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Playlist: Songs of Protest

Compiled By: wilson seaborn

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The Sound of Resistance: Protest or Pose

From WFHB | Part of the Interchange series | 55:38

We’ll look at three songs: “Strange Fruit” sung by Billie Holiday (and recently sampled by Kanye West); “We Almost Lost Detroit” by Gill Scott Heron; and “Warzone” by T.I. As our title suggests, we’ll discuss how we come to designate some songs as legitimate forms of protest, and how some songs might be better described as commercially opportunistic. So, songs as instruments of protest–or products of protest–or if they’re sometimes just products.

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“Protest or Pose” begins a series of programs under the heading The Sound of Resistance. Joining me in the studio is Rasul Mowatt, associate professor in The School of Public Health and the American Studies Department at Indiana University.

We’ll look at three songs: “Strange Fruit” sung by Billie Holiday (and recently sampled by Kanye West); “We Almost Lost Detroit” by Gill Scott Heron; and “Warzone” by T.I.

As our title suggests, we’ll discuss how we come to designate some songs as legitimate forms of protest, and how some songs might be better described as commercially opportunistic. So, songs as instruments of protest–or products of protest–or if they’re sometimes just products.

SEGMENT ONE: “Strange Fruit”
“Strange Fruit” is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Written by teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem and published in 1937, it protested American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans.

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

SEGMENT TWO: “We Almost Lost Detroit”
The song “We Almost Lost Detroit”, written by Gil Scott Heron and on the 1977 album Bridges, recounts the story of the nuclear meltdown at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station near Monroe, MI, in 1966. It was performed at the No Nukes concert in September 1979 at Madison Square Garden.

SEGMENT THREE: “Warzone” (2016)
T.I. has said the video is in response to the “All Lives Matter” slogan: “We wanted to give ‘the other side’ — and when I say the ‘other side’ I don’t mean police, I don’t mean white people, I mean people who think we’re just overreacting, the ‘All Lives Matter’ people — we wanted to give them the least amount of ammunition to oppose our message. (Rapper T.I. Presents Counterpoint to ‘All Lives Matter’ Crowd

dj-rasulGUEST
Rasul Mowatt is Associate Professor of American Studies and Associate Chair and Associate Professor in Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies with the School of Public Health at Indiana University.

RELATED
DJ Rasul talks lynching in popular music
DJ RasulDJ Rasul

MUSIC
“Rumble” by Link Wray
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday
“Blood On the Leaves” Kanye West
“Strange Fruit” by Rokia Traoré
“We Almost Lost Detroit” by Gil Scott Heron
“We Almost Lost Detroit” by Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
“Warzone” by T. I.
“We Almost Lost Detroit” by Ron Holloway (featuring Gil Scott Heron)

NEXT TIME
american-slave-coastThe Capitalized Womb…We’re joined by Constance and Ned Sublette, authors of The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry. This is the brutal story of how the slavery industry made the reproductive labor of the people it referred to as “breeding women” essential to the young country’s expansion. The book’s narrative is driven by the power struggle between the elites of Virginia, the slave-raising “mother of slavery,” and South Carolina, the massive importer of Africans—a conflict that was central to American politics from the making of the Constitution through the debacle of the Confederacy.

CREDITS
Producer & Host: Doug Storm
Assistant Producer: Rob Schoon
Board Engineer: Jennifer Brooks
Executive Producer: Joe Crawford

Beyond a Song: The Reverend Shawn Amos (Part 2)

From ISOAS Media | Part of the Beyond a Song series | 01:00:00

Host Rich Reardin talks with Los Angeles singer/songwriter and bluesman extraordinaire, The Reverend Shawn Amos. (This part 2 of a 2 part interview)

Prx_shawn_amos_2__240x240_small THE REVEREND SHAWN AMOS (PART 2) : PUBLISHED ON PRX 3 / 16 / 2018 - BEYOND A SONG originates in BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA and is sponsored by: THE BLUEBIRD NIGHTCLUB ,  AIRTIME RECORDING STUDIO ,  AFRICA SASA ,  and  VISIT BLOOMINGTON.COM  
Host Rich Reardin has a conversation with Los Angeles singer/songwriter and bluesman extraordinaire The Reverend Shawn Amos.   Shawn is the son of a nightclub singer mother who performed under the name Shirley May, and is the youngest son of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie founder Wally Amos.  Shawn isn't really an ordained priest, but he preaches through his blues music with firey 21st Century Freedom songs about Peace, Love, and Understanding. with many successful studio albums to date, Shawn also performs with his band around the country, and owns his own company, the Amos Content Group.   Before we get into the interview, let's hear some of his  music, this is Reverend Shawn Amos.
From West Coast clubs, to Deep South joints, to European festivals, to YouTube, to the podcast universe, the Reverend Shawn Amos’ message of joyful blues is reaching an ever-increasing flock. The Rev’s distinctive blend of black roots music, R & B, and stripped down rock n’ roll brings a bracing, soul-deep musical experience to audiences starved for authenticity, for connection. “I derive a lot of satisfaction bringing people joy,” he says.
His third studio album, The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down, expands that mission. This time out, he spices up the mix with 21st century Freedom Songs, socially conscious soul, a stripped-down cover of Bowie’s “The Jean Genie” that slyly reveals the glam nugget’s blues bones, and an austere version of Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?” that turns the post-punk gem into modern gospel. At the center of James Saez’ (Social Distortion, The Road Kings) no-frills production, the Rev’s voice and harp tie everything together in a stirring, celebratory whole, both beholden to history and refreshingly timely.  “It’s the oddest birth of any album I’ve made,” the Rev says.  “It has a particular depth.”
This sonic evolution is partly the result of over 100 dates in 2016-17, supporting his chart-topping The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You. On the road, the Rev took risks, listened to his heart, and honed his chops. In the midst of that came the seismic election of 2016, and the subsequent altering of the American landscape. All of the above significantly impacted the Rev as a father, citizen, musician, and African-American man, and all of it can be heard on The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down.
“When we toured the South in May of 2017, I could feel things changing post-Trump,” he says. “I was listening to a lot of Staples Singers, especially [acclaimed 1965 LP] Amen. The degree to which I was aware of my race was distracting, striking, hard to ignore. It was powerful being in the South and listening to protest music, to freedom songs conceived to fuel a movement, with no thought toward commercialism.” One can hear the Staples, as well as Curtis Mayfield, in Breaks It Down’s debut single “2017” (video now at 9K+ YouTube views), which calls for unity and compassion in the face of intense division.
“I was listening to a lot of MLK speeches, and reading him,” the Rev says. “I wanted to be immersed in black history, in a resistance movement of the past.” This included recording a moving a cappella rendition of the traditional “Uncle Tom’s Prayer” at the historic Clayburn Temple in Memphis, singing on floorboards where protesters once painted signs for the Civil Rights Movement. After taking his eldest child to the Civil Rights Museum – “to introduce her to her history,” he says – and absorbing Dylan’s 1962 cover of Bukka White’s harrowing “Fixin’ to Die,” the Rev penned and recorded “Does My Life Matter,” a brutally honest, necessary blues, encompassing despair, anger, and grace. The Rev admits, “That song freaked me out a bit. It’s more pointed than anything I’ve ever done.”
Serendipity played a role in the creation of The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down. When old friend and producer-drummer extraordinaire Steve Jordan (X-Pensive Winos, Neil Young, John Mayer, hundreds more) guested on the jaunty pop-blues “Ain’t Gonna Name Names,” he introduced the Rev to bassist Larry Taylor (Tom Waits) and drummer Steve Potts (Booker T. & the MG’s), who enliven several cuts. And while passing through Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the Rev and his stalwart live band decided to tour the illustrious FAME studios. In the 60s, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James and many others cut seminal sides at FAME, in a racially inclusive environment unheard-of for its time and place. The tour turned into a four-hour impromptu recording session, yielding “The Jean Genie,” and album opener “Moved,” co-written by longtime sideman, guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts.
Prior to his creation of the Reverend persona in 2013, folks knew Shawn Amos as producer (Solomon Burke’s Live in Nashville, and Shout! Factory box set Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones), content creator for companies looking for ways to tell their stories on the internet, and Americana singer-songwriter who’d grown up in a dramatically dysfunctional L.A. home, a story the Rev serialized as Cookies & Milk in the Huffington Post.
By the time he set out to record The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down, his life had changed dramatically. For starters, he was a newly single man, a painful development audible in the darker numbers of the Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down. The Rev also became Artistic Director of Vibrato Jazz Grill in Los Angeles, owned by longtime friend Herb Alpert, co-founder of the legendary A & M record label.
“It’s a full-circle experience,” the Rev says of the Vibrato gig. As the son of entrepreneur and William Morris agent Wally “Famous” Amos, the Rev says, “I grew up on the A & M lot.” And back in his producer days, the Rev oversaw the reissue of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ catalog, and a remix of the classic Whipped Cream & Other Delights album. At Vibrato, the Reverend Shawn Amos regularly performs, and curates everything from jazz, to Great American Songbook evenings. 
The Rev brings it all back to the people in 2018, supporting The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down with his biggest tour yet, from West Coast, to Europe, to East Coast. With new episodes of his Kitchen Table Blues podcast and webseries to boot, the Rev will be plenty busy sharing the vision, keeping the faith, and spreading the gospel of his joyful blues.


Musical selections include: 2017, Does My Life Matter, Moved, Ain't Gonna Name Names, (What's So Funny About) Peace Love and Understanding, Joliet Bound, New York City 1964 (A Letter Home), Hold Hands

This program is "Evergreen" and not necessarily date specific.

For more information, visit BEYOND A SONG.COM

How Black Lives Matters Got An Anthem

From KFAI Minneapolis | Part of the 10,000 Fresh Voices series | 03:34

Minneapolis singer Jayanthi Kyle grew up listening to songs of the civil rights movement. As police-involved killings of African-Americans gave rise to the Black Lives Matter Movement, Kyle was inspired to create a new song — with co-writer Wes Burdine — that could speak to this moment in history. KFAI's Nancy Rosenbaum reports.

Jayanthi_kyle_photo_small Minneapolis singer Jayanthi Kyle grew up listening to songs of the civil rights movement. As police-involved killings of African-Americans gave rise to the Black Lives Matter Movement, Kyle was inspired to create a new song — with co-writer Wes Burdine — that could speak to this moment in history. KFAI's Nancy Rosenbaum reports.

A Story of the Black Soldier

From Howard Burchette | Part of the Holiday Classics series | 50:18

This is a music program honoring the history of the African American soldier through song.

The program includes three individual sets, and includes room for the news, PSA's and Station ID's.

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A Story of the Black Soldier: This one hour program is a look at the history of the African American Soldier through popular songs. The main musical selections focus on the Civil War, the Buffalo Soldier era, Vietnam and anti-War protest songs.

The program includes music by Jimmy Smith, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Ray Charles, the Temptations, Freda Payne, Quincy Jones, Bob Marley, the Last Poets and others.

We are Celebrating Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Black History Month.

A Story of the American Black Soldier.

A Vietnam Soundscape

From WHRV | 59:00

Vietnam was the first war fought to a soundtrack, with over 4000 war-related songs written and recorded between 1965-73. The lyrics were patriotic, controversial and often protest centered and were the essential to America. Join WHRV host Jae Sinnett as he takes you on a journey, celebrating the best music of the Vietnam era and focusing on the stories and artists behind the music.

16014181738_1fb6301b2a_b_small During World War I, soldiers carried song books in their kit bags. In World War II, some soldiers had access to radios and could hear Glenn Miller and the Army-Air Force Band perform. Others were lucky enough to catch Bob Hope headline a USO show. During the Korean War the military set up its own radio network, Armed Forces Radio (Korea). Vietnam had all these outlets and more. Its GIs brought their own radios and instruments from home. They bought records and swapped tapes of their favorite music. They listened to official outlets as was as pirate stations and Radio Hanoi – which would play American popular music as an enticement to get soldiers to tune in. Whether they preferred Country, Soul or Rock & Roll, music was their soundtrack to the war. Vietnam was the first war fought to a soundtrack, with over 4000 war-related songs written and recorded between 1965-73. The lyrics were patriotic, controversial and often protest centered and were the essential to America.  Join WHRV host Jae Sinnett as he takes you on a journey, celebrating the best music of the Vietnam era and focusing on the stories and artists behind the music.  

Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Going on Again: Hurricane Katrina Anniversary Special

From Tres Hombres Productions | 59:12

This new music-intensive one-hour special features the Dirty Dozen Brass Band?s unique tribute to their New Orleans home on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Aug 29) - an uplifting, emotionally-charged reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye's classic protest album, "What's Going On."

Ddbbphoto_small This new music-intensive one-hour special features the Dirty Dozen Brass Band?s unique tribute to their New Orleans home on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Aug 29) - an uplifting, emotionally-charged reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye's classic protest album, "What's Going On." The Dirty Dozen Brass Band performs these songs and other New Orleans classics live. Band members discuss both the enduring resonance of Gaye's message, and the significance of music for New Orleans and its residents today in Katrina?s wake. Please consider airing this program on August 29th or over Labor Day Weekend. The program is currently in production and audio will be posted here around August 20th. DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND: GOING ON AGAIN is hosted by New Orleans resident Harry Shearer, host of the nationally-syndicated public radio program "Le Show" and star of "The Simpsons", "This is Spinal Tap" and "A Mighty Wind." Host: Harry Shearer Producer: Tres Hombres (Paul Rappaport, Jym Fahey, Mitch Maketansky) Contact: Andy Cahn, cahnmedia@comcast.net, 215-279-7632 Length: One hour with breaks for local spots Terms: Available for all USA broadcasters to air at no cost Spots: No barter spots are built into the show

PPW - Louisiana: No Longer Invisible

From Narrative Arts | Part of the Prison Poetry Workshop series | 50:03

We take to the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana to ask folks about their connection to the criminal justice system. In the state of Louisiana, one in 86 adults are in prison and one in 55 adults are in jail, leading some to refer to Louisiana as the incarceration capital of the world. But today, Prison Poetry Workshop Radio won’t be attending any long-winded policy meetings or outraged protests, we’re here because, paradoxically, wherever you find the adversities of prison life, you find the transcendence of poetry. We'll explore songs sung at Angola prison, past and present, and hear how, for one man, the tragic death of a sibling touched off events that landed him behind bars for over a decade... and how poetry helped save him.

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Louisiana: No Longer Invisible

Host: Rend Smith


Segment A

Writer Nik De Dominic started  a poetry workshop at Orleans Parish Prison in New orleans in 2009, and it’s still going strong. When we visited, inmate participants were knee deep  in a conversation about famous American poet Walt Whitman. They came up with some unexpected insights.


SEGMENT B

WORKSHOP: Exploring our history can be the very thing that finally liberates us. New Orleans poet Patrick Young believes that’s the case, and that’s why he sees one story in the bible a little differently. It’s the one about Sodom Gomorrah, where Lot’s wife disobeys God. Though she’s usually seen as  villainess, Young writes a poem defending her, and encourages listeners to write their own “in defense of” poem. Next, we absorb a 1954 recording of men working on a Southern chain gang, singing as they hammer in railroad spikes. The recording was captured by Alan Lomax, a  folklorist who traveled around collecting prison songs for the Library of Congress.



SEGMENT C

When folklorists John and Alan Lomax traveled the country during the 1930s, they were participating in a series of innovative projects and programs implemented under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Tasked with traveling across the South to record American roots music, they came across a prisoner everyone called Leadbelly.The man author Alex Haley would one day describe as the Mount Everest of Blues rocked their world. Leadbelly’s music was so good, it eventually earned him a pardon from the governor. While poet Patrick Young’s story isn’t so tidy, and involves him opening fire on a crowded night club, we also dig into his life and the positive turn it took.

Who Should Sing "Ol' Man River"?

From Hold That Thought | Part of the American Identities series | 14:00

A musicologist on how this iconic American show tune has been shaped and reshaped over time.

4611132760_d37a359e1e_b_small In his upcoming book Who Should Sing 'Ol' Man River'?: The Life of an American Song , Todd Decker, associate professor of musicology at Washington University in St. Louis, reveals how one song has been shaped and reshaped over time. From Paul Robeson to Frank Sinatra - from the era of big bands to the civil rights movement - every performance of "Ol' Man River" has a political dimension involving the evolution of race relations in the United States. Whether performed as a dance ditty or a means of protest, the seemingly endless malleability of this 1927 Broadway tune provides a window onto the many ways that American music has been used to express both personal and cultural identity.

The Letter from Birmingham Jail and an Anthem for a Changing Nation

From AARP Radio | Part of the Prime Time Radio series | 59:54

First, fifty years later the message of the Letter from Birmingham Jail still rings as true as the day it was written. Scholar Jonathan Rieder reveals the events leading up to the writing of the letter, giving fresh perspective on the author and his timeless message in the book, Gospel of Freedom. Then, Writer Mark Kurlansky explains how the song, Dancing in the Street, written by Marvin Gaye transcended pop culture and became an anthem for reform in a rapidly changing nation in his book, Ready for a Brand New Beat. Jonathan Rieder and Mark Kurlansky, this week on Prime Time Radio.

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First, “I am in Birmingham because there is injustice here,” declared Martin Luther King Jr., following with “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Fifty years later these words from the Letter from Birmingham jail still ring as true as the day they were written in response to critical statements of King’s protest methods made by “moderate” clergy. Scholar Jonathan Rieder reveals the events leading up to the writing of the letter and how they influenced it’s content, giving fresh perspective on the author and his timeless message, in his book, “Gospel of Freedom.”   

Then, by the summer of 1964, the sixties were in full swing and Beatle-mania had taken the nation. At the same time, the Mississippi Summer Project was fully underway, the Vietnam War was just beginning, and the Civil Rights Act was passed. Some dubbed it the summer of freedom. But people became more radicalized in those few steamy months, and the song “Dancing in the Street” gained popularity as an activist anthem instead of a dance party hit. Writer Mark Kurlansky explains how the song written by Marvin Gaye transcended pop culture and became an anthem for a rapidly changing nation in his book, “Ready for a Brand New Beat.”  

Jonathan Rieder and Mark Kurlansky, this week on Prime Time Radio.

FuseBox Radio Broadcast for Week of Sept. 12, 2012

From FuseBox Radio Broadcast | 03:22:33

Another 3 hour mixshow episode of Intelligent Hip-Hop Radio & 21st Century Black Radio of the syndicated FuseBox Radio Broadcast with DJ Fusion & Jon Judah!

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This is the latest episode of the syndicated FuseBox Radio Broadcast with DJ Fusion & Jon Judah for the week of September 12, 2012 with some new and classic music from the international Black Diaspora, news and commentary.

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Our commentary this week touched base on the death of director & editor George Bowers, the striking down of Wisconsin's law that was restricting public workers' union rights, the latest wave of protests in Libya & other parts the Middle East and how U.S. politicians have been handling it, our personal memories of 9/11 11 years later, the company that did the Tupac hologram at Coachella going bankrupt, Miss Philippines' beatboxing routine at Miss World 2012, a crazy California lady who got caught with an illegal monkey she only fed Frosted Flakes & juice too and some other things here and there.

There are brand new Black Agenda Report and Black University Radio Network (BURN) DIRECT EFX news mini-segments on this week's episode.

FuseBox Radio Playlist + Charts for the Week of September 12, 2012

Top Spins (Music Still Lasting in Rotation/Music Played Live on Air Each Week/As Well As Music Requested By The Listeners)

1. Dwele feat. Phife Dawg/What Profit RMX/E1 (Played Live)
2. Xing-N-Fox feat. Treach, Doitall & Ky Will/Bang/White Label (Played Live)
3. Flying Lotus/Between Friends/AdultSwim.com (Played Live)
4. JJ DOOM/Borin' Convo/Lex Records (Played Live)
5. Shabaam Sahdeeq/Seasons Change/Marvel Ent. (Played Live)
6. Positive Flow feat. Heidi Vogel/Children of the Sun/Tokyo Dawn Records (Played Live)
7. Maimouna Youssef/Meet Me In Brazil/MuMuFresh.com (Played Live)
8. Donaeo/Move to Da Gyal Dem/White Label (Played Live)
9/ Meshell Ndegeocelleo feat. Cody ChestNutt/to Be Young, Gifted & Black/Naive Records (Top Song Requested)
10. Newban/Magic Lady/BBE (Top Song Requested)
11. Bennetrhodes/Wake Up Sauce/KanSano.com (Top Song Requested)
12. Jackson 5/I Wanna Be Where You Are (J. Period String Mix)/White Label (Top Song Requested)
13. Method Man, Freddie Gibbs & StreetLife/Built For This/White Label (Top Song Requested)
14. Busta Rhymes feat. Robin Thicke/Love-Hate/Cash Money & Flipmode (Top Song Requested)
15. DJ Vadim/Hide N Seek/BBE (Top Song Requested)
16. Outkast/Rosa Parks (DJ Price Paradise RMX)/White Label (Top Song Requested)
17. Nappy Roots feat. Jeff Johnson/I'm Doing Good/NappyRoots.com (Top Song Requested)
18. Craig G feat. Styles P/Heaven & Hell/Soulspazm (Top Song Requested)
19. Chic/Good Times (Kon's Nite Time RMX)/Giant Step & Legitmix (Top Song Requested)
20. Kid Koala/2 Bit Blues/Ninja Tune (Top Song Requested)
21. A Tribe Called Red/Good To Go/Self (Top Song Requested)
22. Flying Lotus feat. Erykah Badu/See Thru To U/Warp (Top Song Requested)
23. Substantial/Check My Resume/Mello Music Group (Top Song Requested)
24. DJ Kentaro feat. C2C/Next Page (Dora)/Ninja Tune (Top Song Requested)
25. Murs & Fashawn/Slash Gordon/Duck Down Records (Top Song Requested)

Top Adds (New Joints Played Live On This Week's Broadcast)

1. Jeanne Jolly/Sweet Love/FE Music
2. CL Smooth/Ask About Me/White Label
3. BoxHead/Crystal Clear/White Label
4. Johan Reinhold/Heart In A Jar/Warner Music Sweden

DJ Fusion Flashback Tracks:

Common/Take It EZ/Relativity
Bonobo/Pick Up (Fourtet RMX)/Ninja Tune
Cymande/Breezeman/Janus Records
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers/A Chant for Bu/Blue Note

PLUS Some Extra Special Hidden Tracks in the Jon Judah Master Mix w/ Old School Black Music Classics and Independent Music Finds

Jump for Joy - Duke Ellington's Celebratory Musical

From WFIU | 59:05

Perfect for Black History Month (February), this one-hour special tells the story of Duke Ellington's musical "Jump for Joy"

495597639ee1206d07eo_small Ellington once said that Jump for Joy "was the hippest thing we ever did." The inspiration came from a late-night party, a convergence of Hollywood glamour and nascent civil-rights activism with one of America's greatest jazz orchestras. In the summer of 1941, as Americans warily regarded a world war that seemed to be edging ever closer to their shores, Duke Ellington staged what he would later call "the first 'social significance' show," Jump for Joy. Jump for Joy was an all-black musical revue that Ellington said "would take Uncle Tom out of the theater?and say things that would make the audience think." It featured the Ellington orchestra in its so-called "Blanton-Webster" years, playing at the peak of its powers, and up-and-coming African-American performers such as the actress Dorothy Dandridge, the blues singer Big Joe Turner, and the comedian Wonderful Smith. The poet Langston Hughes contributed a sketch entitled "Mad Scene From Woolworth's," and Ellington collaborator Billy Strayhorn took a significant hand in scoring the show. Created and presented in Los Angeles, Jump for Joy had at its center and periphery a host of legendary Hollywood figures. The musical was financed in part by the actor John Garfield; its director, Nick Castle, went on to become a famous choreographer for 20th Century Fox.. Charlie Chaplin stopped by rehearsals to give advice, Orson Welles offered to make the show a Mercury Theater production, and Mickey Rooney eagerly attempted to demonstrate his compositional talents by writing a song called "Cymbal Rockin' Sam" for Ellington's drummer Sonny Greer. Sid Kuller, who authored many of the revue's sketches and song lyrics, was a writer for MGM who had just knocked off The Big Store for the Marx Brothers. Jump for Joy opened at the Mayan Theater on July 10, 1941 and ran for 122 performances, with the Ellington orchestra playing in the pit every night as African-American performers spoke, sang, danced, and joked in rebellion against traditional representations of blacks in movies and musical theater. In a bold break with convention, Ellington expressly forbade the 60-member cast to "blacken up," or artificially darken their skin hues. "The show was done on a highly intellectual level," he recalled in his 1973 memoir Music Is My Mistress. "No crying, no moaning, but entertaining, and with social demands as a potent spice. The Negroes always left proudly with their chests sticking out." The show received mostly positive reviews, but the brash racial jubilation of songs such as "I've Got a Passport From Georgia" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin Is a Drive-In Now" provoked death threats, and one cast member was beaten as he left the theater. Although Ellington hoped to take the show to Broadway, its lack of stereotyping and its unabashed celebration of African-American pride made it an unlikely candidate for New York's Great White Way. After closing on September 29, 1941, it was revived for one week in November, and then again in Miami Beach in 1959 for an aborted two-week run. Although the musical has occasionally been recreated both onstage and in concert by others, and the original revue thoroughly documented by Ellington assistant Patricia Willard for a 1988 Smithsonian LP, Jump for Joy remains an important but often-overlooked chapter in the career of Duke Ellington. He later remarked that it paved the way for Black, Brown and Beige, his ambitious 1943 orchestral recreation of African-American history. It also served as an early salvo in the cultural struggle for equality. When a young San Francisco protester confronted Ellington in the early 1960s with the question, "When are you going to do your piece for civil rights?" Ellington replied, "I did my piece more than 20 years ago when I wrote Jump for Joy." WFIU's Jump for Joy: Duke Ellington's Celebratory Musical features nearly all of the music that Ellington's 1941 Blanton-Webster band recorded for the show, including the classic hits "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)," "Rocks In My Bed," and "Chocolate Shake." Other highlights include a portion of comedian Wonderful Smith's monologue, a radio medley spot, and Ellington himself discussing the musical and its impact, more than 20 years after its debut. Guests include Ellington assistant and Jump for Joy scholar Patricia Willard, Smithsonian Masterworks Orchestra conductor David Baker, Ellington biographer John Edward Hasse, and cultural historian Michael McGerr. The program is written, produced, and narrated by WFIU announcer David Brent Johnson. Duke Ellington once said that Jump for Joy "was the hippest thing we ever did." As Patricia Willard notes, it fulfilled his lifelong criteria for success: "doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right place, with the right people." In an age when the film and theater industries presented African-Americans primarily as servants and porters, as fearful and clowning stereotypes, Duke Ellington dared to produce and grace a musical with the same dignity, wit, beauty, and unabiding hipness that he always brought to his band. Jump for Joy is a cultural milestone and another example of how this great American composer traversed the racial and aesthetic boundaries of his time.

Josh White: The Music The Man (Part B)

From Howard Burchette | Part of the The Funk Show series | 53:43

Interview and discussion on the subject of the legendary JOSH WHITE with his son JOSH WHITE, Jr. his daughter JUDY WHITE-GOARD and his granddaughter KELLI GOARD-ELLIS.

Parts A, B and C are separate hours and can be aired on different days.

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Josh White was a singer, song writer, guitarist, actor and a civil rights activist. As a child he accompanied blind street singers who paid him to guide them to their gigs. Very quickly he would master the guitar. He began recording under the name "Pinewood Tom " so that his mother who was a devout Christian would not know that he was performing the "Devil's music ". His music has been categorized as Blues, Folk, Gospel and social protest songs. One of his most memorable recordings is “Strange Fruit ”.

Howard Burchette is joined by singer, teacher Judy White-Goard , musician, singer, actor, song writer Josh White, Jr. and gospel artist Kelli Goard-Ellis . Together they discuss and explore this American Tale, the story of Josh White .

