#8: The Gauze Curtain
The Green Street Mortuary Band
Episode Description
Why do music and grief go hand in hand? For the season finale, we look at the role of music in death. We focus on music in Chinese death rituals, and spend time with the Green Street Mortuary Band — who for over 100 years — have been guiding spirits on their last journey through the streets of San Francisco’s Chinatown.
In this Episode
Guests: Linda Sun Crowder, Lisa Pollard Coppola, and members of the Green Street Mortuary Brass Band
Intro Theme: First Kiss Goodnight - “Story One”
Music Credits: Matthew & Annaliese Redlich - “Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed”; Rosita Serrano - “La Paloma”; Podington Bear - “Tender & Curious”, “Change”, “Cracked Nut Suite”, “Love Sprouts”, “Re Joyce” and “Floating Over The City”; The Green Street Mortuary Band - “Going Home”, “Wishing You Happiness”, “Amazing Grace”
All Ears is produced and presented by Annaliese Redlich, with mentorship and editorial support from Beth Atkinson-Quinton and the Broadwave team.
Get in touch
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Annaliese Redlich: Us humans fancy ourselves rational creatures. We verbalise, analyse, intellectualise. Yet we experience so many things in our lives that are inexplicable, inexpressible and unquantifiable. 2020 has been a pretty solid year in that sense!
Part of the appeal of music, for me is its ability to express these sticky and tricky bits in life. It helps us to anchor to something when we're feeling down and out, and it’s a key part of ritual.
[Audio: Matt & Annaliese at Leo’s funeral]
AR: This is my older brother Matt signing at our grandpa Leo Redlich’s funeral in 2010. Matt’s playing guitar too and that other voice you’re about to hear is me.
[Audio: Matt & Annaliese at Leo’s funeral]
AR: I can tell that we’re nervous here ‘cause of how fast we’re going and how tight our voices sound.
We’re singing an old gospel track called “Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed” originally recorded by Blind Willie Johnson, but Bob Dylan has done it, Pops Staples, even Lydia Lunch and Rowland S Howard did a version together…That was a hard day. Losing my pa Leo (our last remaining grandparent) felt like the trunk of a huge tree had disappeared and it had left all these branches suspended, without an anchor point. And that feeling has never really gone away, I’ve just gotten used to it. But singing that song at the service gave me a purpose that day and a place to put my anxiety and grief.
[beat]
My grandpa was a pretty religious man, a devout baptist. Religion had given his family hope and helped them make sense of a very hard life. They were slaves in Latvia before they spent some time as free people in Siberia, before they came to Australia.
Music: Rosita Serrano - La Paloma
AR: Growing up, dancing was considered evil in Pa’s family. The oft told family story when I was a kid was about the time that Pa dared to play a tango record on a Sunday…The record was La Paloma sung by “The Chilean Nightingale” Rosita Serrano, We’re listening to it now.
My great grandpa Frtiz reacted by taking the record to the chopping block…and hacking it to bits with an axe.
Pa never repeated his misdemeanour.
As kids this story elicited equal parts amazed laughter and wide eyed terror from Matt and I. This religious influence in our family had been watered down by the time it got to us, but we further rebelled against it.
When we were kids, I definitely looked up to Matt and the music that blasted out of his room. So much stuff…Devo, The Doors and The Stones, then Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker and Howlin Wolf and all sorts of old blues and gospel music…
[Audio: Matt & Annaliese at Leo’s funeral]
AR: Singing this song, with its sentiment, felt like a bridge between all of these different values and ideas about belief, and ways of expressing it. Of recognising and respecting the belief system of a man we loved so much. We could come at it from a place of authenticity and integrity without necessarily sharing those beliefs exactly
And so we’re going to end this season of All Ears…at the end. The last waltz, the big sleep, and look at the role music plays in death.
[All Ears Intro theme]
AR: As the well worn saying goes, there are 2 certainties in life, death and taxes. And when it comes to death and the shock and grief we experience at the loss of those we love, rituals provide us with sometimes the only comfort we can get at that time. Whatever those rituals may be. And music has a special place in this.
Dr Linda Sun Crowder: They're mnemonic devices. You know, that just brings back floods of emotion and memory.
