#xray fm

[jeffalessandrelli]

Authors & Books Mentioned During Episode:

Jeff Alessandrelli

Zona Motel, “Minor, Minor, Minor Writer”

Fonograf Editions

Gina Myers

Lex Orgera

George Hitchcock

Kayak Magazine

Mary Gaitskill

James Tate

Erik Satie

Juliana Spahr

[photographersofthemilkyway]

Running Out on the Fare Portland at Night May 16, 2024

Sex and Drugs and Basketball live from the Slingshot Lounge On KXRY FM Xray

[nightschoolpdx]

Night School (2014-2022)

Community radio is a beautiful thing and I can say I've had the pleasure of being with you on 107.1 XRAY FM each Friday night for over 350 episodes! The show began as just a guy w/ some records. And because of community radio it’s now the Albina Music Trust - a community archive and public memory project preserving Portland’s Black music legacy.

Special thanks to Chase Spross, Dave Fulton, Aaron Hall, and Amy Dials at XRAY FM. Albina Music Trust will continue to partner w/ XRAY. And I'm pleased to know that one of our musician elders, Calvin Walker, will remain on XRAY’s  board. An archive of musician interviews can be found at albinacommunityarchive.org.

Thank you, XRAY FM!!!

-Bobby

[nightschoolpdx]

The Mayor Turns 90!

Happy 90th to the honorary Mayor of Albina, Paul Knauls! Tonight we celebrate Paul with a virtual storytelling event honoring his legacy. This has been months in the making and with many hands involved. It's also the 300th episode of my soul music program "Night School" on XRAY FM. 

6-8pm PST streaming live at www.worldartfoundation.org

Like many of us, I've had the pleasure of working with Paul Knauls over the years. He's hosted multiple Albina Music Trust events, he's contributed to our oral history sessions, shared his extensive collection of musician photography, and so on. Paul is someone you just want to be around as much as you can and soak up the warmth, wit, and visionary energy he possesses.  

Paul began coming through XRAY FM in 2015. Sitting back in the studio listening to old soul records has been our jam. Here and there, I've sourced lost music from the Cotton Club, a venue he ran in North Portland in the 1960s. Seeing Paul light up when the beat drops has been one of the greatest joys. His tales of of Albina the way it once was have captivated me time and time again. And though I've heard his jokes about a thousand times or more...they're still funny!

So tonight we celebrate Paul and that which he does for so many of us. Our event features public officials, musicians, community members and more. We have a few surprises up our sleeve so trust when I say this will be a HISTORIC event. 

Shout out to the team that has brought this together: Winta Yohannes, Paul Knauls, Jr., Alex Chiu, Eric Mast, Lymay Iwasaki, Gina Altamura, Moe Lincoln, Nuri Hobbess, and Chase Spross.

Tonight's event is a partnership between Albina Music Trust and Albina Vision Trust. It is made possible with funds from the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

[nightschoolpdx]

Albina Soul Revue Is Coming!

It's finally happening! Earlier this year, I was awarded a grant by RACC to bring together members of Portland's original soul music community in concert. In conjunction, we preserved an LP of lost Portland soul music from back in the day. Once again, it's finally happening!!!

Let me break it down...many of you know I've been actively interviewing and archiving music from elder musicians in the Albina community of North and Northeast Portland. Over the past year this developed into the Albina Music Trust initiative of the World Arts Foundation, Inc.--an organization for whom I have tremendous respect. WAFI has been doing community arts and education work in Portland since 1978. In essence, this partnership has turned what was a budding hobby of mine into an all-consuming way of life, an endless puzzle, and above all a labor of LOVE.

The Albina Soul Revue is a reflection of that. Literally, hundreds of musicians and community members have come into our studio at XRAY FM to share their history with me, on and off mic. We have documented and preserved photo collections, film, church sermons, business card collections, newspaper clippings, posters, and last but not least, soul music (not to mention jazz, funk, gospel, boogie, and disco!). I'm consistently shocked many of these bands and the community that supported them have been so underrepresented. The most consistent response I hear in my oral history work is, "No one's ever asked me that before." I've learned that something as simple as conversation is a powerful thing.

Again, the Albina Soul Revue is a reflection of that. Last Fall, I was rapping with Tony Ozier about the soul community and its lack of exposure back in the day (we're talking 1960s-80s). Back then, there was really no local industry supporting Albina musicians outside of Albina. The music itself had been redlined--it had been confined to this one part of town. Vinyl record deals were rarely made with bands in Albina yet we now know that a wealth of music was recorded. I showed Tony some of these recordings. He felt that a broader audience needed to hear the music and that we had the potential to bring the original musicians together again.

Here we are a year later and it's real. In the coming weeks, Tony's group will be rehearsing with a who's who of Albina's finest. Along with Ken Berry and Michael Grice at WAFI, I am working with a production team to support the process. We are flying former resident musicians in from out of state. We are charting soul songs that no one's heard before. We are spending time and money that we don't have to do work that we believe needs to be done.

Friday, November 16th at The Alberta Rose Theatre. Please mark your calendar. I'll share more about the LP we are releasing at a later date. Thank you for listening.

[tenderstranger]

[apooria]

XRAY.fm aims to hold a boom mic up to the best and most distinctive of Portland.

[ultimateremixcollection]

Mandem in the Morning Ft. Kemist 07/30/16 by PDX Mandem https://soundcloud.com/pdxmandem/mandem-in-the-morning-ft-kemist-073016 Here More By This Artist At http://soundcloud.com/pdxmandem