7 January 26 - February 1, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | M iami is a city of diversity, motion, magic, pageantry, and rhythm — lots of rhythm. But it wasn’t always like this. Before 1960, the city was a refuge for retir- ees and a winter destination for the rich. Mi- ami commenced its true emergence when social, political, and cultural changes converged upon the city, among them the rising civil rights movement in the American South, a mass exodus fleeing a political dictator- ship in Cuba, the counterculture and sexual liberation movements, and the arrival of the Beatles in Miami Beach and their live performance on The Ed Sullivan Show at the then-sleek, now-demolished Deauville Beach Resort hotel. The early Sixties marked the beginning of a gradual assimilation of cultures, customs, traditions, and language that altered the city’s trajectory. That tumultuous watershed also loosed a veritable hydrant of music that encapsulated the city’s historical and cultural legacy of the last 60 years. The music bears witness to the evolution of the city’s vi- brant strands of Black and Caribbean soul, the birth of disco and hip-hop, the crossover of Latin genres into mainstream pop, a vibrant underground rock scene that coincided with (and was eclipsed by) West Coast grunge, and the burgeon- ing popularity of Latin pop and reggaeton. Here, listed in chronological order, are ten essential al- bums that engraved the Magic City’s past 60 years on vinyl. 1963: Live at the Harlem Square Club, Sam Cooke In the early 1960s, Overtown residents endured massive displacement to make room for the southbound extension of I-95. Fortu- nately, the spirit of Miami’s Black community remained intact. Local hotels like the Sir John and the Mary Elizabeth, which featured lively nightclubs and piano bars, booked top Black entertainers — often late at night because the earlier time slots were reserved for white audiences across the MacArthur Causeway at the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels. Because the artists were prohibited from staying overnight at those hotels due to their skin color, they’d head to Overtown. Sam Cooke, the famous gospel singer from Clarksdale, Mississippi, refused to play for those segregated audiences. He preferred to go straight to the heart of the Black community. One night in 1963, he brought his spiritually encompassing style to a very engaged audience at Overtown’s Harlem Square Club in what would go down as a pivotal moment in Miami’s music history. The album was recorded live but wasn’t released until many years later because the higherups at RCA Victor deemed it commercially nonviable. Cooke performed multiple songs and medleys of classics in dazzling call-and-response succession, usurping the essence of each piece — many of which were written by white artists. No wonder Live at the Harlem Square Club is honored in Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Other notable Mi- ami-related albums spot- lighting the civil rights era: Hold On, I’m Coming, Sam & Dave (1966) One Night in Miami... (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Various Artists (2021) 1967: Helene Smith Sings Sweet Soul, Helene Smith Any credible encyclopedia of American soul music would devote a page to the 305, and that page would begin with Miami’s First Lady of Soul, Helene Smith. Originally from Alabama, the Smith family settled in Miami in the 1950s, and Smith began singing at the local Baptist church. At Miami’s Brownsville Junior High, she honed her vocal skills under the tutelage of music teacher Johnny Pearsall. Years later, Pearsall hired Smith at Johnny’s Records, a record store he opened in Liberty City. The neighbor- hood’s aspiring musicians frequented the shop upon learn- ing that there was a sectioned-off space in the rear that housed a sizable tape-recording device and a piano. Up- starts Clarence Reid and Willie Clarke composed the mu- sic, and their go-to vocalist was Helene Smith. Pearsall and Clarke cofounded Deep City Records, Florida’s first Black- owned record company, and recruited the best young sing- ers at talent contests or from local churches. Deep Ten essential albums that chronicle Miami’s story since the 1960s. B Y A L B E R T O D E L A P O R T I L L A >> p8
