editor’s note
We Got the Beat
Karen Werner “It’s rare for something to be created for a supposedly vanishing audience: the intelligent general population.”
walk into the church and take my seat in a silent ring of perhaps 20 men and women. We haven’t met, are from all over the state and have not come to pray. Spanning ages and ethnicities, we sit awkwardly, waiting for the evening to begin. At last, we’re invited to beat the drums before us. Congas, djembes, tubanos and soundshapes—all there to be played. I give my djembe a timid slap, wondering why, exactly, I came. I know the answer, of course. I was inspired by Dan Newhauser’s article, “Taking Rhythm to Heart,” which explores the physiological effects of music on the human heart. The story looks at ways doctors and musicians are experimenting with music in treating heart arrhythmias. It also discusses how this free monthly group led by the AZ Rhythm Connection’s Frank Thompson uses a drumming protocol to boost the immune system, relieve stress and promote relaxation. So here I am, in a Paradise Valley church, shaking a tambourine and telling the group why I came. Others are talking about themselves, too. One woman, a ringer for Shirley MacLaine, talks about traveling from Sedona that day to close her sister’s estate. A distinguished man of about 70 says this night reminds him that creating his happiness is his job—no one else can do it for him. As we talk and visualize and drum, our beats transition from isolated and scattered to a unified groove. We sound good. And, amazingly, our awkwardness is gone. Within 15 minutes, we’ve gone from being strangers to sharing genuinely who we are. “The drumming is just an excuse for people to connect with each other,” Thompson says. “It’s a form and a way to connect through music.” I like to think of this magazine that way—as a sort of conversation that connects a community. Readers come to Wavelength—like the people banging those drums—from all over the place, not because of a single affiliation. And in this world of niches—where every magazine, like every ad, is aimed at a particular ZIP Code, income bracket, interest or identity, it’s rare for something to be created for a supposedly vanishing audience: the intelligent general population. But that’s who Wavelength aims to serve: the people—of every income or interest—who have come to recognize in KJZZ and KBAQ’s programming a civilization, their civilization, in conversation with itself. Fact-checking this issue, I made Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s marvelous “Dumbed-Down Rice,” took a Father’s Day journey into Phoenix Art Museum’s fabulous “Fireflies” and learned a mother lode about the famed Superstitions. I tried a few restaurants listeners recommended and became a pretty rockin’ drummer—at least for one night. I hope you’ll try one new thing you read about in these pages, and perhaps stretch yourself— and our community—just a little bit further, too.
Warmly,
6 Wavelength