Next month, Speaker Music, aka DeForrest Brown, Jr., will release the follow-up to his essential 2020 album Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry. On his latest, a four-track EP entitled Soul-Making Theodicy, Speaker Music continues to explore a “natural affinity” for bass and high volume music as he experiments with a “sample of a developing gestural praxis of electronic drumming” inspired by percussionists like Metro Boomin, Rashied Ali, Max Roach and Steve Poindexter.
Ahead of its release, Speaker Music offers a stirring sonic ode to his hometown in Birmingham, Alabama – which is nicknamed the Magic City. He invites listeners into the Magic City Classic: the largest Historically Black College and University football game in the country, which takes place annually in Birmingham. Here, he showcases the energy, atmosphere and Black-specific style of marching band synonymous with the event.
“Magic City Classic is a quadrasonic mix meditating on my hometown of Birmingham, AL, the pedagogical lineage of trumpet players to which I owe my musical ability and my family traditions of the Magic City Classic and Battle of the Bands.”
“Dedicated to the legacy of John T. ‘Fess’ Whatley, an early educator of free jazz bandleader Sun Ra in the 1930s, known as the Dean of Birmingham Jazz, the maker of musicians and the innovator of the African-American dance orchestra, which would evolve into the modern day Historically Black College and University ‘show-style’ of military drill-influenced marching band.”
“The tracklist is composed of recordings of drum cadences, stadium battles and field shows performed by the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University Marching Maroon & White ‘Show Band of the South’, founded in 1890.”
Magic City Classic – Mixed by Speaker Music
Magic City Classic – Mixed by Speaker Music
Next month, Speaker Music, aka DeForrest Brown, Jr., will release the follow-up to his essential 2020 album Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry. On his latest, a four-track EP entitled Soul-Making Theodicy, Speaker Music continues to explore a “natural affinity” for bass and high volume music as he experiments with a “sample of a developing gestural praxis of electronic drumming” inspired by percussionists like Metro Boomin, Rashied Ali, Max Roach and Steve Poindexter.
Ahead of its release, Speaker Music offers a stirring sonic ode to his hometown in Birmingham, Alabama – which is nicknamed the Magic City. He invites listeners into the Magic City Classic: the largest Historically Black College and University football game in the country, which takes place annually in Birmingham. Here, he showcases the energy, atmosphere and Black-specific style of marching band synonymous with the event.
“Magic City Classic is a quadrasonic mix meditating on my hometown of Birmingham, AL, the pedagogical lineage of trumpet players to which I owe my musical ability and my family traditions of the Magic City Classic and Battle of the Bands.”
“Dedicated to the legacy of John T. ‘Fess’ Whatley, an early educator of free jazz bandleader Sun Ra in the 1930s, known as the Dean of Birmingham Jazz, the maker of musicians and the innovator of the African-American dance orchestra, which would evolve into the modern day Historically Black College and University ‘show-style’ of military drill-influenced marching band.”
“The tracklist is composed of recordings of drum cadences, stadium battles and field shows performed by the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University Marching Maroon & White ‘Show Band of the South’, founded in 1890.”
