Happy _lack History Month 2025
While we’ve made many strides, we still have a ways to go before our country elects to acknowledge and rectify its horrific past…
Out of the Ashes, A Unifying Sound
In the midst of so much evil, divisive language, behavior, and vitriol from those who are in positions of ‘leadership,’ along with many of their constituents, I chose and managed to pivot and find some solace during the wee hours of this morning while watching FireAid, a benefit concert assembled to provide assistance to those affected by the wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles. Off for the day from my Substitute Teacher gig, I got comfortable and excited while crashing on my couch for the chance to see two of my favorite artists perform: Sting and Stevie Wonder. And much like they did for the former’s 60th birthday celebration back in 2011, these two legendary performers appeared together (along with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, no longer bare-chested and adorned in his trademark drawers/shorts), this time, puttin’ a hurtin’ on “Higher Ground,” a hit track from Stevie’s 1973 album ‘Innervisions.’ Powers keep on lyin’While your people keep on dyin’World keep on turnin’‘Cause it won’t be too long I’m so darn glad He let me try it again‘Cause my last time on earth, I lived a whole world of sinI’m so glad that I know more than I knew thenGonna keep on tryin’‘Til I reach my highest ground There’s a strong desire among many to say something; to do something. I get it. People are angry, hurt, dumbfounded, befuddled, and a myriad of other emotions; many at the incredulous lack of empathy, the stark absence of humanity from someone positioned to be the leader of the free world who seems more hellbent on creating division and exacting retaliation than on navigating towards reconciliation. But in the wee hours of this morning on Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and other outlets there were artists – not just performers – but artists with a collective heart rooted in love, unity, and restoration. Yup, I’ll stay up late and tune into that any night or early morning of the week…
Blog
Happy Heavenly Double Nickel, Patrice O’Neal
He left us just over 14 years ago at only 41 years of age. Arguably on the brink of true breakthrough and even further greatness, persistent health issues led to him to having a stroke, then, falling into a coma in the early Fall of 2011, and succumbing to it all about six weeks later. To put into perspective what lay before this hilarious, take-no-prisoners, and groundbreaking comedian, I implore you to take some time to listen to a snippet, or in its entirety, of this episode of The Opie & Anthony Show, a show on which he was a frequent guest, during which the hosts and a number of comedians and fans reflect on what he meant to them and to the comedy genre. In addition, check out this article from New York magazine that was published about six months after his passing. Lastly, his comedy special, Elephant in the Room, is in my top 3 of all time. Check it out. Continue to Rest in Peace, Patrice. You are sorely missed.
Blog, Music
🎵 Happy African-American Music Appreciation/Black Music Month 🎵
Decreed by former and 39th President Jimmy Carter on June 7, 1979, it took a score plus a year for the bill to pass through Congress in 2000 to make this annual celebration official. Without question, music made by Black Americans has had a profound impact on music made in America and throughout the world. While criticisms arise when Black artists are inducted almost annually into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here are the facts: • 60% of the their inaugural class of 10 performers in 1986 were Black: Chuck Berry, James Brown & The Famous Flames, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, and Richard Penniman, aka Little Richard. The other esteemed inductees were: The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley. • 65% of the following class of 17 performers in 1987 were also Black: The Coasters, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin (the first female), Marvin Gaye, Louis Jordan, B. B. King, Clyde McPhatter (the first three-time inductee – solo, The Drifters, The Dominoes), Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, and Jackie Wilson. The other esteemed inductees were: Eddie Cochran, Bill Haley, (Jerry) Lieber & (Mike) Stoller, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. So, according to the pundits and learned folk, at its foundation, almost two-thirds of those artists who were recognized as the creators of Rock and Roll music, a genre not normally associated with Black people, are from this very same group. The music of legendary groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Police, while clearly brilliant in its own right, was heavily influenced by the similarly-hued artists whose inductions are sometimes met with controversy. I’m just sayin’. 🎶 Happy African American Music Appreciation/Black Music Month 🎶
Blog, Uncategorized
Black While _____
Driving. Walking. Shopping. Selling loose cigarettes in front of a store on Staten Island. Waiting on a business client in a Philadelphia Starbucks. Add to those list of ‘offenses:’ Doing his job. By now, thousands, if not millions, have seen the video of the attack on Damien Pickett, a Black man and Co-Captain of the Harriet II, a riverboat docked at a riverfront dock in Montgomery, AL, by a group of White men and a White woman. The reason? For asking the group to move their private pontoon from a spot designated for the Harriet II. According to reports, Mr. Pickett tried for 45 minutes to get the group to comply while more than 200 people on board his boat waited to get off and proceed with the rest of their evening. According to those same reports, he was ignored and mocked, then blindly attacked before a full out brawl ensued. Some heard at least one of the attackers called him a nigger while striking him. For having the audacity to do his job. At this time, I’m satisfied to know that four of the attackers have been arrested and charged accordingly. I hope that they’re prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and, that their respective employers disassociate themselves from such behavior by terminating their employment. More arrests may follow. Interestingly, despite the allegation that he was called a nigger while being attacked, Mr. Pickett, according to police interviews, does not believe that the attack was racially motivated. Still, the authorities have reserved the right to charge the attackers with a hate crime based on where the investigation leads them. Allow me to pose these questions to the cowardly attackers: Just how did you think this was going to go in the year 2023? Did the residue of the march in Charlottesville in 2017 or the assault on The Capitol in 2021 lead you to believe that you could operate in the absence of accountability? Did you think that this proud Black man would simply yield in obedience to your disrespect, meanness, and taunts? Did you think that, despite being in plain view, that you existed within some opaque silo and that people who looked like Mr. Pickett would not come to his aid and boldly thwart your attempts to hurt this man? Did you THINK at all?
