CosmoPop

CosmoPop music is spiritually-based music that emerged in Arizona, USA in the mid 1990s.[1] Its originator Tony Delevin, also known as Gabriel of Urantia, "Gabriel of Sedona" or "TaliasVan of Tora"[2] describes it as “spiritually hip vocal music”[3] that addresses the “sufferings of life and the courage of perseverance and hope, which leaves the listener with a new vision for their future.”[4] TaliasVan believes that CosmoPop music originated in the Pleiades and first came to this planet as Celtic music in ancient Glastonbury, then called Avalon. As to the evolution of his spiritual self-discovery and his musical career, he has had these names, starting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1960s: Anthony J. Delevin/Tony Delevin/Tee Jay & Duke Quintet/T.J. & The Knight Kaps/Gabriel of Sedona, in the 1990s/Gabriel of Urantia/TaliasVan to present day.

CosmoPop music has also been described as multi-dimensional,[5] because of its use of several musical genres and styles within a single composition, some of which include rock, pop, folk, jazz, country, soul, Celtic, world, mantra, and mystic.[1][6] The Bright & Morning Star Band, his band, consisting of 9 members, performs CosmoPop music.[7] The band uses his lead vocals and background vocals, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, percussions, keyboards, flute, saxophones, trumpet, horns, pennywhistle, and bagpipes.[8][9]

History

CosmoPop's originator, TaliasVan, started singing at age 6 and performing at age 8 on street corners of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[1] At age 12, he sang with harmony groups and performed rhythm and blues, or soul music, influenced by the African American culture in his neighborhood at the time.[10] At age 15, he initiated his first band “The Fuzzes,” an R&B band.[1][10]

TaliasVan began professionally recording in the early 1960s, first with the Snyder recording company in Cleveland, Ohio and then at Gateway Studios in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Joni Wilson and the Debonairs.[10] He performed and sang lead with T. J. & the Night Kaps,[10] and sang at many night Clubs in Pittsburgh including the Holiday House.

At age 24, he began writing spiritual music and compositions [1] and spent 11 years performing spiritual concerts. He did opening acts for Christian rock bands Petra, Resurrection Band, and Servant at the University of Arizona.[11][12][13] After years of service in youth ministry organizations across the USA[12] and in his own Son Light Ministries in the 4th Avenue area of Tucson, Arizona[10][14] TaliasVan went back to Pittsburgh to record Unicorn Love.[1] After its release, he was featured in the South Pittsburgh Reporter for bringing higher-consciousness music to the American public.[12]

In his late thirties in Pittsburgh, TaliasVan joined a Catholic black gospel choir, belonging to the St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—when he went back home to record his first vinyl album Unicorn Love in 1985 at Aircraft Studios in Dormont, Pennsylvania.[10][12] He then went to Los Angeles to market his commercial spiritual vocal album, which was the beginning of CosmoPop music. While he was there, he was chosen as lead vocalist with the one-hundred-voice black gospel choir of St. Brigid Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California.[10]

As TaliasVan's personal life changed so did his musical style, first called “Luminary.” The music no longer followed the contemporary Christian sound of the time, so he coined the term “New Age Vocal” to describe his Unicorn Love album,[10] which was the first New Age Vocal album, after which others followed.[5] He believed it was the first New Age Vocal album, because he was in Hollywood and Windham Hill rejected his album, saying “New Age music can’t be vocal.” He also noted that in West Hollywood at a New Age music store which his friend managed there were no New Age Vocal albums.[15]

TaliasVan did not want to identify his work with contemporary Christian music, because he felt he was beyond that consciousness, and thought the only choice at that time was New Age Vocal, but it was the beginning of CosmoPop sound and the first CosmoPop music album.[10]

