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Posts tagged as “Marlon West”

MUSIC MONDAY: “Snatch It Back and Hold It” – Celebrating Chicago Blues (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Snatch It Back and Hold It” – Celebrating Chicago Blues (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 10, 2020

[Photo: Otis Spann & James Cotton rehearsing in Muddy Waters’ basement, Chicago, IL, 1965. Courtesy Chicago History Museum]

Chicago blues began to emerge following the Great Migration of African Americans from the southern U.S. to the industrial cities of the north, particularly Chicago.

This new population included musicians, and the blues evolved as a result of these influences from musicians playing as street musicians, at rent parties, and other events in African-American communities.

One of the most significant early incubators for Chicago blues was the open-air market on Maxwell Street in the 1930s and ’40s.

This collection includes some of the great including, McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield, Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett, Little Walter Jacob, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, and many others.

Enjoy, and of course, 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: 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)
“Amazing Grace”: Playlist in Honor of Civil Rights Heroes John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian (LISTEN)

“Amazing Grace”: Playlist in Honor of Civil Rights Heroes John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 18, 2020

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

With the passing of two Civil Rights Movement titans, the Reverend C.T. Vivian and Rep. John Lewis, I was inclined to honor them with a playlist.

After some poking around, I read that Rep. Lewis was a big fan of Aretha Franklin and saw her sing more times than he could count.

As a teenager, Franklin traveled the country on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson and Harry Belafonte. As she became a musical icon, lending her voice in support of equal rights, Franklin was present with Lewis and Vivian, in person or in song, for some of the Civil Rights Movement’s most pivotal moments.

John Lewis and C.T. Vivian (photo: Getty Images)

“If it hadn’t been for Aretha — and others, but particularly Aretha — the Civil Rights Movement would have been a bird without wings,” Lewis said. “She lifted us and she inspired us.”

Here is a playlist featuring her and other artists who lent their voices to the struggle.

As always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

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Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
#AAMAM: Celebrating New Orleans Funk and Soul (LISTEN)

#AAMAM: Celebrating New Orleans Funk and Soul (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 22, 2020

As Good Black News continues to celebrate African-American Music Appreciation Month, today we get regional. In GBN contributor Marlon West‘s words:

“This collection of New Orleans Funk features acknowledged masters next to some of the earlier artists who shaped the meaning of funk. It covers the period from the emergence of New Orleans Funk in the early 1960s through to the present day.

My third #AAMAM mix offers The Meters, Queen Ida, Eddie Bo, Professor Longhair, Lee Dorsey, Wild Magnolias and many more.

New Orleans is a port town. Originally owned by the French. Many of the Africans who ended up there came from Haiti and brought with them the religion of Voodoo and its drums and music.

The Crescent City became one of the first parts of America to develop a strong African-American culture leading to the invention of Jazz.

This playlist offers the sound of the New Orleans Funeral March Bands, Mardi Gras Indian Tribes and Saturday Night Fish Fries.

Enjoy. Stay safe, sane, and kind, you all.”

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

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
#AAMAM: From “Fight The Power” to “FTP” – Protest Songs for 2020 (LISTEN)

#AAMAM: From “Fight The Power” to “FTP” – Protest Songs for 2020 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 15, 2020

As Good Black News continues to celebrate African-American Music Appreciation Month, today we bring you a playlist reflecting our current times. In GBN contributor Marlon West‘s words:

“We are all in the midst of the largest demonstration for civil rights in history. People all over the globe have taken to the streets. 2020 has also brought new songs of protest by many artists including YG‘s “FTP,” Che Lingo‘s “My Block,” Tre Songz’ “2020 Riots: How Many Times” and others.

This playlist features those tracks, plus several hip-hop classics such as Kendrick Lamar‘s 2015 protest anthem “Alright,” Beyoncé’s “Formation,” Kendrick and Bey’s collaboration “Freedom,”  “U.N.I.T.Y.” by Queen Latifah, “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy alongside several civil rights anthems from the 1960s and 70s (Donny Hathaway‘s “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” Sam Cooke‘s “A Change is Gonna Come,” Marvin Gaye‘s “What’s Going On”).

Please enjoy. Stay safe and sane out there, you all.”

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

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

#AAMAM: “This Land” – A Psychedelic Soul Collection (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 8, 2020

From Marlon West:

“Week 2 of African American Music Appreciation Month. I hope you all are safe and well during these trying times. As you know, much of African American music deals with social upheaval, and today’s offerings are no different.

Psychedelic Soul or Psychedelic Funk  is a genre that borrows overtly from the psychedelia of the late ’60s.

