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MUSIC: Celebrating Jamaican Independence Day with Stevie Wonder Reggae Covers (LISTEN)

MUSIC: Celebrating Jamaican Independence Day with Stevie Wonder Reggae Covers (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 6, 2020

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

Jamaican Independence Day is celebrated every August 6th in honor of the date in 1962 when Jamaica gained its independence from England after more than 300 years of British colonial rule.

On the heels of Jamaica’s independence, Jamaican ska music partially shifted to celebrate the country’s newfound freedoms, eventually paving the way for the birth of reggae music, which has been the driving force of the nation’s music since then.

To enjoy the evolution of those sounds, you can check out the GBN playlists we posted earlier this year – Celebrating The History and Evolution of Ska Music and Celebrating Reggae Songs of Struggle and Peace.

All you faithful Good Black News readers may also remember that just a few months ago we saluted the amazing Stevie Wonder with a month-long series of themed playlists (see below). Well, believe it or not, we still had a few additional Stevie playlists we never got to share with you in May. So today, in honor of Jamaican Independence Day, we are showcasing “Stevie Wonder Goes to Jamaica – Reggae Wonder Covers.”

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Although it’s hard to remember a time when iconic reggae superstar Bob Marley wasn’t universally known, back in 1974, when Stevie Wonder first issued the song “Boogie on Reggae Woman,” Marley had yet to really break through on the U.S. music charts – and not that many people knew what Stevie was talking about.

Always one to infuse his music with innovative sounds, in the final years of the seventies when Stevie acknowledged reggae yet again with the smash hit “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” – in which he detailed “From the park I hear rhythms / Marley’s hot on the box” – the world had finally caught up with Stevie’s vision.

Later, in 1982, Stevie even wrote and produced the big R&B/reggae crossover hit ‘Try Jah Love” for Jamaica superstars Third World.

While Stevie was relatively early to jump on reggae sounds, reggae music had actually jumped on Stevie Wonder sounds even earlier. A longtime tradition of reggae music – particularly in the “lovers rock” genre – is to remake popular US chart hits in a reggae style.

Wonder’s hits provided fertile territory. From the late 1960s, all the way up through contemporary times, Stevie’s own hits as well as his compositions for others have yielded dozens of reggae cover versions, whether ballads or uptempo, more modern dancehall sounds.

Today’s playlist kicks off with Stevie’s version of “Master Blaster” and his Third World composition before heading into covers from today’s most known reggae hitmakers such as Wayne Wonder, Tanya Stephens, Sly & Robbie, Maxi Priest, Bob Marley scion Stephen Marley, as well as such legends as John Holt, Desmond Dekker, Dennis Brown, Toots & the Maytals, and Lee Perry & the Upsetters.

Finally, in honor of the “birth” of Jamaica’s independence from colonial rule, we close with Barry Biggs’ reggae rendition of Stevie’s classic “Happy Birthday,” which Wonder famously composed to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as well as Black America’s fight for equal rights and justice.

Happy Birthday, Jamaica!

 

MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating The History and Evolution of Ska Music (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating The History and Evolution of Ska Music (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 27, 2020

Ska originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to reggae. It combines elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues.

Ska developed further in the 1960s when Prince Buster, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, and Duke Reid formed “sound systems” to play American rhythm and blues and eventually recorded their own songs.

Most folks divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s; the 2 Tone ska revival of the ’70 & ‘80s, which fused ska rhythms with the faster tempos and harder edge of punk rock, and third wave, which involved bands from a wide range of countries around the world, in the 1990s.

RELATED: You Can Get It If You Really Want It: Reggae Songs of Struggle and Peace (LISTEN)

While primarily dance music, like reggae, ska music has often had social change on its mind. This collection spans all three “waves” and includes The Skatalites, Hortense Ellis, The Specials, Hepcat, and many other masters of the artform.

Do enjoy, and as always stay safe, sane, and kind.

