CATHERINE L. JOHNSON – Unplugged on Prince Street –18 OCTOBER 2013
Photo credit: Chris La Fontaine
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ERYKAH BADU – Unplugged
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ce-LQet-b8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZpfWUY3EEs
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18 OCTOBER
STYRK SIGURD REQUE OMLIE
“BUD”
DAD’S BIRTHDAY
WHAT I REMEMBER WHAT HE LOVED:
BLACK AMERICAN MUSIC
Tain’t What You Do – Jimmy Lunceford
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SkoD2CIakQ
This is the piece that broke down the walls, and when we became friends.
My Dad taught me about the CALL AND RESPONSE of Black American Music.
He learned so much of the roots during WWII
when he oversaw the gravediggers
-who were mostly Black Americans.
What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM
He heard Satchmo several times while overseas during WWII.
He loved Jan Savage Big Band’s version of “What a Wonderful World”.
I was living in my beloved NYC funded by an international studio fellowship.
I found the recording at a collector’s office at the Empire State Building!
I needed it to send to Dad before his cancer surgery.
This wonderful collector made a tape so I could send it to Dad before his cancer surgery.
He told me he played it on the way to the hospital. He was a banker and always wanted to be a musician.
At the end of his life, he asked for my forgiveness.
He created steep hurdles/criticism/mockery of me being an artist.
As a teenager, I told him he was my Earth Dad and God made me an artist.
Period.
As he was dying
and
I was living in NYC as a recipient of the prestigious P. S. 1 International Studio Artist Fellowship,
he said he wished he had the determination + drive I had.
His challenge tempered me to persevere and listen to the silver horn within me.
WHAT IS A RELATIONSHIP?
IT IS : CALL+ RESPONSE.
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