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Healers Talk Healing Podcast
The Healers Talk Healing podcast invites you on a transformative journey towards holistic healing, where we explore the mind-body connection, natural remedies, and ancient wisdom to empower you to live a vibrant and balanced life. Join us as we share inspiring stories, expert interviews, and practical tips to help you unlock your true potential and embrace a happier, healthier you.
Healers Talk Healing Podcast
Jazz as Therapy: Amber Weekes on Music's Healing Power and Emotional Journeys
Join us for an intimate exploration of jazz music with Amber Weekes, an acclaimed American jazz virtuoso known for her emotive performances and deep connection to the spiritual and healing aspects of music. In this episode, Amber shares her journey through music, which transcends mere performance to become a pathway to personal and spiritual healing.
We discuss her memorable gig in New York, where the power of her music transformed the evening into a cathartic experience for the audience, showcasing the profound role musicians play as architects of our emotional landscapes. Amber also pays tribute to legends like Nancy Wilson, revealing how these icons have influenced her music and healing process.
Listen as we trace the intertwined paths of music, memory, and emotion. Learn how jazz acts not just as personal therapy but as a collective soundtrack to our lives, offering each listener a chance to find their rhythm in the vast symphony of healing sounds. As I share stories from my own life, reflecting the laughter and tears that have colored my journey, we invite you to discover the profound connections between music and holistic wellness.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in how music can shape our emotions, heal our wounds, and connect us more deeply to the world around us.
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Welcome to Healers Talk Healing, the podcast where we gather to explore the art and science of holistic healing, uncovering the secrets to a happier, healthier you. I'm your host, nina Ganguly, and together we will delve into the intriguing world of holistic healing, delving into the mind-body connection, ancient wisdom and natural remedies to the mind-body connection, ancient wisdom and natural remedies. Get ready for enlightening stories, thought-provoking expert interviews and practical tips that will empower you to unlock your true potential and embrace a vibrant, balanced life. Whether you're an experienced wellness enthusiast or simply curious about the power of healing, join us on this exhilarating journey as we share the wisdom and insights that can truly transform your life. It's time to embark on a voyage towards a happier, healthier you. So, without further ado, let's dive into the captivating world of Healers Talk Healing.
Speaker 2:Out of the tree of life. I just picked me a plum.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Healers Talk Healing. That musical interlude you just heard is the sounds of our truly exceptional guest, amber Weeks, an American jazz recording artist whose melodious voice has been described as a gift from heaven. Born and raised in a musically rich environment in Los Angeles, amber absorbed the eclectic sounds of jazz legends from a very young age, influenced by the cultural and musical heritage of Harlem, where her parents once served musical giants like Duke Ellington and Lena Horne. Amber was destined to follow these melodious footsteps. Her latest endeavor, a Lady with a Song, amber Week celebrates Nancy Wilson, is not just an album. It's a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Nancy Wilson, exploring the deep connections between storytelling and healing through music. Amber's music is a bridge to the past, celebrating the history and the emotional depth of the jazz greats who influenced her, while also serving as a personal narrative that connects deeply with her listeners. Beyond her captivating performances, amber is deeply engaged in the healing arts. Mentored by Reverend Lynn Harrod-Divergis, this training has woven seamlessly into her music, allowing her to craft performances that do more than entertain they heal, they soothe and they inspire. Each note Amber sings is infused with an understanding of music's power to heal the heart and uplift the spirit. Join us as we delve into the world of Amber Weeks, where each performance is a story, each song a remedy and every note a step on a path to deeper emotional resonance. Today, amber will share how her unique blend of musical heritage, personal inspiration and dedicated to craftsmanship makes her a music beacon of healing and hope.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, it's exciting to have this conversation with you, amber, because it's going to be a little bit different from the conversations I usually have. I'm usually speaking with practitioners and holistic, what we call the holistic heroes, those that are trained in providing a different type of healing space. But you also, you know, know, we were talking about this before. Of course, we always have our preamble people you're listening, where you know, we just don't get on and not know each other a little bit.
Speaker 1:Um, we were talking about how music is healing and the care and and the thought that you put into the music that you choose, how you create your list, how that all works, and I'd really love for people to get to know what that process is and how it's been for you and what you've seen. You shared so many wonderful stories when we were getting to know each other before and I really wanted to capture specifically that one story. I think you were in New York and there was someone who really resonated with what you were singing and then said something to you and you're like no, no, I've created the flow here. I know what's gonna happen. I know the journey that I'm taking you on is you watch as people heal through music and you know, I know I'm rambling a little, but I said this to you before and I do believe that music is life.