I'm Linda. And I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. And I started getting interested in the death rituals when my father passed away. And I really didn't know how to deal with it. And so I made it a study of mine.
AR: Dr Linda Sun Crowder is a cultural anthropologist in Orange County, California. Her area of speciality is death and burial practises, specifically researching these practices in the regions of Southeast Asia and China. She lectures at California State University and has developed a class on death and burial practises.
Music: Podington Bear - Tender and Curious
LSC: Rituals are very important. Rituals help us connect with each other, to connect with the supernatural. That helps tether us. It connects us to our past. And helps bridge transitions as we move on with our loss. The changes in family dynamics and, you know, the fact that there is someone missing. So the rituals help to provide stages of connection to either deal with the present by giving us something special to do. That's distinctive from our, our usual activities. And it helps transition us from the past to the present to the future. And it also helps to us to connect or reconnect with the spirit world. So it's it's all about communication, connections and transitions. And they're very important.
AR:Learning about her ancestor’s cultural traditions surrounding death was a comforting revelation for Linda, but it wasn’t something she had learnt from her parents.
LSC: My mother was from China. She was born in Beijing, but her family was quite westernised and she ran with a rather cosmopolitan crowd. So she really didn't know much about old Chinese traditions and had no interest in them. She met my dad when he was stationed in Beijing during World War Two. He was in the American army. He's was from Honolulu and. He apparently didn't have an interest in that in the old customs either. You know, they were of the generation where they were trying to acculturate into American society. And They raised me to be more American so I didn’t really even learn Chinese at home.
[beat]
AR: There are so many different elements to a Chinese funeral, they vary of course from family to family and how traditional or modern the service is, but there are some key ideas around the very nature of death that are important to distinguish…
Music: Podington Bear - Change
LSC: In the Chinese world view the separation from the physical world and the spiritual world is basically like a thin membrane, a gauzy curtain. And ghosts can come into our world and we can communicate with the spirit world. So there's a lot of transition back and forth. It's not as clear cut as in the Western world view.
The Western view of death is more linear, based on the Christian belief that what do you do in this life is determined by your choices and the consequences occur when you die and your soul either goes to heaven or hell. And it's final. So once the deceased is is buried, the living has to deal with the separation on their own.
In comparison with the Chinese world view You may be dead, but you continue to live on as a member of the family. So there is this ongoing interactive relationship between the living members of the family and the deceased members.
[beat]
AR: Let’s do a little overview on what Chinese Confucian belief is about what happens after we die.
Music: Podington Bear - Cracked Nut Suite
AR: There are different parts of the spirit. Depending on the historical period of China - up to 18, but most generally 3. At death, one aspect of the soul goes to the grave. Another aspect is imbued in a named tablet at the family altar where offerings can be made so that a part of the deceased is always with the family. And the third aspect will travel to either the stages of hell or on to paradise.
When a person dies, their soul is disembodied and it's in a very confused state. It doesn't know what to do with itself. So there are rituals that try to keep the soul hovering close to the corpse until both the corpse and the soul can be safely and ritually contained in the grave
LSC: until that point there's a lot of danger that the soul can be lost. It can be distracted away from the corpse. And that way it won't be joined with the corpse in the grave. And the grave is important because that's where offerings are made.
AR: If the soul is lost it joins a legion of hungry mischievous ghosts who have not transitioned because they weren’t given a proper burial. It’s believed that these ghosts were perhaps orphaned, or died tragically - lost at sea or in battle where there was either no family to bury them and make offerings, or no body to bury. These ghosts, in their jealously, try to entice the spirit from the body to join their vagabond group. In order to protect the living, and the spirit of the deceased, there are all sorts of distraction rituals for the mischievous ghosts, like throwing spirit money which is basically little white pieces of paper.
There are rituals to feed the spirit which involve presenting actual food at the grave of the deceased so the spirit can be nurtured by food essences. It gets eaten later by the family and guests so nothing is wasted.
