Snow falling here! I don’t know about you, but I plan to cozy in with some “Sweetness and Light.” For Black History Month, it will be the first of two newly-recorded light music programs featuring works by Black composers.

We’ll hear from Nigerian-born Fela Sowande (selections from his “African Suite”), Canadian-American composer R. Nathaniel Dett (“In the Bottoms,” played by one of his greatest champions, who lives and works locally, Clipper Erickson, piano), musical theater pioneer Eubie Blake (an oversimplification of his significance, I realize), contemporary composer and Nadia Boulanger pupil Adolphus Hailstork (some of his spiritual arrangements for orchestra), and stride giant James P. Johnson (born right up Route 1 in New Brunswick, NJ). In addition, we’ll get to enjoy an assortment of traditional spirituals interpreted by the great Marian Anderson.

Part 1 of “Black and Light” will air this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, with Part 2 to follow, next week.

As always on “Sweetness and Light,” it’s music calculated to charm and to cheer. We’ll be serving the coffee black, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Pour yourself a cup, wherever you are, here:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

And then drop back later for a topper, as I’ll be paying tribute to Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) on “The Lost Chord.” “Taylor-Made” will be broadcast on KWAX today at 7:00 pm EST/4:00 pm PST. More to come in a separate post!

While you’re waiting, get to know Fela Sowande: