MUSIC

13 Dec

Neneh Cherry: ‘Rap is a kind of freedom’

MUSIC, SUBCULTURE/LIFESTYLE, WOMEN

British female rappers, left to right: Estelle, Ms Dynamite, Neneh Cherry, Flohio, Cassie Rytz. Composite: Atlantic Records, Redferns, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Lillie Eiger Thirty years after her debut, the singer recalls how hip-hop broke the mould for British women - and we chart the rappers that followed in her path, from Cookie Crew to Cassie Rytz by Jude Rogers | The Guardian/Observer One of BBC Four’s recent Top of the Pops reruns from the late 1980s features a performance that many of us who were young girls at...

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13 Dec

Betty Davis – ‘They Say I’m Different’ Documentary

AFROFUTURISTIC, MUSIC, WOMEN

Funk Queen Betty Davis changed the landscape for female artists in America. She “was the first…” as former husband Miles Davis said. “Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince”. An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty arrived on the '70s scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles – startlingly turning him...

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12 Dec

‘The narrative is we don’t sell records’: the Black female singers uncredited by the UK industry

IT'S ALL POLITICAL, MUSIC, WOMEN

Their vocals and songwriting feature on some of the biggest hits, but Black women are often not credited, leaving their solo careers stunted and causing them to lose out financially Elisabeth Troy, Shingai and Kelli-Leigh, three of the singers campaigning for better credit and representation in the UK industry. Composite: PR, Tom Oldham by Jumi Akinfenwa | The Guardian Through soul, funk, disco and beyond, black female vocalists stood proudly on the front of record sleeves and on stages. Then, in 1989, Italian dance...

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4 Sep

America’s Lost Generation of Black Conductors

IT'S ALL POLITICAL, MUSIC

by David Patrick Stearns | WQXR Editorial The 1970s are hardly ancient history, but the decade seems like a distant world that had African American symphony and opera conductors in a few highly visible positions. Though not exactly common, Black conductors were a definite presence — long-emerging careers blossomed and young firebrands soared out of left field, each in ways that intersected around that time. This lost generation of African American conductors led major concerts by Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony, gave the...

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4 Sep

Jazz Has Always Been Protest Music. Can It Meet This Moment?

IT'S ALL POLITICAL, MUSIC

Jazz remained a resistance music because it was the sound of Black Americans building something together, in the face of repression. Credit...

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8 Aug

Koffee Drops The Perfect Quarantine Love Song With “Lockdown”

by KEENAN HIGGINS | Hot New Hiphop After months of being on lockdown and social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Koffee gives the world a very relatable anthem about living it up to the fullest after this quarantine eases up. It goes without saying that many of us are completely over this global quarantine. As it looks like we may be approaching better days in the near future — keep those masks on, folks! — GRAMMY-winning reggae sensation Koffee just dropped a chune...

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8 Aug

9 Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories about Music

Sarah Pinkser recommends fiction about otherworldly bands, songs, and concerts by SARAH PINSKER | Electric Lit Electric Lit relies on contributions from our readers to help make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive. Please support our work by becoming a member today, or making a one-time donation here. . Translating one medium into another is tricky. Music is music and art is art and dance is dance; to try to convey the power of another art in fiction is its own sleight-of-hand. My own first novel takes on...

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8 Aug

For Black Pop Stans, the Bare Minimum Is No Longer Enough

IT'S ALL POLITICAL, MUSIC, SUBCULTURE/LIFESTYLE

Photos in illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images, Larry Marano/Shutterstock, Charles Sykes/Invision/AP/Shutterstock by BRITTANY SPANOS | Rolling Stone Magazine Angela H. was marching in a Black Lives Matter protest in Hollywood on June 2nd when her friends pointed out something surprising. They’d spotted a man in black gloves, sunglasses, and a hoodie nearby in the crowd — and he looked just like Harry Styles, a pop star Angela has been stanning since 2011. She wasn’t convinced at first. “Every part of me didn’t want to believe it for...

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2 Mar

RZA Shares New EP of Guided Meditation Songs: Listen

MUSIC, SUBCULTURE/LIFESTYLE

Music of spiritual aid—made for the tea company TAZO—from the Wu-Tang mastermind by Matthew Ismael Ruiz and Jazz Monroe | Pitchfork RZA has released Guided Explorations, a five-track EP that he produced in collaboration with TAZO® Tea. Early in the record, RZA instructs you to find a “chill environment” before conquering various adversaries of spiritual peace. He goes deep on the scourge of distraction and poisonous thoughts, explaining how “competitive pressure can stagnate you.” As the record continues, he spools out kernels of self-help advice over ambient...

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29 Nov

8-Year-Old Prodigy Drummer’s Amazing Zeppelin Cover

by Hank Shteamer | Rolling Stone Yoyoka Soma’s spot-on version of “Good Times Bad Times”--this little girl is a joy to behold! John Bonham’s drum part in Led Zeppelin‘s “Good Times Bad Times” is one of classic rock’s most legendary grooves. And, thanks to the skipping kick-drum part in the verse, one of the trickiest to pull off. That’s just one reason we’re so impressed with the above video of eight-year-old drummer Yoyoka Soma. The young Japanese prodigy has been at it since age two,...

