Jessye Norman - "When I Am Laid In Earth (Dido's Lament)"

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

When it comes to singers, there have been few voices considered as majestic as soprano Jessye Norman's. The celebrated opera singer from Augusta, Ga. has meticulously built a career on her own terms, choosing her projects intelligently and carefully guarding her vocal resources, which have often been described as a force of nature.

The 71-year-old artist recently added author to her list of accomplishments. Norman has written a memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing! From experiencing racism as a child to watching the fall of the Berlin Wall to her storied opera career, Norman talks about her life and her music with an openness rarely heard before in her interviews. 

Jessye Norman’s 1998-1999 performances included a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City, which had an unusual program incorporating sacred music of Duke Ellington, scored for jazz combo, string quartet and piano, and featuring the Alvin Ailey Repertory dance Ensemble. Other performances during the season included Das Leid von der Erde, with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a television special for Christmas filmed in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia, as well as a spring recital tour, which included performances in Tel Aviv. The following season also brought performances of the sacred music of Duke Ellington to London and Vienna, together with a summer European tour, which included performances at the Salzburg Festival.

The vocal phenomenon that is Jessye Norman has long been acknowledged as possessing one of the world’s most beautiful voices. The sheer size, power, and luster of her voice share equal acclaim with that for her thoughtful, provocative music-making, prompting one writer to observe that "her vocal phrasing moves beyond mere seamlessness to convey a more ardent, spontaneous passion." Often cited for her innovative programming and fervent advocacy of contemporary music, she has earned the recognition of another writer who describes her as "one of those once –in-a-generation singers who isn’t simply following in the footsteps of others, but is staking out her own niche in the history of singing."

She is a legend, a dynamo and an incredible human being, who has fought for equality and longer than most. She forced the world to see beyond stereotypes and challenged America to see their perceptions of classical and beautiful differently. 

So today, with passion like a bonfire I choose Jessye Norman's version of "When I Am Laid In Earth (Dido's Lament)" by Purcell, as my, rage against the dying of the light, fight for every inch, know that you've given it all you've got, song for an, adventure around every corner, flights of fantasy, walk where you have not dared to trod before, Tuesday. 

Sly & the Family Stone - “Que Sera Sera”

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

One of this most influential bands in all of American Music, Sly & the Family Stone helped shape and then change the shape of what american music was and is. Their tight knit family and friend band with a multi-gender line-up and multi-ethnic members could almost do no wrong for most of their career. Constantly evolving they moved from soul to funk seamlessly eventually even getting into psychedelic music and finding success.

So today, with joyous reference to Ms. Doris Day, I chose Sly & the Family Stone’s “Que Sera Sera” as my, let it be, watch sun behind the clouds, find the sparkle in the dew, song for a, go on and take a bigger bite than you thought, if you never try you’ll never grow, the surest way to fail is to quit Monday.

Leontyne Price - “Chi Il Bel Sogno Di Doretta”

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

She was one of those rare stars that not only shines abnormally brightly, but burns consistently brighter than all those around her. A trailblazer and a risk taker, she took the world by storm and Opera has never been the same since. 

Leontyne Price was born Mary Violet Leontine Price, to James Anthony Price, a carpenter, and Kate Baker Price, a midwife with a lovely soprano voice. Price received excellent vocal training at an early age when she is said to have sat enthralled in her stroller listening to her mother singing in the choir at the St. Paul Methodist Church in Laurel. Her formal music instruction began at age 5, when she started taking piano lessons.

Price entered Oak Park Vocational High School in 1937, where she was quickly designated as the pianist for the school concerts and functions. She was also considered one of the most talented members of her high school choir. In 1944, she went on to the College of Educational and Industrial Arts in Wilberforce, Ohio, to study to be a music teacher. After hearing her sing in the choir one Sunday morning, the president of the college, Dr. Charles H. Wesley, advised her to change her major from education and public school music to concentrate on voice.

