Today on #MusicMonday, we’re celebrating the beginning of Summer 2022, which officially kicks off tomorrow.
One of our most popular playlists of the last couple years was our Summer Breeze: Soulful Summer Songs playlist, which we created two years ago in the midst of the pandemic.
So this year, we’ve taken that original playlist and created the ‘new and improved’ version with about 50 more tracks (!) added to the lineup.
Our playlist is slightly different than the typical summer mixtape – these are not just summer hits, or summer favorites. To qualify for our list, a song literally had to feature the word “summer” in its title. It had to be literally “about” summer – the moods and feelings it evokes.
Fortunately, the season of BBQs, island vacations, swimming in the pool has provided inspiration to virtually every genre and generation of Black musicians, so we’ve got all the “summer”-titled popular hits spanning the ’30s to today from DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, Kool & The Gang, Carl Thomas, War, Sly & The Family Stone, Childish Gambino, Chic, Megan Thee Stallion and The Isley Brothers, mixed in with jazz, hip hop, dance, reggae, and plenty of vocal standards.
Nat “King” Cole is not only one of our top singers of Christmas standards, but also the leader in “summer” tunes, with five songs on our playlist.
And throughout, we’ve sprinkled multiple versions of the Porgy & Bess standard “Summertime,” performed here by everyone from Anita Baker to James Brown.
Among the new songs we’ve added are everything from Jhene Aiko to Joan Armatrading, Anderson.Paak to Prince, Jim Jones to Johnny Mathis, Leon Bridges to Labi Siffre to St. Lunatics.
So, fire up the grill, break out the water slide for the kids, and perhaps grab a mai-tai or piña colada. Then relax to the sounds of Summer. Happy Summer everyone!
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t done a #Juneteenth playlist for GBN. This year it shares a Sunday with Father’s Day.
While I didn’t grow up with the holiday, it’s believed to be the oldest African-American holiday, with annual celebrations on June 19th in some parts of the country dating back to 1866. Well.
Since becoming aware of it, I’ve been all-in for years. As a father and son, I am thrilled with the one-two holiday punch.
I’ve tried to gather a set of tunes that can be enjoyed while the grill is full of food, with folk sitting around the table, or when you’re chilling around the crib.
From its Galveston, Texas roots, is now one of five date-specific federal holidays along with New Year’s Day (January 1), Independence Day (July 4), Veterans Day (November 11), and Christmas Day (December 25).
Juneteenth will coincide with Father’s Day not only this year, but also in 2033, 2039, 2044, and 2050. It’s the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was declared a holiday in 1986.
Do enjoy another free-wheeling and eclectic collection celebrating this uniquely American holiday by your friend and selector.
“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
While they’re well respected enough to be in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame since 1992, The Isley Brothers are not afforded their proper place of widespread esteem in the pantheon of popular music.
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 “Footsteps In The Dark, Pts. 1 & 2” on “It Was A Good Day”).
Over a 60-year run the group changed – one brother, Vernon, died young, while another, Rudolph, became a church minister, to be replaced by a family member – one aspect has remained constant: Ronald’s instantly recognizable, golden voice.
Ronald Isley (photo: commons.wikipedia.org)
Last month he turned 81 years old. Any listener to the playlists I’ve created for GBN knows I’ll slip an Isley Brothers track into a collection whenever possible.
This one is an unapologetic tribute to the vocalist that fronted the most essential band this nation has produced. He’s mastered a series of genres and has also sung the modern American of songbooks.
Ronald Isley has song standards from Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. He has gifted us definitive versions of classics penned for the Motown production line by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, as well as delicate reinterpretations of ballads by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
Enjoy this hours-long collection of the best of one of America’s greatest and most enduring vocalists.
If you are a regular listener of Good Black News’ Music Monday playlists, we’re sure you’ve noticed by now that we’ve got some serious Stevie Wonder fans in the house. In 2020, we even celebrated his 70th birthday with a whole month of fantastic playlists (some links below).
And now that Mr. Wonder’s birthday week again (on this Friday the 13th), we’ve got a new playlist to share – this one built around songs that he composed for other artists – it’s called “Written By Wonder, First Sung By Another”:
This playlist is comprised of over 90 songs spanning from the mid-60s when he was still just a teenage songwriter, up through the list’s most recent composition, a 2011 release from smooth jazz vocalist Maysa called “Have Sweet Dreams.”
Many people already know of the hits Stevie wrote for others – classics such as The Spinners’ “It’s A Shame,” Jermaine Jackson’s “Let’s Get Serious,” Third World’s “Try Jah Love,” Rufus feat. Chaka Khan’s “Tell Me Something Good,” and of course, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “The Tears of a Clown.”
But his writing legacy goes so much deeper than that.
[Photo: GBN Contributor Joyce Lakin (l) and GBN Editor-in-Chief Lori Lakin Hutcherson (r) in Maui, 2005]
Good Black News wants to take a moment on this day to honor and remember the women who gave us life, who nurtured and raised us, and also offered us solace, counsel, wisdom, humility and humor.
To all the mothers out there – be they Aunties, Grandmothers, Cousins or Friends – thank you for all you do!
And to one mom out there in particular — Joyce Lakin — we want to thank you for all of the above and also for agreeing to put together a playlist of some of your all-time favorite songs to share with all the other moms and children out there who grew up on their mom’s music!
On this list there’s clearly songs you grew up on (Johnny Mathis, Etta James, Sammy Davis, Jr.), songs that were your jams that became our jams (Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, Prince) and songs that are refreshing surprises — Jay Z and J. Lo — who knew?!
If anyone out there is still lucky enough to have their mom, we encourage you to ask them for their playlist — and you’ll learn more about your mom and yourself than you’d imagine!
Although we dropped in on Duke Ellington earlier this month on April 6th when we shared a quote from him and a snapshot of his career and contributions, today, on his birthday, this prolific composer and musician gets a much-deserved second look, because one thing we didn’t share last time about the Black, Brown and Beige maestro?
He had synesthesia, the neurological condition where sounds and colors blend.
To read about Ellington, read on. To hear about him, press PLAY:
[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:
Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, April 29th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Although we dropped in on Duke Ellington earlier this month on April 6th when we shared a quote from him and a snapshot of his career and contributions, today this prolific composer and musician gets a much-deserved second look:
Born on this day in 1899, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington made an indelible mark on American music for more than six decades. A pianist, composer and bandleader, Ellington created such now-classic standards as “Prelude to a Kiss,” “Mood Indigo,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing”– as well as full-length compositions such as Black, Brown and Beige and Jump For Joy and film scores for Anatomy of a Murder andParis Blues.
Perhaps there were so many hues to Duke’s music because he had synesthesia, the neurological condition where sounds and colors blend. Other noted musicians who are also reported to be synesthetes are Pharrell Williams, Mary J. Blige, Frank Ocean and Kanye West.
To learn more about Ellington, check out our April 6th daily drop and its resources, and if you want to learn more about synesthesia, check out the links provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.
Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
Excerpts from Black, Brown & Beige, Part 1 composed by Duke Ellington are included under fair use.
If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
GBN is pulling a trifecta today — celebrating #MusicMonday, #JazzAppreciationMonth, and dropping in on absolutely one of the best singers past, present — or ever — Ella Fitzgerald!
Born 105 years ago #OnThisDay, through her stunningly timeless gifts (and vast catalog), Ella Fitzgerald is still surprising and delighting music lovers and casual fans alike.
To read about her, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:
[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below]:
Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Monday, April 25th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Today, we offer a quote from the “First Lady of Song” born 105 years ago on this date, the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald.
“The only thing better than singing is more singing.”
Born in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, Ella Fitzgerald’s earliest artistic ambitions were to become a dancer.
When the loss of her mother when she was 15 lead to a relocation to Harlem to live with her aunt and stints in an orphanage and a state reformatory school for girls, Fitzgerald hustled to get by on the streets and at 17 took her terpsichorean talents to Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater.