SEGMENT 1 – Only music

SEGMENT 2Howard Burchette, Judy White-Goard and Josh White Jr . discuss   Rock music and   Paul Robeson , many Rock & Roll artists got their start from Josh White songs; this included Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin , and Janice Joplin . The Chambers Brothers sang at Josh White’s funeral, and Josh White appeared in the stage play “John Henry ” along with Paul Roberson . Judy mentions that her father sang about black suffering, we talked about Judy White’s career at Epic and Buddha Records, we talked about the story behind the act “Bongi & Judy ” (Bongi Makeba was the daughter of Miriam Makeba ). We had further discussions on the “It’s Your Thing ” concert at Yankee Stadium and movie produced by the Isley Brothers. Judy White (T-Neck Records) was a performer at this 1969 concert and 1970 movie. She is also on the original motion picture soundtrack.

SEGMENT 3 Further discussion on Josh White, Jr. education as a youngster, his days as an actor, Professional Children School, & both Judy White-Goard and Josh White, Jr.   talked about working with children.

Re:Defining Black History

From Al Letson | Part of the State of the Re:Union: Season Four series | 53:23

During a month selected to celebrate “history,” we certainly are treated to a lot of the same familiar stories: the battles won for Civil Rights, the glory of Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, the hardships endured by slaves. And as important as those narratives are for us to collectively remember, many others get lost in trumpeting the same heroic tales. In this hour, State of the Re:Union zeroes in some of those alternate narratives, ones edited out of the mainstream imagining of Black History, deconstructing the popular perception of certain celebrated moments. From a more complicated understanding of the impact of the Civil Rights Act of ’64 on Jackson, Mississippi… to a city in Oklahoma still trying to figure out how to tell the history of one particular race riot… to one woman’s wrangling with her own personal racial history.

Screen_shot_2014-01-03_at_12 State of the Re:Union
Re:Defining Black History

Host: Al Letson
Producers: Tina Antolini and Delaney Hall

DESCRIPTION: During a month selected to celebrate “history,” we certainly are treated to a lot of the same familiar stories: the battles won for Civil Rights, the glory of Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, the hardships endured by slaves. And as important as those narratives are for us to collectively remember, many others get lost in trumpeting the same heroic tales. In this hour, State of the Re:Union zeroes in some of those alternate narratives, ones edited out of the mainstream imagining of Black History, deconstructing the popular perception of certain celebrated moments. From a more complicated understanding of the impact of the Civil Rights Act of ’64 on Jackson, Mississippi… to a city in Oklahoma still trying to figure out how to tell the history of one particular race riot… to one woman’s wrangling with her own personal racial history.

BILLBOARD (:59)
Incue: From PRX and WJCT
Outcue: But first, this news.

News Hole: 1:00-6:00 

SEGMENT A (12:29)
Incue: From WJCT in Jacksonville, Florida…
Outcue: When SOTRU continues.

A. Should It Be More Than 28 Days?

We open the hour with a conversation between Host Al Letson and Filmmaker Shukree Tilghman about whether the idea of Black History Month is still relevant.  Two years ago Shukree, wrote and directed documentary entitled "More then a Month" about whether one month is long enough—shouldn’t we expand the celebration of Black History to be year round? Al and Shukree discuss the movie, and whether black history month is antiquated or still necessary in what some people are labeling a “Post Racial” America. 

B. Recovering the History of the Riot 

At the Mayo Demonstration School in Tulsa, students learn about the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot -- one of the country’s most devastating incidents of racial violence -- in some surprising ways. This approach to teaching the Tulsa Race Riot isn’t true of all schools in the city. Tulsa has a long, fraught history when it comes to dealing with the legacy of the riot and many people would prefer to forget this dark chapter of the city's past. It wasn’t until 2001, eighty years after the riot, that the state released an official report of what happened. A park commemorating the event wasn’t completed until 2010. And race riot curriculum in the public schools has been so scattershot that the state senate passed a bill in 2012, mandating that it must be taught.

In this story, we explore what exactly happened in 1921, and how the history of the riot has been written and re-written over the years. We'll look into how the memory of the riot was lost for almost a generation, and meet some of the people who’ve fought to keep the history of the riot alive. In addition to spending time at the Mayo Demonstration School, we’ll speak with Scott Ellsworth, the foremost historian of the riot, who began uncovering the untold story of the event for his undergraduate thesis at age 20.

SEGMENT B (18:59)
Incue: I'm Al Letson and this is State of the Re:Union
Outcue: PRX-dot-ORG

A. Recovering the History of the Riot
(Completion of piece started in previous segment) 

B. Farish Street and the Flip Side of the Civil Rights Act of ‘64
July 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the landmark legislation that desegregated commercial public spaces. While celebration of the integration that the Act prompted is certainly warranted, this story will explore the complexity of the aftermath of the legislation in one city: Jackson, Mississippi. 

Our story centers on Farish Street in Jackson, which, during its heyday in the early 20th century, was known as “Little Harlem.” It was a bustling entertainment district, home to clubs and bars like the Crystal Palace and the Alamo Theater, where the likes of Sammy Davis Jr., Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong performed. Beyond that, it was all the commercial center of black Jackson, with legal firms, doctors, banks, restaurants retail stores—all black-owned and patronized by black customers. During the early 1960s, Farish Street was also the hub of Civil Rights activists’ efforts in Jackson; it’s where Medgar Evers had his NAACP field office. 

One of those thriving Farish Street businesses—the one, in fact, just downstairs from Evers’ office-- was the Big Apple Inn. It was opened in the early 20th century by a Mexican immigrant who initially had a hot tamale cart on Farish Street, and branched out to selling pig ear sandwiches when he got a brick-and-mortar storefront. The Big Apple is still there today, now its fourth generation of ownership with proprietor Geno Lee, and is still doing a brisk business of “ears and smokes” (pig ear sandwiches and smoked sausage sandwiches). But nearly all of Farish Street around the Big Apple is dramatically changed. Once the heart of black Jackson, it’s now a ghost town of empty storefronts and vacant lots. What happened to Farish Street? 

Some in Jackson think the turn in Farish Street’s fortunes came with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As our partner in this story, the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, reports Geno Lee believes that when integration was federally mandated, African Americans welcomed the opportunity to spend money on the white side of town. As an unintended consequence, however, black businesses suffered from neglect and many soon closed. “Desegregation was great for the black race,” Lee says. “But it was horrible for the black businessmen.” Other Jackson residents have echoed this sentiment, unanimously citing desegregation as the root cause of Farish Street’s decay.

SEGMENT C (18:59)
Incue: You're listening to State of the Re:Union
Outcue: to bring them back together. (music tail)

A. Recruiting R&B for the Movement

Certain songs are forever linked to the Civil Rights Movement. “We Shall Overcome,” “Oh Freedom,” even spirituals like “This Little Light of Mine,” bring to mind images of the sit-ins, street protests, the 1968 March on Washington… This music has become iconic, a soundtrack to the era. But the music of the movement went far beyond those staples. It turns out folk songs and gospel music didn’t resonate with every audience the movement wanted to reach. If you’re going into a ghetto and want to connect with the young black people there in the 1960s, singing “If I Had a Hammer” would go over like a lead balloon. And so, alongside the familiar anthems, movement musicians started repurposing popular R&B songs, revising the lyrics to fit their anti-segregation message. One of the groups to do this was a gathering of some seminary students involved in the protests in Nashville in 1960 who called themselves the Nashville Quartet. There was a popular R&B song at the time called “You Better Leave My Kitten Alone,” predictably about love and jealousy. The Nashville Quartet switched up “kitten” for “segregation,” and suddenly had quite a pointed tune: “You better leave segregation alone/ because they [white folks] love segregation like a hound dog loves a bone.” They took the Ray Charles song “Moving On,” a ballad about progressing beyond a bad romance, and switched the relationship to a racial one. “Segregations’s been here from time to time / but we just ain’t gonna pay it no mind // IT’s moving on—It’s moving on—It’s moving… // Old Jim Crow’s moving on down the track / He’s got his bags and he won’t be back.”

Today, if you’re trying to reach a young audience with your message, you wouldn’t use old folks songs—you’d use hip hop. Civil Rights activists back in the day were just as savvy, using the sound of their generation to reel people in.

B. Becoming Multiracial
Damali Ayo built her career on being a professional black person. As she says, everything she did was always about being black. She traveled around the country giving talks called “You Can Fix Racism!” She spoke at MLK days and Black History Month events at colleges all around the country. As a visual artist, she did a show where she asked hardware store paint departments to match paint to her skin color. As a street performer she panhandled for reparations, asking white strangers to give her money, that she paid out to black people as they passed by. And then, a few years ago, she discovered that she was half-white. It radically changed the way she thought about herself, her work, and her place in the world.

C. Final Montage and Monologue In this final segment, we hear voices from the hour talking about the versions of history that we miss, and why it’s important to include them. 

Al wraps up the hour with a final monologue touching on the idea that this Greatest Hits version of African-American history implies that we’re finished, that the problems have been solved… when these alternate narratives reveal the work still to be done. 

PROGRAM OUT @ 59:00 

Re:Defining Black History is available on PRX without charge to all public radio stations, and may be aired an unlimited number of times prior to January 31, 2017. The program may be streamed live on station websites but not archived. Excerpting is permitted for promotional purposes only. 

State of the Re:Union is presented by WJCT and distributed by PRX.  Major funding for the State of the Re:Union comes from CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Delores Barr Weaver Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.

Thanks for your consideration of State of the Re:Union with Al Letson. 

 

Josh White: The Music The Man (Part C)

From Howard Burchette | Part of the The Funk Show series | 54:27

Interview and discussion on the subject of the legendary JOSH WHITE with his son JOSH WHITE, Jr. his daughter JUDY WHITE-GOARD and his granddaughter KELLI GOARD-ELLIS. Parts A, B and C are separate hours and can be aired on different days.

Lunapic_130159747870202_3_small

Josh White was a singer, song writer, guitarist, actor and a civil rights activist. As a child he accompanied blind street singers who paid him to guide them to their gigs. Very quickly he would master the guitar. He began recording under the name "Pinewood Tom" so that his mother who was a devout Christian would not know that he was performing the "Devil's music". His music has been categorized as Blues, Folk, Gospel and social protest songs. One of his most memorable recordings is “Strange Fruit”.

Howard Burchette is joined by singer, teacher Judy White-Goard , musician, singer, actor, song writer Josh White, Jr. and gospel artist Kelli Goard-Ellis . Together they discuss and explore this American Tale, the story of Josh White .

SEGMENT 1 – Judy talks about Kelli and her music. Kelli talks about her CD.

SEGMENT 2 - Judy White-Goard, Kelli Goard-Ellis, and Josh White Jr . talk about what they are doing today.

SEGMENT 3 – Further discussion on Josh White being labeled a communist, and then closing remarks from Josh White, Jr. , Judy White-Goard and Kelli Goard-Ellis .

The official WEB site of Josh White, Jr.
http://www.joshwhitejr.com/index.html

An Evening with Steel Pulse

From Southwest Stages | Part of the Southwest Stages series | 58:26

An hour of music and interviews with Reggae Greats, Steel Pulse recorded live in October of 2004, at the Historic Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, NM.

Steel_pulse_small This program contains music and interviews with Brittish Reggae Icons, Steel Pulse recorded live in October of 2004, at the Historic Lensic Theater, just off the old plaza in Santa Fe, NM. The show contains and Interview with David Hinds and Selwin Brown by Southwest Stages guest host, Ijah Umi.

Steel Pulse was formed in 1975 in Birmingham, England, specifically the inner city area of Handsworth. The founding members were schoolmates David Hinds (the primary songwriter as well as the lead singer and guitarist), Basil Gabbidon (guitar), and Ronnie "Stepper" McQueen (bass). All of them came from working class West Indian immigrant families, and none had much musical experience. They took some time to improve their technical proficiency, often on Roots inspired material by the Wailers, Burning Spear and several other prominent Jamaican artists. McQueen suggested the group name, after a racehorse, and they soon fleshed out the lineup with drummer Steve "Grizzly" Nisbett, keyboardist/vocalist Selwyn "Bumbo" Brown, percussionist/vocalist Alphonso "Fonso" Martin, and vocalist Michael Riley.

Steel Pulse initially had difficulty finding live gigs, as club owners were reluctant to give them a platform for their "subversive" Rastafarian politics. Luckily, the punk movement was opening up new avenues for music all over Britain, and also finding a spiritual kinship with protest reggae. Thus, the group wound up as an opening act for punk and new wave bands like the Clash, the Stranglers, Generation X, the Police, and XTC, and built a broad-based audience in the process. In keeping with the spirit of the times, Steel Pulse developed a theatrical stage show that leavened their social commentary with satirical humor; many of the members dressed in costumes that mocked traditional British archetypes (Riley was a vicar, McQueen a bowler-wearing aristocrat, Martin a coach footman, etc.). The band issued two singles -- "Kibudu, Mansetta and Abuku" and "Nyah Love" -- on small independent labels, when they then came to the attention of Island Records after opening for Burning Spear.

Steel Pulse's first single for Island was the classic "Ku Klux Klan," which happened to lend itself well to the band's highly visual, costume-heavy concerts. It appeared on their 1978 debut album, Handsworth Revolution, which was soon hailed as a classic of British reggae by many fans and critics, thanks to songs like the title track, "Macka Splaff," "Prodigal Son," and "Soldiers." Riley departed before the follow-up, 1979's Tribute to the Martyrs, which featured other key early singles in "Sound System" and "Babylon Makes the Rules," and solidified the band's reputation for uncompromising political ferocity. That reputation went out the window on 1980's Caught You, a more pop-oriented set devoted to dance tracks and lovers rock. By that point, Steel Pulse was keen on trying to crack the American market, and went on tour over Island's objections. Caught You was issued in the States as Reggae Fever, but failed to break the group, and they soon parted ways with Island.

Steel Pulse moved on to Elektra/Asylum, which released an LP version of their headlining set at the 1981 Reggae Sunsplash Festival. Their studio debut was 1982's True Democracy, a generally acclaimed set that balanced bright, accessible production with a return to social consciousness. It became their first charting LP in America, making both the pop and R&B listings. The slicker follow-up, Earth Crisis, was released in 1984 and featured producer Jimmy "Senyah" Haynes subbing on guitar and bass for founding members Gabbidon and McQueen, both of whom left the group by the end of the recording sessions. They were replaced by guitarist Carlton Bryan and bassist Alvin Ewen for 1986's Babylon the Bandit, another Haynes-produced effort that ranked as the group's most polished, synth-centered record to date. It featured the powerful "Not King James Version" and won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album.