Price earned her B.A. in June 1948, and headed to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music where she had won a full tuition scholarship. At Juilliard, she received voice training from Florence Ward Kimball, a distinguished teacher, and, in her last year, she gave a strong performance as Mistress Ford in the student production of the opera, Falstaff. Upon seeing her in this production, Virgil Thompson immediately invited her to star in a revival of his opera, Four Saints in Three Acts, which ran on Broadway for three weeks in April 1952. Less than two months later, Price made her debut in Dallas, in a role that would carve her name in the minds of audiences everywhere; she appeared as Bess in a revival of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

For the next two years, Price toured with the production all over the world, including eight months in New York, an extended period in Europe, and finally in Russia. As a result of the show's worldwide success, Price gained international recognition. In addition, she married her co-star, William Warfield.

Throughout the 1950s, Price broadened her career as an opera singer by starring in a number of works in recital halls, opera stages, and on television. In February 1955, with Samuel Barber on piano, she made her television debut as Floria Tosca in an NBC-TV Opera Company production of Puccini's Tosca, and in 1956, she starred in NBC's production of Mozart's Magic Flute. The following year, Price made her opera house debut as Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites at the San Francisco Opera House. In 1958, she made her European operatic debut as Aida at the Vienna Staatsoper. On July 2, 1958, she had a triumphant debut in London, at Covent Garden, and two years later, she played Aida to a packed house at the venerable La Scala on May 21, 1960, becoming the first black singer to sing a major role at this citadel of opera.

Price achieved one of the greatest artistic victories of her career on January 27, 1961, when she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore. This performance ignited a 42-minute ovation, one of the longest in the Met's history. Critic Harold Schonberg wrote: "Her voice was dusky and rich in its lower tones, perfectly even in its transitions from one register to another, and flawlessly pure and velvety at the top."

The 1960s welcomed Price to packed houses and rave reviews the world over. From 1961 to 1969, she sang in 118 performances. On October 23, 1961, she opened the Met's new season, playing Minnie in The Girl of the Golden West. That same year, Musical America voted her Musician of the Year with a poll of editors and critics all over the country. In 1964, she was awarded the Presidential Freedom Award, and the following year, she won the Italian Award of Merit. Price also was chosen to open the Met's 1966-67 season as Cleopatra in Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra.

Although she chose to perform less frequently during the 1970s, Price continued to accept challenging new roles. In 1974, she starred as Manon Lescaut in Manon, a role she repeated at the Met the following year. She made her debut as Ariadne in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the San Francisco Opera, on October 19, 1977.

Over the years, Price has won 15 Grammy Awards for vocal recordings she has made, and she has been on the cover of Time and 27 other magazines. In addition, she was the only opera singer to be represented in the list of "Remarkable American Women: 1776-1976" in Life Magazine's Bicentennial issue in 1976. She now lives quietly in a cozy house in New York's Greenwich Village.

So today, with Vim and Vigor, I choose Leontyne Price singing Puccini’s “Chi Il Bel Sogno Di Doretta” as my, shake the world from it’s axis, apologize for nothing, make the brighter by burning it away song for a, force them to sit up and pay attention, you’ve got nothing to lose, your last failure was your best lesson yet Friday

Little Richard - "Keep Knockin'"

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, actor, and icon.An influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades, Little Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll. His music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. Little Richard influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come, and his performances and headline-making thrust his career right into the mix of American popular music.

Little Richard has been honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" (1955) was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music." In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Little Richard with a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award for his pivotal role in the formation of popular music genres and in helping to shatter the color line on the music charts, changing American culture significantly.

Little Richard's music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Little Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer. Little Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail.

Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Little Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and rhythm. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry. "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.

Always struggling with his own inner demons, Little Richard, proved to the world once again that skin color and sexual orientation have nothing to do with star power. He battled homophobia and racism both internally and externally, and through that passionate rollercoaster of a journey, he taught us just how layered a human soul can be. 

So today, with eyes wide shut, I choose Little Richard's "Keep Knockin'" as my, break open, lift off, wooooooooo, song for a, maybe this time, why not, let your guard down little by little, Thursday. 

Roberta Flack - "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

Because I have to believe that no matter how many times a heart is broken, no matter how many times it's been trampled and bruised, no matter how often it has been discarded and tossed to the curb by careless hands, that it is never to shattered to be repaired, recycled, and sent back into the ring for another round in this game called love. 

