Music
-
Charles Stepney in Full Flower
Ayana Contreras Recorded January 26, 1972 at RCA Studios in Chicago, The Dells sing Dionne Warwicke’s Greatest Hits is an album that features nearly a dozen of Charles Stepney’s magical reimaginings of Burt Bacharach/Hal David compositions. On the as-released version of the album, idiosyncratic Dells baritone Marvin Junior growls pleasingly (in concert with the rest…
-
Eddie Sings The Blues
Chicago saxophonist Eddie Harris is perhaps best remembered as an unabashed experimentalist, famously playing the Varitone electronic saxophone on albums like Plug Me In (1968). He also utilized an early tape looping mechanism (now so en vogue) on 1969’s Silver Cycles. So, Eddie Harris Sings The Blues (1972) stands less as an outlier than as…
-
Ayana Contreras Shares Her Mid-Year Best of Chicago Music 2019
Ayana hosts Reclaimed Soul on Vocalo and WBEZ and co-produces Sound Opinions on WBEZ. She also can’t stop digging… Top Chicago Releases of 2019 This has been an incredible year for Chicago music, so far. Here’s a short list of releases I’ve fallen for: The Oracle – Angel Bat Dawid (International Anthem) This woman’s bright and…
-
Linda Clifford and Richard Steele on Reclaimed Soul Live 2018
A tribute to classic Chicago radio station WJPC (Ebony/Jet’s radio station) hosted by Reclaimed Soul host Ayana Contreras with former WJPC program director Richard Steele, an interview with Chicago disco/soul legend Linda Clifford (“Runaway Love”, “If My Friends Could See Me Now”). We hear vintage WJPC audio including Richard Steele back in 1974 and Linda…
-
Reclaimed Soul: Cuba / Chicago Connections
Okra made the Trans-Atlantic journey on slave ships alongside human cargo. The fact that the fuzzy green seed-laden vegetable is eaten by black folk in the United States is a miracle. A vegetable umbilical cord. But to see okra in Cuba was a metaphor for a very particular shared narrative. One of survival. One of…
-
Maggie Brown on Oscar Brown, Jr. and The Opportunity Please Knock Chorus
Reclaimed Soul’s Ayana Contreras spoke with Jazz vocalist Maggie Brown, daughter of Oscar Brown, Jr. Maggie is passionate about preserving the legacy of her father’s community-engaged artistry. The Opportunity Please Knock Chorus (a creative collaboration between singer/writer/playwright Oscar Brown Jr. and the notorious Blackstone Rangers street gang) premiered 50 years ago. Mr. Brown stated in…
-
Blind Man: Little Milton’s hooked and he can’t let her go.
This is Little Milton. He’s hooked and he can’t let her go. Of this, I am wholly convinced.
-
Dance Chicago Dance.
Back in 1980, Chicago was still a national hub for music (like LA, Nashville, and New York are today). During that time, Producer/Promoter/Entrepreneur Eddie Thomas ran the influential Dogs of War DJ record association. Based out of Chicago, they were a record pool famous for breaking a number of seminal disco recordings. Essentially, a record pool…
-
100 Saxophones for Sun Ra
Chicago Free Jazz composer and saxophonist David Boykin invites you to participate in 100 Saxophones for Sun Ra. David is currently a Resident Artist at the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life/Center for the Study of Race Politics and Culture. David has put out an open call for 100 saxophonists to participate in a…
-
In Rotation: Ayana Contreras of Vocalo’s Reclaimed Soul on a softly stratospheric Andrew Hill LP
The music that is currently in rotation (in my head), as excerpted from Leor Galil’s article for the Chicago Reader. Ayana Contreras, DJ and host of Vocalo’s Reclaimed Soul, blogger at darkjive.com The Natural Four, Natural Four This was released here in Chicago on Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label in 1974. The Natural Four was a…
darkjive.com 