African American Music - KOLUMN Magazine

Jimmy Heath, 93, Jazz Saxophonist and Composer, Is Dead | The New York Times

January 29, 2020January 29, 2020African American Music, Jazz Music

Jimmy Heath, a tenor saxophonist whose sharp and lively compositions became part of the midcentury jazz canon — and who found new prominence in middle age as a co-leader of a popular band with his two brothers — died on Sunday at his home in Loganville, Ga. He was 93. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] His grandson Fa […]

Heard but Not Seen | Slate

January 28, 2020January 28, 2020African American Music, Hip Hop

Black music in white spaces. . [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Away from home, I walk into unfamiliar spaces with my shoulders hunched and tight. Instinctively, I scan my surroundings, stretching every sense around the corners of the room until it feels safe. What the eye see? What the ears hear? What the nose smell? It’s Sunday afternoon […]

Cobb County high school cellist heading to Carnegie Hall | Fox5 Atlanta

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020African American Art, African American Music

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. – The first time 16-year-old Khalil Payne picked up a cello, he says he felt an instant connection. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] “I’m going to try to find a good analogy,” Payne says. “It’s like, for the first time, when you finally find your favorite flavor of food.” Payne was a rising sixth-grader then […]

Remembering Curtis Mayfield Today on the 20th Anniversary of His Passing (December 26, 1999) | Albumism

December 29, 2019December 29, 2019African American Entertainment, African American Music ...

Please join the Albumism team in celebrating Curtis Mayfield’s musical legacy and revisit audio & video highlights from his career below! [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Biography: Perhaps because he didn’t cross over to the pop audience as heavily as Motown’s stars, it may be that the scope of Curtis Mayfield’s talents and contributions have yet to be […]

Roberta Flack to Make Rare Appearance At GRAMMY Awards | American Songwriter

December 27, 2019African American Music, R&B

In a press release earlier this week, the Recording Academy® announced its 2020 Special Merit Awards recipients. The Lifetime Achievement Award honorees include Roberta Flack. The legendary musician and singer will make a rare public appearance to attend the GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, January 26, 2020 at Los Angeles’ STAPLES Center. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] “I am […]

What Louis Armstrong Really Thinks | The New Yorker

December 20, 2019December 20, 2019African American History, African American Music ...

On October 31, 1965, Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong gave his first performance in New Orleans, his home town, in nine years. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] At twelve, he marched in parades for the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, where he was given his first cornet. But he had publicly boycotted the city since its banning of integrated bands, […]

Review: A Brother and Sister Triumph Together at Carnegie Hall | The New York Times

December 18, 2019December 22, 2019African American Music, KOLUMN Magazine

The cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason gave a superb New York recital debut alongside the pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Mexican territory and who are recognized by the Mexican state as groups with the right of free determination. This ‘right of free determination’ includes the right to decide the internal forms of social, economic, political, and cultural […]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Finally Recognizes Woman Who Practically Invented Rock and Roll | Jezebel

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019African American Music, KOLUMN Magazine

This year’s inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been announced, and they have finally gotten around to adding Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who’s got a pretty good claim to having invented that shit. She got her credit the same year as Dire Straits and Bon Jovi. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] The Wall Street Journal […]

Lovely Pics of Billie Holiday With Her Dog Mister in 1949 | Vintage Everyday

December 13, 2019December 14, 2019African American Music

African American jazz singer Billie Holiday who had a career spanning nearly thirty years was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. Her hit “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” became a jazz standard. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the […]

Prince Memoir, ‘The Beautiful Ones,’ Brings To Life A Vision In One’s Mind | NPR WAMU 88.5

October 28, 2019October 28, 2019African American History, African American Music ...

I’m a longtime Prince fan. I would listen to his raunchy songs with the sound turned down low so my parents couldn’t hear, because even before I understood a lot of the double entendre in his lyrics, I sensed they — and he — were naughty. And, of course, my parents confirmed. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] Once […]