Three Black Kings and a Black Queen: H.E.R and the LA Philharmonic

Three Black Kings and a Black Queen: H.E.R and the LA Philharmonic

Aug.14, 2021

Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

By Shelah Moody

“Freedom for my brothers

Freedom 'cause they judge us

Freedom from the others

Freedom from the leaders, they're keeping us

Freedom gon' keep us strong

Freedom if you just hold on

Freedom ain't free at all, no…”— H.E.R.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, opened their sold-out, Aug. 14 concert at the Hollywood Bowl with “Star-Spangled Banner.”

The national anthem would have been appropriate for a July 4th picnic or a fireworks show, but opening with an antiquated song written by Francis Scott Key, a slave owner who saw blacks as inferior (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key) seemed wildly inappropriate at a concert celebrating black music. This concert featured one of the industry’s most celebrated and woke artists, Oscar and Grammy winner Gabriela Wilson, aka, H.E.R.

I confess that I started a bit of good trouble when the “Star-Spangled Banner” played. I muttered under my breath that I would remain seated. The mixed group of millennials on my left heard me and remained seated as well. The older white gay couple on my right said they agreed and so did the Asians seated in front of us. The young black woman who’d just popped a bottle of champagne for her birthday did not rise, either.

We, as one section united, masked up, loving music, hating injustice, remained seated until the “Star-Spangled Banner” was over.

The LA Philharmonic redeemed themselves after the awkward opening, performing Duke Ellington’s eloquent jazz composition “Three Black Kings” a symphonic eulogy honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Then, she appeared wearing an oversized red satin shirt, matching shorts, black heels, trademark shades, and waist-length wavy hair. Appropriately, the 24-year-old phenomenon known as H.E.R. made her grand entrance as the LA Phil played melodic, string-infused riffs of Marvin Gaye’s protest anthem “Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler”). Her sultry, R&B vocals soared high above the nosebleed seats as she segued into Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”

H.E.R. was stunned with her two original compositions (I’d pick either to replace the” Star-Spangled Banner” as America’s national anthem). One was “Fight for You,” (from the film “Judas and the Black Messiah”) which earned the Vallejo, CA- born singer an Oscar for Best Original Song, and the other was “I Can’t Breathe” which earned H.E.R. a 2020 Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

As she performed “I Can't Breathe,” the names of Breona Taylor, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and other African Americans killed by police flashed in intricate designs on the stage.

“Starting a war, screaming, "Peace" at the same time

All the corruption, injustice, the same crimes

Always a problem if we do or don't fight

And we die, we don't have the same right

What is a gun to a man that surrenders?

What's it gonna take for someone to defend her?

If we all agree that we're equal as people

Then why can't we see what is evil?

I can't breathe”

Borrowing a line from a Stevie Wonder song, I consider H.E.R. a female Shakespeare of her time. Watching the “Hard Place” singer jump on the bass, guitar, keyboards, and drums while singing, rapping, and dancing at the Hollywood Bowl show; I’d also put her on the genius level of Prince.

H.E.R. told the audience that performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic had been one of her top goals.

To top it off, H.E.R., whose moniker means “having everything revealed” is simply adorable. She dedicated her ballad “Best Part,” performed with one of her backup singers in Daniel Caesar’s place, to a lucky couple in the audience who she referred to as “Johnnie and Jasmine.”

During “Best Part,” H.E.R.’s concert became live theater as Johnny got down on one knee, held out a ring box, and proposed to Jasmine in front of the stage. The audience ate it up.

As she sang and played keyboards, H.E.R. dedicated her autobiographical composition “I’m Not Ok” to anyone who has gone through a mental health crisis and asked the audience to turn on their phone flashlights to illuminate the darkness.

