Dream Variants: September 2011

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Songs About New York

1. Duke Ellington's Take the A Train are directions to get to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2emUrIyQY

2. Duke Ellington's Drop Me Off In Harlem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJBkp40KVI0

3. Duke Ellington, Jungle Nights In Harlem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGYCmXrafeI

4. Cootie Williams, Echoes of Harlem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJLsvlYE9t8

5. Duke Ellington, Harlem River Quiver http://grooveshark.com/s/Harlem+River+Quiver+brown+Berries+/30KuVi?src=5

6. Duke Ellington, Harlem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U84duwdrza4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR0AKav58FI&feature=related

7. Duke Ellington, Harlemania http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy-gPuxGZAM

8. Duke Ellington, Harlem Air-Shaft http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5faDJNBkvXw

9. Fletcher Henderson, Harlem Madness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQcFnGE2S0I

10. Art Ensemble of Chicago, New York Is Full of Lonely People http://grooveshark.com/s/New+York+Is+Full+Of+Lonely+People/3YvFEn?src=5

11. Billie Holiday, Autumn In New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuzltUeITpw

12. Beastie Boys, No Sleep Till Brooklyn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtztvaGN92A

13. Charles Mingus, Nostalgia in Times Square http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSWeY_pWEvA

14. Charlie Parker, Scrapple from the Apple (assuming it is about New York) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NAsNPqiX4k

15. Charles Mingus, GG Train http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psvjD6nfrPw

16. Chick Webb Orchestra, Stompin' At the Savoy and Clifford Brown's cover (Savoy Ballroom in Harlem)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgX5_waK--w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8D7krp46NE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x52x5hjpD5k Charlie Christian's live version from a club performance

17. Duke Ellington, Cotton Club Stomp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86JH4snDSU

18. Duke Ellington, Sidewalks of New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piPsIIDNVCY

19. Duke Ellington, New York, New York http://grooveshark.com/s/New+York+New+York/3UsYHl?src=5

20. Gil Scott-Heron, New York Is Killing Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRe3c_n20sA

21. John Coltrane, Central Park West http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDB5xwJXdyg

22. Ella Fitzgerald, Manhattan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJsa0OfWcGA

23. Mos Def, Brooklyn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8VIn_Cj1DI

24. Ol' Dirty Bastard, Brooklyn Zoo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlRV2N8s_IQ

25. Jay-Z, Empire State of Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcjqGgx38fQ

26. Nina Simone, Central Park Blues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9I1MoWtaGo

27. Boogie Down Productions, South Bronx http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepqptjVwD4

28. Wyclef Jean, Heaven's in New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g1GDz-lMFA&feature=related

29. Prince, All the Critics Love U In New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbEAW99fZ2Y

30. Simon & Garfunkel, The Only Living Boy in New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGDt2skie84

31. Steely Dan, Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa9iPivw0fw

32. Steely Dan, Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsXg9pQ-1k0

33. Stevie Wonder, Livin' For the City http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0XEw4m-3w

34. Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ88oTITMoM

35. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Message http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6_WZ3qMPs0

36. Nas, NY State of Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKjj4hk0pV4

37. The Ramones, Rockaway Beach http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6siGKxcKol0

38. Wu Tang Clan, C.R.E.A.M. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrsfJHLx5YA

39. Lou Reed, Coney Island, Baby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPHbbvQEA1E

40. Grandmaster Flash, New York, New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVMuSmP2tY

41. Bob & Earl, Harlem Shuffle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjrvEeQowRk

42. Simon & Garfunkel The 59th Street Bridge Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KZi-aV0VTk

43. Simon & Garfunkel, At the Zoo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0uO5RKI-S8

44. Bob Dylan, Positively 4th Street http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2wuPssClKs

45. Wilson Pickett, Funky Broadway http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIuJH3qroDY

46. Gil Scott-Heron, Madison Avenue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svM3RtsHovc

47. Bobby Womack, Across 110th Street http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmc9tDky9B4

48. Santigold, L.E.S. Artistes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz0Qb5ws98k

49. The Jeffersons Theme Song

50. Simon & Garfunkel, Bleecker Street http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q98pbT-ok3s

51. Simon & Garfunkel, The Boxer http://www.youtube.com/watch?vhe =AdKjEHfHINQ

52. Rammellzee and K-Rob, Beat Bop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I56Kkxh_os

53. Black Star, Astronomy (8th Light) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-hVkorqicw

54. Mos Def, Bed Stuy Parade and Funeral March http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfmnRQRAt3g

55. Sonny Rollins, The Bridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtY9hpg7sic

56. Charles Hamilton, Brooklyn Girls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4HYyATyeHs

57. Jay-Z, Brooklyn Go Hard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn8XKECyIs4

58. Ol' Dirty Bastard, Harlem World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlsE2Pz-AoE

59. Schooly D, King of New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AsMsu8DU10

60. Prince, Lady Cab Driver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ9xHHWAyos

61. AZ, Sugar Hill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBeyeSCG5Ho

62. Weather Report, Birdland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae0nwSv6cTU

63. Ben E. King, Spanish Harlem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGd6CdtOqEE

64. Miles Davis, There's a Boat Dat's Leaving Soon for New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElKVdkSRe0c

65. Roy Ayers, We Live in Brooklyn, Baby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chA_-j1gBWQ

66. Notorious B.I.G., Where's Brooklyn At? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZniFNh0oIe4

Jazzy R&B Jams

Jazz has been a huge influence on R&B music since it's inception in the 1940s. Indeed, Rhythm & Blues emerged as popular blues-based music among urban African-Americans who previously danced to swing music. Early R&B bands retained many of the instruments of the jazz bands and often featured 'wild' saxophone solos rooted in the blues tradition. However, this type of jazz-based blues (originally referred to as jump blues because it was swinging and usually meant for dancing) was usually simpler than jazz's future forms (bebop, cool, hard-bop, fusion, avant-garde, etc) and lacked the complex improvisation of jazz instrumentalists.

Here is an example of an early "R&B" song from 1949: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du6Y7umZRH8
Paul Williams "Hucklebuck" uses the melody of Charlie Parker's blues standard, "Now's the Time." He slows it down for the dancing couples of the era who would've flocked to the black dance clubs of that era. Like all R&B saxophone playing of the era, there's a lot of 'honking,' which actually influenced jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman and other R&B-influenced jazz musicians. Indeed, Ornette's bluesy honking style of playing comes from his experience playing sax for Texas R&B bands before going solo.
Here's Charlie Parker's original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1n4yr4SmA4

Another great example of early jazz-influenced R&B is Ray Charles songs from the 1950s (Ray initially wanted to sing like Nat King Cole, but his music was always dominated by blues and gospel styles)
I Got a Woman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrd14PxaUco

So here are several examples of more contemporary jazz-influenced R&B from the 1960s-2011

Gil Scott-Heron was not a jazz musician, but his music always incorporated jazz influences, especially on his Pieces of a Man. One might even call the album soul-jazz rather than soul or R&B. Winter in America and a few other Gil Scott-Heron albums also retain this heavy jazz influence, although more thoroughly rooted in funk.

1. The Prisoner by Gil is a great example of his use of jazz music. The song structure is like a jazz dirge, and it features jazz musicians (Ron Carter on bass). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp45UzOxNFM

2. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is funky spoken-word, but features a flute solo by jazz musician Hubert Laws. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGaoXAwl9kw

3. Pieces of a Man is another jazzy ballad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSoTLmsnKvY

4. The Bottle is Latin-funk with a jazz flute solo by Brian Jackson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKsTCKYm4E

5. Winter in America is another jazzy ballad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcHOq8i5Pyk

6. Rivers of My Fathers is another jazz ballad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgauc85EdRc

7. We Almost Lost Detroit is more funk than jazz, but is still jazzy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDC_ZM48S0Y

8. Legend In His Own Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPTE0Fbruzg

Marvin Gaye was also influenced by jazz music. It became more evident after he stopped recording the Motown pop material in the 1970s.

9. What's Goin' On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f39Zs0gB87c

10. What's Happening Brother http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8pm8rEGQIk

11. Flyin High (In the Friendly Sky) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRcgeVmJgzQ

12. Mercy Mercy Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxgeYXCjM8

13. Right On is Latin-jazz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTCqgk7bfkc

14. Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tOpwgrqshU

15. Where Are We Going http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56AgF4gSSZQ

Etta James
16. Her song, At Last, though more rooted in the blues than jazz, is such a powerful song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1uunRdQ61M

Nina Simone
17. I Put a Spell On You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y99tXNxV5s

18. I Want A Little Sugar in My Bowl is based on a Bessie Smith blues tune, but because of it's old-time feel sounds almost like 1920s jazz/blues mixed with R&B http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJv-siu5FXY

Grover Washington, Jr
19. Just the Two of Us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sarB0ni3B2Y

20. Ain't No Sunshine played by Grover Washington, Jr. is great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vacZwnV-aKw&feature=related

21. Bill Withers' vocal Ain't No Sunshine is also great, though not that jazzy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xzDhLvhgQw

22. Jackson 5's cover of Who's Lovin' You is a blues-based soul ballad, so not that jazzy...but I'll include it anywayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOxIKJTTB2k

James Brown recorded several jazz-influenced funk and soul jams back in the day. Here are my favorites
23. Try Me is a doo wop hit from 1959 that features a short sax solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2XY6oRD2xc&feature=related

24. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag features a long funky saxophone solo by Maceo. Considered one of the earliest funk songs, it's entirely rooted in the blues and R&B/early rock (rock influence evident in the guitar) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fYQNkqegbQ

25. Superbad features an Albert Ayler-influenced free jazz solo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otF5XwyVy2M&feature=related

26. Papa Don't Take No Mess is another jazz-influenced funk classic with James playing a piano solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYb84KjUDOY&feature=related

27. Make It Funky is another jazz-funk jam with members of the band playing solos (saxophone, organ, electric guitar)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJHjkS0eFHM

28. Time Is Running Out Fast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8jPg6r9bj4

29. Cold Sweat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZKn-KLk28c&feature=related

30. It's a Man's World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwuO2dfqrF4

31. The J.B.'s Blessed Blackness is jazz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B8WzY1PAC4

32. Bobby Blue Bland's I'll Take Care of You has a jazzy feel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jDezN6ZudU

33. Gil Scott-Heron's cover of I'll Take Care of You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADoCh8HfdKM

34. Lou Donaldson's jazz-funk cover of the Isley Brothers' It's Your Thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acF8NtEKTWI

35. Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man is pure funk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo5GcYeh7XA

36. Mongo Santamaria's Latin-jazz version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjJaH40rArU

37. Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf1Eo-6sDIE

38. Art Ensemble of Chicago's Theme de Yoyo is jazz-funk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PppJOrnVtkg

39. Julius Hemphill's Dogon A.D. is acoustic jazz-funk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I3BPGgcPXo

40. Ramsey Lewis's Wade in the Water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S396v4P3HBE

41. The Flamingo's doo wop version of I Only Have Eyes For You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvzNeh4Mq1o

42. Cannonball Adderley's Mercy Mercy Mercyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRrFWp4DUho

43. Ramsey Lewis's The In Crowd http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3cZ6W12TUQ

44. Jr. Walker and the All-Star's Shotgun is essential funky and honking R&B saxophone (It also influenced the theme song used in the intro to the Cosby Show) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMs9NudasVI&feature=related

45. Ray Charles performance of the blues standard Night Time is the Right Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTruv-lVoLk

46. Hit the Road Jack also swings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Tiz6INF7I

47. Jimmy Smith's Root Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R99VnAwZepM

48. Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWst-r26whI

49. Stevie's Isn't She Lovely http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2WzocbSd2w

50. Stevie's Latin-jazz number Don't You Worry About a Thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkBUx6Zn6mo

51. The Wailers' It Hurts To Be Alone is based on American R&B, and features a good guitar solo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nty-4vUmh-s

52. Freddie Roach's Brown Sugar is great soul-jazz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjSaJzr0p9Q

D'Angelo plays some jazzy stuff as well, especially on his debut album
53. Brown Sugar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtZWO3HgRdA

54. Smooth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qd89GWQgMo

55. When We Get By http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn1GIztDRnI

56. Spanish Joint http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53njOHoE4xM

Erykah Badu has some strong jazz influences in her work too

57. On & On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mwZULsVcQ

58. Cleva http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIT9-VQvUgo

59. Green Eyes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh-FjG72FmQ

60. Out of My Mind, Just In Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYt70lFJQpA

Jill Scott often uses jazz influences in her work as well

61. A Long Walk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcHO22gHAkc

62. Brotha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFA7-wfmhFY

63. It's Love is go-go funk with some jazz influences http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW76q2OcCR4

64. Bedda at Home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p8EmxbTXmc

65. Talk to Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz9lq-drlck

66. Alicia Key's If I Ain't Got You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjKrpxjp7ao

67. A Woman's Worth by Alicia Keys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmiZg7Tt_bY

68. Bilal's All That I Am http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke67lHxPf8A

69. Janelle Monae's rendition of Smile http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-NpATPAa08&ob=av3e

70. Justin Timberlake's Senorita has a Latin-jazz vibe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KINalKIo-_8

71. The Weeknd's What You Need is sorta jazzy, mostly a late night slow jam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGfb9TkLnWE

72. Michael Kiwanuka's Tell Me a Tale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTa28a8QKo4

73. Andrew Hill's Black Fire is a funky jazz classic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSwhHSlOoBc

74. Bobby Byrd's I Know You Got Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LACshMapSKo

75. Amy Winehouse's You Sent Me Flying http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjNLCbIMzZs

76. Al Green's Let's Stay Together http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiIC3A0ROM

77. Al Green's Full of Fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVf20HsQEUg

78. Bilal's When Will You Call http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mhjAbZtcRw&feature=related

79. Bilal's Love Poems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BrI6zVoUNI&feature=related

80. Bobby Caldwell's Open Your Eyes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPgMjXhqmfw

81. Charles Wright's Express Yourself is very funky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WKen6oWdJ8

82. D'Angelo's Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzu8YSxSJjI

83. Erykah Badu's Kiss Me On My Neck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiAB8NC2DYs

84. Erykah Badu's Orange Moon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ROOfKwm0o8

85. Esperanza Spaulding's Precious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyjyNw3OKFk

86. Gil Scott-Heron's Delta Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8ORbZg5YaI

87. Gil Scott-Heron's Liberation Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwQZwXAIT38

88. Gil Scott-Heron's Western Sunrise is Latin-funk/jazz-funk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARY0uQRyOHU&feature=related

89. Gil Scott-Heron's Free Will http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQgYUL8JXws cool flute solo

90. Gil Scott-Heron's Did You Hear What They Said http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oBCX6yde44

91. Gil Scott-Heron's When You Are Who You Are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrFIK7GWxHI

92. Gil Scott-Heron's A Sign of the Ages http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGjojohhITs&feature=related

93. Gil Scott-Heron's Song for Bobby Smith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JczQHE3IRh8

94. James Brown's Funky Drummer is jazz-funk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUjI91oTu2s

95. James Brown singing Sunny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzSkypAIRzM

96. James Brown's Doing the Best I Can has a jazzy sax solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7AnofEabgY

97. Lauryn Hill's version of Can't Take My Eyes Off of You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkfKGzX7rEw

98. Nina Simone's Feeling Good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOrqDx5dOp4

99. Prince's Adore is a jazz-influenced soul ballad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVkw3p2xRgI

100. Ray Charles Drown In My Own Tears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ekn9dAYfz0

101. Ray Charles singing Georgia On My Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFDmKGTq9Cw

102. Ray Charles, You Are My Sunshine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vIFXihBsAQ

103. Sade's Kiss of Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmOau-PMWJk&ob=av2n

104. Stevie Wonder's All in Love Is Fair http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF5sbWheuN0

105. Stevie Wonder's Ebony Eyes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyt5CuXKFso

106. James Brown's Ain't It Funky Now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVeN0LWYv70

107. Nina Simone's version of My Man's Gone Now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDIK4KhPPO0

108. Nina Simone, Ain't Got No http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZVQmJVXDkk&feature=related

109. Dinah Washington, Come Rain or Come Shine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPgpcvbze7s

110. Dinah Washington's All of Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YplMZpdKq-g&feature=related

111. Dinah Washington, I've Got You Under My Skin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC7n6SREFew&feature=related

112. Dinah Washington, Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kefYrJQ9tc

113. Headhunters, God Make Me Funky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAfVsuVEYD0&feature=related

Monday, September 26, 2011

Thoughts on Marie Vieux-Chauvet's Love, Anger, Madness

"They're extraordinary, Haiti's blacks. Even when they've been reduced to their last extremity, they cling to life like a cherished possession."

Marie Vieux-Chauvet, daughter of a Haitian senator and a Jewish emigre, was a member of Haiti's mulatto elite. Born near the beginning of the American occupation (1915-1934), she lived through the horrors of both American oppression and Duvalier's (Papa Doc) rise to power. Although she lived a life of relative comfort and ease, members of her family were murdered by the Duvalier regime. Indeed, she used the story of her deceased relatives and other examples of Papa Doc's terrifying Tonton Macoutes who ravaged Haitian cities and murdered and raped anyone who they suspected of being subversives. In fact, she was forced to flee the country before Amour, colere et folie was published in order to save her relatives additional torment. Her husband purchased most of the copies of the book and Marie Vieux-Chauvet spent the rest of her life in New York. So this book was forced underground and never translated to English until Rose-Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokur took up the task in 2009.

It's a shame that this book, Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Triptych was never well-known until now. It's a collection of 3 novellas using love, anger, and madness as the main themes of each. Each story fully indicates the horror of living in Duvalier's Haiti, which is the reason why the author chose exile. The book is such a thinly-veiled attack on Papa Doc that she really had no choice but exile. Furthermore, each of the novellas features multiracial Haitians, descending in class from the elite to the poor intellectual. Each of the main characters are mulatto or griffe (Haitian word for someone who is half-mulatto, half-black, or a dark-skinned mulatto). Each novella also explores themes of race, class, and gender that illustrate the complete reversion of power that occurred under Duvalier. Prior to his centralization of power and installation of black-skinned Tonton Macoutes who were given free reign to terrorize all sectors of Haitian society, the mulattoes were used to being in charge and having respect and deference shown to them. All of the novellas indicate the rise of a noirist regime that largely excluded mulattoes from political power and social superiority in favor of the small black middle-class and the poor who were able to become Duvalier's secret police.

The first novella, Love, is about a dark-skinned mulatto woman who is enamored by her sister's French husband. This story highlights issues of skin color complexes and biases in Haitian society. Claire, the main character, is the darkest in her family of 'white' mulattoes. Her sisters, Annette and Felicia, are so light-skinned they could pass for white. Her parents were also light-skinned mulattoes, although her paternal grandmother is described as a black woman. Due to her dark skin, Claire feels uncomfortable and perceives herself as 'ugly' and inferior. Her internalized color issues cause her to never marry or have sex, remaining a virgin at age 39. Since she never marries and is the oldest daughter, she becomes the maid who cleans, and cooks, with the help of a black servant. Her younger sisters marry, have sex, and Felicia has children. And of course throughout the entire novella Claire is struggling to find love and companionship as the black commandant Caledu has taken over the small Haitian provincial town. His men kidnap and torture victims in a prison so close to her home that she can hear the prisoners' screams.

Love (or Amour if you prefer French) has some fascinating themes and contradictions apparent in the mulatto elite. Claire's father never gave up the loas of his black grandmother (whose dark skin Claire inherits) yet he abuses the black peasants who work on his land and looks down upon darker-skinned Haitians. Indeed, he states that those with black blood need an occasional beating to be productive after attacking the black peasants who serve him. Paradoxically, he also worships the loas of the blacks with the peasant houngan. So he clearly had some love and loyalty for his grandmother and his black roots. Indeed, he was also a nationalist who vehemently opposed US occupation, which led to his attempts to become president. Of course he had to sell most of his land in order to fund his vain attempts in politics. But it's odd that this light-skinned man who could pass for white was still so proud of his national heritage and the Haitian Revolution (although he clearly believed in mulatto superiority and control of the government). This reminded me of Jean Dominique's father, who was also incredibly proud of the Haitian Revolution and his ancestor who fought at the Battle of Vertieres. So mulattoes have this odd pride in Haitian history but perpetuate the same racism of the French: subjugating blacks or dark-skinned mulattoes and excluding them from political, social, and economic justice.

Another interesting turn this novella takes is emphasizing the beauty and pride of dark-skinned Haitians. Claire's secret inferiority complex is brought up in conversation, and Jean Luze (the French brother-in-law she secretly adores) tells her she must've been the most beautiful of the three sisters because of her dark skin! Notice how Jean uses the word 'been,' which suggests that he sees her as an old maid. Personally, I agree with Jean about darker-skinned biracial people being more beautiful. Indeed, since they're Haitian one expects Haitian women to be dark. But Marie Vieux-Chauvet also rightfully critiques mulatto color prejudice and racism through the character of Tonton Mathurin, an old black man who accumulated wealth through his skill and intellect. Despite his wealth, no mulatto woman in the city would marry him, and he publicly shames Claire's father for his color prejudice, arguing that Claire is black in order to remind him of his grandmother. Vieux-Chauvet basically attacks Duvalierism, Catholicism, clinging to France (represented by Jean), mulatto racism, and sexism in her call for black beauty, democracy and equality. It ends on a somewhat mysterious note, with the death of Caledu and Jean and Claire embracing.

The next novella, Anger, is a 20th century Haitian Greek tragedy. A Haitian family in the Turgeau neighborhood of Port-au-Prince wake up to find men in black ( a reference to Duvalier's Tonton Macoutes) setting up stakes on their property. The family (a black grandfather, his son, the son's mulatto wife, and their 3 children) struggles to find a way to liberate their family from the dispossession, which is remarkably random and indicates the undemocratic land seizures and kidnappings of Duvalier's government. Properly entitled Anger, this novella uses anger as the main theme as a response to social disorder caused by fear (fear of the authoritarian figure). Themes of color prejudice, race, and sexism are also evident here, especially in the interactions between the grandfather and his daughter-in-law, who he sees as the daughter of a drunken mulatto and undeserving of his family's wealth (the grandfather's father was a peasant who gradually accumulated land through hard work and guile. The children are the oldest son, a daughter, and an invalid son who is only close to the grandfather.

Each of the characters endeavor to deal with the problem (a dictatorship which manipulates and controls through fear) in different ways: capitulation, militant resistance, acceptance and alcoholism, backstabbing manipulation, and misguided (and unnecessary) heroism. The true hero of this novella, the beautiful daughter, agrees to sleep with the government thug who can restore their land for 30 nights. Her father helps arrange the deal with a corrupt lawyer who sets the whole thing up, promising that the man she sleeps with (referred to as a Gorilla, a dark-skinned and little black man) will restore their property after 30 nights of sex with her. Like a coward in the face of fear, her father agrees, and the daughter heroically does the deed in order to save her family's property and wealth.

This sexualization of power is clearly a reference to the widespread practices of rape and sexual violence against women under Duvalier. His men, who got their payment from raiding and stealing from citizens, had nothing to stop them from raping and pillaging. Power was conceived as a male focus, and in a repressive dictatorship, often manifested itself in sexism and violence against women. This story also indicates some interesting examples of misguided male heroism, since the youngest son concocts a fantasy of killing the men in black by joining ranks with them. In the end, he accomplishes nothing and lets his family suffer, leaving his sister to save the family. Like Paul, the elder son, the invalid and his grandfather also choose a fantasy of dying as heroes, foolishly attacking the men in black who surround their property.

My other thoughts on Anger? Like a Greek tragedy, the hero dies, and despite some success, the ultimate costs are too much to bear. The family (an upper-middle class mulatto/biracial one) ends up broken and/or dead by the novella's conclusion, seemingly suggesting that anger as the motivation of ending political oppression is the wrong method. In Love, Claire is able to defeat Caledu with love as a motivating and unifying factor. Here the family responds angrily and fails to achieve anything meaningful, though the Gorilla is killed. The mother succumbs to alcoholism, the daughter perishes, the grandfather and invalid die, and the future of the father and son are very uncertain because whoever replaces the Gorilla could target them soon. So the ultimate message I get from Anger is that one must cooperate with others to end political oppression (the family doesn't cooperate, causing their downfall) and responding to a brutal authoritarian regime with just anger is not enough. One must be prepared to create a better society, one without the hunger, suffering, and oppression of the black majority for the privileged black and mulatto elite.

The final novella, Madness, is a bit harder to understand. It's written from the perspective of a poet and his three friends who stay in a small shack, fearing the 'devils' who have taken over the town. As a griffe, the poet was raised by his black mother, who was raped by her nearly-white mulatto employer during her youth. Never recognized by his father, the poet's black mother sends him to a Catholic school and spoils him, never wanting her griffe son to suffer. The poet is now motherless, and living in a barricaded shack in the city, afraid that the 'devils' (another reference to the Tonton Macoute) who have taken over the city will kill him. His three poet friends eventually join him in the shack, and the 3 blacks (the white poet, Simon, is a Frenchman who has come to Haiti after serving in World War II, and only wants to drink and sleep with black women) all come to agree that they can't leave the shack. So they live off clairin (a type of alcohol) and coffee for eight days while the world outside keeps going on. Of course the 'devils' really did take over the city's administration, and there were murders, but nothing on the scale the protagonist sees in his mind. His mental condition progressively worsens over time, with him seeing himself as the angel who will rid the city of the devils and win the love of Cecile, the beautiful mulatto woman whose house he can see from his shack.

Themes of colonialism, religion, sexuality, race, and the nature of sanity are addressed here. The faith of the black Haitians in the loas prevents all from drinking the syrup left as libation, leaving them no alternative for food and drink besides the alcohol and a little bit of coffee they possess. Andre's refusal to let Simon and the main character drink from the libation represents Haitians' faith as a cause for their suffering, since they would rather feed the gods than feed themselves first. Vieux-Chauvet also criticizes colonialism and the French quite often. The white poet, Simon, feels entitled to superior treatment and respect from the dictatorship because of his French nationality. Indeed, he is shocked and disgusted when the Commandant calls him white trash and laughs at his promise of notifying the French embassy about his incarceration and torture from the 'devils.' He claims to understand Haiti and identify with the country, but but remains indifferent to the protagonist's desire to free Haiti of the 'devils' (Duvalier's men).

Moreover, the theme of madness as a result of social dysfunction operates here. The three black poets lose their sanity and can only see the world through the literary lens of poetry, rather than the real suffering and death around them. They become so insane that they really believe the dead dog outside the shack is really the corpse of a merchant murdered by the 'devils.' In many ways this story is self-referential: as a member of Haiti's literary circle known as Les Araignees du soir (Spiders of the Night), a small group of poets and novelists who met at her house weekly to discuss literature, she often criticized Duvalier. Like the poets in this story, she also felt powerless, unable to actually change the conditions her country was in. Like the poets, she closely followed political events and went to the scenes of violence as a source for her writing. But due to fear and cowardice, like the poets in Madness, she was unable to clearly express her scathing attacks on the regime (3 of her nephews and countless friends and acquaintances 'disappeared' during this turbulent period). Her experience as an intellectual who supported democracy and opposed the Duvalier dictatorship but was forced to live in exile or huddle in fear is present in the poets, all victims of the dehumanizing noirist regime that attempts to eradicate individual thought (and ironically, oppress the poor black majority even more than the mulattoes)

In addition to being a vehicle in which to express her own frustation at being unable to physically challenge a brutal dictatorship, Madness also alludes to the breakdown of society as well as the poets. The society is mentally ill, one where complete power is in the hands of a brutal dictatorship, where violent rape is seen as a right for the 'devils,' an unjust society that dehumanizes everyone. The Haitian people, unable to let go of their religious traditions (Haitian Vodou and Catholicism) and unable to unite in opposition (all due to colonialism and the forceful fusion of the two traditions, European and African), yet they cling to a life of extreme suffering which makes it hard to not become a nihilist. Human life is reduced to animal instincts of fight or flight as self-serving violence becomes the rule of society. This dichotomy in human nature appears as a theme in the other stories as well, with the human being as torn between the mind and body in an eternal dualist boxing match, with the mind rarely winning. Thus, society in Haiti has become one in which thinking itself is dangerous and second to the needs of the baser instincts of human nature.

As someone who only picked up the book at Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative and knowing nothing about the author, I had no idea what I was getting into when I purchased the book. Though horrifying in its details of human suffering, and self-critical of the Haitian nation, Marie Vieux-Chauvet completed an amazing task. Her triptych of Haitian society by the 1960s perfectly illustrates the strength and will of the people. In spite of a despotic government where violence, often sexualized, ruled the day, the people still found the strength to resist through literature, art, and religion. And though Vieux-Chauvet blames the colonial past for sowing the divisions within society that led to political centralization in the hands of the few, she doesn't blame France or the United States for most of the problems. Those two countries obviously played a significant role in ensuring Haiti's poverty and isolation from the rest of the world, but the Haitians themselves never possessed the unity essential to build a democratic society, which culminates in the horror of the Papa Doc and Baby Doc regimes. She also brings to the forefront the issue of gender and the sexual violence associated with dictatorships, since there is torture, rape, and violence aimed at women in each of the three novellas. The following quote from the first novella adroitly demonstrates the type of society Duvalier's Haiti had declined into:

We have been practicing at cutting each other's throats since Independence. The claws of our people have been growing and getting sharper. Hatred has hatched among us, and torturers have crawled out of the nest. It's a colonial legacy to which we cling, just as we cling to French. We excel at the former but struggle with the latter. I often hear the prisoners' screams. The prison is not far from my house...The police force has become vigilant. It monitors our every move. Its representative is Commandant Caledu, a ferocious black man who has been terrorizing us for about eight years now. He wields the right of life and death over us, and he abuses it...And cruelty is contagious: kneeling on coarse salt, forcing a victim to count the blows tearing at his skin, his mouth stuffed with hot potatoes, these are a few of the minor punishments some of us (members of the bourgeois mulatto class) inflict upon our child-servants. Upon those turned slaves by hunger, who must suffer our spite and rage in all its voluptuousness.

Best Jazz Hip-Hop

My definition of jazz rap is any hip-hop music that samples a jazz song or artist. Jazz rap often samples acoustic bass, trumpets, and saxophones, and occasionally, piano. Jazz rap often includes jazz-influenced lyricism as well. However, my favorite jazz-rap songs are great because of the beats and how well the producers use their jazz samples. Of course, most of the jazz songs sampled by rappers are from the 1960s and 1970s, when jazz fusion, jazz-funk, and soul jazz were the most popular forms of the music. Famous jazz-rap artists include A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, and Madlib, who did an album composed of covers of classic songs from Blue Note record label.

1. Eric B. and Rakim's Don't Sweat the Technique. Funky and jazzy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDGJJH21qkw

2. Aesop Rock's Dryspell. Samples Ornette Coleman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKiT8RIvIIc

3. Gangstarr: Words I Manifest samples Night in Tunisia. Mixing a jazz standard and James Brown has never sounded so good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcrG05S_xoE

4. A slept on EP from the 1990s, Siah and Yeshua's Gravity is essential for underground jazz-rap. No Soles Dopest Opus is my favorite jam. I believe it samples Dizzy Gillespie's take on "All the Things You Are" and Miles Davis's "Moon Dreams" from Birth of the Cool. Still funky at the same time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_5A7rZ5P7A

5. Artifact's "Wrong Side of Da Tracks" is a great jazz-rap song. The song is about graffiti artists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFXqwNudGLM

6. Black Moon's Who Got da Props is essential 1990s New York hip-hop. This Brooklyn-based group never achieved the fame of Wu Tang Clan and other early 90s hip-hoppers, but they're just as good. I believe the jazz sample is from a Ronnie Laws song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_wOAqv_wvs

7. Jay-Z's Dead Presidents is another great jazzy jam. It samples a Lonnie Liston Smith song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIq84HQ37Dc

8. Ol' Dirty Bastard's Cuttin Headz samples Thelonious Monk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpW8L2Hy0Vs

9. Atmosphere's Guns and Cigarettes samples a Cannonball Adderley blues song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoD6YRzofZk

10. Black Sheep's Have U.N.E. Pull is another classic jazzy jam. More funk than jazz though...strong horns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX-VLAeNLqg

11. Black Sheep's The Choice Is Yours (Revisited) is one of my favorite rap songs. Samples the acoustic bass from a McCoy Tyner song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Qu_wEksbw

12. Blu & Exile's Dancing in the Rain samples some jazzy guitar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYqm-xU2pi8

13. Common's The Light samples a jazzy R&B song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i3_VuRyGEg

14. Common's Geto Heaven Part Two is also jazzy. With vocals from D'Angelo as well since it was originally intended to be on his Voodoo album. Jazzy piano. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1SfqpF7EMY

15. Common's I Used to Love Her is also a jazz-rap song, sampling George Benson. It's about the state of hip-hop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN_wqRJ_F1k

16. De La Soul's Oodles of O's samples a bassline from an Art Blakey song, the same bass sampled by Digable Planets for their Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-2-qVgGQak

17. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's Catch a Bad One samples part of a cello solo from an Eric Dolphy song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9vimihLXCU

18. Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) by Digable Planets has one of the funkiest jazz-rap singles. A big hit for the group back in the early 1990s, the jazzy bass is unforgettable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTXogy3WepM

19. Digable Planets' Black Ego is another good jazz-rap song from their second album, Blowout Comb. Interesting beats and samples here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_y85ZtcI_U

20. Digable Planet's Graffiti is also great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1q_r0BlcWU

21. What Cool Breezes Do by Digable Planets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fagkTqxppg

22. Time and Space by Digable Planets is also interesting for sampling Sonny Rollins' Mambo Bounce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6gZ3fA0J0c

23. De La Soul's Eye Know is also a classic jazzy rap cut. It also illustrates the eclectic sampling of Prince Paul, the group's producer. One can recognize Otis Redding whistling from Sittin' On the Dock O'the Bay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1CaN4thI5w

24. Black Sheep's La Menage ft. Q-Tip has a great acoustic bassline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRQJZBsAR9g

25. Black Sheep's Black With N.V. samples Freddie Hubbard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2zQcj3OD-k

26. Dr. Octagon's Blue Flowers is not exactly jazz-rap, but it features jazzy drums and a scratch solo by a DJ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVIKMZIRKaU

27. Erykah Badu's On & On is not hip-hop, but it's influenced by hip-hop production and sensibilities. Very jazzy 1990s R&B. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mwZULsVcQ

28. Gravediggaz's Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide, produced by Prince Paul. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4nWYGSoSoU

29. Gravediggaz's Defective Trip (Trippin') also has jazzy drumming, but is more funk than jazz in terms of the samples. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4gQP5r4IyU

30. Kanye West's Drive Slow samples a jazzy saxophone. Sample comes from Hank Crawford's Wildflower.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqsrVatoTgc

31. KMD's Contact Blitt samples Lee Morgan's Mr. Kenyatta. It also samples part of Wayne Shorter's sax solo in the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQeeLhm4DQY

32. KMD's Black Bastards is also essential jazz-rap. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMN7mQ3_0TM

33. KMD's It Sounded Like a Roc samples two Pharaoh Sanders songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr9jfSOnAFY

34. Lil Wayne's Dr. Carter samples a jazz fusion song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K688ZSwaGEQ

35. Lupe Fiasco's Kick, Push doesn't sample a jazz artist, but sounds a lot like the smooth jazz-rap tracks of the early 1990s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNYbfrmID4

36. Madvillain's Raid samples Bill Evans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weWTuvdL-LQ

37. Madvillain's Great Day Today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1cggllfig

38. MF Doom's Arrow Root is one of the best jazz-rap cuts I've ever heard. Pure beauty. I don't know what he sampled but he did an amazing job. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxPJiC_d0Yg

39. Mystikal's Bouncin Back (Bumpin' Me Against the Wall) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psaHLi7-DIs&ob=av2e

40. MF DOOM's Vomitspit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S5vaHVD2-w

41. MF Doom's Kon Karne http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcRmRkcMlkw

42. MF Doom's Gas Drawls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdgOxiiwwNs&feature=fvst

43. MF Doom's Nettle Leaves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7UDXkRXysw

44. Nujabes, the late Japanese hip-hop producer, made some precious jazz-rap jams. My favorite is Final View, which samples Yusef Lateef's Love Theme from Spartacus, a song from an old film. Beautiful oboe playing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36F9LKMDaOY

45. Mos Def's Umi Says is essential jazz-rap. Influenced by neo-soul and jazz, Mos Def tries to sing, and doesn't sound too bad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcxLFXbECsY

46. Mos Def's Love samples Bill Evans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyGGsBSpg90

47. Mos Def's Brooklyn samples multiple different artists, but still qualifies as jazz-rap because it samples a Roy Ayers song and Milt Jackson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCuTYVulOzY

48. Mos Def's Mr. Nigga samples Gil Scott-Heron's jazzy Legend In His Own Mind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZxmuMmPLUU

49. Mos Def's May December is a jazzy instrumental hip-hop tune. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFGgP7FKO3M

50. Mos Def's Roses, which samples a song of the same name by relatively underground rapper/singer Georgia Anne Muldrow, has a jazzy piano-driven feel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gz1Sh19JNk

51. Mos Def and Talib Kweli worked together as Black Star. Their song, Astronomy (8th Light) is quite jazzy, featuring piano by Weldon Irvine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-hVkorqicw

52. Black Star's Brown Skin Lady http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXFL4dYH9Ik

53. Black Star's Thieves in the Night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjxtRehIz2Y&feature=related

54. Kanye West's Heard 'Em Say has some jazz influences http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjdsQLzaZ-o

55. Nas has quite a few jazz-rap gems from Illmatic and future releases in his career. Let's start with Life's a Bitch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCnqDvvZrcM

56. Nas's Memory Lane (Sittin' In da Park) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXBFG2vsyCM

57. Nas's NY State of Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKjj4hk0pV4&feature=related

58. Nas's The World Is Yours samples Ahmad Jamal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_srvHOu75vM&feature=related

59. Nas's One Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjd7EbUUds8&feature=related

60. Nas's It Ain't Hard to Tell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI-DRbf_AZk&feature=related

61. Nas's Halftime doesn't sample any jazz, but I love the horns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVtMQgg5AAI&feature=related

62. Nas's Purple samples Miles Davis's Blue in Green http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GpPGD7_yRY

63. Notorious B.I.G.'s Suicidal Thoughts samples a Miles Davis song from his fusion years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6ChkExqv2E

64. The Pharcyde also have some great jazzy rap songs. Oh Shit samples Donald Byrd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBO9-RqsmsQ

65. Pharcyde's 4 Better or 4 Worse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2jniq3vcmY

66. Pharcyde's Soul Flower (Remix) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zmmBfbpFM0&feature=related

67. Pharcyde's On the DL samples Stanley Cowell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb3vTF8bo7U&feature=related

68. Pharcyde's Passin' Me By http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48OYTEZQR9U&feature=related

69. Pharcyde's Otha Fish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8vQF5eLfrM

70. Pharcyde's Pack the Pipe samples both Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmLdQIYf4WY&feature=related

71. Pharcyde's Runnin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwHuEDCM7xs

72. Q-Tip's Shaka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEbIQ-Op2zI

73. Q-Tip's Blue Girl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1xT_iP4DrY

74. Quasimoto's Microphone Mathematics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF37suwIf-Y

75. Quasimoto's Return of the Loop Digga http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH_2apOP4WM

76. Jazz Cats Pt. 1 by Quasimoto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epvuECEuC-A

77. Quasimoto's Blitz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqUUSalT8pw

78. Raekwon's Ice Cream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7OO2jjZbwU

79. Big Daddy Kane's It's Hard Being the Kane is more funky and built on funk samples rather than jazz, but still sounds like jazz-rap. It was produced by Prince Paul. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMqhMP43v8A

80. Gang Starr's Ex Girl to Next Girl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWr2IyugMGM

81. K'naan's Blues for the Horn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIrFMtVkw6w

82. Madvillain's Rainbows http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPk31QGqtdA

83. Public Enemy's 911 Is a Joke is not really jazz-rap, but it does feature some strong sax lines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t25_sQ7tdVY

84. Wu Tang Clan's Shame on a Nigga samples Thelonious Monk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf3jzDb4H7o

The Roots have several jazzy classics.

85. Mellow My Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nozh5l13Auo

86. Datskat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgaNPbUQoPg

87. Silent Treatment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwY2rH-tWGs

88. How I Got Over http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI4D1QOLGuM&ob=av2e

89. What They Do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVOuqnJFPvQ

90. Something In the Way of Things http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQdnKuhpcpo

91. Double Trouble http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPq8VXHmgY

92. Dynamite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz-7bO_SRtk

A Tribe Called Quest have several jazzy rap jams

93. Luck of Lucien http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCvr8sevyLk

94. Bonita Applebum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU_4pf8BSQw

95. Can I Kick It? samples the bass from Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71ubKHzujy8

96. Excursions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4poAOhrsvWE

97. Butter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB9PiW68yQg

98. Verses from the Abstract features jazz bassist Ron Carter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A75MsdqU-jc&feature=related

99. Vibes and Stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRr6W-zVCdw&feature=related

100. Jazz (We've Got) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFA_stcnyns&feature=related

101. Scenario is a posse cut, meaning a large number of rappers exchanging verses in a song that usually has a simple beat so the lyrics are prominent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrhHH3_t218

102. Award Tour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKXMZlw_efM

103. We Can Get Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYbwFuw_QQI

104. Electric Relaxation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myJWy6Ts2w4&feature=fvst

105. Oh My God samples the bass from a Lee Morgan song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETVwuOv69R0

106. Lyrics to Go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onGtPe4XCtU

107. Eric B. & Rakim's Juice (Know the Ledge) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUzDcxDQTyI

108. Brand Nubian's Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV3s9vUQ71U

109. Black Moon's Nigus Talk Shit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkstswqxrvo

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Old School and 1980s Hip-hop

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Troy Davis

"When white folks say justice, they mean 'just us.'"

I don't know all the details of the case, but 7 of the 9 eyewitnesses have recanted their testimonies claiming police coercion and intimidation made them perjure themselves in the original trial. One of the 2 remaining witnesses was a suspect in the murder of the white police officer, so his testimony is instantly questionable. There is no DNA evidence to connect Davis to the crime, and beside the forced testimony from the 7 witnesses, nothing connects Davis to the murder of the police. Indeed, I highly doubt Davis's original hearing was just. The evidence against him was lies, and the jury was likely composed of whites or apathetic blacks who wanted to get on with their lives. In fact, the jury of 7 blacks and 5 whites found Davis guilty after less than 2 hours.

This case is one of many in which I have come to oppose the death penalty. The state should not have any power of life or death, and executing a man who likely committed no crime is worse than letting a thousand guilty criminals go free. Furthermore, Davis should not have to spend the rest of his life in prison either. The white family of the police officer have no idea what they're saying and should work on finding justice by ensuring that the real culprit is found. This is clearly race-related and a good example of police corruption and a justice system designed to imprison and execute black men. And despite years of appeals and attempts by the state to take his life, Davis and his family still fight for his future.

If Obama and the black communities of Georgia really gave a damn about fighting injustice and protecting black lives they would be marching to the facility where Davis is held, occupying state buildings, and using violence if necessary. Obama should be calling he governor of Georgia, the parole board, and the family of Troy Davis. And the blacks of Atlanta and Savannah should be escalating their actions, rioting and attacking state property if they must. This is what happens we give a state the power to execute civilians! Nobody should have the power of life or death over another, especially in the hands of an institutionalized racist power structure that has historically and currently attacked black men and an increasingly high number of black women. If Davis were white and he had all the celebrities, politicians, and hundreds of thousands of petition signatures asking for clemency I have no doubt he would've received it.

I can't lie. I feel helpless for not doing anything to prevent the likely execution tomorrow. I do know that if I could be in Georgia tomorrow, white folks would be having hell. Alternatively, if I occupied the highest seat in the land, I would use all my authority to prevent what truly is the torture and execution of a human being. Despite all the talk of 'progress' and social change in this country, it's remarkable how little this era differs from the past in terms of exploitation, control and destruction of black bodies. I will not be able to rest easy or trust this country any less (and I already have little faith in it) if Davis is murdered tomorrow. The state of Georgia and the United States of America owe him his life, which they have deprived him of for 22 years. He ha a family who cares for him, and was a well-known mentor for others in his community. My heart goes out to his sister, nephew, and other relatives who have lived through hell for the last 2 decades.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver lived up to the hype. The beautiful jazz ballad theme, dark and dingy streets of 1970s New York City, and the depressed and depraved mind of Travis (DeNiro) perfectly capture a world of crime, prostitution, drug dealing, murder, and unruly youth. Indeed, while driving through a black neighborhood, teenagers throw eggs at his cab. While driving through other seedy neighborhoods, he encounters pimps, drug dealers, whores, and what he calls 'scum' and 'degenerates,' but he himself goes to seedy porno theaters. His inability to have social interactions with women and his resulting loneliness and exclusion from society only make him angrier. After his rejection from Betsy (who is rightfully disgusted and wants nothing from him after he takes her to a porno theater for a movie), the mentally deteriorating mind of Travis decides to work out, purchase guns without a permit, and endeavor to assassinate Senator Palantine, the politician running for president and whose campaign Betsy works. His severe depression and longing for human companionship leads to him seeing Palantine as the source of all his problems. By scapegoating Palantine, who is running on a platform of drastic social change to restore power to the people, Travis probably sees Palantine as someone protecting the filth of New York City's streets.

