It doesn’t matter what your opinion is of the aged women and men who’ve been on the planet longer than most of us, we are able to at all times agree on one factor: outdated individuals are often humorous and entertaining.
Simply ask the individuals who not too long ago attended Rhythms of Unity: Black Historical past from Africa to the Americas, a panel dialogue that happened at downtown document bar Off the Report. It was an occasion the place the town’s veteran music fans sat down and riffed on the whole lot from the preservation of Black and Afro-Latin music (particularly in Houston) to the origins of the accordion to Beyonce’s current Grammy wins for Cowboy Carter.
Organized by collective Sobremesa Soundsystem, Rhythms of Unity can be an ongoing collection of sobremesas (a post-meal, Spanish custom the place folks get collectively and discuss) for native music heads. “Our aim right here is to create an archive that does not stay in Meta’s servers,” co-organizer/moderator Francisco Castro advised the viewers, “however it may be the folks’s archive of inventive sobremesa, for the entire stunning issues which might be occurring in our metropolis.”
Nonetheless, probably the most memorable moments from this get-together occurred at any time when George Daniels opened his mouth.
Because the founding father of the gone-but-not-forgotten Chicago document retailer George’s Music Room (Off the Report, which is co-owned by Daniels’s nephew David Anderson III, named their upstairs lounge after the shop),“Uncle George” is virtually the Zelig of the Black-music business. The proud Chicagoan (he did go to center faculty in Houston, whereas residing within the Fifth Ward) was there to obtain an honor from Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who proclaimed the date as George Daniels Day.
Though he shared sofa house with a murderers’ row of native DJs – Jason Woods (Flash Gordon Parks), Gracie Chavez, Fallon Savoie (The Mexican Blackbird), Emily Areta (DJ MLE), and Malcolm Bravo – Daniels, 78, typically received the total room over along with his tales of wheeling and dealing within the music biz. Like his early days as a janitor at legendary Chicago label Chess Data, the place he would finally turn out to be Etta James’s driver. “I wound up at Chess Data due to my girlfriend,” Daniels remembered. “I admit she was in highschool another yr. I had simply graduated and she or he labored at Chess Data and she or he was a receptionist and she or he sang background. That was Minnie Riperton.”
Each the gang and the panel had been predictably awestruck as Daniels recalled the time he and the late R&B singer (and Maya Rudolph’s momma) had been going regular. “However hey, let me lay it on you actual robust,” he continued. “Now, her and I, we finally broke up and what have you ever. However we stayed shut buddies, all proper, and we laughed one time as a result of the music Reminiscence Lane’ – that was about me and her.”
At a few factors, he lamented over the present state of in style music and the way youthful listeners are being bombarded with sounds which might be extra automated than genuine. “You guys have been bought a invoice of products,” he advised the viewers. “As a result of the soul, the emotion, nothing is there. It is all about picture. You recognize, again within the day, why was there just one Aretha Franklin? Why was there just one Tito Fuente or Celia Cruz?… So the place’s your individuality? You bought beats and chains in your neck, and that is nothing. So, I am telling you guys this as a result of I need you to take your little brothers and sisters and your kids to see stay music, please. As a result of the minute that child sees a trombone, a violin, something, it should set off one thing that is totally different then beats, as a result of beats are taking us to jail.”
Probably the most entertaining a part of the night was when Daniels went back-and-forth with Chavez concerning lazy DJs. It began when Daniels gave props to spinners who nonetheless trafficked in vinyl. “I love DJs that use turntables as a result of now, due to expertise, you bought cats out right here that decision themselves DJs,” he mentioned. “Then, y’all know who they’re. Identical s—.” This cracked up the gang. “Hey, I’m simply telling it like it’s.”
Later, Chavez wished to “add extra context” to Daniels’s feedback, citing that this new breed of DJs are utilizing expertise and innovation to convey dance music – previous and current – to extra listeners. “I am not going to remove something from turntables as a result of it’s an instrument that additionally brings us collectively, however in one of the best ways potential,” mentioned Chavez. “Newer DJs are utilizing the issues at their disposal actually to proceed this preservation of music.”
“Effectively, I agree with that to some extent,” mentioned Daniels, getting extra laughs. “As a result of it is like having the ability to make music in your cellphone now. Okay, what does it take? I imply, the whole lot is designed for you. I’ve gotten so rattling lazy. You recognize, I simply ask my cellphone s—.”
Extra laughs popped up earlier than he received again to DJs. “You go to a membership and there isn’t any range within the sound. It is the identical all evening lengthy, all evening lengthy, all evening lengthy. And see, so that is what I am speaking about. Not all DJs, after all – particularly not on this panel.”
Daniels’s pleasantly profane, back-in-my-day musings apart, the opposite Rhythms of Unity panelists wished the attendees to understand the town’s wealthy historical past of music and tradition. “My hope is that everyone on this room walks out at this time with slightly extra delight and understanding that Houston has at all times been nice,” mentioned Woods. “You did not want to maneuver to New York – no disrespect. You did not must go to Chicago or–”
“Yeah, you probably did,” Daniels interjected, getting another spherical of snickers.
If Rhythms of Unity goes to be a recurring factor, Daniels ought to undoubtedly be a everlasting panelist.