In 1988, Steel Pulse released State of Emergency, their most explicitly crossover-oriented album yet. They also contributed the track "Can't Stand It" to the soundtrack of Spike Lee's classic Do the Right Thing. In 1991, they released another heavily commercial album, the Grammy-nominated Victims, which featured the single "Taxi Driver." Backing up the song's views, Steel Pulse filed a class-action lawsuit against the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, charging that drivers discriminated against blacks and particularly Rastafarians. Founding member Fonso Martin left that year, reducing Steel Pulse to a core trio of Hinds, Nisbett, and Brown. Their backing band still featured Ewen and was elsewhere anchored by guitarist Clifford "Moonie" Pusey, keyboardist Sidney Mills, trumpeter Kevin Batchelor, Saxophonist Jerry Johnson and Trombonist Clark Gayton.

The 1992 live album Rastafari Centennial marked the beginning of a return to the group's musical roots, and earned another Grammy nomination. The following year, they performed at Bill Clinton's inaugural celebration, the first reggae band to appear at such an event. 1994's studio album Vex completed Steel Pulse's re-embrace of classic roots reggae, though it also nodded to contemporary dancehall with several guest toasters and a digital-flavored production. 1997's Rage and Fury continued in a similar vein, and was nominated for a Grammy. In 1999, the group released another collection of live performances, Living Legacy.

Fast forward a long seven years since their previous album, Rage and Fury, Steel Pulse would return yet again, this time with African Holocaust, and yet again have their ranks dwindled. Core members David Hinds (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Selwyn Brown (keyboards, backing vocals) are the only ones to remain from the band's original line-up, but they more than hold their own and they're joined by a deep roster of supporting musicians, a list too long to list. As always, the music is what's most important, and on that count, this Steel Pulse lineup indeed makes the mark. Granted, it did take them seven years to get the album out, but still it won a Grammy Awards Nomination for Best Reggae Album of the year. There's really not too much else to say about African Holocaust. Longtime fans will know what to expect. Newcomers should know a few things: above all, Steel Pulse are known for performing well-written, Afrocentric songs that are rebellious without being negative or inflammatory, and though the band membership has changed over the years, the type of songs hasn't, nor has the steady move away from dancehall that was apparent on the band's previous album. the message and music remain true to the band's principles and vision.

Steel Pulse is one of Britain's greatest reggae bands, in terms of creative and commercial success. Steel Pulse started out playing authentic roots reggae with touches of jazz and Latin music, and earned a substantial audience worldwide. Their 1978 debut, Handsworth Revolution, is still regarded by many critics as a landmark and a high point of British reggae. By the late '80s, Steel Pulse had won a Grammy and were working full-fledged

Steve Edwards Soul Show 2012 Series Edition (6)-Soul , Funk & Civil Rights! HR1

From Steve Edwards | Part of the Steve Edwards Soul Show 2012 Series series | 59:02

A Twist of Soul , Funk and Civil Rights is the story of Edition 6 of The Steve Edwards Soul Show. It is a musical tribute the the artists that laid the foundation of full expression . The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from 1955-1965.

Steve_edwards__press_photo_2__small Sometimes when discussing Soul and funk we tend to forget that the music did not exist ina vacuum. It was a product of the existing environment of the time in which the musicians who created the music also lived it! If we chart the coure of Soul music from 1995 -1970 it draws a close parallel to the same period of the civil rights movement. One could maintain that Soul music and the Civil rights movement had a duel impact  on each other.

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of non violent protests and marches ranging from the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott to the student led sit-ins of the 1960`s to the huge March on Washington in 1963.


 A few words about Steve Edwards. . .

It was December 1999 when Steve Edwards landed on Las Vegas soil with one intention in mind– to invade American radio with his infectious tones and personality that welcomes everyone to the party.

His radio career kicked off whilst reading for his Human Biology degree. Then immediately upon graduation he entered the “underground” world of Pirate Radio. Steve escaped wearing the patch but didn’t get shipwrecked!! (not straightaway). A rebel with a cause, his drive to promote good music other than the top 40 became his mantra to specialize in all formats musical!

When the Pirate ship finally sunk, Steve’s vision was pursued (legally) with a 3 year stint at London’s only Jazz station, Jazz FM. Then came every DJ`s ultimate calling… The BBC!

It was his rise to the top as the National host of the Steve Edwards Soul Show where he interviewed everyone from Janet Jackson to Andy Summers of The Police. He also appeared on a variety of guest spots across “The Beeb” including Rock, Top 40 and Alternative music shows.

The journey continued with Steve taking the helm at a local London radio station as Music Director and Assistant PD. The contract was for one year and the time was ripe for Steve to realize a long time dream of working on American Radio.

 

That was twelve years ago and as a Las Vegas resident Steve has scored on- air/producer gigs with corporate radio giants like CBS Radio, Clear Channel and the Desert Sky Media Group.

 

Spinning from his personal collection, listeners will be able to stream live, kick back and enjoy the best of the new releases, classic cuts, exclusives and get a direct introduction to the core artists that have significantly shaped the contemporary Soul, Funk and Jazz music scene. Check out "This week On the Soul Show" weekly news letter(s) for a sneak preview of what’s coming up!

It’s the" soundtrack to your Soul showcasing another exclusive music feature  for edition 6

"Shabooyah,Peace and Soul" Roll-Call is at your place!

Notes for programmers

·         Accessible  specialist (soul and jazz)music programming for  target demographic of all adults 25+

·         Suggested time slots for weekdays-Middays, evenings and overnights, and for weekends-: morning drive, midday’s, evenings, overnights and variety weekend programming slots that have little or  no ratings activity. Use  this show to build an audience by running the whole series!

·          Weekly features designed to build grow and establish audience listenership base e.g. Mellow Moments-(Love songs), 60 minutes live! (live concert radio)

·         Underwriting, event and sponsorship opportunities

·         Complete show is produced into three 59 minute segments. (edited to your clock by request)

·         Exclusive artist interviews live in studio or live by remote (ISDN), Skype and phone.

·         Inclusion in ‘This week on the Soul Show’ newsletter

New content themes every week plus regular features; the show is numbered in sequence for each edition of the series. The shows can run as independent segments or a full length 2 or 3 hour program.

  

 

Get Behind Me, Now Stay There - Episode 22

From Get Behind Me , Now Stay There | Part of the Get Behind Me, Now Stay There series | 58:01

Art and Entertainment news that you want to know!!!

Featuring Civil Rights leader Bobby Seale and Country Star Doug Briney.

Seale_1_small

Art and Entertainment news that you want to know!!!

Interviews with authors, musicians, artists, poets, or maybe just the guy down the street!!!

Episode 22

Bobby Seale: SEIZE THE TIME THE EIGHTH DEFENDANT

A feature length motion picture dramatization that chronicles Bobby's legendary life experience as the founding Chairman and national organizer of the Black Panther Party. Bobby Seale is asking his friends and the many millions who know his profound sixties protest movement history to support this independent film production. Support by purchasing books and memorabilia which will finance the pre-production expenditures so critical in ascertaining financing for the overall production budget of this once in a life time feature motion picture. We spoke with him about the film his life and the many legends he knew and worked with throughout his life from Malcolm X to John Lennon you don't want to miss this one. Be sure and leave your comments below we would love to hear from you. 
 

Doug Briney:

Being a country musician in Anchorage, Alaska is fun and exciting.  Doug relates to the song, I Was Country, When Country Wasn’t Cool.  Growing up in Southern California, all of his friends were into rock while he was listening to Kenny Rogers, Lee Greenwood, Tom T. Hall, Eddie Arnold, Alabama and Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers.  Today his influences would still include those but he’s added Chris Young, Toby Keith and Ronnie Dunn to his list of major influences.  Doug’s first full CD, titled, “It’s All Country” is now available right now for digital download from iTunes, Amazon or CD Baby. Doug is very happy with this project and believes it will reach out and touch people right where they live.  Songs such as: “Deja Vu” “Second Dance” “It’s More Than Just a Farm” all speak to the things in life that really matter. We spoke with him about everything from making music to sailing!

 

So I ask you, what more could you want?


"Get Behind Me, Now Stay There" more fun than . . .