Speaker 1:It's it it. You know when I think of certain tracks, when certain music comes on you're on the I'm going to say the radio, cause I still listen to the radio in the car Not everybody does, but I'm still a radio listener in the car and you hear something from a time in your life and it evokes something and I do believe music does heal. So, with all of that said, I'm going to hand it off to you.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna hand it off to you now, okay, good. So, oh, wow. So I kind of want to back up a little bit, um, in this step that we talked about before. But I think, you know, we're all divine creations and to create is divine, and so I think you, you know, that's the first thing for me to understand, and so when I hear a piece of music that touches me in a way, I say it's the divinity inside of you know, that creation, channeled through another artist, that then, you know, goes straight to, you know, my heart chakra, and then, you know, maybe, to the second chakra, where, you know, creation occurs, and so, um, that's the first piece of it. It's got to hit me another way. So then I can then, in fact, you know, be divinely inspired to then, you know, bring forward something that's going to touch else, um, and so when I'm putting a show together, I'm very aware of the journey from the very beginning, right? And so when I put the show together, like the first, the first two songs specifically have to be.
Speaker 2:There's a better word than invitation, but right now I can't think of what it is, but the invitation to have somebody join me on my journey and into my space so that we can have a communal experience, and so the specific thing that you're talking about is um, there's a song on my new album called suppertime, um, that has a particular history, um, and when people listen to, what I've actually infused the history of the song into, I've infused the history of the song into the song in a spoken piece that I do toward the end of the song. I don't know that I want to give it all away. I think I'd rather have people have the experience of the song, but it definitely. You know the song, all of the songs, are going to take you on a journey that's going to take you to a particular place. I performed the song live a few times and actually had the experience of watching people cry in front of me while I'm singing the song.
Speaker 2:And so in this particular situation in New York there was a woman sitting in front of me and I finished the song and she looked up at me and she said well, I'm sad, you have to make me happy now of the, the show I was very aware of and I think there's a responsibility as an artist if you're taking somebody on a journey, that you kind of have to take them through a number of different emotions and thought patterns and and and whatever else. Otherwise you're just kind of keeping them in one place and I don't know that there's a healing that can take place. But I think if you allow people to have the range of their emotions inside of inside of a musical experience, it's beneficial. It's much more beneficial to them and more healing so.
Speaker 2:I had set up. I had set up the show so that, like, right after that, there's a song that's very humorous, somewhat ridiculous, does make a social commentary about women and youth, and I'll leave it there, ok. And so it was like I took people from that moment of really considering a very dark moment, right, and then taking them into this ridiculous situation and people are busting up laughing right. And I don't know somebody else's journey. What I do know, and I think that Wendell Pierce I'm a huge fan of Wendell Pierce's, so if you don't know who he is, I'm, I'm sorry for you, but he's a wonderful actor and he's extremely talented and very versatile and I've had the pleasure of seeing him on television a number of times and movies, and I actually was in New uh when he was doing Death of a Salesman and um, just, I thought it was extraordinary and very moving.
Speaker 2:But he wrote a book called the Wind in the Reeds and in the book he talks about um acting specifically. But I think this is true for any kind of an art is, the more you allow yourself to be vulnerable, the more universal the experience is for your audience. And so, um, for me, when I'm performing, I need to open myself, in a way, to my own humanity, to my own vulnerability, to the creative piece of me that is divine, to then give it to somebody else. So you know, whatever their journey is, you know, hopefully something that I'm providing resonates in their space to shift something for them resonates in their space, to shift something for them.
Speaker 1:When you're sharing this, it's reminding me of the thought process that I put into when I'm creating retreats. You know you're taking your people on a journey and, yeah, you're going to get to the place where you want them to open up and feel something in order to heal. You said it right it helps you to open up and it takes you on a to heal. You said it right it helps you to open up and it takes you on a. You're going on a journey somewhere and the hope is that you leave them in a better space than when they arrived, whatever that may be looking like for each individual. And yeah, when you were sharing.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh, that's, it's kind of what we, we do as healers when we're working with someone providing that space. You're providing this, this journey and a space's. It's kind of what we, we do as healers when we're working with someone providing that space. You're providing this, this journey and a space, and it's just, you know, it's fabulous, because I don't know necessarily if people know that that's what's going on, and I'm sure many, many artists are actually, you know, have that in the back of their mind when they're creating. Whatever it is, um, for for people, it is providing some sort of feeling, some sort of you. What you actually said that hit me was the vulnerability piece. The piece, like music, allows us to feel feeling safely. Yes, yes, whether you're in a concert hall or you're in your car or you know, wherever you happen to be, it's like a safe place because you get to verbalize. So you, as the artists, are verbalizing something perhaps me, as the listener, hasn't been able to connect to, and it just allows that and, and I think, for our listeners to understand that you know, maybe if you're not ready to speak to someone, maybe if you're not ready to be in a group, but putting on something that will, as you said, touch and inspire you and open up a place for you to be okay.