And, there are rituals to keep the deceased person happy in the afterlife…
LSC: Offerings are made, offerings that might include music, incense, burning mock paper money and papier mâché figures such as homes, servants, iPhones, cars, clothing, mah-jong sets. Anything that the person needed in life to be happy and to sustain themselves. The spirit would also in the spirit realm, because in the Chinese world, view of the spirit world mirrors the the physical world. So they even now have created paper Viagra that you can burn because you want to keep grandpa happy. (laughs) So, the Chinese if nothing else, they’re very practical. So there are a lot of rituals to perpetuate life in the spirit world.
AR: But what about music? Is it as important in the spirit world as it is to us mortals?
LSC: Music serves to connect one realm to another from the physical world to the spirit world. You can't see music. It's something that's up in the air. And it diffuses into the air. So it's an excellent vehicle for rituals concerning the supernatural.
Music also serves to keep the ghosts attracted. And there's different uses for the music. In traditional China, depending on the wealth of the family and its devotion to the deceased. A very wealthy family, for example, would have a funeral that would last many days and people would come from all over. And music and entertainment would be used to amuse the guests. And they would often stage operas or have singers and entertainment. And that's for the guests as well as for the spirit. And the spirits of ancestors that may be present or of any lingering spirits that might be about even the hungry ghosts to appease them, as well as for the soul of the deceased.
Music: A Chinese Funeral
AR: Music also sets the mood. Linda says that in traditional cultures like old China, you need to keep in a mournful frame of mind as it shows your devotion to the departed family member. It is an important aspect of filial piety which is a cornerstone of confucian belief.
Music also acts as a warning. In traditional China harsh and dissonant music just like this is used for funerals. It broadcasts that there is a death in the area which is important as there’s a belief that certain types of people need to avoid funerals and dead bodies. For instance there’s a belief that pregnant women should stay away in order to protect their unborn child from “death heirs”
LSC: Different Chinese groups will have different types of funeral elements, props for protection. I remember when my grandparents died one of my aunts said to keep a piece of onion wrapped in a pomelo leaf on me to ward off death heirs and evil. (laughs) And it worked because you smelled so bad nothing would come near you. You know, garlic for vampires. Onions for evil spirits. And of course Music!
Music: Podington Bear - Love Sprouts
LSC: But there's so many elements within sacred rituals or anything to do with the supernatural worldwide cross culturally that are transmitted into the air. You think about incense, smell and smoke. It all dissipates into the air. Music and scents they all go upward. And it expands a ritual space. You always smell something and hear it before you see it. And so it envelops participants, it creates a ritual space. And it also is a very good communication and transportation device. Food essences, aromas, sound, they all are transported and become invisible.
Linda was looking at focusing her research on the death rituals of the Torajan people, an ethnic group indigenous to mountain areas of South Sulawesi in Indonesia. That was until she came across something very surprising much closer to home.
Music: The Green Street Mortuary Brass Band - Going Home
LSC: So on one of my trips to San Francisco, I was going to Chinatown to eat. And I came across this marching band and they look like a Salvation Army marching band in their uniforms. And I thought, oh, is there some kind of a special occasion going on? So I followed the band. And it was for a funeral.
AR: Linda had stumbled across The Green Street Mortuary Band, an absolute institution of San Francisco. This is them playing Going Home by composer Antonin Dvorak (anton-yin devor-jaque).
Her interest was piqued at the discovery of this tradition that seemed to exist and thrive specifically in San Francisco’s Chinatown. And thrive is almost an understatement, at the time, which was the early 90s, the band were marching in over 700 funerals a year!
LSC: And I was amazed because I'm Chinese and there is a huge Chinese community in Honolulu. And I had never seen such a procession.
AR: She ended up basing her PHD research in the oldest Chinatown in the USA, in San Francisco, and it focused on public ritual procession, and the Green Street Mortuary Band.
