FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
I'm Farai Chideya, and this is NEWS & NOTES.
'Tis the season for music. Throughout December and into the new year, you can count on hearing lots of holiday tunes, whether you're at the grocery store, the gas station or in your own home. And in today's multicultural world, you're bound to hear some variation of a traditional song or a new melody altogether.
Joining me now at NPR West to talk more about cross-cultural holiday music are Steve Loza, professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. He's the author of several books, including "Barrio Rhythm: Mexican-American Music in Los Angeles." And Steven Ivory, who's written about popular music and culture for 30 years. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Essence and Vibe, among many other publications. Plus, at member station WFIU in Bloomington, Indiana, Portia Maultsby, professor of ethnomusicology and director of the Archives of African-American Music and Culture at Indiana University.
Welcome to you all. And, Steve Loza, let me start with you. Tell us about a holiday song or tradition that's celebrated in your house this time of year.
Professor STEVE LOZA (Ethnomusicology, University of California at Los Angeles): Well, we have a pretty multicultural environment because most Latinos in the United States speak both Spanish and English, and so we go from one form to another. So we listen to the popular holiday music in English, but also in Spanish.
CHIDEYA: What's some of your favorites?
Prof. LOZA: "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano, even though some people are tired of that. And I like the songs, the canciones from las posadas.
CHIDEYA: Tell me about las posadas. What happens? It's a form of caroling, is it?
Prof. LOZA: Yes. There's a set of songs that are sung and, for example, there's one that talks about the holy pilgrims. And so it's about the pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph trying to find a place for Christ the child to be born, and they keep getting rejected from one house to another. So that's what they do in Mexico. They will have, like, a little procession, especially of young children, some of them dressed up as angels and then two of them dressed up as Mary and Joseph, actually. And they will go from house to house, you know, going through this rejection thing, and one-half of the group will be inside and one outside. And the songs actually refer to this, their being rejected from one posada to another. The word `posada' means an inn or a little place to spend the night.
(Soundbite of song)
Unidentified Group: (Singing in Spanish)
Prof. LOZA: Until the point where one of the innkeepers tells them to go to the stable, and that's where las posadas ends. And then they basically make it into a party. So it's a very beautiful tradition that involves the community, sort of out in the street, you might say.
(Soundbite of song)
Unidentified Group: (Singing in Spanish)
CHIDEYA: Does that tradition--has that moved from Mexico here to the US?
Prof. LOZA: Yes, they do it here, especially in the Southwest, although it's not done as much as it is in Mexico. Even in Mexico it's probably not done as much as it used to be. But it's done here and there's actually a lot of historical examples, especially in New Mexico where they have a longer tradition of the older Mexican tradition. And they have lanterns made of paper. They're called the faroles. And this is all part of the posada tradition.
CHIDEYA: Let's talk about "Feliz Navidad," since you mentioned that. I remember as a kid seeing Jose Feliciano on TV all the time, sitting there on stage with his guitar. It's still such a standard.
Prof. LOZA: Yes, and the reason I thought it'd be interesting to play "Feliz Navidad" was that because there are so many Latinos here in the United States--it's like 13, 14 percent of the population--we have seen the development of a bicultural kind of thing happening, and the music is one of the things that really illustrates this.
(Soundbite of "Feliz Navidad")
Mr. JOSE FELICIANO: (Singing in Spanish)
Prof. LOZA: So when he came out with that song, it actually became like a big radio hit. But it has stayed through time, and even though it was recorded here, it has also become a standard throughout Latin America and other parts of the world. And what's interesting about it is that it's a bilingual song. It goes from `Feliz Navidad' to `I want to wish you a happy new year.' And the style of the song is also bicultural, because if you listen to it it's sort of a Cha-Cha rhythm, but it's also got a lot of what you would say would be black R&B style. Jose Feliciano's from Puerto Rico, but he was raised in New York City. And so he was raised with all this R&B music and he mixed that with his Latin American background in terms of musical styles. So that's why the song is such a rich example of the contemporary intersection of Latin American culture with the culture up here.
CHIDEYA: So, Portia, we just heard Steve talk about some Latino holiday songs and traditions. Negro spirituals and gospel music have a history with Christmas music, so give us an example.
Professor PORTIA MAULTSBY (Ethnomusicology; Director, Archives of African-American Music and Culture, Indiana University): Well, there are many styles of--or let's say subgenres within the rubric--under the rubric of Christmas music. Some artists, particularly gospel artists, those who perform the Negro spirituals, often reinterpret standard Christmas songs: "Silent Night," "Joy to the World," "Jingle Bells." But other artists of the R&B tradition, soul, create original songs with the Christmas theme, and those songs have become very standard to the repertoire of Christmas music. Contemporary gospel artists do the same thing; they create their own songs for the occasion, at the same time, reinterpreting standards, as well as rearranging Christmas carols within the contemporary gospel style.
CHIDEYA: What's one of your favorite interpretations in the gospel style?
Prof. MAULTSBY: I like Take 6, "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas."
(Soundbite of "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas")
TAKE 6: (Singing) Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Oh-whoa-whoa. Let your heart be light. Oh-whoa-whoa.
Prof. MAULTSBY: Take 6 is a very ori--you know, their style is very original. The four- or five-part harmony, five-, six-part harmony sometimes, in more of a jazz style. I find that group to be highly creative in its interpretive style of Christmas music, Christmas standards in particular. But--so they're my favorite gospel group, but I have to say one of my favorite all-time Christmas songs is an original composition first recorded in 1947 by Charles Brown and Johnny Moore's Three Blazers.
(Soundbite of "Merry Christmas, Baby")
THREE BLAZERS: (Singing) Santa came down the Chimney 'bout a half past 3. Left all these pretty presents that he's saving for me. Ooh, merry Christmas, pretty baby.
Prof. MAULTSBY: The group performed pretty much in the style of Nat "King" Cole, but more with a blues edge. So the song "Merry Christmas, Baby" has been a mainstay of Christmas music even to the present.
CHIDEYA: It's kind of a sexy Christmas song.
Prof. MAULTSBY: Yeah, "Merry Christmas, Baby." He's referring to his loved one.
(Soundbite of instrumental portion of "Merry Christmas, Baby")
Prof. MAULTSBY: I also like--I think Nat "King" Cole was the first to popularize--you know, for a black artist to popularize a Christmas song that has become certainly a standard, and almost every black artist has re-recorded this song with their own interpretation. And it's entitled "The Christmas Song."
(Soundbite of "The Christmas Song")
Mr. NAT "KING" COLE: (Singing) Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe help to make the season right. Tiny tots...
Prof. MAULTSBY: And he recorded that song in 1946, or it was very popular on the charts in 1946. So his style is, you know, more smooth and mellow.
CHIDEYA: Now let me go to you, Steven. What--we've been talking about some of the new classics, you know, songs like "Merry Christmas, Baby."
Mr. STEVEN IVORY (Music Writer): That's right.
CHIDEYA: They don't harken back to the 1800s, but Americans know and love these songs. What are some of the new classics for you?
Mr. IVORY: "This Christmas" is probably one of my favorite songs. Donny Hathaway did this in the early '70s.
(Soundbite of "This Christmas")
Mr. DONNY HATHAWAY: (Singing) Hang all the mistletoe, I'm gonna get to know you better this Christmas. And as we trim the tree...
Mr. IVORY: And as Portia mentioned, Nat taking "The Christmas Song" and just making it his own, you know, and that's exactly what Donny Hathaway did. This was an original song. Usually some artists will take a traditional song and make it their own.
(Soundbite of "This Christmas")
Mr. HATHAWAY: (Singing) And this Christmas will be a very special Christmas for me.
Mr. IVORY: This was an original song that he co-wrote, and it just, you know, became a classic.
CHIDEYA: And tell me about some of the memories that go along with Christmas music for you. I think all of us can remember times when holiday music just seemed to be like a soundtrack to our life. What about you, Steven?
Mr. IVORY: Well, you took the words right out of my mouth. You know, these songs are a soundtrack to our lives, and they put us right back wherever we were when we first heard these things. And anytime I hear "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms, this thing takes me back to the mid-'60s in Oklahoma City, where I was raised.
(Soundbite of "Jingle Bell Rock")
Mr. BOBBY HELMS: (Singing) Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock. Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring. Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun. Now the jingle hop has begun.
Mr. IVORY: And there was a department store downtown that had an exhibit; it was a sleigh. And you would get on this thing and you would ride it around the block. Well, my mother and my smaller brother and myself would be--got on this thing, and we were the only black folks on this thing. In early '60s Oklahoma City, they treated us as such. There was candy passed around on the sleigh, but the bag of candy somehow got detoured before it got to us. You know, just all of these little subtle things happening that said, `We don't really want you on this sleigh.'
CHIDEYA: A truly `white Christmas.'
Mr. IVORY: It was truly a white Christmas, until the white Santa who seemed to see all of this--they were piping in Christmas carols on this sleigh. And when Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock" came on, he looked at my little brother who was in my mother's arms and said, `You know, I absolutely love this song, but I need someone to dance with me. Son, would you dance with me?' And he picked up my brother and he, you know, put him on his shoulders and danced with him around the sleigh, and that immediately changed everything for me. It made me feel like somebody, you know. But it also changed the attitude of the people on the sleigh. So anytime I hear that song, it takes me right back there.
(Soundbite of "Jingle Bell Rock")
Mr. HELMS: (Singing) Mix and mingle in the jingling beat, that's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell rock.
CHIDEYA: That's really beautiful.
Steve Loza, what about you? What are some of the soundtrack moments you've had around holiday music?
Prof. LOZA: Well, I think it's a combination of--Steven here made me think of some childhood things, you know, being born here in the United States and raised here, but of a Mexican background. Again, it was sort of a combination of things: eating turkey or ham with tamales and menudo, you know, on the same day. But I think that I also remember the church, going and, you know, singing in the choirs and all of the music that was sung in the church. I think that's equally as important, if not more.
CHIDEYA: Portia, what about you?
Prof. MAULTSBY: My greatest memories are growing up in the South, and--which is why my preference, I think, early preference of Christmas music were those song with a blues flavor as well as the gospel flavor that I heard in church. But what I most remember--I had a brother 15 years older than I, and I had a twin brother. And we looked forward for his coming home and picking us up and taking us--he was a pilot--and picking us up in an airplane. And I remember he took us to the mall, and that's when I first heard Nat "King" Cole's, you know, "The Christmas Song." And my brother was very much into (technical difficulties) all of these songs and went to the store--'cause I was taking piano lessons at the time--and bought me a CD--I mean, at that time, an album, an album of Christmas music, and that album contained a range of African-American styles. And that's when I really had a great appreciation for the creativity of black singers and their interpreting, their reinterpreting of traditional Christmas songs. And of course, the lead song on that album was Charles Brown's "Merry Christmas, Baby," that my brother absolutely loved.
CHIDEYA: Now I'm just going to ask one more question, which is--we've been talking very movingly about the soundtrack to your holidays in your music, but there are literal soundtracks which have also become holiday standards: Rudolph, Frosty. Steven, let me start with you. Commercial Christmas music or holiday music: boon or bane?
Mr. IVORY: You know, I like it all. I mean, I will listen to--I was crying to Bing Crosby the other day. I mean, I will listen to all of this stuff. I just love the way it makes me feel, and I love the way--I love where it puts people, you know, emotionally. You put on Christmas music and you've got a different person in front of you.
CHIDEYA: Steve?
Prof. LOZA: I sort of agree with that. I think that even though the commercial stuff, especially the buying, the stores and all that, starts looking pretty crass, I really think that the music is a spiritual idiom; it is just so strong that, in spite of the commerciality, it--like we're talking about Nat "King" Cole and Bing Crosby and it sort of transcends race. And Jose Feliciano...
Mr. IVORY: That's right.
Prof. LOZA: ...the Aguilardos(ph) of Puerto Rico. I wish we would listen to the traditional forms more because they're so beautiful. But the common link of whether it's commercial or not is that all of this music is so powerful, and I think that's because of the spirit.
CHIDEYA: And, Portia, there's also songs in the interest of cross-cultural unity like "The Hanukkah Song," Adam Sandler's kind of satiric riff on the fact that there's not really much Hanukkah music. What about joke songs or songs that take a different tack on things?
Prof. MAULTSBY: I like music with humor. Christmas is a time to celebrate, and African-American culture is a celebratory culture, part of which humor plays a major role. You know, we like to laugh and just have fun and hang loose. And what comes to mind is a song recorded in 1948 by Mabel Scott called "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus."
(Soundbite of "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus")
Mr. MABEL SCOTT: (Singing) Rock, Mr. Santa, boogie all over town. Treat the boys and girls when you make your Christmas rounds.
Prof. MAULTSBY: And I remember when I first heard that song, I could imagine Santa Claus, you know, really getting down and boogieing on the floor and people laughing and having fun and...
CHIDEYA: And we didn't even get to the Christmas raps. We've been talking to Portia Maultsby, professor of ethnomusicology and director of the Archives of African-American Music and Culture at Indiana University; Steven Ivory, author and writer on popular music and culture; and Steve Loza, professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. Both joined me here at NPR West in Culver City, California.
Thank you all.
Mr. IVORY: Thank you.
CHIDEYA: And here's one of my favorite holiday songs, "Star in the East" by Harry Belafonte.
(Soundbite of "Star in the East")
Mr. HARRY BELAFONTE: (Singing) Follow the star of Bethlehem. Rise up, shepherd, and follow.
CHIDEYA: Coming up, umoja, ujamaa, kujichagulia and what? Tracking down the principles of Kwanzaa in LA. You're listening to NEWS & NOTES from NPR News.
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