Speaker 1:I remember when my father passed away, every time I had to drive by the hospital where he passed to get to work and there was.
Speaker 1:I don't know why this song was the one that was like I needed to hear it because I needed to cry and I wasn't allowing myself to do it, and it was Fergie's. Big girls Don't cry, oh yeah, or good girls, big girls, or good girls, whatever, don't cry. And as soon as I'm like no, I'm, I know I'm repressing it and I need to release it before I get to work and supervise a bunch of people and put a smile on my face and and it's well, I want to say thank you, because you are the artist that's in front of me right now to allow us to have those private moments when we're not ready to show up somewhere in public and or you can't. You know you're in the work environment and it's not the most acceptable place to be vulnerable at that time when something's happening. Something's happening, so to know that the responsibility you take and you hold um bringing your own vulnerability and allowing that for others to provide that healing spaces is very special thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that, well, thank you.
Speaker 1:You know, what I'm interested in as well is how has music helped you in your journey?
Speaker 2:Oh man, so many different ways. You know, you know a lot of what you're talking about in my own experience of listening to you're talking about, in my own experience of listening to other artists myself and something just pardon the pun hits a chord with me. You know. It gives me a moment to contemplate. I do, I'm a trained meditator and I have taken courses in healing from Reverend Lynn um it. It makes it how can I say this exactly For myself as a listener? It does take me on a certain journey.
Speaker 2:You know, and you know the the thing about having recorded music is that you can choose your journey in that moment. Right, it's like if, for instance, I want to be sentimental and sad and reminisce about something and you know, like, go deeper into a layer of grief over a relationship, that's, over somebody I'm missing or someone who's passed away or whatever, you know, I can pick the song that reminds me of that person and allow myself that moment, or three minutes, or five minutes of grief, you know. And at the same time, if I really want to be an amusement and enjoy, I can, you know, I can, you know, give that to myself as a listener and then as a singer. You know the things that I I mean. There's certain songs I'll never sing. You know, like a song called Mean to Me. You know it's like mean to me, why, why, you know, why must you be mean to me?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm really not interested in inviting that into my space you know um, but there there's songs that hit me in such a way where whether it's something that's very happy- you know, and I want to bring that energy into my space so then I can share it, you know, with an audience, right? Those are, those are things that. That happened for me, you know, and fortunately my repertoire is fairly broad.
Speaker 2:And so there are times when, for instance, one of my albums that I did was something to celebrate my father, but like, right in the heart, in the very center of the album, there are three songs that are very, very, very specific to my memory of my father. Right, and so if I want the audience to have the experience of my, my experiencing my father's memory, right, and they can do with it what they want, right, but I, I will open myself to that. And then there are days when I don't want to do that, you know, I want to do something else, but then I can evoke other other things.
Speaker 1:Join the miracles directory, where healers connect and wellness begins. Join a community of trusted holistic professionals or find your path to healing and peace. Visit themiraclesdirectorycom. Start your journey today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Just, you know, I find it, I find it fascinating. I find what we choose, the music that, for instance, the type genre that you choose to sing, it must mean something to you. You know, instance, the type genre that you choose to sing. It must mean something to you, you know, because you sing jazz. And oh, I got some snippets and they're beautiful, beautiful. So we will share a snippet, just a tease. You'll you'll hear if you listened to the introduction. You'll hear it in the introduction and you'll hear it at the end as well. We will leave a snippet for the listeners, because your new album is being released in June, correct?
Speaker 2:Actually we've moved up the date. Oh, okay, there's a single release Wasn't it Wonderful? Which to me is a song of just pure joy, and so that's going to be released around Mother's Day, and then the album, the full album, will come out shortly thereafter. Okay, all right, around Mother's Day, and then the album, the full album will come out shortly thereafter.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, um the album is um, it's called um A Lady with a Song. Amber Weeks Celebrates Nancy Wilson, and Nancy Wilson was a wonderful vocalist with a very broad um catalog. So, um, I was going to say more about that and I don't remember what.
Speaker 1:I was going to say more about that and I don't remember what I was going to say I am laughing because I totally understand and if it comes up we'll talk about it later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, so it's yeah, but you asked me a specific question. Would you mind asking me that question again?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have to remember what that question was, but you know what actually. I'm going to ask another question. Sure, why jazz music? What is it about music?