Blog, Uncategorized
TSOP: The Sound of Philadelphia
A celebration of the music of Kenneth Gamble and Leon, aka Gamble & Huff: The Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP).
Blog, Uncategorized
In Deep Ends Day
On this 4th of July, one on which our country purports to proclaim its independence, by definition according to the folks at dictionary.com: “freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others,” know that this is still a fight for many of its citizens. For some time now, in light of the pronounced aggression towards and treatment of similarly hued people by those whose job description calls for them to “protect and serve,” to protect the health of my psyche, I’ve chosen to limit my exposure to those beyond questionable recorded interactions between the parties, if you will. That is, until about 45 or so minutes ago. In short, out in Los Angeles County, a Black woman was recording the arrest of her husband, a Black man suspected of shoplifting, by local law enforcement. I know of no law that prohibits this. One of the arresting officers leaves the detained man, grabs the woman by the back of her neck, throws her to the ground, and places a knee on her neck before handcuffing her as well. According to The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, they’ve opened an investigation into this incident. Merriam-Webster defines the idiom “the deep end” as follows: “starting a new and difficult activity when one is not fully prepared or ready to do it.” Hmm. In Deep Ends Day. Sounds about right. Oh, say can you see…🎵.
Happy Birthday, Sam Cooke
A few weeks ago, Rolling Stone Magazine released its 200 Greatest Singers List. In what is certain to spur a number of spirited debates, this list will make news for who it excludes as much as for who it includes – and where they are placed. On a personal note, I’m delighted to see that many of of my favorites made the cut: Frank Sinatra, David Ruffin, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Solomon Burke, Steve Perry, the tragically under-appreciated Clyde McPhatter, Jackie Wilson and Gladys Knight (did they really place 100+ singers ahead of them 🤔?) Teddy Pendergrass, Dion, Amy Winehouse, and a few others. Still, from my perspective, the likes of Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops, Marvin Junior of The Dells, Sting, and Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby) would’ve been welcome additions. But make no mistake about it: on this 92nd anniversary of his birth, I’m here to talk about Sam Cooke. Reflect, if you will, on the fact that a voice that was silenced 58 years ago the 11th of last month in a still controversial shooting was ranked #3, behind Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, respectively – two still relatively contemporary voices who left us in 2018 and 2012. The man hasn’t sung a note in almost six decades. To borrow a quote that accompanied the list: “There is American popular music before Sam Cooke and popular music after.” Joe Gross, Rolling Stone Magazine It’s somewhat redemptive to see the ‘pundits’ confirm what 10,000+ members of Facebook’s Sam Cooke Club have known all along. That’s a #1 in our book. Happy Birthday, Sam 🎉
Without a Vision… Write the Vision…
Dismissed by some as the by-product of pseudoscience, a Vision Board can serve as the outgrowth of science-based studies on the power of manifestation.
The Black Sinatra
For those who really know me, this finding by the folks at Spotify (watch until the end) is no surprise. On this 58th anniversary of his shocking killing, an event that preceded my birth by five-and-a-half months, Sam Cooke has had a profound influence on my thinking and on my aspirations as well as my musical tastes, and, as a vocalist of the first order, on generations of singers worldwide. A Gospel music phenom as a teenager, in seven short years as a secular singer that began with the release of the self-penned classic “You Send Me” in September 1957, Sam managed to carve out a distinctive career as a pioneering Pop, Soul, and R&B singer and songwriter, and, as an entrepreneur that is revered to this day. After President-Elect Barack Obama quoted a line from his magnum opus ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ on Election Night 2008, courtesy of various interpretations on YouTube, TikTok, and beyond, that song is as popular as it ever has been. Here’s what Pop crooner Michael Bublé said about Sam in an interview earlier this year: He also lauds everyone from Pink to Eminem, but saves his highest praise for Sam Cooke, whom he calls “the greatest voice in the history of music.” “It might sound strange for some of you listening out there, [but] I’ve always considered myself a soul singer,” he says. “When people tried to put me into a box and asked me what I was, well, soul singer was always what I wanted to be and who I felt I was. And one of the big reasons for that is Sam Cooke, the greatest voice in the history of music. Not the genre, not a genre, not soul, not R&B. I think music. Sam Cooke was a very special, special performer, a special writer, an incredible human being.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette