Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to another installment of my weekly music appreciation series. We now find ourselves in the midst of February, and February is Black History Month. Ergo I thought it would be a good idea to pay tribute to the contributions of America's black musicians. It's very difficult to conceive of modern American music (or indeed modern music period) without the influences of black musicians and African musical traditions on American culture. Take it away and what are we left with?
Banjo-less bluegrass. Yep, I don't want to live in that world either.
We can't approach this subject without talking about the Blues. Now the blues are a fascinating art form which combined African musical traditions like call-and-response with some Celtic influences and uniquely American musical innovations.
I was racking my brain trying to figure which blues musician to spotlight here when there are so many greats (Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters, etc), but ultimately decided to go with the hot hand. There's no hotter hand than having your music sent out into space for the listening pleasure of hypothetical aliens, and that's exactly what NASA did with the following song, Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," by sending it on the Voyager-2 space probe.
Jazz. What is jazz? Like, seriously, what does it mean? Well, research into the etymology of the word tells you that it comes from an early 20th century synonym for "spunk" (in both common senses of the word). As for the style, it's another blending of various musical forms and styles from multiple cultures, with black, white, and Hispanic infusions. Jazz is the quintissential American musical genre, whether you enjoy it or not (personally most of it sounds the same to me, but hey I'm a neanderthal). That said, I have long enjoyed the jazz put out by band leader Cab Calloway, singer and dancer extraordinaire. Cab Calloway has a lot of famous numbers such as "Minnie the Moocher" and "Saint James Infirmary Blues" which highlight his flutelike vocalizations and often dark subject matter (death, madness, substance abuse, and the supernatural were common themes), but I'm instead featuring a departure from his usual style. This song, probably more famous as sung by Nat King Cole (and Willie Nelson), showcases a softer, more romantic side to Calloway's voice. This is "Stardust"
Next up we simply must mention rock'n'roll. Rock'n roll split off from the earlier country western and honky tonk genres during the 1950s with pioneers such as Chuck Berry, Elvis, the Big Bopper, and Little Richard. All these musicians had one thing in common (other than fantastic showmanship)--they were effectively taking "black" music and making it palatable to white ears. I was torn on whether to include a Chuck Berry or Little Richard song, and ultimately I went with Little Richard because I'm pretty sure that everyone already knows about Chuck Berry, while Little Richard may be a little less listened to nowadays. This is his song "Long Tall Sally," which you may recognize as Dah Choppah! song from Predator (one of my all time favorite action movies, by the way).
One of my favorite books, and one of the most under-read books in American literature is Jean Toomer's "Cane." Cane is a strange literary curio, part-novel, part-story collection, part poetry collection. It's also one of the earliest books in American history that treated black people as fully realized humans rather than just background characters or racial caricatures. The writing in the book is absolutely stunning, and it's not hard to see why it inspired Gill Scott Heron (sometimes known as the godfather of hiphop) to make this next song, "Cane." Open your ears to some funk:
This next entry Ain't Nuthin ta Fuck Wit, or so I'm told. Welcome to hip-hop.
Y'all don't need me to introduce this next one. All I'll say in the way of commentary is that he and I share the same last name, "Duckworth," because his full legal name is "Kendrick Lamar Duckworth" (no relation). This is "Mortal Man" from his excellent album "To Pimp a Butterfly," performed with the national symphony orchestra:
