Here’s a site you don’t want to miss. I won’t go into too much detail. If you know who John Coltrane is you’ll want to hop right over to johncoltrane.com and check out his biography, pictures, and other information. If you don’t know Coltrane then you’re in for a treat as you’re introduced to one of the giants of modern jazz.

The site is Flash based and provides a seamless integration of audio, video, text, and motion graphics. Enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

Congratulations to Barack Obama and Obamaholics across the nation.

During the last months this site, focused on African American culture, has had a steady dose of Obama related content. That is fitting, considering an Obama presidency’s impact on Black America. We look forward, though, to getting back to highlighting cultural artifacts of interest the the black community. Hence this post.

The idea of a black president is one that has generated much speculation in our community. In film, music, and literature the notion has been kicked around sometimes as an impossible farce and sometimes as a radical, revolutionary challenge. Off the top of my head, a couple of popular tunes come to mind when thinking of a black president. I thought I’d present them here just for kicks since, after today, we can never listen to these songs in the same way. I’m hoping to hear one or more of these cuts at the inaugural.

fyi: hit the little speaker icon next to the name to play the track without leaving the page.

Funky President (People it’s Bad) James Brown-1974

One Nation Under a Groove Funkadelic-1978

Paint the White House Black George Clinton-1993

Young people turned out in force for a political rally at the Quicken Loans Arena on October 29th, 2008. LeBron James, Jay-Z, the Obama Campaign and the Democratic Party held a large rally in downtown Cleveland that was well staged and attended.

News media from around the world were represented, including a Kenyan paper called “The Nation,” “Al-Jazeera English,” and all the major U.S. news outlets.
(more…)

In part one of this post I asked the question: Are there African Americans who are carrying on the tradition of banjo playing? And answered: Not that I’m familiar with. Of course the fact that I’m unfamiliar with something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. So feel free to hip me to any contemporary or traditional banjo playing that’s going on in the black community. In the meantime I am hip to Béla Fleck and his band The Flecktones. You can’t find a more eclectic and talented ensemble anywhere on Earth. In this article I’ll be reviewing the Flecktones album The Hidden Land.

(more…)