear that she was expressing her experiences as a non-white American in the country. The theme in most of the songs, for instance, the Black Terry Cat emphasizes on racial injustices the none-white Americans battle every day in their life. The call for equitable treatment by the police officers as well as the call for policies that equally treat all Americas despite their ethnic backgrounds dominated a good number of genres that Xenia performed in this concert. She ended each of her performance by claiming that the right thing is it recognizes where one comes from to understand where he or she heads to. This is an indication that Xenia appreciates her ethnic background. She is using the background as a motivational factor to make her progress in the music industry. I an art shell, this is the aspect of performance where Xenia expresses her identity.
As already mentioned, Xenia performs mostly Jazz music genre. There are different and numerous of the assumptions with regards to this genre. The first assumption states that the musician can only transcribe his or her instrument. Also, there is an assumption that a jazz musician is only permitted to transcribe Jazz. The last assumption is that such a musician is only allowed to transcribe BEBOP. There was clear evidence that Xenia did not stick to Jazz genre alone in the course of her performance ( Nadeem, 2018). Xenia’s music style changed from one genre to another. For instance, her first song was the lonely lover that was more of the jazz genre. It was a composition of the improvisation, bent notes, syncopation, and distinctive voices that are distinctive to the Jazz genre. However, these changed when she was performing other songs such as Black Terry Cat. In such a song, there was a lot of Latin stylish combined with features of R&B genre such as lots of pitch-corrected vocals, drums, rhythms, and an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel.
Xenia fights for equity with regards to races and political affairs. In most of her songs, she has an issue with the political policies that are enforced in the country. In her view, the policies favor the white Americans and suppress the voices of the Americans of colors. She also expresses her concern over police officers harassment and the mass incarceration in her song Black Terry Cat. She claims that it is right for the police to treat each American with respect and dignity despite their color.
In an art shell, Xenia performance from the concert that took place on 6 th of October 2018 at Ford Theatre demonstrated her quest for racial and political justice in the country. In a well performed and a well-attended concert, the message was clear. Respect for all people and fairness for all despite their ethnic and political background is paramount for the development of the country. A critical analysis of her songs as well as performance during this occasion is an indication that she identifies herself with racial and political issues in her music.
References
Nadeem, R. (2018). Xenia Rubinos Brings Vibrant Sounds of Identity To Rosslyn Jazz Fest - On Tap Magazine. Retrieved from: https://ontaponline.com/2017/09/05/xenia-rubinos-brings-vibrant-sounds-identity-rosslyn-jazz-fest/
Snapes, L. (2018). Xenia Rubinos: ‘I'm saying things about being a brown girl in America.' Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/24/xenia-rubinos-black-terry-cat-identity
Xenia Rubinos: Black Terry Cat Album Review | Pitchfork. (2018). Retrieved from: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21954-xenia-rubinos-black-terry-cat/
Stone, R. M. (2015). Theory for Ethnomusicology: XT CT CHINESE SIMPLIFIED CO-PUB TRANSLATION . Routledge.
