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Posts tagged as “Scott Joplin”

Black Lexicon: What “Cutting Contest” Means (LISTEN)

Black Lexicon: What “Cutting Contest” Means (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 4, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In today’s Daily Drop, for #JazzAppreciationMonth, we explore the term “Cutting Contest.” To hear about it, press PLAY:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below:

Hey, this 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 4th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

It’s in the category we call “Lemme Break It Down,” where we explore the origins and meanings of words and phrases rooted in the Black Lexicon and Black culture. Today’s phrase for #JazzAppreciationMonth? “Cutting Contest.”

A “cutting contest” is a battle between two musicians where the “prize” could range from bragging rights to a coveted job.

The term was first applied to face-offs between pianists in the 1920s and later evolved to include competitions between singers, horn players, drummers, guitarists or virtually any musicians who squared off against each other on the same instrument.

A lasting form of the cutting contest is the improvisational trading of solos in jazz. It’s also a precursor to modern-day breakdancing and rap battles.

To learn more about cutting contests, you can watch a cool, fictionalized cutting contest from the 1977 television movie Scott Joplin starring Billy Dee Williams as Scott Joplin and Clifton Davis as respected St. Louis pianist Louis Chauvin on YouTube, and also check out the links to sources 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, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[Photo credit: Mike Aremu and Yolanda Brown @Sax Appeal via olorisupergal.com]

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” – 1st Black Woman Contracted to Deliver U.S. Mail

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” – 1st Black Woman Contracted to Deliver U.S. Mail

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Saturday, March 12 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 about Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” the formerly enslaved woman who delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service in the Old West:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, March 12th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Nicknames in the Old West had to be earned, not given. “Stagecoach Mary” was no exception. After the Civil War, the newly freed Mary Fields worked as a groundskeeper at a convent.

After clashing with several nuns who objected to her smoking, drinking and gun-toting gruffness, Fields accepted a donated stagecoach from a sympathetic Mother Superior and used it to pursue a new line of work.

In 1895, Fields became the first Black woman to get a postal service contract to deliver the U.S. mail. With her guns and tough demeanor, “Stagecoach Mary” unfailingly protected her route from bandits and became beloved by locals in Cascade, Montana.
To learn more about Stagecoach Mary, you can read Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana History by Miantae Metcalf McConnell from 2016, the 2019 children’s picture book Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver written by Tami Charles and illustrated by Claire Almon, or the 2007 book African American Women of the Old West by Tricia Wagner on which Mary graces the cover.

You can also watch 2016’s True First: African American Legends and their Untold Stories documentary on her on AllBlk via Amazon, or listen to the very informative 2021 episode about Mary on the podcast Black Cowboys.

Links to these and other sources are 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, 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. Additional music permitted under Public Domain license: “Maple Leaf Rag” composed by Scott Joplin.

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.

Sources:

(paid links)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Black, Brown & Beige” – Celebrating Black Classical Composers, Musicians and Performers (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Black, Brown & Beige” – Celebrating Black Classical Composers, Musicians and Performers (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 3, 2020

[Photo collage L to R, top then bottom: Florence Beatrice-Price, Julius Eastman, Scott Joplin, William Grant Still, Stewart Goodyear]

In a world that hasn’t always welcomed them with open arms, many of these performers, instrumentalists, and conductors shattered racial barriers on the concert stage and created landmark moments in classical music.

While you are likely familiar with the symphonic work of Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, and William Grant Still, you probably don’t know Florence Beatrice-Price, Julius Eastman, and Stewart Goodyear.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:1L3w1UOScrjUCA57vydkcV”/]

From the highly sophisticated instrumental musical forms, like the concerto, symphony and sonata, to spirituals, to the avant-garde, Black composers have made an impact on Classical music. Many of these artists languished in obscurity in life, and have been all but forgotten.

While other Black women and men are creating significant works of music right now. Here are some of the most influential Black voices in classical music history from the 18th century to today.

Enjoy. And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

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

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)