After Juneteenth, we have to keep going. We have to keep celebrating one another and not letting that die down. We have to all keep taking a stand, because it shouldn't be just a thing where we're celebrated for one day, or a month, and then that's that. | | | | Guitar hero: Sister Rosetta Tharpe in England, 1964.
(Tony Evans/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "After Juneteenth, we have to keep going. We have to keep celebrating one another and not letting that die down. We have to all keep taking a stand, because it shouldn't be just a thing where we're celebrated for one day, or a month, and then that's that."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// JUNETEENTH commemorates the day, 155 years ago today, that a Union general told enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War was over and they were free. The war had in fact ended, and the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed, more than two years earlier. The long delay from theoretical freedom to actual freedom is but one of a thousand reasons for contemplation and sorrow on a day meant mostly as celebration. It isn't a national holiday (think about that as you contemplate today), but a growing number of companies are observing it, especially in this horrific month in this horrific year. For much of the music industry, it will be the second day of reflection on racism in America and in music in two and a half weeks. WARNER MUSIC is considering it a paid holiday but not a day off—"an important time for all of us to learn, reflect, and connect as we continue to battle systemic racism." SPOTIFY's US offices are closed and its New Music Friday playlist is featuring all Black artists. BANDCAMP is donating all profits today to the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund. There have been small steps so far, both symbolic and tangible, at these companies and elsewhere. Bands and labels have dropped offensive names. A decades-old euphemism for the word "Black" is on its way to being canceled. At least one label, BMG, says is reviewing all of its historic record contracts, "mindful of the music industry's record of shameful treatment of black artists." Hundreds of millions of dollars have been pledged. Hopefully, over time, the symbolic initiatives will lead to tangible results and the tangible ones will become important symbols for others to follow. And hopefully the reflection and action today and beyond will continue to point inward: At opportunities and compensation for Black artists and Black employees. At figuring out new systems to undo the old systems that have been in place for decades. At making sure decision makers will still be contemplating, and acting, next year, and the year after that, and five and 10 years down the line... The stories in today's mix celebrate great artists and moments in Black American music, which is another way of saying, simply, American music... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from TEYANA TAYLOR, NONAME (70 perfect seconds), H.E.R., JOHN LEGEND, SMOKEPURPP, TEE GRIZZLEY, ROY AYERS (first studio album on ADRIAN YOUNGE and ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD's JAZZ IS DEAD label), ALICIA KEYS, KEEDRON BRYANT, WALE, the BLACK EYED PEAS, DON BRYANT, OUMOU SANGARÉ, SHIRLEY KING, BOB DYLAN, SAULT, NEIL YOUNG (his legendary unreleased '70s album HOMEGROWN), PHOEBE BRIDGERS (released Thursday), BRAIDS, KAYGEE DAKING & BIZIZI, RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA, GABBY BARRETT, YO-YO MA/STUART DUNCAN/EDGAR MEYER/CHRIS THILE, LAMB OF GOD, PROTEST THE HERO (released Thursday), AMNESIA SCANNER, JASON MRAZ and BAAUER... RIP LAROME POWERS. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | VH1 | | This film tells the story of the pivotal role that James Brown—and one particular James Brown concert—played in the political, social and cultural history of the country, focusing on 1968, a defining year for America. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | The Queen of Soul took the song written and first recorded by Otis Redding and made it her own. | | | |  | The New Yorker | | Houston's rendition of the anthem is studded with vocal gems and remains a master class in vocal prowess. Its hold on us, however, can be attributed, ultimately, to a single powerful effect: the startlingly beautiful sound Houston makes when she sings the word "free." This was a sound for the ages. | | | |  | Oxford American | | Where is the wellspring of swing? With Fletcher Henderson, one of the great big band leaders for the ages. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Duke Ellington composed approximately 3000 original works, many of them portraits of leading black artists, members of his own orchestra, friends and lovers and many others, and tonal histories of black people in America. His accomplishments defy cataloging and his honors are so impressively diverse and extensive that they are almost bizarre. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Johnson gained little notice in his life, but his songs -- quoted by the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin -- helped ignite rock 'n' roll. | | | |  | Richmond Magazine | | Sister Rosetta Tharpe invented rock 'n' roll, but it wasn't enough for Richmond, Va. - her chosen home for a decade - to remember her. | | | |  | Detroit Metro Times | | How a homegrown artform took over the world. | | | |  | Cuepoint | | Pioneers Steve "Silk" Hurley and Marshall Jefferson reveal the humble origins that ignited a worldwide movement. | | | |  | Wax Poetics | | Out of the nation's capital, Bad Brains came with extraordinary positivity. | | | | | | | if it ain't got that swing | |  | The Telegraph | | How did a failed boxer go on to found Motown, one of the most successful record labels of all time? As a new musical based on his life story opens in London, Berry Gordy reminisces about the legends he created, from Diana Ross to Michael Jackson. | | | |  | British GQ | | As a child, he ran with gangsters in the world's biggest ghetto; as a man, he recorded the most successful album ever. The super-mogul has laid down tracks with every key figure in modern music from Miles Davis to Amy Winehouse. And then there was Michael Jackson. | | | |  | The Daily Beast | | Arguably the most visible of hip-hop's early innovators, Flash remains an example of hip-hop's storied past and revelatory potential. | | | |  | MTV News | | Twenty years after his death, remembering what the late rapper meant to the kids who looked like him. | | | |  | The Atlantic | | The political message and musical innovation on "Rhythm Nation 1814" is more significant than ever, though less appreciated than it should be. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | Artists like Yola and Rhiannon Giddens are blowing up what Giddens calls a "manufactured image of country music being white and being poor." | | | |  | The Guardian | | Billie Holiday's 1939 song about racist lynchings stunned audiences and redefined popular music. | | | |  | BuzzFeed | | By celebrating and offering up a history lesson on black music, the pop star's Coachella performance was a brilliant rebuke of the whiteness of most music festivals. | | | |  | Vulture | | The most important thing he gave us was something not musical. It was an idea. | | | |  | WBGO | | More than 50 years after John Coltrane's death, we have yet to fully unlock the meaning of his music of the 1960s, in part because we haven't adequately investigated the saxophonist's relationship to traditional African American religious practice. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | From the season 4 premiere of "black-ish." | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
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