TaliasVan has expressed that because CosmoPop is a new style of music, he has had a difficult time marketing it.[15] In 1986 he met songwriter Al Kasha, winner of 2 Academy Awards for Best Song of the Year for Motion Pictures “We Will Never Love This Way Again” and “The Morning After”. Al Kasha said Unicorn Love was “a wonderful album.”[13] Later, in 1988 he was acknowledged as the pioneer of “New Age Vocal,” which he developed to add lyrical and vocal expression to the spiritual thoughts of instrumental New Age music.[15] He formed a nonprofit record label, Global Change Music, to record and showcase his new CosmoPop brand of music.[1]

Style & Composition

The musical instruments TaliasVan & The Bright & Morning Star Band use to create CosmoPop music include saxophones, trumpets, flutes, keyboards, drums, percussion, bass, and rhythm guitar, as well as lead and harmonizing vocals.[9]

CosmoPop music combines at least two different musical genres, with the more compositionally-complex songs incorporating three to four genres.[1] Many of these songs include mantras of various kinds, even in his country western work, which he calls CosmoCountry.[5][6][11]

CosmoPop music expresses a variety of feelings, sounds, moods, and dimensions within one song or album. Some critics describe CosmoPop music as a unique and new form of music “that can take your consciousness from this planet to another planet—even another universe—in just one song.”[9] TaliasVan believes that he originated CosmoPop music in another universe, from which his soul originates, (he teaches there are also five hundred million others called starseed) which he believes to be the Pleiades.[5] He chose the name CosmoPop because it means “universally popular” and has nothing to do with pop music.[5]

Others have described CosmoPop music as “spiritually charming” with “uplifting positive lyrics presented as a tool for positive global change.”[3] TaliasVan has been described as an “artist’s artist,”[5] and CosmoPop music as “message music,”[10] “multidimensional,”[5] “Conscious Pop,”[13] and “music of the future for minds of the future.”[3][9] CosmoDance, the style of dance associated with CosmoPop music, has been described as movement “inspired and guided by the spirit within” in response to the music.[6]

Local & National Influence

The musical venue Future Studios[16] hosted early concerts by The Bright & Morning Star Band featuring CosmoPop music.[17] The venue was locally known for presenting artists from different countries like Argentina, the Middle East, and Africa and was recognized for contributing to the cultural, artistic, and musical scenes of Arizona.[18]

CosmoPop music appeals to local audiences in Arizona for the spiritual content of its lyrics,[19] and The Bright & Morning Star Band won the Verde Valley Newspaper’s Reader’s Choice Awards in 2005 for “Best Local Musicians.”[20]

The Bright & Morning Star Band’s first “Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert” was held in 2004, and later aired on Oasis TV in two parts.[7] One of their first outdoor concerts featuring CosmoPop music was held in summer 2005 in Flagstaff, Arizona at Wheeler Park.[13] Also in 2005 The Bright & Morning Star Band held a CosmoPop concert in Mount Shasta, California,[21] which was the first of a series of CosmoPop Benefit Concerts to promote the idea of “Music and Business without Greed.”[21] The concerts were recognized nationwide to contribute to the enhancement of social service organizations.[9][22]

Awards & Recognition

In August 1998, "The Morning Song" a CosmoPop song, was chosen by the magazine and network New Age Voice to be included on their “International Promo.”[13]

In January 19, 1999, KKUP in Cupertino, California, 91.5 FM, interviewed TaliasVan on its "Changes Radio" program. DJ Elizabeth Gips and TaliasVan discussed the fourth-dimensional aspects of his CosmoPop music and the need for individual and global change.[13] In February 7, 1999, KDHX 88.1 FM radio in St. Louis, Missouri featured TaliasVan & The Bright & Morning Star Band's Holy City CD in a broadcast on DJ Gabriel's Tin Pan Alley program. He discussed with DJ Gabriel the "universally popular" sounds of CosmoPop music.[13] His CosmoPop song, "The Freedom Song"—written for Nigerian freedom fighter Ken Saro-Wiwa—was listed in the March 1999 Top 20 of the country of Romania.[13]