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25 Nov

Meet the 10-year-old DJ taking Ghana by storm

Erica Armah Bra-Bulu Tandoh, better known as DJ Switch, is the youngest person to win the prestigious Ghana DJ award in June 2018. The 10-year-old, who began DJing a year ago, attracts hundreds of people to her shows, which feature music, singing, dancing and even horses. Despite her love of music, Erica hopes to be a gynecologist when she is older and is an advocate of education. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1zLIr7Msd4 See more of DJ Switch's music on her YouTube channel ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnm1...

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25 Nov

Jazz Deconstructed: John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”

BRAINIAC, MUSIC

Some heady music theory here! Fascinating breakdown of this groundbreaking work of art and science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62tIvfP9A2w...

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8 Feb

In Coversation: Quincy Jones

IT'S ALL POLITICAL, MUSIC

Photograph by Art Streiber / AUGUST The music legend on the secret Michael Jackson, his relationship with the Trumps, and the problem with modern pop. by David Marchese | Vulture In both music and manner, Quincy Jones has always registered — from afar, anyway — as smooth, sophisticated, and impeccably well-connected. (That’s what earning 28 Grammy awards and co-producing Michael Jackson’s biggest-selling albums will do.) But in person, the 84-year-old music-industry macher is far spikier and more complicated. “All I’ve ever done is tell the truth,”...

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12 Jan

Beyond Straight No Chaser: Ancient to Future

by Paul Brad | Ancient to Future STRAIGHT NO CHASER: From World Jazz Jive to Interplanetary Sounds : Ancient To Future – 1988 – 2009 For nigh on two decades Straight No Chaser magazine went around the globe reflecting the musical pre-occupations of a devoted readership which included musicians , DJs, crate diggers, music junkies, artists and designers and those people who just wanted that bit more. Conceived as a magazine of “world Jazz Jive” that was attuned to the “Freedom Principle”, Straight...

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11 Jan

Unreleased Demo of Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ w/Nile Rodgers

Getty This Unreleased Demo of 'Let's Dance' Might Be More Timeless Than the Album Version; Hear the recently released track with Nile Rodgers. by Matt Miller | Esquire When David Bowie first played an early version of "Let's Dance" for Nile Rodgers in 1982, the Chic guitarist was not impressed. "I come from dance music," Rodgers told Bowie at the time. "You can't call that thing you just played 'Let's Dance.'" So Rodgers tinkered with the structure and the chords and turned the song into one of...

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6 Dec

Downtempo Throwback: ‘Destiny’ by Zero 7 ft/ Sia & Sophie Barker, 2002

Sia before the intrigue and wigs. The slammin' back up singers are so chill and really feelin' the groove...

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1 Dec

Joni Mitchell: Fear of a Female Genius

Getty Images/Ringer Illustration One of the greatest living artists in popular music still isn’t properly recognized. Joni transcends gender, genre and time. Here’s why. by Lindsay Zoladz | The Ringer In one of the golden, waning years of the 1960s, Chuck Mitchell told his young wife to read Saul Bellow’s novel Henderson the Rain King. It was not a gesture of marital kindness so much as a power move: Chuck was older and more educated than Joan, and to her ears, his book recommendations always...

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1 Nov

NYC Votes to Repeal 91-Year-Old Cabaret Law

MUSIC, SUBCULTURE/LIFESTYLE

This April 24, 1953 file photo shows people dancing at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, in New York. (AP Photo/Hans von Nolde, File) Associated Press/NY Daily News 10/31/17 | NEW YORK (AP) — Cut loose! New York City lawmakers voted Tuesday to legalize dancing in bars, repealing a 91-year-old law that banned boogieing at most city nightspots. The anti-dancing law was first enacted in 1926 and prohibited dancing in bars and restaurants that don't have a cabaret license. Critics said the so-called cabaret law originated as...

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30 Oct

Bootsy Collins: ‘LSD was a big part of why I left James Brown’s band’

Gamin’ on ya! Bootsy Collins. Photograph: Alias Imaging/Michael Weintrob by Candice Pires | The Guardian The musician, 66, on free love, Funkadelic, coming to earthly consciousness and getting away from being Bootsy My mother never said to me: “You can’t do that.” When it came to finishing high school or going on the road with James Brown, I decided to go. She knew I wasn’t really choosing anything harmful. She just wanted me to have fun with whatever I was doing. She was my backbone. You...

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14 Oct

Interview w/ Vincent Ahehehinnou from Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou

by Ban Ban Ton Ton Benin`s Orchestre Poly Rythmo De Cotonou have been playing and recording for nearly five decades. Combining West Africa`s Voodoo rhythms of the spirits with Pop and Psychedelia. They released hundreds of records in their own continent before being rediscovered by everywhere else via sublime compilations on Soundway and Analog Africa. Described as “the best Funk band in the world”, their name is often preceded by the justified prefix. T.P. “Tout Puissant”. “All mighty”. As part of the...

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