Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Fela Sowande

Black Composers on KWAX Radio This Week

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:

February 17, 2024
Black Composers Series Returns

It took four decades for these landmark recordings to make it to CD. They’ve finally appeared in a box of ten. We’ll be sampling highlights in just about three hours: music by Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), Olly Wilson, and Fela Sowande.

That’s “Black to the Future” – selections from Columbia Masterworks’ forward-looking Black Composers Series, reissued now on Sony Classical – on “The Lost Chord,” the first of four parts, for #BlackHistoryMonth, Sunday nights in February at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 4, 2019
Black Composers Series Returns After Decades

I’ve been waiting for this set to be reissued for decades. DECADES.

Over 40 years after its original appearance, CBS Records’ landmark Black Composers Series has finally come to compact disc. Made under the direction of conductor Paul Freeman and employing world class orchestras and soloists, these recordings originally appeared on vinyl between 1974 and 1978, providing rare exposure to 200 years worth of neglected music at a time when most of it was essentially unknown.

Some of the composers have since benefited from the advocacy of others; a few of the pieces were rerecorded by Freeman in the digital era; but most of the music is still seldom, if ever, heard.

Sony Classical has reissued these invaluable documents as a boxed set, reproducing the series’ original cover art on the individual cardboard sleeves. There’s also a moderately informative booklet, and a bonus disc of spiritual arrangements by Hale Smith and others, also conducted by Freeman. That’s a lot to celebrate!

To coincide with #BlackHistoryMonth, we’ll hear highlights from this most exciting release, over a four-week period.

Tune in tonight for the first installment, featuring works by violinist, conductor, and master swordsman Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799), who led the first performances of Haydn’s “Paris” Symphonies; Olly Wilson (1937-1918), who established the first ever electronic music program at a conservatory, Oberlin; and Fela Sowande (1905-1987), who wrote concert music after traditions of his native Nigeria.

That’s “Black to the Future,” the return of CBS Records’ forward-looking Black Composer Series, Sunday nights in February at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 3, 2019

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