JOAN OF AUDIO & MUSIC

By Rain Jordan

A HIGHER LOVE

Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above Without it, life is wasted time.

Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine —Steve Winwood

PART III: MUSIC IS MEDICINE

Welcome back to Part 3 of my series entitled, A Higher Love, celebrating the emergent artist or creative. I am featuring prolific local music artists who are not necessarily “famous” or signed to a notable record label (yet). However, despite their mainstream anonymity they passionately follow their calling; and throughout their musical journey they discover that their work and ultimately their lives are shaped by a higher love.

This article was meant to be the finale to the series. My plan was to feature the immensely popular and talented local DJ Artist, Lady Ryan from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work as a DJ Artist is incredibly innovative and ultra-cool, yet deeply rooted in classic soul, straight-ahead jazz, old school and alternative hip-hop. However, as life does what it does, it turns out, DJ Lady Ryan was totally booked for June (it’s Pride month) and we both didn’t want to rush the article. So, she

Painting by Rossetti

will be proudly featured in the September issue, extending this series to Part 4. Change is always a given, and lately I’ve been really learning not to over-direct what happens, but instead to yield and recognize what may be trying to happen instead. So, alternatively, something deeply inspiring and notable has made itself available to share with my readers. I feel blessed to feature it, as it aligns perfectly with the theme of the series.

With that said, Part 3 of this series will be showcasing the 11th Annual Music Medicine Benefit Concert produced by Mickel London (who was featured in my first article of the series) in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland. This year the benefit concert sought to raise money for children with Sickle Cell Disease and the research that’s needed to find a cure for it. So far, the concert has raised close to 17K.