It’s Blueswomen, Jazzmen, African roots and branches. Chicago blues singer Shemekia Copeland‘s father, the late blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, brought her into his music as a child. As an adult, she found new ways to use blues to express her perspective. We’ll hear from some of Shemekia’s heroes including Etta James, Ruth Brown, Alberta Hunter and Big Mama Thornton. Then a conversation and performance by Boston-based Mandinka balafon player Balla Kouyaté and music inspired by and from the continent of Africa from Randy Weston, Miriam Makeba and the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Shemekia Copeland photo by Mike White
The historian of the Black Atlantic and Professor of African and African-American Art History Robert Farris Thompson of Yale University died on November 28 at age 88.
You can hear our interview with him here
To read more about his life, click here
Photo: Matthew Sussman/Yale University