Pioneering acts included Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield.

Those grooves had a resurgence during the ’90s neo-soul movement, with Jill Scott, D’Angelo, and Erykah Badu, to name a few.

They’ve been creeping back into the musical zeitgeist since around the start of the 2010s with artists like Gary Clark Jr., Leon Bridges, and Black Pumas. This collection celebrates 50 years of Psychedelic Soul music.

Enjoy! Take good care, you all.”

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

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
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 Month of Stevie: Stevie Wonder’s Protest Music (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 31, 2020
Stevie Wonder takes a knee at Global Citizens Festival 2018 (photo: YouTube)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Good Black News has been honoring Stevie Wonder‘s 70th birthday with posts and playlists all month long (links below). On this last day of May and in light of this past week’s events, GBN finds it only fitting to close out our celebration with some of the most powerful, enduring, soul-stirring music Stevie’s ever created and offered to this world – his protest music.

From “Living For The City” to “Big Brother” to “Black Man” to “Love’s In Need of Love Today” to “Happy Birthday” to “Pastime Paradise” – even his early covers of “Blowin’ in The Wind” and “A Place In The Sun” – Stevie Wonder has always used his artistry to protest racism and injustice while striving for healing, equity, love and “Higher Ground.”

Thank you, Stevie Wonder for using your heart, mind and genius to speak for the voiceless and fight on behalf of the oppressed. May your music continue to help fortify us for the long journey ahead:

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MUSIC MONDAY: Desert Island Stevie Wonder – What 20 Songs Would You Bring? (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 25, 2020

As Good Black News enters the last week in our month-long celebration of Stevie Wonder‘s 70th birthday via posts and playlists, we thought we’d kick it off with something a little different.

In the past few weeks we’ve offered playlists of Wonder’s greatest hits, covers, his phenomenal harmonica work, soundtrack cuts, deep cuts, duets, and even other artists covering his classic 1970s albums “Songs in The Key of Life” and “Talking Book.”

While we still have several more great Stevie-themed playlists to share in the final days of May, today GBN is asking you to join in the fun!

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring 20 Stevie Wonder songs with you, what would they be? And why? Please share your own Spotify list or written list in the comments!

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GBN contributor Marlon West gamely took up this challenge to pave the playlist path. In Marlon’s words:

“Here’s my last offering/delightful assignment of this monthlong celebration of Stevie Wonder’s 70th Birthday. Twenty Stevie Wonder songs you’d take to a Desert Island. Here’s mine. It is not an “essential” list or a “best of.” This is a collection of 20 songs that have enduring appeal to me personally.

You may notice my list leans heavy on 1980’s “Hotter than July.” It was the record that came out when I was rolling around in my parents’ car as a freshly-minted driver. I wore that cassette tape out. So that record looms large for me.

What’s your list look/sound like? Please share yours in the comments.

June is African American Music Appreciation Month! See ya next week with the first of my four offerings for that month-long tribute.

As usual, stay safe, sane, and kind.”

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

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
Happy 70th Birthday To Ya, Stevie Wonder! (LISTEN)

Happy 70th Birthday To Ya, Stevie Wonder! (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 13, 2020

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

It’s no secret how much the Good Black News team loves and reveres Stevie Wonder, as we have been celebrating him throughout May with various tributes, posts and playlists  on the main page and across our social media.

(In case you missed Jeff Meier‘s The Wonders of Stevie’s Harmonica or Marlon West‘s Stevie Soundtrack Songs and Stevie Cover Songs posts and playlists, treat yourself and click through!)

But today, on May 13, Stevie Wonder’s actual birthday, we want to offer you links to all things Stevie, like his official website, Instagram (which is playing Stevie music live all day!) and Twitter, the biography written about him, as well as the Wikipedia and Biography entries that encapsulate the his life and career in words and video.

But really, to know Stevie all you have to do is listen to his music, especially the songs that comprise the majority of his offerings to this world – album tracks never released as singles – aka Stevie Wonder’s Deep Cuts.

Our newest playlist is comprised solely of these songs, and arguably they are as moving and meaningful as his tunes that topped the charts.

In fact, many of these songs (“You and I,” “Too High,” “Bird of Beauty,” “Love’s In Need of Love Today,” “Rocket Love”) are more popular with Stevie stans than many of his global hits.

They are sequenced in chronological order (like our companion playlist of chart releases and hits “The Age of Wonder”) so the listener can hear the evolution of Stevie Wonder’s writing, production and sound. Enjoy – and Happy Birthday, Stevie! We love you!

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