By: Samantha Zimbler,
on 12/9/2015
With the most widely-celebrated winter holidays quickly approaching, test your knowledge of the cultural history and traditions that started these festivities. For example, what does Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer have to do with Father Christmas? What are the key principles honored by lighting Kwanzaa candles?
The post Ready for the winter holidays? [Quiz] appeared first on OUPblog.
By: VictoriaD,
on 6/30/2015
Celebrate the end of Black Music Month with this timeline highlighting over 100 years of music created and produced by influential African-Americans. Kenny Gamble, Ed Wright, and Dyana Williams developed the idea for Black Music Month back in 1979 as a way to annually show appreciate for black music icons. After lobbying, President Jimmy Carter hosted a reception to formally recognize the month.
The post 100 years of black music appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Ayana Young,
on 2/14/2015
As the city buzzes around us in preparation for the 2015 NBA All-Star Weekend, hosted jointly by the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, we caught up with a few of our office’s basketball fans to reflect on their all-time favorite NBA All-Stars — and their entries in the Oxford African American Studies Center. Without further ado, Oxford University Press New York’s ‘5 Guys and a Girl’ weigh in:
* * * * *
Top Pick: Julius Erving
Second Pick: Bernard King
“Dr. J made it popular to dunk and have an above the rim game.”
Known to fans and announcers as Dr. J, Julius Erving set new standards of performance in his sport and made the slam-dunk into one of the most exciting moves in professional basketball.
* * * * *
Top Pick: Kobe Bryant
Second Pick: Kevin Durant
“Kobe has 18 straight All-Star appearances.”
At age seventeen, Kobe Bryant became the youngest guard to be drafted in the history of the National Basketball Association. Bryant blossomed into an NBA superstar within his first three years and went on to lead the Lakers to three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002.
* * * * *
Top Pick: Michael Jordan
Second Pick: Dominique Wilkins
“The 1987 Slam Dunk Contest says it all!”
In 1987, Michael Jordan ran from beyond half-court, leaped from the free-throw line, and glided through the air in a seemingly effortless manner—lifting the ball and then lowering it, contracting his legs and then spreading and extending them—finally dunking the ball fifteen feet later cinching the Dunk Contest Title over Dominique Wilkins.
* * * * *
Pick: Shaquille O’Neal
Second Pick: Dwayne Wade
“With 15 All-Star Team selections, how could I not pick Shaq?”
A 15-time NBA All-Star, Shaquille O’Neil quickly became one of the NBA’s top centers, and only one of three players in the history of the NBA to win the NBA MVP, All-Star game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year.
* * * * *
Top Pick: Wilt Chamberlain
Second Pick: Kareem Adbul-Jabar
“He is the ORIGINAL.”
A legendary basketball player, Wilt Chamberlain was a gifted offensive shooter who scored and rebounded prolifically. In 1978 Chamberlain was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 1996 for the NBA’s fiftieth anniversary he was named one of the fifty greatest players in NBA history.
* * * * *
Top Pick: Magic Johnson
Second Pick: Jerry West
“There’s a reason they called him Magic.”
Considered one of the greatest point guards and play-makers in the history of the NBA, Magic Johnson ended his 13-year professional career in 1991, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game becoming the first and only retired player to do so and win the All-Star MVP Award.
* * * * *
Image credits: (1) Knicks v Thunder 2010 MSG. Photo by Matt Pirecki. CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. (2) Julius Erving, 6 November 1974, Sport Magazine Archives. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. (3) Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers drives to the basket against the Washington Wizards in Washington, D.C., USA on February 3, 2007. Photo by Keith Allison. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. (4) Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls, 1997. Photo by Steve Lipofsky at Basketballphoto.com. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. (5) Shaquille O’Neal preparing to shoot a free throw in 2009. Photo by Keith Allison. CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. (6) Wilt Chamberlain, 1967. Philadelphia 76ers press photo. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. (7) Los Angeles Lakers Magic Johnson and Boston Celtics Larry Bird in Game two of the 1985 NBA Finals at Boston Garden. Photo by Steve Lipofsky at Basketballphoto.com. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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By: Julia Callaway,
on 2/10/2015
Decades before P. Diddy, Jay-Z, and Russell Simmons, there was Frederick Bruce Thomas, known later in his life as Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas — one of the most successful African-American musical impresarios and businessmen of his generation.
Why isn’t he better known now?
The first reason is that a century ago, white America had no interest in celebrating black achievement.
The second is that he triumphed not in the United States, but in Tsarist Russia, which was one of the last places anyone would have expected to find a black American at the dawn of the twentieth century.
As we celebrate Black History Month, Thomas’s story — which until recently was virtually forgotten — provides a striking example of how blacks who fled the United States to escape racism could rise to the top of the economic pyramid in Europe and elsewhere, despite the wars, revolutions, and other hurdles they had to overcome.
Thomas was born in 1872 in Coahoma County, Mississippi and got his wings from his parents — freedmen who had become successful farmers. However, since the Thomas family lived in the Delta — which has been called the most “Southern place on earth” — their prominence was also the cause of their ruin. In 1886, a rich white planter who resented their success tried to steal their land. After fighting him as much as they could, the Thomases decided it would be prudent to get out of harm’s way and moved to Memphis.
Several decades before the Great Migration began, Thomas left the South and went to Chicago, and then Brooklyn. Seeking even greater freedom, he went to Europe in 1894, several decades before some black Americans began to seek a haven in Paris. And in 1899, after crisscrossing the Continent, mastering French, and honing his skills as a waiter and a valet, he signed on to accompany a nobleman to Russia, a country where people of African descent were virtually unknown.
Thomas’s career in Moscow proved to be more successful than he could ever have imagined. He found no “color line” there, as he put it, and in a decade he went from being a waiter to an owner of a large entertainment garden called Aquarium near the city center. Within a year of acquiring it, he had transformed a failing business into one of the most successful venues for popular theatrical entertainment in Moscow.
Were it not for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Thomas would have happily spent the rest of his life in his adopted country. He married twice, acquired a mistress who became his third wife, and fathered five children. He also took Russian citizenship, and was possibly the first black American ever to do so.
But when the Bolsheviks seized power, Thomas suddenly discovered that he was on the wrong side of history. His newly acquired wealth trumped his past oppression as a black man in the United States, and nothing could mitigate this class “sin.”
To save himself, Thomas fled Soviet Russia. In 1919, after surviving hair-raising perils, he managed to reach Constantinople. Although he had lost all his wealth, within three months of arriving he opened an entertainment garden on the city’s outskirts. He was the first person to import jazz to Turkey, and its popularity among the city’s natives and swarms of well-heeled tourists consolidated his success and made him rich once again.
However, after escaping from Russia, Thomas was never again free of the burden of race, and it would be his undoing. Although his skin color was of no concern to the Turks, he could not avoid dealing with the diplomats in the American Consulate General in Constantinople, or with their racist superiors in the State Department. When he most needed their help, they refused to recognize him as an American and to give him legal protection. Abandoned by the United States, and caught between the xenophobia of the new Turkish Republic and his own extravagance, he fell on hard times, was thrown into debtor’s prison, and died in Constantinople in 1928. The New York Times was one of the few American newspapers that noticed his passing, and on 8 July in an article about Constantinople, referred to him as the city’s late “Sultan of Jazz.”
Perhaps if the United States ever becomes a genuinely post-racial society, Black History Month will fade in importance. But in the meantime, we can at least try to recover and remember the lives of extraordinary individuals like Frederick Bruce Thomas.
Heading image: Red Square, Moscow. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
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By: Alice,
on 1/16/2015
On 12 January 1959, Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit, Michigan. A year later it would be incorporated with a new name that became synonymous with a sound, style, and generation of music: Motown. All this week we’re looking the great artists and tracks that emerged from those recording studios. Previously, we spoke to Charles Randolph-Wright, the Director of Broadway’s Motown the Musical, which closes on Sunday, 18 January 2015; Larvester Gaither examined the role of Duets, Girl Groups, and Solo artists in Motown.
More than half a century after its founding, Motown is still remembered by fans, musicians, and historians as the mover and shaker of its generation. From The Temptations’ “My Girl” to Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” its reverberating influence is recognized even today, echoed in modern hits like Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ wildly popular “Uptown Funk.” Revisit the soulful croons, hypnotic hooks, and infectious beats that kickstarted not only a record label, but a revolutionary musical movement. Get on up and move your feet to these funky grooves and classic Motown beats!
Headline image credit: 1960s music studio. CC0 via Pixabay.
The post A Motown music playlist appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Alice,
on 1/15/2015
On 12 January 1959, Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit, Michigan. A year later it would be incorporated with a new name that became synonymous with a sound, style, and generation of music: Motown. All this week we’re looking the great artists and tracks that emerged from those recording studios. Previously, we spoke to Charles Randolph-Wright, the Director of Broadway’s Motown the Musical, which closes on Sunday, 18 January 2015; Larvester Gaither examined the role of Duets and Girl Groups in Motown.
Starting in the early 1960s, female artists embarked upon solo careers with the Motown label. The first to be signed to the label was Mable John, a blues vocalist born in Bastrop, Louisiana. Slow melodic songs like “No Love” and “Who Wouldn’t Love a Man Like That” stood firmly in the blues genre yet only appealed to a limited, mature audience and did not translate into commercial success. Additionally, the success of The Miracles and The Marvalettes helped steer Gordy in another direction if, in fact, he wasn’t already searching for a newer sound. John would sing background for other groups on the label but her tenure with Motown ended in 1962. Nevertheless, John was a musical pioneer who influenced numerous artists, including contemporary blues musician Robert Cray, who covers “Your Good Thing is About to End” on his 2014 In My Soul album.
Mary Wells was Motown’s first successful female soloist. Born in Detroit, she signed with the label in 1960. Her first release, “Bye Bye Baby,” peaked at number 8 on the R&B charts in 1961 and later reached 45 on the pop chart. Although John preceded her in signing with Motown, Wells was viewed as the “Queen” since she was the first to achieve stardom. In fact, the success of “You Beat Me To the Punch” made Wells the first Motown artists regardless of gender to be nominated for an R&B Grammy. Nevertheless, while Wells enjoyed a string of successful releases during her tenure with Motown, her relationship with the company lasted only until 1964. Unsatisfied with the Gordy’s marketing strategy, which channeled resources built from her success towards developing The Supremes, she left Motown for 20th Century Fox Records in 1965.
While at Motown, however, she made a huge impact, exemplifying for other up and coming artists the expectations of a successful female artist. Additionally, the success of “My Guy,” a song penned by Smokey Robinson, established her as Motown’s first international superstar and laid the template for the sound Motown would find success with. Prior to leaving Motown, she also recorded a duet album with label mate Marvin Gaye, who was a rising star at the time. Consisting of slow ballads and standards, Together created a winning formula that Motown would emulate with other females artists throughout the remainder of the sixties decade.
With the departure of Wells, Motown looked to Brenda Holloway as her ideal successor. Holloway inherited many of the songs written for Wells and achieved only moderate success with them despite the fact that she was probably one of Motown’s most talented artists. Like Wells, she opened for The Beatles, and Dick Clark considered her America’s most talented vocalist. Born in Atascadero, California, she began singing professionally at the age of 14 and seemed already primed for stardom when she met Gordy at the age of 17. Her contract with Motown in 1964 allowed for her to record from Los Angeles where she resided. Her first recording, “Every Little Bit Hurts,” reached number 13 on the Billboard, establishing her as a rising force to be reckoned with. Still, her tenure with Motown was short-lived as she became disillusioned with what increasingly appeared to be a tumultuous atmosphere at Motown, which had yet to fully recover from the departure of Wells. A few months prior to her departure in 1968, The Artistry of Brenda Holloway was released and achieved moderate success in the United States as well as the United Kingdom.
Several other female artists contributed to Motown’s rise, including Carolyn Crawford, Gladys Knight (she achieved success as a lead female singer with 3 male singers providing background vocals), Patrice Holloway (Brenda’s younger sibling who co-wrote “You Made Me So Very Happy,” a tune Blood, Sweat and Tears took to #3), Reba Jeanette Smith (commonly known as Debbie Dean and Motown’s first white female soloist), Barbara Randolph, and others.
As the 1960s came to a close, female artists continued to play a major role both at Motown, in music more generally, and in culture globally. Early Motown female solo acts continue to exert an influence today, for example on pop sensation Alicia Keys, who covered “Every Little Bit Hurts” on her Unplugged album in 2011.
Headline image credit: Vintage microphone. © twygg via iStock.
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By: Alice,
on 1/14/2015
On 12 January 1959, Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit, Michigan. A year later it would be incorporated with a new name that became synonymous with a sound, style, and generation of music: Motown. All this week we’re looking the great artists and tracks that emerged from those recording studios. Previously, we spoke to Charles Randolph-Wright, the Director of Broadway’s Motown the Musical, which closes on Sunday, 18 January 2015; Larvester Gaither examined the role of Duets in Motown.
The Marvalettes, a girl group consisting of Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart and Wanda Young, recorded Motown’s first number one pop hit, “Please Mr. Postman.” The upbeat song topped both the pop and R&B charts, making the Marvalettes one of the first all-girl groups in the industry to achieve such a feat. Thus, from its beginning, women would play a pivotal role in shaping Motown’s collective yet multifaceted identity. No less than 60% of the top 100 singles released by girl groups during the sixties emanated from Hitsville, U.S.A., as Motown came to be known. Even with the monumental success of its male artists who comprised roughly 60% of the label’s talent during this period, the same could not be said.
One of Motown’s key ingredients for success was the collaborative effort Gordy managed to convey to his organization’s artists, musicians, writers, producers and singers. In this regard, girl group The Andantes was the secret ingredient to Motown’s rise to prominence during the sixties.
Comprised of Detroit natives Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow and Louvain Demps, the versatile and multitalented session group provided background vocals for nearly 80 percent of the hit records produced by Motown during the sixties. Five songs including them as background vocals topped the Billboard’s popular music chart: Mary Well’s “My Guy,” Four Top’s “Reach Out I’ll Be There” and “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” Diana Ross & The Supremes’ “Love Child” and “Someday We’ll be Together.” No doubt, many of the acts during the first half of the sixties decade benefitted from the highly acclaimed production team consisting of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, and a talented group of musicians nicknamed The Funk Brothers. Yet, a cursory listen to tunes created by the Holland-Dozier-Holland team reveals how heavily they relied upon the Andantes. In fact, they were featured on literally all of the Four Top’s hit singles.
In addition to singing background vocals, Barrow sometimes stood in for Florence Ballard of The Supremes during concerts and between 1968–69, substituted for Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong on the Supremes’ recordings. From 1965–67, the Andantes replaced the Marvalettes in the studio; the group’s final album The Return of the Marvalettes could have been titled Wanda Young and the Andantes, as Young was the only remaining original member of The Marvalettes. The Andantes dissolved as a group once Gordy relocated the company to Los Angeles in 1972, but they could be heard by a new generation as late as 2002 on rap musician Jay Z’s album, Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse, as he sampled “The Marvalettes” cover of Smokey Robinson’s “All of Me” on the single “Poppin Tags.”
The Marvalettes’ “Please Mr. Postman” remains a classic in popular culture. Early on, The Beatles, The Carpenters, and Diana Ross & The Supremes covered it; more recently, popular rap artist Lil Wayne sampled The Carpenters’ version on a track titled “Mr. Postman.” They are considered one of the top girl groups of all time and, to a large extent, rivaled Motown’s most successful group, The Supremes. Aside from being Motown’s first successful girl group, they actually wrote some of their earlier hits. For example, their second top 10 single, “Playboy,” was written by member Gladys Horton. However, The Marvalettes were reluctant to veer too far away from the R&B genre. When the Holland-Dozier-Holland team wrote “Where Did Our Love Go,” it was originally intended for them but was passed on to The Supremes because they were looking for a hit.
The Supremes (Diana Ross & The Supremes) was not only Motown’s most successful girl group but also one of the most popular groups of the twentieth century, at their height rivaling the Beatles. Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson were teenagers from Inkster, Michigan when they signed with Motown in 1961. Ironically, their rise to stardom was not as meteoric as previous Motown girl groups but eventually far exceeded the others in terms of commercial success and international acclaim. It would take three years for the group to make a dent in the industry.
The first eight singles released by The Supremes were only moderately successful, just enough to keep the teenagers motivated; after all, they were signed with Detroit’s biggest record company and they could occasionally hear their songs playing on local radio stations. However only one of these singles, “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” reached higher than 75 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at 30. When the Holland-Dozier-Holland team presented the teens with a tune that had been turned down by The Marvalettes, they lacked such leverage and had no choice but to accept the challenge of turning what also appeared to them a childish song into a hit. Instead of the usual, intricate harmonic patterns Wilson and Ballard were growing accustomed to, with “Where Did Our Love Go,” the refrain was simply, “Baby Baby, Where did our love go?” and, thus, relied heavily Diana Ross’s stylistic interpretations of the song’s lyrics to make it meaningful.
Released in 1964, the song’s success was also owed to the group’s superb stage presence. That summer, Motown’s Brenda Holloway had achieved success with “Every Little Bit Hurts” and radio and television personality Dick Clark was lining up acts for his Caravan of Stars. Clark seemed in awe of Holloway’s voice and approached Motown intent on including her as a headliner, but Gordy insisted that The Supremes be attached to the deal. Clark reluctantly agreed, yet during the tour The Supremes were billed simply as “and others.” Nevertheless, as they won over concert audiences around the country, the song steadily climbed the charts, eventually peaking at Billboard’s top spot. With the success of “Where Did Our Love Go,” The Supremes began touring abroad, and within a few months had achieved their second number one hit with “Baby Love.” “Baby Love,” topped charts in both the United States and Britain. Europe would quickly follow suit, making The Supremes’ an international phenomenon that would score unprecedented five consecutive number one hits. Altogether, 12 of their singles during the sixties topped the Billboard 100.
Martha and the Vandellas originally consisted of Rosalind Ashford, Annette Beard, and Gloria Williams. With Williams’s departure in 1962, Martha Reeves joined the group and became its lead singer. The group recorded all their singles for Motown’s Gordy imprint. Very talented singers, the group’s repertoire spanned rock, pop, blues, and R&B. Once signed in 1962, it didn’t take the Vandellas long to find success with Motown, as they were the first group to benefit from the Holland-Dozier-Holland production team. “Come and Get the Memories” peaked at 25 and 6 respectively on Billboard’s Hot 100 Pop and R&B charts. “Heat Wave,” a song about a women’s heated desire for a guy she’s in love with, climbed to number 4 on the pop chart and earned The Vandellas the distinction of becoming the first Motown group to be nominated for a Grammy.
Their most popular song, however, was “Dancing in the Streets,” a song written by William “Mickey” Stevenson, Ivy Jo Hunter, and Marvin Gaye. The song’s principal writer, Stevenson, was inspired to write the song after witnessing people dancing in the streets of Detroit, often times opening fire hydrants to cool off. But while the song’s lyrics and up-tempo rhythms were meant to convey a feeling of optimism and fun-spiritedness—a song people could dance to—others believed the song was a call to riot. As cities burned that summer, “Dancing in the Streets” became a metaphor for riotous protest born of despair and indignation. The song would aptly capture the mood of youthful rebellion at the height of the Civil Rights movement, climbing to the second spot on the Billboard Pop chart and number 4 on UK’s pop chart, all the while becoming a fiery anthem for youth throughout the United States.
The Velvelettes were formed in 1961 and its original members consisted of Bertha Barbee McNeal, Mildred Gill Arbor, Carolyn Gill, Norma Barbee, and Betty Kelly. Sandra Tilley joined the group in 1966 but left a year later to replace Rosalind Ashford of the Vandellas. Signed in 1962, the group recorded “There He Goes” and “That’s the Reason Why” in 1963. However, their breakthrough came in 1964 with the release of “Needle in A Haystack,” a single that reached 45 on Billboard’s Hot 100 that year. But by 1964, Motown was expending its focus on The Supremes. Nevertheless, the group continued to perform concerts during this period and recorded in the studio for Motown up until their final release “These Things Will Keep Me Loving You,” an R&B song that reached the top 50. The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas also recorded some of The Velvelettes’ material during this period. The Velvelettes finally dissolved as group in 1967 but played a pivotal part in the overall scheme of Motown’s success between 1962-67.
Though the girl group phenomenon of the 1960s faded, female musicians continued to be successful and influential at Motown and in music generally.
Headline image credit: Vintage radio. © scanrail via iStock.
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By: Alice,
on 1/13/2015
On 12 January 1959, Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit, Michigan. A year later it would be incorporated with a new name that became synonymous with a sound, style, and generation of music: Motown. All this week we’re looking the great artists and tracks that emerged from those recording studios. Yesterday, we spoke to Charles Randolph-Wright, the Director of Broadway’s Motown the Musical, which closes on Sunday, 18 January 2015.
Perhaps no other record label in America’s music history performed a more significant role in fashioning Rhythm and Blues’ assimilation into the country’s popular culture than Motown Records. Founded by Detroit songwriter Berry Gordy, Jr. in 1959, Motown (originally named Tamla Records) began producing hit records almost from its inception and continued to do so throughout the sixties. During this period, Motown and its subsidiary labels recorded 110 top 10 hit songs and became the standard bearer for black music. As Motown evolved from a small African American record label into a colossal, international industry giant with unprecedented crossover appeal, several women played noteworthy roles in shaping its storied development.
While Motown carved out a niche for itself for effectively crafting successful girl groups, some female artists, notably Mary Wells and Brenda Holloway, triumphed as soloists. In addition, female artists contributed to the company’s overall success as writers and as background vocalists for fellow label artists. Many left a lasting impression through duets with male artists.
Kim Weston achieved success as a soloist but it was her duets with the legendary Marvin Gaye that etched her name in the annals of Motown. Her stint with the company began in 1961 with the single, “Love Me All the Way,” a high pitched, blues song that reached 24 and 88 on Billboard’s R&B and Pop charts respectively. In 1964, Motown released “What Good Am I Without You,” a moderately successful duet with Marvin Gaye. During the following year, in 1965, soulful dance hit “Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)” reached number 4 on the R&B and peaked at 50 on the pop chart. But “It Takes Two” was Weston’s greatest contribution to Motown. The song peaked at 4 on the R&B chart, 14 on the pop, and 16 on the UK. Released in 1966, the duet album with Weston was also Gaye’s most successful musical achievement up to that point and laid the basis for his subsequent duets with Tammy Terrell, who was hired by Motown after Weston left the label for MGM in 1967.
Gaye would perform with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and Diana Ross but his best, most lasting material came from duets with Terrell. Born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery, Terrell and Gaye recorded three albums for Motown. United and You’re All I Need both reached the top five on Billboard’s R&B chart but, more importantly, the pair achieved a charismatic presence on stage that was augmented by numerous television appearances. While performing onstage at a concert in Hamden-Sydney College in October of 1967, Terrell collapsed in Gaye’s arms and was diagnosed with a malignant tumor shortly after. Terrell and Gaye recorded a third album titled Easy that was released in 1969.
By the end of the sixties, female artists would continue to play a defining role not only at Motown but also in the broader industry. No doubt, they would continue to face challenges, many of which their male counterparts didn’t have to face. Nevertheless, they should be credited with opening the doors for later female artists and ensuring black music’s ongoing impact upon global popular culture.
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By: Alice,
on 1/12/2015
On 12 January 1959, Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit, Michigan. A year later it would be incorporated with a new name that became synonymous with a sound, style, and generation of music: Motown. All this week we’re looking the great artists and tracks that emerged from those recording studios. To kick us off, we spoke to Charles Randolph-Wright, the Director of Broadway’s Motown the Musical, which closes on Sunday, 18 January 2015.
Can you name your top five favorite Motown songs?
No. They change daily and some of them are only album tracks that many may not know.
You’ve talked about how “What’s Going On” is one of your favorite songs from this project because of its message of hope and change. Do you see this theme of social justice reemerging in popular music today?
I hope that theme is remerging because it is necessary. Motown was more than just music. It was a movement. Music has the power to change, to encourage, to heal. We need that now more than ever.
How have some of the legends of Motown responded to the show?
They have loved it, and seen it several times, which attests to their feelings about it. It was most important to me that we honor them because they opened the doors through which we now all walk. Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves, and so many others have been there supporting us—and not just the performers, also writers like Holland Dozier and people behind the scenes, people behind the records have given us their stamp of approval. That means everything to us.
Throughout the show you get to see a great number of female artists that came through Hitsville U.S.A. What role do you think women played in Motown’s growth and success?
Motown was one of the first companies where women were in charge. Many women at Motown were in key positions, including Berry Gordy’s sisters (who had a label before him). Women like Suzanne DePasse and Edna Anderson (both represented in the show) still continue to have a major voice in the entertainment industry. Motown opened so many different doors, and continues that legacy.
The show has attracted many people from near and far, of all ages showing the power of good music. Do you think that a show like Motown serves as a gateway for younger individuals to learn about and appreciate classics from artists like Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, and other Motown artists whose influence are still heard in today’s music?
Absolutely, and it is an aspect that gives me great pride. Watching all ages, all colors, all political persuasions singing and dancing together gives me hope.
Can you describe Motown’s lasting legacy using lyrics from a Hitsville song?
The legacy of Motown can best be described using the lyrics from an original song that Berry Gordy wrote for the show:
“IT COULD HAVE THE GREATEST SOUND
BUT WHEN YOU PUT THAT NEEDLE DOWN
IT’S WHAT’S IN THE GROOVES THAT COUNTS!”
Stay tuned for new articles every day this week celebrating Motown.
Headline image credit: Marva Hicks, Brandon Victor Dixon, and the Original Broadway Cast of Motown the Musical. Courtesy of Motown the Musical.
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By: DanP,
on 11/18/2014
On 9 August 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis) Police Department, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. Officer Wilson is white and Michael Brown was black, sparking allegations from wide swaths of the local and national black community that Wilson’s shooting of Brown, and the Ferguson Police Department’s reluctance to arrest the officer, are both racially motivated events that smack of an historic trend of black inequality within the US criminal justice system.
The fact that the Ferguson Police Department and city government are predominantly white, while the town is predominantly black, has underscored this distrust. So too have recent events in Los Angeles, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, St. Louis, and other places that suggest a disturbing pattern of white police personnel’s use of excessive force in the beatings or deaths of blacks across the nation. So disturbing, in fact, that this case and the others linked to it not only have inspired an organic, and diverse, crop of youth activists, but also have captured the close attention of President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, national civil rights organizations and the national black leadership. Indeed, not one or two, but three concurrent investigations of Officer Wilson’s shooting of Michael Brown are ongoing—one by the St. Louis Police Department and the other two by the FBI and the Justice Department, who are concerned with possible civil rights violations. The case also has a significant international following. The parents of Michael Brown raised this profile recently when they testified in Geneva, Switzerland before the United Nations Committee against Torture. There, they joined a US delegation to plead for support to end police brutality aimed at profiled black youth.
The details of the shooting investigations, each bit eagerly seized by opposing sides (those who support Brown and those who defend Wilson) as they become publicly available, still don’t give a comprehensive view of what actually happened between the officer and the teen, leaving too much speculation as to whether or not the Ferguson Grand Jury, who have been considering the case since 20 August, will return an indictment(s) against Officer Wilson.
What is known of the incident is that about noon on that Saturday, Michael Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson, were walking down Canefield Drive in Ferguson when Darren Wilson approached the two in his squad car, telling them to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. A scuffle ensued between Brown and Wilson within the police car. In his defense, Officer Wilson has stated that Brown attacked him and tried to grab his weapon. Dorian Johnson has countered that Wilson pulled Michael Brown into his car, suggesting that Brown was trying to defend himself from an overly aggressive Wilson. Shots were fired in Wilson’s police car and Brown ran down the street, pursued by Wilson. Autopsy reports indicate that Brown was shot at least six times, four times in his left arm, once through his left eye and once in the top of his head. The latter caused the youth’s death. Michael Brown’s body lay in the street, uncovered, for several hours while the police conducted a preliminary investigation, prompting even more outrage by black onlookers.
Since Michael Brown’s death, protestors from the area and across the nation have occupied the streets of Ferguson, demanding justice for the slain teen and his family. Nights of initial confrontations between police forces (the Ferguson Police, the St. Louis Police, the Missouri State Troopers and the National Guard have all been deployed in Ferguson at some time, and in some capacity, since the shooting) and though there has been some arson, looting, protestor and police violence, and arrests—even of news reporters—the protests generally have been peaceful. Not only police action during these protests, but their equipment as well, have sparked criticism and the growing demand that law enforcement agencies demilitarize. The daily protests have persisted, at times growing in great number, as during a series of “Hands up, Don’t Shoot” events that were held not just in Ferguson, but in many cities nationwide, including Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Omaha, Nebraska in August and September. The “hands up” stance is to protest Brown’s shooting which some, but not all, witnesses have stated came even with Brown’s hands up in a gesture of surrender to Wilson.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, and other state and local officials, along with many of the residents of Ferguson, fear that if the Grand Jury does not indict Darren Wilson for Michael Brown’s murder, civil unrest will erupt into violence, producing an event similar to the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. In Los Angeles, large numbers of persons rioted when it seemed that the legal outcomes of two back-to-back criminal cases smacked of black injustice—the acquittal of four white police officers indicted in the assault of black motorist Rodney King, and the no jail-time sentence of a Korean shopkeeper found guilty for the murder of Latasha Harlins, a black teen. The result was the worst race riot in US history, with more than 50 people killed, the burning of a substantial portion of the ethnic business enclave of Koreatown, and at least a billion dollars in property damage.
Certainly the fear is a legitimate one. The vast majority of US race riots that have centered on black participation have occurred with like conditions as a spark—the community’s belief that a youth or vulnerable person among them has been brutalized with state sanction. The nation has witnessed these events not only in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1992; but also in Harlem in 1935 and 1964; Richmond, California in 1968; San Francisco in 1986; Tampa, Florida in 1967 and 1986; Miami in 1980; Newark, New Jersey in 1967; York, Pennsylvania in 1969; Crown Heights (Brooklyn), New York in 1991; St. Petersburg, Florida in 1996; Cincinnati, Ohio in 2001; Benton Harbor, Michigan in 2003; Oakland, California in 2009 and 2010, and the list goes on. These events all have served as cautionary tales that, unfortunately, have not resulted in either the perception or reality of black equality before the law. It is this legacy that frustrates and frightens Ferguson residents.
The post The legitimate fear that months of civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri will end in rioting appeared first on OUPblog.
By: ErinM,
on 3/25/2014
Josephine Baker, the mid-20th century performance artist, provocatrix, and muse, led a fascinating transatlantic life. I recently had the opportunity to pose a few questions to Anne A. Cheng, Professor of English and African American Literature at Princeton University and author of the book Second Skin: Josephine Baker & the Modern Surface, about her research into Baker’s life, work, influence, and legacy.
Josephine Baker, as photographed by Carl Von Vechten in 1949. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Baker made her career in Europe and notably inspired a number of European artists and architects, including Picasso and Le Corbusier. What was it about Baker that spoke to Europeans? What did she represent for them?
It has been traditionally understood that Baker represents a “primitive” figure for male European artists and architects who found in Baker an example of black animality and regressiveness; that is, she was their primitive muse. Yet this view cannot account for why many famous female artists were also fascinated by her, nor does it explain why Baker in particular would come to be the figure of so much profound artistic investment. I would argue that it is in fact Baker’s “modernity” (itself understood as an expression of hybrid and borrowed art forms) rather than her “primitiveness” that made her such a magnetic figure. In short, the modernists did not go to her to watch a projection of an alienating blackness; rather, they were held in thrall by a reflection of their own art’s racially complex roots. This is another way of saying that, when someone like Picasso looked at a tribal African mask or a figure like Baker who mimics Western ideas of Africa, what he saw was not just radical otherness but a much more ambivalent mirror of the West’s own complicity in constructing and imagining that “otherness.”
Baker was present at the March on Washington in August 1963 and stood with Martin Luther King Jr. as he gave his “I have a dream” speech. What did Baker contribute to the struggle for civil rights? How was her success in foreign countries understood within the African American community?
These are well-known facts about Baker’s biography: in the latter part of her life, Baker became a very public figure for the causes of social justice and equality. During World War II, she served as an intelligence liaison and an ambulance driver for the French Resistance and was awarded the Medal of the Resistance and the Legion of Honor. Soon after the war, Baker toured the United States again and won respect and praise from African Americans for her support of the civil rights movement. In 1951, she refused to play to segregated audiences and, as a result, the NAACP named her its Most Outstanding Woman of the Year. She gave a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Congress of Racial Equality in 1963.
What is fascinating as well, however, is the complication that Baker represents to and for the African American community. Prior to the war and her more public engagement with the civil rights movement, she was not always a welcome figure either in the African American community or for the larger mainstream American public. Her sensational fame abroad was not duplicated in the states, and her association with primitivism made her at times an embarrassment for the African American community. A couple of times before the war, Baker returned to perform in the United States and was not well received, much to her grief. I would suggest that Baker should be celebrated not only for her more recognizable civil rights activism, but also for her art: performances which far exceed the simplistic labels that have been placed on them and which few have actually examined as art. These performances, when looked at more closely, embody and generate powerful and intricate political meditations about what it means to be a black female body on stage.
Did your research into Baker’s life uncover any surprising or unexpected bits of information? What was the greatest challenge you experienced in carrying out your research?