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by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Blackman Know Yourself” – Celebrating Afrobeat (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Blackman Know Yourself” – Celebrating Afrobeat (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 13, 2020

[Photo credit: Fela Kuti by Leni Sinclair / Getty Images]

The roots of Afrobeat began in Ghana during the early 1920s. When musicians incorporated influences like the foxtrot and calypso with Ghanaian rhythms like osibisaba (Fante).

Nigerian artists later solidified the Afrobeat groove in the late ’60s led by Fela Kuti. The sound is a complex fusion of jazz, funk, soul, Ghanaian highlife, psychedelic rock and traditional West African chants and rhythms.

This playlist features Kuti, his longtime collaborator Tony Allen, and his sons Femi and Seun. Plus The Funkees, Antibalas, Angélique Kidjo, Chicago Afrobeat Project, William Onyeabor, The Lijadu Sisters, and many other originators and modern practitioners of the art.

Enjoy, and don’t even try to sit still while it’s on.  Until next week, stay safe, sane, and kind.

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by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwestSpotify: marlonwest)

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating Reggae Songs of Struggle and Peace (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating Reggae Songs of Struggle and Peace (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 6, 2020

[Photo: Girls dancing in youthclub, Wolverhampton, 1978 © Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum Photos]

During this time of unprecedented demands of civil rights, our Good Black News playlists have focused on African-American artists during the month of June. But Reggae artists from Jamaica, the U.K., and Africa have long had a thing or two to say about the triumphs and struggle of people of the African diaspora as well.

Reggae came into being in the 1960s as an evolution of the Rocksteady and Ska musical styles. (More on those forms in the weeks to come.) Reggae is a soulful export of Jamaica that expresses in words the pain, struggle, hope, and emotion that is felt by the average person.

Reggae is often marked by its lament-like chanting and emphasizes the syncopated beat. It leans heavily on the use of the Jamaican vernacular and African drumming style.

This collection features a wide range of international artists including, Bob Marley, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Alpha Blondy, Steel Pulse, Hortense Ellis, Bim Sherman, Judy Mowatt, John Holt, and many others.

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by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
#AAMAM: “Black and Proud” – Celebrating Black LGBT Musical Pioneers (LISTEN)

#AAMAM: “Black and Proud” – Celebrating Black LGBT Musical Pioneers (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 28, 2020

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

As June is both African-American Music Appreciation Month and Pride Month, and today is the anniversary of the beginning of the landmark Stonewall Riots marking the unofficial launch of the gay rights movement, Good Black News today brings you a musical playlist celebrating some of the Black LGBT musical pioneers of the contemporary music era.

Just last year, rapper Lil Nas X made history in multiple ways when his genre-bending country/rap tune, the infectious ‘Old Town Road’ (which, in remixed form, included country star Billy Ray Cyrus), launched on TikTok and headed straight to #1, where it stayed for 19 weeks.

In the process, the 1:53 minute song (which was the shortest song to hit #1 since the mid-1960s), literally became the longest running #1 in chart history, outlasting the 16 week #1 runs of  Mariah  Carey & Boyz II Men’s ‘One Sweet Day’ and Luis Fonsi/Daddy Yankee/Justin Bieber’s ‘Despacito’.

One year ago during Pride Month, in the middle of the song’s #1 run on the charts, Lil Nas X revealed himself to be gay and joined what has become a burgeoning scene of LGBTQ artists among the Gen Z crowd, many of them African-American. Frank Ocean, Kehlani, Brittany Howard, Azealia Banks, Janelle Monae, and Big Freedia are just some of the other artists that have broken through the pack in recent years, publicly claiming their respective LGBTQ identities even as their careers were still on the rise. 

And musically-talented TV personalities such as one-time reality star Todrick Hall, the now notorious, but nevertheless pioneering ‘Empire’ star Jussie Smollett, ‘Glee’ co-star Alex Newell and ‘The Flash’ co-star Keiynan Lonsdale have also helped pave the way, bringing Black, openly LGBT faces into millions of homes.  

Hopping around Spotify in the search for Black LGBT artists now leads to not just these artists, but dozens of other openly LGBT independent artists making it happen in rap, dance, soul, and pop.

It wasn’t always this way, however. So in today’s playlist, we are celebrating 15 significant, pioneering LGBT artists who got their starts between the late 1950s (when the contemporary pop/rock music era began) and the end of the 20th century. The truth is that we’ve always been watching and listening to LGBT artists – the general public just may not have known it at the time.

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Some of these artists we’re celebrating in our list were loud and proud right from the start. With others, we didn’t publicly know they were part of the LGBT community until after they passed away.  

The goal with this list is not to stir up controversy, but rather celebration and re-interpretation – so we’re steering away from the numerous popular artists about whom there are simply rumors.  Perhaps time and the history books will reveal more about the stories of many other artists from an era of music in which most prominent artists remained in the closet.  

For now, it’s interesting to look back at these 15 Black artists and see the array of musical and personal journeys, and examine them anew. We present the artists in roughly chronological order of their career prominence, and feature five songs from each – trying to include early work, a big hit or two and something recent if they are still making music.  

We hope this playlist will both introduce you to some talented but unheralded artists, and help you re-evaluate some artists you may already know and love – and can now see in a new light.  

GBN Celebrates African American Music Appreciation Month 2020 (LISTEN)

GBN Celebrates African American Music Appreciation Month 2020 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 1, 2020

Even as our nation is in the grips of a necessary battle against injustice and institutionalized racism, we will not temper the celebration of our culture and our contributions to it.

June is African-American Music Appreciation Month and typically there are scores of live concerts and performances to honor the beauty, art, respite, truth, wisdom, information, strength, joy and freedom in the music Black people have created in this country – no matter the circumstances – and still create to this day.

But since live gatherings are not possible in the foreseeable future, Good Black News wants to provide another way to honor our past and present musical greats during this time. All month, we will be offering playlists from myriad genres, artists and themes save one: they will all be in tribute to African American music.

To kick us off first is GBN contributor Marlon West‘s expansive offering. In Marlon’s words:

“It’s June and that brings African-American Music Appreciation Month! While President Jimmy Carter initiated as “Black Music Month” back in 1979, I’ll admit, that I was sleeping on it until it was rebranded as African-American Music Appreciation Month by President Barack Obama.

In his 2016 proclamation, he noted that African-American music and musicians have helped this nation “to dance, to express our faith through song, to march against injustice, and to defend our country’s enduring promise of freedom and opportunity for all.”

Here’s my freewheeling, daylong, genre-jumping offering celebrating AAMAM. In the weeks to come, I’ll do deep dives on specific styles and/or artists. So get ready to immerse yourself in the music of your favorite Black artists and genres.

Whether it’s Jazz or Neo-Soul or classic Rhythm & Blues or hip-hop, let the music speak to you. Share old favorites and the newly discovered on social media using #AfricanAmericanMusicAppreciationMonth and #AAMAM.

And always stay safe, sane, and kind you all. Damned if that ain’t getting harder to do the days.”

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(FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
GBN’s MERRY MONTH OF STEVIE: Cover Songs In The Key Of Life (LISTEN)

GBN’s MERRY MONTH OF STEVIE: Cover Songs In The Key Of Life (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 15, 2020

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

Ever since this writer was elementary school age and first becoming aware of music, I’ve been obsessed with the artistic connections created by “cover” versions (“remakes,” in layman’s terms).

My father and I would routinely spend a Saturday night pairing together interesting playlists for each other comprised of original versions and their remakes, usually trying to find versions as far apart musically from the originals as possible.

Several decades ago, this was very labor intensive – we had to go ‘digging in the crates’ through our own vinyl, and we had to actually know and remember that the cover version had been done. Piecing it all together was half the fun.

Today, with Spotify and the internet, it’s much much easier to uncover covers. Just type in the song name and often you’ll find hundreds of options to pick from, especially when we’re talking about Stevie Wonder, who has literally had thousands of remakes done of his songs.

So many versions, in fact, that it’s impossible to weed through them all. (According to SecondHandSongs.com, a website devoted to ‘cover’ songs, Stevie is the most covered R&B artist of all time.)

