Black History Month

From: Dan (dzacks@po-box.mcgill.ca)
Date: Tue Jan 30 2001 - 17:10:58 CET

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    Hey all!
            This is my first posting to the list although I've been lurking around for
    the better part of three months. I am constantly impressed with the
    intensity and calibre of discussion and look forward to contributing to the
    dialogue.
            In any event, I've recently embarked on a hopefully long career as a
    radio-DJ on community/campus radio ('Waxing Deep' Saturday's 0600h_0800h
    EST., Montreal's CKUT 90.3FM www.ckut.ca) and am planning on doing a Black
    history month special for this week's show. I've also been cajoled into
    writing an article for a campus paper on ideal music picks for Black history
    month listening. And so I invite any ideas on what should I include. Here
    are the results of my initial brainstorming:

    A lot of Fela!

    Specifically, I intend to include 'Gentleman,' and '2000 Blacks' and 'Africa
    Centre of the World' from the Fela and Roy Ayers from the 'Music of Many
    Colours' LP. Of course, these are obvious choices. For the radio show, I'm
    going to throw in some Femi, particularly some cuts from the remix album,
    although I've not yet decided which ones. Also, to show the evolution (and
    regression?) of the afrogroove, I'm going to add some Tony Allen and
    Antibalas to the mix.

    Dizzy's 'Swing Low Sweet Cadillac'

    'Kush,' particularly with Dizzy's intro, is sublime and relevant. It's also
    sufficiently uptempo to fit in with the format of my show and accessible
    enough that the masses of McGill might give it a listen and get hooked.

    Short list huh? Well, I do have a couple of more ideas but class starts in
    about five minutes. To finish, given that I'm not black, I feel that my
    selections need to demonstrate a particular consciousness and avoid any
    semblance of clichés, especially those that might be seen as perpetuated by
    a white establishment. For that reason, I'm inclined to avoid a lot of
    soul-jazz/blaxploitation tracks, but I'm curious to know what you all think.
    I've also been thinking about adding in some Brazilian music, particularly
    from the genres that show an obvious connection to African rhythms, capoeira
    for example. My knowledge of funk is limited, but I've got access to a
    pretty extensive library so I welcome ideas in that regard, and it should be
    noted that it's part of my show's mandate not to play any hiphop.

    Hope I'm not asking too much of the list, anything and everything is
    appreciated,
    Dan Zacks



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