I was repeatedly stunned by how much writing has been generated about her life (from facts to gossip) but how little attention has been paid to really analyzing her work, be it on stage or in film. The work itself is so idiosyncratic and layered and complex that this critical oversight is really a testament to how much we have been blinded by our received image of her. I was also surprised to learn how insecure she was about her singing voice when it is in fact a very unique voice with great adaptability. Baker’s voice can be deep and sonorous or high and pitchy, depending on the context of each performance. In the film Zou Zou, for example, Baker is shown dressed in feathers, singing while swinging inside a giant gilded bird cage. Many reviewers criticized her performance as jittery and staccato. But I suggest that her voice was actually mimicking the sounds that would be made, not by a real bird, but by a mechanical bird and, in doing so, reminding us that we are not seeing naturalized primitive animality at all, but its mechanical reconstruction.
For me, the challenge of writing the story of Baker rests in learning how to delineate a material history of race that forgoes the facticity of race. The very visible figure of Baker has taught me a counterintuitive lesson: that the history of race, while being very material and with very material impacts, is nonetheless crucially a history of the unseen and the ineffable. The other great challenge is the question of style. I wanted to write a book about Baker that imitates or at least acknowledges the fluidity that is Baker. This is why, in these essays, Baker appears, disappears, and reappears to allow into view the enigmas of the visual experience that I think Baker offers.
Baker’s naked skin famously scandalized audiences in Paris, and your book is, in many respects, an extended analysis of the significance of Baker’s skin. Why study Josephine Baker and her skin today? What does she represent for the study of art, race, and American history? Did your interest in studying Baker develop gradually, or were you immediately intrigued by her?
I started out writing a book about the politics of race and beauty. Then, as part of this larger research, I forced myself to watch Josephine Baker’s films. I say “forced” because I was dreading seeing exactly the kind of racist images and performances that I have heard so much about. But what I saw stunned, puzzled, and haunted me. Could this strange, moving, and coated figure of skin, clothes, feathers, dirt, gold, oil, and synthetic sheen be the simple “black animal” that everyone says she is? I started writing about her, essay after essay, until a dear friend pointed out that I was in fact writing a book about Baker.
Tim Allen is an Assistant Editor for the Oxford African American Studies Center. You can follow him on Twitter @timDallen.
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The post Discussing Josephine Baker with Anne Cheng appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Alice,
on 2/26/2014
Dirty South hip hop refers to a gritty rap culture first developed in the southern United States during the 1980s and the 1990s. Goodie Mob, an eccentric quartet from Atlanta, Georgia, titled a 1995 single “Dirty South” in order to shed light on myriad societal ills in the former Confederacy, where ethnic prejudice and racism seemed to be perennial sicknesses. Today the term is used to describe not only everyday life in Dixieland, but also an array of risqué artists, lyrics, clothes, and other fashion items that originated there. And even though some might say that dirty South hip hop, as a synthesis of global rap influences and aesthetics, lacks distinction, the emergence of Atlanta and other major Southern cities as recognized headquarters of urban popular culture has compelled many critics and fans to describe the phenomenon as unique. The following playlist, courtesy of Oxford African American Studies Center contributor Bertis English (Alabama State University), provides a wide-ranging selection of the most significant artists working in the genre.
Bertis English is an Associate Professor of History at Alabama State University. He has written about Atlanta’s unique contribution to hip hop on the Oxford African American Studies Center.
The Oxford African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. The Oxford African American Studies Center is free for Black History Month. Simply use Username: blackhistorymonth and Password: onlineaccess to log in.
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By: KimberlyH,
on 2/19/2013
When I was approached by the good folks at Oxford University Press to write some entries on jazz artists, I noticed that while the biggest names (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, etc.) were already covered, many other artists were also deserving of entries. There were several qualities that I looked for in musicians before suggesting that they be written about. Each musician had to have a distinctive sound (always a prerequisite before any artist is considered a significant jazz musician), a strong body of work, and recordings that sound enjoyable today. It did not matter if the musician’s prime was in the 1920s or today. If their recordings still sounded good, they were eligible to be given prestigious entries in the African American National Biography.
Some of the entries included in the February update to the Oxford African American Studies Center are veteran singers Ernestine Anderson, Ernie Andrews, and Jon Hendricks; trumpet legends Harry “Sweets” Edison, Kenny Dorham, and Art Farmer; and a few giants of today, including pianist Kenny Barron, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, and clarinetist Don Byron.
In each case, in addition to including the musicians’ basic biographical information, key associations, and recordings, I have included a few sentences that place each artist in their historic perspective, talking about how they fit into their era, describing their style, and discussing their accomplishments. Some musicians had only a brief but important prime period, but there is a surprising number of artists whose careers lasted over 50 years. In the case of Benny Carter, the alto saxophonist/arranger was in his musical prime for a remarkable 70 years, still sounding great when he retired after his 90th birthday.
Jazz, whether from 90 years ago or today, has always overflowed with exciting talents. While jazz history books often simplify events, making it seem as if there were only a handful of giants, the number of jazz greats is actually in the hundreds. There was more to the 1920s than Louis Armstrong, more to the swing era than Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller, and more to the classic bebop era than Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. For example, while Duke Ellington is justly celebrated, during the 49 years that he led his orchestra, he often had as many as ten major soloists in his band at one time, all of whom had colorful and interesting lives.
Because jazz has had such a rich history, it is easy for reference books and encyclopedias to overlook the very viable scene of today. The music did not stop with the death of John Coltrane in 1967 or the end of the fusion years in the late 1970s. Because the evolution of jazz was so rapid between 1920 and 1980, continuing in almost a straight line as the music became freer and more advanced, it is easy (but inaccurate) to say that the music has not continued evolving. What has happened during the past 35 years is that instead of developing in one basic way, the music evolved in a number of directions. The music world became smaller and many artists utilized aspects of World and folk music to create new types of “fusions.” Some musicians explored earlier styles in creative ways, ranging from 1920s jazz to hard bop. The avant-garde or free jazz scene introduced many new musicians, often on small label releases. And some of the most adventurous players combined elements of past styles — such as utilizing plunger mutes on horns or engaging in collective improvisations — to create something altogether new.
