Apollo Live Wire: On the Record - Black Music and the Civil Rights Movement

A conversation with Jason King, Carol Cooper, Michael A. Gonzales, and James Mtume

Tuesday, February 6, 2018 6:30 p.m.

Apollo Theater 253 West 125 Street, New York, NY

ON THE RECORD - BLACK MUSIC & THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT In 2015, during his last ever appearance at the Grammy Awards, late pop music superstar Prince famously stated: “Like books and black lives, albums still matter.” Prince’s notion was decidedly nostalgic: these days, physical albums and books are old school technologies, in the process of being outpaced by digital ones brought to us by e-readers and singlesfocused streaming apps.

Still, Prince did us a favor by speaking about albums in the same breath as black lives—which are always, of course, under their own unique kind of existential threat. While musicians have always performed the artistic labor of making the music that winds up on albums, it is record companies that have been largely responsible for manufacturing, distributing and delivering those albums to mass audiences. Any meaningful history of popular music in the 20th and 21st centuries must therefore consider how record labels have helped bring albums that have helped to illuminate how and why black lives matter to everyone’s collective attention. For me, those include albums like Marvin Gaye’s 1971 What’s Going On, brought to the marketplace with some reluctance by his record company Motown; Aretha Franklin’s 1972 Young, Gifted and Black, brought to us by Atlantic Records; and Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, brought to us by Epic Records in 1979. The playlist goes on and on. Sometimes, the relationship between artist and record label is advantageous and fruitful; more often than not, that relationship has been contentious and has extended a troubling history of stolen labor and commercial exploitation (such as in the case of Prince and his record company Warner).

What’s worth questioning, in 2018, is whether record labels still matter as much as they used to in an Internet driven economy where there are plenty of means for a recording artist to go directly to her fans without the need for third party record company intervention. One way to address that question is for us to go back historically and look at the complex role that record labels have always played in shaping black history, and therefore in shaping black lives, especially during politically potent eras like the civil rights struggles of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Part of doing that is to grapple with whether the black-owned record label—an institution that has always been vital to the dissemination of black music and black albums, and, by extension, to the sustenance of black lives—should matter more than it currently does in the telling of black history and, just as importantly, to the proposal of black futures. I'm happy to be part of a panel that gets us all talking about the meaning and value of black record labels.

Jason King February 2018

LIVE WIRE: ON THE RECORD - BIOGRAPHIES Jason King, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and the founding faculty member at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. A journalist, musician, DJ, and producer, he worked alongside music impresario Clive Davis to help build and develop the program and he served as the program's first Interim Chair, Associate Chair, and Artistic Director. Currently the director of the program’s Writing, History, and Emerging Media Studies area, Jason has been teaching classes on popular music history, the music business (marketing/branding), and the social aspects of music technology for more than fifteen years at New York University, as well as teaching at NYU campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Jason is also the current Director of Global Studies at the Clive Davis Institute, and in that capacity he developed Future Pop Music Studies, a mandatory study abroad initiative in Berlin that’s focused on emerging developments in pop music. As a journalist and writer, Jason’s academic essays on music figures like Luther Vandross and Roberta Flack have been published in numerous anthologies and edited collections. He is the author of The Michael Jackson Treasures, a 2009 Barnes and Noble exclusive biography on the King of Pop, which has been translated in more than 7 languages, and a forthcoming book called Blue Magic, on the role of metaphysics and energy in the music of artists like Timbaland, from Duke University Press. He is a regular contributor to publications like Pitchfork, Billboard, BuzzFeed, Slate and Red Bull Music Academy Daily, and Vice. He has been an expert witness in copyright infringement cases for Jay Z, Timbaland, Lady Gaga, Madonna and others, and he has appeared in many music documentaries, including Spike Lee’s critically acclaimed Bad 25 and Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall. He was the host and co-producer of NPR’s Noteworthy, a series on the creative process of music superstars like Alicia Keys, Maxwell, Banks, Dua Lipa, and Anthony Hamilton, as well as the curator of NPR&B, NPR’s 24/7 R&B radio channel, and a member of the NPR Music team. He hosts Soundtracks: The B-Sides, a CNN podcast in conjunction with CNN’s Soundtracks, the original series on popular music and politics. He is also the producer, songwriter, performer, and driving force behind Company Freak, an international dance music “superband” featuring original members of groups like Chic and D-Train. Find him at www.jasonkingonline.com and follow him on Twitter and IG: @jasonkingsays

