Happy Music Monday! Halloween season is here again at Good Black News, and your Afroclectic ambassador of sweet grooves is back.
As your sonic chauffeur, I am delighted to share this seasonal playlist to help you celebrate All Hallows’ Eve.
This 5-hour collection features creepy soul, reggae, blues, jazz, and soundtracks covers an array of dark themes like Poison, Evil Ways, zombies, vampires, and Frankenstein.
You will find Halloween standards by Ray Parker Jr., Eartha Kitt, and Michael Jackson, alongside newer tracks from The Womack Sisters and Gorillaz.
Whether you are decorating, trick-or-treating, handing out candy, or hosting a party, or just out and about in those Halloween streets this playlist will set the perfect mood for the season.
Take good care, everyone. As always, stay safe, sane, and kind.
Happy Music Monday, you all. It’s your friend selector, Marlon, back again with a collection of turns for your musical enjoyment.
I’ll keep it short and sweet. While it’s past both Juneteenth and Independence Day, it is still summertime and BBQ weather. I have assembled a new collection of cookout music to be played in the park, backyard, or kitchen table.
No old school collection of grooves in complete with offerings from Frankie Beverly and Maze. There are also tracks from Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Cheryl Lynn, and so many others.
Over the generations the cookout has become a celebrated tradition defined by family, friends, generational recipes, and good music.
The cookout is a sacred cultural space for community, and resilience. That is particularly true during this era where Black joy seems like an act of rebellion.
Please enjoy these tracks that range from the funky 1970s to the present day. It is a freewheeling collection that is formulated to induce joy and good time.
Take good care, you all. And as always, stay safe, sane and kind.
While reggae and dancehall are well-known when it comes to Jamaican music, not everyone may be in tune with its more electronically-minded cousin, dub reggae, and the sound system culture that accompanies it.
Dub music grew out of reggae in the 1960s and 1970s. The songs largely consisted of heavily-edited remixes of existing records, created by removing the vocal sections and placing increased focus on the rhythm section, or riddim.
Audio effects like reverb and delay would then be applied, often quite generously, and vocal snippets and other instruments from the original song (and other songs) can be worked into the track by means of dubbing or sampling. The term ‘dubbing‘ has also come to mean emphasizing the bass and the drums.
Included in this collection are works of influential figures including Lee Scratch Perry, Osbourne Ruddock (better known as “King Tubby”), and Hopeton Overton Brown (aka “Scientist”) and many others.
The influence of Dub can be heard across many genres of music, including rock, hip hop, techno, ambient, house music, trip hop and others
This collection features classic works and tracks across the decades. Hope you all enjoy this essential collection of Dub Reggae.
Happy Music Monday!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend for folks.
Last week was the 93rd anniversary of James Brown’s birth. I realized that I have never done a playlist devoted solely to the music of The Godfather of Soul, The Hardest Working Man In Show Business, Mr. Dynamite, The Amazing Mr. “Please, Please” himself, James Brown. So it was time to remedy that situation.
Like so many artists, he was inspired by preachers in the Black church and started out singing in gospel quartets. James Brown transitioned into a secular soul singer though his live shows had the spirit of a church revival.
His flamboyant and theatrical moves, including falling on his knees, erupting into splits and half spins, and popping the mic to the floor and back, became signature moves and the stuff of legend.
He is an often-cited influence on the styles of Michael Jackson, Prince, Mick Jagger, Usher, Sharon Jones, Bruno Mars and others.
As the architect of Funk, Brown revolutionized music by focusing on “the One” – emphasizing the first beat of every measure. Tracks like “Cold Sweat” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” used interlocking, syncopated rhythms that laid the foundation of soul, disco, and hip-hop.
James Brown is the world’s most sampled artist. I have not included any of the plethora of songs where he’s sampled. “Funky Drummer,” featuring a break by drummer Clyde Stubblefield, has provided the rhythmic DNA for thousands of hip-hop and pop recordings. That could be a playlist for another Music Monday.
Here is a collection of essential tracks by Soul Brother No. 1. I’ve gathered tracks from across James Brown’s impactful career, spanning more than half a century. Please enjoy and I’ll return with more tasty tunes next month.
Happy Music Monday! It’s your monthly Groove Agent back with another playlist on this Reverend Martin Luther King Holiday. Today we are celebrating the life and music of the legendary Fela Kuti.
He famously asserted “Music is the weapon. Music is the weapon of the future.” and some nearly 30 years after his death in 1997, his music is still inspiring generations.
Fela Kuti has been described as Malcolm X, James Brown, Bob Marley, Muhammad Ali, and Dr. King all rolled into one defiant package. All contemporary forms of Black music, from funk to hiphop, owe debt to the driving grooves of the Afrobeat genre that he created.
Fela recorded more than 60 albums and spent a lifetime fighting against political corruption in his homeland of Nigeria. He was in a decades-long cycle of recording music, being arrested and beaten for it, making a song about that – REPEAT. In his homeland and around the world he was affectionately called “Black President.”