But when she saw two sisters with a dance act go on before her and wow the crowd, Ella didn’t think she could compete so she switched up her talent from dancing to singing and took to the stage to sing “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection” and won first prize in 1934.
Although she didn’t record either at the time, in 1968 Ella gave “The Object of My Affection” another onstage go when she sang it for her Live At Chautauqua, Volume1 LP:
[Excerpt from “The Object of My Affection”]
Ella’s Amateur night win lead to an audition with Chick Webb to become the girl singer in his orchestra, and one of the best collaborations between bandleader and singer in the swing era.
Webb and Ella had hits with “Love and Kisses,” “(If You Can’t Sing It) You’ll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)” and the classic turn on a nursery rhyme co-written by Ella that become of the best-selling songs in it’s decade, “A Tisket, A Tasket”:
[Excerpt from “A Tisket, A Tasket”]
Even as Chick Webb took the young Ella under his wing, his serious health challenges ended his life way too soon in 1939.
Ella stepped up and lead and toured with the orchestra for a few more years until she went solo as jazz turned increasingly towards the newer sounds of bebop.
It was around this time, while working with Dizzy Gillespie and his band, Ella developed her scat singing style, lauded on songs such as “Oh, Lady Be Good” and “Flying Home”:
[Excerpt from “Flying Home”]
Ella not only navigated and interpreted jazz standards with dazzling dexterity and clarity, during her heyday, she, like her quote implied, sang and sang and sang some more.
Ella took on several of America’s most popular composers with her unparalleled series of “songbooks,” where she devoted entire albums to covering the songs of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin.
You can’t go wrong with any of these incredible recordings, so I’ll share a personal favorite from Ella Sings Gershwin – Ella’s plaintively tender version of “Someone to Watch Over Me”:
[Excerpt of “Someone to Watch Over Me”]
Ella also paired up with jazz royalty, recording an album with Count Basie, three with Louis Armstrong, four with guitarist Joe Pass and four with Duke Ellington, one which included her version of – I can’t think of any better word than “banging” because Ella just goes so hard in “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”:
[Excerpt of “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”]
From big band to bebop to Broadway, standards, pop and R&B, throughout her career, Ella Fitzgerald recorded over 200 albums and 2,000 songs.
Because frankly, with a voice like hers, the only thing better than Ella singing was more Ella singing. I’m going to put a link to a much longer Ella playlist in the show notes, but let’s hear from her one more time, in 1977, when one of her biggest fans, Stevie Wonder, lovingly sings her praises right before she helps him sing his song:
And of course, buy or stream as much of her music as you can. Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episodes full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.
Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
All excerpts of Ella Fitzgerald’s music are included under Fair Use.
If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on Billie Holiday, the singer and artist who not only influenced peers and progeny alike with her innovative interpretation of and phrasing in songs, but also composed several of her signature songs which became jazz and blues standards in the decades that followed.
To read about Holiday, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:
[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below]:
Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, April 19th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Billie Holiday famously said she styled her singing after two major influences – blues empress Bessie Smith and jazz trumpeter and legend Louis Armstrong.
The alchemy Holiday found by combining her favorites inspired many of her contemporaries as well as subsequent generations of singers, who were impressed with her pioneering phrasing and improvisation.
What is less often praised about Holiday is her songwriting skill. She wrote several signature songs that are now standards. Let’s start with “Fine and Mellow,” which Holiday first recorded in 1939:
It’s Music Monday! In celebration of Easter and #JazzAppreciationMonth, here is a collection of Sacred Jazz.
When jazz emerged in the first half of the 20th century as music of liberation, entertainment and modernism, it provoked a backlash among cultural and religious-establishment figures.
Many of them went so far as to call it “the music of the devil.” By the middle 1950s, jazz had found its way into the church, sometimes employed in the ritualistic proceedings of liturgies and other traditional ceremonies, or presented in other thematic ways in overt religious homage.
Religion, in some respects, was there from the jump. Many African-American musicians grew up attending and performing in church services, and the imprint of that experience can be found in albums ranging from John Coltrane‘s landmark 1965 LP A Love Supreme to Miles Davis‘ Kind Of Blue.
It was inspired in part, in the words of Davis, “some other kind of sound I remembered from being back in Arkansas, when we were walking home from church and playing these bad gospels.”
This collection features Mahalia Jackson and Rosetta Tharpe contributions to gospel and sacred jazz, along with pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, known for her Jazz Masses in the 1950s.
Duke Ellington, Kamasi Washington, Pharaoh Sanders, The Free Nationals and many others are on hand too.
In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on the underappreciated yet cherished and deeply talented song stylist Nancy Wilson, who was at one time in the 1960s the second most popular act on Capitol Records behind only the Beatles.
To read about Wilson, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:
[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below]:
Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, April 12, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Ohio native Nancy Wilson claimed her gift early, knowing by age four she was meant to be a singer. Encouraged by jazz saxophonist and bandleader Julius “Cannonball” Adderley, Wilson moved to New York in 1959 and landed a contract with Capitol Records.
The success of Nancy’s debut single “Guess Who I Saw Today,” led to a rush of album recordings, and to that tune becoming one of the signature songs of her career:
[Excerpt of “Guess Who I Saw Today”]
Wilson’s classic 1962 album recorded with Cannonball Adderley [Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley] contained her first Billboard R&B chart hit, the gorgeous ballad “Save Your Love for Me”:
[Excerpt of “Save Your Love for Me”]
From her 1964 album of the same title, Wilson scored her first pop hit, reaching number 11 on the Hot 100 chart with “How Glad I Am”:
[Excerpt of “How Glad I Am”]
Wilson won her first Grammy for that song and had four top 10 albums on the Billboard charts between 1964 and 1965, becoming during that period Capitol Records’ second-biggest selling act behind only the Beatles.
Wilson released more than 70 albums in her five-decade recording career, and won two more Grammys 40 years after her first win, both for Best Jazz Vocal Album, in 2005 for R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) and 2007 for Turned to Blue.
[Excerpt of “That’s All” from R.S.V.P.]
In 2004, Nancy Wilson was honored as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, and for her work as an advocate of civil rights, which included participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama.
Although Wilson was lauded as a jazz vocalist, she preferred to think of herself a song stylist, as she drew from a variety of influences, which she spoke about in detail during an interview on grammys.com:
“So, consequently, I was exposed to male influences. From early on, I heard Nat Cole I heard [?????] Jackson and Louis Jordan – loved Louis Jordan. I heard Billy Billy, Mr. B. I mean, he was just, I mean, my father thought Billy Eckstine was like, couldn’t – he walked on water. He loved B. And I heard Little Jimmy Scott with Lionel Hampton‘s big band. I would imagine that was when I was around 10. So basically, it was all male. And, and not gospel. I heard Jimmy Cleveland, James Cleveland, and C.L. Franklin, and his choir from my mom used to play that. So, I got to hear it all. And I enjoyed all of it. And then of course, I became a teenager. I mean, I was allowed to go out.
And there was a jukebox where I heard Little Esther, and I heard Little Miss Cornshucks. I heard LaVern Baker. I definitely heard Dinah and I heard Ruth Brown – I used to love Ruth Brown. That was where I got the exposure to R&B females. Was a quite a while – I think I was pretty much almost grown like 15 when I became exposed to – Sarah had some hit pop songs and I heard Sarah Vaughan and that I loved. “I Ran All the Way Home” was my big song. Also one of my big numbers was the Ravens tune called “You Saw Me Crying in the Chapel.”
So I sang these songs in variety shows and I’m like ninth grade, 10th grade, so, these were the things that really made things happen for me. The fact that I did not I had no idea that you were supposed to be afraid, or that you needed to be nervous. Because to me that had no part of what I did. I was not nervous about it at all. Loved to sing – loved the lyrics to songs always. Yeah.”
Links to these sources and more provided in today’s show notes and the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.
Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
All excerpts of Nancy Wilson’s music included are permitted under Fair Use.
If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Watch incredible clips of her on YouTube performing with 