I know I haven't found you yet, but I'm here, learning patience, and looking for you. Hurry if you can, but I'll be here regardless, waiting to be your man. 

Roberta Cleopatra Flack is an American soul singer. She is known for her #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", and for "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway.

Flack was the first, and remains the only, solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year on two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys as did "Killing Me Softly with His Song" at the 1974 Grammys.

Flack's minimalist, classically trained approach to her songs was seen by a number of critics as lacking in grit and uncharacteristic of soul music. According to music scholar Eric Weisbard, her work was regularly described with the adjectives "boring", "depressing", "lifeless", "studied", and "calculated"; AllMusic's Steve Huey said it has been called "classy, urbane, reserved, smooth, and sophisticated". In 1971, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau reported that "Flack is generally regarded as the most significant new black woman singer since Aretha Franklin, and at moments she sounds kind, intelligent, and very likable. But she often exhibits the gratuitous gentility you'd expect of someone who says 'between you and I.'"

So today, with hope around every corner, I choose Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" as my, maybe today, never say never, foster the spark of love anyplace you can find it, song for an, open your heart even when it hurst, never stop hoping, Love is worth living for, Wednesday, Valentine's Day. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, here's wishing you Love.

Tina Turner - "River Deep, Mountain High"

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

She is a warrior, a muse, an activist, a poet, and an inspiration. She has battled adversity after adversity and always risen above the challenge. Through poverty, abuse, abandon, and loss, she has taught us all a master class in finding your silver linings and rising to take second chances. 

She began her career in 1958 as a featured singer with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, first recording under the name "Little Ann". Her introduction to the public as Tina Turner began in 1960 as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.  Success followed with a string of notable hits credited to the duo, including "A Fool in Love", "River Deep – Mountain High" (1966), "Proud Mary" (1971), and "Nutbush City Limits" (1973), a song that she wrote. In her autobiography, I, Tina (1986), she revealed several instances of severe domestic abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. Raised a Baptist, she encountered faith with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in 1971, crediting the spiritual chant of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, which Turner says helped her to endure during difficult times.

After her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career through live performances. In the 1980s, Turner launched a major comeback with another string of hits, starting in late 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" followed by the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer which became a worldwide success. The album contained the song "What's Love Got to Do with It", which became Turner's biggest hit and won four Grammy Awards including Record of the Year. Her solo success continued throughout the 1980s and 90s with multi-platinum albums including Break Every Rule and Foreign Affair, and with singles such as "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)", "Typical Male", "The Best", "I Don't Wanna Fight", and "GoldenEye", for the 1995 James Bond film of the same name.

In 1993, What's Love Got to Do with It, a biographical film adapted from her autobiography, was released along with an accompanying soundtrack album. In addition to her musical career, Turner has also garnered success acting in films, including the role of the Acid Queen in the 1975 rock musical Tommy, a starring role alongside Mel Gibson in the 1985 action film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and a cameo role in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.

One of the world's best-selling artists of all time, she has also been referred to as The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll. Her combined album and single sales total approximately 100 million copies worldwide. Turner has also sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history. In 2008, Turner returned from semi-retirement to embark on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. Turner's tour became one of the highest selling ticketed shows of 2008–09. She is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, and career longevity.

Throughout her career, she has won eleven Grammy Awards, including eight competitive awards and three Grammy Hall of Fame awards. Rolling Stone ranked Turner 63rd on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. and 17th on their list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. In 1991, Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In January 2018, it was announced that Turner will be one of the recipients of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

She will never be forgotten and the trail she blazed burns brightly still with girls striving to be like Tina. 

So today, with depths unfound and heights unscaled, I choose Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" as my, let yourself rise, find beauty in the broken, it's never to late to change your life, song for a, never believe other people's limitations of you, take back your time, live and burn and soar, Tuesday.