This collection was inspired by Jad Abumrad’s “Fela Kuti: Fear No Man” podcast. It’s a twelve- episode exploration of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and an amazing deep dive into the life and legacy of the multi-instrumentalist, sociopolitical powerhouse, and father of Afrobeat.
Kuti endures as one of the most important musical figures of the 20th century.
It’s your friend and selector, Marlon West, with another collection for GOOD BLACK NEWS. GROOVE CHRISTMAS 2025 is an eclectic mix of Christmas music, much of which was released this year.
This collection features favorites from Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Lou Rawls and John Legend, alongside recent releases by artists like Rebel Rae, Aloe Blacc, Alex Harris and CoCo Jones. I’ve also included selections from Duke Ellington’s classic 1960 “Nutcracker Suite” as a unifying thread.
I hope this seasonal collection introduces you to new classics and favorites to enjoy this year and beyond.
Happy Music Monday, you all. And welcome to this second week of Black Music Month.
Back in April, PBS dropped Independent Lens: We Want the Funk! Director Stanley Nelson and producer Nicole London’s documentary features the history, stars, themes and theory behind this most Blackest and inclusive style of music.
Everyone can shake a tail feather on “The One”. It is a celebratory film looking at one of history’s most important musical genres. It offers dazzling archival performances from James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, Parliament Funkadelic, Labelle, Fela Kuti, and others.
This “Great Moments in Funk aka Funk 101” playlist offers the classic funk songs featured in the film and includes many hip hop tracks that sample them. I’ve also added modern funk disciples like Silk Sonic, Sam Pounds, Big Joanie and others.
Starting in the 1960s, through the Vietnam War, the struggle for civil rights, the rise of the Black Power movement, and right up to the current Black Lives Matter movement, there is no bolder and joyful celebration of Black identity than Funk. Please enjoy this hours-long celebration of decades of funky music.
See you all next month! And as always, stay sane, safe and kind!
Greetings! It’s your friend and selector, Marlon, again.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s joyous, crisply edited and well observed documentary about Sly Stone dropped in February on Hulu and Disney+.
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)is a worthy follow-up to the Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul, and examines the life and lasting legacy of Sly & The Family Stone.
It was the inspiration of this playlist about the groundbreaking band led by the enigmatic and charismatic Sly Stone.
This wonderful film captures the Sly Stone’s rise, reign and subsequent fadeout, and as the subtitle suggests, sheds light on the unseen and often unspoken burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.
Here are songs from across Sly and The Family Stone’s ten studio albums, their live records, and a fraction of the hit songs that sample this legendary group.
From LL Cool J to Janet Jackson to Beastie Boys to Jungle Brothers, there are tracks included that are driven by grooves of Sly Stone.
Please enjoy this 100 song collection of essential tracks by and featuring Sly & The Family Stone.
And as always, stay safe, sane and kind. See you next month!!
In 1945, Lionel Hampton spotted a five year-old boogying so hard during his concert in Los Angeles, that the legendary the vibraphonist handed young Roy Ayers his first pair of mallets.
Roy Ayers went on to establish himself as a pioneer of jazz-funk and soul. He was hugely influential on the neo-soul and hiphop movement.
As a solo artist, Roy Ayers released dozens of albums over the years, dating as far back as 1963. His last release was in 2024.
Ayers’ biggest hits were “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and “Running Away” with his group Roy Ayers Ubiquity.
Though over his decades-long career he collaborated with scores of musicians including the Roots, Guru, Fela Kuti and Rick James.
The musician’s songs have been sampled by everyone from Mary J. Blige and Common to Tyler the Creator and Kanye West.
There are 21 tracks that sample “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” alone.
According to Ayers: “Well, I have more sampled hits than anybody,” he said in a 2004 interview with Wax Poetics magazine. “I might not have more samples than James Brown, but I’ve had more sampled hits. Oh, man, and there’s a few I don’t know about.”
Happy January Music Monday and MLK Day here at Good Black News!
It’s your friend and selector, your sonic chauffeur, your groove conductor, Marlon, back again.
I’m delighted to offer up this first of likely 12 GBN collections of the year. This is an “afroclectic” collection of tracks released in 2024.
It is more than half a day of excellent music to provide the soundtrack to your Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. (You might be like me, and also taking 10 minutes of meditation at 12 Pm PST, in honor of legendary filmmaker, David Lynch, on what would have been his 79th birthday, had he not passed away last week.)
I have done a few civil rights-centered playlists in honor of this day. Though here is celebration of Dr. King having “been to the mountain top”, featuring dozens of artists performing any number of genres and styles.
R&B, hip-hop, classical, jazz, reggae, afro-beat, and more examples are included in this 13-hour collection of music from 2024.
I have gathered some of music’s biggest names with marquee releases, like Beyoncé and Jon Batiste.
There are plenty of newcomers and underground darlings, including Victoria Monét, Raveena, tendai and so many others, staking their claim among those giants.
I’ve offered an avalanche of new songs from last year. Some are even posthumous recordings by Alice Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Prince.
There’s new tracks from quiet-for-a-minute artists like Sade, Stevie Wonder and Erykah Badu. Please enjoy the globe-trotting and genre-hoping collection. See ya next month!
