Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Radio

Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Radio
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Daily

Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation (JDBHPF) is a nonprofit established in 2011, officially becoming a 501 (c) 3 in 2016 to create public programs that raise cultural and ethnic awareness of Black traditional music, traditional art, folklore, oral histories, and the experiences of Black people in the United States. Standing on the foundation of the Blues People's legacy, JDBHPF works to celebrate, preserve, and conserve Blues music and culture while highlighting the many events in American history that have cultivated our communities and musical expressions.

  1. His Harmonica Speaks: Billy Branch, the Blues Beyond Borders, and the Labor of Legacy

    18h ago

    His Harmonica Speaks: Billy Branch, the Blues Beyond Borders, and the Labor of Legacy

    In this Deep Blues episode, we sit down with Billy Branch, Emmy Award winner, 3-time Grammy nominee, 2020 Blues Hall of Fame inductee, and living legend of the Chicago Blues tradition.Discovered by Willie Dixon and mentored by the late Carey Bell, Billy Branch has spent over five decades shaping, performing, and preserving the Blues. From recording with icons like Koko Taylor and Taj Mahal to pioneering the globally recognized Blues in the Schools program, Branch’s harmonica tells stories rooted in lineage, labor, and liberation.We explore his groundbreaking work in the culture, history, and music of the blues, his reflections on touring worldwide( from Chicago’s South Side to the stages of Turkey, China, and beyond), and his new project with the groundbreaking blues tune Beggin' For a Change featuring Ronny Baker Brooks and Shemika Copeland. Billy shares insight into his latest music, his tribute to Little Walter, and why the Blues is not just music—it’s a living tradition.Whether you’re a musician, educator, student, or lifelong Blues fan, this episode offers deep wisdom on heritage, pedagogy, and the enduring cultural power of Black traditional music.

    1h 4m
  2. Chicago Beau: Blues, Black Memory, and a Lifetime of Storytelling | Jack Dappa Blues

    1d ago

    Chicago Beau: Blues, Black Memory, and a Lifetime of Storytelling | Jack Dappa Blues

    On this episode of Jack Dappa Blues, I sit down with the legendary Chicago Beau (Lincoln T. Beauchamp Jr.)—musician, author, publisher, poet, cultural commentator, and one of the great living voices of Black music and Blues culture. For decades, Chicago Beau has created, documented, and protected Black artistic expression through music, literature, and fearless storytelling.Together, we explore a lifetime shaped by the Blues, from Chicago's South Side to stages around the world. This conversation moves beyond performance to examine memory, community, Black cultural identity, artistic independence, and the responsibility of preserving our stories on our own terms.This is more than an interview—it's an oral history.If you're interested in:The history of the Chicago BluesBlack cultural preservationBlues folklore and oral traditionIndependent Black publishingThe relationship between music, community, and social historyThe voices of the elders who helped shape Blues culture...this episode is for you.At Jack Dappa Blues, we believe the Blues is more than music—it is history, memory, and a cultural archive carried through the voices of Black people. Conversations like this help preserve that archive for future generations.If you enjoy this episode, please:LikeLeave a commentSubscribeShare this interview to help preserve the stories of our Blues elders.Learn more about Chicago Beau:Official WebsiteFollow Jack Dappa Blues:🌐 https://jackdappabluesradio.tv🌐 https://lamontjackpearley.com

    1h 13m
  3. Benjamin Hunter – Traditions, Folk & The Future of Cultural Work

    1d ago

    Benjamin Hunter – Traditions, Folk & The Future of Cultural Work

    What happens when a classically trained violinist reclaims the roots of Black folk, Blues, and community power? In this robust conversation, I sit down with Benjamin Hunter, Artistic Director of Northwest Folklife and co-founder of Black & Tan Hall, to explore the intersections of music, memory, and modern-day folklore.🖤 Ben Hunter isn’t just playing music—he’s cultivating spaces where memory, folk wisdom, and creative resistance live.He’s an award-winning musician, composer, educator, and social entrepreneur whose work bridges ancestral traditions with contemporary movement-building.🔊 In this episode, we dig into:– His journey from classical to Blues and American roots– What it means to be a modern-day griot– The future of folk music and community preservation– Cultural equity, creative space-making, and musical storytelling– Winning the International Blues Challenge & composing for Black Bois– Why community is the archive—and the artist is the folklorist🎶 "The music he plays not only spans an array of genres but a huge swath of history." – City Arts Magazine📍 Whether you're an artist, cultural worker, or lover of the Blues, this episode will inspire, inform, and move you.🔔 Subscribe for more interviews exploring Black traditional music, folklore, and cultural memory.👇 Drop a comment below: How does Benjamin Hunter's journey connect with your own story?

    1h 24m
  4. You Have a Home Here: A Blues People Homecoming

    Mar 22

    You Have a Home Here: A Blues People Homecoming

    Tonight’s live broadcast, “You Have a Home, Part 2,” is a community update and a homecoming message for Blues People. We’re sharing what’s next as we prepare to live broadcast on WPBR, We The Blues People Radio Network, and the Reflexive Podcast on Patreon, expanding the ways our community can gather, learn, and stay connected.We’ll walk through the rhythm of our programming, our Thursday night show and Sunday night show, and connect it to the larger African American Folklorist ecosystem, an archive and a Well, rooted in cultural memory, story, sound, and community-led stewardship. Come in, tap in, and welcome home.

