When Michael O. Mitchell and I sat down to break bread and discuss music, we almost didn’t talk about music at all. We talked about life.
Michael and I come from two fundamentally different worlds, separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Missouri and South Africa could not be further apart; not just in distance, but also in culture.
As a young boy growing up in South Africa, I had one white TDK cassette tape which I would listen to incessantly. Side A was my Saturday recordings of American pop music and Side B was my Sunday night recordings of my favorite classical composers, both from the radio. This is how I escaped to the magical world in my mind, allowing me a brief moment of levity to block out the inhumane disaster that was Apartheid.
The South African media was controlled by the government, so the America I was sold was the “white picket fence” version. As I grew older and after Apartheid collapsed, the reality of America first came to life in the form of music. Hearing The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” changed my world. It led me to Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Paul Robeson and Stevie Wonder.
My journey with American Music has shaped my life in ways that I would only fully begin to understand several decades later. In 2013, I began working with Berry Gordy Jr, the founder of Motown, on his Broadway show as his Choreographer. It was the most serendipitous experience because on any given day, I simply had to walk three steps and ask him directly about a particular moment, like the time he recorded Dr. King’s speeches. He would tell me stories about how he and Marvin Gaye had a fight, so he left him back in Detroit when the company went on tour. Marvin stayed on the yellow couch at Motown that entire time, and when Mr. Gordy got back, Marvin had written “What’s Going On?”
I realize now that I’ve unconsciously become drawn to music and literature that is about CHANGE. I believe, as Cesar Cruz says, that “ART SHOULD COMFORT THE DISTURBED, AND DISTURB THE COMFORTABLE.”
This is where Michael O. Mitchell and I found common ground. If you want to UNDERSTAND America, there are several books you can read about it. However, if you really want to EXPERIENCE America, you simply have to listen to its music.
This is our American Songbook.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you.
Warren Adams