SMS Music Lessons

On Day 12 of Black History in music I want to take it to an event that most are unaware of...February is also celebrated as Raggae Music Month in Jamaica. The most influential genre around the world, reggae rhythmic influences could be heard is almost every genre.

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In the late 1960s, Jamaica was blessed with a variety of talented musicians and singers who experimented with and blended different beats of music and recorded their musical renditions at local recording studios like Dynamic Sounds and Treasure Isle.

So, while rocksteady, with its smooth rhythmic beat and melodious lyrics and sound, took over from the more pulsating and energetic sound of ska in 1967, by 1969 another new energetic beat was already replaying the rocksteady genre. The new beat would become the phenomenal genre of reggae.

There is no definitive account of where the name reggae originated from. One account is that it emerged from a 1968 single, “Do the Reggay” by the group T***s and the Maytals. Another account claims the late reggae icon Bob Marley said the word reggae came from a Spanish term for “the king’s music.” This could have some accuracy as in Latin the word regi means “to the king.”

Whatever the source of the name, the fact is that within a short time the new genre reggae became king on Jamaica’s musical scene.

Somehow, reggae attracted singers, men and women, who were affiliated, or yearned to be affiliated to the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica, which created a societal conundrum in the late 1960s to early 1970s, as some uptown Jamaicans tended to turn up their noses, not so much at the music, but the artists rendering the sound, but the music grew to so much in popularity that the societal biases was eventually removed.

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Next on our 28 days of Black History in Music is Ms. Leontyne Price, one of the few African American pioneer opera singers of our times.

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Soprano Leontyne Price is widely regarded as the first African American to gain international acclaim as a professional opera singer.
Who Is Leontyne Price?

Renowned for her early stage and television work, Leontyne Price made her opera stage debut at the San Francisco Opera in 1957, and her debut at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House in 1961. One of the first African American singers to earn international acclaim in the field, Price became known for her roles in Il Trovatore, Antony and Cleopatra and Aida, before retiring from the opera in 1985.

Early Life and Influences

Mary Violet Leontyne Price was born on February 10, 1927, in Laurel, Mississippi, to James Anthony Price, a carpenter, and Kate Baker Price, a midwife with a beautiful singing voice. Price showed an interest in music from a young age and was encouraged by her parents. After beginning formal music training at age 5, she spent much of her time singing in the choir at St. Paul Methodist Church in her hometown.

Price found additional inspiration at age 9, when she traveled with her mother to Jackson, Mississippi, to attend a recital by contralto Marian Anderson.

Education and Julliard

Following her time at Oak Park Vocational High School, where she was a standout pianist and member of the glee club, Price enrolled at the College of Education and Industrial Arts in Wilberforce, Ohio. She began her studies focusing on music education, but was later encouraged by faculty to switch her concentration to voice. After graduation, Price headed to New York City to attend The Juilliard School on a full scholarship.

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Day 10 of our Black History in Music we want to acknowledge Ms.

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She earned the moniker ‘High Priestess of Soul’ for she could weave a spell so seductive and hypnotic that the listener lost track of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment. She was who the world would come to know as Nina Simone.

When Nina Simone died on April 21, 2003, she left a timeless treasure trove of musical magic spanning over four decades from her first hit, the 1959 Top 10 classic “I Loves You Porgy,” to “A Single Woman,” the title cut from her one and only 1993 Elektra album. While thirty-three years separate those recordings, the element of honest emotion is the glue that binds the two together – it is that approach to every piece of work that became Nina’s uncompromising musical trademark.

Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933, Nina’s prodigious talent as a musician was evident early on when she started playing piano by ear at the age of three. Her mother, a Methodist minister, and her father, a handyman and preacher himself, couldn’t ignore young Eunice’s God-given gift of music.

Raised in the church on the straight and narrow, her parents taught her right from wrong, to carry herself with dignity, and to work hard. She played piano – but didn’t sing – in her mother’s church, displaying remarkable talent early in her life.

Able to play virtually anything by ear, she was soon studying classical music with an Englishwoman named Muriel Mazzanovich, who had moved to the small southern town. It was from these humble roots that Eunice developed a lifelong love of Johann Sebastian Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert.

After graduating valedictorian of her high school class, the community raised money for a scholarship for Eunice to study at Julliard in New York City before applying to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

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For Day 8 of our Black History in Music we would like to acknowledge Ms. Miriam Makeba.

My first memory of Ms. Makeba was when she guest appeared on the Cosby Show and as a young girl I was in awe of her strength and beauty. I share that episode with my daughter today.

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"Miriam Makeba was born in March 4th, in 1932 Johannesburg, during a time of economic depression. Her mother, a domestic worker, was imprisoned for six months for illegally brewing beer to help make ends meet, and Miriam went to prison with her as she was just 18 days old. She grew up in Nelspruit where her father was a clerk with Shell Oil....
She began her music career singing for her cousin’s band, the Cuban Brothers, but it was only when she began to sing for the Manhattan Brothers in 1954 that she began to build a reputation. Makeba’s appearances in the films Come Back Africa (1957) and as the female lead in Todd Matshikiza’s King Kong (1959) cemented her reputation in the music industry both locally and abroad. She later married her King Kong co-star, Hugh Masekela, in 1964. Makeba arrived in New York in November 1959, later resigning herself to exile after South Africa refused to renew her passport. For her small part in Come Back Africa (as a ‘shebeen’ singer singing the titles ‘Lakutshon Ilanga’ and ‘Saduva’).....The South African government then revoked her passport and denied her the possibility of returning to South Africa. She was the first black musician to leave South Africa on account of apartheid, and over the years many others would follow her....
In 1968, she married....civil rights activist and Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael but harassment from the US government and forced to move to Guineau. They separated in 1978....
In 1990, African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela was freed from 27 years in prison, and encouraged Miriam Makeba to return to South Africa. She then returned, after 31 years in exile, and became a goodwill ambassador for South Africa to the United Nations.

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Day 7 of Black History in Music, Jamaican Born, and the Bronx bread...DJ Kool Herc!

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DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) was born April 16, 1955 in West Kingston, Jamaica and migrated to the Bronx, New York in 1967. His classmates at Alfred E. Smith High School referred to him as Hercules because of his size and avid trips to the weight room. Herc started out as a graffiti artist in a group called the Ex-Vandals, but was introduced to deejaying when his father bought a PA system and didn’t know how to hook it up.

Inspired by James Brown and Jamaican music’s drum and bass, Herc experimented with records in his bedroom. He would focus on what he referred to as “the get-down part” because it was the portion of the song was that got the dancers excited. Also known as “the break” of a record, Herc would isolate these heavy bass and percussion snippets and used two turntables to switch between two copies of the same record. This technique became known as the “Merry-Go-Round,” and he is now considered the originator of break-beat DJing itself.

16-year-old Herc made his debut as a DJ at his sister’s party in the recreation room at 1520 Sedgwick Ave on August 11, 1973. Many believe this was the night Hip Hop was born, and Herc became known as its “Father” influencing all future DJs and their techniques.

DJ Kool Herc is the originator of break-beat DJing, where the breaks of funk songs—being the most danceable part, often featuring percussion—were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties. Later DJs such as Grandmaster Flash refined and developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting. While growing up in Kingston he saw and heard the sound systems firsthand at neighborhood parties called dancehalls. He moved to the Bronx, New York at the age of 12 and began to throw free neighborhood parties.

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For Day 6 of Black History in Music we would like to acknowledge Ms. Dinah Washington

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Dinah Washington has been called “the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s.” Her success, at a time when the recording industry wasn’t necessarily friendly to women or Black performers, was astonishing. Her work would pave the way for the pop stardom for future Black female artists.

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Born in Alabama, Ruth Lee Jones grew up in a staunch Baptist family in Chicago, singing and playing the piano in the choir at her local church and quickly becoming adept at gospel’s characteristic off-beat, syncopated rhythms and bent or sliding notes. At the age of fifteen, she performed “I Can’t Face The Music” in a local amateur competition hosted at Chicago’s Regal Theatre, won and was soon performing in Chicago’s nightclubs, such as Dave’s Rhumboogie and the Downbeat Room of the Sherman Hotel.

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Day 5 of Black History in Music we would like to acknowledge someone who doesn't get the credit they deserve, Mr. BIG JOE TURNER.

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"Big Joe Turner was famous from the 30s to the 70s, yet he is largely forgotten today. What did this hero do? He started rock’n’roll. Turner was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and sang for pennies on street corners as a child. In his teens he earned a living as a bartender, singing behind the counter in nightclubs. These places were noisy, and Turner had to develop a loud voice just to be heard. He retained this skill and frequently didn’t bother with a mic on stage: he could be heard anyway. Other singers, notably Al Green, adopted this as a stage trick, further cementing Turner’s place among the most influential Black musicians of all time.

