Thu 2/15 @ 7PM
It’s Black History Month which means it’s once again time for the Rock Hall to mount some special programming around Black musicians, although you’ll find plenty about the Black artists who laid the foundation for rock music year-round.
This week Kimberly Mack, an associate professor at the University of Illinois and author of the 33 1/3 book Living Colour: Time’s Up, will be on hand to talk about the career of the groundbreaking band Living Colour and their 1990 album Time’s Up. (Of course they’re not IN the Rock Hall. They were nominated once in 2013, their first year of eligibility, and promptly forgotten about, unlike the nonexistent, producer-created Chic, nominated 11 times.)
The all-Black quartet, formed in 1984, stabilized its lineup in 1986 (they’ve only had one personnel change since then and it was in 1992) and released their debut Vivid in 1988, introducing listeners to their explosively blend of metal, funk, blues, punk, hip hop, and jazz and producing the hit “Cult of Personality.” Their sound all came together on their second (and best-selling album), Time’s Up, which featured guest appearances by Little Richard, Queen Latifah and Doug E. Fresh, and even background vocals from fan Mick Jagger, and won the Grammy for best hard rock performance.
Mack’s talk will include material from interviews she’s done with the band and the production team that worked on Time’s Up as well as cultural criticism. The program is free with RSVP here.
Other current programming touching on Black music history includes screenings of the film Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America in the Foster Theater; the exhibit Hip Hop at 50: Holla If Ya Hear Me; and new artifacts from artist such as Alice Keys, Elizabeth Cotton, Freddie King and Nile Rodgers, who, along with his producing partner the late Bernard Edwards, fabricated Chic, who, as we mentioned before, did not actually exist.
celebrating-black-history-month
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44114