Music is as good a reason to travel as food, scenery or culture — and presents you with great opportunities to enjoy all three. Looking for a great new travel experience? Follow that sound!
The English writer William Congreve, 1670–1729, assured the world that “Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast, to soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”
Today, a love of music also can induce a traveler to dust off their passport. It’s as good a reason to travel as food, and a lot easier on your waistline.
The list of great music festivals held annually around the world, in virtually any style, genre or category of music you can name, could fill an old-fashioned phonebook — and they’re held in some of the most scenic, exotic or historic venues on Earth.
Even better, such festivals take place year-round.
THE ROOTS OF SOUND
There’s something special about listening to your favorite music performed in the land of its origin. You feel a little closer to its history, its spiritual roots, the sources of its inspiration.
And that, in turn, can leave you with a better understanding of the place and the people you’re visiting.
If you’re a lover of classical music, why wouldn’t you want to hear the works of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms or Mozart performed in Germany or Austria?
You can hear great reggae being performed these days in East London, UK or East London, South Africa, but it just won’t feel the same as when you hear it in Kingston, Jamaica.
The simple act of traveling can expose you to new music and wonderful artists you would never hear at home, especially in the offerings of America’s homogenized, pasteurized and hopelessly self-limiting commercial radio.
And it can start even before you arrive at your destination.
AUDIO SOUVENIR
One of my all-time favorite French souvenirs is a CD I bought of Natasha St-Pier. I discovered her beautiful French ballads not in some smoky cafe in Paris, but on the in-flight entertainment system aboard an Air France flight from LAX to CDG.
By the time I got off the plane, I knew I would not be returning home without a CD of her music, which I ultimately found in Lyon.
Irony alert: Natasha St-Pier is not French. She’s Canadian.
You can have a fantastic time listening to the music native to the country or culture you’re experiencing. You can have just as much fun hearing how people in other parts of the world interpret American music.
If you think about it, music may be the ultimate American export.
I still remember the very first landmark I ever saw on my first visit to Paris, the Eglise St. Germain-des-Pres, the oldest church in the city, directly across the street from the Deux Magots cafe where Hemingway, Sarte, Camus and Picasso used to hang out.
These days, they hold concerts in the church. American black gospel concerts.
That’s right, you can hear black gospel in Paris. You can also hear it in West Africa.
AMERICA’S UNIVERSAL EXPORT
On virtually any continent, you can hear rock music, folk music, hip-hop — all American originals, all being translated, transformed and played back to America from across the globe.
And there is virtually nowhere on Earth you can go without running into that most American art form, jazz.
On my first real trip outside the United States, we found ourselves in Tokyo’s Ginza district. It was only about 9 p.m., but it seemed as if the grand neon boulevard had already been rolled up for the night. There wasn’t a taxi in sight, the subway signs back then were all in Japanese and I couldn’t even tell you what direction the hotel lay in.
A group of Japanese college kids who wanted to practice their classroom English on us came to our rescue. “Do you like jazz?” one of them asked. They then led us a few blocks off the main drag to a crowded little joint on the second floor of a small, nondescript office building.
One minute, I’m lost and clueless in the world’s largest city. The next, I’m drinking ice-cold Japanese beers out of a glass boot and listening to some seriously hot jazz from a Japanese quintet who could’ve held their ground in Preservation Hall or Tipitina’s in New Orleans.
MUSIC AND THE MOTHER CONTINENT
And don’t even get me started on Africa. There are whole genres of music spinning off the Mother Continent, some of them a century or older, whole pantheons of brilliant musicians, singers, bands.
Good luck trying to hear any beyond a token few of them here in the States.
This is equally true in Latin America, and sometimes especially true for Latin American singers of African heritage.
Take just one example, Brazil. New Orleans writer and activist Kalamu ya Salaam details the discrimination that Afro-Brazilian performers have faced for decades, and still do.
About the only hope you have of hearing these talented performers is to catch them where you can in their Brazilian homeland.
FLOATING NOTES
But music travel isn’t confined to land, which is really good news if you’re fond of cruising.
The respected cruise travel site, Cruise Critic, lists music-themed cruises all the way into 2013.
A casual look at the Web site Theme Cruise Finder turns up 11 different categories of music-themed cruises. Not 11 music cruises…11 categories of music cruises.
Basically, if you can hear it on land, there’s a good chance you can also hear it at sea.
Is there a downside to all this music travel? There is, of sorts. Not long after you return home from your musical journey — or even before you get back — you may find yourself spending a lot more money on tunes from your newly expanded list of favorite artists.
But really, is that such a bad thing?
ALSO CHECK OUT:
GAMBIA: The sound of West Africa’s soul
All that JAZZ!
Graphic courtesy of Gino Crescoli | Dreamstime.com
Edited by P.A. Rice