LIVE WIRE: ON THE RECORD - BIOGRAPHIES Carol Cooper is a New York based cultural critic whose writing about music and other topics has appeared in diverse publications including The New York Times, Essence Magazine, and the Village Voice. From 1985 through 1991, she worked as a talent scout for several record labels, first serving as East Coast Director of Black Music A&R for A&M Records, before serving as National Director of Black Music A&R for Columbia Records. She currently mentors teen journalists at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, teaches as an adjunct professor at NYU in the Clive Davis School of Recorded Music, and is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Jungian and Archetypal Psychology.

Harlem native Michael A. Gonzales has been writing about pop culture since the 1980’s. He is the co-author of the 1991 book Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture. A former writer-at-large for Vibe magazine and The Source, he has written cover stories for the Village Voice, Essence, Wax Poetics, New York Magazine, and XXL. His essays have been published in Ebony, Best African-American Essays 2010 edited by Gerald Early, Pitchfork, Red Bull Music Academy Daily, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay by William McKeen, Complex, and Mass Appeal. In addition, Gonzales has published short fiction in Brown Sugar: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction, Black Pulp edited by Gary Phillips, ColorLines, and Bronx Biannual edited by Miles Marshall Lewis. His noir story “The Death of Newark,” published in Crime Factory, was nominated for a Spinetingler Award in 2013.

Currently, he is a senior writer at Newark Bound and in January began writing “The Blacklist,” a bi-weekly column on out-of-print Black books, on Catapult.com.

James Mtume proves a musician’s profile can reflect more than just their art. A master at pressing the boundaries—whether as a composer, producer, songwriter, or activist—he has carved an indelible impression since the 1970’s. An informed orator, he underscored it as a political commentator representing delegations internationally and via his former #1 black

LIVE WIRE: ON THE RECORD - BIOGRAPHIES talk radio show in New York—Open Line. His embrace of original African culture even inspired his name—“Mtume”—Swahili for ‘messenger’. He developed his skills as a percussionist while playing with African dance troupes and in numerous sessions with artists like Herbie Hancock. Once his name began to circulate among the upper echelons of jazz, he inevitably fulfilled his wish list of the top three talents he wanted to work with—McCoy Tyner, (a piano player with John Coltrane), Freddie Hubbard, and Miles Davis.

He was recruited by Miles Davis to join his band and toured internationally as a percussionist with him from 1971-75. He progressed steadily from contributions on albums with artists like Harold Land and Bobby Hutchison to playing on over 80 albums with a variety of other notable musicians—including recording with the great Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Roberta Flack on Blue Lights in the Basement, and Lonnie Liston Smith on Astral Traveling.

His own first three albums were acoustic jazz compositions recorded when he was still performing with Davis. In 1972, the Mtume Umoja Ensemble released Alkebu-Lan: Land of The Blacks, followed by the independently produced albums, Kawaida in 1973, Alkebu-Lan in 1975, and Rebirth Cycle in 1977. By the 1980’s, the transition from analog to digital found him blending the best of both into his signature sound. Born of jazz’s complexity and color yet using technology’s drum machines and synthesizers, his jazz/funk/R&B sound fused into “Sophistafunk,” whose characteristics are woven into songs like the Grammy-winning “What Ya Gonna Do With My Lovin?” by Stephanie Mills. He inevitably formed his own namesake group—Mtume—by adding singer Tawatha Agee, co-writer Reggie Lucas, bassist Raymond “Ray” Jackson, and keyboardist Phil Fields.