Speaker 2:That's a long answer. I'll try to make it short and long. Okay, good, good, that's a long answer. Um, I'll try to make sure. Okay, good, good.
Speaker 2:So what I would say is um, in, in many ways it's, it's the music of my, my parents, history, um, most most especially my dad. Um, my parents are New Yorkers. My mother was originally born in Jamaica, but she spent like from eight until 18. She was in New York and my father was born and raised there. My grandparents, my father's parents, had a diner in New York that was quite literally around the corner from Duke Ellington's house, and so my father would serve Duke Ellington fried egg sandwiches after his gigs in the middle of the night, two o'clock in the morning. He served in Duke Ellington, and so it was just, it was like part of their fabric, part of their tapestry. Um, and so I heard, I heard a lot of music as as um, as I was growing up.
Speaker 2:But I think the thing about jazz is um, especially with certain artists like Nancy Wilson, uhson, uh, like oscar brown jr. Um ella fitzgerald, sarah vaughn, frank sinatra, I mean I go on diane carroll, and people don't realize that diane carroll started as a singer and she's probably in a lot of ways, my biggest influence Wow, they told stories and my parents told stories and the melodic sense that's inside of jazz, just because it was I think part of it is because it was there. It was like learning the words that I use to speak and speaking in the way that I do. It was just part of that. We also were um raised around jazz musicians and so it was. It was just kind of in the air.
Speaker 1:So you know, yeah, you said something. You know what's interesting about the storytelling piece? Um, because I think that's so important, because our life is full of stories, like when we teach our children, when we're talking, when we're nostalgic, we're always telling these stories. And that healing aspect of telling a story whether you're telling it for the first time or you're telling it for the 10th, millionth time, and then to put music to it, I think it gets lands a little bit deeper yes, absolutely jazz music kind of makes that happen.
Speaker 1:You know, it's like when you have that, when I'm feeling moody, that's when I'll put some jazz on because I'm like I need to feel deeper. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely it's. I it's. It's beautiful and, yeah, the stories that get told in in music are meant to heal.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking about you know, when I was, when I was asking you about what happened in New York, and I started thinking about, well, all the ecstatic oh gosh, I don't even know how to say the word but all the dance that happens inside of, like EDM, and all the healers they go and do those big ecstatic oh, my goodness, I can't say the word. They go and they go into these big fields and they dance and they listen to music and they have songs at certain frequencies. Did you incorporate any of that kind of thought process in the music that you choose about frequency and and um, and like any of that or like alternative thought?
Speaker 2:that's an interesting question. I I don't know that I did on a conscious level, I would say, certainly subconsciously. It's there, um, and as you're talking about storytelling, um, I think about how I resonate with Oscar Brown Jr and the way that he had an ardence telling a story, um, that was just very profound, because he almost speaking, singing, you know, but he, I keep thinking about this song, so I feel like I need to. It's in my head, so I feel like it needs to come out. Okay, there's a song called the snake that my mom, mom, my sisters and I were in the car and we were kids and my parents had just split up, so my mother was in a particular mood and and um, the song the snake came on and she made us stop what we were doing to listen to the song.
Speaker 2:And um, it was written by and originally recorded by, oscar Brown Jr, who's just his art of storytelling is unsurpassed to me. But it's, it's an obvious story, you know it's. The woman is going to work and she finds a snake in the snow and you know, the snake, you know, lures her into taking him in and it actually says take me in, pretty woman, and she does, and of course I don't need to tell you the rest of the story. In the end, you know, she goes to work, she puts him by the fire, she comes home, she's so excited that he's revived and all this, and then of course he bites her and she dies. You know, but it's not. You know, but it's.
Speaker 2:There's something inside of all of the way that the story is told, that he are, you know, the architect of lyrics, that he was, um, the basicness of the melody itself that I that I believe, gives some of what you're talking about, and it hit me so deeply that I actually recorded the song myself. So it's on my Pure Imagination album and it's called the Snake, but it's one of those that kind of has that I think. Another song that does some of that differently that's also on the same album is the song gone at last, which was written by paul simon, and he'd actually done it as a duet with the late phoebe snow um, but I decided he did it more gospelly. I actually got an arranger who's from Louisiana to actually produce that cut for me, so it has a second line feel to it and it's it even more speaks to what you're talking about, because I don't know if you're you know if your audience knows what the second line is.