Since H.E.R. has collaborated with so many artists including Skip Marley (“Slow Down”), Lauryn Hill (“Sweetest Thing”), YG (“Slide”) DJ Khaled (“We Going Crazy”) and icons such as Hollywood Bowl alumni Janet Jackson is singing her praises on social media, I’d expected a few special guests to pop up at the Hollywood show. But HE.R., accompanied by her soulful band, the LA Phil, her soulful band and an expensive, high-tech light show dazzled on her own. H.E.R. proved that she is enough.

H.E.R performs Sept. 18 and 19 at the Lights out Festival, Concord Pavilion, Concord, CA. (livenation.com). Listen to H.E. R. on Streetwise Radio.

Three Black Kings and a Black Queen: H.E.R and the LA Philharmonic

Gerron Hurt Masterchef Season 8 Winner at Gilroy Garlic Festival 2019

 Gerron Hurt Masterchef

2018 Gilroy Garlic Festival

Entourage was one of many musical acts that performed at this year Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Mark Anthony Rael , Shines With "For Not The Muse"

                                                             BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1951 in Detroit Michigan, Mark Anthony Rael,  musician, singer ,songwriter, and music producer, made his singing debut at age 12 with his bad, “The Human Race.”   Mark’s singing career was launched with Capital Records in Hollywood, California at age 22.  In 1980, Mark was asked to join the band “The Knack”  (My Sherona) as lead vocalist, but declined to further his solo career. 
Mark has produced and written globally with Belizean Artist Ras Indio, Jamaican Artist Dillgin Tony Bailey and Swedish-African Artist Aminatah.  Closer to his home in Los Angeles, California, Mark produced numbers of local Hip Hop Artist. 
Presently living in San Diego, California, Mark is completing a new album comprised of composition using orchestra, rock, reggae and other exotic rhythms to formulate a fusion of sound with this album.  Mark is currently in the works of forming a band to play live worldwide.
Soon to be released are five new albums including Celtic, R&B and other styles.  “For Not the Muse” was written, performed, produced and mixed by Mark.

Keep Listening to more from this accomplished musician on Streetwise Radio.

You can purchase his CD here.

Michael Franti, Malo and Bay Area Artists Denounce Hate @ Peace, Love and Understanding Concert

                                             

By Shelah Moody
On August 26, the Bay Area’s top concert organizers and musicians came together for a Peace, Love and Understanding concert at the Civic Center Plaza in response to planned rallies and gatherings of hate groups in San Francisco and Berkeley, CA.
Although they claim to be a free speech advocacy group, the right-wing Patriot Prayer organization has attracted neo-Nazis and white nationalist groups who latched onto their rhetoric and recently clashed with anti-racist, anti-fascist groups in Charlottesville, VA. Patriot Prayer’s leader, Joey Gibson, a Donald Trump supporter who has denied his group promotes racism or violence, planned a rally at Crissy Field in San Francisco, and then a press conference in Alamo Square. Both events were canceled due to safety concerns, and Patriot Prayer moved their “press conference” to Pacifica, CA.

                                                               

     Michael Franti and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee

On Aug. 25, the eve of the planned Patriot Prayer rally, San Francisco mayor Edwin  Lee, along with civic and community leaders such as London Breed and David Chiu, held a noontime Unite Against Hate Rally on the steps of City Hall and vehemently declared that SF was a city of compassion, tolerance, inclusion, and diversity. 

Civic Center Plaza was probably the safest place to be in San Francisco that scorching Saturday afternoon, as thousands of people peacefully gathered for an afternoon concert featuring the bluegrass band Brothers Comatose, R&B /funk band Malo and Michael Franti and Spearhead as well as poets, speakers, visual and street performers. Mayor Lee, who attended Peace, Love, and Understanding, greeted Franti with a hug backstage and celebrated the city’s victory in driving the “hate” out of San Francisco that day.

Harry Duncan and Mark Penne as volunteers.

“Audrey Joseph and I decided that we wanted to have a peace rally, and Nick Hellman wanted to, also,“ said Peace Love and Understanding producer Dawn Holliday. “Great minds got together, knowing that Audrey and I could produce it. I called three bands and they all said yes.”
Holliday, incidentally is the producer of one of San Francisco’s largest and most popular festivals, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, which was founded by venture capitalist Warren Hellman in 2001.
“The vibe here is fantastic,” Holiday said, backstage at Peace, Love and Understanding.  “I like large crowds of happy people. Everyone here is having a really good time. Since we scared the alt-right out of San Francisco, we are enjoying San Francisco for ourselves. 

“Fear and hate don’t exist in my world,” said Holliday. “I think that if you keep fear out of your heart and hate out of your heart, it spreads to other people. You just can’t be afraid. If you feel hate, you drive it to you, if you feel fear; you drive it to you. You can’t live in that state. You have to live in a more open place.”

For years, Holliday worked for famed San Francisco concert producer Bill Graham, who would have loved the Peace, Love, and Understanding event, Holiday said. 

“(Bill) probably would have had a bigger stage and fancier lights and stuff,” said Holliday. “But this is what you’ve got when you have an all-volunteer staff.”

Indeed, the Peace and Love Gathering was probably the safest place to be on Aug. 26. Sharpshooters were positioned on the rooftops of buildings near Civic Center Plaza, which was surrounded by a layer of police officers. There was no violence or injuries reported at the concert, and the only commotion this writer noticed were paramedics rushing to the aid of a woman with an injured toe. 

“We don’t have the luxury of fear, said Kate Kendell, Peace, Love and Understanding’s guest speaker and emcee, Kendall is executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco.

“Fear puts people in a fetal position, and that’s not going to help anybody,” said Kendell. “If you are not out there on the front lines doing what you can, you are complicit in the carnage, particularly in communities of color, immigrant communities, and Jewish communities. We have to all come together, especially folks with privilege, especially white folks, to say, no, that is not going to happen on our watch. We are not gonna be ruled by fear, we’re gonna be ruled by power and fierceness.”

Kendell said that the Peace, Love and Understanding Concert was Pulled together in five days. 

“There are folks who pretty much gave up their day jobs for a week to make this happen,” said Kendell. “Because we wanted to stand in that gap and say no, the Nazis aren’t coming to town without us having a response. Hopefully, this event will be a galvanizing moment for people to continue and to deepen that conversation that this country has never really had around racism and the structures that support white supremacy. Those structures have to be dismantled, and that’s never going to happen if we don’t confront our past and pledge that we want a different future. “ 

Fear and had did not stop Peace, Love and Understanding’s headliner, Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Michael Franti, from strolling into the audience with his acoustic guitar and hugging and kissing fans and supporters. https://youtu.be/w0gbtRSpG8s.

From 1999-2013, Franti produced the free Power to the Peaceful Festival, which started out as an event to draw attention to the cause of imprisoned activist Mumia Abu Jamal,  at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. 

After the Peace, Love and Understanding concert, Mayor Lee sent an open letter to San Francisco City employees, thanking public safety agencies who worked tirelessly to keep the city safe including police officers, firefighters, EMS workers, 911 emergency dispatchers, and deputy sheriffs.

“This weekend, San Francisco stood together to reject hate and violence, “ said Mayor Lee. ‘Throughout our city, the themes of love and compassion were on full display. There were zero injuries related to the demonstrations on Saturday, despite the potential for violence that we have seen in other cities when similar protests have been held. This year, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. We proved this weekend that the legacy of that movement remains strong, half a century later.”