The resulting albums on the Epic Label included Kiss This World Goodbye (1978), In Search of the Rainbow Seekers (1980), Juicy Fruit (1983), You, Me and He (1984), and Theater of the Mind (1986). They collectively yielded 11 charting singles and earned critical acclaim with hits, "Juicy Fruit"—a #1 R&B chart-topper for eight weeks, and Billboard’s Hot 100 at #45 as well as being Certified Gold. “Juicy Fruit” inevitably became a Hip-Hop and R&B sample of choice by artists like The Notorious B.I.G. and Keisha Cole. Mtume’s statement early on that any sampling without compensation/credit undermined the creative abilities of many artists led to Stetsasonic’s 1988 track, “Talkin’ All that Jazz”. Still ever popular, “Juicy Fruit” finds a new generation through video games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, while the group’s track “C.O.D. (I'll Deliver)” off the You, Me and He album was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. Mtume has penned for motion pictures with James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native

LIVE WIRE: ON THE RECORD - BIOGRAPHIES Son and hits for various artists from Phyllis Hyman to Teddy Pendergrass. Cowriting with guitarist Reggie Lucas, they crafted one of music’s greatest hits in 1978 with Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s Billboard R&B chart topper, “The Closer I Get to You”. The Mtume/Lucas duo won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for writing and producing Stephanie Mills’ 1980’s top-ten hit “Never Knew Love Like This Before”. Mtume’s later credits include R. Kelly’s “Freak Tonight” from A Thin Line Between Love and Hate Soundtrack, and coproducing Mary J. Blige’s Share My World, and K-Ci and Jo-Jo’s Love Always in 1997. He rounded out 1994-1999 with TV’s New York Undercover. There his compelling musical themes masterfully assembled generations of artists at the show’s featured nightclub, Natalie’s, and blended eras—from Mary J. Blige’s “Natural Woman,” to legends like BB King being reintroduced to younger viewers. In recent years, James Mtume has continued to share both his musical journey and his brilliant insights on music culture and social progression—in popular debates with critic Stanley Crouch on Miles Davis’ Electric Period at the Amistad Center for Art & Culture in Hartford, CT in 2010 and at the 2014 Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo.

LIVE WIRE: UPCOMING EVENTS COMING MARCH 2018 Between the World and Me In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me,” offers a powerful framework for understanding our nation’s history, the idea of race, and current crisis.

Live Wire will present a conversation with the creative team behind the Apollo Theater’s theatrical performance of Coates’ “Between the World and Me,” ahead of the premiere of the production on April 2 and April 3, 2018.

For more information visit www.apollotheater.org

ABOUT THE APOLLO THEATER The Apollo is a national treasure that has had significant impact on the development of American culture and its popularity around the world. Since introducing the first Amateur Night contests in 1934, the Apollo Theater has played a major role in cultivating artists and in the emergence of innovative musical genres including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hiphop. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., James Brown, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, and countless others began their road to stardom on the Apollo’s stage. Based on its cultural significance and architecture, the Apollo Theater received state and city landmark designation in 1983 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. www.apollotheater.org

APOLLO EDUCATION PROGRAM The Apollo Theater Education Program extends the Apollo’s commitment to enhancing the life of the community. The Education Program focuses on four distinct areas of learning and engagement: residencies, workshops and tours for schools; curriculum materials aligned to state and national learning standards and study guides derived from the Theater’s history; career development for teens and adults through the Apollo Theater Academy; and discussions and lectures for the public that highlight the history of the Apollo and its impact on American art, culture and entertainment.

LIVE WIRE Produced by the Apollo Theater Education Program, Apollo Live Wire is a discussion series that focuses on the arts, culture, entertainment and other topics pertinent to the legacy of the Apollo Theater. @ApolloEd

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Generous support from Apollo EmpowerHer, Conscious Kids Inc., Con Edison, Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Insperity, The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, Ellis L. Phillips Foundation, Pinkerton Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.