While many veteran listeners might call one period or another jazz’s “golden age,” the truth is that the music has been in its prime since around 1920 (when records became more widely available) and is still in its golden age today. While jazz deserves a much larger audience, there is no shortage of creative young musicians of all styles and approaches on the scene today. The future of jazz is quite bright and the African American National Biography’s many entries on jazz greats reflect that optimism.
Scott Yanow is the author of eleven books on jazz, including The Great Jazz Guitarists, The Jazz Singers, Trumpet Kings, Jazz On Record 1917-76, and Jazz On Film.
The Oxford African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. It provides students, scholars and librarians with more than 10,000 articles by top scholars in the field.
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Image Credit: Kenny Barron 2001, Munich/Germany. Photo by Sven.petersen, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The post Jazz lives in the African American National Biography appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Rebecca,
on 1/16/2009
Since Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day I thought it would be nice to highlight another important civil rights leader, A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. This excerpt comes from The Oxford African American Studies Center. It was written by Edward L. Jr. Lach and published in the African American National Biography. In celebration of next week’s Inauguration and in commemoration of Black History Month in February, the Oxford African American Studies Center is available to the public for free until March 1st. Visit here for instructions on how to login or use username:barackobama, password:president.
A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., jurist and civil rights leader, was born Aloysius Leon Higginbotham in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Aloysius Leon Higginbotham Sr. , a laborer, and Emma Lee Douglass , a domestic worker. While he was attending a racially segregated elementary school, his mother insisted that he receive tutoring in Latin, a required subject denied to black students; he then became the first African American to enroll at Trenton’s Central High School. Initially interested in engineering, he enrolled at Purdue University only to leave in disgust after the school’s president denied his request to move on-campus with his fellow African American students. He completed his undergraduate education at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he received a BA in Sociology in 1949 . In August 1948 he married Jeanne L. Foster ; the couple had three children. Angered by his experiences at Purdue and inspired by the example of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall , Higginbotham decided to pursue a legal career. He attended law school at Yale and graduated with an LLB in 1952 .
Although Higginbotham was an honors student at Yale, he encountered racial prejudice when he tried to find employment at leading Philadelphia, law firms. After switching his sights to the public sector, he began his career as a clerk for the Court of Common Pleas judge Curtis Bok in 1952 . Higginbotham then served for a year as an assistant district attorney under the future Philadelphia mayor and fellow Yale graduate Richardson Dilworth . In 1954 he became a principal in the new African American law firm of Norris, Green, Harris, and Higginbotham and remained with the firm until 1962 . During the same period he became active in the civil rights movement, serving as president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); he was also a member of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
Between 1960 and 1962 Higginbotham served as a special hearing officer for conscientious objectors for the United States Department of Justice. In 1962 President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the Federal Trade Commission, making him the first African American member of a federal administrative agency. Two years later President Lyndon Johnson appointed him as U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; at age thirty-six, he was the youngest person to be so named in thirty years. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia. He became chief judge in 1989 and remained in the position until his retirement in 1993 .
As a member of the federal bench, Higginbotham authored more than 650 opinions. A staunch liberal and tireless defender of programs such as affirmative action, he became equally well known for his legal scholarship, with more than one hundred published articles to his credit. He also published two (out of a planned series of four) highly regarded books that outlined the American struggle toward racial justice and equality through the lens of the legal profession: In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process, the Colonial Period ( 1978 ), in which he castigated the founding fathers for their hypocrisy in racial matters, and Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process ( 1996 ).
Higginbotham also taught both law and sociology at a number of schools, including the University of Michigan, Yale, Stanford, and New York University. He enjoyed a long relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, where he was considered for the position of president in 1980 before deciding to remain on the bench. Following his retirement in 1993 , Higginbotham taught at Harvard Law School and also served as public service professor of jurisprudence at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In addition, he served on several corporate boards and worked for the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison in both New York and Washington.
Although most of his career was spent outside the public limelight, Higginbotham came to the forefront of public attention in 1991 when he published an open letter to the Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Castigating Thomas for what he viewed as a betrayal of all that he, Higginbotham, had worked for, Higginbotham stated, “I could not find one shred of evidence suggesting an insightful understanding on your part of how the evolutionary movement of the Constitution and the work of civil rights organizations have benefited you.” Although widely criticized for his stance, Higginbotham remained a critic of Thomas’s after he joined the Supreme Court and later attempted to have a speaking invitation to Thomas rescinded by the National Bar Association in 1998 .
In his later years Higginbotham filled a variety of additional roles. He served as an international mediator at the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa in 1994 , lent his counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus during a series of voting rights cases before the Supreme Court, and advised Texaco Inc. on diversity and personnel issues when the firm came under fire for alleged racial discrimination in 1996 . In failing health, Higginbotham’s last public service came during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998 , when he argued before the House Judiciary Committee that there were degrees of perjury and that President Clinton’s did not qualify as “an impeachable high crime.” The recipient of several honorary degrees, Higginbotham also received the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award ( 1994 ), the Presidential Medal of Freedom ( 1995 ), and the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal ( 1996 ). After he and his first wife divorced in 1988 , Higginbotham married Evelyn Brooks, a professor at Harvard, and adopted her daughter. He died in a Boston hospital after suffering a series of strokes.
Although he never served on the Supreme Court, Higginbotham’s impact on the legal community seems certain to continue. A pioneer among African American jurists, he also made solid contributions in the areas of legal scholarship, training, and civil rights.
[...] topic. The Oxford University Press chose to honor Martin Luther King Jr day (last Monday) with an article on another prominent civil rights leader in the United States, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Although Judge Higginbotham was not as well known [...]