Black History Month comes to a close today. Over the course of the past month, I’ve spent some time paying triune to Black artists across a wide and diverse array of genres and styles. And as always, my hope is that the month long series serve as an important reminder that the Black experience is the American experience, that Black culture is American culture — and importantly that Black lives, Black art and Black joy matter.
It wasn’t a comprehensive study of Black music. It was an idiosyncratic one because of what I do here at JOVM. But over the course of the past month, I’ve paid tribute to the following:
- Chaka Khan
- Reverend Al Green
- The Whispers
- Rick James
- Aretha Franklin
- Sylvester
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- Chuck Berry
- Donna Summer
- Janet Jackson
- Prince
- The Isley Brothers
- James Brown
- Whitney Houston
- Bob Marley whose birthday was also on February 6
- Syl Johnson, who we lost earlier this month
- Louis Armstrong
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Roy Ayers
- Queen Latifah
- Mary J. Blige
- B.B. King
- Earth, Wind & Fire
- John Lee Hooker
- Billie Holiday
- Nina Simone
- Public Enemy
- Marvin Gaye
- Stevie Wonder
- Miles Davis
- John Coltrane
- Patti LaBelle
- Mos Def/Yasiin Bey
- A Tribe Called Quest
- J. Dilla, whose birthday was on February 7th
- Grace Jones
- Tina Turner
- Bill Withers
- Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth
- Run DMC
- Salt-N-Pepa
- Jimi HendrixHowlin
- Sly and The Family Stone
- Howlin’ Wolf
- Muddy Waters
- Fela Kuti
- Bo Diddley
- MC Lyte
- Thelonious Monk
- Gang Starr
I close the month out by paying tribute to the godfather of bebop jazz, the legendary Dizzy Gillespie, one of the coolest cats to have ever lived. Really cool thing, Sarah Vaughan makes an appearance in some of the footage.