Hillary Clinton Honors Dr. King on 40th Anniversary of his Death

From PRX | 49:37

Hillary Clinton Honors Dr. King on 40th Anniversary of his Death

Clintonpointingtocrowd_small Thank you all. I am deeply honored to be here today on this very important commemoration and for this significant gathering. I want to thank Bishop Blake for his leadership here at home and around the world, particularly in Africa. His personal commitment to the people and children of Africa has resounded so profoundly beyond his church and beyond our shores. It sets a good example and it issues a challenge for so many others. I thank you Bishop. This is a very distinguished gathering here. I want to recognize my long time friend Ambassador Charles Stith who did superb work in Tanzania and has continued with his innovative and unique commitment at Boston University to creating an archive for the papers and memory of African leaders. That will be part of our history. It will not be lost. It will be there for generations to come. One thinks about Dr. King studying at that great university and those who would follow in his footsteps or in any other's will now have a much broader and richer historical scholarship record to learn from. I want to thank my friends and another great leader, Reverend Eugene Rivers, for his commitment over many, many years to helping young people and providing alternatives in a way that keeps faith with our faith. But which puts aside the trappings of church and religion and goes into the streets. That has made such a difference to so many over such a long time. We are also honored to be with the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Conyers, who has led with such prophetic commitment as well to what is right. And now is in a position to influence the future of our country. It will be a good day, Mr. Chairman, when you don't have to be investigating all of the abuses of power of a president any longer. And we'll be able to come together around a positive agenda. Congressman Steve Cohen, I?m grateful for his leadership. My dear friend, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who just came in, who is, I would say peripatetic, in that she has more miles logged than anyone I know. I talked to Sheila from Iraq, from Africa, from Texas, New York, Washington, D.C., because she is a woman on the move. I'm so pleased that she is here as well. Mayor Willie Herenton, one of the great long-time committed mayors of this city, and is helping to oversee its renaissance. Memphis is on the way back, mayor and that has a lot to do with your spirit and your love of this city. Mayor Wharton of Shelby County, your partner in such activities. One of the reasons I wanted to be here today was not only to honor the memory, the legacy and the challenges left to us by Dr. King, but also to support Memphis and to support what you are trying to do to really seize the future with confidence and optimism. Bishop Brooks, Bishop Macking, other distinguished clergy who are here. I am not sure if all of us are aware of the coming together in Memphis today of so many from so many different groups to find common cause. Now we must leave Memphis united and committed to the changes that await our actions. Ruth Davis, the head of Memphis Sanitation Workers, that is such an important person to recognize because in a very real way we would not be here if it were not for that strike and that demand in for human rights and justice that happened 40 years ago. Secretary Rodney Slater, it is always an honor to be anywhere with my long-time friend from Arkansas. Some weeks ago I was with Reverend Billy Kyles at his church. As anyone who knows Reverend Kyles can attest, he has spent the last 40 years witnessing - witnessing to Dr. King?s life and death, because he was a witness. A witness who has taken the horror and tragedy of that day and channeled it into a mission to reach out wherever anyone who would listen to what was at stake, and still is, in our country and around the world. It is hard to believe that it has been 40 years. And it is also heart-breaking to know that Dr. King has been gone from this earth longer than he was here. When one thinks of his life ? such a short life ? going by in just a moment of time, but having such a profound and lasting impact on all of us. As a young woman, I was privileged to be taken to hear Dr. King speak by a youth minister who opened my eyes and ears and my horizons. Dr. King?s call to action that evening in Chicago led me to confront a world bigger and broader than the one I inhabited. He had a way of doing that, of pushing us outside our own comfort zone, of making it clear that we had to be part of the revolution that was going on. It wasn't a revolution of guns. It was a revolution of hearts and minds, of attitudes and actions. When one heard Dr. King speak, and I stood in line for a very long time that night to shake his hand. And he was gracious, and he was kind to lean over to shake the hand of a 14-year-old girl from the from the suburbs of Chicago, who went to an all-white church and an all-white school, and lived in an all-white suburb. But he didn't ask me, as I reached out my hand, where do you live, what is your experience? He just took it and looked in my face and thanked me for coming. That Dr. King had such a profound and lasting impact on a young white girl, that he had that kind of impact on millions of people of all colors, faiths, ages and walks of life, tells us something about the reach and power of his vision. It was a vision big enough and bold enough and grace-filled enough to embrace every last one of us. And when he came here to Memphis to speak out on behalf of workers, he wasn't only speaking for those sanitation workers who were denied their rights, who had seen two of their fellow workers die in a cascade of garbage a few weeks before. He was speaking out for all workers everywhere who are exploited and abused and denied their basic rights. When Dr. King protested the Vietnam War, he wasn't just speaking on behalf of black soldiers, but all soldiers and civilians ? Vietnamese and Americans alike. When he worked on behalf of the poor here in America and around the world, he wasn't just speaking for the poor he knew, that he could see with his own eyes, but the poor who knew no boundaries of geography or color. And when he stood against discrimination, he wasn't just seeking to free African Americans from the shackles of slavery and the past that had been shaped by that abomination; he was seeking to break the shackles of hatred on the hearts of us all. He yearned for our country to fulfill the ideals that it had given lip service to, that were embodied in our founding documents. In his last speech here, he took us on a tour of history, but showed us the unfinished business and unrealized promises of America. Dr. King understood our constitution better than most of us. He knew it was crafted to expand as our hearts expanded. It was not a constricted document from one place in time, but an expansive proclamation of what America could become if we had the courage to do so. Slavery was written onto that document, but so was the potential for equality. He waged that revolution, but not just to change our laws, as I heard Bishop Blake talking about, but to change our hearts and behaviors. He reminded us that those who signed our founding documents were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir; the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the end he asked nothing more than that we redeem that promise, each in our own way through faith-based institutions, through our businesses, our labor unions, through our political and public service. And even though as originally drafted we did not include Dr. King or me either, women and African Americans were left out of America?s founding promises, but he never gave up and neither should we. His faith in America animated and sustained his journey. Like with any faith, there were dark moments when one doubts, when one is on the brink of giving up and throwing in the towel. But he would always come back from those dark places and so must we. The tenacity of Dr. King's faith is all the more extraordinary when we think of the ways it was tested. By all the critics and the media attacking his work, by the death threats, the bombings, the beatings, the stabbings, the murder, the grinding hard work day after day of just getting up and moving on, even the speech he gave here at this great complex wasn't supposed to be delivered. The crowd demanded it. And he came. He always answered the call. For those who are clergy, you know that it sometimes tests one's constitution and one's faith to constantly be asked to do more to reach out to keep going. Someone of lesser heart and lesser faith might have grown weary doing good, might have given up, but he persisted in the struggle. And we know the results. So much has changed. I look at the young people standing in the back of this room. And it may be hard for you to imagine what you read in the history books, what your parents and your grandparents tell you. Jim Crowe is now something you read about. The people in this room lived under it. Because of Dr. King, these young people, my daughter's generation, grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could attend school together. Because of him, after 219 years and 43 presidents who have been white men, this next generation will grow up taking for granted that a woman or an African American can be President of the United States of America. But as far as we've come, we know the journey is far from over. Some days when you open up the newspaper and you read the headlines, it feels like we tumbled right back down that mountain top, doesn't it? Some days it's amazing how deep the valley can be. At times like those I think of what Dr. King said in his last speech, how he acknowledged we are living in a time of turmoil and upheaval, but then admonished us to remember only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. Dr. King saw the darkness of a nation torn apart by petty human differences, but he imagined one knit back together by our shared humanity. He saw so many going hungry in a land of plenty, but he envisioned an America where our prosperity was shared. He saw America embroiled in an endless war, but imagined a principled peace. While our problems were grave, he never stopped believing that our promise was greater. He saw us not as we were, but as we could and should be. Isn?t it about time we started seeing ourselves as Dr. King saw us? Isn?t it about time we came together as we have in Memphis to find the solutions to make America what it can and should be? When I say solutions, I mean good jobs. Jobs you can raise a family on. Jobs that give people a shot at the middle class, to be able to stay there and live with dignity and respect. When I say solutions, I mean respecting the role of the American labor movement that has given that dignity and respect to so many. This time, once again, to give back the support we need to those who help workers organize and demand their rights. When I say solutions, I mean finally addressing the scourge of poverty that stalks so many. I believe, mayor, Memphis has about a 25% poverty rate, down over the last years, but still far too high. I believe we should appoint a cabinet level position that will be solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it in America. A position that will focus the attention of our nation on the issue and never let it go. A person who I could see being asked by the president every single day what have you done to end poverty in America? No more excuses. No more whining, but instead, a concerted effort. It?s the kind of solution that Dr. King's son Martin has been passionately advocating for. When I say solutions, I mean schools worthy of our children that give each child a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. How about appointing Supreme Court justices who will actually uphold Brown versus Board of Education and not reverse the progress that has been made? When I say solutions, I mean quality, affordable health care for every American. No exceptions. Everyone entitled to health insurance. No more going into the emergency room. Instead, going in the front door to the doctor's office to be taken care of, to get that preventive health care that will keep you healthy. I mean restoring America?s moral leadership in the world, leading the fight against AIDS, Malaria and TB, against poverty and genocide. We cannot let our brothers and sisters in Africa and around the world continue to suffer needlessly. And I mean ending the war that has claimed too many of our precious sons and daughters; ending it as quickly and responsibly as humanly possible. And yet we must demand that our government pass laws that reflect our values. Hate crimes laws, anti-discrimination laws, equal pay laws and so much more. But that is not enough. The solutions we seek are not just about what government does or business does or labor unions or even faith-based institutions do. It is what each and every one of us is called to do. There is still too much hatred dividing too many human hearts. Every one of us has a chance, practically every day, to stand up to intolerance and injustice. Like many of you here who are of a certain age, I will never forget where I was when I heard Dr. King had been killed. I was a junior in college. And I remember hearing about it and just feeling such despair. I walked onto my dorm room, took my book bag and hurled it across the room. It felt like everything had been shattered, like we would never be able to put the pieces together again. I joined a protest march in Boston. I wore a black armband. I worked to convince my college to recruit more students and faculty of color, but it felt like it wasn't enough. And then a few months later we heard of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, whose eloquence and courage had helped to persuade the people of Indianapolis to follow Dr. King's example of non-violence. I remember wandering through the encampments of the Poor People's March on Washington talking with those who had come from literally around the world to witness against poverty and injustice. It felt like the doors had closed on the hope that so many had felt. But that would have been such a disservice to Dr. King. To have taken the despair, the outrage and just ended with that. Dr. King taught us everything we needed to know about his legacy and how to carry it forward, but in the end it is up to each of us to walk that path. It is not an easy path. It was hard for him. It is hard for us. Sometimes we take steps backwards so maybe then we can figure out a new way forward. But I have abiding confidence, and yes, faith that we can make our way to higher ground. Whether or not we make it to the mountain top, whether we make it to the Promised Land is not for us to know, but I believe with all my heart it is for us to try. And when we get tired and when our faith starts to waiver, we can of course remember Dr. King's faith in us. How being dog-tired that night, he left the Lorraine Motel and came here. I?m sure he would have liked a good night's sleep. I?m sure he thought Reverend Abernathy had done a fine job and there were so many good preachers there. But he felt called and he answered the call. As the Scripture tells us, when we are called, we must answer. Who will you send? Send me. So here we are. Let us remember and return to the Well Springs of faith from which he drew. One should re-read Dr. King?s last speech, just as we ask children to memorize the ""I have a dream"" speech. One should re-read that last speech. Be reminded of the prophet Amos who did shout and commend us to let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. One can remember the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ, who taught us to love our enemies. What an absurd teaching. At the time it was given, it was not even in the consciousness of humanity. Love our enemies? Turn the other cheek? What was he talking about? And yet, that has been a prophetic call that has echoed throughout the generations. One that Dr. King took to heart. And let us remember the faith and courage of Dr. King?s brave widow. She returned to this city less than a week after his death to lead the march ? the march for justice. She had not yet buried her husband and she was determined to carry on his work. With three of her children at her side, she did so with tens of thousands of people in solidarity with those striking workers. Let us remember how Dr. King?s faith connects us through time and place and history. The notes of "We shall overcome"" were sung in Berlin as the wall came down, by Chinese students marching in Tiananmen Square, in South Africa at President Mandela?s inauguration. I even had that song sung to me by a group of women, poor, desperately poor women in India, who sang it in Gujarati, their native tongue. From the prisoner of conscience in a Birmingham jail, to a prisoner of conscience on Robin Island, from the students sitting at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, to the students blocking the path of a tank in Beijing. Whether we are oppressed by tyranny, poverty, war or discrimination, that faith, that determination to keep fighting, working, building and believing has and always will carry us forward as long as we remember and as long as we remain committed to fulfilling Dr. King?s legacy and dream. Thank you and God bless you.

Steve Edwards Soul Show Edition(6) Soul Funk & Civil Rights Hr 2

From Steve Edwards | Part of the Steve Edwards Soul Show 2012 Series series | 59:07

A Twist of Soul , Funk and Civil Rights is the story of Edition 6 of The Steve Edwards Soul Show. It is a musical tribute the the artists that laid the foundation of full expression . The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from 1955-1965.

Steve_edwards__press_photo_2__small Sometimes when discussing Soul and funk we tend to forget that the music did not exist ina vacuum. It was a product of the existing environment of the time in which the musicians who created the music also lived it! If we chart the coure of Soul music from 1995 -1970 it draws a close parallel to the same period of the civil rights movement. One could maintain that Soul music and the Civil rights movement had a duel impact  on each other.

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of non violent protests and marches ranging from the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott to the student led sit-ins of the 1960`s to the huge March on Washington in 1963.

 A few words about Steve Edwards. . .

It was December 1999 when Steve Edwards landed on Las Vegas soil with one intention in mind– to invade American radio with his infectious tones and personality that welcomes everyone to the party.

His radio career kicked off whilst reading for his Human Biology degree. Then immediately upon graduation he entered the “underground” world of Pirate Radio. Steve escaped wearing the patch but didn’t get shipwrecked!! (not straightaway). A rebel with a cause, his drive to promote good music other than the top 40 became his mantra to specialize in all formats musical!

When the Pirate ship finally sunk, Steve’s vision was pursued (legally) with a 3 year stint at London’s only Jazz station, Jazz FM. Then came every DJ`s ultimate calling… The BBC!

It was his rise to the top as the National host of the Steve Edwards Soul Show where he interviewed everyone from Janet Jackson to Andy Summers of The Police. He also appeared on a variety of guest spots across “The Beeb” including Rock, Top 40 and Alternative music shows.

The journey continued with Steve taking the helm at a local London radio station as Music Director and Assistant PD. The contract was for one year and the time was ripe for Steve to realize a long time dream of working on American Radio.

 

That was twelve years ago and as a Las Vegas resident Steve has scored on- air/producer gigs with corporate radio giants like CBS Radio, Clear Channel and the Desert Sky Media Group.

 

Spinning from his personal collection, listeners will be able to stream live, kick back and enjoy the best of the new releases, classic cuts, exclusives and get a direct introduction to the core artists that have significantly shaped the contemporary Soul, Funk and Jazz music scene. Check out "This week On the Soul Show" weekly news letter(s) for a sneak preview of what’s coming up!

It’s the" soundtrack to your Soul showcasing another exclusive music feature  for edition 6

"Shabooyah,Peace and Soul" Roll-Call is at your place!

Notes for programmers

·         Accessible  specialist (soul and jazz)music programming for  target demographic of all adults 25+

·         Suggested time slots for weekdays-Middays, evenings and overnights, and for weekends-: morning drive, midday’s, evenings, overnights and variety weekend programming slots that have little or  no ratings activity. Use  this show to build an audience by running the whole series!

·          Weekly features designed to build grow and establish audience listenership base e.g. Mellow Moments-                (Love songs), 60 minutes live! (live concert radio)

·         Underwriting, event and sponsorship opportunities

·         Complete show is produced into three 59 minute segments. (edited to your clock by request)

·         Exclusive artist interviews live in studio or live by remote (ISDN), Skype and phone.

·         Inclusion in ‘This week on the Soul Show’ newsletter

New content themes every week plus regular features; the show is numbered in sequence for each edition of the series. The shows can run as independent segments or a full length 2 or 3 hour program.

  
 

Jeremiah Wright's speech at NAACP Dinner--Detroit, MI 4/27/08

From PRX | 01:20:33

Wright's speech on the theme "Change is Coming" says that the black church is "under attack" by "corporate owned media." He repeatedly overviews cultural differences between African American and European American (in education, linguistics, and music). Wright concludes by saying that the NAACP has been working together to reconcile differences between black and white America.

