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Posts tagged as “Marlon West”

MUSIC MONDAY: “Dakar: A Collection of Afro-Latin Grooves” Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Dakar: A Collection of Afro-Latin Grooves” Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on September 21, 2020

(Photo credit: Afro Latino Fest NYC Crowd photograph by Redens Desrosiers)

This is another one that comes with a rump-shaker warning:

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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.

Stay safe sane, and kind until next week.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

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

MUSIC MONDAY: “Time Tough”- A Tribute to Reggae Legend Toots Hibbert (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Time Tough”- A Tribute to Reggae Legend Toots Hibbert (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on September 14, 2020

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

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

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.

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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.

Stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Black Panther”-Inspired Playlist In Memory Of Chadwick Boseman (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Black Panther”-Inspired Playlist In Memory Of Chadwick Boseman (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 31, 2020

Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther (Art by Marlon West)

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

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.

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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:

MUSIC MONDAY: “Fantastic Voyage” – A Tribute to the Funk Music of Dayton, Ohio (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Fantastic Voyage” – A Tribute to the Funk Music of Dayton, Ohio (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 24, 2020

The Ohio Players (Photo Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

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

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.

Stay safe, sane, and kind, you all!

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Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Harvest For The World” – A Tribute to The Isley Brothers (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Harvest For The World” – A Tribute to The Isley Brothers (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 17, 2020

[The Isley Brothers (Photo Credit: Lewton Cole / Alamy Stock Photo)]

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

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.

And as always stay safe, sane, and kind.

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Marlon West (photo courtesy 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.”

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:1TGI1JXpxz34lqIQEvcVAl”/]

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

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)