In the Kitchen with Ziggy Marley: Seven-Time Grammy Winner Launches Family Cook Book in Menlo Park, CA

By Shelah Moody with Safi Wa Narobi of KPFA F.M. Berkeley







“The food of my youth, and my wife’s Orly’s, continues to be the food of our adulthood. An Israeli of Iranian decent, Orly really understands food and family.  She grew up in a stable family structure, and she places a high value on family meals. We eat a lot of Persian and Israeli foods at home. We celebrate Shabbat every week, along with Jewish Holidays like Passover and Hanukah. All of this has taught me even more about the relationship between food and family.”—Ziggy Marley
Having known Ziggy Marley, aka the Fly Rasta, for nearly three decades, I am convinced that this man has coolest job ever. Case in point, at press time, his latest album, “ZM” released on the family Tuff Gong Worldwide label, is currently at the top of Billboard’s Reggae Charts.
On Sept. 13, Marley, in connection with Tuff Gong Worldwide, MusiCares Foundation and the Grammy Foundation, presented a sold out panel on the History of Reggae music, which included Marley’s longtime drummer and famed Studio One sessionist Santa Davis, former radio host and Nyabinghi specialist Ras Michael and acclaimed singer/songwriter Lloyd “Bread” McDonald of the Wailing Souls. The elders on the panel were also friends and contemporaries of his iconic father, Bob Marley.




Chef Leonie McDonald, wife of Lloyd "Bread" McDonald is a major contributor to the Ziggy  Marley and Family Cookbook.

On Oct. 19, two days after his 48th birthday, the seven-time Grammy winner chose Kepler’s books in Menlo Park, one of the most affluent communities in the Bay Area, to launch his latest endeavor, the “Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook: Delicious Meals Made with Whole, Organic Ingredients from the Marley Kitchen” (Akashic Books/ Tuff Gong Worldwide, 2016). Incidentally, Menlo Park is best known as the Facebook headquarters (thumbs up emoji to that). #ziggymarley!
As my media colleagues and I took our seats and waited for Marley’s book discussion with “New York Times” bestselling author Adam Mansbach, I noticed the seats filling up with not only music lovers, millennials and bibliophiles, but entire families. Behind me, a restless toddler in the lap of his pregnant mom tugged at my hair and squealed “Iggy! Iggy!” in anticipation of seeing his favorite singer.







After the discussion with Mansbach, Marley remained in Kepler’s Books  greeting fans and posing for photos until every book was signed.



 The following night, Marley and his dynamic, mulit-cultual band played a sold out show at the historic Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco, an extended set of conscious feel good music including tracks such as  “Conscious Party,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Black Cat,” “True to Myself,” “Butterflies” and “Amen.”



