Every February, Canadians are invited to participate in Black History Month festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present. Here at OurBasement we like to celebrate with music. The playlist of Canadian Black Musicians has grown to 100 artists from many genres this year. Music is a powerful thing.
“Music is a popular and readily available means of communicating. African musical forms interpreted through voice or makeshift instruments for European audiences were highly creative blends. Other musical forms, such as work songs and worship songs, educated and inspired enslaved Africans. It gave them hope, it gave them ideas and it gave them instructions. Follow the Drinking Gourd, or Wade in the Water, or Swing Low Sweet Chariot, all provided ideas on how to get connected to the “Underground Railroad,” and freedom.
Early African melodies, and feelings expressed in the New World led to the development of jazz, which led to the development of other musical forms that depended on African syncopated rhythms. However, African-Canadian musicians, even though their music was enjoyed, often found that they had to leave Canada to be fully appreciated, as have Canadian musicians of all races and genres.
From early greats like Oscar Petersen, jazz pianist and African-Nova Scotian Portia White, often called the greatest classical singer of the century, to today’s Measha Bruggergosman from New Brunswick and Maestro Fresh Wes, Black musicians have broken down barriers and brought African, Caribbean, and Afro-Latin music to the public’s attention. Musicians across all genres, like Oliver Jones, Montreal’s Charlie Biddle, Toronto’s Salome Bey, Almeta Speaks, Taborah Johnson, Jackie Richardson, Ranee Lee, Jully Black, Faith Nolan, Liberty Silver, Deborah Cox, Grace Price-Trotman to Karen Johnson Burke, gained success within a broader range of Canadian society or the international community due to the efforts of previous giants in breaking down some barriers.” (Source: Historica Canada)
For 2019, the theme of the Government of Canada’s Black History Month campaign is Black Canadian Youth: Boundless, Rooted and Proud. There is certainly a good representation of that in the playlist. It is kicked off by Tasha The Amazon and many other young artists can be found in it such as Zaki Ibrahim, Daniel Caesar, Ruth B, and Kaytranada. They certainly seem boundless, rooted and proud to me. So many favourite artists are on the playlist as well such as Shad, Grand Analog, Cadence Weapon, Pierre Kwenders, and Melissa Laveaux. It is a playlist of mostly current artists. Canada is rich in talent from Black Canadian artists and it is an honour to share their music with you.
Good morning!
hello
Good Morning
Wow, there are people! Hello people!
Good morning!
Four! Four people!
A veritable crowd
Hello everyone, happy Friday!
Muahaha! I could hear The Count in that.
Lemme tell you about the snowy Laurentians. Oh, sure, they’re always snowy, but climbing back up that steepish hill from the lake, me all snowshoes and poles, said poles would sink down fully two feet! I was fortunate to have made a trail the two previous times I went down.
(I’ve been wanting to get the snow away from around a little dock so as to form ice, which’ll allow me to take it apart to recoup huge floaters. For re-use in a new dock. Snow’s been refilling the tracts I clear. Stupid snow, collab’ing with the wind…)
Anyway it’s a classic winter wonderland out there. Not really really cold, just one ‘really’. Good winter. Fresh air.
Sounds lovely and exhausting. That is the kind of winter I enjoy though. Plenty of snow, clear skies and fresh air and not too too cold.
Good luck with your battle.
Dar, thanks. I think yesterday’s efforts may have worked: no big snow or wind after clearing, and -23 perhaps overnight.
I’m back
We had snow here
Yup, I am in the mountains covered in snow too, thankfully in my house. I sure miss snow shoeing with my pup. It is a great way to get some fun out of the snow and it not be all work of moving it around.
Today I will be hanging out with my friend chores upstairs.
I can play music through my phone up there but no keyboarding.
Stoked for the updated playlist to keep me company.
We should be getting snow the next few days. I better get my steering fixed. No power steering won’t help me navigate very well. I am getting a workout on my arms though.
I just remembered that I am going to see STW tonight!
I am not sure if I will last into the Mother Mother set though …
@darbar I have a work question for you if that is ok …
Hurray! Make sure you introduce yourself to STW if you get the chance.
You can ask. If I have an answer or not we shall see.
I am in the midst of a family history photo project. I have some old photo’s in not very good shape that I would like to have restored. Can you recommend a place in Vancouver?
Scanning originals to make copies for us that is.
Good morning everyone!
and then a wild Justin appeared
I am afraid I haven’t a clue morgana. Sorry.
I love old photos.
Well hello Justin! We rarely overlap our time here. Nice to see you.
Hiya Justin!
I know it’s been a while, howdy again everyone 🙂
no worries @darbar. worth the ask though.
@justin are you too busy running trails and working or have you been to any shows of late?
Darbar, only one Shad song on the playlist? I am surprised Shad Fam Jam in not in there.
@darbar the playlist only wants to play singles and not the whole thing. Usually it is me doing something wrong but … ?
Morgan, my big thing that happened last month was emergency retina detachment repair surgery on December 13. So have been chilling, working, and starting to run again. I have had a lingering foot issue as well. So, am only running about 15k a week right now.
@Justin – I only put one track per artist and I put their most recent. Fam Jam has been on other themed playlists though.
@Darbar.. ah got it. As Shad was with Kaytranada, figured a Shad one on his own would be in there. I am a big Shad fan though.
Right! I remember the retina detachment now that you remind me. I am glad to hear you are taking the recovery steps slowly. How is the progress?
That was his most popular track from his new album A Short Story About War. Fabulous album! I am changing it to the Get it Got it Good one. Kaytranada was only featured on the other one.
@morgana – I am not sure why it would be doing that. I can’t see anything on my end.
@darbar usually I just play the first song and it rolls out but this week I had to press on the title of the playlist to get the complete playlist. Undoubtably a me issue.
That is odd Morgana. Hmmm.
Odd pretty much defines my relationship with technology.
One of the playlists FamJam was on:
http://open.spotify.com/user/darbarspecial/playlist/04nef94jcRDlFRQWjJkoRG
Every month I was doing a different year. I will be doing 2016 this month.
and don’t forget our short Juno 2019 playlist
I have to go and prepare a spot in the garage for some art to be stored.
I am transporting two pieces that Liz purchased that her and @NVP like many years ago when they made a road trip through here.
Morgana, the art trafficker
That’s cool and kind of you.
I made it through some genre dislikes and came out with a fun lyric; “I’m not antisocial just antibullshit” (:
Trying on new stuff is great and now I’m moving on to what my ears find more musical … thanks for the journey@darbar.
There is a lot of different styles on this playlist. The bottom of it is my least favourite but there is some funk and good old r&b in there a bit too. The top of the playlist is more what I like generally. I liked that lyric. Ursa Maja is a hip hop artist I met from Moose Jaw, SK. Thanks for giving it a listen. Much appreciated!
one of my favorite rap lines is
champagne for my real friends
real pain for my sham friends
Ha! Very clever.
Here is a bit more about the quote
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/12/13/sham/