    52 min
  5. Black Folk Belief, Hoodoo & The Blues: The Hidden Spiritual World of Blues People

    Mar 15

    Black Folk Belief, Hoodoo & The Blues: The Hidden Spiritual World of Blues People

    Tony Kail, Memphis Hoodoo, and the Spiritual Traditions of the Black SouthWhat is Black American Folk Belief? And what does it have to do with the Blues?In this episode, cultural anthropologist and author Tony Kail, whose work documenting Memphis Hoodoo and the Beale Street Hoodoo History and Folklife Museum helps preserve the stories of African American healers, rootworkers, and spiritual practitioners whose traditions supported Black communities for generations, joins the podcast to discuss:• Black American Folk Belief as cultural knowledge• The connection between Blues music and spiritual traditions• Memphis Hoodoo and the cultural world of Beale Street• How land, environment, and Southern space shaped Black tradition• The role of rootworkers and healers in Black community survival• Why folklore documentation matters todayThis episode is part of the Jack Dappa Blues mission to document the intellectual traditions, cultural memory, and lived experiences of Blues People.Jack Dappa Blues is not just about music.It’s about the people, the land, the memory, and the knowledge that made the Blues possible.Subscribe for more conversations on:Blues History • Black Folklore • Cultural Preservation • Ethnomusicology • African American Traditional MusicJoin our community:► Support Jack Dappa Blues on Patreon► Join The African American Folklorist community► Attend our workshops and courses► Sponsorship and underwriting opportunities availableJack Dappa Blues – Preserving the Blues People, one voice, one story, one tradition at a time.

    1h 10m
  6. MASTER CLASS REPLAY: Locating Tribal Ancestry!

    07/04/2025

    MASTER CLASS REPLAY: Locating Tribal Ancestry!

    Presented by: Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation FoundationIn partnership with The African American Folklorist This in-depth session brings together leaders grounded in Indigenous identity, tribal sovereignty, and reclamation work to guide participants through the process of connecting and reconnecting families to tribal ancestry. 💬 One powerful takeaway?Blood quantum doesn’t equal identity. In this conversation, we unpack how someone can be recorded as having no blood quantum in the Cherokee Nation — not because they aren’t Indigenous, but because they’re from a different tribal nation (like Muscogee Creek). It’s a detail that seems small but carries deep implications for how ancestry is recorded, denied, or erased. This master class covers: Navigating Freedmen and tribal records Understanding rejection letters as historical archives Misclassification in blood quantum and tribal rolls Using the Guion-Miller and Dawes Rolls to uncover family stories How Black and Indigenous communities intersect in these histories 📺 Now streaming for paid members.Support the work. Reclaim the knowledge. Restore the lineage.

    1h 35m
  7. Blues Music is Black History: The Hard Conversation at Hopson Plantation

    06/30/2025

    Blues Music is Black History: The Hard Conversation at Hopson Plantation

    What does it mean to speak the truth of the Blues on the very soil where our ancestors were enslaved? In this live broadcast, Lamont Jack Pearley—traditional Bluesman, folklorist, and founder of the Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation—reflects on being invited to present his original scholarship on Blues Ecology at Hopson Plantation, once home to Blues legend Pinetop Perkins. As we close out Black Music History Month, this episode holds space for a necessary conversation about land, memory, and music. We'll explore how different landscapes—Mississippi’s cotton fields and Louisiana’s red-light districts—shaped different kinds of Blues, and why where we honor the Blues matters just as much as how we do it. Through personal reflection, fieldwork excerpts, and live performance, we ask:Can you celebrate the Blues without honoring the history that created it? Join us tonight for truth-telling, music, and memory from the Delta to the mic.

    1h 47m
  8. Mojo Workin’: Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald on Hoodoo, Blues, and the Black Belt Tradition

    06/18/2025

    Mojo Workin’: Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald on Hoodoo, Blues, and the Black Belt Tradition

    Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Radio presents:Mojo Workin’: Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald on Hoodoo, Blues, and the Black Belt TraditionIn this culturally rich and significant episode of Jack Dappa Blues Radio, we welcome renowned folklorist, sociologist, and dance scholar Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald for an in-depth discussion on Black Belt Hoodoo, Blues culture, and African American sacred traditions.In this episode, we explore:The African origins and survival of Hoodoo as a metaphysical systemThe jook joint as a sacred space of spirit, resistance, and joyHow Blues music operates as ritual, cosmology, and cultural memoryThe overlap between Dr. Hazzard-Donald’s work and the Blues Ecology frameworkDr. Hazzard-Donald is the author of Mojo Workin’: The Old African American Hoodoo System and Jookin’: The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African American Culture. She is a professor emerita at Rutgers University, a Yoruba/Lukumi initiate, and a lifelong cultural worker dedicated to preserving and interpreting Black Southern lifeways.🪕 Hosted by Lamont Jack Pearley, traditional Blues artist, applied folklorist, and founder of Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation.Become a Patreon🔗 Visit us at: https://www.patreon.com/jackdappablues💬 Share your thoughts in the comments and help amplify Black traditional knowledge.🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that center Black folklore, cultural heritage, and Blues history.

    1h 14m
See All (122)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation (JDBHPF) is a nonprofit established in 2011, officially becoming a 501 (c) 3 in 2016 to create public programs that raise cultural and ethnic awareness of Black traditional music, traditional art, folklore, oral histories, and the experiences of Black people in the United States. Standing on the foundation of the Blues People's legacy, JDBHPF works to celebrate, preserve, and conserve Blues music and culture while highlighting the many events in American history that have cultivated our communities and musical expressions.

Information