Now I have long been aware of the GSMB, my Dad used to spend lots of time working in San Francisco and my parents would always tell me all about how great it was seeing them march through Chinatown. Thanks for the tip mum and dad. The story of the band is more interesting than I could have imagined and the people who are in it…
Ahead of a trip to the USA, I make some phone calls to the mortuary - the time difference between Melbourne Australia and San Francisco USA makes it tricky to get in touch and then when I do it is a little complex explaining why I’m calling . But I get an email for the bandleader and we talk on the phone and have the kind of conversation that makes me book a flight to San Francisco
[SFX: Sounds of San Francisco’s Chinatown]
On a bright, clear, beautiful Sunday afternoon in September I head to San Francisco's Chinatown to meet these musicians who make a living scaring off ghosts…and the woman who leads them…
Lisa Pollard Coppola: Perfect day. We are right in the heart of North Beach but we are at the corner stone of Chinatown, my name is Lisa Pollard Coppola.
We used to set off so many car alarms. I think that did more to scare away the ghosts than we did, but we would smile secretly to one another when when the drummers would shake the car alarms to the point of making them go off, and if we could get two or three in a block, we'd kind of be holding up three fingers and saying we really did something.
AR: Lisa Pollard Coppola has been the bandleader of the GSMB for 26 years.
LPC: But we hope that we additionally do scare the evil spirits away. If that's one of our points, if that's the reason for us to be or was ever the reason for us to be in this tradition. What difference does it make as long as we do what we're here for, which is to add some warmth and beauty to it?
AR: The service in the chapel has just finished as I arrive at The Green Street Mortuary, and the band are assembling in the street out front getting ready to begin the procession. It feels a little odd heading to the funeral of someone I don’t know, with a microphone, but Lisa and the funeral director Robert are incredibly warm and welcoming.
[SFX: Robert and LPC greet AR, street sounds]
AR: The neighbourhood is bustling with people going into a matinee at the local theatre, and spilling out of numerous sports bars shouting at the SFO 49s playing the patriots in the NFL. Life is bubbling along in that way that it does on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Lisa hands me a route map and some spirit money to throw for the vagabond ghosts.
There’s something surprisingly comforting about death being out there in the open, part of the furniture of a Sunday afternoon, alongside football, going shopping, or going out for ice cream. Watching love and respect paid for a life lived, in amongst life being…lived. Not cloistered away, hidden from view like the boogie man underneath your bed.
LPC: Well, we wait until the families have all lined up and gotten into their cars and then we head out for one of the different routes that we take. So we go all the way to Clay street which is about seven or eight blocks they’re fairly long and a motorcycle escort clears the way for us so we play as we go along the way, generally Chrstian hymns.
All right. And we're pretty well set, as you see, that's a picture car. They had a custom built to accommodate the family, which is amazing. We used to have John Wayne's old Cadillac, which was pretty amazing. But over the years, it got waterlogged with the rains and such. And then they built this Cadillac just literally for the purpose of the family being able to come along. My goodness. They're ready. All right.
[SFX: March begins]
LSC: For the Chinese, the funeral is still the most important life passage ritual that surpasses even, you know, birth, the birthdays or weddings, because it's at a funeral where a the deceased can become an ancestor. An individual's identity is very much tied to its clan lineage, it's a group collective identity rather than an individual one.
You know, just hiring a band is considered a big deal because they're getting so expensive now for just a half hour of marching through Chinatown. So it really reflects on the family that, oh, this family's still doing the old way. You know, they're not cutting corners. And so it does speak of family face, saving face as well as prestige and status. For a big shot funeral and I attended a couple, they would often have three, even four bands.
AR: Linda investigated some other cities in north America with sizeable Chinese communities and found bands in Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver. But it wasn’t the same, some weren’t able to actually march due to traffic, and some can only hold funerals during the week which affects the numbers of attendees.
If you’re going to have a spectacle you need an audience. And not only is the Green Street mortuary close to chinatown, but Chinatown itself is in the centre of the action in downtown SFO. It’s a destination as well as a busy corridor to pass though to get to other popular places. Chinatown is also dense and concentrated. So you get all these tourists, locals and people passing though in what is the perfect staging area for a cultural performance. And the band are allowed to march on the street. All of these things make the funeral procession a highly visible and widely valued cultural practice. It is encouraged cause it’s part of the fabric of the neighbourhood and things would not be the same without it.
LSC: Music in the funeral context adds pomp and circumstance as well as dignity, honour and respect, especially in the public space where it's performed for everyone to see and to have that public gaze, have people looking at what you're doing for the deceased. It's a great honour to the deceased.
