#title is a reference to Ragtime musical B))

[miles-crow]

Crime of the century

[stripper-patrick]

BLACK HISTORY MONTH👸🏽🤴🏽

Feb 1:

Christina Jenkins: the Black woman who created the sew in weave technique. Thank her for y’all inchesssss👱🏾‍♀️

Feb 2:

Katherine Johnson: the Black woman who calculated rocket trajectories BY HAND because her boss at NASA Buzz Aldrin trusted no one not even the computers🧮

Feb 3:

John Morton-Finney: a Black man who earned 11 degrees and practice law until he was 106 years old and is believed to be the longest practicing attorney in the US 👨🏽‍⚖️

Feb 4:

Haben Girma: the first deaf-blind student to graduate Harvard Law School🧠

Feb 5:

Viola Davis: the first Black woman in history to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony 🏆

Feb 6:

Otis Boykin: a Black man that owned 26 patents one of which being the invention of the pacemaker that saved a lot of lives even in today’s world 🫀

Feb 7:

Mansa Musa: richest man in world history with a fortune of about 4 trillion💰

Feb 8:

Arsenio Hall: in the 50’s he hosted the first black late-night talk show in history 🎙

Feb 9:

Clare Hale: opened up a business caring for children and founded Hale house which is the first care center for infants born addicted to drugs 🍼

Feb 10:

Michele Obama: the first First Lady to attend and Ivy League university for undergrad. She graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law ✨

Feb 11:

John Mercer Langston was the first Black man to become a lawyer when he passed the bar in Ohio in 1854. When he was elected to the post of Town Clerk for Brownhelm, Ohio, in 1855 Langston became one of the first African Americans ever elected to public office in America. John Mercer Langston was also the great-uncle of Langston Hughes, famed poet of the Harlem Renaissance. 📊

Feb 12:

While Rosa Parks is credited with helping to spark the civil rights movement when she refused to give up her public bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955—inspiring the Montgomery Bus Boycott—the lesser-known Claudette Colvin was arrested nine months prior for not giving up her bus seat to white passengers. 🚌

Feb 13:

Thurgood Marshall was the first African American ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and served on the court from 1967 to 1991. 👨🏾‍💼

Feb 14:

Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He represented the state of Mississippi from February 1870 to March 1871. 👨🏽‍💼

Feb 15:

Madam C.J. Walker was born on a cotton plantation in Louisiana and became wealthy after inventing a line of African American hair care products. She established Madame C.J. Walker Laboratories and was also known for her philanthropy. 🪙

Feb 16:

Before Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan joined the billionaire’s club, Robert Johnson became the first African American billionaire when he sold the cable station he founded, Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 2001. 💰

Feb 17:

The Black population of the United States in 1870 was 4.8 million; in 2018, the number of Black residents of the United States 43.8 million. 👥

Feb 18:

The celebration of Black History Month began as “Negro History Week,” which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. 🎩

Feb 19:

On February 12, 2019, the NAACP marked its 110th anniversary. Spurred by growing racial violence in the early 20th century, and particularly by 1908 race riots in Springfield, Illinois, a group of African American leaders joined together to form a new permanent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). February 12, 1909, was chosen because it was the centennial anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.🗓

Feb 20:

Jack Johnson became the first African American man to hold the World Heavyweight Champion boxing title in 1908. He held onto the belt until 1915.🥊

Feb 21:

As a child, Muhammad Ali was refused an autograph by his boxing idol, Sugar Ray Robinson. When Ali became a prizefighter, he vowed to never to deny an autograph request, which he honored throughout his career. ✍🏽

Feb 22:

Jazz, an African American musical form born out of the blues, ragtime and marching bands, originated in Louisiana during the turn of the 19th century. The word "jazz" is a slang term that at one point referred to a sexual act. 💙

Feb 23:

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on friend Maya Angelou's birthday, on April 4, 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward, and sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, for more than 30 years, until Coretta's death in 2006. 🌸

Feb 24:

Louis Armstrong learned how to play the cornet while living at the Colored Waif's Home for Boys.🎼

Feb 25:

After African American performer Josephine Baker expatriated to France, she famously smuggled military intelligence to French allies during World War II. She did this by pinning secrets inside her dress, as well as hiding them in her sheet music.🪖

Feb 26:

Scientist and mathematician Benjamin Banneker is credited with helping to design the blueprints for Washington, D.C.🧪

Feb 27:

The parents of actress Halle Berry chose their daughter's name from Halle's Department Store, a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio. 🏪

Feb 28:

In 1938, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt challenged the segregation rules at the Southern Conference on Human Welfare in Birmingham, Alabama, so she could sit next to African American educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Roosevelt would come to refer to Bethune as "her closest friend in her age group." 👯‍♀️

[blackmusicreview-142-fan-blog]

Cultural Hierarchy, the Mixtape

“Manteca” by Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie famously exposed bebop to a sold out white audience at Carnegie Hall first in 1947-- an action which points to his acceptance of the European musical tradition that had defined the prestigious institution. His song Manteca is emblematic of Gillespie’s contribution to “cubop” music that juxtaposed be-bop and Cuban styles. Moreover, the song utilizes the ⅔ clave rhythm: a cross-cultural Cuban musical technique that Gillespie revitalized within jazz. As such, Manteca--and Gillespie himself--contributed to the shifting cultural hierarchy that encompassed Carribean-influenced jazz as on-par with European classical music.