The CosmoPop song "Wake Up America," from the Holy City CD was featured on KFLX (Flagstaff, Arizona) during an interview with TaliasVan regarding his Wake-Up America, Wake-Up-World, Radical Unity Tour. The song received recognition for being a response of peace instead of arms to the 9/11/2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.[4]

In 2005, The Bright & Morning Star Band received The Aurora Awards Gold Award for Best Live Concert, for their Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert[23] in professional company with Disney and Fox media, who were recognized and awarded in their respective categories.[4]

CosmoWorship

TaliasVan's Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra performs CosmoWorship music, which like CosmoPop, is music written to reflect the “face of God” and connect listeners to higher Interuniversal realities and cosmic truths.[10] Critics have described CosmoWorship music as a “growing and boldly harmonic creative phenomena.”[24]

The Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra began performing CosmoWorship music in 1995. Since then the choir has performed throughout Arizona, making live, radio, television, and worldwide webcast appearances. The choir is locally known for their charitable work during the holiday season. They have sung traditional carols and his original compositions for the St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic in Nogales, the Santa Rita Care Center in Green Valley, and at the Tubac Plaza Main Stage in Tubac, Arizona.[24]

TaliasVan’s CosmoPop music CD, The God Child Came Christmas Album,[7] features some songs performed and supplemented by The Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra.[25] The CDs CosmoWorhip I and CosmoWorship II contain CosmoWorship songs sung and performed by the 40-voice Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra. TaliasVan believes that music has tremendous power to heal and this is a main motivator behind his music ministry which brings the sacred to popular music.[24]

Spiritual Purpose

CosmoPop music uses popular culture forms to show the face of God and spur “a spiritual quantum leap on a mass scale” to bring people back to a personal relationship with their Creator and change world consciousness.[10] All CosmoPop music has a “spiritual bent”[1][10] and its lyrical messages seek to bring hope and answers to life’s problems.[1] CosmoPop music is part of the language to relieve the suffering of the world.[10] He believes that God can bring forth a spiritual solution and create a Spiritualution(SM) movement.[5] TaliasVan has said the essence of CosmoPop music inspires and restores the spiritual value in living.[15]

Evolution of CosmoPop Music

Night Clubs

1964–1968 Forerunner to CosmoPop sound: played in night clubs throughout Pittsburgh and surrounding cities:[26][27]

Singles

1964 recorded 18 singles at Snyder Recording Company, Cleveland, Ohio with his band The Fuzzes with manager Ken Julian.[10]

1965 at the time, he was briefly managed by the manager of the Del Vikings, Joe Averback, who took the song “Stiff Leg” to Mercury Records in New York. They called the manager and said they wanted to sign TaliasVan but they wanted him to sing Beatle-mania, which was new to America, because the Beatles had not been to America yet. He refused, saying that he was a rhythm & blues singer.[13]

1966 Jive-Doo-Ley-Bop (Gateway Studios, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

1966 Come Into My Heart (Gateway Studios, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

1966 This Boy Got Class (Gateway Studios, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

Discography of Albums

1985 Unicorn Love (called then New Age Vocal)

1997 Holy City (CosmoPop, CosmoFolk & CosmoRock)

1997 CosmoWorship I

1999 Sedona Sunrise 3-Song CosmoPop & DVD set

2000 CosmoPop Millennium

2005 The God Child Came ( Cosmo Christmas )

2007 3-Song Introduction to CosmoCountry

2008 CosmoPop Variety

2008 Energy Master ( CosmoMystic )

2010 CosmoWorship II

2013 Tenache 3-Song CosmoNative

Filmography

1999 Sedona Sunrise 3-Song CosmoPop & DVD set

2005 Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert

2006 Sedona Sunrise Music Video

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Messina, Irene. Cosmic Concert, Tucson Weekly (Arizona) 17-23 Nov. 2005.
  2. ↑ "Gabriel of Urantia/TaliasVan of Tora & The 11-piece Bright & Morning Star Band - Oriental Theater in Denver". Denver Post. 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
  3. 1 2 3 Etshman, Todd. “CosmoPop to Play Concert at Watson Lake Park.” The Daily Courier (Arizona) 28 Apr. 2006: 37. Print.
  4. 1 2 3 9/11 Concert Expresses Vision of Radical Unity Through Music, PR.com, Sedona, AZ, August 17, 2006
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 “The Bright & Morning Star Band to Perform.” Kudos–The Good Life, Verde Valley Newspapers, Inc. (Arizona) 1 Sep. 2004: 9. Print.
  6. 1 2 3 Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert & EcoFest, Vision Magazine (California) Oct. 2009: 1. Print.
  7. 1 2 3 “Musical Ambassador Releases Christmas CD, The God Child Came.” Kudos–The Good Life, Verde Valley Newspapers, Inc. (Arizona) 23-29 Nov. 2005: Print.
  8. ↑ "The Bright & Morning Star Band • Member's Profiles". Cosmopop.org. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Lake Park Music Event to Benefit Cutting-Edge Social Service Organizations, PRWeb, Sedona, AZ April 14, 2006
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Reid, John. “Musician Traces His Roots to Pittsburgh,” Red Rock News (Arizona) 1 Sept. 2004: 10A. Print.
  11. 1 2 Sacred Global CosmoPop Concerts: A Three-Day Festival, Vision Magazine (California) June 2009: 39. Print.
  12. 1 2 3 4 “Gabriel Trades Horn for Guitar, Brings Contemporary Music to Church.” The South Pittsburgh Reporter 17 Dec. 1985: 3. Print.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "A Timeline of CosmoPop Music". Cosmopop.org. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
  14. ↑ Ratliff, Judith. Son Light Ministries Reaching Out To Their Fellow Man, The Arizona Daily Star, 17 Nov. 1979
  15. 1 2 3 4 Harrington, Roderick. “Brings Pioneering ‘New Age Vocal’ to Globe.” AZ Silver Bell 3 Mar. 1988: Print.
  16. ↑ “Future Studios Goes Global.” The Daily Dispatch (Arizona) 1 Dec. 2006: B4. Print.
  17. ↑ “The 11-11 Concert: What does it all really mean?” Art Scope, Red Rock News (Arizona) 8 Nov. 2006: 6B. Print.
  18. ↑ “World Music Fest Weekend Features Rwandan Musician Activist Jean Paul Samputu,” Kudos–The Good Life, Verde Valley Newspapers, Inc. (Arizona) 7-13 Nov. 2007: Print.
  19. ↑ “Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert & EcoFest.” Connection (Arizona) Oct. 2009: Vol. 26, No.9. Print.
  20. ↑ Verde Valley Newspaper’s 2005 Reader’s Choice Awards. Verde Valley Newspapers, Inc. (Arizona) 2005: Print.
  21. 1 2 “Local arts scene offers lot to see.” Mount Shasta Herald (California) 17 Aug. 2005: Vol. 118, No. 28. Print.
  22. ↑ “Concert Benefits Cutting-Edge Social Service Organizations,” Kudos–The Good Life, Verde Valley Newspapers, Inc. (Arizona) 26 Apr. - 2 May 2006: Print.
  23. ↑ Aurora Award “Best Live Concert” 2005
  24. 1 2 3 “Choir Spreading Cheer in Southern AZ.” Nogales International (Arizona) 14 Dec. 2007: Print.
  25. ↑ “Sacred Christmas Film, Carols & Santa Claus!” Kudos–The Good Life, Verde Valley Newspapers, Inc. (Arizona) 19-25 Dec. 2007: 6. Print.
  26. ↑ “T.J. & Duke Quintet.” The Pittsburgh Press 19 Dec. 1965: 4. Print.
  27. ↑ “T.J. and the Night Kaps.” The Pittsburgh Press 13 Apr. 1965: Print.
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