The term “Afro-Latin” is used to describe types of music from Latin American countries that were influenced by the Black population that came from Africa and established themselves mostly in major port cities.
When these Africans were brought over, the only thing they really could bring with them was culture. Whether it was music, dance, or religious beliefs, they attempted to preserve as much of their rich cultural heritage as possible in their new country.
I could probably do several playlists, but this one as features cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, and tango. Afro-Latin artists have influenced many styles by the music of the United States giving rise to genres such as Latin pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, and reggaeton.
Please enjoy this freewheeling collection of music from Latin America and the US.
We know where you were last night. Millions of fans of a certain age were enjoying the stay-at-home celebration dubbed by the internet as “AuntieChella,” as Gladys Knight and Patti Labelle ‘battled’ it out on Instagram/Apple Music‘s “Verzuz” series.
Verzuz was created a few months ago by hitmaking producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz as a way for music fans to honor their greats while relaxing at home during these quarantine times.
For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, the sessions are not truly a ‘battle’ – but rather an occasion for two legends to get together (whether in real life like last night, or virtually) and banter about their careers while having a listening party of the greatest hits of each artist.
The battle was epic, with both ladies, now in their late ’70s, decked out in stylish pantsuits, and sharing their love for each other amidst career stories, lots of live singing, and plenty of chair grooving.
Michelle Obama, Oprah, and Queen Latifah were tuned in to hear such hits as “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Over the Rainbow,” “You Are My Friend” and ‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.”
Gladys honored all phases of her career, delving back into her early doo-wop hit “Every Beat of My Heart,” her Motown Pips years with “Friendship Train,” her ’80s hits like “Love Overboard” and the Bond theme “License to Kill.”
Patti focused on her material from her solo years, mixing ballad favorites like “Somebody Loves You Baby” and “If Only You Knew” with uptempo hits like “The Right Kinda Lover” and “Feels Like Another One.”
The evening was capped off when Dionne Warwick surprised the audience with a special appearance to end the show, as they joined her to sing “That’s What Friends Are For” and their hit version of “Superwoman.”
The three of them had previously worked together on a special called “Sisters in the Name of Love” that Gladys had produced for HBO in the late ’80s (there are some fan posts of it on YouTube that offer some thrilling harmonies).
Gladys, Dionne, Patti
Of course with these vets, even a couple of hours of hits doesn’t come close to diving into their full careers. So in case you were ready for more, we’ve done that work for you – pairing up additional Patti and Gladys hits and deep tracks from the rest of their six decade careers for GBN’s latest playlist: “Gladys Knight Verzuz Patti Labelle – The Best of the Rest.”
We’ve gone beyond the biggest hits, and focused solely on extensive additional material they did not cover during last night’s show.
While Patti and Gladys both hit the charts for the first time in the very early ’60s – their careers have actually taken very divergent paths before, in more recent years, they’ve ended up as favorite Aunties to the Black community.
This September 11th also marked the passing of one of the fathers of reggae music: Toots Hibbert.
Starting out with the rock steady pioneer Clement “Coxcome” Dodd, The Maytals emerged as one of the earliest reggae hit-makers. Hibbert holds a firm spot in Jamaica’s musical pantheon as the first artist to use the word reggae on a record, “Do The Reggay,” and to bring the music to the world at large.
Many likely first heard his songs covered by The Clash, The Specials, and other punk and ska artists. This collection features the Toots & The Maytals versions of “Monkey Man” and “Pressure Drop.”
I have also included some of his many covers including “Country Road” and collaborations with Willie Nelson, UB40, The Easy Star All-Stars, Los Pericos and others.
Hope you all enjoy this tribute to one reggae and ska music’s most enduring founders. Have a great week, and see you next Monday.
Last year, Lil Nas X‘s “Old Town Road” renewed to debate over what is and isn’t country music. For all its beauty, honesty and diversity, American country music has the reputation and claim as “white people music.”
In reality, country music owes its most profound roots to Black musicians and artists. The banjo even has its roots in West Africa.
Artists like Charley Pride, Aaron Neville, Ray Charles and even Tina Turner are among the list of Black artists who have crossed over into country music.
But there’s DeFord Bailey, Stoney Edward and Linda Martell among several artists whose names only ring familiar among the most ardent of country fans.
In the past decade however, since the major country chart solo success of former Hootie and the Blowfish front man Darius Rucker, there has been a whole new crop of current Black country artists on the rise.
That list includes Valerie June, Mickey Guyton, Cowboy Troy, Miko Marks, Kane Brown and others who have been the favorites of both fans and critics since they stepped on the scene.
Hope you enjoy this freewheeling collection of Black country music.
As we head into Labor Day Weekend, the unofficial end of Summer, it’s one more chance to relax a little amidst such a stressful year for so many of us.
We’ve had such a great reaction here at Good Black News to so many of our Spotify playlists, including our decade-spanning slow jam playlists that we made for the ‘70s (Ultimate ‘70s Slow Jam Summer) and the ‘80s (Ultimate ‘80s Champagne Slow Jams).
