“Feet forward, head turned backward, the Sankofa bird reflects on the past to build a successful future.”

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 nearly 100 artists from many genres this year. Music is a powerful thing.

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 2020, the theme of the Government of Canada’s Black History Month campaign is “Canadians of African Descent: Going forward, guided by the past”. I do hope we keep moving forward while not forgetting things that happened in the past. So many favourite artists are on the playlist such as Shad, Grand Analog, Cadence Weapon, Pierre Kwenders, Haviah Mighty 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.