Don't forget the enormous irony of a man who frequents porno theaters and tries to assassinate a politician becoming a hero. After slaying Iris's pimp, the bouncer, and her client (an Italian mafioso), he tries to shoot himself, but had no leftover ammunition. The police find him lying on the couch, bleeding from his neck and in the same room, a screaming Iris and two corpses (Iris's client and the bouncer). What follows is perhaps one of my favorite scenes in the film: the camera views the room from the top, or a bird's eye view, which is utterly unique and unexpected camera work. Anywho, Roger Ebert has suggested that the end of the film is really the dying dreams of Travis. How could a man who shoots and kills 3 people but rescue a child prostitute escape jail? According to what we see in the film, he is in a coma for a few months, but then returns to his old job as a cab driver, working 12-hour shifts again. It's impossible that a man without a gun permit and killer of 3 men (even if they are criminals and low-lives) would escape prison sentence.

Additional irony and contradictory actions in the film include Iris not wanting liberation from Travis, who is so odd she runs right back to Sport, her pimp (Harvey Keitel). And Travis's views on blacks and race are somewhat ambiguous: he hits on a black cashier in one scene, accepts 'spooks' in his cab, drives in Harlem and South Bronx at night, but he also stares at a black man in a restaurant who may be a pimp with extreme disgust (at least that's what I got) and his sweeping dehumanization of New York's underclass who are disproportionately black is also troubling. To his credit, one passenger asks him to drive to the apartment where his white wife is sleeping with a 'nigger' and the passenger tells Travis how he will shoot her in the head and her 'pussy.' Travis does not say a thing, and likely views his passenger as worse than the adulterous wife and her black lover. So Travis is a lot of contradictions: repelled by the prostitution and crime, but due to his insomnia and need for some human contact, he still works in those terrible neighborhoods.

As soon as he purchases the guns, cowboy boots, and starts physical training, I knew Travis would soon kill one of his criminal passengers or somebody on the street. Indeed, he unconsciously tries to run two prostitutes over in his cab, likely due to his desire to purge the streets of their kind. I didn't foresee that he would 'save' the 12 year old child prostitute who ran away from home in Pittsburgh. Obviously this young woman needed to return home to her parents, but her reasons for running away are never explained. Travis casts himself into the role as her savior without ever thinking of her own wants (she truly loves her Sport, even though he does exploits her). His cowboy outfit completes the homage to the Western motif, but unlike any cowboy hero, Travis remains a depressed, mentally unstable cab driver unable to make human connections. The media exalting him to hero status after slaying the 3 men only highlights the thin line between 'morally-justified violence' and the ramblings of an insane near-assassin.

Well, I highly recommend this film to anybody with an interest in Scorsese, DeNiro, or 1970s New York. DeNiro's lonely character, a Vietnam War veteran honorably discharged from service, remains a mysterious character. He writes dutifully to his parents for their anniversary, but has no real friends or anything to live for. I suppose what makes us all love the film so much is Travis's audacity of hope, yearning for love and a real connection to others. I'm still unsure what to think of the ending, since it's utterly unrealistic, but perhaps it's not a dream. In the final scene, Travis is driving his cab again and his passenger is Betsy, who tells him she heard about his hero status. I interpret this scene as Betsy reaching out to him, perhaps giving him another chance. But Travis doesn't charge her for the fare and drives on, perhaps accepting his fate of solitude.

The Best of the Rza

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Best Christmas Song

The best Christmas song of all time is not a traditional hymn or religious song. It is the sexy and thoroughly commercialized version of Christmas which has given us the best seasonal song. Of course I refer to "Santa Baby," first recorded by jazz and pop singer Eartha Kitt in the 1950s. Madonna also recorded a more sexually-charged version of the tune in the 1980s, but the original is much better in this case. Eartha Kitt's version may sound too outdated for modern ears, but it's 1950s-styled vibe perfectly clashes with the 1950s housewife patriarchal society's ideal woman. Eartha Kitt demands luxurious gifts and special attention from Santa (or any man, really) if he wants her. Like Alicia Key's "A Woman's Worth," the lyrics of this rather silly song shows a modern woman who needs a lot from any man who wants to kiss her. Unfortunately, the song embraces the materialism of Christmas. Thus, although the song succumbs to the mindless materialism of our modern Christmas celebrations, it in a way empowers women to ask more and more of their suitors.

Eartha Kitt's original recording ("Think of all the fellas I could've kissed") and a live version

Madonna

Funny Alison Brie version

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Souls of Black Folk Review

Edit: I found the earlier post on this same subject. It was entitled Comments on Souls of Black Folk and for some reason I couldn't locate it. Enjoy!

I thought I had already added this to my blog but apparently I forgot to do it a few months ago. I read Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk over the summer and here's what I thought:

Du Bois's great work, The Souls of Black Folk, is quite an interesting read. Like most books written by blacks in the 19th-early 20th century, it uses the language of that era and shares the Western world's general dismissals of African and 'uncultured' African-Americans. Since DuBois was far more progressive than Booker T. Washington and advocated a more radical approach to combating Jim Crow and American racism instead of accommodation, and because Du Bois adroitly pointed out the triple paradox of Booker T. Washington's philosophy of submission, I still love and respect this Haitian brotha (his father was a Haitian mulatto). The triple paradox is posted below. How could blacks do anything that Booker T. Washington claims without the political rights, higher education, and overt resistance to entrenched institutionalized and personal racism?

He is striving nobly to make Negro artisans, businessmen and property-owners; but it is utterly impossible, under modern competitive methods, for workingmen and property-owners to defend their rights and exist without the right of suffrage.
He insists on thrift and self-respect, but at the same time counsels a silent submission to civic inferiority such as is bound to sap the manhood of any race in the long run.
He advocates common-school and industrial training, and depreciates institutions of higher learning; but neither the Negro common-schools, nor Tuskegee itself, could remain open a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro colleges, or trained by their graduates.

DuBois would later redeem himself and learn to appreciate more of African history and cultures later on in the 1940s when he published his Africa and the World. In addition to his constant references to the 'savagery' of African negroes and the re-enslaved blacks of the post-Reconstruction South, he also seems to fail to appreciate the importance and revolutionary impact of the Haitian Revolution. In Souls of Black Folk, he refers to one of the most revolutionary periods in history as a 'Terror' and, inadvertently or not, undermines its importance and legitimacy.

Moreover, there are periods in which he appears to support the institution of slavery by arguing for it's civilizing effect on Africans and the belilef that American slavery, immoral and destructive, was still relatively benign compared to other forms of slavery in the Americas and the rest of the world. What difference does that make? American slavery may have taken fewer lives than slavery in, say, 19th century Cuba, Brazil, and the Caribbean, but that obviously doesn't justify slavery in the United States. There are other occasions where Du Bois continually refers to the 'savagery' of African-Americans, inherited from their African ancestors, demonstrating that Du Bois, like Booker T. Washington and most African-American leaders and intellectuals of that era, were at least ambivalent if not supportive of European imperialism in Africa.

On the other hand, Du Bois uses most of the chapters to analyze reasons for African-American poverty in the Black Belt (region of the South where the majority of the population is black), focusing on the county of Dougherty, GA. He goes out of his way to explain the vices of Black Americans and the problem of the color line (he refers to it many times as "The Veil") as a product of both color prejudice and Jim Crow from the white majority and faults of African-Americans themselves, so as to avoid completely "blaming the white man" for all of the problems facing black folks. Of course, in reality almost all the problems facing blacks in the South are due to the white man. In the beginning of the book (really, all of it) Du Bois explains how Reconstruction failed to give the Negro his 40 acres and a mule and provide education. He examines the Freedmen's Bureau and the positive aspects of Reconstruction in terms of building common schools and sending teachers, etc.

Du Bois goes on to elucidate how the Compromise of 1877, government mismanagement prior to that, and the South's institutionalization of sharecropping, Jim Crow segregation, and relinquishing blacks of suffrage and political rights created the terrible living conditions for blacks immediately after the departure of federal armies. Although Reconstruction was a step in the right direction in terms of providing some African-Americans with land and education, establishing schools and whatnot, but the federal government's willingness to abandon the freed population while it was still vulnerable to white reversals of the Reconstruction constitutional amendments left blacks between the Devil and the deep blue sea. Soon they couldn't vote, it was nearly impossible for them to purchase their own land, they were exploiting by the landowners and Northern merchants and carpetbaggers who migrated South after the Civil War, and blacks were forced into patronage relationships with 'respectable, upper-class whites who would provide them employment as tenant farmers and vouch for them in cases involving other whites.

This period also included the beginning of mass incarceration for blacks (regardless of their innocence, their labor was exploited in chain gangs as another source of cheap labor for Southern states) who fought these customs and laws. Exemplified by vagrancy laws and the stereotypes of lazy black slaves, any African-American who didn't work or appear to have employment (usually employment from a white landowner or businessman) they could be arrested and forced to work on public works or agriculture for the state (like the pre-French Revolutionary practice of corvee, which required French peasants to dedicate some period every year to working on public projects, etc. for the 1st estate.

Du Bois gained first-hand experience of the lives of southern blacks through his travels and work as a teacher at Negro schools in Georgia. Born in Massachusetts and highly educated, Bu Bois occasionally takes time to show off his classical education (use of Latin, references to Greek mythology and erudite literary allusions and metaphors) and uses this to measure the level of 'civilization' he saw whilst in the South. Though I agree with Du Bois about the importance of college-educated blacks and some aspects of the Talented Tenth theory, his definition of education is very Eurocentric and patriarchal (women are not worthy of higher education, it would appear). Nevertheless, as he astutely observes, Booker T. Washington is wrong (Washington is right about blacks not needing to know Greek and Latin, though) about blacks not pursuing higher education if they're capable and have the option since these talented blacks (the so-called Talented Tenth of ministers, doctors, lawyers, businessman and teachers, especially teachers) will become the teachers at Negro common schools and colleges such as Tuskeegee, Washington's famous school established to teach African-Americans agricultural and mechanical labor. However, Du Bois, due to his incredibly high education (he studied at Harvard and abroad in Europe) is unrealistic and his classical education does seem out of touch of reality for most Americans in general in the early 20th century (who could afford to study at Harvard, learn Latin and Greek, and multiple other languages in that era?)

However, I must point out some flaws with Du Bois's Talented Tenth theory. Although middle class and professional African-Americans undoubtedly play a vital role in black communities and help uplift the remaining 9/10ths because of their skills, services, and influence in the community, but to believe that all 'talented' blacks would do such a thing is naive. Many will ignore or distance themselves from poor and lower-class blacks and live in their own neighborhood aristocracies, which Du Bois observed himself in Northern cities and some Southern cities. Indeed, while describing Southern urban blacks, Du Bois points out how the Talented Tenth often lived apart from other blacks. For example, a lower-class white neighborhood may divide the prosperous and poor black communities or the Talented Tenth tend to live in cities while the majority of the black population at the time (1903, before the Great Migration in the 20s and 30s) resided in rural areas and would only come into contact with Talented Tenth only through the substandard Negro common schools in the country. Furthermore, the idea of the Talented Tenth saving the black majority is elitist and denies the importance of subaltern leadership developing from the bottom. Lower class and upper class blacks should obviously cooperate as they did during the Civil Rights Movement but to argue that everything should occur under the Talented Tenth's 'civilizing' effects and influences seems undemocratic and very dangerous.

As for other interesting things in the book? I was touched by the death of Du Bois' infant son, vividly described in one of the later chapters of the text. I also appreciated his praise for Negro spirituals as the foundation of American music and the importance of the Negro in American folk music. His chapter on Negro religion and African influences on the African-American Christianity also emphasize the significance of the Church in Black America, which essentially provides moral education, a community center, and religious salvation. Like an expert sociologist, Du Bois' time in Dougherty County and the various inhabitants he encountered are flawlessly analyzed.

He explains how the sharecropping system forced most of the black inhabitants into debt because they were required to grow cotton and would often get their supplies and food for exorbitant amounts from the whites and Russian Jews who immigrated to the South (they purchased land and operated stores where blacks were sold seed, food, etc. at high prices and would only accept cotton as payment after the harvest. Of course this prevented most African-American farmers from growing their own food and diversifying their crops, which meant the fall in the price of cotton in 1898 and other fluctuations in the price of cotton sent many a black family spiraling into debt. And of course there were many instances of whites cheating blacks out of pay, using the threat of lynching and the police to intimidate blacks, and the white government's underfunding of black schools and exploitation of black workers usually required their children to also toil in the field instead of staying in school.

So the combination of the aforementioned factors explain the low living standards of blacks, not intellecual inferiority or laziness, as many whites of the time believed. The few that could purchase land or pursue a profession in the cities, did as soon as possible. But the system was designed to limit success for African-Americans in every conceivable way, which according to Du Bois inculcated feelings of doubt, humiliation, and despair among African Americans which contribute to criminality, laziness (why would poor black farmers in debt work harder when they'll still be in debt slavery?) and in some cases, radicalism. Interestingly, Du Bois argues that the Negro in the North was more radical than those of the South due to their anger from being forced to leave their homes and relatives due to white prejudice and the fact that they had greater access to education and political rights. Southern blacks, on the other hand, tended to choose hypocritical compromise, best exemplified by Booker T. Washington and devotees of his 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech. Northern blacks, such as Ida B. Wells and Du Bois worked on anti-lynching campaigns, helped establish the NAACP, etc. Now I don't entirely agree with Du Bois's assertion though.

His theory of double consciousness for Black Americans is excellent though. Blacks have to live as Negroes and Americans. They're incessantly perceived as inferior and facing closed doors of opportunity for being black, and always looking at themselves through the eyes of others. Blacks internalize the contempt and perceptions of others for them through this double consciousness. As Du Bois explains, "The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self...He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and and American without being spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face." I agree one hundred percent with this as one of the main themes of African-American identity and history, this struggle to be accepted without losing one's African heritage. Indeed, African-Americans best exemplify the American 'spirit' of liberty since they have experienced the worst in the process of pursuing life, liberty and happiness throughout American history.

I must also add his chapter on Alexander Crummell to the list of interesting and positive parts of the book. I had never heard of this important figure in African-American religious history and his encounter with the racist Episcopalian bishop of Philadelphia in the antebellum period is priceless. Sent to Philadelphia to start another church among that city's black population, Bishop Onderdonk tells him, "I will receive you into this diocese on one condition: no Negro priest can sit in my church convention, and no Negro church must ask for representation there." Crummell refuses to accept those conditions and starts works at a chapel in New York instead. This is truly an admirable move on the part of Crummell, who refused to accommodate racism from his own denomination.

In conclusion, Du Bois's oft-cited 'masterpiece' is a nuanced affair and contains many of the intellectual flaws associated with academic racism and the age of European imperialism in Africa and Asia. His skills as a sociologist and historian are displayed in every chapter as he writes on the economic, social, religious, and historical obstacles to black achievement in the United States in the early 20th century. However, as I stated before, I found him too Eurocentric, elitist, and too willing to place blame on African-Americans for the terrible social conditions in which they live. Resistance has always been a cornerstone of African-Americans and I don't particularly agree with his characterization of Southern blacks as submissive and compromising, although many were. All in all, Du Bois wrote a fascinating collection of essays on African Americans that correctly predicted that the problem of the 20th century would be the color line. The Negro problem played an undeniable role in nearly every circumstance imaginable in US foreign policy with Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, domestic social and economic policies, the Civil Rights Movement, and defining the supposed essence of American nationhood, freedom.