So with today’s Stevie Wonder playlist from GBN, I’ve limited myself to covers of songs from his landmark 1976 double album “Songs in the Key of Life.” “Songs in the Key of Life” capped a prolific mid-1970s golden era for Stevie Wonder, winning him a remarkable third Grammy for Album of the Year – all three of his wins coming in just four years!  Many lists feature “Songs” as one of the best albums of all-time.

You may ask – why should I listen to cover versions when the originals are so perfect? I certainly won’t argue with the originals’ perfection. And I don’t think that any of the artists here would argue either that their version supersedes Stevie’s own.

What I would say is that cover versions can do several things.  First, they evoke the true songwriting abilities underlying the original song – a great ‘song’ should be able to stand up to multiple interpretations.

Second, when the cover version is in a different genre (and these are the most interesting ones, usually) – they can bring the listener to new places musically that they may not have ventured before. Third, after hearing an iconic album so many times that it becomes almost second nature, it can be refreshing to hear it again in a new way.

In this playlist, we’ve got the entire ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ song list, in the same order as the original – with the four ‘bonus tracks’ from the extra single included in the original release added to the end.

Each song has only one extra version – and each covering artist is limited to just one track. The mix spans jazz, folk, rock, Latin, soul, dance music and many more, including Luther Vandross, Thelma Houston, Najee, Mary J. Blige and James Taylor‘s brother Livingston Taylor. There’s even a Spice Girl in there if you look for her!

We hope you enjoy it.

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GBN’s Merry Month of Stevie: Celebrating the Wonders of Stevie’s Harmonica (LISTEN)

GBN’s Merry Month of Stevie: Celebrating the Wonders of Stevie’s Harmonica (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 6, 2020

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

Stevie Wonder told us with his very first hit, ‘Fingertips,’ recorded when he was 12, that he was a harmonica master. Somehow, through all the genius songwriting, singing, production and keyboard innovation, we tend to forget about those harmonica skills.

But Stevie hasn’t.

His unmistakable harmonica blowing is right there, easy to find in such Stevie favorites throughout his career including ‘I Was Made to Love Her,’ ‘Isn’t She Lovely,’ ‘For Once In My Life,’ ‘That Girl,’ ‘We Can Work It Out,’ ‘Boogie On Reggae Woman,’ and even 1990s gems like ‘Treat Myself.’

Although he does play that Hohner Chromonica often on his own records, Wonder actually seems to utilize his harmonica skills most frequently as a means to collaborate with other artists.

From the 1960s to today, he’s played harmonica as a guest session man on over 150 songs from other artists. That’s more than 10 whole albums worth of additional Stevie-infused material!

To celebrate that part of Stevie’s career, today’s GBN Month of Stevie playlist is entitled “The Wonders of Stevie’s Harmonica,“ where we’ve amassed every Stevie Wonder harmonica guest appearance that we could find on Spotify into one huge list.

You’ll find a few famous hits – Chaka Khan’s ‘I Feel For You,’ Elton John’s ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues,’  Sting’s ‘Brand New Day,’ R&B classics from DeBarge’s ‘Love Me In A Special Way’ to Jermaine Jackson’s smash ‘Let’s Get Serious’ (which Stevie also wrote and produced). And one of my personal favorites, the Eurythmics #1 UK hit ‘There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart).’

And though he hasn’t released a full album of new work since 2005, Stevie Wonder has stayed relevant to the charts through these harmonica-based collabos. That’s Stevie’s harmonica on Drake’s ‘Take Care’ album – the #1 album of 2012.

He appears twice on the Mark Ronson 2015 album that contained the #1 song of that year, “Uptown Funk.” And just last year, that was Stevie’s harmonica again on rapper Travis Scott’s chart-topping album “AstroWorld.”

But going on Stevie Wonder’s harmonica journey through music takes you to more than just the top of the charts. One of the special things about being Stevie – a sonic force for nearly 60 years – is his wide-ranging love of music across all genres and generations, and his ability to play with all those people.

(photo via youtube.com)

While many associate the harmonica mostly with blues and folk sounds, Stevie takes the instrument to new places. To be expected, his harmonica is present in the work of his Motown compatriots from the Supremes to the Temptations to Smokey Robinson.

