Jazz and Seopyeonje

Jazz is a sad music of black people. Seopyeonje is a sad Pansori called by the western people of Jeolla-do, Korea.

 

New Orleans Bourbon Street, Louisiana, is the home of jazz. Many famous jazz musicians came from there. That's why the city is a famous tourist attraction. Jazz musician critics recognize the older jazz musicians from New Orleans who have been playing heart-felt music for over 70 years. It's said that true music comes out after that. Recently, 103-year-old jazz musician Lionel Ferbos passed away. There are so many famous jazz musicians who play on Broadway in New York or uptown in Chicago even today. They succeed as musicians and have both money and honor. By the way, New Orleans Bourbon Street jazz musicians don't have much money or honor. So, in the world of jazz, the musicians from New Orleans know more about the quality of jazz, and what real jazz music is meant to express. Musicians from Broadway and New York have a much easier upbringing, which prevents them from being able to convey the same level of sadness that musicians from New Orleans can.

 

I saw Seopyeonje a long time ago. It is a Korean movie which was released in 1993, and tells the story of a father who blinded his daughter willingly. The story shows the life of the daughter as a tale of grief, where after the fact she was blinded by her own father, she was able to express the emotions within her heart in her music. At the beginning, before she was blind, her talent was locked only by her natural ability to sing, but without any emotion included. After being blinded, the daughter had so much grit that she was actually able to improve her music by incorporating melancholy into a Pansori. His daughter sings the Pansori of Seopyeonje with grief and with grit. Only a person who is full of grief, yet also has overwhelming grit can sing a Pansori.

 

There is a hymn from the Hymnal, “Take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of woe, it will give you joy and comfort, take it then wherever you go."

 

There are still people who believe in Jesus among those who remain sad and live in grief.