Speaker 1:Maybe not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's, it's, it's, it's a form and I'm not going to explain it brilliantly, but it's. The form is specific to a style of music in new orleans or louisiana. It is the second part of a funeral, right. So it's. It's like into the, into the cemetery, right. There's what they call a dirge and the song saint james infirmary is a dirge, so it's very slow, it's very sad, whatever. But then once, once the person's been buried and you're leaving the cemetery, there's your next song, right, that has this joyful spirit to it. So the song and people are actually physically dancing. That's the, you know, the parasols and the handkerchiefs and all of that that you see. That's that second line, gotcha, the song gone at last. You know you're talking about, like, all of the difficulties being eliminated. So I wanted to do that. I wanted to have that feeling that would give somebody the sense of wanting to exercise and exercise right and exercise right, exorcise and exercise whatever. It is that's inside of them that needs to be released in this moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, powerful, powerful, that intention, like the intention that you have put into that, then I am sure it gets received. On the other line, because when we put intention into something, you know whether it's writing, or the intention of this podcast, or the intention of the album that you put together, I believe that it does get received. So the you know, and so for our listeners who are pondering if they started in the middle of this conversation, is like, okay, what does this have to do with healers? Talk healing.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you, musicians are healers. They heal our lives because they, like I said before I'm just repeating myself, but you know, you are the I'm saying you as an artist and the collective, you are the background to that's how I feel, I feel so many people feel the background to our lives. You know the soundtrack, they say right, the soundtrack of our life comes from music and all the different sensories, the, the hearing, the, the movement, the, the stories that get created for us in order to release. And it is a it, it's a beautiful thing, it truly, truly is. And you know, before we kind of round off our conversation, I wanted to know, just, you know a little bit about your own personal healing journey, you know, if you want to share that with us, yeah, oh boy, my own healing journey.
Speaker 2:So, um, what I would say is, um, there's so much to it.
Speaker 2:I mean, early on, I believe I always knew that um, healing comes through love, and there's, you know, it would.
Speaker 2:It would take me a long time to go through the experience I had as a young teenager that just kind of gave me that message, and so I feel like all along, because I got that message at 13, it was more about the journey of finding that way to heal myself and to heal others, of finding that way to heal myself and to heal others, and in having my mind and my heart open to to seeking those things that were going to, uh, transcend whatever difficulty I was having, um, I've been able to.
Speaker 2:You know it's not perfect, but I find that um, I've been able to um center my soul, um in many different ways so that I can, you know, in in many moments in my life, be able to sit in gratitude and appreciate, um what's really around me and, at the same time, invite the things into my life that are going to give me the constant reminders that I'm not in charge, that there really is, you know, a divine spirit that is is there if I open myself to it, and then you know, give to the world the best of myself so that it can heal.
Speaker 1:I got that. So, before we close off, what is your definition of healing?
Speaker 2:my definition of healing as um, you mean as a recipient or as as one delivering both okay. So I would say um. Healing for myself doesn't necessarily mean that something's erased from my memory entirely. Healing for me means transcending things to a point where I'm no longer the lesson in it and create something better for myself and for others as a result of transmuting that energy Um, and as a um, as a healer, as an, an, an artist who's a healer? Um giving from within me in the most authentic way possible so that others can do the same for themselves.
Speaker 2:Beautiful beautiful I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that, thank you. Thank you so much for taking time to, to, to hop on and speak to us and share your journey and your, your songs and the. The song is being released, which was the what the type the name of the song again was. The single is Wasn't.
Speaker 2:It Wonderful.
Speaker 1:Wasn't it Wonderful.
Speaker 2:Right, so that'll come out like on or around May 10th and then the album A Lady With A Song Amber Weeks Celebrates Nancy Wilson will be shortly thereafter.
Speaker 1:Very, very exciting. We'll have all the information alongside the podcast so that you know, people can go in and listen right away. I enjoyed the snippets that you sent. The snippets that you sent. People can go in and listen right away. I enjoyed the snippets that you sent, the snippets that you sent me. They were beautiful. So, yeah, I got a little snippets before everybody else, but whatever it's, it's the advantages of being the host.
Speaker 2:Right exactly, and the snippets will be on the website soon all right, great.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, amber. This has been wonderful. I enjoyed our conversation and I love your voice, so thank you. Thank you for joining us today on Healers Talk Healing. We hope you've been inspired and empowered on your holistic healing journey. If you've enjoyed today's episode and want to continue learning and growing with us, don't forget to subscribe, follow, rate and review our podcast. Your feedback and support mean the world to us. Remember healing is a lifelong journey and you have the power to transform your life in profound ways. Stay curious, keep exploring and never stop believing in your own capacity for healing.