Teamed with boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson, Turner played all-nighters in his hometown before being given a showcase at Carnegie Hall, in New York City, in 1938, where he rocked a white audience who’d never seen the real-deal blues before. Hit records followed, such as Cherry Red, Me And Piney Brown and Roll ’Em Pete – all landmarks. His take of Around The Clock Blues made a Wynonie Harris song raunchier, influencing Chuck Berry’s Reelin’ And Rockin’ and numerous similar records. Turner shouted the blues with Count Basie’s band and Jay McShann, and his witty ways were a big influence on the king of jumpin’ jive, Louis Jordan.
Turner joined Atlantic Records in 1951 and hit with Honey Hush and, in 1954, Shake Rattle And Roll. The latter was one of the foundation stones of rock’n’roll, cleaned up for airplay in a version by Bill Haley, and then recorded more authentically by Elvis Presley; Buddy Holly was another fan. Big Joe Turner boasted that he never changed, yet as music shifted from blues shouting to boogie-woogie to swing to R&B to rock’n’roll – developments partly of his making – this huge, amiable figure still thrived. As he sang in Honey Hush: he let it roll like a big wheel."

Must hear: Shake, Rattle And Roll

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For day 4 of Black History in Music I want to bring to your knowledge the creator of the genre that we all enjoy today afrobeat! Mr. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

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"Born 1938 in Abeokuta, Nigeria, he began his career playing jazz and highlife. He formed his first band in London in 1959 while studying at Trinity College of Music. In the early 1970s, Fela created Afrobeat, which rapidly became the most avidly followed style across West Africa. Afrobeat’s revolutionary politics brought Fela into violent conflict with successive Nigerian military regimes, which made many attempts to suppress him and once sent in the army to burn down his communal home, Kalakuta Republic. Fela refused to be silenced. He rebuilt Kalakuta and at his Lagos club, the Afrika Shrine, continued to make fierce, and always supremely danceable, music until a few weeks before his passing in 1997. Fela’s legacy lives on through his family. His son Femi leads The Positive Force and another son, Seun, leads Egypt 80. His daughter Yeni was the prime mover behind the building of the Kalakuta Museum and the New Afrika Shrine.

Since 2008, the Kuti family has partnered with Knitting Factory Entertainment and Partisan Records to revive and reissue Fela's entire catalog, further broadening the global reach and accessibility of his music and message."---

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📸 Fela Anikulapo Kuti]]

Beyonce may have shed light on this newly discovered genre and made pop culture fall in love. But before there was others who took the time to acknowledge our African roots whether it was in throw back music videos such as "Got til it's gone" (1997) or "loosing you" (2012) artistically genius produced video.

Afrobeat music has ever evolved over the years and we love to see it and hear it!

Day 3 of Black History in Music We have to acknowledge the beautiful and forever classic Ella Fitzgerald.

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"With the nicknames Queen Of Jazz and The First Lady Of Song, Ella Fitzgerald is among the most influential Black musicians of jazz’s golden age. Born in 1917, Fitzgerald made her start touring with the famous Chick Webb Orchestra, with whom she made a name for herself before going solo. Fitzgerald was one of the first female jazz artists to break through in America, and hits such as Dream A Little Dream Of Me and It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) are timeless classics. During her career she collaborated with the likes of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and her music has influenced 21st-century singers Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga and Adele among them."

Must hear: It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)

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Some other notable singers that mentions her as a creditability to their careers are and

For Day 2 a woman whom my mother loved and admired the most, so you know her music and story was embedded in me growing up as a kid. To this day my sister and I love to re-enact our favorite scenes from her hit movie "What's Love got to do with it" played by THEE .angelabassett

Our fav Ms.! We love you so much!

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"In a lifetime in music, Tina Turner has been there, done that, got the stiletto heels. But while her triumphant-tragic-triumphant story is often told, and her voice is known the world over, it’s still not entirely appreciated just how much she did for music in another way. In the 60s, when Black female musicians were often regarded as trivial artists or as vocal decoration for other (usually less talented) singers, Tina stood out as a figure with power, becoming both the first female and the first Black artist featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Her command of the stage, as well as her vocal art, made her a formidable presence, and her strutting dancing was legendary. But she was not entirely thought of as a soul singer, soulful though she was: Tina rocked. So when The Who and director Ken Russell sought an Acid Queen for the movie version of Tommy, Turner was the perfect choice: sassy, tough and assertive. She helped teach Mick Jagger to dance, showing him how to move for the 60s dance The Pony; Jagger learned well, accepting this memo from Turner with good grace, admitting he was knocked out when he first saw The Ike And Tina Turner R***e live in the US. Vocally, she held sway over Janis Joplin and Fantasia, and her uncompromising, in-control stage presence gave a template to Beyoncé. Even Lady Gaga and Madonna’s legs-akimbo moves owe something to the “Queen Of Rock’n’Roll”. ....

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If you haven't, you MUST See her docu-movie "What's Love Got to do with it" For the Culture!

Our Favorite Hit of hers, check out: What's Love Got to do with it!