But he’s also played with the finest in rock music (Paul McCartney, James Taylor), popular standards (Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett), world music (Sergio Mendes, Djavan), jazz (Robert Glasper, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie), pop (NSync, 98 Degrees, Mariah Carey), hip hop (Drake, Snoop Dogg) and gospel (BeBe Winans, Andrae Crouch). (Stevie, of course, has also ventured into Broadway, but the version of Rent’s ‘Seasons of Love’ with his contributions isn’t available on Spotify. But you can hear it here.)

The list closes with another personal favorite, this one from Stevie’s own catalog – his harmonica infused take on the classical holiday piece ‘Ave Maria’ – written in 1825 and sung primarily by opera singers through the centuries.

The 45-second harmonica solo here is simple and majestic, and completely at home within a classical music space, something I think only Stevie Wonder could achieve with this instrument.

Come take a ride on Stevie’s harmonica highway – and listen out for that unmistakable sound.  As with most musical adventures, we hope you will find something unexpectedly nice along with way.

Special thank you – assembling this playlist wouldn’t have been easily possible without the massive amounts of information on the fan website www.steviewonder.org.uk .

MUSICAL MONDAYS: GBN Offers Weekly Playlists to Help Keep Spirits Up and Bodies Moving (LISTEN)

MUSICAL MONDAYS: GBN Offers Weekly Playlists to Help Keep Spirits Up and Bodies Moving (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 6, 2020

by GBN Editor-in-Chief Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Even though Stevie Wonder wrote and sang the words above in his 1976 release “Sir Duke” from his classic “Songs in the Key of Life” double album, they are words that have been true since the formation of life and the sounds from it emerged on this planet.

In good times and bad, music remains an indelible part of our souls and our existence. So even now, as the entire world faces a sobering scourge in the form of a viral pandemic, music has the power to help us cope. Music can help us relax, rejoice, reflect, rejuvenate… revolutionize.

In recent weeks, Good Black News has offered playlists in celebration of legendary artists such as Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, Manu Dibango, Ellis Marsalis and Wallace Roney. They have been met with such warm response, GBN has decided to make playlist offerings a weekly feature.

So every Monday, expect to see a new playlist posted here on our main page as well as across any of our social platforms that support them or links to them (eg. FB, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest).

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

Today’s list comes from GBN Contributor Marlon West and has that island flair, reminding us we’re all in this struggle together, everywhere. In Marlon’s words:

“Back again with a shelter-at-home playlist. Enjoy this batch of reggae classics. Stay sane, safe and healthy, y’all.

From your pal and selector, Marlon.”

(FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Hip-Hop Legend Snoop Dogg to Headline Working Californians’ 5th Annual Labor Day Music Festival

Hip-Hop Legend Snoop Dogg to Headline Working Californians’ 5th Annual Labor Day Music Festival

By goodblacknews on September 4, 2016

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Lesa Lakin, GBN Lifestyle
Lesa Lakin, GBN Lifestyle

This Labor Day (September 5, 2016) Working Californians will hold Los Angeles’ fifth annual Labor Day Music Festival featuring hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg, GRAMMY award-winning American Chicano Rock Band Los Lonely Boys; Latin- Jazz musician Poncho Sanchez; The New Orleans All-Star Band featuring Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Dr. John, James Andrews, Herlin Riley and Detroit Brooks; The Dennis Jones Band; The Victor Orlando Orchestra and Fun-Ja-La, and Cuban Funk.
More than 50 Southern California labor organizations will gather on Mondayto celebrate and commemorate both the history and future of Labor Day at Working Californians’ Labor Day Music Festival. This annual event not only benefits working men, women and their families, but also recognizes labor victories made this past year throughout Los Angeles and Southern California.
Concert performances will benefit Working Californians’ non-profit, which fosters social innovation and invests in improving low-income communities in Southern California.
2016 Labor Day Music Festival Featuring: Snoop Dogg
LA Memorial Coliseum’s Exposition Park
3911 S Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA
Monday Sep 5, 2016
Doors: 11:00 AM (ends at 8:30 PM)
$20 & $299
For tickets and more information: http://www.workingcalifornians.org/splash/