AR: I’m walking pretty fast through a bustling chinatown, darting through gaps on the footpath, and somewhat struggling to keep up with the band. It is really quite something to watch them take over the already very busy street. Tourists like myself watch wide eyed with gaping mouths, and even the people going about their daily business who have seen them pass a million times pay reverent attention. It’s extraordinary.
Passerby: Having fun?
AR: It's incredible to behold, it’s amazing. The whole thing is deeply moving and very public!
Passerby: Strange cultural phenomenon, but yet one that is revered and treasured in this city. Long tradition.
AR: Have you had any particularly memorable...um?
Band member: We played a couple of mafia Chinese mafia funerals so memorable. Those are actually, a lot of fun, the mob funerals.
AR: A spot in the GSMB is a coveted thing for a working musician. Not only is it a regular paying gig, but it keeps them literally on their toes, keeps them practicing their instrument, AND the call time for processions doesn’t conflict with other evening gigs.Many of the band members play with places like The San Francisco Ballet, or university Symphonies, other community orchestras or teach music. Like Brian who plays trombone…
Brian: I think the last time I marched was in high school, but it's pretty straightforward. And I mean, this is I think it's such a great gig because you get to meet so many people. Lisa's amazing. And it's it's a really meaningful experience. And I'm not sure that there's that many more bands are really marching bands like this outside of New Orleans. So.
AR: And this is Gabe, also trombone
Gabe: You won't get another gig like this. I mean, where you get to walk around Chinatown or hike or march, whatever you want to call it. And I guess play at a funeral. It's kind of unique.
Tim Vaughn: I'm Tim Vaughn and I play the lead drum. I’ve been with the band since 1998. That's when I started substituting.
Kathy Deveau: I'm Kathy Deveau and I play bass drum. I don't know, maybe. When was Johnny, ten years ago. Maybe ten or twelve years ago.
AR: How did you feel about that particular service?
TV: Well, we should have left out the amen at the end. I think something strange happened on me. KD: Did it? Yeah, but other than that. Well, I thought it went very well.
TV: I feel like the way I was raised, it was very sombre, a funeral. And I think that this brings us about halfway to the New Orleans spirit of funerals anywhere where it's it's more of a celebration or maybe the Mexican approach where it's a little bit more celebratory of the person's life. Instead of simply being a very gloomy event, though, we do play some pretty gloomy tunes sometimes...um gloomy tunes (laughs).
KD: Chopin at the beginning in the chapel is very serious and slow. So it kind of sets the mood for the whole event.
[SFX: The March begins]
AR: The tradition of a Western style marching band playing Western music at Chinese funerals began in the early 20th century around 1911 when a group of Chinese boys from Chinatown heard an American boy’s band play. They started marching along with them fascinated by the music and wanted to learn it.
Chinatown in SFO is self-ruling and, by arrangement with city hall, has always been run by The Chinese Benevolent Association. The Association sponsored the boys and hired a retired American naval band leader to teach them.
Here’s Dr Linda Sun Crowder again…
LSC: And so a Chinatown institution was was born. The Cathay Boys band was a community band and they played at all kinds of occasions. And there was an amateur band. They didn't charge.
AR: The band ran on tips and donations to repair uniforms or instruments and they were hugely popular, and they started playing a lot of funerals.
LSC: That became something that came out of Chinatown for Chinatown. And the custom continued until about the late 50s, early 60s, when the San Francisco musician's union wanted in on this, a potentially very lucrative gig the Chine se funerals.
AR: The very powerful union muscled in and that spelled the end of The Cathay Boys band.
LSC: That's how it wasn't those days, frankly. It was was pretty racist. And the Chinese really didn't count. You know, it was protecting white jobs.
Music: The Green Street Mortuary Brass Band - Wishing You Happiness
LSC: So that's how the Greenstreet. This and other funeral homes started using union bands and the members, until very recently weren't weren't Asian at all.
It wasn't a Chinatown band for a Chinatown funeral, you know? And that's that's part of a cultural loss for Chinatown.