So, what did you do on your birthday this year?
Ziggy Marley: Played some music. I was on stage. The crowd in Duncan, British Columbia, sang “Happy Birthday” to me twice, and I didn’t really ask them to! I mean, twice; that was a first, that was a memorable moment. It was incredible!
 So, you are a musician, husband, father, entrepreneur, Emmy winner, author, environmentalist and advocate of clean, non-GMO food. I knew you like to cook but I did not know you were a chef. How did the “Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook” come about?
ZM: I’m not a chef at all! Growing up in Jamaica, I learned to be an independent person, an independent man. I learned to cook so that I would not have to depend on anybody to cook for me.
So, for someone like me, who is not that proficient in the kitchen, what recipe from the “Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook”  would you suggest I start out with? I’ve got a stovetop, a microwave oven and a toaster oven and a blender. It’s sort of like your set-up here on the tour bus.
ZM: Hmmm…Try the Mancakes breakfast (pp. 16-17) and see how you like it. Breakfast is my favorite meal. That’s when I enjoy food the most, at breakfast time. Breakfast is the most important meal to me. It’s how I start my day.
 So, the book signing --what did it mean to you this evening to have so many people show up and for you to be so giving and to sign all of those books?
ZM: Well, the people are giving to me so I give back. I reach out to people and then again I may attract new ears by talking to and interacting with people. It gives me a chance to reach out to different types of people; that’s what I like about it. It’s a new experience for me. Every new experience makes me grow. Even as I’m doing these things, I’m growing.
 You’ve been touring with another Grammy winning reggae band, Steel Pulse, since 2013. How did that connection come about?
ZM: Well, the same agency that puts our shows together puts their shows together. Steel Pulse is one of my favorite groups and I’ve known David (Hinds) for a long time. It’s always good to see them again and share the stage.
 So, there are two, very danceable songs that I’m addicted to on your latest album “ZM” —“Ceceil” and “Amen.” Tell me about the origins of those songs.
ZM: “Ceceil” is an “ex.” It could be anyone or anything or any country. Ceceil is just a metaphor. The refrain goes: “Why don’t you try to be loving, Ceceil?”  It is so much more; it is not a love song to a girl named Ceceil. There’s a verse in the song that asks “When will war be the answer that you’re looking for?” To me, love and relationships always relate back to the world. The beat has some ska elements, but it also has an African beat in the front. In my mind, I’m paying homage to Fela Kuti. Sometimes I pay homage to Aston “Family Man” Barrett in my music because he inspires certain basslines. ‘Amen’ has a little more positive tone. It is an acknowledgement of what we are saying, like, here’s my truth, you know, and what do you think about it? Like when you are in church and the preacher says “amen!” and the congregation says “amen!”
 Last month, you hosted a panel on the History of Reggae Music at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. I like what you said about how the foundation artists, like Ras Michael, Santa Davis and Lloyd “Bread” McDonald are your crew and that you are not leaving them.
ZM: Yeah, I grew up around the elders, I learn a lot from them and I have a connection to them in a way—a spiritual connection.  
On the Grammy panel, you described yourself as an “old soul.”
ZM: Right!  So you unnerstan what mi a seh! See it deh?
 Piggybacking on the panel, would you ever consider teaching a university level course on reggae music?
ZM: I think that you have to teach it by doing it; you can’t talk it. I mean, you can talk it, yeah, but if you see how it’s done, then you realize that it’s real freedom; that’s how you learn, when you see it happening.  So, it can’t be limited to a book or a lesson. It’s freedom; at least that’s how I do it, I don’t know about anybody else.
Ok, during your book discussion today, you named Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as one of your top three albums. I don’t know how I missed that connection after all these years, because it’s one of MY top three albums!
ZM: (Laughs). Yuh neva know dat?
What’s your favorite song on the album?
ZM: On “Thriller?” All of the song dem bad, mon. My friend and I, we used to dance like Michael Jackson when we would play “Beat It.” (hums a bit of the melody). My friend had the red jacket! There are certain times in your life that you always remember!
 Did you ever meet Michael Jackson?
ZM: Mi tink me meet him when he come to Jamaica. And mi talk to him again when we was working on some kind of project. He seemed quiet and shy.
Given all of your accomplishments in the last two decades, is there an official “Ziggy Marley Day” somewhere or a key to the city?
ZM: There should never be a Ziggy Marley Day, come on! Mi all right!  I don’t want just one day, I want a lifetime; I want generations (laughs).




Mancakes
Serves 3 to 4, Vegetarian/Gluten-Free
Ingredients
2 cups of flour or substitute gluten-free flour
2 Tablespoons brown sugar, 1/1 tablespoon salt
3 Teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Seeds, Crushed
1Tablespoon flaxseeds
1 Tablespoon walnuts, crushed
2 eggs, beaten
4 Tablespoons Ziggy Marley’s Coco’Mon Coconut Oil or coconut oil of your own choosing
2 Cups water, or substitute coconut soy, almond, rice or whole milk
Preparation:
Mix all dry ingredients together, then add eggs, coconut oil, water and blend well
Spoon batter onto a hot grill
Once pancakes bubble, flip over and cook until golden brown.
Serve with maple syrup and enjoy!

Sierra Nevada World Music Festival 2016 And Streetwise Radio Will Be There.

Follow the Streetwise Radio Team at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival At Boonville ,California this weekend.
Check our Facebook Page for pictures and videos coming live from the Mendocino Fairgrounds.We will be Broadcasting on Ustream Live throughout the weekend. Check the Ustream button on our interactive player.Check Out Shaggy at the 2014 SNWMF on our On demand Channel. You will find clips on our interactive player.