Throughout history, The Beatles have both inspired and been heavily inspired by Black music. In honour of Black Music Month, The Beatles Channel (Ch. 18) is diving deep into this connection with an all-new series, A Shot of Rhythm and Blues: Exploring The Beatles and Black Music, premiering on Monday, June 7th at 12 pm ET.
The four-part series, hosted by GRAMMY Award winner and nominee Meshell Ndegeocello, will explore the relationship between The Beatles and Black music, uncover The Beatles’ earliest R&B heroes, and expose the many Black artists that went on to cover the music of The Fab Four. New episodes will debut at 12 pm ET on Mondays throughout the month of June.
Meshell Ndegeocello has survived the best and worst of what a career in music has to offer. She eschewed genre for originality, celebrity for longevity, and musical trends for musical truths. Fans have come to expect the unexpected and follow her on sojourns into soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, and rock, all bound by the search for love, justice, respect, and resolution.
Those sonic investigations have defined and redefined the expectations for women, for queer artists, and for Black music for over 30 years and she remains one of few women who write the music, sings the songs, and lead the band. A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her warm, fat, and melodic groove to everything she does. She has played alongside the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Alanis Morrisette, James Blood Ulmer, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tony Allen, John Medeski, Billy Preston, and Chaka Khan. As for her own bass-playing influences, she credits Sting, Jaco Pastorius, Family Man Barrett, and Stevie Wonder.
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