“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday 

One year after Gillespie debuted bebop at Carnegie, Billie Holiday performed Strange Fruit at the Hall and brought African American music--and the struggles that are embedded within it--to prestigious audiences. She performed the song with only light piano accompaniment, highlighting the horrifying account of “black bodies swinging in the breeze” from the pervasive practice of lynching. In what was later labeled a “protest song”, Strange Fruit was a violent affront to the white audience at Carnegie Hall. To this end, not only did she popularize female jazz singing throughout her career, but she forced a euro-centric, white supremicist culture to recon with the anti-black violence that resulted from such cultural eliteness.

“ In A Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington embodies that of an extremely competent and accomplished musician whose career included an array of musical titles such as, such as composer, arranger, songwriter, bandleader, pianist, and producer. Ellington’s prestige resulted in a nomination for the pulitzer prize in 1965, making history as the first jazz musician to be acknowledged on a platform that solely validated classical music as worthy of such recognition. Yet, it wasn't until 1998 that the pulitzer community officially presented Ellington with a commemoration, having formerly failed to recognize Jazz as a legitimate form of reputable music. In A sentimental Mood , a jazz composition by Duke Ellington is a jazz song for the rainy winter day. Sweeping you away with its slow, repetitive, and sorrowful piano and saxophone, In A sentimental Mood, presents to you a tenderness that feels nostalgic in the most beautiful of ways. As a song that I grew up listening to, In A sentimental Mood, continues to be just that, a song of sentiment for me, reminiscent of, and holding respect for, the days that were good to me, hard for me, and the people whom I love.

“Judy” By Regina Carter

Regina Carter, is the first black violinist to perform non classical music. Carter faced resistance when she proposed recording with the instrument on jazz tracks, as it is traditionally a European instrument with the sole function of playing classical music. She has since continued to use the instrument as a function of Jazz, proving Jazz is among the genres of music worthy of a violin. Carter’s song Judy, features the violin as the sole carrier of the melody with the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar. As two instruments that aren't generally paired, this song is unexpected, yet beautiful in its simplicity of arrangement. It is not however, lacking in technique and personal style which highlights it’s validity among music that would use the violin traditionally.

“Mr. Intentional” By Lauryn Hill

This track highlights the theme of cultural hierarchy because Ms. Lauryn Hill here coins a different sound foreign to rap/hip-hop by infusing Caribbean reggae with hip-hop and soul originally with her group Fugees, and again in her first solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, breaking all barriers of what hip-hop would sound like. In her second album being a live one she performed at MTV Unplugged 2.0, Hill pushed the standard of what kind of music she was able to create even further using her acoustic guitar as her only instrument. Focusing on a more folk-soul infused sound, the rapper received backlash for changing musical styles, and when the album first came out did it did not receive the best reviews nor did it sell well. In Mr. Intentional, Hill warns everybody to make no mistake of assuming she needs your help because she believes in and has God on her side. She claims her power in being extremely vulnerable and confident as a Black woman artist and calls out oppressive institutions that “seek to suck [y]our blood” warning everyone that their egos and immature ways of being will be our biggest downfall.

“So What” By Miles Davis

Considered one of the greatest trumpet players of all time, Miles Davis transformed the stylistic elements of jazz and left behind a legacy that will forever be remembered. One of the most influential people of the 20thcentury, Miles went from a Julliliard dropout to performing for some of the most sophisticated crowds of the country. While known to play a variety of Jazz styles, arguably, his most popular album was in 1959 with the release of “Kind of Blue”. The album’s title was a reference to Davis’s mood at the time and featured his sextet including saxophonist John Coltrane, and pianist Bill Evans. Included on the album was the song “So What” which was a nine-minute improvisation and included solos from each of the horns that give a feeling of allusiveness for the audience. A great example of modal Jazz music, the “cool jazz” tune is simple from a harmonic standpoint and creates a laid back atmosphere with the help of Jimmy Cobb setting the tempo on drums. The countless sublities and complexities noticed after each listen are one of the many reasons why this is such an outstanding song.

“St. Louis Blues” W.C. Handy 

Handy, a pioneer of the blues, helped define the genre for what it’s best known as today.  The blue collar worker considered “The Father of Blues” was the first to translate “Black” oral music into a written form, thus making it available for white audiences. As a result of this, for the first time blues which is typically considered a low brow category of music would become associated with audiences of higher social classes and the elite. W.C. Handy is one of the first African Americans to experience cultural hierarchy. His song “St Louis Blues” is one of the most publicly recognized tunes by Handy and was the first to gain national prominence. Referred to by Handy as an attempt to “combine ragtime syncopation with a real melody in the spiritual tradition”, the song consists of three lines of lyrics repeated over a standard twelve bar blues rhythm. Handy also features a “tango” in an attempt to implement Latin Caribbean themes common in Jazz during this era.   Sung by Handy from the small clubs on Beale Street all the way to the most prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York City, “St Louis Blues” is a song which will always be considered a blues classic classic

“Stereotype” by Black Violin

Ironically, the name of this song is called Stereotype while fitting into the theme of cultural hierarchy, solely because the existence of Black violinists whot incorporate hip-hop, R&B, and soul altogether. The infiltration of the concept that violinists and classical instruments like the violin are mainly for non-Black -- or otherwise white-- people is completely obliterated here. In “Stereotype,” the song opens out with Black Violin’s definition of what a stereotype is, “Stereotype: an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about other people…” The addition of sharp hitting heavy beats created by the violin give the song the hip-hop sound that makes you want to bop your head to it.