AR: The union bands that were employed from that point on for Chinese services by funeral homes mostly played western military marches and Christian hymns. Gradually the other funeral homes in and around Chinatown closed. Recently, Lisa Pollard Coppola started playing some Chinese folk songs like this one - called Wishing You Happiness - at the recommendation of one of the Chinese funeral directors at the Greenstreet Mortuary Clifford D, apparently Clifford was a very good liaison between the GSM and the Chinese community. And Lisa, was keen to change the culture of the band and focus more on the experience for the families
LPC: I think the fact that the Greenstreet Mortuary has withstood so many places closing and and does funerals in such a very professional manner, it speaks to the generation of of keeping American and Chinese traditions alive at a time when a lot of things are lost like that, you know, where whether it's little nightclubs, just not having the money to have live music or what have you.
AR: But behind every great institution is a great leader and Lisa has undoubtedly made her mark on the band’s legacy…
LSC: And she's the one that really brought a positive attention to the Greenstreet Mortuary Band you know, she's a world class jazz saxophonist and she played in Duke Ellington's band. And at Clinton's second inauguration. She and her deceased husband, John Coppella. He was a brilliant arranger. And he played for a lot of the big bands. I mean, played for Sinatra. And he had all kinds of connections with the musicians in San Francisco. So together they had great musical arrangements. They never stopped arranging or looking for new pieces. And they got the best musicians that could be available for him for the funeral marches. And it really elevated the level of musicianship. People that knew music they never paid attention to the processions before until Lisa and John took over.
LPC: My job is to keep them safe. And so far, after 26 years, we haven't ever had a really serious accident with anybody. We do a lot to disrupt traffic, unfortunately. And we've had some police officers that really hated the band and tried to get rid of us. One in particular, and it was very awkward with him. But that's rare. Most of them really respect what we're doing and see it as part of the community and part of this important tradition. And they respect it, too. So we're lucky. There are enough people that are on our side.
AR: It strikes me that it’s not just the importance of tradition and ritual, the intertwining currents of cultural backgrounds, and it’s geographical setting that makes the GSMB an enduring anomaly, but also the characters.
LSC: Oh isn’t she a darling woman oh?! She’s like an electric socket you can plug into her…she’s got so much energy she would generate light and music, amazing woman, just an open heart, there isn’t a friend she hasn’t met.
AR: Lisa is an incredibly energising person to be around. Her effervescent conversation is the kind you share with an old friend. She’s middle-aged and has short cropped platinum hair and wears the reflective aviator sunglasses of a pilot or captain, which look particularly sharp with her navy coloured uniform. And she’s always ready to smile or laugh.
[SFX: Streetscape]
AR: After the procession she and I sit down with a beer to talk across the road from GSM outside of one of the sports bars packed with 49ers fans.
LPC: This was my heart and soul, and it was never what I had intended to do as a jazz saxophonist. But it fell into my lap by the fact that I was interested in doing it well and it wasn't being done as well. It’s also what’s kept the lights on all these years.
AR: Even outside of a year shut down by a global pandemic, increasingly we have less chances to see live music in the streets, for free! Music is happening in our headphones, or behind closed doors, in venues, for a ticket price as it all should. But we drive what we hear and interact with, and I don’t think that this is how it should solely work. But bringing music to the streets, on a big scale, that disrupts the regular traffic, that commands attention, that might expose you to music you wouldn’t usually listen to, that you experience with other people is an amazing and important thing for all of us!
Of course being in the streets and not cloistered in an orchestra pit or concert hall on a stage gives the musicians some interesting experiences too…
LPC: I love that. Actually, we never know what we've got crazy people that have, you know, thrown ice cream at the band or the picture and but not very many luckily. You get all kinds. The bulk of people, even if they're from another country, they stop and say, what is this?
AR: The band has about 40 or so songs in their repertoire, most of them memorised. And being exposed to the elements affects the way that their instruments will work and sound. They show up in all weather, for all services no matter what...
LPC: Play them if you're sick. You play them if you're well, you know, you play if...you gotta work, whether you you feel good or not.
Sometimes the family’s grief…you can feel it in the air and it’s enormously powerful to you. I have trouble keeping my wits about me sometimes and there’s no predicting that. And it’s not just about my own personal losses of my husband or my mother it’s more about the fact that times are changing and the young become the old and the old die and move on.
AR: Lisa’s husband John Coppola was the band’s arranger and musical director and he was an incredibly accomplished musician. When he passed away a couple of years ago he didn’t even want a service let alone the band to play. He told Lisa he’d been to enough funerals in his lifetime and despite pressure from other people she honoured his wish.
Music: Podington Bear - Re Joyce
AR: How does a person manage and process their own grief when it is their job to play a part in ritualising loss and grief for others?
LPC: Oh, I've had to get beyond it. I've had to not feel sad when my own husband is dead and I still have to come back to work and start conducting my band again. But each song that brings him back to me. And today we played several of them. I'm always thinking about him and how he brought that here. So the music has special meaning for me in that way. But I really understand people's grief in a different perspective. Then, of course you do. When you're young and you think you'll live forever
Music: Poddington Bear - Floating Over The City
LSC: It triggers memories. And emotions and feelings.I would choose music that marks certain that were important in certain stages of my life. And it it's it would be a very mixed bag. I still love Amazing Grace. It's so beautiful and touching. But also maybe the song that was played when my husband and I got married. A John Denver song- Follow Me. And a song that really marks my adolescence, My Girl, by The Temptations.
LPC: Absolutely. I mean, what's the power of Amazing Grace? Every tradition, every family. They seem to want that one song.
LSC: One of my favourite songs and I told Lisa, if I die before her, she has to play this at my funeral. It's called the was one of the Chinese folk songs that they had that they arranged. It's called "Wishing You Happiness". And it's a beautiful piece. And so whenever I think of that song and the melody, it takes me right back to the streets of Chinatown and my research period.
LPC: I never anticipated how much music was going to do for me in my life. And that it was going to become everything I ever loved and everything I’d ever love. And it also can bring me to tears. It can take my emotions any which way. I couldn't imagine the world without music frankly.
Our place in all of this. Why why this matters so much, because the traditions that the Chinese are thinking about is bringing good luck to the next family, the next generation, the next world. And that's always been my goal as a teacher and as a mentor to young kids and and professionals that have come to me for help.
LSC: Seeing traditional pageantry reminds you of where you came from, what your roots are. And it's it also, you know, contributes to appreciating the value of traditions, whether you're from that culture or not. It helps broaden people's curiosity and understanding and perhaps tolerance. And San Francisco is a very multicultural, very diverse place. So they embrace more, you know, the different cultural expressions. And for the Chinese. It's it's still a mark of of respect and a tie to...the greater Chinese culture that persisted for thousands of years. It's is tight ties back to the pride of their heritage.
Music: The Green Street Mortuary Band - ‘Amazing Grace’
AR: It might sound funny, but I do picture my grandpa Leo on the other side of the gauze curtain listening to our song for him that day at his funeral. I think of him smiling as I play Rosita Serrano and I feel some sort of peace being made for him.
But whatever the truth is, that peace is also something I feel. It’s something I can carry forward in these messy, complex, despairing times of life.
And that means a lot.
[Music finishes]
A huge thanks to Dr Linda Sun Crowder, Lisa Pollard Coppola and the members of the Green Street Mortuary Brass Band for their amazing insights and generosity for this story.
THANK YOU to Beth Atkinson Quinton for her editorial support for this episode...and for all of season 1 of All Ears. Without her keen ear these episodes would be far more rambling and long winded!
Thank you to Davey Lane for his beautiful musical compositions for much of season one. You should go out and buy his new solo record Don’t Bank Your Heart On It right now.
I must also thank my aforementioned big brother Matt Redlich for his 24 hour help desk style support, answering my random protools questions in the production of this series - I have learned a lot!
And thanks to you for spending time with season 1 of All Ears. When we are back you will be the first to know. In the meantime, tell your friends and get in touch with us on social media or email at allearspod@gmail.com
We are thrilled to have just won a bronze award at the Australian Podcast awards amongst so many terrific shows.
And check out Broadwave for more great stories!
Multiple voices: [SFX: Broadwave, Broadwave, Broadwave, Broadwave, Broadwave.]