Default-piece-image-1 he NAACP has an incomparable record. It has the longest list of achievements in the history of this country as being the undisputed champion in the fight against discrimination, racial prejudice, and unjust public policies, which have caused people made in the image of God to be treated as less than human or treated as second-class citizens. art.wright2.ap.jpg Jeremiah Wright speaks at an NAACP dinner on Sunday night. In its early days, the NAACP and the black church in the United States of America were seemingly joined at the hip in the fight against injustice and the fight for equality on behalf of all people of color. Many local chapters of the NAACP were started in black churches. Hundreds of black churches. The NAACP's fight for justice and freedom, however, is not limited to the concerns of the black church, historically or contemporaneously. And when the truth is told, as Paula Giddings does so powerfully in her book "When and Where I Enter," there were times when the NAACP had to drag some timid black preachers along kicking and screaming as in the Montgomery bus boycott designed by the NAACP, not the SCLC. Throughout its 99-year history, the NAACP has been built by people of all races, all nationalities, and all faiths on one primary premise, which is that all men and women are created equal. The nation's oldest civil rights organization has changed America's history. Despite violence, intimidation, and hostile government policies, the NAACP and its grassroots membership have persevered. Now, somebody please tell the Oakland county executive that that sentence starting with the words "despite violence, intimidation, and hostile government policies" is a direct quote from the NAACP's profile in courage. It didn't come from Jeremiah Wright. Otherwise, he will attribute the quote to me and continue to say that I and am one of the most divisive people he has ever of heard speak. When he has never heard me speak. And just to help him out, I am not one of the most divisive. Tell him the word is descriptive. I describe the conditions in this country. Conditions divide, not my descriptions. Somebody say "Amen." If you can't say "Amen," you're too mad, just say "Ouch." The NAACP is nonpartisan. The NAACP is not beholden to, controlled by, or partial to any one faith tradition. The NAACP says proudly that it is a compound of people of all races, all nationalities and all faiths. And it is for that reason that I am especially grateful to Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony and the Detroit branch of the NAACP for honoring me by having me address their 2008 theme "A Change is Going to Come." One of your cities' political analysts says in print that first just my appearance here in Detroit will be polarizing. Well, I'm not here for political reasons. I am not a politician. I know that fact will surprise many of you because many in the corporate-owned media have made it seem as if I had announced that I'm running to for the Oval Office. I am not running for the Oval Office. I've been running for Jesus a long, long time, and I'm not tired yet. I am sorry your local political analysts and your neighboring county executives think my being here is polarizing and my sermons are divisive, but I'm not here to address an analyst's opinion or a county executive's point of view. I am here to address your 2008 theme, and I stand here as one representative of the African American religious tradition which works in concert with other faith traditions, believing as we work together that a change is going to come. On that point, about other faith traditions, in addition to Pastor Anthony, Pastor Nicholas Hood, Pastor Charles Adams, Pastor William Revelli, Pastor James Perkins, Pastor Wilma Rudolph, Pastor Holly who is suffering from a stroke, Father Michael Flager, Father Jeremy Tobin, Pastor Dee Dee Coleman, Dr. Georgia Hill and Rev. Lonnie Peek. I would also like to thank Sister Melanie Maron, the former executive director of the Chicago chapter of the American Jewish Committee and the current executive director of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Jewish committee. I would like to thank my good friend and Jewish author Tim Wise for his support, and I would like to offer a special "shookran" to Imam Muhammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights for his courage, his conviction and his support. The support of the Jewish community, the Muslim community, and the Christian community, Protestant and Catholic, is in concert with the credo of the NAACP and a definite sign that a change is definitely going to come. An additional special thank you is offered to Soledad O'Brien for CNN's outstanding "Black in America" and my long-term friend Roland Martin. I believe that a change is going to come because many of us are committing to changing how we see others who are different. In the past, we were taught to see others who are different as somehow being deficient. Christians saw Jews as being deficient. Catholics saw Protestants as being deficient. Presbyterians saw Pentecostals as being deficient. Folks who like to holler in worship saw folk who like to be quiet as deficient. And vice versa. Whites saw black as being deficient. It was none other than Rudyard Kipling who saw the "White Man's Burden" as a mandate to lift brown, black, yellow people up to the level of white people as if whites were the norm and black, brown and yellow people were abnormal subspecies on a lower level or deficient. Europeans saw Africans as deficient. Lovers of George Friedrich Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart saw lovers of B.B. King and Frankie Beverly and Maze as deficient. Lovers of Marian Anderson saw lovers of Lady Day and Anita Baker as deficient. Lovers of European cantatas -- Comfort ye in the glory, the glory of the Lord -- Lovers of European cantatas saw lovers of common meter -- I love the Lord, He heard my cry -- they saw them as deficient. In the past, we were taught to see others who are different as being deficient. We established arbitrary norms and then determined that anybody not like us was abnormal. But a change is coming because we no longer see others who are different as being deficient. We just see them as different. Over the past 50 years, thanks to the scholarship of dozens of expert in many different disciplines, we have come to see just how skewed, prejudiced and dangerous our miseducation has been. Miseducation. Miseducation incidentally is not a Jeremiah Wright term. It's a word coined by Dr. Carter G. Woodson over 80 years ago. Sounds like he talked a hate speech, doesn't it? Now, analyze that. Two brilliant scholars and two beautiful sisters, both of whom hail from Detroit in the fields of education and linguistics, Dr. Janice Hale right here at Wayne State University, founder of the Institute for the study of the African-American child. and Dr. Geneva Smitherman formerly of Wayne State University now at Michigan State University in Lansing. Hail in education and Smitherman in linguistics. Both demonstrated 40 years ago that different does not mean deficient. Somebody is going to miss that. Turn to your neighbor and say different does not mean deficient. It simply means different. In fact, Dr. Janice Hale was the first writer whom I read who used that phrase. Different does not mean deficient. Different is not synonymous with deficient. It was in Dr. Hale's first book, "Black Children their Roots, Culture and Learning Style." Is Dr. Hale here tonight? We owe her a debt of gratitude. Dr. Hale showed us that in comparing African-American children and European-American children in the field of education, we were comparing apples and rocks. And in so doing, we kept coming up with meaningless labels like EMH, educable mentally handicapped, TMH, trainable mentally handicapped, ADD, attention deficit disorder. And we were coming up with more meaningless solutions like reading, writing and Ritalin. Dr. Hale's research led her to stop comparing African-American children with European-American children and she started comparing the pedagogical methodologies of African-American children to African children and European-American children to European children. And bingo, she discovered that the two different worlds have two different ways of learning. European and European-American children have a left brained cognitive object oriented learning style and the entire educational learning system in the United States of America. Back in the early '70s, when Dr. Hale did her research was based on left brained cognitive object oriented learning style. Let me help you with fifty cent words. Left brain is logical and analytical. Object oriented means the student learns from an object. From the solitude of the cradle with objects being hung over his or her head to help them determine colors and shape to the solitude in a carol in a PhD program stuffed off somewhere in a corner in absolute quietness to absorb from the object. From a block to a book, an object. That is one way of learning, but it is only one way of learning. African and African-American children have a different way of learning. They are right brained, subject oriented in their learning style. Right brain that means creative and intuitive. Subject oriented means they learn from a subject, not an object. They learn from a person. Some of you are old enough, I see your hair color, to remember when the NAACP won that tremendous desegregation case back in 1954 and when the schools were desegregated. They were never integrated. When they were desegregated in Philadelphia, several of the white teachers in my school freaked out. Why? Because black kids wouldn't stay in their place. Over there behind the desk, black kids climbed up all on them. Because they learn from a subject, not from an object. Tell me a story. They have a different way of learning. Those same children who have difficulty reading from an object and who are labeled EMH, DMH and ADD. Those children can say every word from every song on every hip hop radio station half of who's words the average adult here tonight cannot understand. Why? Because they come from a right-brained creative oral culture like the (greos) in Africa who can go for two or three days as oral repositories of a people's history and like the oral tradition which passed down the first five book in our Jewish bible, our Christian Bible, our Hebrew bible long before there was a written Hebrew script or alphabet. And repeat incredulously long passages like Psalm 119 using mnemonic devices using eight line stanzas. Each stanza starting with a different letter of the alphabet. That is a different way of learning. It's not deficient, it is just different. Somebody say different. I believe that a change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing how we see other people who are different. What Dr. Janice Hale did in the field of education, Dr. Geneva Smitherman did in the field of linguistics. Almost 25 years ago now, Dr. Smitherman's book published by Wayne State University talking and testifying the language of black America taught us the same thing. Different does not mean deficient. Linguists have known since the mid 20th century that number one, nobody in Detroit, with the exception of citizens born and raised in the United Kingdom, nobody in Detroit speaks English. We all speak different varieties of American. If you don't believe me, go to the United Kingdom. As soon as you open your mouth in the United Kingdom, they'll say oh you're from America. Because they hear you speak in American. Linguists knew that nobody in here speaks English, but only black children 50 years ago were singled out as speaking bad English. In the 1961, it's been all over the Internet now, John Kennedy could stand at the inauguration in January and say, "ask not what your country can do for you, it's rather what you can do for your country." How do you spell is? Nobody ever said to John Kennedy that's not English "is". Only to a black child would they say you speak bad English. Kennedy got killed. Johnson stepped up to the podium and love feel, we just left love feel. And Johnson, said my fellow Americans. How do you spell fellow? How do you spell American? Nobody says to Johnson you speak bad English. Ed Kennedy, today, those of you in the Congress, you know Kilpatrick. You know, Ed Kennedy today cannot pronounce cluster consonants. Very few people from Boston can. They pronounce park like it's p-o-c-k. Where did you "pock" the car? They pronounce f-o-r-t like it's f-o-u-g-h-t. We fought a good battle. And nobody says to a Kennedy you speak bad English. Only to a black child was that said. Linguists knew that 50 years ago and they also knew number two that every language, including the language of Jesus, Aramaic, was made up of five subsets, pragmatic, grammar, syntax, semantics and phonics and that African speakers of English and African speakers of French and African speakers of Portuguese and African speakers of Spanish in the new world had created languages, not dialect all with five different subsets. Languages, not Creole or Patois, languages. And Dr. Smitherman compiled the findings of an interdisciplinary research along with her own brilliant findings to show us that the language of black Americans was different, not deficient. She combined the findings of early childhood education, linguistics, socio-linguistics and the pedagogy of the oppressed to demonstrate most powerfully that different does not mean deficient. It simply means what? Different. I believe a change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing the way we see others who are different. What Dr. Janice Hale did in the field of education and what Dr. Geneva Smitherman did in the field of linguistics, Dr. (Eldon) did in the field of ethnomusicology, the field of music. He showed us 40 years ago what Wintley [Phipps] is teaching you for the first time 40 years later. African music is different from European piano music. It is not deficient, it is different. In most school systems today, the way most of us over 40 years of age were taught is still being taught. We were taught a European paradigm as if Europe had the only music that there was in the world. As a matter of fact, if you just say the term, classical music. Today, most here, use of that term will automatically refer to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and already cited Mozart and Handel. European musicians. From grammar school to graduate school, we are taught in four, four time. That the dominant beat is on one and three. Our band directors, our choir directors, our orchestra director start us off how? And One, two, three, four. One, two, three. Now, that's the European dominant beat. For African and African-Americans, it is not one and three, it is two and four. I don't have to teach you. Listen to black people clap to this song. Glory, glory hallelujah, you are clapping on beats two and four. If you got some white friends, they'll be clapping like this. You say they can't clap. Yes, they can. They clap in a different way. It's the same fact holds true with six eight time. Europeans stress one, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Dum dum, dum, dum, dum. The stress is on one and four. Not for black people. When you got six eight time, blacks stress two three and five six. Listen to this -- blessed assurance, Jesus is mine two, three for, five, six - oh, why are you clapping on the wrong beat? Africans have a different meter and Africans have a different tonality. European music is diatonic, seven tones. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. That's Italian. Europe. In west Africa and south Africa, it is not diatonic, seven tones, it is pentatonic with five tones. Wintley [Phipps] points out that if you want to know black music, just look at the black keys on the piano. Do, re, fa, so, la. Just those five tunes. Those are the only five notes you'll hear and somebody knows the trouble I've seen. It only uses five notes the same with the river it also uses five notes. That's all. I believe a change is coming. It's not deficient, it's just different. Many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. When you look at and listen to - I'm in Michigan. OK. Here in Michigan, look at and listen to the University of Michigan and Michigan State University bands at halftime. Their bands hit the field with excellent European precision. Da, da, da, da, da, ta, ra, ra. Now go to a Florida A&M and Gramling Band. It's different. And you can't put that in no book. I believe change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. One is not superior to the other. One is not normal with the other being abnormal. One is not deficient because it doesn't follow the same methodology of the other. It is just different. Different does not mean deficient. Tell your neighbor one more time. Now, what is true in the field of education, linguistics, ethnomusicology, marching bands, psychology and culture is also true in the field of homiletics, hermeneutics, biblical studies, black sacred music and black worship. We just do it different and some of our haters can't get their heads around that. I come from a religious tradition that does not divorce the world we live in from the world we are heading to. I come from a religious tradition that does not separate the kingdom of heaven that we pray for from the devious kingdoms of humans that keep people in bondage on earth. I come from a religious tradition that did not hold slaves, but preached against slavery and worked to end slavery. I come from a religious tradition that fought against Lansing like the NAACP, fought against discrimination like the NAACP and fought against skin privilege, fought against apartheid, fought again unfair labor practices, fought against segregation, fought against Plessy versus Ferguson. I come from a religious tradition that fought for desegregation like NAACP. Fought for equality, fought for human dignity, fought for civil rights, fought for equal protection into the law and fought for the right of every citizen to have quality education regardless of the color of their skin. I also come from a religious tradition that say if you feel excited about something, be excited about it. Don't stand there he has hate speech. Listen to how bombastic he is. Isn't he bombastic? He's stirring up hate. You love somebody? Yes. Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me. No. No. No. If you feel it - I come from a religious tradition where we shout in the sanctuary and march on the picket line. I come from a religious tradition where we give God the glory and we give the devil the blues. The black religious tradition is different. We do it a different way. 40 years ago, Dr. Anthony (inaudible) quoted in '68 the Kerner report stated that they were two different Americas. And for 40 years one of those Americas has acted as if they were the only America. But all of that now is in the past. I believe a change is coming. Because many of us are going to change how we see others who are different. I've got to hurry on. I'm taking too much of your time. So let me give you the outline of the rest of this message. You can either fill in the blanks for yourselves or you could wait for my book that will be out later this year. I believe addressing your theme. I believe a change is going to come because many of us here tonight, at least 11,900 out of 12,000. Many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. Number one, many of us are committed to changing how we see ourselves. Number two, not inferior or superior to, just different from others. Embracing our own histories. Embracing our own cultures. Embracing our own languages as we embrace others who are also made in the image of god. That has been the credo of the NAACP for 99 years. When we see ourselves as members of the human race, I believe a change is on the way. When we see ourselves as people of faith who shared this planet with people of other faiths, I believe a change is on the way. Many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. Number one, many of us are committed to changing how we see ourselves, not stepchildren, number two but God's children. Many of us are committed to changing, number three, the way we treat each other. The way black men treat black women. The way black parents treat black children. The way black youth treat black elders and the way black elders treat black youth. We are committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way the so called haves and have mores, to use Bush's speech writers term. Don't you all think he made that up? The way the have and have mores treat the have notes. The way the educated treat the uneducated. The way those with degrees treat those who never made it through high school. The way those of us who never got caught treat those of us who are incarcerated. Making rehabilitation a priority over incarceration. We are committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way we treat the latest immigrants because everybody in here who's not an Indian do be an immigrant. Some of you all came on a decks of ship and some of us came on the bows and hauls of the ship, but we all are immigrants. The way we treat non Christians and folks who don't believe what we believe, we're committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way Sunis treat Shiites, the way Orthodox Jews treat reformed Jews. The way church folk treat other church folk. The way speakers of English treat speakers of Arabic -- Maasalam al hal. Please run and tell my stuck on stupid friends that Arabic is a language, it's not a religion. Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. They are Arabic-speaking Christians, Arabic-speaking Jews and Arabic speaking atheists. Arabic is a language, it's not a religion. Stop trying to scare folks by giving them an Arabic name as if it's some sort of a disease. Same people thought that the Irish had a disease. When the Irish came here. Did you hear my me O'Malley? O'Reilly? They thought you were - well they might have been might, the way we treat each other, many of us are committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way Christians treat you. The way straights treat gays. We are committed to changing the way we treat each other. And we are committing number four to changing the way we mistreat each other. We can do better, you all. There is a higher standard, you all. We know that and we are stretching to reach that standard. I believe a change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. Many of us are committed to changing how we see ourselves. Many of us are committed to changing the way we treat each other. Many of us are committed to changing the way we mistreat each other. And many of us finally are committed to changing this world that we live in so our children and our grandchildren will have a world in which to live in to grow in, to learn in, to love in and to pass on to their children. We are committed to changing this world that's God's world, in the first place. Not ours. And I believe we can do it. It's going to take hard work, but we can do it. advertisement It's going to take people of all faiths including the nation of Islam, but we can do it. It's going to take people of all races, but we can do it. It's going to take Republicans and Democrats, but we can do it. It's going to take the wisdom of the old and the energy of the young, but we can do it. It's going to take politicians and preachers, the government and NGOs, but we can do it. It's going to take educators and legislatures, but we can do it. If I were in a Christian Church, I would say we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. If I were in a Jewish synagogue, I would say is anything too hard for Elohim. If I were in a Muslim mosque, I would say Sha Allah we can do it. If I were pushing one particular candidate, I would say yes, we can. But, since this is a nonpartisan gathering and since this is neither a mosque, a synagogue or a sanctuary, just let me say, we can do it. We can make it if we try. We can make the change if we try. We will make a change if we try. A change is going to come. Can you feel it? Can you see it? Can you imagine it? Then come on, let's claim it. Give yourselves a standing ovation while the transformation that's about to jump off. A change is going to come.

