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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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 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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