Speaking With . . .™

The studies that repeatedly show that istening to quality music has a positive impact on brain function is impressive. It’s even more impressive that good music can have that effect whether we’re considering the unborn child or our senior citizens.

Something else that impresses me is the way many people allow music to empower them to bridge unseen and unnecessary divides. Whether we’re observing young musicians of elementary school age or seasoned pros who are much older, we can see people of various colors (races) and both genders, as well as various nationalities enjoying each other as they interact through music.

It was great having Eddie Ellis and Kelly Fanning with me in the studio Thursday, June 14, as we talked about their roles in the movie Drumline. Both were on faculty at Morris Brown at the time of the filming. We were all joined by Jeff Thompson who described himself to me as “the big white guy who played the tuba” in the movie. The comraderie these three men shared was amazing: two different colors (races), three different generations. Mutual respect. Eddie Ellis is now at South Carolina State where he serves as Director of Bands. Kelly Fanning is Director of Bands at Morris Brown and Jeff Thompson, The Big White Guy, is Assistant Director of Bands at Morris Brown. 

What a beautiful story! So you can hear more about it, I’ll let you know when I have the conversation saved to the site/Facebook Page.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 4:25 PM and is filed under This Week's Guests and Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.