So it only made sense, in time for the long weekend, to unveil our playlist of slow jam faves from the ‘90s – entitledUltimate ‘90s Sunset Slow Jams, available at this link here, and of course you can listen to or access below. All you ‘90s soul music fans, it’s time to favorite this playlist and represent!
R&B music in the ‘90s underwent a true sea change that had been slowly building up through the prior decade. If ‘80s slow jams were the sound of lushly-produced, upscale elegance via superstar duets from well-dressed veteran singers, the ‘90s tossed a lot of that in the rearview mirror.
Teyana Taylor dropped a stunning and powerful music video today for “Still” from her third LP, THE ALBUM, which came out on Juneteenth of this year via G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam Recordings.
The video, produced by Teyana’s all-female led production company “The Aunties” and directed by Taylor under her pseudonym Spike Tey, highlights footage of important moments in America’s ongoing fight for social justice, with Teyana blending herself into the iconic imagery of Malcolm X (see photo above), Huey P. Newton and Breonna Taylor by donning their clothes and assuming their poses.
The video also includes words and footage of Malcolm X, footage of Martin Luther King Jr.,John Lewis, Angela Davis, the Black Panthers, Civil Rights Movement protesters, Black Lives Matter protesters and several victims of hate crimes and police brutality including Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice and George Floyd, to name a few. It is, in a word, gripping. Watch below:
With the passing of the great Chadwick Boseman, I am inclined to hold the playlist I made to share today until next week. I thought instead I’d share this playlist I created in celebration of Black Panther two years ago.
I won’t say how many times I’ve seen the film, so far. Though I made this playlist by imagining what genius Princess Shuri would listen to in her lab.
It was made before the film grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide and broke numerous box office records, including the highest-grossing film by a Black director. Before it became the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time, the third-highest-grossing film in the U.S. and Canada, and the second-highest-grossing film of 2018.
I made before it received seven nominations at the 91st Academy Awards including Best Picture, with wins for Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design. Black Panther is the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination.
Director Ryan Coogler wrote of Boseman this weekend:
Dayton, Ohio was already a mecca of grooves, before Lakeside first dubbed it “The Land of Funk” in its swashbuckling cut “Fantastic Voyage.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, southwestern Ohio – particularly Dayton’s west side – was known for its collective of funk bands whose influence can still be heard in hip-hop, house, and other forms popular today.
The Ohio Players, the grandmasters of them all, have seen their songs sampled or remade by Snoop Dogg, Puff Daddy, Salt-N-Pepa, Soundgarden, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to name but a few.
I’ve thrown in tracks by fellow Ohioans — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, The Isley Brothers and Bobby Womack — to further show the disproportionate amount of funk Ohio has produced.
This will be another one that will make you move. Enjoy.
The Isley Brothers, all five of them, started as a gospel group in 1956. Twenty years later, they would create the funk classic Go For Your Guns.
The Isleys began their own record company, T-Neck Records, in 1964, shortly thereafter recruiting budding guitarist Jimi Hendrix for their band. They abandoned T-Neck and signed with Motown in 1965.
The list of Isley hits is long. It includes “It’s Your Thing,” “That Lady (Part 1),” “Fight the Power (Part 1),” and “For the Love of You (Part 1 and 2).”
More than any other band or artist, you can chart the changes in Black music via the Isley Brothers. Don’t take my word for it:
“With the possible exception of the Beatles, no band in the history of popular music, and certainly no African American act, has left a more substantial legacy on popular music than the Isley Brothers.” — Bob Gulla, Icons of R&B and Soul
“They’re the only group in the history of music to have a demonstrable influence on both the Beatles (who covered the Isleys’ take of “Twist And Shout” for one of their biggest early hits) and Ice Cube (who rapped over this album’s “Footsteps In The Dark, Pts. 1 & 2” on “It Was A Good Day”).” — Andrew Winistorfer
The Isleys have charted new music in every decade from the 1950s through the 2000s, without ever truly “crossing over” or betting any of the hyperbolic praise that other acts have received.
They have made the music they wanted to make for more than 50 years, and are arguably the most prolific and successful R&B /Rock group in the nation. Enjoy this playlist of their work.
It’s the middle of August and five months into the coronavirus pandemic – is anyone longing for that summer jazzfest they haven’t been able to attend?
With today’s GBN playlist, which we’ve dubbed “Grown Folks Vacation,” you can press play, imagine yourself slipping into your backyard hammock with a glass of wine, and let a wave of classic songs and sounds wash over you (with a twist) – hopefully getting a little bit of relaxation in these stressful times.
Today, we’re celebrating music coming from the independent New Jersey-based label Shanachie Records, which, for more than 20 years, has been keeping veteran artists and favorite songs alive after many major labels have passed them by.
Shanachie was born in the 1980s as a niche independent label focusing on Celtic, folk, reggae and other branches of world music that the big companies usually ignore. But by the late ’90s, with expansion of the Quiet Storm and Wave radio formats, Shanachie expanded into a new area of music with releases from smooth jazz saxophonists like Walter Beasley and Kim Waters.
