“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.
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 isAfrican-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.”
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:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
Known by many as “The Architect of Rock and Roll,” Richard Wayne Penniman aka Little Richard, was a pioneer of the popular music that came to dominate in the 1950s and beyond.
With a fusion of blues, boogie woogie and gospel stylings, Little Richard helped create the sound that swept the United States and ultimately the world.
Songs like “Rip It Up,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Good Golly Miss Molly,” ‘Ready Teddy,”“Tutti Frutti” combined with his energetic, rousing performances helped Little Richard set the stage and the bar for any and all rock and R&B superstars that came after him. To quote a recent New York Times article, Little Richard offered “An Ecstasy You Couldn’t Refuse.”
In honor of his life’s work GBN Contributor Marlon West put together a Spotify playlist celebrating Little Richard.
In Marlon’s words:
“Vernon Reid Twittered this tribute to the late great, Little Richard:
“No Jimi, No Beatles No Bowie, No Bolan. NO GLAM, No Freddie, No Prince, No Elton, No Preston No Sly, No Stevie, WITHOUT Little Richard! They DON’T HAPPEN Without HIM BLAZING A TRAIL IN THE DARK.”
Little Richard’s talent and audaciousness was the springboard to so many. Here’s a collection of his music, and of a wide range of artists who he influenced greatly.
Little Richard was a standard-bearer for being whoever the eff you want.”
“I’m thrilled to take part in Good Black News’ monthlong celebration of Stevland Hardaway Morris aka Stevie Wonder’s 70th Birthday.
My first offering is this collection of him performing covers and standards. Stevie Wonder’s songs have provided the soundtrack to our lives. Though he has been able to make so many other songs “his own.”
Starting with his childhood idol, Ray Charles, here’s a collection of songs by a wide-ranging batch of artists including Marvin Gaye, The Beatles, Cher, B.B. King, GlennMiller, The Doors, The Supremes and so many others.
Do enjoy. Stay safe, you all and “see” ya next week! Take care!!”
Over the weekend, Good Black Newsoffered a remembrance and playlist of one of the world’s most iconic and influential jazz singers, Ella Fitzgerald, in honor of her 103rd birthday. But what about those women who also contributed mightily to jazz but are not commonly recognized?
“This week’s playlist is inspired by Giovanni Russonello’s New York Times piece, “10 Women in Jazz Who Never Got Their Due.” This collection includes the oft-forgotten artists mentioned in the piece, including Mary Lou Williams, Jutta Hipp, Marian McPartland, Hazel Scott, Dorothy Ashby, Shirley Scott and Alice Coltrane, though it also features several current artists who are also frequently overlooked like Vi Redd, Nubya Garcia, Linda Oh and others.
This one was a real pleasure and education to compile. Do enjoy. And stay safe, you all.”
GBN Contributor Marlon West is back once again with an excellent curation of songs that help define the breadth of music and culture of the diaspora. This week’s focus is a playlist that mixes genres but is tied together by the concept known as “Afrofuturism.”
In Marlon’s words:
“Hope this Monday finds you all staying safe, sane, and kind. Here’s another playlist from your friend and selector, Marlon. Afrofuturism addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture and science fiction. Afrofuturist ideas have been explored though literature, visual arts, film, and of course music. Hope you dig this playlist of artists working in that mode from the 1950s to the present-day.”
GBN Contributor Marlon West is back again this week with his excellent curation of a sub-genre known as “Soul Jazz.”
In Marlon’s words:
“Heavily influenced by funk, gospel, and R&B, Soul Jazz emerged in the late 1950 and ‘60s. Artists like Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott, and Art Blakey were not going to take the popularity of soul music laying down. They created music designed for jukeboxes of the time, and is still endlessly sampled and influential today.”
But today, on May 13, Stevie Wonder’s actual birthday, we want to offer you links to all things Stevie, like his 