Sarah Vaughan - "A Foggy Day"

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

In times of tumult, ripe with racial tension and vast sexism, Sarah Vaughan did the one thing a woman of color could do to help herself and her family out of poverty. She turned her natural gift, her talent for singing, into a weapon. She crafted her voice into a precise instrument and made music that the world wanted to hear. She changed her life and the minds of many around her, simply by being the very best version of herself that she could aspire to. 

That, my friends, is more than inspiring, it is the stuff of legends. Quoted by Fats Domino as having the only voice that was more flexible and powerful than a trumpet, she was a woman to be reckoned with, and musician beyond compare.

Nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One", Vaughan was a four-time Grammy Award winner, including a "Lifetime Achievement Award". The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its "highest honor in jazz", the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989. 

Parallels have been drawn between Vaughan's voice and that of opera singers. Jazz singer Betty Carter said that with training Vaughan could have "...gone as far as Leontyne Price." Bob James, Vaughan's musical director in the 1960s said that "...the instrument was there. But the knowledge, the legitimacy of that whole world were not for her...But if the aria were in Sarah's range she could bring something to it that a classically trained singer could not."

So, today with trumpets blaring, I choose Sarah Vaughan’s “A Foggy Day” as my, make your own music, you may not be angel, but i’ll string along with you, song for a, waiting never got you to the front of the line, let yourself walk gently out of the haze, when they say jump - show them you can fly Monday.

Dorothy Dandridge - "Dat's Love"

In appreciation of Black History Month, all of February will feature Black and Mixed Race artists.

She is an icon, a star, and the Beyonce of her time. Sadly her time wasn't ready for a Beyonce, so we can thank Mrs. Dandridge for the Beyonce of today. I mean just listen to her destroy these runs from Bizet that have taken trained opera singers decades to master. She was an incredible artist and child prodigy. If we had only had eyes open enough to see her.

Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an African American film and theatre actress, singer, and dancer. She is perhaps best known for being the first African-American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1954 film Carmen Jones, a retelling of the Opera "Carmen" with Bizet's music and updated lyrics.  Dandridge performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. During her early career, she performed as a part of The Wonder Children, later The Dandridge Sisters, and appeared in a succession of films, usually in uncredited roles.

In 1959 Dandridge was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Porgy and Bess. She is the subject of the 1999 HBO biographical film, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to hotel owner Jack Denison. Dandridge died under mysterious circumstances at age 42.

Many years passed before the entertainment industry acknowledged Dandridge's legacy. Starting in the 1980s, stars such as Cicely Tyson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Tasha Smith, and Angela Bassett acknowledged Dandridge's contributions to the role of Black Americans in film.

In 1995 movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, Wesley Snipes played "Noxeema Jackson", a drag queen whose dream is to play Dorothy Dandridge in a movie about her life and work, since she admires her and knows all her career.

In 1999, Halle Berry took the lead role of Dandridge in the HBO Movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which she also produced and for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award. When Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Monster's Ball, she dedicated the "moment [to] Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll." Both Dandridge and Berry were from Cleveland, Ohio and were, in fact, born in the same hospital.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6721 Hollywood Boulevard. Dorothy Dandridge is also the most prominent figure of a huge mural of celebrities painted on an exterior wall of Hollywood High School.

There is a statue of Dorothy Dandridge at Hollywood-La Brea Boulevard in Los Angeles, designed by Catherine Hardwicke, built to honor multi-ethnic leading ladies of the cinema, including Mae West, Dolores del Río and Anna May Wong.

Recording artist Janelle Monáe performs a song entitled "Dorothy Dandridge Eyes" on her album The Electric Lady, with Esperanza Spalding.

A character in the 1969 movie The Lost Man states she named herself after Dandridge, citing that 'I loved her [...] it was a terrible tragedy when she died.'

In the February 2016 episode of Black-ish entitled "Sink or Swim", Dre refers to Beyoncé as being the "Dorothy Dandridge" of our time, pointing out the star power of Dandridge during her day.

So today with hutzpah and a harrumph I choose Dorothy Dandridge's "Dat's Love" as my, ahead of your time, never dim your shine, burn as brightly as you can for as long as you can, song for a, if they aren't ready it's their loss, never be anything less than your best, acceptance comes after hard won battles, Friday.