Oh Gee Pee Oh Gee for Feb 18th, 2024
Broadcasting with gratitude, sorrow and love from the rightful lands of Cowlitz, Multnomah,
Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Wasco, Molalla, Ita'xluit, Watlala, and
other original peoples of the big river
This is Kay Bee Oh Oh Portland on 90.7FM
Kay Two Eight Two Bee Aych Philomath on 104.3
Kay Two Two Zero Aych Arr Hood River on 91.9
And streaming on the web at Kay boo dot ef em
We are member supported
community radio and depend on listeners like you for 80% of our funding. We're currently in the midst of a series
of special programming called All Thrills No Frills and we need to raise $22,000 by St Patrick's Day.
So if KBOO is a valuable part of your routine and you're ready to promote from listener to
member the ceremony for doing so is simple, dig?
Go to KBOO.FM forward slash give
Put some bread in the dish
then dance with delight at fulfilling a wish
and you'll be in good company, there.
And hey if you're not in a posish to do so we understand, I'm unhoused myself so thank you not
just to all who do but all who would.
This show you're listening to is called Oh Gee Pee Oh Gee, I'm your neighbor Jeremy and I'm
happy to be here with you for the next two hours as we celebrate a few of the many many
musical contributions and achievements made by black Portlanders.
Like many of you I have been anxiously awaiting the unveiling of the Albina Music Trust Community Archive
a worthy and noble project to preserve the cultural continuity of Albina, whose story is still
scarred by the freeway and seemingly unceasing gentrification
and while the Rose Quarter and time's arrow now prevent us from ever dressing our best to stride
and glide across the sacred floor of Paul Knaul's Cotton Club, or find out what's cool at the Dude
Ranch or Lil Sandy's we can at least listen in on a bit of what a night out in Prime Albina
sounded like thanks to the amazing efforts of Bobby D and our radio colleagues over at XRAY as
well as cool cat & culture keeper Calvin Walker
and of course all our neighbors who went digging through their basement memories and dusting
off their tape collections so that important historical artifacts and records could be digitized in the
archive.
It's a big deal and a vast deepening of the Portland story so even though I've been in terrible
back pain I still chose to attend the event to show my respect and climb to my feet again and
again despite the hurt to clap my hands for a standing ovation in honor of the musical elders of
Albina, to whom we owe so much.
That's why Ode to an Elder by Tribe Mars was the intro song back at the top of the show.
You too can honor the elders and explore the archive yourself by searching for Albina
Community Archive but bring along a snack ’cause I promise you'll be in it a while
One interesting artist you might encounter there is Billy Larkin whose unique style of burning
soul fusion kept Portland moving in earnest honesty all through the sixties and seventies
Here he is on organ working out a piece called Pygmy
with Hank Swarn giving guitar
and Mel Brown blessing beats
For moving feets
It's Billy Larkin & The Delegates
Right now on member supported radio
Kay Bee Oh Oh
***
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In that last set we just heard Your Love Is So Wonderful by Portland's own
the Legendary Beyons
And Legendary they are, striding on the scene in matching checkered suits loud enough to stop
even ol' Herb Tarlek still in his tracks and with harmonies that perfectly combine
to create an emergent voice that sings with the divine
The Beyons began when Jeddy Beasley and his cousin Poncho Channel began singing
together with classmates James Tims and Ira Hammond on the B floor of Jefferson High school
around sixty years ago. These days they're still going strong, continuously focusing their message and expanding their
harmonies over the years with the addition of Barbara Propps, Myrtle Brown and the late
Reo Varnado, Uncle Reo of Reo's Ribs. Great Portlanders all
Prior to the Legendary Beyons we heard the most admirable Marianne Mayfield singing Kansas City
atop the Warren Bracken Quartet while also accompanying herself on bass. Marianne Mayfield was a teacher in an elementary
school by day and bass player in many bands by night. A strong community builder and very cool lady who is still very beloved
Prior to Marianne Mayfield we heard the powerfully emotive, operatic voice of our neighbor
Shirley Nanette singing All of Your Life a song written by her close friend and collaborator Hank
Swarn and first released in 1972 on the album Never Coming Back then rereleased by Big
Crown Records in 2022.
As a young woman Shirley Nanette's talent combined with her practice to make her the very first
winner of the show Star Search. She was born and raised in Portland and her voice is considered a regional treasure as an
inductee into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. but she has also performed with symphonies far and wide
and when Tony Bennet can't make a show they call in Shirley Nanette to keep the audience satisfied.
Prior to Shirley we heard the first song ever officially written by Sammy Davis Jr.
After he was discharged from the army at the end of world war 2 Sammy Davis Jr lived here in Portland for a few years and
threw himself whole heartedly into Portland's thriving dance club scene.
He, his father and his Godfather Will Maston performed around town as the Will Maston Trio.
Sammy's first song Boip Boip was written in 1947 while he was still living here in Portland.
We heard it performed by Slim Gaillard, for whom the song was always intended.
Many of Slim Gaillard's songs are written in a language he constructed himself called
Vout O Reenee, many expressions from which became adopted in hepcat slang more generally.
From Vout O Reenee comes the famous Flat Foot Floogie With the Floy Floy, which was one of
Sam's signature songs. Since Sammy Davis Jr wrote Boip Boip specifically for Sam we must assume t
he word Boip is from the Vout O Reenee language but unfortunately and a bit oddly my copy of Slim Gaillard's
official Vout O Reenee to English dictionary is missing the A and B sections, so the true
meaning of Boip Boip remains for the moment a mystery.
What's not a mystery is that Sammy Davis Jr didn't just live in Portland, he really became a
Portlander. He fully participated in our culture and treated every other performer in it as a peer,
no matter their age, color, or creed. When his big break came in the form of a personal telegram
from Frank Sinatra he didn't rush off and forget his friends but instead held space and brought
them along.
One local group Sammy helped were the Three Little Souls, later called Sunday's Child a
harmony trio consisting of teenagers Ilene Anderson, Mary Lou Anderson, and Renee Woods.
Ren Woods was a child prodigy who began performing at age eight and is the driving force that
created the act. By age 13 she and the Andersons had a record deal and that record deal was
partly due to the help of Sammy Davis Jr who brought the group with him when he was invited
to play Carnegie Hall.
So here they are with a unique and dynamic version of Wichita Lineman off their 1970 debut album
Sunday's Child
Right now on KBOO
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Kay Bee Oh Oh Portland
90.7FM this is your community radio and we're trying to raise $22,000 before St Patrick's Day.
Will you help us? Just go to KBOO dot org forward slash give or text Kay Be oh oh to 44 321
without your continued support we wouldn't be one of the oldest community radio stations in the
country. Thank you
In that last set we were honoring our neighbor the late great Ms. Janice Scroggins, a devoted
woman of faith, and a lifelong maker of music. It's said that when Janice was born she cried unceasingly for two years.
Her parents took her around to doctors in the hopes of finding out why their baby was so inconsolable and
unsatisfied but the doctors could not find the cause of her crying. So she did so for two entire years
until finally a family member noticed that her attention when crying often seemed quite fixed on the piano.
So one day they picked her up from her playpen and lap-sat her down on the piano bench and when little Janice Scroggins
reached out to touch the keys and heard them answer she stopped crying at last.
Music was her first language and she was born fluent.
Ending that last set we heard Ms. Scroggins dancing the keys while her friend Linda Hornbuckle sang into every corner of
Georgia On My Mind and they were accompanied there by Patrick Lamb. Janice was also playing on the piece that preceded it,
another hit of Ray on a jump-up version of What I Say
She was playing there with another pillar of the Albina scene,
The boogie cat of the Pacific Northwest, your neighbor and mine
Mr. Norman Sylvester who came by his blues honestly earning them under the collar of his work shirt.
Both those Norman Sylvester and Linda Hornbuckle tracks are off the same album: Patrick
Lamb's 2006 compilation tribute to Ray Charles titled Let The Good Times Roll a Northwest
Tribute to Ray Charles. Just a really great record through and through.
Prior to What I Say we heard a moving tribute to Janice from her friend and our neighbor
Emmett Wheatfall, a wise and prolific Portland poet with a virtuosic piece titled
Ms. Janice Scroggins and her 88 Keys.
There's no doubt at all that Janice Scroggins made a difference in the lives of many and that her
life was characterized by giving. Her legacy is written in the liner notes of legends and braided in
the finely finessed fists of her countless students whom she taught to speak the truth of hearts and souls
through fingers and time
But among the greatest gifts she gave the world were her children, Nafisaria, Francis, and the
artist we're about to hear, Arietta Ward.
So Here is Ms. Etta Ward singing Linda Hornbuckle's signature song,
Thankful and Thoughtful
Right now on Kay boo
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This is member supported KBOO and that was a multimodal piece of symphonic metal
and galactic Opera from a Leon Del Muerte project called Lightbreaker
we heard a track titled Unwelcome featuring the vocal talents of our
neighbor Quinton Gardner, a black Portlander whose parents are both opera singers and he is
as well but in addition he also fronts local death metal band Only Zuul as well as the mashup
cover band Full Metal Jackson. The piece we heard is part of an ambitious album called Annihilation of the Annealids a creation
for which congratulations are well deserved
and the spirit moves me to also offer condolences on this day to creator Leon Del Muerte
because when this airs it will be February 18th
and I know from listening to interviews in preparation for this show that February 18th
is the commemoration of his mother's completion of life.
I don't believe in coincidences but I do believe in listening to the spirit when it moves you
and as someone who also mourns a mother my heart goes out to all those who do so
So if like Leon you are
I pray that you get all the time and space in which
You Need To Grieve
And blessed be
Well prior to the operatic stylings of Quinton Gardner we heard Black Shelton on a relentless
search for a Remedy. Black Shelton is the project of Kaleb Harrison a relatively recent arrival on
the scene and a welcome one at that.
One of the more memorable show bills you may have recently seen around town was a black
and white poster for Black Shelton, Nasalrod, and Tacos that featured the lovable puppet from
the show Alf juxtaposed with the hideous monster from the movie Alien. If you haven't seen it
it is just chef's kiss and if you have seen it well now you also know what Black Shelton sounds like
Prior to Remedy by Black Shelton we were preparing for Warp Speed with Jonny Cool
an immortal galactic talent currently corporealized as one Jonathan Sanders, born in Portland,
raised in a musical family, and happily fulfilling his destiny
Jonny Cool came hot on the heels of Henery Johnson who's been making a name for himself
in the scene as HennXL--and just like Sammy Davis Jr Henery Johnson hasn't wasted any time
but instead participates as a Portlander lending his soulful voice and honest verses to highlight the plight
of ordinary folks.
Prior to HennXL we heard a prolific Portland artist, educator, and curator who sadly left us too
soon. A student of Bob Brewer, drummer Carlton Jackson taught alongside Mel Brown, he had a commanding but adaptable
sound and a precise professionalism that kept so many greats running on time. He also had
exceedingly vast and excellent musical taste as evidenced in his several radio programs
at KMHD he hosted a meaningful show called The Message and prior to that he was on KBOO
in the eighties with a real cool show called Hot Lunch Special. Near the top of the last set we heard him collaborating
with Gordon Lee off the 2010 album This Path with a piece called Pao Ma Shan
Rest in Power Carlton Jackson
Next up we'll hear an artist
Portland born and raised
although now all the world is her stage
local wise woman Liz Vice has
Danced with Death
And emerged with her Faith Intact
Her songs are deeply personal
but their resonance is universal
to the human experience
Her 2018 album Save Me in particular is a masterpiece of message music and a personal
favorite of mine
Here's the third track from it, Brick By Brick
It's Liz Vice on member supported radio
Kay Bee Oh Oh
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You're tuned in to Kay be oh oh Portland where we're in the middle of a fundraiser
so if capital-c Community radio is important to you please consider making a donation
today. Just visit Kayboo dot org forward slash give
Thanks to all who do
This show is called Oh Gee Pee Oh Gee, I'm your unhoused neighbor Jeremy and in that last
set we just heard a yearnful headphone track titled All the While
by Portland’s own Tahirah Memory, daughter of the late, great Thara Memory and a
wonderfully complex artist in her own right.
Prior to Tahirah we heard from another neighbor, Veana Baby, asking a question we all do
eventually on a track titled “God, comma Who Is That?”
It is a question that partially answers itself in experience
but it is also a question that must necessarily remain somewhat unanswered
for the entirety is infinite
and the infinite is mystery.
But what does a mystery want if not to be investigated?
Questions abound
but airtime is finite. So let's use the last of it to recap:
On tonight's show we learned that the Albina Music Trust Community Archive is now open,
growing, and available to anyone with an Internet connection. We celebrated the often lively,
sometimes painful, and always creative history of Albina as well as the many past and ongoing
musical contributions made by black Portlanders across all genres
and sometimes beyond the very concept itself. And we also discussed the Vout O Reenee language
constructed by polyglot Sam Gaillard and how Sammy Davis Jr used it
to write his very first song while living here in Portland.
Well I've enjoyed spending this time with you and as it draws again to a momentary close
I wantchoo to know
That you are an important part of this community, and I'm glad we're neighbors.
If you’d like to learn more about what we heard, read a transcript of this show or just have
another listen you can visit Kay be oh oh dot ef em, click the three horizontal lines on the right
hand side, select audio then search the list of programs for Pee Oh Gee
Now that's spelled phonetically
Papa Echo Echo,
Oscar Hotel,
Golf Echo Echo
that's how ya spell...Pee Oh Gee!
Or we can bump into each other again from eight to ten pm
the third Sunday of every month
Going to see us out now with tracks from The Five Fingers of Funk and Vursatyl
But first remember friends:
In granite today it may be engraved
But rain comes and rounds stones
Like hot flames burn bound tomes
And thirst drinks down upwelling
The past is best saved
When from aged to young conveyed
So the meaning stays homemade
stories live on in their retelling
Until next time
Be well; do good