BEAT LATINO 042: Protest Songs from the Americas

From Catalina Maria Johnson | 58:34

The music has the message! An hour of socially conscious music from all over the Latin musical universe.

Beatlatino-power_small Beat Latino explores the past, present and future of Latino music every week. From a history which includes poet activists suffering for their words and songs, to our present day rappers and rockers that comment on violence in our communities, Latinos have been singing freedom songs for a long time.

This special hour of Beat Latino brings a full spectrum of freedom songs - ballads, salsa, rock en español and hip hop that speaks to a wide variety of society´s situations that need to be addressed: war, violence, revolution, poverty, homeless children and unfortunately, even more. 

Nevertheless, the  music is hopeful and even danceable - cause even a Revolution needs to find its rhythms! So sing and dance your way to a better world - airs perfectly for Music Freedom Day, March 3, or just about anytime.

 

Work Song

From KMOJ-FM | Part of the African Music to the United States series | :36

A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song

Playing
Work Song
From
KMOJ-FM

Work_song_2_small A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song

Work Song

From KMOJ-FM | Part of the African Music to the United States series | :57

A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song

Playing
Work Song
From
KMOJ-FM

Work_song_1_small A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song

Beyond a Song: The Reverend Shawn Amos (Part 1)

From ISOAS Media | Part of the Beyond a Song series | 01:00:00

Host Rich Reardin talks with Los Angeles singer/songwriter and bluesman extraordinaire, The Reverend Shawn Amos. (This part 1 of a 2 part interview)

Prx_shawn_amos_1__240x240_small THE REVEREND SHAWN AMOS (PART 1) : PUBLISHED ON PRX 3 / 9 / 2018 - BEYOND A SONG originates in BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA and is sponsored by: THE BLUEBIRD NIGHTCLUB ,  AIRTIME RECORDING STUDIO ,  AFRICA SASA ,  and  VISIT BLOOMINGTON.COM  
Host Rich Reardin has a conversation with Los Angeles singer/songwriter and bluesman extraordinaire The Reverend Shawn Amos.   Shawn is the son of a nightclub singer mother who performed under the name Shirley May, and is the youngest son of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie founder Wally Amos.  Shawn isn't really an ordained priest, but he preaches through his blues music with firey 21st Century Freedom songs about Peace, Love, and Understanding. with many successful studio albums to date, Shawn also performs with his band around the country, and owns his own company, the Amos Content Group.   Before we get into the interview, let's hear some of his  music, this is Reverend Shawn Amos.
From West Coast clubs, to Deep South joints, to European festivals, to YouTube, to the podcast universe, the Reverend Shawn Amos’ message of joyful blues is reaching an ever-increasing flock. The Rev’s distinctive blend of black roots music, R & B, and stripped down rock n’ roll brings a bracing, soul-deep musical experience to audiences starved for authenticity, for connection. “I derive a lot of satisfaction bringing people joy,” he says.
His third studio album, The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down, expands that mission. This time out, he spices up the mix with 21st century Freedom Songs, socially conscious soul, a stripped-down cover of Bowie’s “The Jean Genie” that slyly reveals the glam nugget’s blues bones, and an austere version of Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?” that turns the post-punk gem into modern gospel. At the center of James Saez’ (Social Distortion, The Road Kings) no-frills production, the Rev’s voice and harp tie everything together in a stirring, celebratory whole, both beholden to history and refreshingly timely.  “It’s the oddest birth of any album I’ve made,” the Rev says.  “It has a particular depth.”
This sonic evolution is partly the result of over 100 dates in 2016-17, supporting his chart-topping The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You. On the road, the Rev took risks, listened to his heart, and honed his chops. In the midst of that came the seismic election of 2016, and the subsequent altering of the American landscape. All of the above significantly impacted the Rev as a father, citizen, musician, and African-American man, and all of it can be heard on The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down.
“When we toured the South in May of 2017, I could feel things changing post-Trump,” he says. “I was listening to a lot of Staples Singers, especially [acclaimed 1965 LP] Amen. The degree to which I was aware of my race was distracting, striking, hard to ignore. It was powerful being in the South and listening to protest music, to freedom songs conceived to fuel a movement, with no thought toward commercialism.” One can hear the Staples, as well as Curtis Mayfield, in Breaks It Down’s debut single “2017” (video now at 9K+ YouTube views), which calls for unity and compassion in the face of intense division.
“I was listening to a lot of MLK speeches, and reading him,” the Rev says. “I wanted to be immersed in black history, in a resistance movement of the past.” This included recording a moving a cappella rendition of the traditional “Uncle Tom’s Prayer” at the historic Clayburn Temple in Memphis, singing on floorboards where protesters once painted signs for the Civil Rights Movement. After taking his eldest child to the Civil Rights Museum – “to introduce her to her history,” he says – and absorbing Dylan’s 1962 cover of Bukka White’s harrowing “Fixin’ to Die,” the Rev penned and recorded “Does My Life Matter,” a brutally honest, necessary blues, encompassing despair, anger, and grace. The Rev admits, “That song freaked me out a bit. It’s more pointed than anything I’ve ever done.”
Serendipity played a role in the creation of The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down. When old friend and producer-drummer extraordinaire Steve Jordan (X-Pensive Winos, Neil Young, John Mayer, hundreds more) guested on the jaunty pop-blues “Ain’t Gonna Name Names,” he introduced the Rev to bassist Larry Taylor (Tom Waits) and drummer Steve Potts (Booker T. & the MG’s), who enliven several cuts. And while passing through Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the Rev and his stalwart live band decided to tour the illustrious FAME studios. In the 60s, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James and many others cut seminal sides at FAME, in a racially inclusive environment unheard-of for its time and place. The tour turned into a four-hour impromptu recording session, yielding “The Jean Genie,” and album opener “Moved,” co-written by longtime sideman, guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts.
Prior to his creation of the Reverend persona in 2013, folks knew Shawn Amos as producer (Solomon Burke’s Live in Nashville, and Shout! Factory box set Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones), content creator for companies looking for ways to tell their stories on the internet, and Americana singer-songwriter who’d grown up in a dramatically dysfunctional L.A. home, a story the Rev serialized as Cookies & Milk in the Huffington Post.
By the time he set out to record The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down, his life had changed dramatically. For starters, he was a newly single man, a painful development audible in the darker numbers of the Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down. The Rev also became Artistic Director of Vibrato Jazz Grill in Los Angeles, owned by longtime friend Herb Alpert, co-founder of the legendary A & M record label.
“It’s a full-circle experience,” the Rev says of the Vibrato gig. As the son of entrepreneur and William Morris agent Wally “Famous” Amos, the Rev says, “I grew up on the A & M lot.” And back in his producer days, the Rev oversaw the reissue of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ catalog, and a remix of the classic Whipped Cream & Other Delights album. At Vibrato, the Reverend Shawn Amos regularly performs, and curates everything from jazz, to Great American Songbook evenings. 
The Rev brings it all back to the people in 2018, supporting The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down with his biggest tour yet, from West Coast, to Europe, to East Coast. With new episodes of his Kitchen Table Blues podcast and webseries to boot, the Rev will be plenty busy sharing the vision, keeping the faith, and spreading the gospel of his joyful blues.


Musical selections include: The Jean Genie, Thank You Shirl-ee May, The Bottle Always Brings Me Down, Brothers Keeper, Something Inside Me, Hollywood Blues, Will You Be Mine, We've Got To Come Together.

This program is "Evergreen" and not necessarily date specific.

For more information, visit BEYOND A SONG.COM

Work Song 4

From KMOJ-FM | Part of the African Music to the United States series | 01:13

A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song

Playing
Work Song 4
From
KMOJ-FM

Work_song_4_small A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song

Between Civil War and Civil Rights - 5: White Protestant Nation (1915-25)

From Alan Lipke | Part of the Between Civil War and Civil Rights series | 57:56

An exploration of American racism as cultural and commercial mass-phenomenon, covering the "reincarnation" of the Klan as a fraternal movement which sought to enforce its version of America's core values, public morality, and national purity, in its advocacy of "100%-Americanism" and opposition to immigration and "alien" cultures.

Klan-rally_small The first half, "A White Man's Government", includes the 1920 Election Day mob destruction of Ocoee, Florida in the words of Florida's own Zora Neale Hurston and contemporary newspaper accounts. Other "case studies" explore the perceptual gaps between "objective" reporters, both black and white. 
The second half, "Marketing Racism", examines the "Second" Klan's rise and fall, driven by one of the first (de facto) multi-media marketing campaigns. It looks at the groundbreaking "motion picture" Birth of a Nation ; as well as the scandals that eventually undermined the Klan's "invisible empire."
The music, including blues, folk, and pro-Klan songs on the KKK's own labels, paints a broad and bright canvas in the listener's mind.

Jayanthi Kyle sings 'Hand in Hand'

From KFAI Minneapolis | Part of the 10,000 Fresh Voices series | 02:05

Jayanthi Kyle sings "Hand in Hand," a song she co-wrote with Wes Burden. As police-involved killings of African-Americans gave rise to the Black Lives Matter Movement, Kyle and Burdine were inspired to create a new song that could speak to this moment in history. (Photo by Uche Iroegbu)

Jayanthi00097_small Jayanthi Kyle sings "Hand in Hand," a song she co-wrote with Wes Burden. As police-involved killings of African-Americans gave rise to the Black Lives Matter Movement, Kyle and Burdine were inspired to create a new song that could speak to this moment in history. (Photo by Uche Iroegbu)

Episode 6 - (Black History Month: African-American Historical Links to Iconic Songs of the American South)

From WFDD | 57:53

Tennessee native Sparky Rucker has traveled a long road as a rock, gospel, and folk musician, protest singer, civil rights advocate, and teacher. His wife Rhonda blows a soulful harmonica and, like her husband, delves into the history and context of the songs they perform.

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Tennessee native Sparky Rucker has traveled a long road as a rock, gospel, and folk musician, protest singer, civil rights advocate, and teacher.  His wife Rhonda blows a soulful harmonica and, like her husband, delves into the history and context of the songs they perform.  As we begin Black History Month, the Ruckers talk with host Paul Brown about some surprising connections between black and white culture in southern mountain traditional songs.  Of course, we hear plenty of music too.  Finally, music historian Hank Sapoznik shares some of the earliest recordings of the old time and bluegrass standard “Reuben,” which the Ruckers say has an interesting connection to African-American life and the history of segregation.

Episode 6 Playlist

1.         On The Move – Jason Carter
            Album – On the Move

2.         Shakin’ Down the Acorns – Red Squirrel Chasers
            Album – Shakin’ Down the Acorns

3.         Lowe Bonnie – Craver, Hicks, Watson & Newberry
            Album – You’ve Been A Friend To Me

4.         Free Wheelin’  -- Appalachian Trail
            Album –  Appalachian Trail

5.         Go On Lovin’  -- Dori Freeman
            Album –  Dori Freeman

6.         Old Jabo – Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
            Album – Classic Blues from Smithsonian Folkways

BREAK 1

7.         Welcome Table – Sparky & Rhonda Rucker
            Source – Live performance recording

8.         We Shall Not Be Moved – Guy Carawan
            Album – We Shall Overcome: Songs of Freedom Riders & Sit-ins

9.         Camp A Little While in the Wilderness – Sparky & Rhonda Rucker
            Album – The Mountains Above and the Valleys Below

10.       Reuben’s Train – Sparky & Rhonda Rucker
            Album – The Mountains Above and the Valleys Below

BREAK 2

11.       Reuben – Earl Scruggs
           Album – Foggy Mountain Banjo

12.       Train 45 – Grayson & Whitter
            Source:  78 RPM recording

13.       Reuben, Oh Reuben – Emry Arthur
            Source:  78 RPM recording

14.       Riding on that Train 45 – Wade Mainer, Steve Ledford, Zeke Morris
            Source:  78 RPM recording

15.       Reuben – Fred Cockerham
            Album – Clawhammer Banjo Volume 1

Credibility in African-American Blues Musician: Who's Believed, Who is Not

From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:34

Maine's Legislature will vote on Open-Pit Mining soon but whose testimony about environmental contamination will be believed and who will speak the truth about it s effect on migratory birds, water and natural resources.

Sonnyboywilliamsonjpg_small

Credibility in African American Blues Musician-
Who's Believed and Who Is Not
-Susan Cook-
The musical genius of Sonny Boy Williamson II left this world prematurely because he died very young- at 43. He was also African-American, raised in  the deep South and carried in every step the intended slights and consequences of racism- physically, psychologically and professionally. He had many signature tunes that weaved their way into the favor of white men - who plagiarized it and took them for themselves as it pleased them. ‘Bye, Bye Bird’ is one of them.
Implicit racism persists in this country, in our states, towns and cities. There is broad  permission for white males- and females to act on this prejudice in their multiple contingent acts of omission and co-mission, lawyers often standing at their side. There are many current events to choose from. No one is suggesting that every white male or female is racist. But one white veteran male legislator in a  leadership position can have influence equal that of an entire non-white grass roots protest. Remember white men still find the fat-salaried federal jobs for each other and convince the other lawyers to forgive 150000 of debt.

In my state, there’s a good current example. In the northern part of Maine, a veteran legislator was granted forgiveness of a 150000 debt owed for unpaid bills for a gas station franchised to him by an international corporation. The brother company  of that corporation owns thousands of acres of pristine northern Maine land. Coincidentally, or chronologically, depending on how you see it, the next step in their corporate forgiveness of his debt was his creation of a bill introduced to the Maine legislature allowing open-pit mining of copper, zinc, silver and gold on their land. Despite a months-long investigation by the reputable Maine Center for Reporting in the Public Interest of the co-incident of the customized legislation and the debt forgiveness, the veteran lawmaker denies the connection, the Legislature’s ethics committee did not say a word, their communication directors did not see it as worthy of mention and the Legislative leadership did nothing.
The veteran lawmaker’s bill created Dept. of Environmental of Protection Regulations to allow open pit mining- a method which relies on machines- not jobs.  The Maine Legislature must approve them. This week, the Legislature’s Natural Resource Committee has heard testimony. Credibility is on the table at these hearings- implicitly- a committee populated by mostly white men A Maliseet elder and tribal chief- and woman testified that her tribe-The River People- oppose the regulations. The environmental contamination. Runoff to water ways is unacceptable. She did not explicitly mention the bird population- recipients of bi-partisan support- would also be affected- by the contamination and the excessive noise of an industrial operation in pristine isolated forests. It is a no-brainer- like white males - and yes now at times the women they hire as  their attorneys and communication directors have always tried to make Native Americans, African-Americas and other non-whites feel like they don’t have- no matter what their credentials.  This Committee Hearing is the kind of time and place where racism ever so subtly sets the tone for permission for prejudice.
Which brings me back to Sonny Boy Williamson II and ‘Bye, Bye Bird’. If I could have I would have had Sonny Boy Williamson II go and sing that song,  as testimony to the Natural Resource and Environment Committee. First of all, open-pit mining destroys bird populations. Rural Maine is a migratory bird destination- everywhere. It’s not just the arsenic and heavy mineral run-off in water sources- birds have to have water, too; contaminated food sources- remember DDT and the Silent Spring-  but the noise. Birds have to hear each other to survive. Birds next to an open-pit mine on Bald Mountain in Aroostock County will not be able to hear the songs of other birds, their evolutionary tool for survival. Now, I know Sonny Boy Williamson II would have a hard time holding his credibility in front of the Maine Natural Resource and Environment Committee.  His gait- I can’t tell if it’s a swagger or a stagger, is slow. Even the few words he sings sound slurred- although maybe that’s the recording. And you know a largely white male committee- and even their female attorneys and communication directors wouldn’t be calling him to check out his facts- you now, fact or fiction kind of thing. But I would still want him to go- because his whole gig about ‘bye, bye bird’ just puts out there a truth I just couldn’t find the words to say.

The Whole World Is Watching: The Legacy of 1968

From WFHB | Part of the Interchange series | 58:56

Across the globe it was a year of countless uprisings. In the US it was the year of police violence against protesters at the Chicago Democratic Convention; it saw the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and the COINTELPRO infiltration of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords. Inside this whirlwind of violence and upheaval the artist and the activist merged to leave a remarkable record of the radicalism of 1968.

Night-of-the-living-dead-1_small

Our opening song is “Inflated Tear” by Roland Kirk performed in Prague in 1967…a prelude of sorts of what was to come.

Across the globe it was a year of countless uprisings. In the US it was the year of police violence against protesters at the Chicago Democratic Convention; it saw the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and the COINTELPRO infiltration of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords. And in Bloomington, Indiana, along with numerous anti-Vietnam War student protests, Ku Klux Klan members firebombed the African-American-run Black Market on Kirkwood. Inside this whirlwind of violence and upheaval the artist and the activist merged to leave a remarkable record of the radicalism of 1968.

 

Here is William Burroughs from “The Coming of the Purple Better One,” Esquire, published in November 1968.

The youth rebellion is a worldwide phenomenon that has not been seen before in history. I do not believe they will calm down and be ad execs at thirty as the Establishment would like us to believe. Millions of young people all over the world are fed up with shallow unworthy authority running on a platform of bullshit.

And yet five decades after the civil rights movement, American society remains hierarchical, exclusionary, and stubbornly resistant to change. Five decades after the so-called Second Wave of feminism pornography is a primary entertainment industry in this country. Five decades have elapsed and millions of young people in this country did indeed become ad execs and millions more like to watch television ABOUT ad execs and their poor lost tiny souls…

Drawing attention to these upheavals in the arts and in politics is Wounded Galaxies.

Wounded Galaxies: 1968 – Beneath the Paving Stones, the Beach is a festival and symposium produced by The Burroughs Century Ltd., welcoming scholars, writers, artists, archivists, filmmakers, performers, and others interested in exploring the intellectual and aesthetic legacy of 1968, during its 50th Anniversary year. Programs focus on the events that occurred in Paris, Chicago, and Prague of ’68 and examine their relationship to, and resonance with current struggles in the US and around the world.

The festival subtitle is a translation of the French slogan “Sous les pavés, la plage!,” a popular resistance graffiti in France Mai ’68 that refers to both the sand beneath cobblestones lifted by students to hurl at police as well as the ‘Situationist’ conviction that the streets–the expression of capital and consumption–could be rediscovered by abandoning a regimented life.

FEBRUARY 6, 2018—FEBRUARY 11, 2018
WOUNDED GALAXIES
1968: Paris, Prague, Chicago
FESTIVAL + SYMPOSIUM

GUEST
Joan Hawkins is an Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the IU Media School. She has written extensively on experimental and avant-garde cultures. Her most recent book is Downtown Film and TV Culture 1975-2001 (Intellect Press, 2015). She is a member of The Writers Guild at Bloomington and The Burroughs Century.

RELATED
Wounded Galaxies 1968: Beneath the Paving Stones, the Beach
1968 Black Market Fire

MUSIC
“Inflated Tear” by Roland Kirk
“Compared to What” by Less McCann & Eddie Harris
“Volunteered Slavery” by Roland Kirk

CREDITS
Producer & Host: Doug Storm
Assistant Producer: Rob Schoon
Studio Engineer: Bryce Martin
Executive Producer: Wes Martin

18-09: Guilty Pleasures: Music We Love More Than We Can Say, 2/28/2018

From American Routes | Part of the American Routes series | 01:58:59

featuring music from James Carr, Mavis Staples, Simon & Garfunkel, and more...

Guiltypleasures_small

We take a deep dive into the memory vaults to spin the tunes that we shamelessly love. From guilty pleasures, including a disco dance number, to confessional ballads like James Carr’s “Dark End of the Street” and songs of redemption ala Bobby Hebb’s “Sunny,” we shine a light on our heart’s true delights. Plus, we explore social protest anthems including Mavis Staples' "Long Walk to D.C.," Simon & Garfunkel's "Richard Cory," and a standout R&B version of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" sung by Shreveport's Toussaint McCall.

Jazz-O-Rama #13: "Teddy with & without Billie"

From Joe Bevilacqua | Part of the The Jazz-O-Rama Hour series | 57:56

"A Sunbonnet Blue", "Jumpin' On The Blacks And Whites", and "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo" are among the 78 RPM records heard on the 13th edition of Joe Bev's Jazz-O-Rama Hour.

013-jazz-o-rama--prx-series-ted-billy_small Joe Bev presents 78 RPM Jazz with a Sense of Humor:  "Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra", with and without Bille Holiday, including:

"A Sunbonnet Blue" -  (1935)
"Jumpin' on the Blacks and Whites" (1939)
"Eeny Meeny Miney Mo" (1935)
"Blues in C Sharp Minor"  (1936)
"Twenty Four Hours A Day" (1936)
"Jumpin' For Joy" (1939)
"Yankee Doodle Never Went To Town" (1935)
"Miss Brown To You" (1936)
"Jungle Love" (1938)
"These Foolish Things" (1936)
"Booly-Ja-Ja" (1939)
"It's Too Hot For Words" (1935)
"What A Night, What A Moon, What A Girl" (1935)    
"Early Session Hop" (1939)
"Spreadin' Rhythm Around" (1935)


Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was described by critic Scott Yannow as "the definitive swing pianist". Wilson's sophisticated and elegant style was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. With Goodman, he was perhaps the first well-known black musician to play publicly in a racially integrated group. In addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the '80s.

Billie Holiday was nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young. Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."[5] She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing "Easy Living", "Good Morning Heartache", and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording.

Joe Bevilacqua (Joe Bev) has been producing radio in many genres since 1971 when he was 12. At 19 in 1980, Bev became the youngest person to produce a radio show for public radio. He co-hosted The Jazz Show with Garret Gega in the early 80s, a four hour a week mix classic jazz and comedy. Bev also worked for WBGO, Jazz 88 in Newark, NJ and produced documentaries for WNYC New York Public Radio on jazz legends including Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Cab Calloway, and Lionel Hampton.

Bev also produces, directs, writes and voices half of The Comedy-O-Rama Hour, which is has been highest rated radio show on Cult Radio A-Go-Go! for many weeks. Joe Bev's other weekly radio show, The Jazz-O-Rama Hour debuted at #2.

Last year, the veteran voice actor added his third hour for Cult Radio, called The Joe Bev Experience which airs right after The Jazz-O-Rama Hour.

GREAT DATES:

  • Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was born November 24, 1912.(November 24)
  • Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Harris) April 7, 1915. (April 7)
More about Waterlogg Productions at  http://www.waterlogg.com.

African Music to the United States (Series)

Produced by KMOJ-FM

Most recent piece in this series:

Work Song 4

From KMOJ-FM | Part of the African Music to the United States series | 01:13

Playing
Work Song 4
From
KMOJ-FM

Work_song_4_small A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song

Amiri Baraka: Past American Voice

From New Letters on the Air | 29:00

In this compilation of archive interviews from 1988 and 1996 along with part of a previously unaired 2004 recording, we look back at the life of Amiri Baraka, who died on January 9, 2014. Born LeRoi Jones, he will be remembered for his plays, poetry, and support of younger artists along the way. Baraka reads from his work that is often marked with a distinctive jazz flair and talks about the influences on his poetry.

Amiribw-crop-400_small In this compilation of archive interviews from 1988 and 1996 along with part of a previously unaired 2004 recording, we look back at the life of Amiri Baraka, who died on January 9, 2014. Born LeRoi Jones, this founder of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s was later forced out of the role as New Jersey Poet Laureate for a controversial poem written after 9/11, but he will be remembered for his plays, poetry, and support of younger artists along the way. Baraka reads from his work that is often marked with a distinctive jazz flair and talks about the influences on his poetry.

Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) Obituary

From Dred-Scott Keyes | 28:04

Producer Dred-Scott Keyes looks back at the life of poet/writer Amiri Baraka, who died on January 9th in Newark, New Jersey

Amiriobit_pic_small "Cutting Edge" producer Dred-Scott Keyes looks back at the extraordinary life of poet Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), who died on January 9th in Newark, New Jersey

1985 Amiri Baraka - Why's Wise

From Naropa University | Part of the Jack Kerouac Disembodied School of Poetics series | 04:51

A powerful 1985 reading of an anti slavery poem by the late Amiri Baraka. In this piece, Baraka treats the issue of voice - and what happens when a political group 'takes away your oom-oom-ba-boom'.

Amiribaraka_small Baraka attended Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics as a lecturer for many years, at Allen Ginsberg's request. In this piece, Baraka treats the issue of voice - and what happens when a political group 'takes away your oom-oom-ba-boom'. This piece is explicitly anti-slavery, and implicity calling for racial justice. This piece is from Naropa University Archive's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics collection. Allen Ginsberg founded the Kerouac School, a writing program, in 1974, and for 30 years he brought a group of counter culture writers, artists and thinkers to Boulder for a Summer Program. Naropa's Audio Archive is digitizing 2000 hours of readings, lectures and panel discussions, several hundred hours of which is available for free at www.archive.org. Click through 'audio' to 'naropa' and browse. The piece has never been broadcast - you will be among the first to make this rare recording available to listeners.

Goin' Home: A Celebration of the Life of Amiri Baraka

From Dred-Scott Keyes | 01:00:02

Funeral services for New Jersey’s last poet laureate, Amiri Baraka, was held at Newarks’ Symphony Hall earlier this week with several thousand people attending. Among the dozens of speakers were Cornel West, poets Sonia Sanchez , Tony Medina and Jessica Care Moore, his son Ras Baraka, Larry Hamm from the People’s Organization for Progress, actors Glenn Thurman and Danny Glover- who also served as co-emcee-, dancer Savion Glover, former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, , Congressmember Donald Payne Jr., other elected officials and several community leaders, and activists. The 5-hour going-home ceremony included musicians Craig Harris and Kevin Maynard among others. The Cutting Edge now brings you excerpts from the celebration of the life of poet, writer, political activist and revolutionary, Amiri Baraka.

Amiriandme_small

Funeral services for New Jersey’s last poet laureate, Amiri Baraka, was held at Newarks’ Symphony Hall earlier this week with several thousand people attending. Among the dozens of speakers were  Cornel West,   poets Sonia Sanchez , Tony Medina and Jessica Care Moore, his son Ras Baraka, Larry Hamm from the People’s Organization for Progress, actors Glenn Thurman and Danny Glover- who also served as co-emcee-, dancer Savion Glover,   former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, , Congressmember Donald Payne Jr.,  other elected officials and several community leaders,  and activists. The 5-hour going-home ceremony   included  musicians Craig Harris and   Kevin Maynard among others.  The Cutting Edge now brings you excerpts from the celebration of the life of poet, writer, political activist and revolutionary, Amiri Baraka.

May 19th, 2011 Shomburg Symposium on Malcolm X: A Life of Re-Invention.

From Dred-Scott Keyes | 59:09

The Cutting Edge presents excerpts from a symposium on Malcolm X, held at the Shomburg Center after the release of the late Manning Marable's book,Malcolm X: A Life of Re-Invention.

Manning-prx-cover_small The Cutting Edge presents excerpts from a symposium on Malcolm x, held at the Shombyrg Center after the release of the late Manning Marable's book, :Malcolm X: A Life of Re-Invention. Features Bill Sales, Rosemary Mealy, Amina and Amiri Baraka and hosted by Sam Anderson.